The Lover and the Beloved - Son 2:16

our Ultimate priority

2011-08-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

Love Lustres At Calvary

My Father,

Enlarge my heart, warm my affections,

open my lips,

supply words that proclaim 'Love lustres

at Calvary.

There grace removes my burdens and heaps them

on thy Son,

made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;

There the sword of thy justice smote the man,

thy fellow;

There thy infinite attributes were magnified,

and infinite atonement was made.

There infinite punishment was due,

and infinite punishment was endured.

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,

cast off that I might be brought in,

trodden down as an enemy

that I might be welcomed as a friend,

surrendered to hell's worst

that I might attain heaven's best,

stripped that I might be clothed,

wounded that I might be healed,

athirst that I might drink,

tormented that I might be comforted,

made a shame that I might inherit glory,

entered darkness that I might have eternal light.

My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped

from my eyes,

groaned that I might have endless song,

endured all pain that I might have unfading health,

bore a thorny crown that I might have

a glory-diadem,

bowed his head that I might uplift mine,

experienced reproach that I might receive

welcome,

closed his eyes in death that I might gaze

on unclouded brightness,

expired that I might for ever live.

O Father, who spared not thine only Son that thou

mightiest spare me,

All this transfer thy love designed and

accomplished;

Help me to adore thee by lips and life.

O that my every breath might be ecstatic praise,

my every step buoyant with delight, as I see my

enemies crushed,

Satan baffled, defeated, destroyed,

sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,

hell's gates closed, heaven's portal open.

Go forth, O conquering God, and show me

the cross, mighty to subdue, comfort and save.

our Ultimate priority

The above prayer comes from a book called "The Valley of Vision" by Puritan preachers and churches. It really puts into perspective what happened at Calvary, and what was accomplished through the Cross.

Thinking about this prayer really makes me want to live for God. I really can not wait to move out of the States and go to Africa. I know God has called my family and I there, but I am struggling with the present tense. I am struggling with the thought of my sin. I am struggling with the thought of the lost. I am struggling with initiating family worship. There are so many things I am struggling with, the list goes on and on. I know God's grace is sufficient for me, but I struggle with knowing I have it.

There are times in my day when all I want to do is sit and read the Bible, but I can't because I have to do something else. Why is it midday when I want to read the Bible with my wife, but when I get home and in the bed, all I want to do is fall asleep? It can't be Satan, I think it has to do more with my lack of making it more of a priority. You have to carve out the time in your day to say "Okay at this time, this day, I will be busy because I will read my Bible." and if something pops up you must say "I am busy." I mean what have you got to lose? Only your life!

A wise preacher I listen to has said multiple times "You never hear of someone saying 'I wish I would have read less of my Bible in my youth.' You always here them say the opposite." I think that really rings true for us all. We can never spend too much time in our Bibles.

I really need to start filling my life with Biblical things, literally. Every waking moment should be spent glorifying God. It can be done, the question is how willing are you to make it happen? The more you glorify God, the more He will reveal things to you . John 15:2 speaks on how God prunes the vines so it may bear more fruit, and that is what I am talking about. You will abundantly grow in glorifying God if you begin bearing fruit in His name. Do everything as for doing it for the Lord! (from Colossians 3:23)

Consider your spiritual gift and what God has blessed you with, then examine how you may use that to bring more glory to your Creator. He is so worthy!

Spend more time in prayer and reading his Word. Why is it I know more lyrics to a Skillet song than I do Scripture? Why is it if I forget my cell phone at home, I will turn around in my car to go get it, but if I forget my Bible on the way to church I don't? All of this has to do with what our priorities are in life. "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21. How does Jesus' words relate to you?

Another extremely wise preacher once said "The Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to the person whose life is not." - Charles Spurgeon. We really need to start digging in the Word. So much that it changes our priorities in life and we begin to see minute things that get in the way of a better relationship with God. It is only then when we will truly see how we are able to glorify God more. Grace and Peace to you always.

L. R. Hughes

A New Kind of Grip on the World

2011-07-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

Well, before I cut to the chase, I will say this: I am sorry I fell through on my commitment to expound on the 25 promises from God. I have lost the piece of paper with the 25 promises on them, haha, and the man who I received the paper from has not gotten back to me on whether or not he can find them.

I probably won't be the blogger you see every week, maybe not even every month, but I will try to post some text quite often. I guess I will mainly be focusing on God and what He is revealing to me in my life, what I am reading in the Bible, what I am learning, what Josiah or Amanda is doing, or what this post is about, my thoughts on today's current events in relation to the Bible.

I also hope to improve my literary skills here or there, haha! They need a lot of practice. English 300 is an online course I'm taking this fall, along with Greek I and Dead Sea Scrolls (for my Religious Studies major), and Fiscal Practices in Recreation and Program Planning in Recreation (for my other major, Recreation Administration).

Now, let's cut to the chase: Satan is evil. Does that statement sound too weak, overused, or diluted? If it does, that's probably because He has tricked you into believing so. He is really evil, and I honestly and truly believe He has got a new kind of hold on the world in today's times. Some of the stories I have seen on the news have really hit me in a different manner than before. All the bloodshed and violence has been going on since the beginning of time, literally. Here within the past few months, I have seen an increase in my sorrow for what has gone on. What I mean is, I have been more emotional about things that are good, and things that are bad as well. We had someone get baptized at our church a few weeks ago, a little girl. Everyone was clapping as her head came back above the water. I was in tears. Here is a little girl who can now go to Heaven because she confessed Jesus as her Lord and Savior (and a lot of other things too), and will hopefully live a fruit-bearing life because of that. Everyone was clapping, but I was crying with tears of joy at the thought of another Christian going to Heaven. I can't just sit back and clap hands knowing God WILL GET more glory than what He had before because of that. That is the reason I was crying.

A few hymns have built up the waterworks as well, today in Church we sang "Morning Has Broken". What a powerful song.

However, let me turn to the more sorrowful things that have happened. Somalia's worst drought in 60 years. Families having to walk 17 DAYS just for water, and here I sit at this computer with a water fountain within 10 steps of me, coffee cup in my hand, gatorade in the fridge, the list goes on.

The largest refugee camp in the world is in Kenya I believe, able to care for tens of thousands of people, but they are seeing numbers in the millions come there for food, water, and medical attention. It makes me want to get a medical degree so I can help them, but I know my personal study of the Scriptures will help them infinitely more when I get over there. In case you forgot, Amanda and I still have our calling to be missionaries in Africa, though we are not sure where yet. This is why all of this is really hitting home for us both (see my Tweet @_lrhughes). What if God calls my family and I to Somalia? Then we would obey. "He has everything in His hands.", quoted from a Somalia refugee. That same man said that if he and his family would have stayed in Somalia, they would have died.

There are so many children too; CNN showed a 2 year old with the weight of a newborn. They also showed a newborn with feeding tubes because he was so weak he couldn't eat. It's things like this that we can't ignore. Reading that over makes me want to cry, but I have to pray for them. In my position here now, that is the best thing I can do to help those people out. I have done so ever since I heard about the drought and refugees.

In case you don't know, Somalia is mainly controlled by a militant group linked to the Taliban, they call themselves "El Shabaab". They have banned any sources from contributing aid to the people suffering from the drought, which is why the U.S. won't help out, because they don't deal with terrorists. You can bribe the terrorists to allow you to bring aid in, but they won't do that. I can't blame them, I wouldn't give money to an evil person either.

Here's the thing, the U.S. doesn't deal with terrorists, but Christians do every day. Anyone who is not of God is against him, and in a form or fashion, that would make them a terrorist. We are constantly fighting to pry the fingers of Satan off of the people He has control over.

Satan has control over the militants who hung an 8-year-old boy because his father, a police officer, wouldn't give the militants a police vehicle. Satan has control over the man behind the bombing and shooting in Norway. Satan has control over everything that is not of God in this world. I am telling you, his grip either gets more firm, or more loose every single day. Our duty as Christians is to fight for the Kingdom. Yes, we have already won the battle against Satan, but others have not. Others have not had the Gospel preached to them, others are still in Satan's grasp. We must pray for them, and we must pray that God's Will is done.

My heart breaks for those who are still in Satan's hands. Just flipping through the Bible just now I came across Lamentations 1:16- "For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to receive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed." ESV. We are called to hate sin, and I do hate it, but there are those who sin and are on a path to Hell and there are those that sin and are on a path to Heaven. Do you see the difference? Better yet, do you weep over the difference? Do you pray for the difference?

I promise you, I can feel that Satan has a different grip on the world today than what he had before. There is a new kind of evil He is portraying. Please, read Isaiah 59 and see how evil Satan is. Understand the destruction he can cause. You can't fight against something you don't understand.

I will say this, Satan has hit me a lot closer to home in the last month and a half, than He has in the past two years probably. There is so much He has done that I can't even begin to name it all off. There is so much sin in the world, yet there are so many blessings too! "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God hath done."

God willing, I hope to share more thoughts sooner rather than later. Please pray for the people of Somalia and Kenya. Pray for the father of the 8-year-old boy. Pray that Satan's grip would be released from the people of this world. But above all, pray that God would be glorified more every single day.

An Introduction to Our Lil Man

2011-02-12T10:41:00.000-08:00

Seven months ago we can home with this sweet baby boy! My Kind Sir and I love love being parents! It's wonderful and rewarding, even though its not always easy.

He was born on July 8th, 2010 at 5:17 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds 3 1/2 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches long! These photos were taken when he was only 1 day old!

Today our Lil Man is over 17 pounds and longer than 26 inches! He is crawling and pulling up onto his knees! He loves to talk and play with our Sheltie. He's a momma's boy for sure, but love's his daddy to pieces! He enjoys eating anything you give him but loves breast milk and fruit best. He has 3 teeth and just woke up!

I'll tell you more about him and our birth story later!

Amanda

Maybe we're back ...

2011-01-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

... but we'll see how long this lasts. I would really like to start to blogging again, not that I ever blogged a lot, but I'd like to start.

I should be asleep right now, but our Lil' King is surely awake, crying in his daddy's arms because he's sick with the flu and refuses. to. be. left. alone. Even when he's asleep. Starting this week he will not sleep in his crib for more than 5 or if we're lucky 10 minutes! I'm hoping it's because he's sick and I'm also hoping he won't get used to sleeping in our bed (yes our bed, the one, well one of the things we said we would not do). But it's the. only. way he'll sleep at night, and he still wakes up a few times. And I am one tired mama! So we gave in so I could get more sleep. Well why doesn't my Kind Sir wake up some and help out? Glad you asked. Because he has been sick with Flu as well; along with 6 other people in

his family! I thank God every day that I'm not sick and pray it doesn't happen. Because you know, mamas aren't allowed to get sick.

And apparently our son does not think blogging is much fun, because almost as soon as my Kind Sir gave him to me and Lil' Man glanced at the computer screen he fe

ll asleep. And there's not much sweeter than a sleeping baby, at least to me, well maybe a husband and wife cuddling before bed

and enjoying some much needed time together! This is my cue to get!

Broken Heartedness

2010-05-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of 25 – Broken Heartedness

First off, I want to welcome you back to the blog, and thank you for your commitment in keeping up with me while I delve into the Bible a little deeper than I normally do. This series is not my personal study (where I get out the back-hoe and really dig deep), but it’s not for fun either. I felt called to do this by God so He obviously wants me to get something extraordinary out of it! So thank you for popping in to read some more!

