Resolved 2009, Pt. 2

Saturday morning the conference was started off with a great time of worshipping God in music. The music was amazing and seemed to fit perfectly with every message all weekend long. I am so thankful to Enfield for leading our music for the whole weekend, they are a truly gifted group.

Resolved Session #2 (Saturday morning)

Dr. Steve Lawson
Message: Blessed Bankruptcy
Reference: Matthew 5:3

5 Keys to Truth

1. Priority- All the beatitudes come after, being poor in spirit. We can't be merciful, a peacemaker, etc. unless we are poor in spirit. In order to have riches in heaven, we must file bankruptcy on earth.

2. Promise- Blessed is the opposite of wrath. Blessed means happy now, Heaven later. Blessed is deep seeded joy. Psalm 1:1.

3. Paradox- Blessed are the poor in spirit, the world just can't understand how you can be poor and blessed.

4. Picture- Being poor in spirit doesn't mean being financially poor, a poor personality or having self-pity. Being poor in spirit means coming empty handed to God.

I have nothing

I am nothing

I can do nothing

5. Pronouncement- Theirs (those poor in spirit) is the kingdom of Heaven.

What a great sinner I am, and what a great Savior He is.

As I review this message, I am taken back to the statement that, being poor in spirit means coming empty handed to God. I can't offer Him anything. Everything I have and am is because of God. I am a sinner saved by HIS grace.

The carpet in the convention center.

Photo by: Camilo

Our group from GBC.

What a great weekend to spend with such special friends.

The Baldwin's hands.

Messing around with my wristband at Del Taco.

Lord willing tomorrow I will post about session #3.

Resolved 2009

Tonight, as I sat down to do my quiet time, I decided to not only do my daily Bible reading and prayer. I also decided to review a message a day from the Resolved conference and think through the message and take away at least one thing I can be working on in my life. Resolved was such an amazing blessing for me, I don't want it to fade with time as just a good memory. I want to be able to go back next year a changed person from all I learned at Resolved 2009.

Resolved Night #1

Dr. Rick Holland

Message: The War Against Your Soul

Reference: 1 Peter 2: 11-12

The greatest danger in warfare is underestimating your enemy.

We are in a war (whether we know it or not) and I am the enemy. Ouch

Three mistakes we make:

We humanize God.

We glorify ourselves.

We minimize our sin.

Being a christian citizen demands the fight. If we are not fighting against sin we are dead.

Do you know the associates of Satan in your heart? Which is the strongest?

This last question is the most important thing I took from this message. I don't want to have anything of Satan's in my heart. I need to look at my heart and the sin I struggle with and understand if I am not fighting that sin, I am giving Satan a spot in my heart.

"Be killing sin or it will be killing you" - John Owen

Along with a review of the messages I wanted to include pictures from the weekend.

Here are the pictures from the first night.

The mountains outside the Palm Springs convention center.

Kathy and Valerie enjoying Sherman's sandwiches.

Our wristbands to get in.

The crowd waiting to get in. I must say this is the only part of the weekend

I did not like.

The stage. It is hard to see but there are lanterns hanging above the

stage with flickering candles (artificial). Amazing something so

simple could add so much beauty.

Tomorrow I will post about day 2 at Resolved.

Here are some links to see a lot more about the weekend:

You can download the MP3's for free at Resolved.org (you just have to sign up for a free account). Hit the media link to find all the messages from this year and 2007 and 2008. This is a treasure chest being offered for free.

You can also go to Resolved's Facebook account and see pictures from each day.

Harvest San Diego Spring Retreat

Last weekend we had the pleasure of joining Harvest Church at their Spring Retreat in San Diego.We truly enjoyed the time we were able to spend with this young (in age) church. The fellowship was sweet and their desire to hear God's Word preached was great. Here are some pictures from our time there.

My favorite picture from the weekend.

Rachel is such a good big sister.

Aren't they cute. I love this picture too.

Daddy helping Hannah.

Bekah just released an arrow. She did a great job.

Daddy helping Rachel.

My baby having a special moment with the horse. She loves horses.

Look at that smile.

The helmet is a little big.

She isn't smiling in this picture, but she had a great time.

Heading home after a busy retreat.

I can't believe her neck wasn't sore after she slept like this for over an hour.

