Lilyana

I just wanted to draw your attention to a new link on the right. It's for Lilyana. She's been in the hospital for a month now this time around. She is getting stronger, but has a long way to go. I'm so proud of her parents, Chris and Jenna, and their love and unending faith and hope for this precious little girl. Please keep Lily and her whole family in your prayers. God has huge plans for all of them, and prayer support is definitely needed and appreciated!

Graduation Season

It's that time of year once again. Sunday, May 4, we traveled up to Mishawaka for Ashley's graduation from Bethel. We had the pleasure of meeting her parents, siblings, and several extended family members. They are such warm and genuine people, and I felt like we had known them our whole life. It was a really nice day.








Here is Adam, Jim and Taylor's graduation party invitation. We had a sunny day in between all the rainy ones to snap a few pictures. This was our favorite!! My plan is to have announcements and invitations in the mail by Friday. We'll see how it goes...

What is YOUR Jericho?

We were at a conference this weekend, and someone shared an interesting perspective about the story of the Israelites marching around Jericho that I hadn't thought of before.

In Joshua 6, before the Israelites ever marched around Jericho, the Lord declared that He had delivered Jericho into their hands. Then He told them to march around the city once for six days, and then on the seventh day to march around Jericho seven times and then when they heard the long blast from the priests' trumpets, they were to shout, and the walls would fall down.

I had never really thought about why they marched for seven days. Did God need seven days to prepare to make the walls fall down? Not a chance. Perhaps the seven days were for the Israelites, so that day after day as they were walking around they could see the enormity of their problem, and that by day seven, they would know without a shadow of a doubt that if the walls were going to fall down it would have to be a supernatural act and not one of their own doing.

On day seven, then, after marching around seven times, what was next? Did God say charge the walls? No, He said, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city..." In other words, praise, celebrate, worship, let the party begin!

I think we can apply the story of Jericho to our lives. What Jericho are you marching around? Finances, family relationships, job situations, school situations, church situations... Is God just wanting to let you suffer where you're at, or perhaps does He want you to realize how big the situation is and that you can't do it on your own?

And then on the seventh day, what did He have them do, He said, "Shout!" We already know the victory is ours, just as he promised the Israelites that He had given them the city. We know that He desires for us to live abundant lives, not victims of our circumstances, but to rise above them.

So, turn on your worship music and shout and praise Him for the victory to come! It is the enemy of our souls who strives to take away our hope. We have EVERY reason to be hopeful as children of God, and if we are feeling without hope about a situation, then we are listening to the lies of the deceiver.

II Corinthians 10:3-5 says, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

So that's what I'm pondering this week. Any thoughts or further insight, please share with me your comments!