Let’s start out the same way we did last time, by defining what exactly “broken heartedness” is! Using my Microsoft Word dictionary again, we see that it means “grief stricken” or “Extremely sad due to great disappointment”.

In the context of the scripture I will show you, this specific type of broken heartedness is good. I know what you’re asking – “What? How can broken heartedness be a good thing?” The answer lies in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, out of Christian honesty I must confess I do NOT speak Hebrew, nor do I read it either so please bear with me while I simply get a smidge of information from my ESV Study Bible later on in this post.

Our scripture comes out of Psalm 34:18-19 which says – “¹⁸The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” ESV

What amazing verses! When there’s so much in a verse or two that it would take me a while to understand or comprehend, I like to say it has a lot of “meat”. When something has a lot of meat, it will take a while to stomach! To me, these verses of scripture have a lot of meat.

Let’s start where it says brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. Immediately, when we look at those words, we think of pain, or something bad that has caused us to feel that way. However, when those words are translated from the Hebrew Scriptures, we begin to recognize that they refer to the pride and stubbornness in ones heart being humbled. So we see that when the Lord cares for his faithful ones, he desires for you to be humbled, and brought before him completely naked and stripped of every fleshly desire within your mortal body. Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” ESV. The person who gives himself or herself fully to the Lord is the one who can genuinely worship the gracious God of the covenant!

Verse 19 says “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” I bet you’re asking yourself “Why do the righteous experience distress?” The answer is because of God’s love. He makes us experience hardships and troubled times because He wants to test us and see if we will turn to Him! 2 Timothy 3:12 says that everyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted… We can’t leave that out when we are bringing someone to Christ. I think a lot of times we might insinuate an easy life full of happiness when we are speaking to someone about the gospel. It’s not supposed to be like fine print. This information should be on the forefront of our teaching! Happiness will only come when we get to Heaven. Meanwhile, we are here on this earth that is controlled by the devil, and we must daily pick up our cross, follow Christ, give our all to God, and put on His armor! If we lack in anything, ANYTHING at all, we give the devil a foothold to enter in. This cannot happen. Living a Christ-like life is a daily battle, not a walk in the park. Yes, you will experience hardships and trials, BUT we must look to the only one sure hope we have; that we will someday spend our time with Jesus in Heaven. The latter half of verse 19 says the Lord will deliver us out of distress. Indeed, He will! However, for now we must hold down the fort, and recruit more soldiers. Our God is a jealous God, and He desires you to make disciples of all nations!

It would behoove us to read on in the chapter that we might understand what is going on at the other end of the spectrum. Verse 21 says, “Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.” Here we see that affliction actually overcomes the unrighteous people. Previously, God had saved us from this affliction. Who will reach out to the ones who love their sin? No one. They are left to live in eternal condemnation where every millisecond is spent in utter chaotic Hell. This is not meant to be taken lightly. In fact, Jesus spoke more on Hell in the Bible then He did on Heaven. Obviously He wants us to understand it. It’s the same for sin; He spoke a lot more on sin, than He did on grace. Jesus really desires for us to understand this! He wants you to be prepared for when the devil knocks at your door. He’s knocking right now, every second of every day. Unless we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, then he will be able to walk in unnoticed.

Verse 20 says, “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” I myself was wondering, “Why was that thrown in there?” Well, it just so happens that this is more of a prophecy than it is anything else. In John 19, Jesus side is pierced with the spear. The guards were asked to break the legs of those to be crucified, but when they saw that Jesus was already dead, they left his legs alone, and only pierced his side, fulfilling the scripture.

Rereading verse 18, we see that the Lord is near to us. How does that make you feel? The one who created all things, you and I alike, draws near to us so that he might rescue us from any afflictions. What an awesome God. We serve the only living God you know… To quote G.B. Hardy – “Here is the complete record: Confucius’ tomb: occupied, Buddha’s tomb: occupied, Mohammad’s tomb: occupied, Jesus’ tomb: EMPTY.” Next weeks topic will cover death and it’s relationship with our Christian lifestyle. Thank you so much for reading this post and continuing with me in this 25-week study… I pray your relationship with our Father is deepened, and you know Him more and more. Grace and peace to you always.

L. R. Hughes

Anxiety

2010-05-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of 25 – Anxiety

Okay, before we start digging biblically, we need to understand what anxiety actually means! By doing so, we have a better understanding of what the Bible is trying to say to us when it speaks directly on anxiousness and indirectly on the topic as well! Anxiety is defined as (in my Microsoft Word dictionary) – “A feeling of worry”, or “Extreme apprehension”. Other words for anxiety include: Concern, unease, apprehension, worry, angst, or fear.

I think we can agree that anxiety seems to be a way the devil attacks us. For if we were truly, wholeheartedly, 100% reliant on God, we would not be filled with this day after day in our life. Am I right?

Our scripture comes out of Philippians 4:4-7 which says “⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Letyour reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ESV.

First off, let’s get some context of this verse so there is no case of misunderstanding! Paul is writing to a church in Philippi, to the Philippians, and he is speaking about two women who have helped spread the gospel (yes, some women did that in Biblical days if you didn’t know) with him, but have developed a quarrel amongst themselves. Thus, he is pleading with the church to urge them to settle it immediately. (Why don’t we see this in our churches today? Just something to think about.)

Now that we have laid the groundwork for understanding what the Bible says about anxiety, let’s get out the shovels and start digging into this verse!

The very first word in this scripture “Rejoice” just screams at me! Paul immediately realizes the anxiety that has surrounded this people and he tells them to put it all behind them and “Rejoice”, but not only that, he tells them to “Rejoice in the Lord always”. What exactly does that look like? Is it possible? Is it fathomable to rejoice in the Lord always? I think so. Need I quote Matthew 19:26? It says, “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Now granted, that IS taken out of context BUT when we look at what it says, Jesus says regardless of what ever you can think of “with God all things are possible.” Therefore, there is no need to give context simply because the word “all” covers anything and everything.

With this, I can say with confidence that we can rejoice in the Lord always! We can do it with God’s help! Here, Paul is not speaking on a happiness that is based off of the circumstances the Philippians are in. He is speaking of trust in the sovereign, living God, which is available to us always. Even in times of trial, like when we feel the anxiety rush through our body.

Reasonableness (in verse 5) is important when one desires to maintain community. Paul says we must let our reasonableness be known to everyone. Meaning we must be natured to seek what is best for everyone, and not just ourselves! Paul emphasizes Jesus’ return and judgment when he says, “The Lord is at hand”. He knows when Jesus returns, God will hold those accountable for their deeds.

In verses 6 and 7, we see him speak directly on anxiety! Where have we heard about anxiety before in the NT? In Matthew 6:25-34 of course! Here, Jesus speaks about the birds of the air and how they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet God feeds them. Don’t you think we are much more valuable to God than birds? Even when we get to Heaven, we will be placed above the angels in priority! Will God not provide for us, then? However, there are stipulations. Paul gives us a clear definition on how we achieve the peace of God in our lives. He says with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we are to make our requests known to God, then we shall receive the peace of God! It is this attitude of thanksgiving that directly contributes to our inward peace given to us from God.

This peace of God, which surpasses all human ability to comprehend, Paul says, will guard our hearts and minds. The absolute first thing that comes to my mind when the Bible speaks of the heart and mind is the fact that they are things of the flesh. Anything of the flesh is not good (1 John 2:16).

I listened to a sermon by the amazing Irish preacher David Legge, and he showed me with biblical evidence, what exactly the heart and mind were. I’m not quoting the same scripture as him, so bear with me here. But the mind is what I like to call “world conscience”. In Romans 12:2, Paul says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So here we see that the mind can be easily manipulated by the world, and we are called not to be conformed to it! We have to guard our minds with the peace of God in Christ Jesus!

As for the heart, the heart is what I like to call “flesh conscience”. Proverbs 27:19 says, “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.” This explains to us that when you look directly upon a face of water, you see your face, something common to all of us. However, the heart, each individual heart, reflects the man/woman inside us all. This is not common for us, meaning, not everyone else can see it like they do a reflection in the water. Our hearts are only transparent before God!

When we look at what Paul says in verse 7, we see that our hearts and minds do, indeed, need to be guarded by the peace of God! What would happen if God took his protective arms away from us? Do you ever think about that? At any moment, God could remove himself from our presence, and let the devil absolutely tear into our bodies, killing us instantly.

So, after all this, do we really need to be anxious? Is it possible to remove completely anxiety from our lives? Indeed friend, it is. Rejoice, because you are not in the darkness, and you are in the light… always!

Some verses that go along with this topic that I did not expound on: Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 16:8-11, and Psalm 23.

Thank you so much for reading my first topic post! I hope you enjoyed it and I pray you will be blessed by it! Next weeks topic is “broken heartedness” so be sure and tune in!

Grace and peace to you always,

L. R. Hughes

Promises from God about...

2010-05-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, a couple Sunday's ago I was given a piece of paper from my Sunday school teacher. On that paper were "More promises from God about..." and underneath, were listed promises from God mentioned in the Bible. The topics touched on are: needs, money, mourning, sinful desires, sin, temptation, etc. In the past week or so, I have felt led to really dig deep and discover for myself (and for you too) what God says about these things in the Bible.

So, if you will please, join me! In the coming weeks I plan to systematically dissect what the Bible says about these topics. There are 25 of them, so I'm sure you won't be bored!

I pray first for myself, that my eyes would be open as well as my heart to receive what the Lord will say to me. I pray for you, that you too will be enlightened in your faith by what you read on this blog in the coming weeks.

Just a heads up, we will run into Josiah's birth so there might be a little pause here and there because I'll have him to keep me busy (it's a good busy though, a really good, awesome, wonderful, marvelous, busy!). Of course, I have to say there also may be some procrastination and pauses of my own, but that can all be fixed by a little motivational texts, phone calls, etc. from you! Seriously, don't hesitate to hold me accountable, I yearn for that! Not a lot of people do that these days. So please, hold me accountable to doing this!

I want to deepen my relationship with Christ, and this is one of the ways I feel led to do so! To start us off, in the coming week I will be posting on Anxiety. Something we all deal with every single day. It's the devils way of attacking us and giving us the jitters!

Where is wisdom?

2010-04-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

Lately, God has been giving me wisdom. Lots of wisdom! So much wisdom I've been overflowing with knowledge! This is a good thing, a very marvelous, awesome, thing.

I've been reading systematically through the book of Job in these past couple of months. Out of all the 42 chapters, chapters 28 and 29 stand out the most to me. In fact, in my pocket ESV Bible I outlined the majority of 28, and kept it in my mind that chapter 29 compliments chapter 28. Just a few verses in Job to get you started off with:

Job 1:21 - And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Job 8:5-7 - If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great."

The book of Job is just full of wisdom and knowledge, flat out. Period.

In Job 26, we hit the tip of the iceberg on what the wisdom of God is and His dominion. When we come to chapter 28:12-28, we see that our mere human knowledge is not equal to a single ounce of the amount of God's knowledge... v.13 - "Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living." This also explains where wisdom comes from, as will another verse in this same chapter later on. Wisdom is not in us when we are born. Rather, it is given to us by God Himself!

If we seek to have wisdom, we must first pray that God will grant it to us.

In verses 12-19, the statements say what wisdom is not, and how wisdom is worth more than anything. v.15 - "It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price." v.18 - "...the price of wisdom is above pearls."

