Video of the Week from Come&Live!

I love the message in this video! The words are strong and powerful, way encouraging. I pray your weekend is empowered by this message and you are used to lift others in need!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMVgD1CtPYM

Afflictions eclipsed by glory

So...when ever I'm driving in the car, I get totally wrapped up...and become overwhelmed with JOY! God is constantly romancing me with all the nature around me! The trees, blue skies, the sound of wind, sunsets, the stars, mountain ranges, the smell of dirt and rain! I get reminded of his affections for me and suddenly nothing seems too big any more. He expresses hes love for me through the scene of nature each day. This song has been my hearts song and the words are perfect for what I just explained!

He is jealous for me

Love's like a hurricane,

I am a tree Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory

and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.

Oh, how He loves us so

Oh, how He loves us

How He loves us so

Yeah, He loves us

Whoa, how He loves us

Whoa, how He loves us

Whoa, how He loves

We are His portion and

He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption

by the grace in His eyes

If grace is an ocean,

we're all sinking

So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest

I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

HE LOVES US!

-KIM WALKER

Love Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfH2BY5pdLw&feature=player_embedded

---> Check this out, its so beautiful. My cousin posted it up on her blog & I wanted to share it all with you!

Thanksgiving

What an amazing holiday!!! Where we can think of others and thank God for them! ...I am so blessed myself that when I think about it, it makes me want to cry! Just knowing that I know Christ and understanding I'm saved for eternity!! Is intense over all things...To say I know the truth and to feel it and experience it, is what life's about! To have an amazingly big family who believes in Christ, a boyfriend who is my best friend and future husband seeking after Christ everyday, girlfriends young and old I can get deep with and cry our eyes out or just laugh until we pee our pants, a brother who is the funnest most comfortable person to be around, to have parents who would do ANYTHING for me including everyone else, to have a job I get to work with my uncle each day at, to live in a wonderful and safe home!

I mean I really could take up the rest of today and list things I'm thankful for! God is God and there is no other word to express how large and in charge he is!

I pray you are all blessed and you're cups are over flowing with the Joy & Peace we are given each day we rise!

SHMEh'

Sometimes.. I get so irritated with things & how days can go by and I feel as though I did nothing to make it what it should have been or could have been! I wast so much time on things that don't matter and don't put enough into the things that do. Selfishness settles in and I don't even notice until too late. ..lately I feel like I don't do much that matters...or things I want! Why!?? I ask myself the same thing. I feel like I don't have any direction or guide to what I need to do cuz I don't know what I want to do!

...I pray but feel like I hear nothing and then I get discouraged and don't do anything..LAZY! I know that's what you're thinking..but I just need a LIFT an encouraging word! Something to get me going and excited...

If u read my poor post ..lol...be praying the Lord will show new things to me and open my eyes to a path I should be taking.

so last night..

... I was looking at some flowers on our coffee table in the living room..I started smelling a Rose "The Lincoln Rose" when the peddles started to fall away from the bud...And so I started to play with them and really actually looking at the peddles. The soft texture, Fragrant smell, shape and the distinct color were all so carefully made. God, put so much thought into the Lincoln Rose...

I started to realize how loved & adored we are by God. I mean Roses are loved by everyone & are given as gifts with affection and are displayed all the time in yards for beauty. You see them in stores & on desks!

BUT! We, You and me were made in the image of God! Not a flower that we think are so beautiful BUT IN THE IMAGE OF GOD!!! That's so big to think about. He adores us so much! When you think about how different we are; eyes, shape of lips, hair, body types, skin colors...I mean Really think about it. He made us with so much love and heart that we are all so different from one another! When I grasp my head around that I feel overwhelmed with love and joy!

To know I'm loved and adored is so precious. I pray you all see how special and beautiful you are! Cuz, our creator made you with purpose and all his love in mind.

Be blessed today by blessing others

$ Store

So, last night I wanted to go get coloring books and color..REAl bad! lol... Justin and I were heading out when I felt like I needed to bring Wilson in from the back yard...it was dark out and Im always thinking someones out to get him! lol..so I go grab him and bring to the back door down stairs. My mom comes to the door and and I told her where we were going, and she then suggested we go to the $ Store. So, Justin and I went there instead...we get inside and we go down the Halloween isle and he puts on this amazingly hideous Dino Hat! So, I get out my phone to take a pic and my phone kept taking black pictures..I tried again and as Im trying to figure all of this out this guy walks by us laughing...As I finally get a picture taken the guy walks up and says "So, you two must be who I'm looking for"! We go, what? And I'm thinking in my head ooooo Great we're in trouble for taking pictures in the $ Store! Then he says we'll, Im suppost to be looking for people who are trying on customs together and that appears to be what you two are doing". Justin and I go "yah I guess so". So, he goes "Can I pray for you two"? We, were both super excited and were like "Yes, WE would love that, we were just talking bout needing prayer in allot of ways". So, I start to explain to him about my friend Rachael who lost her mom. Then I starting to tell him how Justin was just saying how he really wanted clearity on being in Fallstar and some of the guys in the bad...Then a kid out of no where goes "HEY, I know you..your from that band" and as Justin started telling him about the band a couple other kids walk up and said the same thing. They were telling Justin what a great band they were and how impressed they were by what they were doing. :)

