Evenings With Victoria Botkin

"How does a wife help her husband be the man Christ wants him to be? How can she inspire him to love her? How can she discover the forgotten joys of being the helper God designed her to be? Beginning March 1, Victoria, beloved wife to Geoffrey Botkin, will host weekly online mentoring sessions for women as a homemaker's resource to the worldwide Christian community. Mother to five boys and two girls, Victoria draws insight from 30 years of applying Scripture to marriage with one of America's most visionary men."

"Join Victoria as she discusses subjects such as woman's great power, sinful tendencies, obedience vs. submission, independence vs. submission, freedom vs. submission, beauty, dress, makeup, respect, women's rights, hospitality, speaking words of life, managing with grace, pitfalls of perfectionism in homemaking, Hollywood expectations, trials, trust, and cultivating personality. Victoria will begin each session by responding to pressing, appropriate questions from participants. Topic headings include:

• All about Eve
• All about Sarah
• The Proverbs 31 wife
• About love
• How to help your husband love you
• How to become a wise woman

Go here to register or find more information about this wonderful opportunity.

You can also go here to enter a drawing to win a free registration for this event.

A Reminder to be Positive Today!

"In my year of yes, I embrace glorious color and holy mess and try, (because I fail and I am the soul messiest of all), to be done with the slow suffocation of "perhaps" and "we'll see" and "maybe" -- the biding of time till the visions wither limp -- and every day I try to remember that control smothers and fear asphyxiates and even now we could trust and nod yes to God's yes of today and now and breath.

We breathe."---Ann Vos of Holy Experience

For my year of "Living Life Positively" this was a GREAT reminder. I have gotten lax the past few weeks. Thank you, Ann, for this wonderful reminder. I MUST say Yes, much more often.

O Church, Arise

Wow, What a Powerful New Hymn.
The lyrics and music are awesome.
(Thank you to Rev. James McDonald for putting this on his blog.
Like Rev. McDonald said, "all it needs is a good tenor to lead.")

Colossians 2:8

"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. "

As a Christian parent should you send your children to public schools?

Will You Have to Pay to Call 911?

TRACY, Calif. (CBS13) ―

"Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.

But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.

Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.

Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect."

Grinding Grain

For Christmas, my Dad bought my Mom a hand cranked grain grinder. It takes a lot of work to get a lot of flour! I really enjoy cranking it!! Even though it might make your arms tired, after you’re done grinding grain, it makes you thankful that God has created us with strong bones and strong muscles.
God is so good!
Here are photos of everyone taking turns grinding grain for our bread.

The Offense of the Cross

by Henry Morris, Ph.D.

"And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased." (Galatians 5:11)

The cross is profoundly offensive to the natural man, for it brands him as a hell-deserving sinner. It makes his only hope of salvation a humbling acknowledgment of Christ, the rejected Creator, as his personal Savior who died for his sins.

It is especially sad when Christians seek to escape this offense of the cross by accommodating their preaching of the cross to the opinions of those who reject it. In the case of the Galatians, legalistic Christians were insisting that Christian converts from paganism be circumcised in order to avoid offending the Jews. When Paul, instead, preached salvation by grace alone, he was persecuted for it.

This particular compromise has long been forgotten, but a multitude of others have arisen during the ensuing centuries to take its place. Whenever some new philosophy or practice becomes popular in the world, a Christian party will soon be found advocating its adoption in the church, ostensibly to promote easier acceptance of the gospel, but in reality seeking to mitigate the offense of the cross.

Whenever the pagan world follows after a new dress trend or a new music form, a new philosophy or a new lifestyle, many Christians are sure to follow. Witness the widespread compromise with pantheistic evolution and its so-called geologic "ages" by Christian accommodationists, for example. Or, consider the current acceptance of Eastern or Freudian thinking by biblical counselors, or the common sanction of divorce for trivial reasons.

Instead of fleeing from the offense of the cross, we need to say with Paul, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14). HMM

This article was originally published February, 2010. "The Offense of the Cross", Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/article/5091/ (accessed February 15, 2010).

The Music that We and Our Children Listen To

What type of music do you and your children listen to? You heard me right, whatever you listen to will influence your children too, just as much as what their friends are listening to. Here is a part of an article written by Stacy McDonald.

"I’d like to challenge my children (and yours) to think critically before accidentally absorbing the philosophies of the world. Imagine if someone from the dregs of society approached you and said, “Repeat after me.” What would you do? Would you blindly repeat whatever they said; or would you analyze the words first, making sure you agree with the message before you ever repeated it?"

To read the article in its entirety, go to Your Sacred Calling.

Lita and the Soccer Ball

Happy Birthday, Christopher

Big Brother From the Federal Level

Did you know that you might be forfeiting your right to privacy, just by turning on your cell phone. If President Obama has his way, he will be able to monitor your cell phone anytime he wants, WITHOUT a search warrant. What happened to the fourth Amendment?

Read the CNET article about it here.

Haitian Orphans

The conditions that the Haitian orphans are enduring are horrendous. Go to Doug Phillips' blog for more details.

The Family As The Nursery For The Church

Also entitled: The Complementary Roles of Family and Church
by Rev. Scott Brown

(my daughters and I listened to a message today by Rev. Scott Brown. Here are some of the notes I took)

15 Ways The Church and Home are Connected

1. The Home is the place where children first hear the gospel and become familiar with the Bible.
2. The Home is the place where wives are washed with the water of the Word of God.
-a wife is nourished and cherished in such a way that she becomes a blessing and resource to the other wives and young ladies in the church
3. The Home is the place where children are discipled in the training and the admonition of the Lord.
-God has made it so that children will be taught primarily in the home (they are not to be outsourced)
4. The Home is the place of child evangelism, where children thrill at the news of the grace of Jesus Christ
Acts 10
5. The Home is the place where kings are trained
Proverbs 31:1-31
6. The Home is the place where godly seed is planted and grown Malachai 4
7. The Home is the place where the curse of God is held off
Malachai 4
8. The Home is the place where husband and wife stand together as heirs of the grace of life--Where God's love is demonstrated.
9. The Home is the place where iniquity is held back for generations and blessings are continued for generations
Exodus 20
10. The Home is the place of marital unity, where children learn of the nature of God and that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The children learn the doctrine of the Trinity.
11. The Home is the place of marital love, that is an earthly explanation of the love of Christ for the Church. The husband's love for his wife is a mirror of Christ's love for the Church.
12. The Home is the place of personal growth Luke 2:41-52
13. The Home gives the Church households of rare and beautiful treasures, it is a resource for the Church
Proverbs 24
14. The Home is the place where sound doctrine is established Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 78, Ephesians 6:1-4
15. The Home is the place where elders are qualified
1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9

The Home is the place of basic training.

The Church must be training fathers to be the Shepherd's of their homes so the Church can have Shepherd's for the Church.

You can find this message on BlueBehmoth.com

Music Especially for Women

If you are needing a lift in your day or would just like to listen to (or sing along with) some beautiful music this is the place to go. His Heartbeat for Women.

John Adams Quote

"I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate."

---John Adams

Another Big Brother Article from WA state

The audacity of this homeowner who chose to cut a tree down in his own yard. Read about it here.

Big Brother At Work!

Pierce County has identified nearly 2,100 illegal garages, sheds and other improvements under a new program that uses aerial photographs to find structures built without a permit.

To read the entire article go here.

Where can we find privacy from the prying eyes of the government?

Creativity Lives!

Go to Voddie Baucham's blog to see a very creative commercial, showing that you don't have to be graphic to get your point across. Very tastefully done.

Purity is Important