So here we see what wisdom is NOT and how nothing, absolutely NOTHING, can get you the wisdom that only comes from God. So is this to say that people who are not of God's elect have no wisdom at all? Exactly. If you are not a child of God, you are on Satan's side of the fence and are in utter darkness before Him. This will be proven in a later verse.

In verses 20-22, we have questions posed asking where wisdom and understanding are... v.21 - "It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air." Reading this, we begin to understand that wisdom comes from God alone.

Verses 23-28 explain where wisdom comes from, how it is obtained, and also speaks of the sovereignty of God.

This is where I make my point...

Back to verse 12 it says "But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?" v. 20 - "From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?" v.23 - "God understands the way to it, and he knows its place." v.28 - "And he said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.' "

In these three paragraphs, we are given the knowledge and wisdom to understand and comprehend where our wisdom comes from! The truth is, we cannot understand it simply because it's given to us by God. In verse 28 the phrase "And he said to man" meaning that God declared what wisdom was, and where it came from, and that we do not have it in us when we are born. So, it is correct to exclaim that people who are not of God do not have wisdom "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom".

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom... So what is the "fearing" of the Lord? Are we supposed to be scared of God? By all means NO! Why, when we are in the light, be afraid of the dark? Darkness is not in us if we are children of Light.

My good friend Abe says "Fear of the Lord is an urgent desire to please God on the basis of His holiness and omnipotence."

By understanding this, we come to the realization that people who are not of God do not have wisdom because they cannot see Him (in their everyday life), know Him (as their Lord and Savior), or please Him (for they are living in darkness all of their days). So, let's run this over one more time to really hit it home. v. 12 says "But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?" and v. 28 answers with "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.' "

I encourage you, reader, to do a systematic reading of a book in the Bible. Break down every single verse you come upon, and apply it to your knowledge of God and understand how it relates to you and your relationship with God and everyone among you.

I'm excited to continue on my journey through the Bible and understand the purposes God will reveal to me. Just last night I started reading systematically through 1 John with Amanda. What an edifying hour and a half just to get through the first chapter!

I pray that as I continue my journey, the nourishment of my mind will bring forth glory to my Lord and Savior!

Spiritual Problems

2010-04-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it, I NEVER post on this thing. I'm not the habitual posting type of person... I'm sorry. I can't help it... -well I can, but I choose not to. I'm at work right now and I feel led by the Lord to share some things. There's no planes coming in or going out so I thought I'd let you (if there is anyone out there who reads this thing, hahaha) peer into my mind and my life for a paragraph or two, depending on how deep I choose to go into details.

Lately God has put something on my heart... pride.

Pride is harmful. Pride is dangerous. Pride is unkind. Pride is deadly (notice I didn't say it "can be"... it is).

God has allowed me to recognize, in certain areas in my life, where pride is present. For this I am thankful! Without God's help, without His presence we would perish on this earth. Period. The devil could crush me like a toothpick if God didn't protect me and hold him back. I've had many opportunities this week to meet with men of God and speak with them about His glory. After speaking with them only the 1st week of many weeks to come, I already feel I can physically breathe better! I promise! I feel like I can take a deep breath and know that everything is going to be okay. I've been in that mindset most of my life, but not like now. It's different than what it has been.

A fellow brother and I have agreed to hold each other accountable on the subject of pride. We are going to face our problem head on with the Lord by our side!

I have many issues with pride:

1. Pride holds me from helping others. When I see someone on the side of the road, I can make one of two decisions. Help them or not. For the most part, I choose not to help them. It is because of pride. I say in my mind "Why should I help them when I'm smart enough to fill my gas tank when it gets so low?" Brothers and sisters, this is the wrong way to handle that situation.

Before Jesus ascended back into heaven, he gave us a new commandment. It comes out of John 13:34 - "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another." Again in verse 35 - "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

The right way to handle the situation is obvious: Stop and help!

A lot of times I find myself scared to help though... What if they pull a gun on me? What if they rob me or take my money? I have a family now. I can't jeopardize my life like that... Or can I? Is an act of love jeopardizing your life? I think not. I have to put away that fear, and reach out a hand of kindness and help them... love them - in the name of Jesus Christ! God is with me, so why should I fear helping others?

I tell you the truth when I say I was scared out of my wits the one time I did help someone... I won't go into details, but I was so scared about doing it. I let the person into my car, helped them with their problem, and dropped them off at their very own doorstep and said goodbye. When I pulled out of their driveway, I felt such an emotion I had never felt before. Love. Obviously, I had felt love before. I love my wife, and soon, my very own son Josiah. But this, this was a different kind of love. A love you can only feel when you assist another human being in getting to where they need to be. A love you can only feel when you really help out someone. It felt amazing. It felt great. That person knows that there is someone in the world who stopped, in the dead of the night, to reach out and extend a hand of love to them. It made them feel good, and it made feel good.

It's hard to say I've only helped out someone one single time like that. I wish I could invite more people into my car and help them in such a loving manner as I did that person. So why not? I'll tell you: Pride. It all goes back to pride.

2. Pride hinders me from humbling myself and becoming a servant to others.

When Jesus was in the upper room with His disciples, He did something that humbled himself before them. John 13:3-5 - Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

This act of kindness is a wonderful way to humble yourself before others. When you humble yourself like this, your pride will disappear! It's amazing! Amanda and I have washed each others feet before and I tell you, it felt amazing. I felt as if I was showing her love (there's that word again!) like never before. To be her boyfriend, and her my girlfriend, when we did that it was definitely one of the greatest acts of kindness we did for each other! It was absolutely wonderful.

The Bible says in Matthew 18:3,4 "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

To be a child means you have no hope whatsoever. You can't feed yourself, you can't drive yourself anywhere. You may be able to walk, but you won't know where you're going! You can't even change your own diaper! No one in the kingdom of heaven enters in without humbling themselves like a child. To be a child means to put away your pride. Children have no pride, so for you to be like a child is to humble yourself, and be as a servant to others and put away your pride. Put it away for good!

3. One last issue I will share with you that I have with pride is that it makes me feel as if I'm better than someone else.

This issue sounds like a given, it really does. However, when we examine this issue, and really delve into the depths of what the consequences of it is, we will see something we probably didn't notice before.

Romans 12:9,10 - Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

I shouldn't have the feeling that I'm better than someone else, especially if I'm a true Christian! I need to stay away from false things, things that make me feel that way. I need to cling to the fact that I have a log in my eye and everyone else has a speck! That's Matthew 7:3 by the way. O, that I may humble myself! I am called to hate sin, and this, this is what I hate! It's the only thing I hate!

Philippians 2:3 says "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves."

What evil tactics the devil has to put it in my mind that I'm better than anyone else! I'm so glad God has convicted me of my pride. When we are in the mindset of "I'm better than you" regardless of what reason as to why we think that way, it should not be so. No one is better than the other, none. If anything, the other person is more significant than you are!

Yesterday I prayed that the Lord open my eyes to the pridefulness within me, and He has done so!

Job 8:5-7 - If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, 6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. 7 And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

So I leave you tonight, with a helpful insight into my life as it sits before me. I pray that you too will recognize the error of your ways. That you will see there is no good that comes from the flesh!

Ephesians 2:1-3 says "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by the nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

100 Grit Sandpaper anyone?

2010-03-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this whole Airbrushing thing really has me going! I'm having ambitions like never before! I've decided upon my winter project already! As of now I'm working on an American flag just on plain white artsy paper. I'm not talented enough for a 3d look so I'm settling for 2d. My next project that I'll do in conjunction with the other one is airbrushing a little design of some sort on my cell phone cover! This will require some sanding, spraying of adhesion promoter, airbrushing, and clear coating too so it should be an extensive job for a week old airbrusher-ist. Now for my winter project, well you'll just have to wait on knowing what that one is! It's going to be VERY extensive though, I will say that! I will give NO hints, but I will tell you one of my friends has agreed to let me airbrush one of his many Xboxes he plays with! I'm excited about that one! It will take some time, this winter project, but there is good reason for me doing it in the winter! See yall later!

Day 1!

2010-03-09T17:22:00.001-08:00

So, today was another good day in DC! We woke up later than expected, BUT we got some good, good, sleep! Probably a whole nights sleep, a sleep I havent had in a while! Amanda and I woke up, had our breakfast and left for the metro (subway). Parking was HORRIBLE! It took us forever to find a spot, we realized later (after driving around for 15 minutes) we realized we could park in the reserved parking... After that, we got our passes to get on the metro, which was rather clean, and finally, came out in the mall (it isn't an actual mall, its just called that) The video we took is larger than 100mb so we can't post it :/. Our first stop was the Holocaust Museum, talk about mind-boggling! It REALLY opened our eyes to stuff we NEVER could learn in Highschool! They had an actual rail-car that the Nazi's transported people to the concentration camps! They had the Zyclon B pellets used to kill the Jews, they had shoes, possessions, anything and everything you could think of, they had it! I was awestruck when we got to speak to an actual survivor woman who went into hiding for 3 years during the Reich's reign. It was crazy! We got to the washington monument and realized they were sold outta tickets :/. As we were leaving, someone walked up to us and gave us our tickets! Just random people who didn't want to go! What a view too! Amanda and I have decided to only post pictures on our facebook, to save time on here. After the monument, we walked up near Pennsylvania Avenue to get some grub. We ate at a place kind of like Panera Bread, only slightly worse, but wayyy more expensive! We got to talking with an Indian woman, from some tribe I couldn't spell/pronounce for my life, haha. She said she just got back from California, from some great bear spirit awakening ritual or something, I don't know. Anywho, she was really nice, and told us of her travels and said she was "sensing a bond between us, a bright, vibrant energy". She also, SOMEHOW knew that Amanda was pregnant without even looking at her belly, Amanda's belly was under the table and she was like "How far along are you?" :O spooky stuff, I'm here to tell you! She then gave me an "elder speech" about how I should honor our marriage, and love Amanda, and care for her, and how much she loves me, and stuff like that. It made Amanda and I smile and laugh. After the weird encounter with the woman, we went down Pennsylvania Avenue and before we reached the White House, we saw a motor-cade coming down the street. We took photos of it and we later found out that it was the Greek Prime Minister, President, dude! Cool stuff! I noticed the Greek flag and I was like, hmmm. Later on CNN I saw where he came and met with Obama, cool stuff! By this time the sun was setting, and it was getting cold, we headed back to the Metro and returned to our hotel room! Tomorrow we will finish our tour in the mall, and diverge out to the Smithsonian! Sorry for such a short and sweet post, but I don't want to be on the internet too long, it really distracts from the vacation, BYE NOW!

Where in the world are we?

2010-03-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

Can anyone guess as to where this was taken? Where in the world did Amanda and I go? Hmmm... And is that STILL snow-capped mountains off in the distance? I thought that storm came through weeks ago!

