Prayer

I'm finishing up my research paper for my "Christian Doctrine 1" class and it has been a really neat thing for me to research. Can you guess the topic? Yep, it's prayer in view of God's Sovereignty. Here are some things that I bring out:

1. Prayer is primarily for the glory of God and we pray because He commands us to.
2. Prayer brings us into deeper relationship with God and is reflected in an obedient life.
3. By faith and from the Bible we can know that our prayers will be answered.
4. God uses our prayers as a means of accomplishing His will.

Thanks be to God that we can pray and know that He hears us.

Humility before God

"The spirit of our age is essentially that of boasting and glorifying in the flesh. The achievements of man, his development and progress, his greatness and self-sufficiency, are the shrine at which the world worships today. But the truth of God's sovereignty, with all its corollaries, removes every ground for human boasting and instills the spirit of humility in its stead."
-A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God

More A.W. Pink

I have to share some more from The Sovereignty of God! I am on the last chapter and I have enjoyed a lot of it. What a great God we serve!

"Another example, equally striking, is seen in the life of Job. As is well known, Job was one that feared God eschewed evil. If ever there was one who might reasonably expect Divine providence to smile upon him-we speak as a man-it was Job. Yet, how fared it with him? For a time, the lines fell unto him in pleasant places. The Lord filled his quiver by giving him seven sons and three daughters. He prospered him in his temporal affairs until he owned great possessions. But of a sudden, the sun of life was hidden behind dark clouds. In a single day Job lost not only his flocks and herds, but his sons and daughters as well. News arrived that his cattle had been carried off by robbers, and his children slain by a cyclone. And how did he receive this intelligence? "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away." He bowed to the sovereign will of Jehovah. He traced his afflictions back to their First cause. He looked behind the Sabeans who had stolen his cattle, and beyond the winds that had destroyed his children, and saw the hand of God. But not only did Job recognise God's sovereignty, he rejoiced in it, too. To the words, "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away," he added, "Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). Again we say, sweet submission! Sublime resignation! A recognition of God's sovereignty causes us to hold our every plan in abeyance to God's will. "

Now remember, I'm only giving you bits and pieces. To put these together, you need to read this book for yourself! I hope you will if you haven't already. There are some great things to be found there. God Bless!

Another Birthday!

My "baby" is sixteen years old today! He is 6 ft. 3 in. and wears size 15 shoe! As his oldest brother said one time, "there's never a dull moment with Jeremy around!" I remember God's protection over Jeremy when he was about 3 yrs old and fell into the swimming pool while trying to retrieve a toy, which he had thrown over the fence. He proceeded to climb the fence and leaned too far out and fell in. Of course I was in the kitchen and didn't see this and had no idea what had happened until there was a knock at the kitchen door. When I opened it there stood a sopping wet Jeremy, with a guilty look on his face. To this day I don't remember if I spanked him or hugged him (I scolded myself for not watching this mischievous boy), but I know I was thankful that he didn't drown. When Jeremy was born we knew he was specially marked by God as we observed three cowlicks (I call them swirls) on his head and two webbed toes. Just today he was practicing his speech and looking much older. That's my baby who has turned into a young man!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Family For Thanksgiving Part 2

Felicity gives sister Tovia a flower

Uncle Casey explains a football play to River

Tovia Ann- 8 months

The Sumpter Family

Family For Thanksgiving

While I'm waiting for the turkey to get done I thought I'd post a few pictures. We are having a wonderful time with everyone! We will hate to see them go tomorrow. :(

But we will have pictures to remember this fun time. I am thankful for the Lord's many blessings this year and always! He is so good to us all!

Ladies Retreat

A dozen ladies got together this past Thursday evening through Saturday at the Oregon coast. It was a wonderful time of good discussions, singing, prayer, walks, food and relaxation. The Lord gave us great weather! We look forward to doing it again next year!

The Bible, God's Sovereignty, and the election

Last time I gave you a little taste of what my research paper, for my college class, was about. Well, this time I'm going to go a little farther and share a part of it with you dealing with the character of God.

