Stories

We have finally arrived and settled into our new homestead in Knoxville.  I never imagined in a million years that God would ever bring us back to Tennessee.  But...here we are :-) And more excited than ever to be a part of what God is doing at our new church Fellowship.

The past year for us has been hard but great, sad but full of joy, insanely crazy but at the core full of peace. It has been a unique road but ultimately just a small adventure in our life's journey.  When we resigned from our church in Virginia, we had no idea what God was asking us to do next.  All that we knew is that it was time for us to step out.  Over the course of that next year God taught us more than we thought possible.  He took us down a path that would help us to know Him deeper and ultimately have a greater understand of His call on the Church and our lives in ministry.

A few years ago on a Mother's day, I got to sit on a stage with some other ladies and share our "motherhood" stories.  We shared where we came from and the many different things that God had used to mold us into who we were.  I don't remember much about that day or the weeks leading up to it, because I was terrified to be on stage :-X.  Stage fright doesn't even begin to express the level of fear I experience when I have to be in front of a large audience. BUT.. God used that time to carve something very special into my heart.  The picture that is in my mind from that day is one of 6 people coming from VERY different places and all sitting on the same stage telling their "God story".  We had all made some very different choices, lived very different lives, chosen to follow Jesus as completely different times, and yet here we all sat. Together... one stage...and giving the One true God the glory. Isn't it so cool how God uses us in so many ways to tell His Story.  His story of love, redemption, grace, mercy, sovereignty, etc. 

So here I sit. In our beautiful home looking out at the mountains in the distance and I wonder about the many roads that it took to get here.  

Broken home= redeemed

heart ache of my teenage years=mercy shown 

bad choices=grace given 

wonderful husband=redemption 

beautiful children=merciful God 

church pain= God's love

My road, your road, our roads together have a purpose.  There is only one road to God and that is through Jesus but I know that God allows us to have many journeys to help us understand who He is. We may not understand the reason behind our travels but we CAN allow them to point to a gracious, loving, just God.  We can allow God to be glorified in all things. And it is there, on the stage of life that we can all sit together and tell our God stories, so vastly different, that point in the same direction.

~LL

PS This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists.  It is called Many Roads and it is by Andrew Peterson.  The video is of the song but the lyrics are below it.  Enjoy!

 If you'll step inside this great glass elevator 

It'll take us up above the city lights 
To where the planet curves away to the equator 
I want to show you something fine 

You can see the roads that we all traveled just to get here 
A million minuscule decisions in a line 
Why they brought us to this moment isn't clear 
But that's all right, we've got all night 

Could it be that the many roads 
You took to get here 
Were just for me to tell this story 
And for you to hear this song 
And your many hopes 
And your many fears 
Were meant to bring you here all along 

So if you'll trust me with your time I'll spend it wisely 
I will sing to you with all I have to give 
If you traveled all this way, then I will do my best to play 
My biggest hits (that don't exist) 

And if you'll lend to me your ear I'll sing 'em pretty 
I will never, ever sing 'em out of tune 
And I will not forget the words, 
Of any chorus, bridge, or verse 
I promise you 

CHORUS 

We've got Benjamin to play the grand piano 
If we're lucky it's a little out of tune 
We've got Andy on the guitar 'cause I promised him 
Some Texas barbecue 

How I love to watch you listen to the music 
'Cause you sing to me a music of your own 
As I cast out all these lines, so afraid that I will find 
I am alone, all alone 

Could it be that the many roads 
I took to get here 
Were just for you to tell that story 
And for me to hear that song 
And my many hopes 
And my many fears 
Were meant to bring me here all along 
We were meant to be right here all alongD

First Day of 3rd grade and senior year

I'll be honest, typing to the title makes me tear up a little. I think every year I write how hard it is to believe that they are that old. "They" being the Littles or the Bigs. But this year is special for Baily and Shelby.  Their Senior year.  It is a year where they are desperately trying to gain the courage and knowledge to step out from under our wings.  It is a year where we are trying hard to kick them out of the nest while still hugging them.  It is a curious fight of emotions where children who want to be adults still long for the comforts of childhood with the responsibility of "real life".

My prayer for this year is that Baily and Shelby with find the courage to step out and figure out who God is to them. That they will see through the lens of truth in which we raised them, but cling to the hope that God their father wants more for them than we could ever dream.

My prayer for Peyton and Barron is that they will find excitement in discovering the truths of God and all that He has created.  I pray that the foundation that is being built for them will be one that leads them into a life that is completely fully committed to following Jesus.

And more than anything else I pray that our children will fall so deeply in love with Jesus that they can't imagine living any other way.

~LL

Angry

What makes you angry? 