I mean come on! Talk about confirmation!!

P.S.----(All these people were a group who come together each Tuesday to pray and as they pray they yell out discriptions of who they need to find and pray for that nite..they make a list and go out to find these discriptions and pray!)

So, then...Justin asks prayer for us, and our relationship. And how we really want to get engaged and married but we dont know what steps to take or what we need to do to get started. Then one of the older guys started telling us how he just got married and how awesome it was. So, by this time we had 8 people around us and they layed hands on us and started to pray!

The spirit was soo heavy I started to cry and couldnt stop! The words they spoke over us were so powerful and meaningful. The boys praying for us were so young but had so much wisdom and the woman had such athority in her voice.

After they were done praying for us we thanked them and hugged them all and the man who had just gotten married gave us $10 to start our wedding fund! BUT the crazy thing about the $10 was that, Justin this week goes I think I'm going to start putting $10 aside each paycheck to start out and then I'll add more as I can for our wedding! And that $10 he wanted to put aside had to go towards a bill this month so he wasnt able to..------>It was such confirmation in us starting to save and also it was his way of showing us he was already providing for us and not to be afraid!

GOD IS GOD AND GOD ALON! SO, LETS PRAISE HIM AND GLORIFY HIS HOLY NAME!

-I pray you are all blessed today by blessing others.

-Kt

Heavy Hearts

Please, be praying for my cousin Kendra. She just found out she had a miscarriage and lost her baby a couple of weeks ago. She has a rare disease that where her placenta was still growing even after there was no baby inside. On top of it all they also found a cyst on her ovaries that can be cancerous, this was caused by her birth control. Please, pray for complete healing of the cyst and healing over the loss of a child.

Also, please be praying for my friend Rachel. Her mother died on last Sunday unexpectedly while hiking with their family up at multnomah Falls. After doing an autopsy today, they found she died from a heart disease that runs in their family. Something grew around her heart & shut it down. Her passing was painless. Prayer for peace and comfort in this hard time.

At work a family we have insureds son and friend were fishing up on a rail road track over looking a river, when the son's friend was hit by the train. The train runs about 85 mph and they didn't see it coming when they were walking to their car on the other side of the tracks. The boy we have insureds name is Dustin. Please, be praying for him and the boy's family. Dustin is having a hard time couping with his friends death.

Also, please keep my mom, Krissie in prayer. Her back has been giving her allot of issues lately, and its hard for her to get around and be active at work. Prayer for complete healing.

Thank you for all you're prayers, they are felt and so important.

I pray you're all blessed today by blessing others.

-Katie

God's power hasn't diminished. People still need rescuing. What are we doing about it?

Amazing Amazing AMAZING! I'm so excited to share with you what I feel is like a heart change and growth spurt in my walk with Jesus, that's taken place of the past 2 months...I've wanted to blog about it and didn't know where to start. Then I went to TN on vacation for a week and a half and didn't check my emails so as you know... they piled up!!! So, I finally had the time today to read up on all my Come&Live emails. And, as I'm reading each of them I'm finding myself smiling and can't stop because I wanted to scream AMEN!!! Due to the fact that everything I wish I knew how to explain or express in words from what I've been learning was being spread out on a silver pleader for me to share!!!

..I'm going to copy and paste a few different emails from a collection of authors and pastors and even a couple video's! I pray you're blessed and in return bless others by what you've learned!