Blessed

2010-02-23T13:13:00.001-08:00

Sitting in the hall waiting for my Music 120 class to start, I started wondering why God’s grace has been thrust upon me over these last few years in the almost two decade expanse of my life. I started thinking why I was so blessed with such things as my wife, baby Josiah, a new car, and all the other things I have. Then I said, “wait” and thought what exactly is considered a “blessing”? Google defines it as “A blessing, (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the infusion of something with holiness, divine will, or one's hope or approval.” Okay, so a blessing here is defined to be infused of something with holiness (in my case God) and he bestows something on me. I would add “grace” to that definition. If it weren’t for God’s precious grace, I certainly would not be the man I am today. It is because of His wonderful, glorious, grace that I have been saved! So, am I really “blessed” or should I consider my car as a “blessing”? Many of you know I struggle with something that relates to what I’m talking about. Is my new car considered a blessing from God? If I lived in Africa, and never had a new car to begin with, only my relationship with God, Amanda, Josiah, my Bible, and I suppose Levi would enjoy running around the arid fields, so him too, I think I would look at all those things and say what a blessing they are (I thank God everyday for such things in my life!). If I had all that in Africa, would I look at the “American Dream” and think to myself “Wow! How blessed those American people are over there! Fancy cars, laptop computers, education…” Honestly, I can’t say that I would. I long to be taken out of such a secular society, even when the feeling of driving a brand new car excites me. When you think about Africa or some poverty stricken land, you say “What poor people.” (At least my grandparents would, I know, lol). But let me ask you this, what if you thought of African people, or some poverty-stricken land and knew that they had a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? I don’t know about you but I would certainly think, “Well, to begin with, that’s all they need! They should be thankful they don’t have such distractions in their life as we do!” I think this rings true. In time, this is the place where I hope my life ends up. I hope I find myself deep within the arid, African plains with the indigenous Maasai people making disciples of the men and women with my wife, Amanda, and son, Josiah! THAT is what I consider to be a blessing. Writing this has answered my own question! It is not, by any means, a blessing to have such things as new cars, laptops, fancy phones, or any other materialistic item. The blessing comes from what the Bible says. To make disciples of all nations, to glorify the Lord, and if it’s God’s will for you, to have a wife and children that glorify the Lord as well! I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a new car, laptop, or fancy phone. Such things can be used for God’s glory! We all just have to figure out how! I end by saying that I thank the Lord everyday for giving me the blessing of a family and showing me His will, that my wife and I may go ahead and one day live on the African continent, teaching and making disciples of all the people wherever He may require!

Feeling sick

2010-02-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in my Music 120 class RIGHT NOW and my stomach just turned because I just missed out on a pair of these...

that's right, yes, that's correct a pair of Keen hiking shoes for amanda for only 1.25! Steepandcheap.com every once in a while does a deal like this and I just HAPPENED to click on the website and see it! I was too busy taking photos with my computer and editing my debit card and address information :/ someone checked out before me and stole them away! I leave you with this...

the WOULD BE final shipment info!

Trafton on FIRE during Rels 100

2010-02-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

You can't really understand what he's saying, and sadly, I can't remember because I was taking the video instead of notes (luckily it's not on the test!). Just admire his love for teaching and how loud his voice gets and laugh at his gestures! At one point in class, Trafton yelled so loud a girl up front 2 seats from me sheltered down in her chair and covered her ears, it was hilarious! This man is amazing and I feel intrigued by his teaching! I've never seen a teacher like him!

Happy 101

2010-01-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

Brittney from Back to the Quarry chose Lucas & I for Happy 101! So we have to post 10 things that make us happy!

1. Our LORD and the ability to worship HIM.

2. Each other and the love we share.

3. Our sweet baby due in June!

4. Our most amazing puppy, Levi.

5. Fellowship w/ our friends.

6. Sweet Tea, we really, really enjoy it!

7. Mario games for the Wii.

8. Yankee candles.

9. Photography.

10. Nature.

Now you 10 have to post this on your blog:
1. for the JOY of the Lord is our strength

2. CAB Travel

3. Have a Fabulous Day

4. Holy Bonds of Matrimony

5. To Build This House

6. where the paved road ends

7. Yami Yamo=For no reason

8. Jen's Journal

9. From A Kindergarten Teacher's Desk

10. Mmabatho Moments

Go-nuts for Donuts!!!!!!!

2010-01-07T05:35:00.000-08:00

Genesis 5 Genealogy

2009-11-14T17:05:00.000-08:00

A brother of mine on sermonindex.net pointed this out to me... Concerning the genealogy from Adam to Noah, and what the hebrew names mean;

Adam means man; Seth means appointed; Enosh (Anash) means mortal, frail, miserable; Kenan means sorrow; Mahalalel means (Mahalal) blessed (El) God; Jared (Yaradh) means shall come down; Enoch means teaching, commencement; Methuselah means (Muth) death (Shalach) to bring; Lamech means lament, despairing; Noah (Nacham) means to bring relief or comfort.

If we put all these meanings together we have - "Man is appointed moral sorrow, but the blessed God shall come down, teaching that his death shall bring the despairing rest/comfort."

Pretty neat yes? Thanks goes out to *** on SI for recognizing this but he gives credit to an apologetic website later in the forum.

God's full of sweet surprises

2009-11-12T20:33:00.001-08:00

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but since I did not I'm posting it tonight! (I guess that part is pretty obvious though)

Recently God let us in on a special secret about our future; we will have children one day, one day being around June 30th, 2010!
It was quite a surprise to us! Really, we thought it would be longer before we had children, but I guess God's plans are different for our lives than our own plans. How wonderful is it to follow the LORD?!
We are very excited about our sweet surprise! We are praying that God will continue to show us how to be the parents He wants us to be!
The political science department was having a book sale to raise money for a trip this summer to Ghana, so I bought 5 children's books for only $2.50. Total! I was very excited! Our child(ren) will probably have many books! I hope s/he (they) love to read as much as I do! Children's books are so sweet and simple and cute. And I really like them. Although our sweet little surprise will not be able to read or even pick up a book for some time now I'm still quite excited about having purchased our child(ren)'s first books!
I'm only 7 weeks (as of yesterday) so maybe next week I will start posting belly photos. I love belly photos! And I'm excited about getting a belly!
Sorry this post this a little unorganized!
Anyway, I'm going to bed!

I only need one thing.

2009-11-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

When I am alone,
When I am alone,
When I am alone,
Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

When I come to die,
When I come to die,
When I come to die,
Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

Amanda's (very) belated birthday!

2009-11-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

So it's been almost a month since I turned 23! Yeah, wow! But I really wanted to write about how my wonderful husband made my birthday soo nice :) even if it's a month late, almost. First we went on a sweet picnic! I love picnics and the weather was beautiful!

Then we saw Toy Story & Toy Story 2 in 3D!

And lastly (very sorry no photos for this) we went to Anna's Greek Restaurant for dinner! It was amazing! A bit expensive but totally worth it! The food was great and it was a nice atmosphere! On Wed. they have candle lit dinners and that just so happens to be the day we went!

Thank you kind sir for a very nice birthday! I love you!

And next Wed. we're going to blog about our big news! Can't wait! :)

BAM I figured it out!

2009-11-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

That's right, I figured out how to post a video! HA! It was my "wizard" as I'll call it. When you click on "New Post", it brings up a "wizard." This "wizard" has the whole bold "b" italicized "i" abccheck, etc. in it. Well, the NEW "wizard" blogger has doesn't have a video button on it (atleast mine doesn't) so I changed to the old one and BAM there it is! HA!

Okay anyways.

I decided to take you on a journey down champion boulevard on my bike this morning! I'm only going 29 mph, but I usually hit about 32-33 or so but I had to hold the camera :/. So, without further-a-do, a video of me riding my bike down champion boulevard; Something I partake in every Tuesday and Thursday while coming to WKU!

Now that I've figured this out, hopefully I will be able to post more videos soon!

God regrets what He did?

2009-10-31T17:59:00.000-07:00

In the past 5 minutes, I have found 3 places in the Bible where God has regretted something He did. I've been reading 1 Samuel the past couple of days, and I recently ran across 1 Samuel 15:11, 35 - 11"I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments." 35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that He made Saul king over Israel. (ESV)

After reading this I started wondering more and more about why God regretted what He did. It made me wonder if God has regretted anything else after that? Has God regretted anything He has done in my life? In Genesis 6:6, God regretted making man (6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.)

This awakens a deep disturbance in my heart. If God knows all things and sees all things and hears all things, then why would He regret something He did? If God knew what Saul was going to do before He created the earth, why wouldn't He put someone else in charge?

Of course, after God regretted making man in Genesis 6:6, Noah found favor in His eyes (Genesis 6:8) and thus brings about the flood. I still wonder though, because God regretted what He had done in Saul's life, what does that mean for me? What does that mean for you? I need input please! My head is spinning! For now, I will just start 2 Samuel and continue on! I leave you with a photo I made from an application Amanda downloaded onto my iTouch.

What have we been doing!?

2009-10-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since one of our little fancy posts have popped up on your feed... To explain, I'll post a BUNCH of pictures/videos... Although I've forgotten how to post videos :/ so we'll see on that part... Last Friday was fun and games night (just kidding, but it was fun and we did play games!) with the Roberts.... Oh and Levi went to the vet to get 2 shots! He couldn't get his rabies because he hasn't lost any teeth yet! He'll go back in about 3 weeks...

Here's Levi with me going to the vet!

Here he is with Amanda! (He likes to jump around!)

Waiting on the doctor!

This was after his 2 shots... He did REALLY well! (As always)

Mommy is getting directions from the Dr while Levi hangs his head!

Levi says in his head "So long you ugly Dr!"

A quick visit to Amanda's parents, I have a video but I don't know how to upload it!

By the way, this is Amanda's bird, Achile (Pronounced "Uh-Kee-lee").

Monopoly with Heath and Heather time! By the way, we play a custom game so thats why you see TWO (count'em TWO) hotels on one property in the lower right, they're mine! hehe.

That's me calculating how much money I'll lose!

Amanda's pretty fascinated with our cameras macro capability, I am too I guess, I'd have to have an attachment on my Canon 30D to get this shot!

Heather kicking butt (look at those properties!)

Heath has property AND money!

What a crooked smile on my face! I'm such a hustler in monopoly! HAHA just kidding.

The shoe playpiece

HAHA Free Parking!

The next day (we're up to Sunday now) Amanda and I went to church as normal, but had to stop on the side of the road to get some awesome pictures of us against this field of soybeans!!!

There's the field

Amanda's fascination with our macro capability again

Okay, I took this photo

This ones pretty awesome huh!?

Had a family reunion later on that afternoon, my uncle brought his '80 Camaro Z28

Then, we decided to drive out to Scottsville in the rain with one windshield wiper! Yay right!? It flew off in the midst of me driving down Scottsville Rd, so on the way back, I bought new ones at walmart!

Here's what Levi did while we were visiting Amanda's family

Yes, he's winking at you!

There's a video I have of him running into a lamp cord that totally threw him on his back while he was running... I laughed so hard but I promise I felt bad for him! Stay tuned! When I figure out how to post videos, I'll show one of Levi running into the screen door at Amanda's grandparents house!

This is Amanda's AWESOME taco casserole we got to share with our friends on Monday Night Monopoly Madness! Okay, just kidding, we didn't deem the day anything, but that sounds like fun doesn't it?

Wednesday was Amanda's 23rd Birthday! (She said she wanted to post about her bday so I'll let her do that...)

We DID get to see Toy Story in 3D!

Time fore some canoeing!

On the water!

Tiny waterfall

Bigger Waterfall!

Where we came from

These things were all over the water

So were these!

Sweet Canoe!

Now its time for some Moon Pie and RC!

Did I mention we went bowling the next day?

Look at that form! Bowling class at work there!

