Ending and Beginning

The Family 2017

I'm getting ready to do the Christmas letter for 2017, and I look at my blog and realize that I haven't posted anything on here since last Christmas.....

I haven't lost interest in blogging, but with Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat and Marco Polo, blogs are actually becoming obsolete, or out of date, etc. I'm on facebook way to much as it is, and I do write, but it is in my journals, with a pen and paper. 

I've become somewhat disenchanted with facebook over the past year; the election had much to do with that. So I've looked for other ways to stay in touch and haven't really found any. On facebook, people share what others have already shared, or are posting memes that are not theirs, but no one else's. I guess what I'm seeing is a lot of non-original posting. Facebook has become like a telephone; you have it to keep in touch when you want to, or to promote, or advertise, or sell, but not to actually reveal anything too personal because those that do that are hailed as advertising TMI (to much information).  

So I am returning to my blog. 

Here I'll write my posts, and share my thoughts. I'll share things of my family, and I'll only put out there what pertains to me and mine. If people want to know whats going on with me, they can find me here. 

So here is my family. Our daughter and our son, with their spouses, and their little's. We are not to spread out. We are here and there, and yon, but every once and while, we get together and play and have fun, and laugh a lot. Life is very good; VERY good. 

Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas!!

Getting ready for the Christmas letter always means getting to review the year in pictures. Here are a few of our highlights. 

Roger and I, besides doing all the normal routine stuff we usually do, in anticipation of our 40th wedding anniversary coming up in January, took a trip to the Oregon coast in Sept. Mountains, forests, the ocean, good food, excellent company; it was perfect 

Audrey and Paul are still residing in Goodyear Arizona, continuing to work in the nuclear industry. They were home for a couple of visits this year with the latest at Thanksgiving where they brought the wonderful news that they will be parents in May of 2017!! Which of course means we are getting a NEW GRANDBABY!!!! Yes we are a little excited. 

Nicolas & Melissa continue to live right up the road and around the corner. Melissa graduated in May with her BSRN and is working in Topeka at Stormont Vail Regional Medical Center. We are so proud of her! 

Nicolas continues to work with Roger with working on houses to rent or flip. He is in constant motion. 

Sam graduated from Pre-School in May the same weekend his mama graduated from college. He has started Kindergarten at Lebo Elementary.  

We wish you all the best of the coming year and a most blessed holiday Season!

Roger & Andrea  

Who's gonna throw that first stone?

So, Lifeway Christian bookstores are refusing to carry Jen Hatmaker’s books anymore because they say she is supporting the gay lifestyle.

I read what she wrote. I saw where she is supportive of those in the gay lifestyle, I support and love those in the gay lifestyle as well, but not because they are gay. Except at the end where she said that gay relationships could be holy. THAT I differ with her on. But not because they are gay.

Because sin, any sin, Jen, can’t be holy. Nope, just won’t work. 

Homosexuality is a sin, just like lying, gossip, malic, cheating, anger, hatred, selfishness, murder, adultery, stealing, fornication, coveting……….and the list goes on.

We like to categorize sin however, some sins are worse than others we tell ourselves.

 Nope, ALL have sinned.

And don’t tell me that because homosexuals continue in their sin that is the problem. What about those of us that sit in the pew every Sunday that are addicted to food, alcohol, pornography, working out, spending money we don’t have, gossiping at work, complaining and being bitter every day. That would cover most of the people I know. Doesn’t that have to stop? Everyone has failures in their lives that they continue to do Every. Single. Day. If someone followed you around for a day, just what do you do daily that would be sin? Discipline is the issue for most of us, but doesn’t that fall under lack of self-control? That's listed as a sin too. We all struggle with that.

My mother in law was confined to a wheelchair for over 30 years. Being the wife of a preacher put her in situations many times where people where offering to pray for her to be healed. She related to me that one time when a group of folks gathered around her wanting to pray for her healing, she told them: 

“All of us need healing. Emotional, Spiritual, Mental, and Physical. Mine is just outward where you can see it. But just because you can’t see the sickness in others doesn’t mean that they don’t need you to pray for their healing just as much as I do.” 

I loved my mother in law. Wise woman.

