THOUGHTS ON REGENERATION

"The only thing that matters for any of us is this: "Am I a new creature, or am I still the same person that I have always been?" If I am the same person that I have always been, then I am not a Christian, and no amount of church attendance, liturgy, religious ceremony, "going forward at the invitation," or "accepting Jesus" means anything. What is regeneration? It is a new creation! In short, it is a miracle, not a "decision," or any kind of human act whatsoever."

Charles Leiter "Justification and Regeneration"

FROM A STONEY HEART TO A HEART OF FLESH

Take the time to listen to this message from Ezekiel 36. All I can say is wow. Christianity is all about becoming a new creature! I promise you it's worth every minute!

NATIONAL HEALTHCARE BILL

Please take the time to call or send an e-mail to your senators and representatives regarding this bill. Click here for more information given by HSLDA. I did.


Calls Needed to Congress about National Healthcare Bill
Urgent calls are needed to the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate to oppose H.R. 3200, "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009." Although this bill does not directly impact homeschool freedoms, it would significantly impact parental rights and early childhood education.

WEEKEND ADVENTURES

Below you will find pics of our weekend. I was blessed with being able to get away fishing with Evan and two other guys on Saturday. We all had a great time, except for blowing our tire on the way to Ft. Smith. :( Thanks to my wonderful babysitters who blessed me so much with that time away!

I finally got some photos of the new baby goats. Kiana was with me at the time (sporting her new haircut!) so she got in on those pictures. We also picked up our calf (turns out we only were able to get one) on Saturday, who is doing very well. You'll see Myah bottle feeding in her pj's and bare feet. The calf was use to being fed a bit earlier than we got up on Sunday morning and came to our bedroom window mooing for his breakfast. Pretty cute, though we're still not sure how he escaped the corrals!

We also spent some time riding the horses on Sunday night.

Enjoy!

FARM STUFF

Our sweet little goat ("Cookie") had twin girls this past Sunday night during a nasty thunderstorm. She's been a good mama and the kids are SO cute! I haven't gotten any decent pics yet, but will post some when I do. I'm hoping to begin milking her in about a week or two. Learning how all this works has been a challenge, but very fun. I think she'll be an easy one to milk as she just stands still and lets us do anything to her and her babies. She totally trusts us, which is good. And yes, we do hope to drink the milk! Aden for sure! :)

We have another female goat named "Chocolate" and our kids named the new babies "Chip" and "Dough", so together we have Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I love letting the kids name the critters. :) You never know what they'll think of next! We also have "Billy", the daddy goat. We have way more goats than I ever thought we'd have!

Tonight we were offered two bum calves at a reasonable price, so we plan to get those as well. Yeah! I've been wanting to get some beef cows, but we just haven't made work of it. We will have to bottle feed those for a while 2-3 times a day, so our farm chores are quickly increasing over here.

Two pigs are ready to head to the butcher and we just added two piglets to the farm a few weeks ago. Things never cease to be busy around here, but I must say we all love it, the kids especially.

JULY MEMORIES

Below is a slideshow of the happenings of the past few weeks. We enjoyed lots of good fellowship with many wonderful people! Fishing trips and a rodeo are just two of the adventures you'll see. Enjoy!

ADEN IS 1!

Our little man turned one this past week. We celebrated with a small party with some friends. I love doing birthday parties for the little ones. They have no expectations yet! :)

Aden has been a light added to our home since the very beginning. He has filled some very big shoes of emptiness in this house. His smile makes anyone grin and his giggle is contaigous! I am so thankful to the Lord for the gift he is in our family.

My prayer for him is that God uses him mightely for kingdom work and that he won't get sidetracked with all the distractions of this world. I pray that God draws him close to His heart and gives him a passion for the Word of God and time in prayer. I pray that Aden is filled with passionate prevailing praise to the One who deserves all honor and glory. Above all else, I pray that Aden is filled with the Holy Spirit so that he just radiates the love of Jesus all the days of his life.

God has big plans for you, little man! I'm so excited to see what all He has in store for you!

Enjoy the slideshow of his special day!

BUSY BUSY -- Here's a quick update!!

Summer is amazing! We have lots of visitors, lots of fun and try to make lots of good memories amidst all the work that surrounds us. We have had 4 separate visits from family since early May. Since then, we've been blessed with many regular visitors from our church family. This past weekend alone, we had two separate fishing outings (one with kids and one without) and literally people have been here everyday for the past 6 days. We went to a rodeo together, set off and watched fireworks, threw some hay bales around and ate some yummy meals together. We love fellowshipping with other believers. There is nothing better. We still look forward to doing some horseback riding later this week.

On top of all that, we are putting up hay, fixing the baler and the bronco (please pray for a replacement truck for Evan!) planning out the barn/garage plans, sorting through junk, and going to swimming lessons every day.

I'm trying so hard to make the most of every minute of every day so that when my time is crunched in a little over a month with school again, I will be able to look back and feel good about what I've accomplished. There is just so much to do and I'm already running out of time!

WHAT NOT TO DO IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Borrowed this from Thoughts on the Way Blog:

"What the gospel is and what it isn't" by Randall Easter

Let us be clear regarding the gospel. The gospel is not a thing. The gospel is not an event. The gospel is not a promotion. The gospel is not a work of man. The gospel is not a system. The gospel is not a method. The gospel is a proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ. The apostles proclaimed Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected from the dead, and in like fashion, the church of the 21st century ought to do the same.The gospel is to be proclaimed. The gospel does not need a gimmick. The gospel does not need the wisdom of man. The gospel does not need any help from people who come up with cutting edge ideas. The gospel does not need additions. The gospel does not need subtractions. The responsibility of the church is to rightly proclaim the glory of the person, Jesus Christ, who is the gospel. Men, women, boys and girls, are to respond to Jesus. The proclamation of the gospel is for the glory of God and not the glory of man. To mix the gospel with other things is to detract from the person of Jesus Christ and ultimately to lead men to idolatry and damnation in hell. The apostles proclaimed the person of the gospel without gimmicks.

-- Randall Easter