Girls Are Fun...

Boys are ..................boys!!!

Tony shared some pictures off of his iphone with me and I was struck with the exact representation of the moment and how much our daughters-in-love have enhanced our lives!!

(Try to look past the poor quality of the pictures - Tony was a reluctant photographer with just the phone as the camera!)

These were taken when Josh and Jamie were in town for football but were seeing Jeremy and Meagan for the first time since news of the pregnancy!! They had brought a beautiful Vera Bradley baby bag for Meagan. The first picture is of Meagan opening their gift. Can you see the joy on the faces of the girls!! Where's Jeremy?!




Is that Jeremy with his iphone in his hand next to his brother?! Could he be checking football scores?! Gee, both boys have their University of Texas shirts on - no surprise there! The girls are still in the "there's a baby coming" joyful moment! Josh is thinking, "I'd like to take my iphone out but Mom's watching and I'm in the hunt for 'good son status'!"





Thank you girls for bringing such love and joy into our lives. You were both answers to prayer!

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.

Philippians 1:3

Thursday Thoughts

13"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

14"For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

These two passages in Matthew were a part of our Bible study today and the end of verse 14 always makes me sad. I thought I would again look at why the gate is small, the way narrow and few find it.

Jesus has been speaking on the Mount of Beatitudes and in His sermon we see a contrast between two kinds of righteousness...a righteousness that does not satisfy God, and a righteousness that does. A religion that does not satisfy God and a religion that does.

And then in verse 13 an invitation - two gates, two ways, two destinations! It begins with a command, “Enter through the narrow gate.” It’s not going to happen apart from a commitment and a decision on your part. The gospel itself is a command, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to admire the gate, study the gate, or appreciate what the gate stands for. Hell is going to be literally filled with people who admired Jesus, who admired His teaching and His ethics and who may have particularly admired the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus says, “I am the Door, if any man tries to come in any other way, he is a thief and a robber.” In Acts 4:12 it says, “There is no salvation in any other name, for there’s no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” There’s only one way to be saved, there’s only one person who is the Savior and faith in that person is required for salvation.

Listen to 1Timothy 2:5, “There is one God, one Mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” No other Mediator, no other Savior, no other Way. Faith, saving faith, demands... Romans 1:17 says...hearing with faith the message of Christ. Faith comes by hearing the message concerning Christ. Christ and Christ alone is the gate. No Christ, no salvation. No Christ, no heaven. In that sense it is very narrow.

The narrow gate is like a turnstile, admitting only one person at a time. It is intensely personal. It is not a group experience. It doesn’t happen to everybody who joins a church, or everybody who is baptized, or everybody who is in a family of quote/unquote Christians. It isn’t something you inherit from your parents or your grandparents. It is totally individual. It is exclusive in that sense, intensely personal. It requires a break from the crowd. Jesus said, in fact, if you’re not willing to hate your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, your wife, you’re not worthy to be My disciple.

But, the two doors and the two ways lead to two destinations. First, the wide gate, the broad way leads to destruction. The pleasures of sin for a season, Hebrews 11:25, it’s easy, it’s crowded, everybody’s there, can’t be the wrong road, look how many people are there. No restrictions, it just doesn’t end up in heaven, it ends up in destruction. The religion of human achievement from humanism and atheism and any other ism in any other religion without Christ and without a gospel of grace and faith alone, ends up in hell.

What does destruction mean? Everlasting judgment, everlasting punishment. On the other hand, the narrow gate leads, verse 14, to life... life, eternal life, the fullness of life, the life of God, the glorious state of unclouded fellowship with God, the eternal satisfaction, unspeakable joy.

What road are you on?

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

John 14:6

Terrific Tuesday

Two wonderful things happened today! Can you guess from the clues below?

If you guessed hearing the baby's heartbeat for the first time with Meagan, you're right. Then if you guessed a job offer for Tony you are two for two!!!!!!!!! Those two wonderful blessings happened almost simultaneously which made for a Terrific Tuesday!


"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,"

Ephesians 3:20

Traveling with Tony

I love everything about my husband! And I love traveling with my husband! We always have great conversation and the ability to see the humor in every situation. (I guess that means that we are really good at entertaining ourselves! :) Though his job has separated us during the work week, it has provided us with many other opportunities.

But speaking of traveling together there is one thing you can always count on - COFFEE!

