ABC easy as 123

We've been busy taking in all the Fall Fun going on around us.  I've taken tons of pictures at a pumpkin patch and at our church's Fall Festival.  I haven't had a chance to Picnik them all, so I'll just share this video of JennaBeth lovin' on her daddy and saying her ABC's.  Hopefully I'll finish with the pictures tomorrow and have a "Fall Fun" post up then.

Blessings,

Beyond Opinion: Living The Faith We Defend

I appreciate every time I have the chance to hear Ravi Zacharias teach on Moody Radio.  He makes you think and motivates you to search out truth and understanding for yourself.  So, I jumped at the opportunity to read his book Beyond Opinion from Thomas Nelson Publishers.  They gave me a copy of the book in exchange for my review.

First Peter 3:15 exhorts us to "set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect."

Dr. Zacharias and his colleagues in Beyond Opinion equip the reader to do just what that scripture says intellectually, spiritually and relationally.  In this work you get to hear from 12 other apologests besides Dr. Zacharias himself.  They cover the following topics:

• Postmodern Challenges to the Bible
• Challenges from Atheism
• Challenges from Youth
• Challenges from Islam
• Challenges from Eastern Religions
• Challenges from Science
• Conversational Apologetics
• Broader Cultural and Philosophical Challenges
• Existential Challenges of Evil and Suffering
• The Trinity as a Paradigm for Spiritual Transformation
• Cross-Cultural Challenges
• The Role of Doubt and Persecution in Spiritual Transformation
• Idolatry, Denial, and Self-Deception:  Hearts on Pilgrimage

In the introduction to Beyond Opinion Dr. Zacharias says,

"We are fashioned by God to be thinking and emotional creatures.  The emotions should follow reason, and not the other way around."

In Beyond Opinion the reader is taught how to relate to the questioner and how to make sure that the answers are couched in a relevant context.  He explains that if apologetics is to be done effectively, it won't be the experts doing it; rather, it will be me and you connecting on a personal level with those that ask us for the reason for the hope that we have.

The book is 360 pages long and is not a book you will sit down and just read through easily.  However, the book is very well organized into three sections:

• Part 1:  Giving an Answer. The reader will take a look at skeptics' and believers' difficult questions.  "We will suggest that we cannot begin to understand these questions until we ourselves have also wrestled with them intellectually and personally.
• Part 2:  Internalizing the Questions and Answers.  In this section the reader takes a look at how one's answers must be internalized - the essential, lifelong process of spiritual transformation.
• Part 3:  Living out the Answers.  The reader begins to understand the importance of living out the answers with the compassion for the lost and a passion for the gospel.  

Because there are multiple smaller chapters within each section, the reader can take a small portion at a time and not feel so overwhelmed with all the material.  This is how I approached the book and it was helpful in digesting such rich information.

I highly recommend this book.  It is one I will go back to often.  The book can be purchased at Amazon.com.


One last quote from Dr. Zacharias:

"I have little doubt that the single greatest obstacle to the impact of the gospel has not been its inability to provide answers, but the failure on our part to live it out."

Wild Ride

When Mike and I found out we were expecting JennaBeth back in the Summer of 2008, it was quite a shock.  We had become real comfortable as a family of four.  Bentley was old enough to do some things on his own and had become good at entertaining himself for longer periods of time throughout each day.  Cecily was getting closer to being a teenager and we knew life would require a little more time and energy with her as we would need to help her navigate some of the transitions she would have coming up in her life.

We were comfortable.

We had routine.

And then comes JennaBeth!  I remember telling people when I was pregnant with her that God must have a sense of humor.  I tried to convince myself that I was going through early menopause!  Mike was 41 and I was 37.  I had a friend who suggested if I was having a little boy that we should name him John Isaac (you know the Isaac Abraham and Sarah had!).

I remember Bentley's reaction at the ultrasound when we found out we were expecting a little girl.  He said, "But I want a little brother!"  He had no idea how this little girl would turn his life up side down, literally!