To understand the inspiration of the Bible we need to understand the character of God. In God's words, J.I. Packer says "the core of the Bible is its story of God speaking to men" (p. 19). God is speaking to us through His word. Obviously, God is bigger and greater than we are, which points out God’s holiness. Later Packer goes on to say that "This is the deepest reason why the Biblical writings are 'holy' … because the Holy God is their author" (God's Words, p. 34). Because God is holy, He is incapable of inspiring falsehood which shows He is most reliable. Unfortunately, not everyone today has a high enough view of God's holiness to follow or take seriously His commands. God can be trusted above and beyond men. As the Bible says, "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son" (1 John 5: 9). Knowledge of the character of God is important because it shows us that anything from God is reliable and accurate.

Now, yesterday I finished my paper and submitted my work for my first class. I was really happy and excited, and decided to start reading the introduction of my first book for my next class. This was "The Sovereignty of God" by A.W. Pink. From what I had already been studying and from what I read last night I began to see how I could apply these things today. First here is what Pink had to say:

"Who is regulating the affairs on this earth today-God or the Devil? What saith the scriptures? Ere we consider the direct reply to this query, let it be said that, the scriptures predicted just what we now see and hear.... Our is peculiarly an age of irreverence, and as the consequence, the the spirit of lawlessness, which brooks no restraint and which is desirous of casting off everything which interferes with the free course of self-will, is rapidly engulfing the earth like some giant tidal wave.... What saith the scriptures? If we believe their plain and positive declarations, no room is left uncertainty. They affirm, again and again, that God is on the throne of the universe; that the sceptre is in His hands; that He is directing all things "after the counsel of His own will".... It is in view of what we have briefly referred to above, that we say, Present-day conditions call loudly for a new examination and new presentation of God's omnipotence, God's sufficiency, God's sovereignty. From every pulpit in the land it needs to be thundered forth that God still lives, that God still observes, that God still reigns... Without a doubt a world crises is at hand, and everywhere men are alarmed. But God is not! He is never taken by surprise...'All things' are subject to His immediate control: 'all things' are moving in accord with His eternal purpose, and therefore, 'all things' are "working together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

I could go on. :-) But I won't. What comes to your mind, reading what Pink said? How could you apply it to today? I believe one of the best ways is through the election which just took place. Let that sink in. Some of us were very happy about how the election went and some of us were very disappointed. With both sides of this issue, though, this fact can be applied. God is still God. He is still watching you and knows the events of this world better than we ourselves do. After this was brought to my mind, I just sat back and felt an immense relief! I don't need to worry about what changes will be coming, God will take care of them and of me. We also can't place our trust in anyone but God. I'm sorry, but no mere man is going to save our country and restore our version of peace. I hope this fact has been impressed upon you. We are not in control of events, but God is, and we can rely on Him to accomplish what is best for our lives.

Transforming Broken Bits

Recently an article in the newspaper covered the story of a man from Spain who does trencadis art. He was here in Grants Pass and did a beautiful mural at our athletic club. Trencadis is similar to mosaic art, but with one difference; mosaics are made from perfectly shaped square tiles and trencadis uses irregularly shaped tiles. If you take a closer glance at this art it looks like a bunch of broken tiles glued together, but when you step back you don't see the individual broken bits anymore, just a gorgeous picture! The artist has a knack for placing each tile in the right place so that when he is done it has become something wonderful.

Just like trencadis, God the Father is taking broken sinful people of various backgrounds and personalities and working with them individually and corporately to build something beautiful. God the Son, being the "chief cornerstone," is the perfect foundation and God the Spirit is the glue that holds us all together. If we look at each other up close we can see the imperfections. As we live and worship together we often rub one another the wrong way. It can be difficult. Sometimes the Lord needs to break off areas of our lives that don't fit with the picture. Painful as it is, He holds us in His hands, all the while, never letting us go. But if we could step back far enough we might get a glimpse of the lovely scene that God is forming.

