Ice Cream made with Magic Hands

One of the many highlights of visiting my home town of Stillwater is going for an ice cream cone at my favorite ice cream shop, Nelson's. Nelson's is tiny brown house that sells huge ice cream cones for cheap. And the ice cream is the best I have ever had. Though there are tons of varied and delicious flavors my two favorite are their spumoni and peanut butter chocolate. SO GOOD! While I am down here in the desert I get my fill of peanut butter chocolate ice cream at Baskin Robins and that does the trick. I prefer to have ice cream out rather than buying it from the grocery store because the ice cream that you have out is made with magic hands and is way better. However, just recently I found some ice cream at the store that was made with magic hands. It is Kroger brand Peanut Butter Cookie Dough and it is the most delicious store ice cream I have ever had. In fact, I am eating some at this very moment and must go now to give it it's due attention. Later!

Like Peanut Butter and Jelly Go Together...

Over the weekend I went to Rialto Theater to see the Indigo Girls in concert. Though I don't listen to them much anymore they were my favorite group growing up. I have seen them twice as a young teen. Once they had a band with them and the other time it was just to the two of them with their guitars. I was pleasantly surprised to see them this time with just their guitars which is the way I prefer them. I never cease to be amazed at the incredible amount of talent possessed by the two of them, both with their guitar playing and voice harmonies. I have never heard two voices go together as beautifully and perfectly as theirs do! It appears that God made them to sing together.

It's funny listening to their lyrics now at this age and understanding so much more than I did as a teenager. Though I do not agree with a number of things they sing about I still appreciate their music and talent. I found myself thinking many times during the concert how amazing it would be to hear them singing Christian songs! With their unique style of singing different parts at the same time, perfect harmonies, and passionate guitar playing, it would be so awesome to apply that to the most beautiful songs about Christ!

Anyhoo, you never know what the Sovereign God will do, who He will transform and what He will use to bring glory to His name!

The Graduate

Here is a pic from Matt's graduation last weekend. I was so proud when they hooded him! CAPITAL JOB, HONEY!

Liberty

This is the cutest girl in the world, my niece, Liberty. Liberty is 2 and a half and was born the day the Lord took my father home to heaven. He wanted to live long enough to see his first granddaughter born. When she was born my sister's pastor took a picture of her and brought it over to my dad so he could see her. When he saw the picture he said, "Thank God," closed his eyes, and a few hours later was welcomed into heaven!

Some Camping Pics...

I Can't Wait to Go Again!

When I was young I used to sleep in a tent in my backyard with my sister Regan during the summer. As I grew up I slept in a tent outside of our cabin in northern Wisconsin a number of times. That was my experience of the great outdoors until recently. This weekend I had my first real camping experience. Our friends Ben and Lis invited us to go camping with them in Gardener Canyon which is south east of Tucson near Mt. Wrightston. The four of us miraculously squeezed all of our gear into our Honda Element and headed out Friday night. We arrived to our camp site after dark and immediately lit up a fire and began to have our first camping meal- BRAZILIAN STYLE HOT DOGS prepared by our resident Brazilian, Lis. Delicious! After this we relaxed by the fire, drinking wine and smoking cloves, cigars, and pipes for the rest of the night. It was pretty windy so we kept our fire small and left some coals burning when we went to bed. Ben and Lis pitched their tent while Matt and I converted our Element into our camping home- before you laugh let it be known the Honda Element was made to be a camping vehicle and has many camping accessories made for it. In the middle of the night we awoke to a blazing orange light. Matt looked out the window and said, "Oh my gosh!" As I looked out the window I saw a fire blazing and was afraid the woods were burning down with us in them! In reality our camp chair had blown in to the coals and caught fire. Ben, dressed in his black longjohns and looking like a ninja, dashed out of his tent and pulled the chair out of the fire covering it with dirt. Close call!

