Dad and several of the children worked on copper for the new house today. Anna was Dad’s helper – getting him anything that he needed along with cleaning pipes, etc. Joseph and John worked with the plumbing too. Jesse was an “odds and end” man. When I came over to take some pictures late this afternoon, Jesse graciously helped me up to the house with using two boards; we stood on one, and he put the next one out for us to get on. It has rained quite a bit the last few days, which makes a mud mess in the yard and “driveway”. While I was in the house, Jesse contrived another way, scrap pieces of wood going down the “driveway”.
Dad has such an incredible spirit as he preserves and works through challenges on the house. It’s amazing how each step takes longer than you really think it would. 🙂
Joyfully His, Sarah
Anna and Dad working together.
Anna cleaning a pipe.
Joseph working
The creative (and resourceful!) way Jesse designed to get down the “mud driveway.”
The girls and I figured out that it took us 8 woman hours to polish the cabinets. We completed them with our project time on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – only working a half hour on Wednesday.
This morning we decided to tackle the refrigerator. It gets cleaned during our Christmas school break and during the summer except for taking care of occasional spills that happen in between. Mary started on the outside and then moved to the refrigerator door. Anna cleaned the freezer portion and finished up with the bottom of the refrigerator. I worked in the main part of the refrigerator. When one of us was washing a shelf or drawer in the sink, the other two would be working at the refrigerator. The whole task was accomplished in 45 minutes by the three of us – 2 woman hours and 15 minutes.
I used to feel a bit guilty if I asked the girls to help me with these kinds of projects. The Lord has shown me how beneficial this work is for the girls, and therefore caused me to see it as a blessing in their lives rather than a negative. They are learning to enjoy working. They are being prepared for a future role as a wife, mother, and homemaker. In addition, we have time together and a clean refrigerator that the family notices and comments on.
Thank you for the love and support you have shown for Nathan and me, our families, and our Susannah. We so appreciate your prayers for us.
This past year has had its difficulties and our hearts have experienced much sorrow. Yet through it all we have experienced God’s faithful, loving care.
You have been a part of His care for us. Your prayer support and kind posts have been such a blessing.
When I was hospitalized and on magnesium sulfate, we heard from you – you were praying for us and our baby. Through the 5 weeks of bed rest you prayed. When Susannah was born, you prayed. As we held her and longed for her to wake up, you prayed. When she left her earthly shell and we returned home with empty arms, you prayed. Even now, 3 months after her birth, I know that some of you are still praying for us. So many times when we haven’t had the strength to pray, you have prayed for us. Thank you!
Many of you also posted that you have gone through similar trials. It helped to know while experiencing the suffocating effects of magnesium sulfate that others had gone through it too (and lived!). While on bed rest I learned from others that had experienced “normal” and “bed rest” pregnancies that I would feel exaggerated symptoms (that made sense). After Susannah was born and all of us were focused on her, many of you thought to ask how I was doing and how the birth was. Nathan and I had just experienced our first birth together – it was a special experience and, praise God, a natural birth. When we left the hospital after Susannah’s death feeling rather lost in the world, I thought, “People will quit praying now.” We got to the hotel room (We weren’t quite ready to go home), and Nathan read the posts to me – you were still praying for us! During the week of Susannah’s visitation service and funeral, you continued to pray, and asked how I was doing physically. I was feeling quite worn out, but God gave the strength for those days just as He had done for the previous ones.
As news of Susannah’s passing reached you all, you shared how you had loved our baby too and that some of you had experienced a similar loss. You cried with us and it meant so very much!
It has now been 3 months since Susannah was born. Life continues. Nathan and I are doing well. I feel pretty much back to normal physically. I haven’t returned to my previous extra activities, but am enjoy keeping house and spending more time with Nathan.
This has been an incredible journey. God has so faithfully cared for us through it all. We praise Him!
Each summer I tackle cleaning and organizing projects for which I don’t have time during the school year. I will usually have scheduled an hour a day for these projects, working from a list I keep to help me undertake what is most important first. This week Mary, Anna, and I are polishing our kitchen cabinets. Because it is wrist-intensive work, we have broken our hour time slot for projects into two half hour times – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. With all three of us working together, we should be finished in four days. Not only are we accomplishing the job that needs to be done, but we have wonderful mother and daughter fellowship as well. Here is a link to a Mom’s Corner where I share a bit more about our cabinet polishing and summer chores in general. This link is for a Mom’s Corner on summer scheduling.
“While I share your faith in the LORD, I wonder whether this act of evangelism is truly the Christian way. I personally interpret the Bible’s message of evangelism to mean living one’s faith every day as an example, hoping that others will follow this example and begin to explore the message of GOD. HE is truly great, and hopefully others will be inspired to follow HIM by their own will, rather than by being preached to or guilted into belief. Every one should learn to love HIM on their own; to be able to find their own way to HIM, because of HIS message of love and forgiveness, not because of a fear of Hell. God Bless,” Blog comment
I thought this comment was too important to simply respond to and that instead it should be a new blog post. If you want to read my post to which this comment refers, here is the link.