Now please don't misunderstand.  I'm not complaining!  God blessed us with a precious and spunky little girl.  She just makes us tired.

For example, the other night, Mike had just bathed JennaBeth.  He put she and Bentley in the tub together and bathed her first.  He lotioned her up and put her nighttime diaper and jammies on her and combed her hair.  Within the next minute, we hear Bentley holler from the bathroom, "JennaBeff is in the bathroom in her jammie clothes."  I told him I was coming to get her out of the bathroom and this is what I found...

Yep!  She had climbed back in the bathtub with him fully clothed!

You can not turn your back on this stinker for one second!  She will climb on anything and apparently in anything these days!  She has learned the word "fall" because she does it alot!!  Her big thing to tell you is "I fawl."  That's just how she says it..."fawl" with a long Southern drawl!   I'm so proud she talks like her momma!!!

Another new thing she has learned is how to get in her big sister's bed.  Cecily has a loft bed which requires climbing a ladder to get into it.

Every time she hears her big sister's door open, she is around the corner and down the hall to her room in a flash...

She just climbs in and makes herself at home.  Cecily had not gotten up last Saturday morning and JennaBeth decided to go join her...

Her big sister's bed is not the only one she likes to invade...

She will get into Bentley's and pull those transformer sheets up on her like she is supposed to be there!

Our house certainly is not a boring place to be with JennaBeth around!  She has shall I say "spiced" things up around our place.  She keeps us hopping and maybe that's a good thing...I think.  Maybe being comfortable and having routine is overrated. 

God has taught and is teaching me much about myself and how I can better glorify Him through all my children.  Some days the lessons are tough and I often have to make trips to The Principle's office so to speak.  I'm thankful that in that office I find discipline clothed in love.  What an example for me to follow as a mom!  I'm thankful for God's word in Isaiah 40:11,

"He tends His flock like a Shepherd:  He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young."

You are writing a gospel,

A chapter a day, 

By deeds that you do,

By words that you say.

Children read what you write,

Whether faithless or true.

Say!  What is the gospel

According to you?

(Author Unknown)

Blessings,

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

"That yogurt sure was good!"

Psalm 84

For the past several weeks I have been using "Voices From The Past:  Puritan Devotional Readings" edited by Richard Rushing during my quiet times.  God is using His word and these writings to speak to me in profound ways.  As I read the scripture and then the thoughts from men such as John Bunyan, William Cooper, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, Thomas Watson and Matthew Mead and many more who lived and walked with God hundreds of years ago, it is like they are speaking such timely thoughts that apply so to me in 2010!

"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." 

I'm so thankful for that assurance from Isaiah 40:8!  God's Word can be trusted!

I wanted to share with you today the scripture and some points from the reading from October 10.  Psalm 84 has always been one of my favorite Psalms:

1. How lovely is your dwelling place,  O Lord Almighty!
2. My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
3. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.
5. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6. As they pass through the Valley of Baca (weeping - explanation mine) they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.  (The Hebrew word here is "berakah" and means blessing divinely bestowed, source of blessing a gift, treaty of peace, refreshing rain - God's grace - Psalm 36:5-8)
7. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
8. Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.
9. Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.
10. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 
12. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Here is the commentary from Matthew Mead (taken from "A Name in Heaven", pp. 111-132 as edited by Richard Rushing in "Voices from the Past"):

"A life of faith builds upon lasting principles.  The life of sense lives on fading objects.  What can he lack who lives by faith in him that is all and never changes?  When the mariner puts out to sea, he quickly loses sight of land, but no matter how far he sails, he will never lose sight of heaven.  The soul of faith sees a greater beauty in God, than in all worldly comforts, and tastes a greater sweetness in communion with Christ, than in all earthly friendships.  Grace weans the believer from all worldly things, and discerns between perishing and durable comforts.  How do we know we are weaned from the world?"