We awoke Saturday morning to the sound of light rain and small hail hitting our car. We could see Mt. Wrightston had been dusted with snow. I was afraid our camping adventure was ruined but God was so good and brought the sun out a short time later. We arose and began cooking breakfast on Ben's Coleman stove; eggs, bacon, hash browns coffee and HOMEMADE CHAI TEA Ben had learned to make from a Pakistani friend of his. Delicious! After breakfast we packed up small packs and headed out for a hike. We left the road and headed down a ravine where there was a small running stream. We sat by a little pool for a while where Lis spotted the first wildlife which was a small frog sun bathing in a cleft of a rock. Lis- who hates animals actually cried when she saw the frog- she is so funny! We then hiked up the stream a ways looking for wildlife and having stick races. I spotted a turtle in the stream which we had to pick up and take pictures of. I also saw a snake about two feet long but he slithered away before anyone else saw him. Matt found a very nice log that he had to take back for our fire pit on the hike back. When we returned to camp we had lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon reading, gathering wood, and taking naps. Matt drug a 15 foot dead yucca plant back to camp. When Ben saw it he and Matt seemed to exchange ideas telepathically and they began digging a hole in order to stand up this yucca as the "camp mascot, Roger." They dug and rolled large rocks together to stand Roger up. Roger was a ferocious looking yucca indeed. They were proud. Shortly after this some very large cows with big horns were spotted just west of our camp. They hung out for a long time, chewing the cud. A mom and baby calf walked just north of our camp and joined the cows to the west of us.

After naps Matt and Ben built up the fire for the evening's main event, STEAK OVER THE OPEN FIRE. After rubbing them with rock salt the porterhouse steaks were placed on the grate over the fire. In no time we were feasting on some of the best steaks we had ever had along with beans and garlic bread. We enjoyed the fire for the rest of the night, with more pipes, cigars, and cloves. We also indulged in a camping must have, SMORES! We had chocolate graham crackers, marshmallows and Hershey's bars that were filled with peanut butter and brownie pieces. Delicious!

We awoke Sunday morning and whipped up some pancakes along with coffee and chai. We then packed up camp and headed out. Though another hike up the stream sounded good we were all ready for showers. Thanks be to Ben and Lis for taking us. I can't wait to go again!

Fresh from the Womb

This is my cousin Nichole's new baby, Luke. Is this not the cutest picture ever?!

Choose only 3

Let us talk books. If you had to choose only three books to be in your possession for the rest of your life what would you choose?

For me...
John MacArthur Study Bible
Valley of Vision: Puritan Prayers and Devotions
Trinity Hymnal

What would you choose?

Edwards Quote

"If God dwells in the heart, he will show that he is a God by the power of his operation. Christ is not in the heart of a Christian as a dead Saviour in a tomb, but as a risen and living Saviour in his temple." 

-Johnathan Edwards in The Experience That Counts

The True Christian is as a Child

"True spiritual affections turn a heart of stone more and more into a heart of flesh. They make the heart tender, like bruised flesh which is easily hurt. Christ points to this tenderness by speaking of the true Christian as a little child (Matt 10:42 and 18:3, John 13:33). The flesh of a little child is tender. So is the heart of a spiritually new-born person. And not only the flesh, but the mind of a little child is also tender. A little child easily feels sympathy and cannot bear to see others in distress. So it is with a Christian. Kindness easily wins the affection of a little child. So it is with a Christian. A little child easily becomes afraid at the appearance of outward evils. So a Christian becomes alarmed at the appearance of moral evil. When a little child meets anything threatening, it does not trust in its own strength, but runs to its parents. So a Christian is not self-confident in fighting spiritual enemies, but runs to Christ. A little child easily feels suspicious of danger in the dark, when alone, or far from home. So a Christian becomes aware of spiritual dangers, and feels concerned for his soul, when he cannot see his way clear before him; he is afraid of being left alone and at a distance from God. A little child easily feels afraid of his elders, fears their anger and trembles at their threats. So a Christian fears to offend God and trembles at God' chastening.
In all these ways a true Christian resembles a little child. In spiritual things, the tallest and strongest saint is the smallest and tenderest child."
-Johnathan Edwards in The Experience That Counts

Divine Beauty of God

"God is unique. He is utterly different from all others beings, and it is God's beauty, more than any other divine attribute, which sets him apart. This beauty is utterly different from all other beauty. So when the Christian sees this beauty in Christianity,he sees God in it. He sees the diving beauty which is the chief distinguishing feature of God. This gives the Christian a direct intuitive knowledge that Christ's gospel comes from God. He does not need to be convinced by long complicated arguments. The argument is simple: he grasps the truth of the gospel because he sees it divine beauty and glory.

