Our finest gifts we bring pah rum pah pum pum

While you are making your list, include one for Jesus.
(It's His birthday)

Bring Him your best gift....something just for Him.....
and bless Him, make Him smile. 

 ...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
(1 Cor 10:31)

I saw this video this morning
and was smiling all the way through!
So joyful. 

I need a silent night...

This weekend's rush:

~Sunday school class Christmas party
~Driving through midnight and into the wee sma's to bring Emma home from Tucson, where her ride home ended
~Children's choir Christmas play tonight
~Church
~Picking out a Christmas tree
~Decorating the tree complete with traditional snackage
~3 Christmas movies
~One afternoon of futile Christmas shopping....

A friend of mine posted this song on her Facebook and I thought it was perfect. Every year I try to do it differently, but it always turns into a whirlwind.....

Conspiracy 2010

Join us....pass it on....



Advent Conspiracy Blog

All in

Full image here

Thanking God today for the 'coincidences' and  constant surprises that we walk right into in places like warehouse stores.

When we went to Africa this past August, John Dina, missionary extraordinaire to Mozambique took 10 days to show us and David and Diana Johnson all of the places, people and experiences that he could that their son Jeremiah had experienced in his mission trip to Mozambique. He never came home to them, but died there in a motorcycle accident. So we went to try to absorb some of what his passion was about. It was an amazing trip, we learned so much about how this young man's life changed into a deep, passionate walk with God and with the Monigan people along the coast of Mozambique.

One of the things John kept saying was that Jeremiah, he was just 'all in'. He was so ready to be serving and to be out there with the people that he barely had patience for the language study and preparation. God was calling him to something and he wanted to be there and threw himself into it full force. John said that usually when mission workers come they are stand offish at first and observe and try to figure out how to fit in or make connections. Not Jeremiah, he just did it. John had never seen someone come so ready.

All in. No hesitations, he was raring to go.

All in, John said.....kept saying it. It definitely stuck in my head. I've used it over and over myself, trying to explain our trip and trying to tell people why Jeremiah's story was so intriguing.

So I was in Sam's club the other day and all the televisions in the electronics dept were playing the same video. Lifehouse is one of my favorite groups, so I stopped to watch and the words hit me and made all the blood rush into my head and I got all tingly for a few minutes while it played on and on, repeating the main theme. The name of the song is All In.....yes, of course it was....there are no coincidences here. It's like it was written for him.

All night staring at the ceiling
counting for minutes I've been feeling this way
So far away and so alone

But you know it's alright
I came to my senses
Letting go of my defenses
There's no way I'm giving up this time
Yeah, you know I'm right here
I'm not losing you this time

And I'm all in, nothing left to hide
I'm falling harder than a landslide
I spent a week away from you last night
And now I'm calling, calling out your name
Even if I lose the game, I'm all in
I'm all in tonight, yeah I'm all in, I'm all in for life 

....

I want it, I want it, I want it
I want it, I want it, I want it, yeah
I want it, I want it, I want it, yeah

And I'm all in, calling out your name
Even if I lose the game, I'm all in, I'm all in for life
And I'm all in, nothing left to hide
I'm falling harder than a landslide
I spent a week away from you last night
And now I'm calling, calling out your name
Even if I lose the game, I'm all in
I'm all in tonight, yeah I'm all in, I'm all in for life
Yeah I'm all in, I'm all in for life

God hears

God hears, God sees, God speaks, God answers the fervent prayers of His children. Tomorrow is an event called See You At The Pole. It is an international event. Any kids who want to can show up at their school's flagpole an hour before school starts, where hopefully they will find other Christian kids who are standing up to prayer for their schools. Besides standing in the gap for the people at their schools, they can also see fellow Christians who go to their school and meet them.

This year's theme for See You At The Pole is Reveal. Pray that God would reveal Himself, His incredible LOVE, in our schools, to this generation, through this generation of students. We adults need to be praying this for our community's schools too. The verse this year is the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9–13, read from the Message modern language Bible:

With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best—as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. 

Watch the video, tell all the kids you know that tomorrow is the day!