Let us be thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ, rough edges and all. After all, they have to live with us! The Artist is at work and we mustn't doubt that He is doing something beautiful. Some day it will all become clear as we enter that heavenly rest, free of broken bits. Maybe we'll be able to look back and see what the Master Builder was doing throughout all of history. We'll see His compassion, mercy, patience, discipline, sovereignty, goodness and faithfulness as He diligently made His masterpiece-magnum opus-out of His Church. To God be all the glory!

October in Oregon

Taking off of my sister's blog of "October in Tennessee", I couldn't resist giving a sight of autumn in our front yard. I took this picture four days ago and now the leaves are turning more brown and falling off. Isn't the Lord so good to give us this spectacular season of change and color!

Inspiration

For my Biblical interpretation class I'm writing a research paper on the inspiration of scripture. I've found it very challenging and refreshing to review facts about the Bible that I've known. One thing I did yesterday was to look up the words inspiration in websters dictionary. Here is what I found:

Inspiration, Noun
1. Arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity.

2. A product of your creative thinking and work; "he had little respect for the inspirations of other artists"; "after years of work his brainchild was a tangible reality".

3. A sudden intuition as part of solving a problem.

4. Arousing to a particular emotion or action.

5. The act of inhaling.

I found this a very interesting definition in light of the fact that 2 Timothy 3:16 says "All Scripture is God-breathed..." (NIV). What an amazing fact that we have the very words of God.

I'll let you know more as I finish my research and the paper. :)

Gift Suggestion

Just to say up front, this is not a paid advertisement! But since we are gathered in the parlor to chat about many things, I thought I would bring up a gift that is worth the money. Often while shopping I have stopped to drool over the digital picture frames, as I walked by the electronics section. Little did I know that my daughter was taking note, so she and her brothers bought me one for my birthday. It has been wonderful! You plug it into your computer (or plug in a memory card) and download pictures to the frame. Then you plug it into the wall, flip a switch and a slide show of all your pictures passes before your happy eyes (or you can adjust it to keep on one picture). There is also a video file so you can play video clips, a calendar with the picture slide show on the side and a music file. I have my picture frame on the kitchen counter, and no matter where my family members are I can see them and smile. It helps to ease the longing to be with each one of them and also reminds me of the Lord's kindness and faithfulness to our family.

His Life For Mine

You have trusted Him as your dying Savior; now trust Him as your living Savior. Just as much as He came to deliver you from future punishment did He also come to deliver you from present bondage. Just as truly as He came to bear your stripes for you has He come to live your life for you. Hannah Whitall Smith

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

A Must See...

I would highly recommend reading this post- "Abortion: The Strong Define the Rights of the Weak", but especially watch, at the bottom, the two part video clip of Gianna Jessen, who is an abortion survivor. It is a powerful talk and it will inspire you!

http://solofemininity.blogs.com/posts/

Kids Fest '08

What's a Kids Fest, you might ask? It's fun, games, Bible stories, singing, puppets, Emmons Sisters, crafts, snacks and balloons-lots of them. Last Sunday Faith Presbyterian Church had their third Kids Fest at Riverside Park. What is the reason? To meet people, show them love and invite them to Christianity Explored, a study for those wanting to know what the Bible teaches about Christianity. We praise God for nice weather, a good turn out and a blessed time!


When those puppets came up all eyes were up front!


Guest appearance from John the Baptist

We also had John the Baptist's neighbor "Obed" come for a visit to explain who John was, what the word repent means and other important lessons that only a person can do.

The Beauty of God's Creation

This is on top of Mount Erie, in Washington, where Mark conducted a wedding

this past weekend. Out in the distance are the San Juan Islands.

Here is the wedding with the gorgeous background!

Looking out from Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands

A live Jellyfish off the dock at Friday Harbor

The beautiful sunset seen from the San Juan Island ferry

This will make you smile!

Shaking Tovia's fat cheeks is very entertaining for the grandparents. Chipmunk cheeks run in the Sumpter family!

-Peggy

Persuasion

I just recently read "Persuasion", by Jane Austen, again (for like the third time) and it is an excellent book! I've heard some people say that it is not one of Austen's best books, but I disagree. It's definitely one of Austen's best! Here's why:

1. Anne is a perfect heroine. Not in the sense that she is just too good to be believable, but she is a great role model. Unlike other Austen heroines she has good sense and a helpful personality.