Many of the most important truths of the gospel depend on its spiritual beauty. Since the natural man cannot see this beauty, it is little wonder he does not believe theses truths. Let me give some examples. Unless we see the beauty of holiness, we will be blind to the ugliness of sin. In consequence, we will not understand the way Scripture condemn sin. Nor will we understand what Scripture says about the terrible sinfulness of mankind. A person can only see and feel the desperate depravity of his own heart, if the Holy Spirit gives him this ability to taste the sweetness of holiness and the bitterness of sin. Only this convinces us that Scripture speaks truly about the corruption of human nature, man's need of a Savior, and God's mighty power to change and renew the human heart. It also convinces us that God is just in punishing sin so severely, and that man cannot atone for his own sin. This sense of spiritual beauty enables the soul to see the glory of Christ as Scripture reveals him. We understand the infinite value of his atonement and the excellence of the gospel way of salvation. We see that man's happiness consists in holiness, and we feel the indescribable glory of heaven. The truth of all these things appears to the soul, only when it receives that spiritual sense of divine beauty I have been speaking of."

-Johnathan Edwards in The Experience That Counts

My Wish List

Incase you haven't noticed I've added a new link on my blog which takes you to my Amazon.com wish list of desired books. My birthday is months off but here is my wish list so you don't have to guess what my heart desires!
P.S. Used books are fine with me- my only request is please no books with highlighting!

Rundown of the 2007 Ligonier Ministries National Conference

This was the fourth Ligonier Ministries National Conference I've attended and was my most favorite one yet. This years topic "Contending for the Truth" is a favorite of mine as it encompassed philosophy and apologetics. I wanted to tell you about each lecture but unfortunately I lost all the notes I took so here is just a brief rundown of the conference.

Zacharias opened the pre-conference up with a bang when he spoke on "Postmodernism and Philosophy." Zacharias is an impressive speaker to listen to; filled with insight, wisdom and awesome stories of personal experiences. Mohler followed with a lecture on "Postmodernism and Society." Mohler is so up to date and in the loop on culture and current events and has a keen and discerning mind. RC Sproul Jr. then spoke on "Postmodernism and Christianity." I always look forward to Sproul Jr.'s lectures each conference and wish he would speak more than once. A question and answer session followed with the above mentioned speakers which is always enlightening and entertaining.

RC Sproul opened the conference up Thursday night with an awesome lecture entitled "The Task of Apologetics." This was one of my favorite lectures of the entire conference. John Piper entered the conference after Sproul with a lecture called "Faith and Reason" which, delieverd with all of Piper's passion, was superb!

MacArthur was the first speaker Friday morning and opened up with "The Challenge of Science." I expected this to be similar to his most excellent series called "Battle for the Beginning" but it was not as good. If you do not have "Battle for the Beginning" I HIGHLY recommend it. Piper followed with the "The Challenge of Relativism." This lecture was good but I liked his first lecture better. MacAthur then blew the crowd away with his treament of "The Problem of Evil." This lecture was typical of MacArthur and was outstanding!

Zacharias spoke in the afternoon on "The Existence of God" which was good but I liked his first lecture better. Mohler closed the Friday afternoon session with "The Authority of Scripture." By this time I must admit my brain had started smoking and was no longer functioning properly. I will have to listen to this lecture again when I get the conference DVDs.

Mohler opened the conference back up Saturday morning with "The Holy Spirit and Apologetics." This was Mohler's best lecture of the conference in my opinion and was excellent. After this was the last question and answer session. Zacharias, Sproul, and Mohler handled the questions and never ceased to awe and amaze with their wisdom. Zacharias is bold in the truth and at the same time so compassionate and respectful to those of other beliefs it is no wonder he garners so much respect himself. Sproul closed out the conference with "The Resurrection of Christ" and started out speaking on philosophy and Kant. This lecture was so interesting but I didn't get to hear the entire thing because we had to leave early. I can't wait to get the conference DVDs to watch the rest of this one!

All of the speakers were so good but I would have to say this year my favorite was RC Sproul. I got so much out of his lectures and can't wait to see them again. The music this year was also wonderful and I bought a CD from the Westminster Brass. There is nothing like hearing "A Mighty Fortress" played by the brass and the hugest pipe organ I have ever seen. It makes you feel like Martin Luther make come walking out at any minute!

Next years conference will be on EVANGELISM with RC Sproul, John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, Sinclair Furgeson, and Johnny Erickson Tada. Hope to see you there!

*Listen to Piper's sermons from the conference under event messages at
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/EventMessages/ByDate/
The titles are "Faith and Reason" and "The Challenge of Relativism."

Next Week!

Next week at this time I'll be sitting under the teaching of the top Bible teachers in the world. I have been listening to interviews with Ravi Zacharias lately. I think he is the most brilliant man of our lifetime. What wisdom, discernment, and insight God has blessed him with! I also started reading his book "Can Man Live Without God" which is an extremely interesting and thought provoking read. See you soon ladies for the best Ligonier conference yet!