Heath and Heather

Evan and Caitlin!

Heath was definitely the best out of all of us!

Oh yeah, between the legs! I got a strike doing that my first time, no joke!

Evan tried to be like me, but no, he can't do it!

Brusters afterwards.... I know, thats some major ice cream! It was raining out so we ALL got a free scoop! By the way, I ate ALL that!

Humongous!

Well, there's your one week catch-up! Hope you enjoyed it! Amanda will post about her b-day presents later!

A new toy for both of us!

2009-10-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share with you some of Amanda and I's latest purchases...

A new point and shoot camera! We've been wanting one for a while but never really acted upon it until my impulse buying attitude came into play last night while we were moping around walmart :).

This little guy is a neat piece of equipment. Beware of many more pictures to come! Amanda and I plan on taking it on bike rides, canoeing (did he say canoeing!?), oh, and Amanda's bday is next week so we will share photos from that too! Here are some of the first shots coming out of the camera...

By the way, FALL IS HERE! I was eating at "Davinci's" on WKU's campus today and noticed leaves climbing out of the tree just outside! I can't wait to rake a huge pile just to toss Levi into it! ha!

Speaking of Davinci's, here is what I got! I put my cell phone in there for some scale, it's a super tiny, fill you up for about an hour, snack size pizza! It's their Mozzarella, Italian Herb, and Marinara pizza! Only for 3.70 too!

And speaking of new toys, Levi got this one from Amanda! Not the phone, lol, but the little dog stretches out and has a squeaker in his head, and a shaking sound in his tail!

And here he is sleeping on it! Such a good dog!

1 Samuel 13:1 Confusion

2009-09-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

Upon reading the Bible on my iTouch, I stumbled across 1 Samuel 13:1 that says "Saul was . . . years old when he began to reign, and he reigned . . . and two years over Israel." I said to myself "What?" and began delving on the WWW to find answers. I found that there is some controversy over this verse and how old Saul was and for how many years he reigned. Now Acts 13:21 says he reigned 40 years. Some translations take this as an estimate and some say Saul reigned for 42 years. Some Bibles say Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign(the NET, NIV, REB) and others say 40 (NASB), some even say 50 (NEB). The verse literally reads: "Saul was the son of a year when he became king and ruled 2 years over Israel." Oh and by the way, some Septuagint manuscripts leave this verse out completely! The KJV says: "Saul was a year in his reign, and he reigned two years over Israel." My ESV Study Bible says "the most likely explanation for the difficulties is that some numbers were lost from the text at very early point in its transmission." It also says "Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 6.378, also has Saul reigning for 40 years, BUT the Latin text of that passage has 20 years, as does Josephus in Jewish Antiquities 10.143." Very weird! I'd like to hear you chime in on this! I want to know your thoughts! Comment and/or write a bloggy thing of your own on this!

my dear

2009-09-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

While I take a break from folding laundry, I just want to say I love my husband! I'm so thankful to have this man

as my husband :) He has a big heart and loves the LORD and me with all of it! Sometimes he can just look at me and I melt. I love it when he holds me tight and when he kisses my nose and how he holds my hand whenever we are walking and his gentle touches when are around others (just to show I am his and his alone) and his gentle caring for me when I am sick or hurt and his ability to make me smile (no matter what we are doing or saying).

I'd go on but this is probably getting too mushy, so I will go back to folding laundry. I love you Mr. Hughes!

Baking, Building, and Chewing!

2009-09-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Our dear, sweet, darling puppy has turned into a chewing monster! He chews on EVERYTHING he can get his mouth on! He is also a scaredy cat, or was, until he finally learned that he can jump on & off our bed & our couch (he used to only do it on accident, not realizing what he had done, until he had to get down, then he would bark at us until we put him down). We helped him along, throwing toys up on the couch & bed, then down so that he would stop thinking "I can't do this! It's too high!" We were so excited about his newly found ability to jump up and down (and he was very excited too)! Well, I was excited, until this morning.
Well our sweet puppy who always stays in bed with me when I nap or go back to bed for a bit after taking him out to pee, decided that today he would use his new talent and jump off the bed, and not get back on. I tried to keep him on by using a tennis ball, his favorite toy, to keep him with me. He took the tennis ball to floor to chew on. Well, me being the smart puppy mommy I am, got out of bed, thinking I was thinking ahead and picked everything up off the floor i thought he'd chew on, thinking he couldn't get to it, thinking he'd be too scared to climb or jump, thinking he'd fall asleep as he often does. I feel asleep to him quietly chewing on his tennis ball; so innocent. And woke up to him chewing on cardboard. Then I realized, not only had he eaten cardboard, but he had also eaten my cell phone charger, some puzzle holder thing of Lucas', puzzle pieces, and my favorite stuffed elephant (it was the only thing he didn't get ruined). Lucky for Levi, though our cell phone chargers were plugged in, our plugs are controlled by a switch, that thankfully was turned off, because, he pulled the charger out of the socket (had we ever mentioned that Levi loves to pull plugs out of their sockets?!) and chewed in into at least 7 pieces, some of which I'm sure are digesting in his stomach at this point! I was soo mad! I yelled at him "Look what you did Levi!" and he stopped chewing on the previously mentioned cardboard, and looked like he was going to cry. He looked around at what he had done, and lowered his head. So I picked up his mess, and you might be wondering what baking and building has to do with chewing?
Well, to cool off, I ate a piece of this

that I baked Thursday night while Lucas put together this

and this

together; which we are very very excited about! Now we no longer have to keep some of our clothes in the boxes we haven't gotten rid of yet, even though we've been married over 2 months!
Now I just have to remember our dog is still this dog

and buy a new cell phone charger.

And just for your entertainment here a few photos of Lucas (and Levi) working our putting together our new nightstand and dresser:

Yay for my husband building our new furniture. i love him so. Now I must do our massive amount of dishes before my wonderful husband gets home!

Sing to the KING

2009-09-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've had been singing this song for most of my late late afternoon & evening.

Sing to the king who is coming to reign
Glory to Jesus the lamb that was slain
Life and salvation his empire shall bring
and joy to the nations when Jesus is king

Sing to the king who is coming to reign
Glory to Jesus the lamb that was slain
Life and salvation his empire shall bring
and joy to the nations when Jesus is king

Come let us sing a song
a song declaring we belong to Jesus
He is all we need yea...
Lift up a heart of praise
sing now with voices raised to Jesus
Sing to the king.

For his returning
we watch and we pray
we will be ready the dawn of that day
and we'll join in singing with all the redeemed
Cause Satan is vanquished and Jesus is king!

Come let us sing a song
a song declaring we belong to Jesus
He is all we need yea...
Lift up a heart of praise
sing now with voices raised to Jesus
Sing to the king.

For his returning
we watch and we pray
we will be ready the dawn of that day
and we'll join in singing with all the redeemed
Cause Satan is vanquished and Jesus is king!

Come let us sing a song
a song declaring we belong to Jesus
He is all we need yea
Lift up a heart of praise
sing now with voices raised to Jesus
Sing to the king!
Sing to the king!
Sing to the king!
Sing to the king!
Sing to the king!

I love this song! I feel like dancing!

CAKE! and GLASSES!

2009-09-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

I at first only had this:

"This is my first cake I've since we've been married :)
And Lucas loved it (even tho I cooked it about 2 min too long)
:D

I'm proud and excited to be cooking for my husband! I like feeling like a housewife and doing things for him. I never thought I'd have such a desire! But one day God got a hold of me, then Lucas and I found each other, and ever since I've had more desires to be a housewife, to cook and clean and serve my husband.

Our cake is mighty tasty and I'm sorry you couldn't join us!
That is all."

Then, I remembered something else exciting about today:

I FINALLY got to get my new glasses! No more plastic glasses held together by super glue that always fall off my face! :D
And that is really all, because now it is late and i have reading to do! Yay for being back in school right?

Almost 2 months!

2009-09-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

This Friday Lucas and I will be married for two months! :) and we can't believe how God has blessed us! Each day we are learning something knew about each other, something more to love (except leaving the toilet seat up, I'll never love that). It's beautiful. We're also learning more about what God's will is for our lives and the way we live. Right now we are praying and researching about birth control methods. Months before we were married we joined a small group at Living Hope for a few months. The first meeting one of the other wives told about a friend who had been married five years before having children, not really unusual, BUT they did not use birth control; they simply asked God to give them children when He thought best. I thought a lot about that story, how they relied fully on the LORD, and put Him in control (not that He isn't in already in control, but I hope you know what I mean, if not we can talk later) of their lives. Then almost two months ago (maybe?) a friend of mine wrote about the harmful effects of the birth control pill (you can read her post here) and it also made me think. I've been praying a lot of this subject and I couldn't take it any more! So after a week of discussion Lucas and I have decided to I should stop using the pill. We are still praying about what exactly we should do and that God would give us a child when He believes the timing is perfect.
Good night

Canoeing, Hiking, and Backpacking, Oh My!

2009-09-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Ha, maybe the title is a little bit corny, but for real, I didn't think my Outdoor Recreation Activities class included doing those things! I thought it would be more P.E.-ish and we would play wiffle ball in the yard or basketball on a court. Man, was I wrong! But HEY! Who doesn't like hiking and canoeing? I mean come on, it is recreation right?

I was thinking about my new major during class today, and how the IMB told Amanda and I to have a "fall back" incase missionary work didn't pan out. Why would they ask that? We KNOW God has called us to be career missionaries overseas! There's no doubt in our mind! So what's the point of this "fall back"? Maybe I can take a swahili Bible with me down a river and minister to the children of Kenya while white water rafting! Man, talk about talent! But wait, there's no white water in Kenya! Oh well, it was fun imagery, or whatever the English term for examples like that is called.

Apart from probably the rest of WKU, Amanda and I attended classes for the first time today. We are both taking 13 hours only on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we wanted to still have time to spend together, and still have time for work. While I do not work on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I did apply for a job at Lowes yesterday!

My classes this semester include: Intro to Recreation, Bowling, Western Civ, Outdoor Recreation Activities, and Astronomy! Amanda's include: Anatomy, Personal Health, Anatomy Lab, Psychology(Web), and another Health class(Web).

My day overall went very well! I was expecting all my classes to be boring, and even though my Western Civ class did drag on, I made it out awake! I'll pay more attention when we talk about the Reformation Period! Ha!

Even though I have to be down the hill from Western Civ to Diddle Arena for a Rec. Class in 15 mins, and back up the hill after that for Astronomy in 15 minutes, I didn't feel much pain in the legs after I biked it! It was rather nice.

Brittney, if you're reading, PLEASE tell Chris I haven't really ridden my bike like I normally do since the Tour De Cave! Since he sold his road bike, I haven't gone on hardly any rides lately! Tomorrow though, Amanda and I are doing one that starts at Cherry Hall, and runs through downtown back to Guthrie Bell Tower. Its insanely short, but will be a nice evening ride for Amanda and I. The Lost River Bicycle Society is putting it on, which I think is a new organization here in town! Fun!

Well, I'm off! Stay tuned for more posts hopefully! Amanda and I aren't avid bloggers by ANY means, but we do get on our blog at least once a day or so and see how our distant friends are doing!

It's been a while!

2009-08-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a long time since either of us has blogged!