2. The story draws you in from the beginning. You might say, "wait a minute, I read this book and it starts with the history of the Elliot's (Anne's family), how is that interesting?" Well, whenever a history comes along I have to start figuring out how this fits with the story. If we pay attention we catch things earlier and can understand things better if we read this whole history. Also, this was a great way for Austen to introduce all the Elliot's together and then we get to know each of them afterword.

3. God's plan. This book has a good example of God's providence in it. I won't give the story away, but it has to do with our heroine and 8 years gone by.

So, I hope I made you want to read it now. One good thing is that it is actually one of Austen's shorter books. :) Enjoy!

Family Reunions Are Wonderful!

This was the year for my sisters and me to gather, with as many of our family members as could come, for a family reunion. It was held at Loon Lake, about 20 miles east of Reedsport, Oregon (which is on the coast). It is a beautiful drive and a beautiful spot to enjoy with your family!


Some of the cousins enjoyed the beach one day. The weather was perfect!


Molly and Aunt Debi cleaned up the kitchen together. The lodge house was awesome!


My husband getting ready to ski! Yes, he did get up and he managed to keep his hat on the whole time too!


The water was cold at first but then you soon got used to it. This is Jesse & Molly on the dock and Jeremy & Andy in the water.


Mark won the Rail Baron game, much to the dissapointment of the brother-in-laws!


We are so blessed with a great family! We look forward to 2010 for the next reunion!

Party, Hugs, Books, Bee Stings, Knights, Smiles & Cooing

I just returned home from a trip to Idaho. I stayed with Jesse & Kate the first three nights and Toby & Jenny the last four.


We celebrated Casey's 26th birthday; Kate made a yummy chicken enchilada meal. The youngest siblings gave Casey a singing card with the song "You're unbelieveable"!


I enjoyed hugs from the grandchildren and reading books together. River received his first bee sting, but was able to bounce back quickly.


I had the privilege of babysitting a couple of times; on one such occasion I sat on the floor in the middle of a battle between good knights and bad knights and a little princess cooking some food. Masculinity and femininity at its best!


It was a joy to get my "baby fix" as I held Tovia many times! When she smiled and cooed it made my heart melt. She is a miracle baby!



Thus the adventures of a Mom/Oma with a happy, growing family...

Our Purpose

God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.

-John Piper

A new header

As you can see we have a new picture as our header. That, my friends, is a picture of the actual Pemberley (in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice that is). It is a beautiful place!

Quotes from Pride and Prejudice about Pemberley:
"Every disposition of the ground was good; and she looked on the whole scene, the river, the trees scattered on its banks, and the winding of the valley, as far as she could trace it."

"They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills;—and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal, nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place where nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in her admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!"

All for now!

Cherry Picking Time

This is a view as I pick Bing cherries in our backyard. That beautiful fruit just waiting for me to pick it. I sometimes feel like a bird as I stand up as high as I can on the ladder pushing or pulling the branches away to reach up to the most ripe cherries which are way up there. I hate to look up too far for fear that I will try to reach up too high and lose my footing. It is tempting because there are so many nice, ripe, juicy-looking cherries at the very top of the tree. I try to comfort myself by saying that the birds can enjoy eating them. I think to myself that maybe the fruit that Eve was not to eat were Bing cherries, then I can relate to the fact that she couldn't keep her hands off of them. I love picking, but especially love eating them! It brings back memories of our family in the summer traveling from Ohio to Silver Lake in Michigan. We would go to one of the roadside stands and buy Bing cherries. Then my sisters and I, when we weren't swimming or water skiing in the lake, would sit around a table playing cards, eating cherries and spitting the seeds in a bowl. Ah...those were the days...not a care in the world!