Awe, QUIET!!

Sewing with Grandma

Grandma Baldwin has been very gracious to help me and my girls learn to quilt. Here are some pictures of Grandma working with Bekah.

Cutting her squares

Measuring before cutting

Grandma had soda, cookies and fresh fruit for all the girls.

Earthquakes and Friends

Today, Bekah asked if we could go to the Baldwin's to see Gracie, Abby said, "No, I don't want another earthquake." 

Let me explain:

Over the last few days, we have experienced a couple of earthquakes here in Southern California. It is quite humorous to me that both of the earthquakes (the ones we felt) occurred when we were at friends' houses. We were walking in the Baldwin's house on Sunday night when the first one happened and we were sewing at Grandma Baldwin's house yesterday when the second one happened. 

Here is God's grace, when in front of friends you don't let your fear show (you have to be cool you know), so I have not panicked once. The important point to note here is I haven't freaked my kids out yet. Yay!

God is so good to give us friends for the good times and the bad ones too. Love you Baldwins.

I must also mention we were spending the night at the Caballero's the night of the Lander's quake ( '92). It was a 7.3 and I was not calm or cool after that one. But, we are still friends.

Thankful Tuesday

Last week when I was sick Richard came home with a present for me.

Why would a pen be so exciting you ask? This pen means so much to me because Richard bought it for my time in God's Word. I have been notating my Bible with a ball point, but it was very big. He went and bought me a tiny tipped pen, so I could write more notes.

Thank You!

Show the Love Outreach

Boxes packed to go to our neighbors.

As a church we decided to use this past Valentine's Day as a day to minister to our neighbors. We realized that this world puts a lot of emphasis on having somebody to love them on this one day. We wanted to let people know that they are loved by God everyday. Here is a pictorial tour of the Show the Love Outreach our church did:

Jorge preparing the CD's.

The CD we included with each pack.

The bags are being packed.

We included a New Testament, a CD, a tract, pen, and church flyer.

Some of the cookies that were baked for our neighbors.

Notice the cross on each cookie.

More cookies. Yummy!

Packing up the last of the boxes. 

All the boxes ready to go. We had set a goal of 25 boxes, our church

responded so well, we were able to prepare 50 boxes of cookies to give out.

Richard letting everybody know the plan.

This is most of the group that went out.

Abby and Richard handed out the packages as each team came back. 

We kept track of all the addresses, so we can continue to follow-up.

Abby took her job very seriously.

We are praying that we were able to open up communication with our neighbors through this outreach.

The Farm Chicks Mystery Giveaway

I am signing up for this for sure. I really hope it is for their cookbook. It looks awesome. 

Go over and sign up to win too. Whatever the prize is I am sure it will be great.

The Farm Chicks Giveaway

Hello from Down Under

Flowers I bought for Richard.

No, unfortunately I am not in Australia. I am in a house where everybody has been down sick in the last 6 days. It has been an exhausting week. But in the midst of it all God has been speaking to my heart. He has honestly done a miraculous work this week. I have wanted to stomp my feet at times and say, "I am sick too," but God has shown me how blessed I am to be able to take care of my family in times of sickness. I know the day will come quickly when my girls will be sick and they won't want Mommy to hold them. And they won't want my chicken noodle soup either. He has especially given me the stomach to be with my girls when dinner visited them again in the night. I admit I usually let this one fall to Richard, but I wanted to make sure he didn't get sick this week. That didn't end up working. He got sick too. God has been giving me the energy needed to continue to care for my family in these difficult times.
What a blessing it was last night to walk into my girl's room and nobody is coughing up a lung. I love to see them sleeping peacefully after being sick.

Wow, it has been a long time.

I can't believe it has been 5 months since I last posted. I will not draw out the history of our lives, I will just post some pictures to bring you up to date.

This is an outreach week team from the Master's College.

Abby fell asleep on a trolley ride to San Ysidro.

The girls in San Diego.

Rich in San Diego.

Rich cutting the turkey for our church's Thanksgiving potluck. Notice Grandma Baldwin keeping an eye on him.

Our annual church Thanksgiving potluck.

The girls attacking Uncle Pete on Thanksgiving.

Christmas Eve

Rachel's Birthday

Heather and Benjamin visited

Life is good and we have much to be thankful for.