We are sometimes way too lazy to write! But while Levi and I are anxiously waiting for Lucas to get home from work, I want to say, married life is awesome! I love my husband very much and he is quite dear to my heart! He's been wonderful! I work a lot more during the week than he does and while I never ask him to do so, he'll always do something around the house while I'm working; like the dishes or vacuuming our carpet and never complains. We're happy!

Levi is doing well also. We'll have to post a video of him soon! He's already 11 weeks old and I'm sure close to 10 lbs, which is almost half of his weight already!

Lucas is home and Levi is stuck in Lucas' camera strap!

2009-07-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

In less than 20 hours Lucas and I will have been married 2 weeks! It's somewhat hard to believe all that hard work is over. I still come home feeling like there should be something I should be doing for the wedding. Maybe we should start on those thank you cards?

It's an odd feeling to be newly married, to wake up to him every morning, come home to him every night. Don't get me wrong tho, it's wonderful to have my husband around, to spend so much time with just him and me; I'm just not used to it yet. We're in wonderland, nothing could go wrong, we're best friends.

Today our marriage became a little more real to me. I am now officially Amanda Grace Hughes :D

Best thing about our new apartment, other than it's just him and I:

NO TV! It's awesome! We eat dinner and talk to each other, no cell phones and no TV!

We haven't missed it at all! Well, sometimes we want to sit and watch a movie and cuddle, but instead we spend time together; talking, listening to sermons, or reading, and occasionally we get on the computer. It's wonderful! I love not having a TV!

The best new addition to our new apartment:

His name is Levi. He's six weeks old today and he is a purebred Shetland Sheepdog, a.k.a. a Sheltie. He's super sweet, but he pees a lot! Yay for carpet cleaner right? We are both very excited to have him at home now and can't believe how fast he grows!

I'll leave you with a few more of my favorite photos from today:

Amanda Hughes <3

Levi again!

2009-07-02T11:00:00.001-07:00

He's 3 weeks old tomorrow!

His eyes aren't opened here because of the flash

Here he is with eyes wide open!

He's the ONLY one who will climb up on top of all his brothers and fall asleep!

See what I mean!?

Pretty funny huh?

And here he is using his teeth!

He's ALMOST ours for good! Late July early August he'll officially be apart of our new household!

How deep the fathers love for us.

2009-06-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

This is ONE of the MANY songs I want to be played at my funeral. I know I know it's not something I should be planning on now (but to be honest, not everyday is guaranteed to us anyway) but I like this song a lot! We sang it in church today and sometimes when I sing it it literally takes my breath away to where I can't sing it at all. Recoverthegospel.com has it on there website today! How cool!? So, here it is....

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocing voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I knoww that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
(REPEAT)

Pretty Woman

2009-06-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

I want you to look at this woman...

I know right!? Isn't she b-e-a-uuutiful!?

That's all for now!

Days Gone By

2009-06-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

I went to Midas yesterday, I tell you, it's like a doctors office in there. They call your name when they're ready, and you know there's some huge amount of money to be paid when it's all over with... :/ So I thought I'd pass the time on my laptop and just kinda chill for a while. Well, a while turned into an hour and a half until they finally called my name. Now, I've never really been one for complaints (Amanda can attest for that) so in the middle or so of that hour and a half when they did call my name and I thought I would be ready to leave and pay that abnormally huge amount of a bill they call mostly labor, I was only called back to my car where she (Lexi I call her by the way) was being worked on. Lexi had sweaty men hanging over her, and tools galore everywhere. "Grrrreat!" I thought, and not the Tony the Tiger one either... Turns out, the spark plug wire I had installed had burned in two because I didn't swing it around my EGR valve so it wouldn't be burn on the manifold of my engine (yes, I do know what all those terms mean too). The guy, (I'll exclude his name) who is a family friend by the way, mentioned to replace all the spark plug wires when only one was broken. Dumbfounded I stood and I thought to myself "But only one is broken." I had him replace that one. All six would have been about $130 by the way. So, afterwards I await the huge amount of a bill they call labor, which turned out to be $0 because he's a family friend! YAY right!? I was excited.

By the way!

Meet our

newest

family

member

Levi!

Isn't he awesome!? Shelties are the bomb!

A short, sad update

2009-06-20T05:59:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a sad day for our almost family. Lot passed away at 2:07 p.m. I went into my room to check on him again and he was plopped over on his side. I put him in a soap box, and buried him in our backyard at my moms house. On the lighter side of things though, we were able to return the cage we got for him and get our money back! It was a mansion of a cage too, especially to a "fit-in-your-palm" size field mouse. I'm working a double shift today (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.) so expect a post later on because I know I'll be extremely bored :/. Amanda and I went to a Hot Rods game last night, they lost as usual :/. On the lighter side of things though, we got to ride our bikes to it and get some exercise! Exercise is always good! Well, I hear a life-flight on the Unicom here at the airport coming in, better go park him!

Levi, Lot, and a loving family!

2009-06-18T05:54:00.001-07:00

So sorry it's been a while (yet again) since Amanda or I have posted anything... We've been busy as bees lately! Amanda working all day, babysitting Matthew on Mondays and Wednesdays. Me moving stuff into our new apartment(yes! that's right!) and trying to get everything situated in it. I'd have to say us doing premarital counseling is a big part of it too because that has taken like three (3) hours at a time to complete! Which is exciting and fun! All the while watching the newest member of our family (yet to be officially entered) be born into this world! Our new sheltie "Levi" was born June 12th and we got to go over and see him a couple of days ago! We held him and found out he just so happens to be the biggest of his other brothers! The youngest too! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention (yeah right) the OTHER newest member to our family! You're like "What!?" While Amanda was filling her gas tank before church just LAST NIGHT, she spotted a teeny tiny field mouse in the parking LOT (I capitalize that for a reason) and she just so happened to like him a LOT so she put him in a Chic-Fil-A cup and brought him to church with her! She sat in the pew and gave me the cup and I was like "Oh my gosh, what if this thing gets loose!!!!!" I mean seriously can you imagine the pandemonium that would cause if a field mouse was running around in my church! We go to a southern baptist church, so OUR luck would be he'd go up some old lady's dress and run up and down her leg. Fortunately for us, he stayed very quietly in his little cup until we were able to go to Wal-Mart and get a mansion of a house for him! By the way, his name is LOT (hahaha!). I'm pretty sure his name also has some ties to the Bible if you catch my drift, but Amanda will have to explain her side of why she named him Lot. That is his name though, and I love him just as much as any other pet I've had before. I checked on him a couple of minutes ago and he was sleeping like a log (literally!). He was in the exact same position as he was just last night! Amanda was FULL of jokes last night about his name, which I have to laugh at because they were really funny! She would say "Well Lucas, do you like him a LOT?" and she'd start cracking up lol! I will post pictures later but I'm not making any promises (sorry!) because I have a LOT (see what I mean!?) to do today! Moving stuff into our new apartment is both exciting AND tiresome!

Long time no write!

2009-05-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since Amanda or I have posted anything. All of a sudden I guess we just got all blogged out for a while. Anyways, we had our first pre-marital counseling session last night! It went really well too! The test we took online, separately, said that our relationship was as healthy as it could be! How awesome is that? Pastor Tim said he doesn't see too many relationships that score as high as we did! It was very interesting, this pre-marital counseling. Pastor Tim explained the results to our test to us, then continued to inquire on why we answered the way we did. Next week (and by next week I mean in two weeks because Amanda will be gone all next week) we will tell our story. As in, Amanda and I will tell about the family we grew up in, and any past girlfriends/boyfriends we had, and then we get to share our love story. I can't wait!

ALSO! Today just so happens to be Amanda and I's 2 year anniversary! YAY!! *throws confetti in the air* Amanda and I had an awesome lunch! If the bluetooth on my phone was working, I would totally show you the awesome pork chops I grilled, and the awesome vegetables Amanda made, and the awesome sparkling apple cider and awesome sparkling red grape juice we had! BUT It's not so none of that for you :(. Hard to believe it's been 2 years already, but it has! By the way, I got fitted for my tuxedo today at "Tux" in the mall for our wedding. Get ready for a man that will knock your socks off! HAHA.

Well, apart from our lunch we had today, we're eating spice cake for dinner... I will try to post photos soon, but because of my phone I'm not making any promises...

P.S. Amanda is gone all next week to Living Hope's church camp as a counselor, so I will be riding my bike 3 miles a day starting Monday until Thursday, Friday will be my "rest day" and on Saturday morning I will do the Tour De Cave 38 mile ride... I've been practicing/waiting all year for it, and I know I'm ready!!!!!! Well, see you later!!

Good Mornin' World!

2009-05-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm just now waking up this morning (I'm still in bed!), and having already skimmed the CNN website, checked my webmail, given Amanda her wake up call to which she didn't answer (probably because her phone is on vibrate), I have found myself writing to the outside world on Blogspot!

I have two finals tomorrow. How many am I looking forward to? None of course, because I'm the typical college student. I also fall nicely snug into the poor college student category if one exists! Amanda told me the other day I was a "padiddle" meaning my left headlight was out... "Grrrrreat!" I thought. And not the Tony the Tiger one either! Well, God blessed me yesterday with the cheapest car part I've ever had to buy for my car, $9.99 for a brand new headlight! I know I thought it would be expensive since you can't just replace the bulb too! Labor? That was free, I considered it a do-it-yourselfer and I got it done in 5 minutes.

I'm not too anxious to see what today will bring me, although I am glad God breathed into my lungs this morning to wake me up! It was weird because as I was laying in bed, I could actually hear the rain pounding on my roof and outside over my loud, on-as-high-as-it-goes fan! I like the rain, and Amanda does too! I wouldn't want to date someone who didn't like thunderstorms. They would be just like my mom, stuffing the kids in the bathroom every time Chris Allen said "We have a touchdown on Scottsville Road!" That's not the right idea in my opinion. If God wants your house to be knocked down, he'll knock it down! If he wants you dead, he'll kill you! The Bible says however, if there is one to be saved, he'll spare the whole place!

So, I'm not playing favorites, but I feel like I am. You see, Mothers Day is this Sunday, and my dad's birthday is this Sunday as well. I got him Satellite Radio for his truck, and a little 5$ funny gift. What did I get my mom? Nothing. Well, so far at least! I'm planning on getting her something, but I have no idea what that something is. My dad has been talking about XM Radio since it's come out! My mom, well, not so much anything has come out of her mouth. Either that or I'm not just paying attention anymore. I hardly think that's the case though. There's a couple more days left to make up my mind what to get my mom, let's hope I can!

Who else has a birthday coming up? May 23rd, 1990 belongs to ME! Hehehe, okay, I'll share it with anyone else that has a birthday that day too I guess. 19 I'll be! Okay, that's enough about that!

I don't think anyone is looking forward to tomorrow. I have 2 finals, I heard of one wife whose husbands job is doing some major layoffs tomorrow, and Amanda's mom is having Surgery. I'd rather not go into details but just be in prayer for her because she needs it! Also pray for me as I study for these finals today. I tried to study some last night and got pretty far along but was distracted by a friend who came over (whom I told not to come over because I was doing so). To be completely honest, I've only studied one other time this whole semester, and it shows in my grades too.