-The point of following Jesus isn't simply so that we can be sure of going to a better place than this after we die. Our future beyond death is enormously important, but the nature of the Christian hope is such that it plays back into the present life. We're called, here and now, to be instruments of God's new creation, the world-put-to-rights, which has already been launched in Jesus and of which Jesus' followers are supposed to be not simply beneficiaries but also agents.
Where the church today finds itself stagnant, unattractive, humdrum and shrinking-and sadly, there are many churches, in the Western world at least, of which that HAS to be admitted - it's time to read Acts 2:42-47 again, get down on our knees, and ask what isn't happening that should be. The gospel hasn't changed. God's power hasn't diminished. People still need rescuing. What are we doing about it?
-N.T. Wright

-Check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zR3h2UsR4

-It has been my experience that inspirations are brief, sporadic and rare. By inspiration I mean those moments where our souls are stimulated to a high level of feeling, thinking and doing. I love those brief, sporadic and rare moments. I am addicted to the vitality I have, the love I feel, and the clarity of thought that occurs when I am inspired. I have tried for years to pay attention to these moments, to dig into them, excavate them, and figure them out.
What is it that inspires me? Who is it? What stirs my affection...for my wife?For my children? For life in general?
This to me is one of the major ideas that demand an answer. To solve this arduous riddle means more energy, richer life, deeper relationships and greater self-awareness.
Several years ago I started applying this line of thought to my relationship with Christ. Instead of asking myself what inspired me to be a good man (what's that anyway?) I started asking what stirs my affections for Christ. What, when I'm doing it, when I'm around it or dwelling on it creates in me a greater hunger for, passion for and worship of Christ and His mission? The first list was a strange one. It looked something like this:
1. Early mornings and hot coffee
2. The writings of John Owen (at the time it was The Mortification of Sin)
3. Listening to Lauren sing
4. Walks through graveyards (I know this is weird but it reminded me of mortality)
5. The book of Hebrews
6. Robust dialogue on ecclesiology or missiology
7. Sermons by John Piper
8. Angst-filled music
I also wrestled with and paid attention to what robbed me of affection for Christ. What, when I was doing it or spending time around it created in me an unhealthy love for this world? The first list was a strange one because the majority of things that robbed me of zeal for Christ and His mission were morally neutral things. It looked something like this:
1. Watching too much TV and spending too much time online
2. Staying up late for no reason
3. Following sports too closely
4. Being physically lazy
5. Empty conversations (talking for hours about nothing)
6. Idleness
For the last few years I have updated this list often. In fact it has changed quite a bit. I want to pay attention to life. I want to be keyed in to what feeds my zeal for our great God and King and what kills that zeal. My hope is that I could flood my life with Christ-exalting, worship-creating things and avoid anything that would rob me of that.
What inspires you? Better yet, what stirs your affections for Christ, truth and holiness? If we can fill our lives with the things that stir our affections and avoid and flee those things that rob us of inspiration, we have a better shot at dwelling deeply. What and who inspires you? Stirs you? What presses you into holy places? What robs you of joy and vitality? What robs you of your affection for Christ and holiness?
Matt Chandler

-Check this video on YouTube out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezLi99_hOYg

Leviticus 19:36
Weights, and scales, and measures were to be all according to the standard of justice. Surely no Christian man will need to be reminded of this in his business, for if righteousness were banished from all the world beside, it should find a shelter in believing hearts. There are, however, other balances which weigh moral and spiritual things, and these often need examining. We will call in the officer tonight.
The balances in which we weigh our own and other men's characters, are they quite accurate? Do we not turn our own ounces of goodness into pounds, and other persons' bushels of excellence into pecks? See to weights and measures here, Christian. The scales in which we measure our trials and troubles, are they according to standard? Paul, who had more to suffer than we have, called his afflictions light, and yet we often consider ours to be heavy--surely something must be amiss with the weights! We must see to this matter, lest we get reported to the court above for unjust dealing. Those weights with which we measure our doctrinal belief, are they quite fair? The doctrines of grace should have the same weight with us as the precepts of the word, no more and no less; but it is to be feared that with many one scale or the other is unfairly weighted. It is a grand matter to give just measure in truth. Christian, be careful here. Those measures in which we estimate our obligations and responsibilities look rather small. When a rich man gives no more to the cause of God than the poor contribute, is that a just ephah and a just hin? When ministers are half starved, is that honest dealing? When the poor are despised, while ungodly rich men are held in admiration, is that a just balance? Reader, we might lengthen the list, but we prefer to leave it as your evening's work to find out and destroy all unrighteous balances, weights, and measures.
From "Morning & Evening" by C.H. Spurgeon

---This may seem like it was all over the place but I look @ it as an eye opener!

Refreshed

So...its been forever! Soo sorry, been really busy and really havent thought much about Blogger... :0

....Allot has happened since last I wrote. Went to Summer camp for church & got heat stroke!!!! But had a growing experience. Justin left & came back from being gone for a month on tour! My Grandpa had major surgery & had his bladder removed..my Grandma had knee surgery ..Leaving in 9 days for Nashville TN with Lexi & Mathew to visit Nicho & Amy! Can't wait, totallly need a vacation and break! :) YAY!!!