And a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry nice room upgrade!

I love you, Tony and I pray that God blesses us with many more opportunities to travel and entertain each other with great conversation (even if it doesn't include upgrades)!!

"Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. "

1Peter 3:7

Austin Favorites...

Blackberry

Pancakes

MORE EATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill

Pecan Crusted Catfish w/ Crawfish Tails

Buffalo Meatloaf and Mushroom Gravy

University of Texas Football

(Preferably at night - this was a hot one!)

"So there was much joy in that city."

Acts 8:8

Thursday Thoughts

Today in Bible Study we covered Matthew 5, the first part of the Sermon on the Mount. As a reminder, it is where you will find the Beatitudes - the “Blessed are…”


We sat at the feet of Matthew, the Apostle, as he spoke to us about the King of kings and Lord of lords. We have learned from the gospel of Matthew that God anointed Him as King, God anointed Him as Christ and Messiah, the promised ruler, the Lord of heaven and earth. And throughout the Beatitudes we see the standard by which those belonging to Christ are to live culminating in verse 48.

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

WHAT! Let me allow John MacArthur to sum it up beautifully!

This is the whole point of Christianity. The King comes and the King says here's the standard. And everybody says hopeless. That's exactly where you need to be. It's exactly where you need to be. I can't do it. You're right. There's no effort within human religion that can achieve it. What do I do? You do what people throughout all of redemptive history have done, you fall on your face before God and you say, "I can't do it. I cannot reach the standard, I cannot be perfect as God is perfect. What will I do? And God says, "Because of your penitence, because of your recognition of your inability I have made provision to give you the righteousness you need." Isn't that it? And when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and receive Him as Lord and Savior, you are given the righteousness of God so that now in the eyes of God you are as perfect as God is and He plants His Holy Spirit in you and love is shed abroad in your heart so that you can love on a transcendent level.

Now, you see, that's the manifesto of the King. And it leads us really to a Beatitude Attitude. It leads us back to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. It leads us to being poor in spirit. What does that mean? Spiritually bankrupt and saying, "Well I fall horribly short." It leads us to mourning over our condition, to meekness and humility. It leads us to hunger and thirst for a righteousness we cannot achieve. And when we realize our spiritual poverty, and realize the sadness and sorrow of our condition and in meekness and a hunger and thirst for righteousness, then it says we receive the Kingdom, we are comforted, we inherit the earth and we're satisfied. God saves the broken penitent who knows he or she can't attain the standard.

So Jesus came, set a standard nobody could keep, dismantled the religion of Judaism and every other system of human religion. And left the sinner in total despair with nowhere to turn but to fall on his face before God and plead for God to give him a righteousness that would satisfy God. And that is the story of Christianity. Listen to this, God grants us the very righteousness He requires. He gives us the righteousness of Christ.

You say, "How can He do that? How can He do that? How can God just give the sinner the righteousness of Christ?" I'll tell you how, because He gave Christ the sinner's sin. He imputed to Jesus Christ our sins and He imputes to us Christ's righteousness. That was the message of the King. And some heard it and believed. Some did not and so it is, even until now.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

John 3:16

If You Couldn't Be There...

The excitement and anticipation in Austin, Saturday, was palpable! The traffic was typical (horrible) and the parking was challenging! Tailgating seemed to be at an all time high (interesting choice of words - no comment)! Many girls and mothers of girls from both teams seem to have lost all sense of modesty and decorum when it comes to attire!! (Get a clue people - mini-skirts, stairs & bending over, see-thru dresses - enough said!!) Full stadium with people, six rows from the top, who felt the defense could not operate without the support of a loudly yelled "Get him"! (Who was that woman that was barely recovered from a cold that ended up sounding like a lifetime smoker at church Sunday morning!) It was a rough start to the game and kudos to those that knew Colt had the flu and were able to keep that secret!!!!! Oh well, the struggle of the offense certainly kept us all in our seats till the very end of the game and hats off to the staff of Whataburger in Giddings for the great taquitos at 12:30 am.

Looking back I'm thankful for the win against Tech and Colt you looked good when you got to the stadium and great job fighting off a difficult opponent! I've heard this flu is really bad!! Ha

(P.S. That was Jordan Shipley I high-fived prior to the game! It was just the boost he needed for the punt return touchdown! Thanks Erin for cluing me in!)

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

James 5:13