RADICAL

I just finished my first book of the year:: RADICAL by David Platt. It was an amazing book to open the year with. It definitely was what my heart needed to hear causing me to think and re-focus my heart, desires and intentions. I'm one who reads books, underlines all the things I really liked and found helpful only to never go back and put them all on paper. So, here is me putting "on paper" all the "quotes" from RADICAL that I found really good. And maybe you're wondering if you should pick up the book. If so, here are some of my favorite things:

• My biggest fear, even now, is that I will Here Jesus' words and walk away content to settle for less than radical obedience to him.
• Yes, you are abandoning everything you have, but you are also gaining more than you could have in any other way. So with JOY - with JOY! - you sell it all, you abandon it all. Why? Because you have found something worth losing everything else for.
• The revelation of God in the gospel is good. I invite you to receive it. Maybe to trust in the Christ of the gospel for the first time and for the first time to receive a new heart, a heart that is not only cleansed of sin but that now longs for him. Or maybe simply to recover a passion for God's Word - his radical revelation of himself - and discover once again the reward that is found in simply knowing and experiencing him.
• We have seen how the American dream radically differs from the call of Jesus and the essence of the gospel.
• While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God.
• He intentionally puts people in situations where they come face to face with their need for him. In the process he powerfully demonstrated his ability to provide everything his people need in ways they could have never mustered up or imagined. And in the end, he makes much of his own name.
• Think about it his way. Maybe you are going through a struggle in your life. A tragedy strikes you or someone close to you, and you are hurting. So you go to God in prayer, and you ask him to comfort you. Do you realize what God does? He doesn't give you comfort. Instead he gives you the Holy Spirit, who is called the Comforter. The Holy Spirit literally comes to dwell in you and puts the very comfort of Christ inside you as you walk through your pain. Suppose another time you are making a big decision in your life and you need help. So you ask God for help. But he doesn't answer you with guidance. Instead he answers by sending the Holy Spirit who is our Guide. God sends the Helper, who will live in you and not only tell you what decision to make but also to enable you to make that decision. Yet another time you need discernment, and God gives you the Spirit of wisdom. At other times you need strength and God gives you the Spirit of power. Still other times you ask God for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control and he gives you the Spirit who makes all these things a reality in your life.
• God our Father delights in this. HE delights in giving us Himself.
• Would you say right now that your life is marked right now for the desperation for the Spirit of God?
• The message of Biblical Christianity is "God loves me so that I might make him - his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness-know among all nations." In this God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him, We are not the end of the gospel; God is.
• Where in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional program in the church? We were all created by God, saved from our sins, and blessed by God to make his glory known in all the world. Indeed, Jesus himself has not merely called us to go to all nations; he has created us and commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken the command though and reduced it to a calling - something that only a few people receive.
• Now, we know that each of us has different gifts, different skills, different passions, and different callings from God., God has gifted you and me in different ways. This was undoubtedly the case with the disciples. Peter and Paul had different callings. James and John had different callings. However, each follower of Christ in the New Testament, regardless of his or her calling, was intended to take up the mantle of proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth. That's the reason why he gave each of them his Spirit and why he gave them all the same plan: make disciples of all nations.
• Jesus reminds me that disciples are not mass-produced. Disciples of Jesus- genuine, committed, self-sacrificing followers of Christ - are not made overnight.
• Disciple making is not a call for others to come to us to hear the gospel but a command for us to go to others to share the gospel. A command for us to be gospel-living, gospel-speaking people at every moment and in every context where we find ourselves.
• Disciple making is not about a program or an event but about a relationship.
• Being a part of a community of faith involved being exposed to the life of Christ in others. To whom can you deliberately, intentionally, and sacrificially, show the life of Christ in this way? This is foundational in making disciples, and we will multiply the gospel only when we allow others to get close enough to us to see the life of Christ in action.
• When we realize we have the responsibility to teach the Word, it changes everything about how we hear the Word.
• According to Jesus, you can tell someone is a follower of Christ by the fruit of his or her life, and the writers of the New Testament show us that the fruit of faith in Christ involves material concern for the poor. Caring for the poor is one natural overflow and a necessary evidence of the presence of Christ in our hearts. If there is no sign of caring for the poor in our lives, then there is reason to at least question whether Christ is in our hearts.

I will finish today with a story (from the book) that really spoke to me.

• Isn't the hidden assumption among many Christians in our culture that if we follow God, things will go well for us materially? Such thinking is an explicit in "health and wealth" teaching, and it is implicit in the lives of Christians whose use of possessions looks virtually the same as that of our non-Christian neighbors. One evening I was meeting with an underground house church overseas, and we were discussing various issues in Scripture. A woman who lived in the city and knew some English shared, "I have a television, and every once in a while I am able to get stations from the United States," she said, "Some of these stations have church services on them. I see the preachers, and they are dressed in nice clothes, and they are preaching in very nice buildings. Some of them even tell me that if I have faith, I too can have nice things." She paused before continuing. "When I come to our church meetings, I look around, and most of us are very poor, and we are meeting here at great risk to our lives." Then she looked at me and asked, "Does this mean we do not have enough faith?"

Love,

Erin

A New Year:: Probe Your Heart

Happy New Year Friends!

My resolve this year is to read more, watch less t.v., blog more, journal more and pray more. I'm so thankful for a fresh beginning this year more than ever. I found a great Bible reading plan that I'm SO excited about... it's called:: The Chronological Bible Reading Plan. Essentially it takes your through the Bible in chronological order! I've always wanted to do it and this year is the time to start! If that plan doesn't seem interesting for you or you want some different ideas HERE are many other Bible reading plans.

