2 Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king.

David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife[a] of Uriah. 7 Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa.[b] 8 Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. 9 Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon,[c] and Amon begot Josiah. 11 Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.

12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. 14 Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. 15 Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. 16 And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.

As I read over the genealogy in Matthews’ Gospel I think of how many times I have had to read other genealogies in the old testament and how I despise to read them only because I can barely pronounce the words.

This genealogy is so different  and mainly because it the direct line all the way from Abraham and through the tribe of Judah.

I myself have singled out certain people in this genealogy thinking “why in the world are they in there!!” And just amazed at others that are named in there, namely Tamar, Ruth and Rahab… Especially Rahab! Not just a woman but also a prostitute and not just that, but a gentile as well!!

But there are so many other names in this genealogy that we should be amazed at. BUT we should be amazed that there are any names in there.

To start off The patriarchs were liars, attempted murderers and thieves. David himself was a murderer and adulterer and the the Bible labels him “A man after Gods’ own heart!!” Some of the most wicked kings in Israel’s history are named here…

Then I have to ask myself “why” why would Jesus identify with such people?

I was going to go through every name one by one and talk about why I am so amazed at why such people would be in this genealogy…

But then by the sprits leading I got to thinking about me… me… Why would Jesus choose me?!  Choose me to plant a Church and bring the gospel to the lost in this region.. As far as I am concerned I may not have sawn a prophet in two but  according to Christ my anger towards others in the past has been the same as murder, and I am just naming one thing… I am the most filthy, rotten sinner that I know!!

We are quick to look at a list of these people and be in total amazement and rightly so. We should also be amazed that God would use us!! When I think about that I realize that I can identify with this list of people! I can identify and relate with 12 clueless people that Jesus chose to be his disciples and even prayed all night the night before.

Jesus you are amazing!!! Thank you for your grace and mercy to a sinner like myself!

Help me to show grace and mercy to others as you have shown it to me!!

On Saturday night the charger for our MacBooks died.  No matter what outlet we tried, and even after visiting the support site and doing all the troubleshooting steps, Nada.  My(Meredith’s) school laptop was dead, and our own laptop was charged, but that wouldn’t last long.

Therefore, we planned a quick little trip into Boothbay so that I could pick up the charger for my school laptop.  Once we got there,  I tested out the charger, and surprisingly enough, it worked. *facepalm*
Rather than get annoyed, we have learned that there is a reason for all things.  There must have been a reason for our spontaneous trip into Boothbay.

While we did not see anyone, or find the perfect house, we did have a lovely time, and did feel the sense that God is TRULY calling us there.  It was a beautiful day.

At one point, I remembered a word of prophesy that Randy and I had received shortly after we met.  I was leading worship at a friends church for a monthly worship and prayer evening.  We had been together only a couple of weeks.  One of the pastors of the church came over to us during the prayer portion and proclaimed that he had a “word” for us from the Lord.  ”You (looking at Randy) will bring the people to Christ, and your (looking at Meredith) music will be what draws them in.”

Whoa.
At that time, I was leading worship for the Youth Group that Randy was leading.  That was the whole premise of our meeting each other! ( He needed a musician.  Ended up with a fiance.  Weird.  :)  )
So naturally, we assumed that the word was applying to our work with the youth.  However, since the Lord brought it to my mind again, and because it is resonating with us again so strongly, we feel that it was REALLY about this new chapter of our lives.

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
³⁷ Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’^[a]

Wow! It has really been a long time since my last post! Please forgive me.   Today I really felt led to check out my blog and after changing a couple of things I asked my wife if she would check out my blog.  ”Cool,” she says, ” I really like it.” After that she told me that I ought to check out my last blog post (Am I content). WOW! I have been struggling for a long time with this thing called idol worship. I think that most of us can relate.  We as Christians want to be more like Jesus.  We read our Bibles and pray everyday, or sometimes…We think we are trying our best at this thing called Christianity, but to be quite frank, our best will never be good enough.

Let me tell you what happens when we try “our” best.  Bad things happen. I have been trying to do this on my own for too long and the Lord, once again, got ahold of me.  He led me to listen to some sermons from a friend from Bible College who is now a pastor at Reality LA.  ”realityla.com” The Lord used the sermons on Subversion to radically change my life. Particularly concerning the idols that I still hold on my heart. He has changed me so much that I have put many things that I believe might be idols at the foot of the cross, including my wife, my children, and even my snowboard.  And for those of you who know me well know that those have been the most important things in my life. My wife and my children will always be a high priority in my life, but they can never take the number one position in my heart. They always need to be second to Jesus. If they are, then I will be a better husband and father because of it. Maybe even a better snowboarder! LOL.