Slow people at green lights.  People walking down the wrong side of the aisle at Walmart.  People chewing with their mouth open. Taxes. Someone not calling you back.  Verizon. The DMV. Walmart. Having to repeat yourself over and over. Rude people.  Did I mention Walmart? People entering through the Exit.

But lets be honest... those things are just inconveniences that shouldn't really make us ANGRY.  Lets think about the things that REALLY make us angry.  Like down in the depths of your soul, can't sleep at night, gut wrenching, mess you up kind of angry.  Righteous anger. Soul Sadness kind of angry.

Did you know that in China,Village family-planning officers vigilantly chart the menstrual cycle and pelvic-exam results of every woman of childbearing age in their area? If a woman gets pregnant without permission and is unable to pay the often exorbitant fine for violating the policy, she risks being subjected to a forced abortion.
THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU ANGRY

A recent NewYorkTimes article published this, "Almost every one of the pregnant women I spoke to had suffered a mandatory abortion. One woman told me how, when she was eight months pregnant with an illegal second child and was unable to pay the 20,000 yuan fine (about $3,200), family planning officers dragged her to the local clinic, bound her to a surgical table and injected a lethal drug into her abdomen.

For two days she writhed on the table, her hands and feet still bound with rope, waiting for her body to eject the murdered baby. In the final stage of labor, a male doctor yanked the dead fetus out by the foot, then dropped it into a garbage can. She had no money for a cab. She had to hobble home, blood dripping down her legs and staining her white sandals red." read the entire article hear

THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU ANGRY

There are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in human history, with an estimated 27 million in bondage across the globe. Men, women, and children are being exploited for manual and sexual labor against their will. A21

THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU ANGRY

 The NewYorkTimes wrote another article called The Face of Modern Slavery where they tell the story of a 6 year old Cambodian girl. "Srey Pov’s family sold her to a brothel when she was 6 years old. She was unaware of sex but soon found out: A Western pedophile purchased her virginity, she said, and the brothel tied her naked and spread-eagled on a bed so that he could rape her.“I was so scared,” she recalled. “I was crying and asking, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ After that, the girl was in huge demand because she was so young. Some 20 customers raped her nightly, she remembers. And the brothel twice stitched her vagina closed so that she could be resold as a virgin. This agonizingly painful practice is common in Asian brothels, where customers sometimes pay hundreds of dollars to rape a virgin."
THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU ANGRY
(Make sure to read the whole story because she survived it all)

Did you know that in India, one of the hot beds of sex trade, children are sold into slavery as part of a religious tradition? Daughters are offered to temples as a gift. As young as eight or nine years old, these girls are used by priests for their sexual pleasure. When they’re older, they are sold into brothels.

ARE YOU ANGRY YET?

I believe that we are all created differently.  With different passions and different callings on our life.  I believe what fires one person up may not fire another person up. Or what pushes one to act and respond may only make someone else sad. I get that.  I get that the murdering of innocent unborn babies may ANGER some people and they find that must do something.  Where impoverished dying people may break someones heart in such a way that they must go and do something.  Or women, girls, children being kidnapped and sold for sex may make some shake their heads while other weep and protest. But one thing must be central to all that forces us into action....Jesus.  I believe that we must love Jesus in such a way that we must do something about these horrible things. The overflow of love that we feel for God sending his only son to die for us must be action.  So whatever angers you or breaks your heart let your love for Jesus be what fuels you to go and help. Anything less than that does not have any eternal significance and that is what truly matters.

Isaiah 1:17  Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow.

Some ways to help:
A21 Ways to help
A21


Focus on the Family has some articles and tools that I like.
Cause for Concern (although it was written 5 years ago :(
Sex trafficking  (Stats are outdated :(

~LL

Insanity

I having been reading the book Insanity of God by Nik Ripken . It is a book that has really opened my eyes and made me shake my head about many things.  I can't decide if I am more angry about the things that are going on in our world  (outside of the US) or the fact that I had no idea about those things that are going on.  Nik tells of his journeys all over the world and his encounters with people in the persecuted church. One man talks of persecution being "as normal as the sun rise".

It confuses my "norm" that Christians are put in prison, beaten, starved, and even killed simply because they profess faith in Jesus.  I understand the stories of the bible and how Christians were martyred  for their faith, but we are talking about today. In this century.