The story of the woman caught in adultery comes to mind. Who is “without sin”, and able to cast the first stone.  MERCY!!!

Sin is sin. Paul wrote that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” People use the “all” when it suits them, but they don’t stop to think about the glory; and falling short.

Who is God that he deserves the Glory? He is Holy. A Holy God deserves all the glory we can give him. But we fall short. Perhaps we are more focused on the sinner and the sin, than who they are really sinning against.

In the story of the adulterous woman Jesus directed everyone’s attention back to who it was who was REALLY being offended by the adulterous woman’s sin, and it wasn’t anyone in the crowd, and Jesus didn’t stone her.

We all have fallen short, and are all sick and in need of healing. We are all failing in our lives in one way or another. When you throw your sin in my face, and tell me you don’t care and you will continue in that choice, yes, I am going to tell you you are wrong, not because of your particular sin. Not because I’m perfect. But because God is a Holy God.

We are exhorted to restore and be gentle in the exhortation of those who have lost their focus on God. And that is what it is. When someone has lost their focus on our Holy God, a God of love, compassion, and mercy, we are supposed to be sign posts, and helpers to lead them back.  

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. ² Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³ If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Gal 6:1-3

It is my job to love you, and encourage you, even admonish you, to not look at the wind and waves about you but to look to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. The one who, because we fall short came to save us. He is the author and perfecter of my faith as well. My weak, failing, banged up faith that I work daily to strengthen at the foot of his cross.

 I’ll go there with you, fellow failure, and we will seek to give our Holy God the glory He is due. And we will seek the healing that only He can give.

May God have mercy on us.......

A servant

I have a framed quote on my kitchen window sill by Dr. David Jeremiah that reads:

“You can tell if you have a servants’ heart by the way you feel when someone treats you like one.”

As I read different accounts in scripture of those whose names we know and are familiar with in the scriptures – Joseph, David, Moses, etc. I am struck by the part played, vital parts – by “a servant.”

Joseph:

^“9 Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: “I remember my faults this day. ¹⁰ When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker, ¹¹ we each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. ¹² Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. ¹³ And it came to pass, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”

¹⁴ Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh.” – Genesis 41:9-14

David:

¹⁸ Then one of the servants answered and said, “Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the Lord is with him.” 

Jesus: 

 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 

There are others that appear in scripture briefly to play their part and literally to turn the tide of the events or the story. There are many times in scripture where a life changing event is precipitated on the word of “a servant”.  We never know their names, where they come from, or what becomes of them after their brief part in the particular story, but the outcome of the story, the rest of the person’s life is affected by that one “servant”. 

Jesus was and is referred to in scripture as “a servant” – THE servant who turned the tide of events for all of us.

Don’t balk at being a servant – their roles were instrumental in God’s plan……      

Broken

The broken…..we are all broken. 

Some of us are just a functioning broken, others; can’t function.

The problem is, I’m a fixer. I want to fix the broken, and when I can’t fix, I look away, I avoid, I ignore.

I remember being young, thinking that I could fix the broken ones, get involved, help, time, money, space, involvement, and on and on and on…….

But I am tired and weary of the sea of brokenness that is washing up and into my life all around me every day, no matter where I am or where I go. Church, school, shopping, eating out, Facebook.

Again, we are all broken, some functioning broken, others unable to function. Some choosing not to function.

I was taught to function, no matter the level or degree of brokenness. I was pointed toward a light, a place, someone who I was told ultimately fixed brokenness.

Others didn’t get the memo.

I find myself trying to discern between stages of brokenness these days. Is it self-inflicted? —no time for that nonsense. Or is it a natural brokenness?

Wait………. brokenness is broken.

It all comes from the same place, and it isn’t self-inflicted. It is inflicted, but not by self.

I’m making myself remember who is responsible for the brokenness in the world, and that helps put things in perspective.

I am still graphically aware that I cannot “fix” brokenness, but I haven’t forgotten the place of light where there is someone who can. I just need to remember to take them to Him.

²⁸ “Come to Me, all ^[a]who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 10:28

He is the burden bearer, the fixer. He is the only one who can transform, repair, or “fix” anyone.