What a Kick!

Devotion

by: John Piper

Our church exists "to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ." That is our mission. "All things" means business, industry, education, media, sports, arts, leisure, government, and all the details of our lives. Ideally this means God should be recognized and trusted as supreme by every person he has made. But the Bible teaches plainly that there will never be a time before Jesus comes back when all people will honor him as supreme (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
So how do we express a passion for God's supremacy in a pluralistic world where most people do not recognize God as an important part of their lives, let alone an important part of government or education or business or industry or art or recreation or entertainment?
Answer: We express a passion for the supremacy of God...
1) by maintaining a conviction at all times that God is ever-present and gives all things their most important meaning. He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Governor of all things. We must keep in our minds the truth that all things exist to reveal something of God's infinite perfections. The full meaning of everything, from shoestrings to space shuttles, is the way they relate to God.
2) by trusting God in every circumstance to use his creative, sustaining, governing wisdom and power to work all things together for the good of all who love him. This is faith in the future grace of all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.
3) by making life choices that reveal the supreme worth of God above what the world values supremely. "The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life" (Psalm 63:3). So we will choose to die rather than lose sweet fellowship with God. This will show his supremacy over all that life offers.
4) by speaking to people of God's supreme worth in creative and persuasive ways, and by telling people how they can be reconciled to God through Christ, so that they can enjoy God's supremacy as protection and help, rather than fear it as judgment.
5) by making clear that God himself is the foundation for our commitment to a pluralistic democratic order-not because pluralism is his ultimate ideal, but because in a fallen world, legal coercion will not produce the kingdom of God. Christians agree to make room for non-Christian faiths (including naturalistic, materialistic faiths), not because commitment to God's supremacy is unimportant, but because it must be voluntary, or it is worthless. We have a God-centered ground for making room for atheism. "If my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight" (John 18:36). The fact that God establishes his kingdom through the supernatural miracle of faith, not firearms, means that Christians in this age will not endorse coercive governments-Christian or secular.
This is why we resist the coercive secularization implied in some laws that repress Christian activity in public places. It is not that we want to establish Christianity as the law of the land. That is intrinsically impossible, because of the spiritual nature of the kingdom. It is rather because repression of free exercise of religion and persuasion is as wrong against Christians as it is against secularists. We believe this tolerance is rooted in the very nature of the gospel of Christ. In one sense, tolerance is pragmatic: freedom and democracy seem to be the best political order humans have conceived. But for Christians it is not purely pragmatic: the spiritual, relational nature of God's kingdom is the ground of our endorsement of pluralism, until Christ comes with rights and authority that we do not have.
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website

She got one!

Yep, that's cheating!

Harder than we thought

Yes, I know that is not a real tent, but it worked!

Grandy!

What fun!

Michael Sr. eating an ice cream sundae, sitting in a hot tub, watching football. A redneck's dream. haha

4-H Chicken

Here is a picture of Sarah's paper mache chicken she made for 4H. Yes, those are real chicken feathers!

Community Helpers Class

Mummies

Michael Jr.

Sarah

Julia

Lavender's Exotics

Well, things are starting to kick in with the snake and rat business! I am working on a website for Michael so he can have a place to send people so they can browse through his collection. It is no where near completion but I am getting there slowly. It is nothing impressive, I am not a webmaster, just a helpmeet trying to help! Here it is Lavender's Exotics at www.lavenderexotics.webs.com Eventually we will have our own domain but right now this will suffice. We are not trying to drive traffic to an unfinished site. We just want a site to give our already existing customers to be able to browse. He has sold a few snakes and alot of rats. He has become busy enough that we never get "free" day. But it is fun family work. The kids seem to love it also. Anyway, check it out.

No wedding

Julia was invited to a Princess Tea Party set for today. They were to be having tea in a "castle" and so they needed to make sure they were in their princess gowns. Well I thought she would be thrilled but she really wasn't. Her first concern was if I was going to go with her or leave her there. I let her know of course I would be there with her. That was yesterday. Not really any excitement. Then today, I tried to pump it up for her and she said very calmly "Maybe I get married today". Then I figured it all out. She loves her Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty movies. And she has talked for quite a few months about "going to the ball" (which is always at a castle) and she always loves dressing in her most beautiful "wedding" dresses. (Because you always get married after the ball). And she has even said she was going to get married and marry daddy! How Cute! I guess I assumed deep down she knew she wasn't really going to do these things. However, when I told her she was going to get her princess dress on and go to a castle and have a party, she literally thought she was. Just like in the movies. And of course that meant she must be going to get married too. So I think when it came down to it, she really wasn't as excited about it as she thought she would be. I realized when she said " Maybe I get married today" that she thought all of that was fixing to happen today. And she wasn't very excited. So obviously, I reassured her that NO she wasn't getting married today, and I wasn't leaving her at some big castle. After that she was fine and she had a ball at the party. I will post some pics as soon as my friend emails them to me. All of the little girls were soooo cute!

Encouragement

This is an excerpt from the book Women Leaving the Workplace by Burkett. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to us stay-at-home moms.