Just how clear is the Bible in defining what evangelism really is? How much is left to personal interpretation? Is “lifestyle” evangelism what Jesus commands us to do, or are we to be direct in our appeal for the lost to be saved?
I know of no better way to clarify then to go to Jesus’ own words in Mark 16:15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Jesus used two key words, “go” and “preach.” Go is very clear, and the Greek word for “preach” means to herald or proclaim. Jesus did not say, “Live and let others observe your lifestyle.” He said to go and proclaim the gospel. There would be no need to look at additional verses, but because this is so important, let’s look further.
Jesus often used practical, real-life examples to illustrate spiritual truths. In Matthew 4:19, He said to Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” A fisherman’s job is a proactive vocation. If he waited for the fish to jump into his boat because it looked more desirable than the water, the fisherman would starve. Because fish are natural in the water, they will do everything they can to stay in the water. That is why it takes effort on the part of the fisherman to catch fish.
Catching a fish actually involves death for the fish. That is what must happen to real followers of Jesus. That is why He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Real followers of Jesus must die to self, and that is not something that happens easily.
That is why the only way to bring a person to Christ is for him to realize he is headed for hell. That is why the Ten Commandments were given – so man can see that he has broken God’s law and is destined to spend eternity in hell, unless he has a Savior. That is why the Holy Spirit comes to convict men of their sin. “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8).
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). That is why Jesus told all who are His disciples to “go and preach the gospel.” In hearing, they are convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin and their need of righteousness because of the coming judgment.
We can learn from those who heard Jesus directly and see how they applied His command to “go and preach the gospel.” Did they go on with their business and hope others would see and want to follow, or were they overt in telling people they were headed for hell? “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go” (Acts 3:13). The whole section is great but look at Acts 3:19. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
You might be surprised to learn who promoted “lifestyle evangelism” early on. “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:18-20). Peter and John were commanded by Annas the high priest, Caiaphas and the council not to speak about Jesus. The Greek word for speak means to proclaim. Satan wants believers to be silent and disobey Jesus’ command to “go and preach the gospel.”
The question of “lifestyle evangelism” or Jesus’ command to “go and preach the gospel” can be best answered by Peter and John’s reply to the council. “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye” (Acts 4:19).
I hope this helps make it very clear the sort of evangelism Jesus has commanded us to practice. Everyone reading this has an obligation to their Lord and those they care about. What friend would sit back quietly while someone they cared about was headed for disaster? We must accept that Scripture is very clear when Jesus said we are to “go and preach the gospel”– He meant exactly that.
Life-style evangelism is so much more comfortable, but it is not sanctioned by Scripture. We are commanded to live holy lives, but that is not for evangelism. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11). “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).
Steve
One of the children took this picture while I was witnessing to a man on a recent trip as we had stopped for diesel.
We’re traveling through the plains of Nebraska right now. We’ll be home by early this evening!
We are grateful for the opportunity to be at the CHOIS Idaho Conference this past weekend. After we arrived Friday morning at the church, the boys helped Dad and Mom set up in the sanctuary for their first session, while we girls worked on the set up of our book tables.
Throughout the day, Joseph, John, and Christopher made sure to take care of Dad and Mom by helping with their computer set ups, sound needs, and also sitting in on their sessions in case something was needed. When they weren’t helping, they were back at the book tables with us.
Although we didn’t do our Gospel Music Evening in Idaho, Dad decided we’d sing two hymns before the Keeping Our Children’s Hearts session Saturday morning. Since we brought our small trailer on this trip (which we became very grateful for due to the high winds on the first part), we didn’t have room to bring all of our instruments, just a few of the main ones (the rest of us were missing ours! :-)).
Saturday afternoon, Anna and Mary loved holding two little ones during a quiet time at our booth. We all love babies, and it was a treat to be able to be with these delightful little ones.
We packed out of the hotel Sunday morning and were on the road at a good time. Near lunchtime, as we drove through Utah, Joseph made a comment to Dad to the effect of, “Is Salt Lake City on the other side of those mountains?” as he pointed to the southwest. Dad replied were he thought Salt Lake actually was. It didn’t take more than a minute or two to realize we actually were rapidly approaching Salt Lake City, and we’d missed our shortcut that bypasses SLC! How could nine people miss our exit? Well, we did! So, we ended up going around downtown SLC, and going through a pretty valley up in the mountains that Mom loves, but we wouldn’t have normally seen going our normal route! Our “missed exit” mistake only cost us about 30 miles, and we did enjoy the scenery :-). The stretch between Cheyenne and SLC we love looking for antelope. A special delight this time of year was seeing little baby antelope!
Thank you to all who have been praying for us. We truly felt the Lord’s blessing on this trip.
Serving Jesus,
Sarah
Dad and Mom giving Keeping Our Children’s Hearts Saturday morning.
Dad said that puppies are great, but babies are the best :-)! (After the conference, a girl was carrying around her puppy, and Dad was just going to look at the puppy, but she offered for Dad to hold her.)
The Maxwell family and ministry blog of Titus2.com.