Mr. Mead answers like this:

1. "We are weaned when we have heavenly affections amidst earthly possessions.
2. When we reckon our happiness by divine fruit instead of worldly accommodations.
3. When we bear worldly evils, troubles, and losses with a holy quietness and satisfaction of spirit (Heb. 10:34)
4. We choose holiness, affliction and loss, rather than sin, pleasure and preferment (Heb. 11:24-26)
5. We are able by faith to overcome both the smiles and frowns of the world.  When the world smiles upon us with its splendours, honours, riches, pleasures, delights and glories, can we look upon all these as small things in comparison with Christ?  Or, when the world frowns upon us with crosses, losses, sufferings, reproaches, can we overcome them by laying aside carnal fears, and by patience, look upon afflictions and sufferings for Christ as our honour and happiness?

Mead finishes by saying:

"To have the world, and yet to be weaned from it; to possess the world, and not to be possessed by it; to live above all, amidst the enjoyment of all - these are mercies.  To see greatness only in God, and beauty only in holiness, O what a mercy is this!  Do not dote on the comforts of the world but wean your soul from them."

 Oh Lord!  I pray you bless me and all who read today with these mercies from your hand!

 Blessings,

Carrot Bars with Cream Cheese Icing

Cecily is taking Culinary Careers as one of her electives this semester at her middle school.  This week the class made Carrot Bars with homemade cream cheese icing and Cecily wanted to make them at home for us!  She made them this afternoon and I wanted to share her recipe here with you.

Carrot Bars with Cream Cheese Icing

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup applesauce

2 jars baby food carrots (4 oz. size)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 chopped nuts (chopped)

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Icing

1/4 cup soft margarine

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

3 ounces light cream cheese, softened

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 13 X 9 inch pan.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, oil, applesauce, baby food carrots, 2 beaten eggs, and vanilla, using an electric mixer on medium speed for 1 minute.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Beat all the ingredients together till thoroughly combined.

Add nuts and stir.
Pour the mixture into the greased and floured pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean.

While the bars bake, make the icing:  combine the margarine, powdered sugar, light cream cheese, and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer until creamy.

After the bars are baked and cool, spread with the icing.

Cecily then let them cool in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to let the icing set on the bars. 

THESE WERE SO GOOD!  They were very moist and the icing was out of this world good.  I mean anything with cream cheese in it has to be, right?

Anyway, there were a few gone in a matter of minutes...

"Daddddeeeeeee, want biiiiiiitttttttteeeeee!"

"Yes, that's better daddy!"

Cecily says that pumpkin pie filling can be substituted for the carrot very easily, turning them into Pumpkin Bars!  Hope you'll try this dessert.  IT WILL NOT DISAPPOINT!!

What favorite Fall desserts do you enjoy making?

Family Walkin' and Sidewalk Chalkin'

Fall has made its way to Florida!  We are enjoying some very nice temps these days, especially in the mornings.  The humidity is very low making the temps throughout the day nice as well.  You can actually feel a nice breeze even in the middle of the day.

And because of this blessed change in the weather, we have been taking more "family walks" as Bentley affectionately calls them.  He actually was the one to initiate these walks.  I actually took he and JennaBeth out a couple of mornings ago for a "walk" and we didn't even break a sweat.

When we got back home that morning, Bentley decided he would "work out" like daddy does before coming inside.

This evening before supper, we took a family walk and I happened to get Bentley and Cecily riding their bikes.



Bentley loves his bike that he got for his birthday!  He's not quite ready to give up the training wheels, but his big sister has been real sweet about encouraging him along.  It won't be long before he will be flying down the road without them!

JennaBeth enjoyed learning about the fun of sidewalk chalk with big sister this afternoon.

She was so very proud of her own little creations!

It really makes this mommy's heart happy to have everyone enjoying a nice afternoon together!  I'm very blessed with a husband who works hard and then comes home and spends his time with his children.  And we are very blessed with three healthy little people.  It is a joy to see each one of them developing into three very unique individuals!  It's easy on the hard days to have a "woe is me" attitude.  Today was one of those grace gifts from the Lord reminding me of how blessed a woman I really am and for that I am grateful!

"I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;  I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me."  Psalm 86:12-13a

How are you and your family enjoying time together?