Maryland/NEXT 09'

I’m back home! NEXT was incredible! I will post more on our time there later on. For now, here are pictures. Some of them you’ve already seen, but there are lots of new one’s too!

NEXT Day #2

Today, during the first session we heard a message from D.A. Carson. He spoke out of John 1. It was incredible, but I will say a lot of what he said flew over my head, so I’m going to have to go back and listen to that one again.

Tonight we heard Kevin DeYoung speak an excellent message on the life of Jesus. He spoke out of Luke 8 and expounded on three different miracles Jesus performed in that text (Calming the sea, healing a demon possessed man, and healing a woman). He challenged all of us to ask the question, do we have faith that Jesus can heal us or rescue us from the battle of certain sin issues? The main thoughts that keep coming back to my mind are “draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” “The gospel is not what I have done for God, but what He has done for me,” and “The problem isn’t that we don’t feel bad about our sin, it’s that we don’t feel bad enough.” Such a wonderful message!

Everything else has been going great! I’m loving this time away of being in the Lord’s presence though worship and prayer, and being able to catch up with the wonderful friends that the Lord has been so gracious to bless me with! He is good and faithful!

NEXT Day #1

We are at NEXT and so far everything has been amazing! Last night Josh Harris spoke a message on the preeminence of Christ. One of his questions was, when was the last time the words of Jesus changed your plans? For me, it was a fresh reminder of God’s sovereignty in my life over the past couple years. So many times when I expected plans to be different, God changed everything, and though it’s been difficult at times, I can truly say it’s been for my good and His glory.

I won’t be able to update too much while I’m here because there isn’t much down time and the internet isn’t free at the hotel. Please be praying that God would continue to meet us, pour out His Spirit upon us, and for rest :). Thank you!

Here are some more pictures taken during the evening session last night.

Maryland Day #2

Today, Amber and I had a great time with family! We started the day off going to a quaint little café for breakfast with my grandparents, followed by a visit to my 95 year old great grandmother’s house. While there we visited with her and my great uncle who lives right next door. We had a lot of fun with them… they caught us up on a lot of family history and we got a tour of the house that she’s lived in since her husband built it in the 1960’s. After visiting with them my grandfather gave us a small tour of where my mom grew up, we went to Bob Evan’s for lunch, then all the gals headed to the mall and did what we do best….shopped till we dropped! We went back to my grandparents house and ordered some of the best crab cakes you’ll ever come across. They were delicious! And after dinner we took a trip to Bruster’s Ice Cream. Of course it was oh so yummy! It was a fun-filled, yet tiring day! There was much laughter involved, which means, the day was GREAT!

Here’s a few pictures of our day!


My great grandmother has about 350 bears collected through out her house. This was just one of the piles.


Such a wonderful woman!!!


On our way back from shopping with the top down...

Thought you all might get a kick out of this! This is Amber holding Joshua as a baby and I'm holding my mom's step-sister Becky.

Maryland Day #1

Today my sister and I flew up to Baltimore, Maryland to spend a couple days with some family we don’t get to see very often before we attend a conference called “NEXT” (formerly known as New Attitude). Our Plane was about an hour delayed due to bad weather, but we made it safe and sound.

Check back daily for updates and maybe a picture or two! =)

Single's Work Day

Yesterday some of the singles from church had the opportunity to serve a non-profit organization in Jacksonville called Angel Wood. They are a group of people that provide help and care for children with disabilities. We volunteered at one of the homes doing a bunch of yard work. We had an absolute blast working together!

Mother's Day Pictures

This year for Mother's Day I got sneaky and took some updated pictures of Josh, Victoria, and Karah for our momma. Enjoy!

I know this is early, but...

Happy Mother’s Day! Thank you, moms for the way you sacrificially serve your Husbands and children! Your hard work does not go un-noticed!

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’” (Proverbs 31:28-29)

Grace and Gratitude

Romans 11:35-" Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"

The answer is nobody!!!!

There are many times when our culture thinks otherwise. We're disappointed with our family, neighbors, work, the waitress, the sales clerk. Ultimately we are disappointed with God. He hasn't given us everything we want! I find myself being that person way too often!

In Randy Alcorn's book, "The Grace and Truth Paradox" he states:"If only we could see our situation clearly even for a moment. We deserved expulsion; He gave us a diploma. We deserved the electric chair; He gives us a parade. Anything less than overwhelming gratitude should be unthinkable. He owes us nothing! We owe Him everything! When you realize you deserve nothing better than hell, it puts a 'bad day' in perspective, doesn't it? If I grasp that I deserve hell, I'll be filled with gratitude not only for God's huge blessings- including my redemption and home in heaven-but also for His smaller blessings: sun, rain, a beating heart, eyes that see, legs that walk, a mind that thinks. If I don't have these, I'll be overwhelmed with the knowledge that I have plenty I don't deserve. And because Christ allowed Himself to be crushed under the weight of my sin, I'll enjoy forever a clear mind and perfect body."

What a great reminder of the grace that God has so richly poured out on such wretched sinners as I. How great it is to walk out into the world and answer the question "how are you doing?" and be able to answer with great gratitude that I am doing better then I derserve!!!

The Attitude of Gratitude

This morning I read the following story and was oh so convicted! It is amazing how one woman's grateful heart affected so many others!

"By today’s standard’s she should have been an unhappy, troubled woman. Her father died when she was quite young, leaving her to be raised by her mother and grandmother. As a result of a doctor’s careless error when she was only six weeks old, she was afflicted with lifelong blindness.

The tragic and traumatic experience of this woman’s childhood years would have given most people more than enough grounds for a lifetime of self-pity, bitterness, and psychological disorders. Yet, in her autobiography, Frances Jane Crosby wrote, “It seemed intended by the blessed Providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation.”

The doctor who destroyed her sight never forgave himself and moved from the area, but there was no room in Fanny Crosby’s heart for resentment. “If I could meet him now,” she wrote, “I would say ‘Thank you, thank you’—over and over again—for making me blind.”

The blindness that many would have considered at best an accident, and at worst a curse, was considered by Fanny to be one of her greatest blessings. She accepted her blindness as a gift from God. “I could not have written thousands of hymns,” she said, “if I had been hindered by the distractions of seeing all the interesting and beautiful objects that would have been presented to my notice.”

Fanny’s first poem, written when she was eight years old, reflects the perspective that was hers until her death at the age of ninety-five:

Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessing I enjoy
That other people don’t
So weep of sight because I’m blind,
I cannot, no I won’t!

For over a century, the Church has reaped the rich benefits of one woman’s thankful heart, as we sing “To God Be the Glory,” Blessed Assurance,” “Redeemed,” “All the Way My Saviour Leads Me,” and countless others of the 8,000 songs that Fanny Crosby wrote in her lifetime.

In a world that has forgotten how to be grateful; the example of this beloved, blind hymn-writer seems extraordinary, if not downright odd! But, oh, what a price we pay for our personal collective ingratitudes!"