Since the beginning of time, mothers have played a key role in world events, both good and bad, through the influence they exercised on their children. Two examples of mothers' influence from the Bible are the wicked queen Athaliah and the godly mother Hannah. Athaliah counseled her 22 year old son, King Ahaziah, to do "wickedly" (II Chron 22:3) and only one year after he took the throne, he was executed. In contrast, Hannah dedicated her son Samuel to the service of the Lord. Not surprisingly, he became a great prophet. Two books of the bible are dedicated to his life's work. Stay at home moms must never lose sight of the tremendous influence they can exercise in their children's lives, even though Satan will try to discourage and defeat them.

We have to stay focused on why we're at home and why we're the best person to take care of your children. There are many struggles, financially and otherwise, but God is sufficient. He never leaves us. He always provides.

Just a little too late!!

Okay, the eggs we brought to class today, of course, started hatching tonight. Just a few hours earlier and you would have gotten to see them in person. Of course, they have just started so it could be tomorrow night or Monday before they actually come on out but here are a couple of good pictures of the slit and the fluid. These are Mexican Black King Snake babies. In the picture on the left and the bottom left egg is one of the ones I brought today. The bottom right is the other one.

Herpetology Class Pictures

Yes, its dead. We showed the differences between a timber rattlesnake and a gray rat which is sometimes confused by those spotters making a fast getaway!

(Thanks Janie for taking pictures of the snake class/show today). We had a great turnout and we appreciate all of you giving up your Saturday to come to class. We had a great time and we hope you all learned something new! I am pretty sure you can copy and save any pictures you want from my blog so feel free. If not, email me and I will send you the ones you might want of your kids. If your homeschool groups or organizations want to have us come; we would love to speak to classes. You can email me for more information!

Thanks Aunt Kathy!

Thanks Aunt Kathy for a great hike in the woods. Can't wait for the gazebo trip!!

Why Everything Exists

Thoughts on Why Everything Exists by John Piper

One of the main points of the forthcoming book, Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ, is that sin and God's wrath against it were part of God's plan when he created the world. This is different from saying that God sins or that he approves of sinning.
The main reason for making this point is to exalt the revelation of God's grace in the crucifixion of Jesus to the highest place. This is the point of the universe--the glorification of the grace of God in the apex of its expression in the death of Jesus.
Jesus died for sin (1 Corinthians 15:3). The death of Jesus for sin was planned before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8; Ephesians 1:4-6). Therefore, sin was part of the plan. God carries this plan through in a way that maintains full human accountability, full hatred for sin, full divine justice, and full saving love for all who trust Christ. And we don't need to know how he does it to believe it and rest in it and worship him for it.
This morning I was meditating for my devotions on Ezra 8 and 9. I saw there another pointer to the truth of God's planning for human sin and divine wrath.
In Ezra 8:22, Ezra says, "The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him." This text leads me to ask: Did God know before creation that his creatures would "forsake him." Yes, he did. The plan for their redemption was in place before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-6).
Was Ezra 8:22 true before the foundation of the world? Yes, it was. God did not become holy and just after creation. He has always been holy and just. "His power and his wrath are against all who forsake him" because this is, and always has been, the holy and just thing for God to do.
Therefore, since God knew that his creatures would forsake him, he also knew that his power and wrath would be against them. Therefore, this was part of his plan. He created the world knowing that sin would happen and that he would respond as Ezra 8:22 says he does.
This planning is what Paul means in Romans 9:22 when he says that God was "desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power. . ." And if you ask Paul why God would go forward with this plan, his most ultimate answer is in the next verse: "in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy" (Romans 9:23).
God knew that the revelation of his wrath and power against sin would make the riches of his glory shine all the brighter and taste all the sweeter for the vessels of mercy.
"The riches of his glory" are the riches we inherit when we see his glory in all the fullness that we can bear (Ephesians 1:18) and are transformed by it (Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2). These riches of glory reach their supreme height of wonder and beauty in the death of Jesus as he bore the condemnation of God's wrath and power in our place (Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:13).
In other words, God's plan that there be sin and wrath in the universe was ultimately to bring about "the praise of the glory of his grace" in the death of Christ (Ephesians 1:6). What is at stake in the sovereignty of God over sin is the ultimate aim of the universe, namely, the exaltation of the Son of God in the greatest act of wrath-removing, sin-forgiving, justice-vindicating grace that ever was or ever could be. The praise of the glory of God's grace in the death of Christ for sinners is the ultimate end of all things.
Christ is the aim of all things. When Paul says, "All things were created . . . for him" (Colossians 1:16), he means that the entire universe and all the events in it serve to glorify Jesus Christ. May the meditations of our hearts take us ever deeper into this mystery. And may the words of our mouths and the actions of our hands serve to magnify the infinite worth of Jesus and his death. This is why we exist.
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org

White-Marked Tussock Moth

Here is a really cool caterpillar that we found in the neighbor's yard yesterday. Sarah and I did some research and found out it is called a white marked tussock moth. So yes...it will turn into a moth. Click here if you want some more info.

4 types of Fruit

We are studying plants this week in school. We learned today that there are 4 types of fruits:

1. Dry Fruits like nuts 2. Juicy fruits like oranges, berries, tomatoes 3. Pomes- they have cores like apples and pears 4. Drupes/Stone Fruit- large seed in middle like peaches or avocados.

We cut examples of each and then got to enjoy our snack!