I've just been battling school the whole time I've been in it. I'm starting out the same way I did in middle school and high school, bombing almost every class I take! Which isn't fun by any means! I know this spell will pass sometime, I just don't know when. I hope it will be over soon though. I don't like failing at anything! I know no one else does either, but I think it really takes a toll on me. I used to be good at math, and now I'm failing Math 109 or 116, I can't even remember what class it is! Religions of Asia is the most complicated class I've taken yet. All these weird names of people in Islam and Hindu, I can't recall half of them! English is kinda sorta hard. It's challenging me, which I like, I just wish the teacher would learn some manners and not cuss 24/7. Intro to Religious Studies has been my favorite class thus far. The teacher (Isabel Mukonyora) is above all the best teacher I've had yet! Energetic, funny, just plain awesome! What do I get when the teacher is such? An "A". My only one too.

I hope my GPA doesn't drop below a 2. If it does, then I think I lose some important money this semester... I'm 75% sure it will though, and that's not good! Especially if your mom is hanging over your shoulder telling you to just quit college if you're paying for all these classes and failing them... Why can't anyone pat my back when I do good? I know it's only one "A", but I'm holding on to it!

I was told to come in 15 minutes early yesterday at the Montessori School. Amanda will tell you I thought I was going to be laid off! Instead I was told I was doing a good job and to "keep it up" and not to be afraid to "just sit down and examine the kids behavior." It made me feel good, and it makes me want to work harder and do better at that job (the hard part will be sitting down).

Why can't it be like that with school? I really hope I do better next semester, especially with my new major and my classes starting up. Honestly though, I'm quite nervous. Not scared, nervous. Nervous that I won't be able to balance school and work. I still haven't talked to my boss about working full time, but when I do, I pray God's will be done! All my classes are on Tuesday and Thursday, that's a LOT of classes in one day! I pray my school won't suffer from me going full time all summer and fall. And vice versa, I ESPECIALLY don't want work to suffer because of school, but I won't let it come to that.

Well, Math 109 or 116 class time draws nigh, I need to get ready to face another day!

A day in the life of me (and other random stuff)

2009-04-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

Lets take a walk in my shoes for one day in the Fall '09 semester of WKU. Let's begin by waking up at 9:00 a.m. and riding our bike (because it will stay nice for so long in the fall) to Diddle Arena and preparing ourselves for some good old Intro to Recreation. "What? It's 10:55 and class is out already?" That gives you 5 minutes to get from Diddle Arena to DUC Lanes for some wicked awesome Bowling at 11:00 a.m.!!!

Have your lunch money ready when class lets out at 11:55 because you'll only get 45 minutes to eat and walk up the hill (talk about an upset stomach!) to Cherry Hall at 12:45 where you stay there until 2:05 for Western Civilization since 1648 (who thought of that random date??). Fifteen minutes later you have to walk back down the hill (all the while tossing your cookies because your stomach is so mad at you) back to Diddle Arena at 2:20 for some more Outdoor Recreation Activities (okay, I'm sorry stomach but you're going to have to get used to this!). Well, it's 3:40 p.m. and class is out, time to hop on the two wheel and get up the hill to go hom.... No wait! There's more!

You have fifteen minutes to get back up the hill (which hopefully will be fairly easy with some foot power!) to Thompson Complex because your Astronomy/Solar System class starts at 3:55! Okay class is out now, it's 5:15 p.m. and the dinner bell is about to ring! Hurry home because your wifey got out an hour before you and she's callin' your name! What a day! Okay, step out of my shoes now please, those are mine. :)

Did I mention all those classes meet on Tuesday and Thursday only? Oh, sorry, yeah let me slip that little detail in there, cause I'm so sneaky like that! Well, I know what you're thinking, "Why did he make all his classes meet on Tuesday and Thursday?" Well, I'll tell you, I'm going to talk to my boss at the airport in the next couple of weeks about working full time.

He knows I'm getting married July 11th, so hopefully, you know, it will click and he'll think "He's going to need some hours to support his family!" Now, mind you, the other guys have been there MUCH longer than I, most of them are at least over 10 years! But, and that's a pretty big but, 5/6 of them are NOT married! 2/6 are divorced with kids, so that's understandable. But with 83.3% of them only having themselves to support most (if not all) the time, you'd think I would get my wish granted! Time will tell! Remember, it's not about what I want, it's about what God wants for me! I have trouble with that sometimes, and it's hard to set myself back and say "Whoa, stop wishing and start praying!" I try to be in prayer about everything, Amanda and I pray before every meal, and I'll pray for friends, family, and every once in a while, I'll just put down everything no matter what it is I'm doing, and pray! Which I think is pretty hard to do for some people...

Anyways, yeah, I hope I can work full time all summer! Ohhh I want to so bad! Filling planes with fuel, towing them around, parking them, it's all fun! No work at all! I tell you though, one of my life goals has always been actually waking up and wanting to go to work! How many people do you know can say that? You see, when I was growing up, and even now I see it, I saw adults and kids alike not wanting to go to work because they didn't like it... All the time this was the case! Well, I tell you like I told some of the band members at G-Wood, "Don't do it if you don't like it!" Shouldn't that be the obvious message? If you don't like flipping burgers at a college sports bar downtown on 111 Morgantown Road (cough cough Lil' Redz cough cough), then by ALL means, get a job working at a Montessori School doing the after school program with little kids! How much more fun does that sound!?

Even more, how much does being around airpower interest you? Ha, I've been to the air shows, I've seen the thunderbirds (even when they came to BG if you can remember that!)... What I'd like to see more than anything are the Blue Angels! Those have been my favorite since I was a kid! I've never seen them though! Ugh, I know right! I'm saving it for my dad and I... I'm going to treat him to that on his birthday (May 10th) this year... Though it won't be on his birthday, it will be on June 5-7th... The Blue Angels will be in Indianapolis which is only 3 hours away! YAY! 30$/person gets us a table near the concessions and in/out of the flight line whenever we want! I'm also getting him a humorous gift. You see, when he was a kid, there was a doctor downtown (Macavoy or Macavaw, something like that) where he would go and get his shots! Ahh, I have those nightmares too! I hated going to get my shots, ughhh I hated it so much! Well, he's also a big painting buff, and by that I mean he likes paintings. So I'm getting him a photo of Norman Rockwell's: Before the Shot... And writing on the bottom of it "The road to death valley leads to..." Because that's what he used to call the hallway that led to his doctors office! Haha! How funny is that! I have yet to know what gift #3 will be, but I won't make it a funny one or something like tickets to the air show, I'll probably make it like a gift card or something, I don't know... Anyways, YEAH I can't wait to give him these gifts! I won't say how old he'll be in his defense, I have to secure him some dignity, lol.

I love my dad so much, he's done a lot for me! There have been some areas though, mind you, where he has lacked... I won't be specific but there have been times when I wish he would have been the man that I needed and yearned for. I look to other men for that comfort.

Well, class has started, guess I need to pay attention! Have a great day and God bless!

Wow, Just absolutely wow!

2009-04-21T18:19:00.001-07:00

CNN.com is always a favorite of mine. I use it to get updated on the LATEST news and information. Here's a video of a story on there that absolutely blew me away!!! I can't believe this pilot! Amazing!!!!!!

Oh Happy Day!!!

2009-04-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to thank God for breathing air into my lungs this morning and allowing me to wake up at a bright and early 5am to go work until 9:30, giving me time to praise him in church this morning, all the while still making time to put in my 8 hours at the airport... I'm so glad God is good! This morning I kept thinking about a phrase my "mission buddies" said out loud every time we landed... They would all exclaim "God is good all the time, all the time, God is good!" and it kept echoing in my mind until I was leaving work. Little did I know he would bless me later on! I made it to church on time, and filed in for Sunday school beside my best friend Evan... I'd been praying for him for some time now and I'm SO glad he's going to church with me! I literally jumped and shouted for joy when he called me up and took my offer to come with me! Anyways, church was absolutely breathtaking this morning! I love my pastor so much. Tim Harris is an unbelievable man of God. I would be one lost soul today if it weren't for so many things, like Tim Harris and my curiosity to walk over and see what church was like after 8 years of being absent. Like the song says "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God hath done": Honestly, I don't think I could count my blessings! It would take too long! But you know what, one day I'm going to. One day I'm going to count my blessings and you know what, I know what the outcome will be! I'll have so many blessings listed I won't be able to stop, because I can't! There's just too many! But see, it's not a matter of knowing what will happen, it's a matter of writing them down, and seeing it in black and white in front of you! So you can say "Wow, that is a lot of blessings!" That's what I want to be able to say! I'm reading right now out of Deuteronomy in the Bible and it's pretty hard! It's the last of the books of law which to me are fairly hard to read because I don't see a relation to my life, only rules and laws for Israel. None the less, it's the Bible, and the Bible is one awe-inspiring book!
Coming out of church in the pouring rain I ran to my car and told Amanda I was going to my house to do some laundry before work again tonight, I can't wait to see her! She said her back hurt so I took note and I'm giving her a back rub tonight, I can't have my Maynder feelin' like that!
I started my car and turned on my wipers, only they didn't come on! I waited and waited until finally I couldn't wait anymore and I went inside and found my Youth and Families Minister Frank Wright, my hero! ha ha. He gave me some rain-x and I drove into town from Woodburn without wipers! Talk about a blessing from God! He kept me safe the whole way home! Wow, I'm very thankful for that! Even more, they came on when I hit town! Yay! I made it home safe and sound! I ate some grilled cheese sandwiches from my mom (MMMM!!) and got online to find Steepandcheap.com selling a regular $199.95 waterproof jacket for only $55.00! Happy early birthday to me! My mom bought it! he he, YAY again! It's teal/black and I can't wait to use it in some big downpour when we're hiking! Now if I can just talk her into meeting me half way on a waterproof backpack I want to go hiking with I'll be extra happy! lol, just kidding, I'm happy as it is!
I can't wait to go on a bike ride with someone (you know who you are!) on Saturday! AHHH I want to go now! Tomorrow I'm getting my handlebar re-taped because it's coming undone so that will be good productivity(not for me, but for my Woodburn friend working at Howard's!) while it's raining! Then when Tuesday comes hopefully the rain will dissipate and be gone by then, giving me the rest of the week to train! he he, YAY for like the billionth time! Apart from a paper which I think is due this week, my upcoming week should be very exciting!

Ah, what a wonderful weekend!