Reading the passage from Matthew 22:34-37 really stumps me, and if you read Dueteronomy 6:5 it also says to love the Lord with all your strength.  I really struggle with that. Not that I don’t want to love Jesus with everything I am. But I don’t even think that I can wrap my mind around Loving the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. So I am asking Him to help me. To give me the power of His Spirit to love Him with all I’ve got.

Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” John 15:5 says “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.”   We cannot live this Christian life without Jesus.  Are you at a stand still in your walk?  Are you walking in place or maybe even backslidden? Or another question…Do you love Jesus? Jesus said “If you love Me,  keep my commandments. (John 14:15)      It is time for us to renounce the idols that have our heart and our full attention and let Jesus, who paid the ultimate price for our sins, to take His rightful place on the throne of our lives!  Ask Him to point out the idols in your life and and be obedient to Him and place them at the foot of the cross.  You wont be sorry!!!

God Bless You!

I decided this morning to go onto our former chuches web-site and listen to my former Pastors most recent sermon. The Sermon was revolved around Philipians 4:11,12.

After getting through only half of the sermon I started to break down and evaluate where I am spiritually…When I was done evaluating, I came to the conclusion that I have really been struggling the past few months in my walk with the Lord.  No, I didn’t wake up in the morning every morning for the past few months and decide that I wasn’t going to rely on the Lord like he calls me to.

The root of the problem is that I have an Idol that I have brought into the house and it something that is hard to get rid of… It is called materialism, and I have struggled with this for as long as I can remember.   But when I look back on the last few months, that is all I have been trying to fill myself with.    I don’t have allot more things than I had a few months ago. It’s like I have been window shopping in my head and coveting everything that I see…How stupid is that… Who need’s a mall for crying out loud, when I have my own filthy heart?

I KNOW that the only person that can fully satisfy me is Jesus! My idols are a bottomless pit, they will never satisfy!

Before I go I would like to ask my Lord if he will forgive me?

Meredith please forgive me for not being an example in the home for the last few months.

Please stay tuned for more posts…

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed and enviably happy (with a happiness produced by the experience of Gods’ favor and especially conditioned by His matchless Grace) are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”

The word “Mourn” in the Greek implies mourning for the death of someone. In this case I believe that Jesus is talking about mourning because of our present condition (our sinful nature). Also mourning for the unbelievers who continuously reject the cross and the free gift of salvation that Christ offers.   But I would like to point it inward even more, mourning because of my own sin and my own sinful nature.

I must, in order to keep in fellowship with God, repent of my sin. And I find that when I repent a natural mourning takes place. Not because I sinned and got caught, but because my sin grieves the heart of my God whom I love and want to serve, And my sin is what separates me from Him.

I encourage you, if there is sin in your life that is keeping you from true fellowship with Him, Mourn and Repent and recieve the comfort and blessing that can only come from Him.

Today I am going to start a long drawn out study of the Beatitudes. I really don’t wan’t to miss a beat on this study which is why I have chosen to take my time.

C.I. Schofield called the Beatitudes “The law raised to the ninth power.” And with that said, I want to tell you now that if you are looking for your ears to be tickled throughout this study, it won’t happen. But I do hope that your faith is strengthened and challenged and encouraged at the same time. So strap yourselves in for a wild ride…Here we go!

Matthew 5:3

“Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous – with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The core part of this verse is “poor in spirit.” Amongst all of the other things mentioned by Jesus in the Beatitudes their is a reason why this is the first thing he said. You guessed it, this is where it starts!

Remember when you first came to the Lord, You were at a place in your life where you knew that you had nothing to offer Him. You asked Him into your heart on the basis of the fact that you realized that you are a sinner and there was nothing you could do to earn eternal life.

What happened

I am not trying to preach to “you the reader” as much as I believe The Lord is talking to ME.

No matter what what is going on in our life the only thing that we can truly offer Him is our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1,2).

I am going to make this short and sweet… Everything in this life revolves around Jesus. and apart from him, everything in this life is empty and means nothing!

No matter if you have been a believer for 30 days of fifty years we can only come to the Lord on the basis of the fact that we are spiritually bankrupt without Him and any good that we do is because He did it through us. And the person who does this is Blessed! Blessed to the point that they are so happy. So happy that others will see it and want exactly what you have.

So start today. Give him everything, your hopes and your dreams…Everything, and you will not be sorry.

Have a blessed day.

I will have a new post up on Tuesday, June 10, 2008

In Christ

Randy

One of the great positives of our new place is we now have high speed internet. So we can look forward to a new look soon on the blog.

Thank You for your patience!

In Christ

Randy