Lovely Day

What a lovely day today is! Be prepared, this post is lengthy! :)

Last night, Richard and I went to hang out with Caryn & Alozie and have a little devotional with them. It was such a sweet time of sharing what God is teaching us as well as struggles we are faced with daily. We spent time sharing our prayer requests and praying for one another. It's so good to have people here to walk with us and encourage us in our faith.

We watched a sermon called How to Change a Lustful Mind. It talked about how there are 2 systems of operation on this earth: the world & the kingdom of God. The pastor asked the question, so how do we get free from the world's system?? The answer, we walk in the Spirit. He talked about how will-power is NOT enough to free ourselves from the flesh, we have to REPLACE our flesh/sinful nature with something greater...the Word of God. In order to walk in the Spirit, we must KNOW the Word of God. It must dwell richly within us. The pastor stated that "we are destroyed by our lack of knowledge of the Word". How do we fight the flesh if we haven't learned how to use the sword (the Bible)? The pastor says the issue is our mindset. It keeps us trapped. Keeps us from progressing in our walk with the Lord. We have to stop "trying" in our strength to fight the battle with our flesh and allow the Holy Spirit to fight the battle for us. But we must know the Word of God. When you're tempted by the flesh, fight it with Scripture. Find verses in the Bible that directly pertain to your struggle. Easier said then done, I know, but faith is a muscle, you gotta use it for it to get stronger. :)

This morning, the Lord woke me up earlier than usual and gave me the desire and motivation to walk to the coffee shop down the road and spend some time with Him. It was such a peaceful morning. I stepped outside with a light jacket on, into the 55 degree weather, and walked through the heavy fog to the coffee shop. I prayed for the Lord to prepare my heart for my time with Him and that's just what He did.

I got to the coffee shop, ordered a hot cup of coffee, doctored it up just the way I like it, and nestled myself into my little hang out spot. (Pictured to the right) Perfect. :)

I've been reading through the Gospels and just started Luke last night. As I read through the first 3 chapters of Luke, I just loved being reminded of God's faithfulness to His people and how he uses the most unlikely people for the glory of His name.

I loved re-reading Mary's response to the angel, Gabriel, when he told her she would be with child by the Holy Spirit. "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38) She doesn't freak out. She doesn't tell the angel that he's crazy or that what he said was impossible. She submits to the word of God. I pray that that will be my response when the Lord calls me to do something crazy for him.

I loved reading about Zechariah's prophecy over his son, John the Baptist. In Luke 1:76-79, Zechariah says, "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." We may not be John the Baptist, but we can still follow his example. The Lord will return one day, therefore, we can still prepare the way for his return. We can give knowledge of salvation to his people, we can tell them about Jesus' forgiveness of sins, we can give light to those in darkness and hope to those in the shadow of death, and we can guide people in the way of peace! How cool is it to know that we have such a huge calling! We are called to make Christ known....all of us! Like I said earlier, he uses the most unlikely people to do great things for his kingdom!

After my time in the Word, I read a couple of chapters from my book Loving God. It's so neat because the things I'm reading in my book are parallel with the Scriptures I'm reading right now. Fun to see God work that out! :) In my book today, the author was speaking about the crucifixion scene and the two thieves on each side of Jesus. He said, "For those two men who actually died alongside my Savior are representative of all mankind. We either recognize our sinful selves, our sentence of death, and our deserving of that sentence, which leads us to repent and believe - or we curse God and die." I'd never thought about it that way. One thief is cursing Jesus saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" while the other, aware of his sinfulness, is saying, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom". Definitely represents our world today, we are all thieves (sinners)...but which one are you?

The author goes on to ask how do we express gratitude for what Jesus did on the cross. His words..."Simply stated: by living the way He commands. By obedience. That is what the Scriptures mean by holiness or sanctification - believers are set apart for holy living. Therefore, holiness is the only possible response to God's grace. Holy living is loving God." (emphasis added :) ) He says that holiness is "the complete surrender of self in obedience to the will and service of God...the conformity to the character of God and obedience to the will of God". But "there can be no holiness apart from the work of the Holy Spirit - in quickening us through the conviction of sin and bringing us by grace to Christ, and in sanctifying us - for it is grace that causes us to even want to be holy....Conforming to the character of God - separating ourselves from sin and cleaving to Him - is the essence of biblical holiness." Clearly I like what He has to say. :) Leviticus 11:44 says, "I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy."

Needless to say, I took in a lot this morning. But it was so good. I'm glad the Lord continues to teach me and open my eyes & ears to things I need to see & hear. I pray that He will continue to give me an open heart to His Word.