It's all yours, God

I walk the streets of London
And notice in the faces passing by
Something that makes me stop and listen
My heart grows heavy with the cry

Where is the hope for London?
You whisper and my heart begins to soar
As I'm reminded
That every street in London in Yours
Oh, yes it is

I walk the dirt roads of Uganda
I see the scars that war has left behind
Hope like the sun is fading
They're waiting for a cure no one can find

And I hear children's voices singing
Of a God who heals and rescues and restores
And I'm reminded
That every child in Africa is Yours

And its all Yours, God, Yours, God
Everything is Yours
From the stars in the sky
To the depths of the ocean floor
And its all Yours, God, Yours, God
Everything is Yours
You're the Maker and Keeper, Father and Ruler of everything
It's all Yours

And I walk the sidewalks of Nashville
Like Singapore, Manila and Shanghai
I rush by the beggar's hand and the wealthy man
And everywhere I look I realize

That just like the streets of London
For every man and woman, boy and girl
All of creation
This is our Father's world

And its all Yours, God, Yours, God
Everything is Yours
From the stars in the sky
To the depths of the ocean floor
And its all Yours, God, Yours, God
Everything is Yours
You're the Maker and Keeper, Father and Ruler of everything

The glory is Yours, God
All the honor is Yours, God
The power is Yours, God
The glory is Yours, God

You're the King of Kings
And Lord of Lords

It's all Yours, God
My life is Yours, my heart is Yours
My hands and my feet are Yours
Every song that I sing
It's all Yours, all is Yours
All belongs to You
Our gifts are Yours, God
All our dreams are Yours, God
All our plans are Yours, God
The whole earth is Yours, God
Everything is Yours

by Steven Curtis Chapman

This song has taken on great meaning for me recently. I graduated from high school 3 weeks ago, this week I finished my last class, and a week from Monday I leave for England with my Uncle and Aunt. I'm so excited about my future and what God has in store for me. There are uncertainties though. I know that there will be hard times, but I don't know when. I don't plan my life (thank the Lord!) and I'm glad that I don't, because I would do a horrible job. God is in charge of everything and what a joy it is to trust him with your life!

I hope you are trusting him with your life right now. It's a difficult thing, but if we do, tremendous blessings are the result, whether we see them or not.

Everything is yours God! Thank you so much!

Hard Things

-31 days toward intimacy with God By Joni Eareckson Tada
-Don't waste your life by John Piper
-Do hard things by Alex and Brett Harris
-Morning and Evening (devotional) by Charles H. Spurgeon

These are some titles of books that I received as graduation gifts. They all look really good! I haven't read them all yet (that won't last long though), but I want to highlight the one that I have finished reading: Do hard things by Alex and Brett Harris.

I read this book in about 5 days, I could not put it down! This book was written by teens for teens and it's message is what the title says DO HARD THINGS. I had heard about the Harris twins and a little bit of what they were doing with their blog (now http://www.therebelution.com/) but had only heard bits and pieces of their story and how they came to an understanding that teens should be doing hard things.

Some key points from the book:
1. Alex and Brett challenge teens to not look to the culture for what they should be doing but to base their lives on the word of God and to seek what God wants them to do.
2. They name five kinds of hard things: the first step, raising the bar, the power of collaboration, small hard things, and taking a stand.

I won't go into any more detail as I want all of you to go buy a copy! It is a wonderful message for teens and I was greatly encouraged by this book.

Here's what I hope you leave this book with:
1. A sense of excitement
It's great that the youth of my generation are ready to become prepared to go out in the world as fearless Christians. I loved all the stories in this book of teens accomplishing great tasks. I was just plain excited!

2. A sense of change
I do hope that this book will affect many lives for the better of our society and our churches. One of the things my Dad pointed out was that the reason teens aren't doing hard things is because of the expectations of the church. The church uses the adults and doesn't expect much of the youth of the church, except to go to youth group and hang out. I hope the seed of change has been planted firmly.

I might explore this area more in future posts, but I'll stop there for now.
I know that I rambled a bit, so if you have questions just leave a comment. :)

May was a busy month with 3 graduates!

My little girl is graduating!

Tomorrow night is the big night for Molly! She will walk and receive her diploma! She is quite a young woman! She has been an example to me of hard work and discipline. The Lord has been her help and her strength and He will continue that good work in the days ahead! Keep trusting the Lord and serve Him always; He will never leave or forsake you!