Thursday, August 28, 2008

Saved to Serve

The following is a Tozer devotional I receive via email once a day. This one I thought was worth retelling, but then changed my mind and thought it safer to have it copied into the blog. That way I can't butcher it.

Hope you enjoy it but more importantly hope it challenges you!


"August 29

Evangelism: Salvation Apart from Obedience

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
--Ephesians 2:10

Therefore, I must be frank in my feeling that a notable heresy has
come into being throughout our evangelical Christian circles--the
widely accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ
only because we need Him as Savior and we have the right to postpone
our obedience to Him as Lord as long as we want to!...

I think the following is a fair statement of what I was taught in
my early Christian experience and it certainly needs a lot of
modifying and a great many qualifiers to save us from being in
error.

"We are saved by accepting Christ as our Savior; we are sanctified
by accepting Christ as our Lord; we may do the first without doing
the second!"

The truth is that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the
sacred Scriptures. Peter makes it plain that we are "chosen
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the
sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience" (1 Peter 1:2).
I Call It Heresy, 1-2.

"Lord, as I rejoice in the free gift of salvation, by grace through
faith, remind me regularly that it is a salvation unto good works,
that we're saved to serve. Amen." "

Monday, August 25, 2008

Yeah, Jen has a friend...actually friends!

I know. Lame long title name. But I think I actually skipped, or maybe that's hopped up my stairs tonight. I knows it only been over 3 weeks since moving to the PNW, however when I get locked in an area with no other outlet for relationships other than my wonderful husband and fantastic kids and their books that I've read a MILLION times... I start to hit my head against the wall. I had all of these wonderful notions that I was going to hibernate in my house for the next 6 months and sew and scrapbook and read. Yep, I've done some of that and you know what I realized. I'm way too relational to sit by myself day after day after day. Oh, don't get me wrong. I love my quiet time at night. I just like to break it up after a while. Okay, so where am I going with this? Well... I have 3 new friends and working on developing some more. There is Jamie (who has a daughter named Sarah 18 months old), then Jodi ( has a son named Aiden that is 14 months old) and then there is Liz ( who has a daughter named Sarah 3 yrs, Justice 2 yr, and Ruthie 9 month old). Then there is Sam who has two kids. Their daughter is Vanessa who Mak has befriended. Last night Greg and I went out on a double date! Yeah, for PTO (parent time out)! We went to Edgefield with Aaron and Liz. They were so much fun. It was great to talk about God, kids, church, school, family, future, missions w/ another couple. I came home jabbering from the excitement. Then today with more interactions from the moms, I had the thought "Thank you God, that you know me better than I know myself. You knew that I needed these women". I've been praying for my kids to make friends and that they feel like they are home. But It hasn't been a real sincere prayer for myself to have that. Not sure why. But God thankfully gives us beyond what we ask for, He gives us what we need. So often we talk about God giving us what we need and not just what we ask for, we almost have this negative spin on it. Like God has then denied us something that is pleasurable. Which I would say,that might be the case in some matters. But it also is taken that God knows what we need even if we are clueless. He doesn't always wait for use to clue in and then ask for something. He also gives graciously and meeting all of our needs. Thank God He does that. Other wise I would be walking around the house ripping into my loved ones not knowing what was wrong with me! I simply needed other women to bond with.

So Yeah for friends! Yeah for future possibilities! And the biggest Yeah is that God actually gets Me!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Ask... and Celebrate

So we have offically been living in Portland for two weeks today. And guess what? Mak is at her first sleepover in the PNW. I don't know why that surprises me. God has graciously given Makayla a little girl named Vanessa, who is 5 years old, to befriend. Vanessa loves to play rough outside and yet loves to play dress up and be fancy. Mak told me tonight, after I said I worked out the details with the mom, that she was so happy that God gave her a friend to have fun with up here...because she missed Eli and Vivi. Which of course put tears in my eyes. I'm a little emotional these days. I've been going through the book study of Daniel by Beth Moore. The focus today was how Daniel prayed desperately for the Lord to reveal the Kings' dream. And when the Lord did, Daniel immediately responded to God that the insight and answers came from God alone. That God grates us wisdom and power. He gives and takes away. God answers our prayers. Daniel remembered that and celebrated in the fact that God chose to reveal the answer to Daniel. (His neck WAS on the line-- literally). But the thought from Moore was how often we pray intently for God to reveal/answer us and then when He does, we have almost lost interest in the subject because we have already gone onto another desire to pray for. We don't take time to celebrate in His answers. I was convicted today. And then later convicted again when my child recognized that it was God who gave her a new friend. And that it was God who knew she was missing her best buds back in Cali. And when she realized that she had something special she did not wait to thank Him and to acknowledge Him. Oh, how children put me on my knees. I am humbled by their faith and their trust in the Lord. Just to note, I'm the first to acknowledge that my children are not perfect-- I mean look at their mom! But those moments when you see God's grace in their life and His work molding their character--- it causes me to celebrate God.

So take some time to celebrate today!!!

Yeah for Rain!!

So this morning we woke up to the awesome sounds of thunder and rain. It was like a symphany to my ears--- and body. It has been around 104 here in Portland, Or for ... oh the last 4 days!!!! The song "Our God is an awesome God" kept playing in my head. Especailly about the part the thunder and the lightning! I sincerely praised the Lord this morning when the cool breeze entered my room. So refreshing! The rain has already stopped but the cool air still lingers. People around us keep telling me that I will be asking for the heat in a couple of months,they don't know me. Anything above 85 and I check out. But I will miss the sunshine for the next 8 months!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Into the Light

Well...we are actually in Portland, Oregon!!! We love our new place, community is unbelievably awesome, and as of tonight have almost unpacked our last box!!! Doesn't mean it's totally organized yet but we are working on that part. We also have come back to the 21st century with the...INTERNET!! Greg was able to get a guy out yesterday and are now able to access the world at our finger tips. Also, we are keeping our cell phones and will not be having land lines-- for those that were asking. Okay, due to the fact that it is super late, and I'm writing with my eye lids only 1/4 opened, I'm going to leave you with one last thing; Our new address:

8435 NE Glisan St MSC #1037
Portland, OR 97220


We love snail mail and love to send it too. So feel free to dust off those pens and scramble out those faded papers.

Good Night!!!