Blogging what I learn helps me to process, but I hope those of you who read are encouraged and challenged in your faith as well.

I have a lot of free time on my hands up here, so I'd love to know how I can be praying for my friends and family back home! Lemme know!

Oh, and this morning when I got to the coffee shop there was a sign on the front door stating that they are hiring full & part time positions...I'm thinking about applying! I'll let you know! :)

I'll leave you with a picture of the coffee shop and the view when you leave. :)







"This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it." -Psalm 118:24

much love!
loribeth

Loving God

The BC Lions came up with a 29-10 win on Saturday! It was such a strange game though...18 of our points came from field goals. Neither one of the teams made a touchdown until the 4th quarter. Definitely a defensive game. Richard played well! He made one tackle. But he didn't play near as much as he had hoped to. We're not sure, but we think the coaches were being cautious b/c of his leg just recovering and they were playing the #1 team, so they needed all the players to 100%. But we are so grateful that he got to travel with the team, play his first professional game, get a tackle, and come home with a win! :)

While he was gone this weekend, I started reading a book that my landlady lent me. It's called Loving God by Charles Colson. It was written in the early 80's, so I'd never heard of it, but I figured it would be a good way to pass time. As I mentioned in a previous post, I just finished reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I'm only half-way through Loving God but these books share similar concepts (which isn't hard to tell from their titles).

Through both of these books, I feel like God is opening my eyes to a better understanding of what it means to LOVE Him. Yes, I believe in Him, but am I loving Him. I've come to realize that if you truly LOVE God, your life has to be fruitful. (no brainer, huh?) As I think about that, I'm convicted by the lack of fruit I see in my life. Now, I know that we don't always see the fruit in our lives. We don't necessarily see how our prayers for others affect them or how encouraging words uplift someone or how a small conversation can change someone's life. But some fruit can be seen. Am I serving others? Am I being generous with my finances? Are my words tearing down or building up? Am I loving "the least of these"? Do I treat others as if they were Christ? Am I being Christ to others? Is God's Word on my mouth? Am I sharing the gospel with those I encounter?

Ephesians 2:8,9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." Praise God for His grace! But James 2:26 says, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." Our faith in God must produce deeds! Loving God is an action!

I don't want to live my life as a "Christian" just to have the benefit of heaven. I want to follow Him closely in this life, love him deeply, serve him well, and proclaim Him to those who don't know Him because He is a Holy God worthy of praise, glory, and honor. I want others to see Christ in me and desire to know Him because of the work they see Him doing in me. I pray for that kind of fruit in my life. I pray that I grow to LOVE (as an action) God more and not just believe in Him.

How are you loving God?

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

Well, it's official! Richard is FINALLY playing in this weeks game...as a starter!! Wooohooo!!

For those of you who don't know, Richard has been on the practice team up here in Canada. During training camp he pulled his hamstring and wasn't able to practice for a few days or play in one of the scrimmages. Because of that, his competition was given the spot on the team. It was a really humbling experience for Richard because he's never NOT played. But we knew this was just a part of God's plan for us here in Canada.

Throughout this season, we knew that Richard could be moved up to active roster at any point. And there were multiple weeks where we really thought he would have been moved up. Several of his teammates were injured and the team has had 8 losses....not good. We were confused as to why the coaches weren't moving him up and we felt like we were getting the run around a little bit when Richard would ask questions but we just kept waiting and trusting God's plan. Then a couple of weeks ago, Richard pulled his quad. Really? Something else?? Well after lots of rehab and treatment and PRAYER his leg is good to go and he is playing! Praise the Lord!

I am so glad he finally gets to do what he LOVES! Not to mention, excited about the little bit of financial relief this brings us! (Although, his coach told Richard he HAD to use part of this first game check to buy a suit for traveling...haha!) But God is good. He is always in control! He knows exactly what he is doing. And His plan is PERFECT!

His game is away this weekend, so he'll fly out Friday, the game is Saturday, and he'll fly home Sunday...so it will be my first weekend here all by my lonesome! But I can't wait to watch my sweet man play on Saturday. Please pray for his leg to be 100% healed and have 100% strength!!

The game will be on espn3.com on Saturday at 8:30 for anyone who wants to watch or check the score! :)

And here's a link to an interview Richard had Tuesday...go check it out!
http://bclions.com/video/index/id/14251

Something else that I forgot to mention in my last blog was the cool opportunities that Richard has had these past two weeks. After their home game two weeks ago, one of the Christian radio stations teamed up with the BC Lions to put on an after show. A band called StarField performed and some of the players gave their testimonies and Richard was able to perform his song "Trust in the Lord". The next day he went to a church block party where he was able to hang out with the kids there, sign autographs, talk to them a little bit, and was able to perform his song for them, too. Then this past Sunday, our friend, Alozie, had a friend who was giving his testimony at the opening of a new church in downtown Vancouver. Alozie told his friend about Richard and they asked Richard to come perform there, too! So it's been fun to see God open up opportunities for Richard to share a little of his testimony and give God glory!