Retro clip

I really miss this show....or at least the unexpected creativeness of it. Here is a classic clip from Northern Exposure:

Stupid people, be warned...

Heed the law, stupid people.

Just doing my part ADOT Tim. =) (Are you on a tv commercial?)

I recently saw a commercial about our stupid motorist law and the man speaking said, "This is Tim ---." It freaked me out. I was wondering if it was the Tim who was my ADOT commenter recently on this post about rain. So I just have to ask. Do you ever feel like people are just following you around waiting to punk you?

It's raaaaaaaining! ...don't be stupid.

The Advent Conspiracy

Have you started your holiday shopping yet??

Well if you haven't, why not do something radically different this year?

Go here and ponder the difference you could have this year in your home during the holidays. Last year we did this. We didn't give to the charity they promote on the site, but we did give to foreign missions. And we made inexpensive homemade gifts for each other that were so cool to open on Christmas morning.

I'll write more about this later, including homemade gift ideas. I just can't tell you what I'm making this year. ;)

SYATP 2009

Wednesday morning September 23, 2009. Every flagpole of every school, 7am. I hope you'll be there to pray for your school and meet the other kids who are standing up for Christ there.

Tempted

I saw this on a friend's blog today and had to swipe it! Thanks Mummy! It reminds me of an object lesson I once did during a True Love Waits emphasis in a youth Bible study (it was part of the curriculum, not my own idea). I gave each group of about 4 girls a bag of Skittles candy and told them the first part of the game was to sort the Skittles by color. I said I had to go do something real quick, so I had to leave the room. But before I did, I told them to just sort now, then we'll eat them later. They couldn't eat them until after the game.

The object of the lesson is that when you have a temptation, such as sexual sin, which was our topic that day, the more you handle, touch and look at it, the more likely you are to give in. Even though you know there is an appropriate time down the road and some day you can enjoy it in a healthy, committed way....marriage. It is truly a powerful way to get this point across if you're needing to......and if you have teens my friend, you'd better be trying to get that across. We are all weak and we desperately need clear boundaries these days.

Enjoy this cute video on temptation. ;)

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Now listen up!

Someone is mimicking someone else. But let's not go there. It's just funny!

Speaking of Swine Flu

Paid in Full

Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"If anyone would come after me,
he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Matthew 16:24-25

What is with the heck of me?

Spring Fever:

In the northern hemisphere the symptoms usually arise from mid-March to mid-April, and depending on the person may be more or less pronounced. Weariness (despite an adequate amount of sleep), sensitivity to changes in the weather, dizziness, irritability, headaches, and sometimes aching joints and a lack of drive are the most common.

(wikipedia)

So now I know what's wrong with me. Spring fever.

.....not to be confused with cabin fever....which I've also been known to come down with....occasionally.

Just watch it

I promise to write a brand new, very interesting and personal post sometime this weekend. But until then, this is a comedian who I've never heard of, doing a schpeil on our society today. SO relevant! Please watch it....it's hilarious and so true. And it just might make you chill out a bit.

And by the way, my kids are required to watch. I will not require Charles to watch it, but it may contain very good sermon material/illustrations. I found this on Second Cup of Coffee. Props to Linda! =)

This could bring about world change.

I just received this from Shirley....it is possibly the sweetest thing I've ever seen! True devotion.

Advent....conspiracy?

The Advent Conspiracy. Have you heard of it? Curious? Watch this....

The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.

So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.

And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?

The Advent Conspiracy.

In a nutshell:
Worship fully
$pend less
Give MORE
LOVE all

Are you in?

Days of Elijah

Well I did not post yesterday apparently. I am enjoying a nice fall break week though. So now I'm making no promises. Here is an iWorship video of a song we sang tonight. Our song was done with just a guitar and our voices, but it was grand!

Who am I?

For your viewing amazement and encouragement. =) This is a very interesting and cool performance. Thanks BJ!

Just for fun...

Okay, this is too cute not to steal from Linda at Second Cup of Coffee. You have to watch it long enough to see the dancing! It makes me want to go out and buy some Paul Simon CD's. He's got such weird, great lyrics!

I promise, vacation posts ARE coming Mom!