2009-04-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

This has been one of the best weekends Lucsa and I have ever had! :) We are watching 3 wonderful children for about a week and half; ages 8 (boy), 10 (girl), and 16 (girl). They are my cousins, the two younger kiddos are foster children, brother and sister. We are having so much fun with them!
Friday I took the kiddos to school with me! Then we went to Barnes 'n' Noble, I bought a new cookbook I'm excited about using! Later the Lucas, the kids and I rode our bikes to a nearby park and played! Then that night we ate lasagna while we watched the hilarious movie BOLT! We all laughed so hard!
Saturday we went to an Easter egg hunt our church, Woodburn Baptist Church, had and two of my favorite joined us, my previously mentioned goddaughter Makenna Grace and her mommy :) She was cute to watch hunt! Then we went to color Easter eggs at my aunt house! We made tie-dye Easter eggs, among others! Lucas had to leave after lunch and before we colored the eggs, for work! :( We also got to have dinner with my family that night at Grandma and Grandpa's! I took Lucas some of our good food for dinner since he wasn't able to make it! I also got to show the kids one of the coolest things I "played" with as a kid at Grandma and Grandpa's house: an antique steroscope card viewer! They are so cool and about 100 years old! You look through and by moving the photos closer to your eyes or further away the photo merges as one and becomes 3D looking!
Sunday we woke up at 5 am so we could make it to the sunrise service! It was nice. My parents came! I was so excited! It's the first time they've been to a real service! Then we ate breakfast with our church and Richpond Baptist Church! We always join eachother every Sunday for Easter sunrise service and breakfast! Lucas' Granna and Pa were there! They are two of the sweetest people I will ever meet! Then we came back to the kids' house, gave them there Easter gifts from their grandma, and hid some candy in crazy places outside for them to find! Then! We went on an amazing bike ride! We rode to the dog park, then to Sonic, then back home to get ready for Easter dinner with our families! Lucas thinks we rode 6 miles, I'm not so sure. My cousin got married at my families Easter dinner, and at Lucas' we learned to play horse shoes!
The not so good news I found out this weekend tho; the youngest child we're watching doesn't believe in God!!!! I was so sad to find this out :'( While driving from the church Saturday to my aunt's house, the little boy looked at a pencil he got from the hunt that said, "He lives!" The little boy said, "He doesn't live, He's dead." My heart about stopped and fell to pieces! Later the oldest girl, who has been saved and baptised, told my mother and I how their parents don't believe in God and tell the two younger children that the Bible is the book of lies and God, nor the Devil are real! The younger girl still believes in God but for how long with this?! The oldest girl worries about them and needs help. I'm praying that Lucas and I can help!
I have more to say, but I really need to work on some papers due at 12!
Amanda

Shedding Some Thoughts!

2009-04-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Amanda should be walking up the hill right now to go to her first class... I tell you, she is going to be like "super mom" when we have kids! I kind of want to have kids as soon as we get married just so I can see her shine and "stick out" among the crowd (no pun intended!). Wait... what am I saying, she already does that! She has this beautiful white dress she wears when we go out sometimes and in my eyes, she's the first thing I'd see if I was looking among a crowd of people in other white dresses!

I can't wait to have kids! But then again, I guess I can... You don't understand though see, I have 5 sisters. I've been surrounded by women all my life. I'm right in the middle too, so I got picked on, blamed for things I didn't do, and I got to be the babysitter when the older 2 weren't around. What I want most more than anything family wise is...

a son.

A son who will play sports and go fishing with me. Like my dad did with me! I'll teach him how to put the cricket on the hook, how to hold a fish, how to take the fish off the line, everything he'll need to know about fishing! We'll load up in grandpas ole Chevy and put the boat in the bed and drive out to the exact place where my dad took me! I'll throw with him in the park, I'll teach him how to swing the bat and catch "pop ups".

So that raises the question...

"What if you get a girl?"

If we get a girl then so be it. We'll thank God just as much! After all, he is from whom all blessings flow right?

God is so good.

I'll teach her to fish as well! Now, don't get me wrong I'm not going to turn her into a "Tom-Boy" but she will be down to earth and know how to take a fish off of a hook... My dad took my sisters fishing almost every time he took me and they turned out just right (with a few exceptions, ha ha, just kidding!). I'll want to be just as involved with her as I would if we had a boy. I'm just so excited about starting a family, and I finally will be July 11th!

I've wanted to grow up and start a family forever! I can remember as a kid saying to myself "It's not fair, we go to school all day and the parents don't!" I guess I thought school was the hardest thing in the world! Hahaha, boy was I wrong! I did want to grow up though, I wanted to grow up fast! However, I look back, and I kind of want to be a kid again. I remember running out of what would be my last day ever seeing Greenwood High School as an official "student" there and standing just outside in the back parking lot and looking back and watching all the kids run out too and I thought to myself "Wow, I'm out of High School now... I can't believe I made it!" I didn't even go to graduation because I was on a mission trip, lol. The family wasn't happy about that! I remember being in preschool at La Petite daycare in TN and holding on to my teacher and crying because I didn't want to leave. The days when I got picked on by the same girl who I thought liked me, ha ha, still in daycare here! There's a picture on my grandparents mantle at their house of me, it's my favorite one I've ever taken. I have white blond hair, bowl cut and buck teeth which have yet to be straightened

by braces! I remember wearing the outfit, and the photographer guiding me to the seat with his arm on my shoulder and that snowy background with a snowman in a black hat. I remember it all so perfectly! How awesome is that? I'm glad that's one of the few things I can remember. I'm thankful for that. Although I don't think I'd go through with being a kid again if I had the chance, because then I wouldn't have Amanda.

She means everything to me.

She should be in class by now. We're babysitting 3 kiddos while our friends attend a wedding in Cuba! How cool is that? We babysit for this family a lot, the kids are the most well behaved kids I've ever met! They set the table, do their chores, get the vitamin for one another, every characteristic a good child has, these kids have it! Last night I started a fire in their fire pit outside and we had marshmallows and graham cracker cookies! Talk about good eating! I haven't done that in a while! By the way, cardboard is an awesome fire-starter!

This morning I had...

breakfast in bed!!!!

That has to be the greatest idea ever! I mean, you lie back on the most comfortable surface ever, and eat! Yes that is Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the best cereal ever, alongside all my other favorites like Fruity Pebbles, Trix, and the ever infamous Lucky Charms! As you can see, that's a slightly over sized bowl I have, I like to use the bigger ones because for some odd reason I always seem to have the capacity to eat more than others, although I'm not sure why!

Anyways, I had some time this morning before class so I thought I'd shed a couple thoughts on here, it always turns out to be longer than expected... Oh well, I guess that's good!

Filled With Joy!

2009-04-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

I'm ecstatic about riding my bike around town this summer! I want to be in a relationship with Amanda where we aren't cooped up inside all day. When our day is done, we will go home, eat dinner, read the Bible, and go to bed. We won't have cable. We won't have internet. The only things I want holding us to our home is the peace and tranquility of reading the Bible, having a nice family dinner, and sleeping in each others arms until the wee hours of the next day. Since day one of our relationship, we've vowed to be an out-doorsy couple. I think we've done a pretty good job upholding that! We play tennis, we ride bikes, we hike, we play softball, we do all sorts of things! I'm so happy for that! I'm so glad God has blessed me with a helper who helps.

Gen 2:18 says -Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."

Amanda is undoubtedly my helper! I'm so glad God led me to her!

Going on rides, walks, hikes, etc. AHHH I can't wait for it! I want it to be here now! Oh, and I can't forget the fact that we're getting married! Hehehe, but that's another post for another day!

I'm looking at camping gear and I can't wait to go camping now! I went to Gander MTN. with my mom tonight and she offered to buy me a $150 5800 Cubic Inch Kelty Backpack! I told her I'd like to shop around first before I go off buying one at random. I might put that 150$ to better use and spend it on the wedding! Or I could spend it on smaller camping supplies. I don't know, there's a bunch of stuff I'd spend it on. Not without Amanda's consent of course!

We've both gotten in the habit of asking each other if we can buy something, which I think is good, because there's been some "not so good" things that we both have wanted and fortunately the other half was there to say "No." I hope we're that smart when we get things from our wedding! We've done our registry things though, so I think we got everything.

I went riding today. Rode to the airport and back... Great exercise too! Really warmed up my legs for when I go riding to school tomorrow in this 66 degree weather! Wow, I can't wait!

NEWS FLASH!

2009-04-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Deleting my Facebook on Wednesday.

That is all.

Learning to spread the Gospel

2009-04-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

We're quite new to this blogging thing. I'm not sure what Mr. Hughes' purpose was in creating this blog, but I pray we can use it for God's glory, and that through us, maybe you can get to know the LORD better as we do :)
The LORD is amazing! Sometimes we wish we were on the mission field in Africa telling the small children about their big God, and serving Him.
While in BG though, we encounter a problem, laziness. Many days we sadly lack the desire to go out and spread the gospel to our hometown. We are working this. God has told us if we can't be missionaries here, we can't be missionaries anywhere, no matter what we think. We're currently working on helping a few dear friends of ours get back into church. Two are married to eachother and have a darling daughter, Makenna Grace. She's almost 2, but she talks like an adult. She so smart and has wonderful parents. The other also has a beauiful daughter, slightly less than a year old. Our friends have slacked in the responsibilities God has given them, and need some encouragement to get back on the path to rightesnous! They started going to church with us! Praise the LORD!
We pray that our friends will grow in Christ, and also that they will encourage us to share our faith more often, even in BG.

The be-lated first post

2009-04-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

Wow so I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I (Lucas here by the way) thought I might get to know this site a little better by following 2 blogs. Kudos to those who contributed to those 2 blogs and helped me along my "bloggily-declined" way. I suppose I'll start off by saying what's up!? Hmm, I had my first "turbine bath" the other day, exciting! I stepped into the exhaust of a Cessna Citation seen here and felt the exhilarating rush of air and the smell of Jet fuel creeping up my nose! I can see myself getting turbine baths more than regular baths simply because I'm around Jets more often, he he. I'd buy a Jet fuel scented air-freshener if only Amanda and everyone else on this planet liked the smell as well! Hmm, do I see an entrepreneurs idea here??? "I know I'd buy one, therefore you should too!" The smell of Jet fuel lingered on me all day!

Just realizing this...

God has a way of sending messages very subtly... You see, I'll admit, I haven't been a good Christian lately, I've fallen too far behind on my reading, and God has done his part in punishing me, I can only hope it's over. I've been distracted by too many things, school, work, Facebook... I'm going to go on a Facebook diet! HA! YES, problem (at least the majority of it) solved! Facebook has the ability to become the first thing you look at when you click the little compass (Safari on a mac) at the bottom of your computer! I believe the majority of my time is spent on Facebook! How pitiful is that? However, I pray that this blog doesn't become the new center of attention. Obviously God, then Amanda need to

be my top priority! It hasn't been. At all. I'd like to continue to read more of my Bible

, and I have the time, so therefore, I'm a lazy Christian... I need to get off my butt and do my real job. I've done a good job of having hope in him, and praying, but I haven't done the essential thing-read. And I'm going to! Back to the subtle message I told you I was receiving. He's been telling me to have hope in Him this whole time! I was recently slammed with $425worth of car repair in the last 2 months and honestly I didn't worry about it ONE BIT, I promise! You see, when Midas gave me a quote of $630 to get my car fixed, my mom literally busted into tears right in front of everyone there! I was like "Why are you crying?" and she said "Because Lucas, you don't have that kind of money, I don't have that kind of money, where will you find that kind of money?" I told her "I don't know mom, but I'm not going to let it get to me." See, I don't know why I acted like that, all calm and stuff, but God subtly told me there that it was going to be okay, and voilà, it was taken care of! Now, not in the sense that some random person came along and payed for it all, but in the sense that God had a hand in the situation and He knew I needed a better deal! I found the problem could be fixed at $225 and took that offer! So the other $200? Well, my EGR valve and serpentine belt I didn't get any deals on BUT I didn't have to pay a mechanic to fix it! My uncle and I fixed those things for free (what would've been $200 with a mechanic at a rate of $68/hour).

Praise

Him

for

that.

I'm glad I have a God who "makes everything glorious, and makes me his, so what does that make me?" Courtesy of David Crowder

I'm currently in need by my beloved fiance Amanda to go pick her up from CFA, I thank you all who read my very first post, sorry if it was long but I express my feelings better on a keyboard than in person (which is not good in any way shape or form for Amanda and I but I'm working on it!) Thanks again, good night and good luck!