Breakfast with Sproul 3 Weeks from Today

Three weeks from today my mom, my mother-in-law, my sister Regan and my friend Cbass will be in Orlando, Florida, kicking it with Johnny Mac, RC Sproul, John Piper, Ravi Zacharias, and Al Mohler at the annual Ligonier Ministry Conference. This is my fouth year attending and it is definitely one of the highlights of my year. This year the conference titled, "Contending for the Truth," is on apologetics. MacArthur, Piper, Zacharias, and Sproul are my favorite teachers so to have them all in one conference is going to be awesome. I have just started listening to Mohler in the last couple of months and he is also a brilliant and gifted man of God. What a blessing this conference will be. Thanks, God!

New Books

My wonderful husband recently surprised me with the gift of two books this Valentines Day. The first is "A Christian Manifesto" by Francis Schaeffer. The second is titled "What is Truth" with a subtitle of "A Comparative Study of the Positions of Cornelius Van Til, Francis Schaeffer, Carl F. H. Henry, Donald Bloesch, and Millard Erickson" and is written by James Emery White. Neither of these books were on my wanted list, in fact the second one I have never even heard of so I was very impressed that he picked them out for me. Though I am in the middle of "Can Man Live Without God?" by Ravi Zacharias (EXCELLENT!), I couldn't help myself and am already half way through "A Christian Manifesto." Oh, I wish I could read my life away! THANKS, HONEY!!!

Francis Schaeffer's Truth with Love

I just finished one of my favorite Christmas gifts; "Truth With Love:The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer" by Bryan A. Follis. The book was excellent and provided much to chew on and ponder. Francis Schaeffer was such an amzing man of God and had such an awesome and comprehensive apologetical style. His love and compassion for the lost is inspiring. The time he took with people is convicting. Does the church today care about the lost or are we just content to live in our Christian sub-cultures?

Faith Exceeds Reason

I attended a lecture over the weekend entitled, "Is Faith Reasonable?" given by my church's resident scholar. The lecture was very interesting and provided much to chew on. I believe that the question can only be answered once you have identified the object of the faith. Certainly not all faiths are equal and not all faiths are true. The conclusion of the lecture demonstrated that faith and reason are complimentary, at least in Christianity but that faith exceeds reason. This is true. I was asked later what my Christian faith is based on and I said the Bible and gave some explanation as to how we can know the Bible is true. My faith is based on God's word, however it did not originate with my study of the Bible. So the question is how and where does saving faith originate?

"The true faith, the saving faith is something God gives us. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God(Eph 2:8). You don’t have the faith that saves, it’s not natural. It’s not natural to believe in something you’ve never seen, it’s not natural to believe in someone you’ve never seen...
We’re not talking about that kind of faith based upon experience because when you came to Jesus Christ you put your faith in something you had never experienced. You were just desperate enough to do that. But you believed the promises of the Bible. Why? Because God supernaturally granted you the faith. This is not human faith. This is the faith that God works in us and although the truth of the Gospel is confirmed by many evidences, human nature is predisposed to reject that truth because it wants to see and experience before it believes. But then a sinner comes to the greatest level of desperation and it’s always almost comical when he happens to be some kind of scientific atheist who in a matter of moments has his atheism shattered, which he has had a whole life time to accumulate through his supposed logic, and embraces Jesus Christ in the desperation of his desire for forgiveness. And all of a sudden he’s able to believe without any proof. That’s the gift of God and then once you believe you go back to the Word of God and you begin to see the reasonableness of what you have come to believe through the pages of scripture. Apologetics is mostly for Christians to strengthen their faith. The miracle of saving faith is a miracle." -John MacArthur (Read entire article at http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/80-169.htm).

Faith and reason compliment each other but faith does exceed reason and saving faith is the gift of God.

Highlights of 2006

As 2006 comes to a close I find myself reminiscing over some of the great blessings I have received from God. The top blessings of the past year would have to be...

• KKMS Faith Builders John MacArthur conference in Minnesota in January
• Ligonier's Ministry conference in Orlando in March
• Finding my new church home, Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church, and all my new sisters in the LORD in April
• Finding the teaching of Francis Schaeffer over the summer

And drum roll please....

• Going on my first short term missions trip to Thailand in October

God is so good! What great blessings did God pour out on you this past year?

Wonderful Gifts

My most wonderful husband blessed me tremendously this Christmas by giving me four awesome books...

Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy
Sense and Sensuality by Ravi Zacharias
Can Man Live Without God? by Ravi Zacharias
& Truth With Love:The Apologetsics of Francis Schaeffer by Bryan Follis.

I've already read Sense and Sensuality... OUTSTANDING!!! Ravi Zacharias is easily the most thought provoking writer of our time! I look forward to meeting him in March.

What was your favorite gift this Christmas?

More Thai Trivia

While in Thailand we were led in awesome devotions out of the book of Acts by an elder in my church who you see seated on the far left, named Ross. Next to Ross are two of the missionaries my church supports in Thailand, Mark and Buzz. Seated on the far right is my pastor, Phil. These are all amazing men of God and it was a blessing to serve along side of them!

Your Thai trivia question is:

What year is it in Thailand?

Thailand's Elephants

Pictured above is the Elephant building in Bangkok which is a 32 story office building. The owner believes he was blessed by the elephant god who provided him with the luck to earn his money. In Thailand seeing a white elephant is a sign of extremely good luck as it was one of the protectors of Buddha. Models of white elephants are often found adorning Buddhist temples. It is hard to find a souvenir in Thailand that doesn't have an elephant on it!

We were hoping to have time to go to a place where we could see, pet, and ride elephants but God in His goodness caused us to run into some elephants while heading north into central Thailand. F0r just 20 baht (less than $1.00) you could feed them a bushel of bananas.

Thailand Trivia

It's time for Thailand Trivia!

Pictured below are two of the Thai teachers who I taught english to at the language school in Saraburi, Thailand.

Trivia Question: What are they each holding?

The Grand Palace

Some photos from the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand. The most grand spectacle of idolatry I have ever seen! The photo above is our missions team from Tucson and a couple from Wisconsin who joined us in LA.

No License To Be Wrong

"Jesus and Buddha cannot both be right. The lotus is the symbol of Buddhism; the cross the symbol of the Christian faith. Behind the two symbols stand two diametrically opposed beliefs. I ask you, the reader, to examine the message of each, using both your heart and your mind. It is worth the exercise because it will determine your destiny. One day we will all find out that being respectful and sincere does not give us license to be wrong. Truth demands investigation and committment. Our conclusions must be in keeping with Truth that can be tested. To be handcuffed by a lie is the worst of all imprisonments."
-Ravi Zacharias in the introduction to his book "The Lotus and The Cross."

Thailand Draws Near

One week from today I will be getting on a plane bound for Thailand. I will be there for two weeks praying with and encouraging missionaries and Thai Christian Pastors in central Thailand, teaching English to Thai teachers at a language school in Sarabari, and sharing the gospel whenever and wherever I can. Reading literature about Buddhism this last week has really opened my eyes to how difficult it is for Buddhists to come to Christ and how little fruit the missionaries have with Buddhists. This brought to mind a couple of passages...

When the disciples heard this they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." -Matthew 19:25-26

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, FOR IT IS THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION TO EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. -Romans 1:16

I have never shared the gospel with people whose worldview is so extremly different than mine. I take for granted that there are certain things all people believe and I have come to discover lately this is not necessarily so.

Thank God that He saves people through the preaching and sharing of the glorious gosple of Jesus Christ and that the power is in the gospel applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit, without which our efforts would be in vain.

Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You...

To be released September 28, 2006...

Truth With Love: Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer by Bryan A. Follis.

for more info go to http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Love-Apologetics-Francis-Schaeffer/dp/158134774X/sr=1-7/qid=1158530083/ref=sr_1_7/102-2908769-4811352?ie=UTF8&s=books

I can't wait!!!

My Peeps

The best sisters and brother-in-laws in the world!

My Favorite Joke

El Vaquero and his Chihuahua, Chilito, are camping in the desert. He sets up their tent and both are soon asleep. Some hours later, El Vaquero wakes his faithful friend. "Chilito, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
Chilito replies, "I see millions of stars, senor."
"What does that tell you?" asks El Vaquero.
Chilito ponders for a minute. "Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Chronologically, it appears to be approximately quarter past three. Theologically, it's evident the Lord is all-powerful, and we are small. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, senor?"
El Vaquero is silent for a moment, and then says, "Chilito, you pendejo. Someone has stolen our tent!"

Results Are In...

The results are in regarding who you would like most to have coffee with. Not suprsingly the Apostle Paul won by a landslide. Honorable mentions included Solomon, David and Mary. Thanks for voting!