If you haven't heard Richard's song or seen the video, here is the link for that too...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtHLt2QJfAc

Praise the Lord, for He is good!!! :)

Back To Reality

Welp...it's been about 3 weeks since I last posted...woops :)

In my last update, I told everyone that I was getting to go to Fort Worth for 2 weeks to help my sister and my baby niece. So September 2nd, I flew to Fort Worth. I was so excited to see my family but even more excited to meet my baby niece, Kynlee. She is perfect. Such a beautiful baby.

So for my first few days in Fort Worth, I just spent time admiring sweet Kynlee. We took her to my dad's coaches office to show her off to the other coaches. You should have seen my dad. He was holding her and walking around asking everyone if they saw "his" baby! :) It was cute to see how proud he is of her. The other coaches with babies of their own were pretty funny, too. They were grinning from ear to ear just looking at her. And Kynlee did so well that day, too. She didn't fuss at all. Such a good baby.

We took Kynlee to the doctor while I was there for her 2 week check up and she had already put on one pound and grown 3/4 of an inch. So crazy how fast babies grow! Erin went to the doctor, too, and she was doing so well so quickly after having a c-section. She was able to do so much more than I anticipated while I was there.

Erin & I made a trip to Lubbock so our family there could meet Kynlee and see me a little bit while I was in Texas...but Kynlee was definitely priority. :) We stopped in Abilene on the way to Lubbock so that Gran and Grandy could meet Kynlee. I was glad we got to see them, even though it was a quick stop. When we got to Lubbock we headed straight to my grandma's house. It was so fun to see my grandma get to meet her great grand baby. Erin and I got a break while our mom, aunt's and grandma spent time holding and taking care of Kynlee. :)

On Saturday, I was blessed to have lunch with some of the women in my life who I love and miss so much. I was so glad to see Kelli, Kim, Cotter, Katie, Ceri, and Misty! It was fun to catch up and hear about their lives. It was short & sweet, but I'm so grateful that we had time to get together.

Sunday, Erin, Kynlee, and I headed back to Fort Worth. My days in Texas we quickly coming to a close. While I was in Fort Worth, I was glad to watch two of Kimber's volleyball games. I hate that I miss out. During my second week there, it was fun to see Kynlee's eyes focus better and actually look at me instead of who knows what. I took so many pictures of her while I was there...I thought everything she did was cute...naturally. :) My last night in Fort Worth I spent time over at my dad's house with Kimbo, Haley and my dad. I feel like I didn't get to see them as much as I would have liked b/c they had to be at work and school....lame...who does that?? haha! But I am still so glad I got to go spend such a good amount of time there. What a blessing to get to spend two weeks with my baby niece...we definitely had bonding time. :)

One thing I did while I was in Fort Worth was read a book called Crazy Love. I know lots of y'all have heard of it and/or read it, but it was a good book. Challenging. Thought provoking. Makes you uncomfortable with the idea of being a "lukewarm" Christian. You really have to read it with an open heart and and open mind. There are times in the book where the author literally tells you to stop and pray before continuing on b/c he knows the next part of the book may be difficult to swallow. I would suggest it, but you have to be ready to internalize the things he talks about in the book. Something else he challenges people to do is to read the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) and to take them LITERALLY. Read them as if you've never read the Bible before and never heard about the things Jesus is teaching. Take the words Christ spoke literally. I don't think Jesus would have wasted his breathe otherwise. One other thought from the book that I'll leave you with is the author's challenge to "consider & actually treat others as if they were Christ". Don't you think you'd treat everyone you come in contact with differently?? Your spouse, parents, kids, person behind the counter, teacher, boss, the poor & needy.....

Anywho, I was so glad to get home to see my hubs. 2 weeks is a long time! :) And might I add that I was REALLY glad to get back to 66 degree weather! Praise the Lord! :) Now I can step outside in the middle of the day without melting!

So it's back to reality...being home all day. Bills, cleaning, doing laundry, taking care of my pups, checking out peoples blogs, and updating mine....but I'm glad to be back. I won't be back to Texas until the middle of November or beginning of December, but that's not too long...we can make it. Oh, and we have an apartment set up to live in when we get back to Lubbock! So praise the Lord for that!

Hope you are all doing well! Feel free to call, skype, or e-mail anytime!

LOVE!