Right now I'm reading Radical. I'm almost done. I was riding the bike at the gym today and got through a few more chapters, came home and canceled our cable!! We now just have basic. Don't get me wrong. I am NOT saying that watching t.v. is bad, but for us/ me I don't want to watch mindless television and at this point in the game we could be saving some extra money.

Last year I posted some questions to think about. Don Whitney says, "Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going."

"The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings."

I want to challenge you along with myself to spend some quiet time with the Lord and think on these questions.

1. What's the one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently for this year?
8. What's the most important way you will. by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing you could do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

What one question stood out to you? As my mother in law says, LOL :: lots of love :: !!!!

Love,

Erin

Today Is The Day

Download today. All proceeds will be going towards His Voice Global building a 4th orphanage in southern Sudan.

Love,

Erin

Will you be ONE?

November 16th is fast approaching. On this day you can forever change lives in Southern Sudan. Download Actions Speak Louder on itunes and 100% of the proceeds will go to HIS VOICE GLOBAL to build a fourth orphanage.

Love,

Erin

ONE Reason To Get Back to Blogging

All it takes is one. All it took was one strand of E.coli to be processed into one hamburger patty, to make it to one burger king, to one mom, whose one son, took one bite and the one life he had would then be over. All it took was a series of one events to lead to one of the biggest recalls on beef. Because of one situation America has never been the same.

In 2001, one man, Vernon burger, who had, one passion, that being Jesus, took one trip, to Southern Sudan and connected with one bishop, who was trying to love and spread the gospel to many who were orphaned by the civil war. Since that one trip in 2001, HIS VOICE GLOBAL has been in an ongoing relationship with the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church), 10 years and three orphanages later they seek to continue the movement to open a fourth.

You might ask the question what makes this place so special? Sudan was in war for over 20 years before signing a peace agreement in 2006. Until the peace agreement this was the longest civil war to date in human history, leaving over 2 million dead and many children without parents. So what makes this place unique!?!? Many things but one is there are many who have teamed up, like HIS VOICE GLOBAL and The Village Church, to be a gospel centered presence through proclamation and practice. While The Village Church has sent many teams to train pastors, equip leaders and love the children in these orphanages in Yei, HIS VOICE GLOBAL was the door that God used to bring a gospel centered presence from the west into this area of the world. Now there is an opportunity for you to be a part of this continued movement of Christ in this region for as little as a dollar.

This past September a group of 13 from all walks of life from Reach Records, The village Church, Red Revolution, Collision Records and HIS VOICE GLOBAL partnered under The Village banner to go and minister to those in Southern Sudan. They ministered through teaching, medical, music, and loving children who were victims of the Civil War that now live in one of the three Orphanages sponsored by HIS VOICE GLOBAL. Moved by the fruit there and continued need, Tedashii, Lecrae (Reach Records artist), Swoope (Collision Records artist) and Jai teamed up to do a single to raise awareness and funds for a fourth orphanage in Southern Sudan. The single, which is slated to be released November 16th under new label Collision Records is called Actions Speak Louder. This single and symbol seen above calls believers to move beyond awareness and put their prayers in motion, to quote the song. The symbol inspired by the scriptures that say a strand of three cords are not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12), the exclamation points showing the immediate nature of the call to apply the gospel (Luke 4:18-19), the highlight of one exclamation point showing the power of one to change and lead others and the patch like design showing the reality that there is strength in numbers, calling believers to action, an action beyond themselves.

So leading up to this date will you be the one to blog, the one to tweet, the one to put a twibbon on your twitter account (see the twibbon below click on the link to support), the one to Facebook, the one to lead and allow you actions to speak as loud as your words. The average number of songs downloaded per day are close to 10,000,000 yes that is correct 10 million. Come November 16th HIS VOICE GLOBAL only needs over 250,000 one’s to download this amazing song (which is not even 10% of the daily average) to complete and have a fourth self sustaining orphanage. We are not asking you to change your lifestyle just point your efforts toward something that will last. The amazing thing about this whole campaign is that 100 percent of the profits from the song will go toward this fourth orphanage. All it takes is one!!!

Thanks for coming back and I promise more to come!!

Love,

Erin

Museum Glory

For all of you in the "burbs" of Chi-town this is a must visit - The Frankfort Children's Museum. I went for the first time with my friend Ryan and 2 of her 4 kids!

It was great - I mean, the museum wasn't spectacular, BUT what I loved was that the kids could play, paint, color, craft, read, draw, play dress up, and there was NO clean up whatsoever!~ It was the most amazing place I have ever been!! What an amazing concept! There was even a face painting station where the mommy's could paint their children's faces! Very cute!

Another tip - they are closed on Monday's for cleaning so if you are the first ones in on Tuesday you have a sanitary, non germ infested play-haven awaiting!

Happy Playing!

Where is your favorite kid-friendly place to visit?

Love,

Erin

Is It Summer Yet?

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for summer. Two days of 80 degrees is all I need to get ready. We already broke out the whale pool since the big pool doesn't open for another 3 weeks!! We love our whale pool! The kids were also blessed with a new toy from Grandpa and Gigi!! Thanks you guys! We LOVE it! Here's to praying this summer is a lot warmer and a lot longer than last year!!

Love,

Erin