....I've seen the Lord move in & through so many different ways! He has really been doin so many great works in everyones lives..we just have to peel back our eyes to see it.

------>He's shown me how different situation can be used to move people and how it comes around back to glorifying him! I've been praying in the mornings before I get outta bed , that the Lord would use me in new ways... AND well let me tell ya! He has, every day I've asked, he's shown me new things or makes my heart more open and tender towards others.

It just takes our willingness & devotion.

Be a blessing to others you come in contact with today, you never know what kind of an impact you are making!

Blessed.

So, its been forever...since I've been on & posted anything and since the rain has Stoped! Allot of great things have happened! Justin and I went with some cool cats from church to "The Rescue" in down town Portland, along with 1000 other supporters. This was a public cry for the children in Uganda Africa. We "abducted" ourselves and met at Lloyd Center and in groups of 20 held on to a rope and walked together 2 miles to Pioneer Square. Which was called the "Camp" where we slept until we were rescued. The camp is where the kids are held and taught to fight and kill. This was all in symbolization of what is happening to the children in Africa. We slept in Pioneer Square in sleeping bags outside, until a person of power & news channel came to broadcast this awareness. It was so humbling and awesome to see all these people doing this for children in another country! This organization is called Invisible Children. They are a group of people who are fighting to set an END to the 25 year war in Africa.

I've never been apart of something like this and it was amazing! If you get time take a look at Invisible Children.com, you cant help be moved by the beautiful children & their stories.

Have a wonderful week :)

Roller Coaster...

So, after my last post...its been totally confirmed that we NEED TO PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER! For the most part I think most of us do..?? But, I've heard from so many family and friends that lately they've had issue after issue and trial after trial. The enemy and this world may have a strong pull but its NOTHING compared to our Savior! We need to wake up and start PRAYING morning and night! The power of prayer is so mighty and bold! I don't know about you but I'm kinda getting sick of this cloud of heaviness. I want to wake up and feel refreshed and energized! I want to be eager to go to work and do my best! I want to love my family and Justin the best that I can! But...all these things get dragged down by the pull of emotions..thoughts..TOOO much thinking..doutfulness..Insecurities...ALL THINGS FROM SATAN!

I will claim Jesus name (5,625) times if needed through out my day to keep my mind clear of rubbish.

***Psalm 42

Listening..

It seems like this New Year has been such a stretch and struggle for me...I find my self being blessed right and left with answered prayers but at the same time feeling so emotionally sad. I've had this discussion with one of my close girl friend and she said allot of people are feeling this. Allot of Christians. As I hear this and see others with the same feelings. I'm encouraged... It shows me that we are doing what Christ is calling us to. The enemy is trying to distract us from our hearts being filled with Joy and Christ is doing! As I pray against the enemy he comes right back and I keep on praying and praying! The louder I get in my relationship and the more I keep pursuing the Lord and his Word I see strength & perseverance rising in me. The Lord keeps bringing to my heart that when or what ever I'm going through NO matter how difficult it is to understand. Know God is God! His love is the same as it always has been and he is never to change! He keeps reminding me to remind my self of all the Amazing works hes done in my life and in others around me. I don't EVER want to forget what hes already done and loose the understanding of his power.

Something I've been doing in the mornings now for about 3 weeks ...and its been so crazy what a big difference its made in not only my attitude but my day! Is..I don't put a foot on the ground until I've given my first minute of the day to the Lord in prayer. I pray whats on my heart that morning and I pray for what I know may try and get me down b4 the enemy tries his tricks. I pray for my family and loved ones. Talking with the Lord is so precious! And it may seem soo simple but to be given the relationship to be able to talk to the CREATOR of all being!!! THAT'S crazy big and so mind blowing!

So, this week if your tired of feeling tired! Don't blame it on the weather or the economy! Take Ur thoughts and feelings and cast them upon our father in heaven. Don't let the enemy control you're day.

We are not Promised tomorrow but Given today! So, live each day to the best we can, you never know who's watching.

LOVE is soon to be in the AIR!

I love Valentines Day! I know there are the few peeps who don't have love at this time in their lives..BUT hey LIVE it up and take a close friend out or your girl friends! This day is not meant to be spent alone! :)

I just love Flowers, sweet treats! The weather this time of year..its romantic!

Well, any who I know its been 20 years since my last note..and this one happens to be short..I'll get on later and put up some pix from my ADVENTURE with Amy in CALIFORNIA!

-Love, Peace & Chicken Grease!