Coffee Talk 10/16/09

Good Morning, my sweet friends. I hope this morning finds you doing well. As soon as I type this post, I will be running upstairs to grab a HOT shower before my kiddos wake up, so I am doing fabulously well!

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to offer you this morning. Chocolate milk or a soda is about it...and how about a store bought chocolate chip cookie (oh, the shame)! Come back next week and I will try to do better!

It has been quite a week around the Tigerden. If you visited last week, you will know that our hot water heater went out...in a very wet way. After doing a lot of research, we decided to go with a tankless heater. A little bit more expensive (okay, a lot more expensive) but there is a tax credit AND, if it were to go out...no water damage. And I think that in the past six months, we have established that anything we can do around here to prevent water damage is a must do!

We bought the heater Monday, but we couldn't get it installed until Wednesday. That meant one entire week with no hot water....UGH! I will say that it was a humbling experience because as the week went on and I got more and more whiny, I began to realize that millions of people in the world today have NEVER taken a hot bath or washed their clothes in hot water...or had a dishwasher to wash their dishes for them. What, to me was a huge inconvenience is, to them, a lifestyle. I didn't stop whining...but I was humbled! :)

We also decided to switch gas sources this week. We have always had our own propane tank, so when it is empty, we have to pay to have it filled in bulk. It has been teetering on emptiness for a few months now, so we decided to go with a utility company and have them meter our gas. That way, the maintenance and liability is with them and we pay for only what we use. So, Wednesday, after days of rain, was the big day...new water heater, new gas tank, big backhoe rolling through a drenched yard...lovely! However, I will not complain, because Wednesday night I got the first hot shower in my own home in a week. I also did lots of laundry and ran the dishwasher...all at the SAME TIME...cause you can do that with a tankless! WOO HOO!

But, the highlight of the week was not a hot shower or clean clothes or dishes that washed themselves. The highlight came Wednesday night as I was kissing Dancer goodnight and she said, "Momma, before you pray, I want to pray first. Do you know why I want to pray? Because I want to ask Jesus into my heart." Oh, my...tearing up, even now! The most precious, beautiful words a parent can ever hear. So Wednesday night, after a horrible week that I haven't even scratched the surface of describing here, Tigerfan and I got to pray with our daughter and welcome her into the kingdom of Christ! It has been the BEST WEEK EVER!!!

And now, to make an already long post even longer, I am doing a really great Bible Study right now. It is called Ever Loving Truth by Voddie Bauchum. It is probably one of the most convicting, challenging, motivating Bible studies I have ever done. It has really challenged me to boldly stand up for my faith. So, in today's lesson, we talked about the supremacy of Christ and how He differs from other prophets and religious teachers. The last assignment was to answer this question, "How would you respond if an unsaved person asked you, 'How can you say that Jesus is superior to other prophets and teachers?'"

I answered like this (very, unprofound, by the way...no deep thinkers around here): "Jesus was in the beginning, he created all things. Unlike other prophets, He lived a perfect life, died sacrificially for us AND rose again. You can visit the graves of other prophets and teachers but not Jesus, because He is not there. Only He conquered death, only He has the power to cleanse us from sin."

Part two of the challenge was to discuss with others how they would answer the question. So, how would you answer? I would really love to know.

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Conviction

You may have noticed that I am not exactly a deep thinker. I am that one in Bible Study who actually writes down exactly what is in my Bible or on a particularly profound day in my Bible commentary. I am the one who sits in awe when someone who read the same exact thing I did comes up with this profound meaning while I begin checking to see if we are reading the same Bible...cause I just didn't get that! I am a true Beth Moore wannabe! But, I "ain't!"

I have never aspired to be a great theological blog or really an inspirational one. I just started blogging as a way to stay connected with my family and the outside world, a way to stay sane. I have tried to be true to my faith and occasionally have made mention of what God is doing in my life, but certainly have not been profound in what I have said.

You can probably continue to expect that same level of mediocrity, because, that is just who I am. But, yesterday we had a revival speaker at church, and ya'll, he NAILED me! We live in some scary times. The economy is SCARY, the elections are SCARY, our education system (at least locally) is SCARY, the international issues are SCARY, the threat of terrorism is SCARY! But, we have a God that is more powerful than all of those things and I am not sharing him with people. We have a hope that is far greater than a president or a great teacher or even a Nobel peace prize winner. We have the Author of Peace, the Creator of the World, the Great Physician! The One and Only True God, there is no other, not money, not fame, not political power, not a great prophet or and under god. Just One and HE is in control.

I think of reasons all the time why I don't share my faith. I am home with my kids, I don't know any lost people, I live in the Bible belt...everyone knows God around here. I have shared a bit with my next door neighbor and I teach S.S. and tell my tutorial kids. But I am not passionate about telling people or sharing my faith with people. Yesterday, our preacher said to turn to the person next to you and just ask, do you know Him? I will show you. I will go with you. I will lead you. Do you want me to go with you? I looked around and my family was all around and I know that they know. So, I sat quietly and did nothing. Last night, he talked about our apathy. We live in a world that just doesn't really care that much, we don't have a passion. He asked, what could make me stop loving, serving God. Of course, the right answer is nothing. But in the middle of the night last night, I woke up from a dream about my sweet Dancer. My first thought was, God, please not my little girl. I will serve you, I will honor you, but please NEVER take my little girl...I am not willing to give her up. Then I heard Tigercub, stuffy and struggling to breathe in his baby bed and I thought, "not the baby, please never the baby!"

And I realized, I am not sold out 100%. Am I really willing to serve Him in thick or thin? In good and bad? What if something happened to a child? Would I still be faithful? Because really, I am not faithful now. I am apathetic, I find excuses, I go through the motions. But I want to be sold out. I don't ever want anyone to wonder where I stand. I don't want to get so bogged down in day to day that I forget the eternal.

So, in case you are wondering, this is where I stand. I believe in God the creator. A God, who through His own amazing power created land and sea, heaven and earth, animal and man in six days and rested on the seventh. I believe in His one and only son, Jesus, who left the glory of heaven and was born in poverty on earth, who lived a perfect life, who died taking the punishment of MY sins and who raised again to overcome death for ME...and for you. I believe that we are separated from God because of our sin but that He loves us enough to forgive us for those sins if we will just confess those sins and ask for forgiveness and I believe He has eternal life for us in Heaven if we will accept this free gift!

One day soon, I hope to add a page sharing my testimony and sharing my beliefs for anyone who may wonder or question, but for now, this will have to do. My prayer is that if ANYONE reads this blog and doesn't know Jesus, they will begin to ask, begin to question, begin to read their Bible. And, if anyone wants to ask me, I will always be here to share my faith and scriptures to back it up. If you don't have a Bible...I will get you a Bible. If you have a question, I will TRY to answer a question or point you to someone who can. So, thank you for letting me let it all out today! I feel much better now, and you can too, if you will only trust Him! So, I must ask: Do you know Him? Would you like me to go with you and show you how you can?

And now, in keeping with the lighter side of things, as our speaker was talking about apathy last night he made this comment which, do to my love of all things amish, I found hilarious: Sometimes when he begins sharing about Jesus, he can just feel how little people care, Like a bunch of Amish men in Circuit City! I'll just leave you with that! :)