My "norm" is waking up in the morning choosing to read my bible... or not, choosing to worship... or not, choosing to proclaim Jesus through my life... or not.  To be honest I sometimes don't think I take these choices very seriously.  I sometimes choose one way or the other depending on my mood, my children, the busyness of my day, or day of the week.
But what if living your faith determined if you lived or died?  What if choosing to bow you head before a meal, could land you in jail for years?  Would you do it?  What if leading a friend to Christ or even telling them about Christ could get you killed and possibly get them killed? Would you tell them?  What if "going to church" didn't mean putting on your pretty clothes and going into an auditorium to be entertained. But instead it actually meant sneaking through town, hiding from police, talking in code, only to arrive in a dark basement where you sit on the floor of a small abandoned basement to sing quietly and recite memorized scripture.  Would you want to invite people to meet "that Jesus"? 

I am trying very hard to wrap my mind around how we live and worship vs. how the rest of the world lives and worships.  I don't quite understand why we aren't talking more about this in churches in our country. Why were aren't striving desperately to live and love Jesus with the same passion that our persecuted brothers and sisters do?
I guess because at the end of the day it is much easier to pretend like we (American Christians) are the only ones worshiping. It is easier to simply play dress up with our rose colored glasses and ignore the fact that their are more Christians who were martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined 160,000 Christians were martyred in 2010 alone (that we know of).
What we can do:
*Cover them in prayers.  We must pray that God will give wisdom and peace as they fulfill the great commission in completely different ways than we do. And we must pray that in their persecution God will continue to be glorified.
 
What we can't do is ignore it all.  We can't continue to operate as if this isn't happening. We can't be quiet with our children. We must teach them so that they in turn can teach. We have got to take our blinders off and support and pray for Christians all over the world.



What may seem like insanity to us, might in turn only be a distorted view of reality.

Pray!

Jesus teaches that if one member suffers, all the members suffer ...1 Corinthians 12:26





~LL

Confused about Kermit

Kermit Gosnell.  Whew! Boy is he the topic on social media right now? A couple of days ago I watched this video about him...  (It is about 20 minutes and it has some pretty graphic stuff in it. But it is well done and really shines the light on the horrific things that this man has done.)

3801 Lancaster from 3801Lancaster on Vimeo.

After I watched it and cried a little through it, I sat for a while and just thought about it all. I thought about the different scenes that almost made me sick to my stomach.  I thought about the women that would come and go from that clinic and the desperate situation that they felt they were in.  I thought about the lack of churches stepping up to love these women though their desperate situation.  But then I thought about the babies.   It was the thoughts of the unborn and some born that made me angry.  And when I say angry I mean angry.  So angry that I couldn't talk about it because anything that would come out of my mouth would be hurtful and hateful.   I knew that I needed some time to think on my anger.  After a couple of days and many quiet moments, this is the conclusion I have come to.....

We as Christians have failed.  We have failed to show the world and it's women that we love them no matter what.  No matter what their choices are, no matter what choices they have made that have led them into their consequences, no matter what.  We as Christians have scared society into thinking that all we do is condemn and in turn all our God does is judge.  We have missed the opportunity to love people who are in desperate need of love and help.

We watch these videos and post tweets about how horrible this doctor is, but we forget it takes two to tango.  For all of the hundreds of babies this man murdered, there were hundreds of mothers that carried these babies into his office.  By failing to take care and love them we have failed to protect and love their children.

In my quiet moments I have also thought on why this man is getting so much attention.  The obvious answer is because he committed horrific crimes against babies.
But I would ask, how is he any different than any other abortionist?
Is it because the rooms were unsanitary? Is it because his clinic was in a low income area? Or is it because they were babies? It would seem that the simple answer is....He is getting so much attention because they were babies that he murdered. But that is not the right answer...because if we believe what we say...that  life begins at conception...then we would have to agree that babies are murdered every day. ALL(American Life League  ) says the numbers are around 3200 a day. That is one abortion every 26 seconds. 

So the right answer is, because it is all very ugly.  It is all in our face. It makes us feel awful and sick to our stomachs. We think, how can we sit back and let something this horrific go unspoken of?  What about all of those precious, innocent babies that he murdered day after day, without anyone caring or speaking out for them?  What about those poor women, who felt like they had no other options than to go into a blood stained medical office and ask for anything, let alone medical treatment?  What about the story after story of lives taken before they even were given a chance? What about the BABIES? 

Well, that is the right answer.  Let this man Kermit Gosnell bring to light the horrific act of murdering babies. Let him appall us so much that we are driven to speak out in defense of the the innocent.  But let us not forget the millions that are murdered each year in clean procedure rooms, in nice office buildings, with doctors operating under the law. Because those abortions are still killings of the innocent.

 So lets stop screaming, and tweeting, and facebooking about one abortionist, and start screaming, and tweeting, facebooking about ALL abortionists.

 It is a sad time in our country when society judges a crime against the innocent based on the age of the innocent.  A baby is a baby. A life is a life.

~LL