update & clarification

So, we had a pretty normal weekend. 

Saturday, we went to the church and put out the music for Sunday and spent some time talking with a friend. It was really nice. 

Then we went shopping for Mp3 players and paint for in the house.I have always like my iPod, and thought I'd have to try to get a cheep iPod. But instead I picked out an Mp3 player that shows video and pictures and holds a ton of photos. We changed all our purchased music into mp3's so I didn't even lose any of my music! I doubts but it worked. Jeremy is real happy with the one he got too. His was 5$ cheaper, but doesn't do as much. 

Then yesterday Jeremy was attached to computers all day. The church computer doing his weekly recordings, his to explain how to do all the weekly recordings, and then ours to get it to network with his. Yikes. He wasn't much company for the day. 

This week we look forward to trying to meet with the local community college, and our 'money' guy, to see how to pay for it all!

I may not have been clear last time I posted about our speed bump. We know Jeremy will need something like 32 credits of community college. So, though we don't know where yet, he'll go to college full time for a year, while I work. Then after that year (2 semesters) he'll go to seminary full time. Jeremy looks forward to working part time during school, but I think we'll need him to stay with Anora after school to avoid daycare. But I suppose that all depends on our jobs, I may be getting a head of myself. But we're undaunted, and still looking forward to him going to school.  We have reasons for staying in DeWitt (several really), but several for moving too. As long as God is with us, we can't go wrong. 

We're back from our trip to the great white north! I have so much to tell, so bare with me. 

We got there in great time. 8 hours! We went to Steve & Barb's. It's not hard to find at all, and it's a real nice house. We unloaded the truck we drove. It had some things of thier's from their move. Then went in to warm up. It was a bit colder, but not shocking. But the snow was surprising. We left brown grass here, but up there there is at least6" everywhere not counting drifts and plow mounds.

The next morning we went to church. It was really nice. Small, but the people were almost as welcoming as here. But they all seemed real nice, and Anora was playing with a little girl by the time we left. Jeremy met someone from the seminary and talked with him a lot. And I met a few women. They had good coffee, though slightly weak. 

Then after church we spent the day with Barb & Steve. She fixed a big meal and had a fancy table. It was so nice. Then they took us for a nap, or drive, depending who you asked. Anora, Micah, and Barb napped. The rest of us learned the streets and layout of town. 

Then we went to the President of the Seminary's home and met him and his wife and also Professor Erickson. What wonderful people! It was nice. We had pizza and good discussion. 

The next day was Jeremy's trip to the seminary. We got a little surprising news, and that gave us a little speed bump. We had the understanding that Jeremy could take his general ed. courses at the same time as seminary. But there is a very recent change where he has to complete his gen. ed. before attending seminary. So, now things are slowing down, and waiting on God to show our next step. "we" still want to move. But we want to make sure that is what we "should" do. 

But after that we still met with the community college and liked what they had to say. And we still met with the realtor, and we like what he had to say, and are still having him send us info.

And then we went to Anora's potential new school. The building was nice. And the people we met were great. But another surprising bit of info, their Kindergarten is only Mon, Wed, Fri. unless you pay (a lot). So if we move this year, we have to decide on 2 days of day care/week or paying for 5 day school. 

I took refuge at Barb's house a lot of that Monday after we ran our errands. We also price, that day, health insurance. Ouch!!! I didn't like what I heard there one bit. Jeremy later said it wasn't unreasonable. But there is just such a thing as too much reality. And Monday I hit that point. 

We had dinner with Barb and Steve too. They were so wonderful to us. 

Then we made it home in just over 8 hours, more potty stops on the way back. 

There you have it our whirl wind, dizzy, looking for a lantern, up to knees in snow, 4 wheel drive, weekend trip. 

God bless you for reading all this rambling. 

PS. somewhere a long the way Jeremy lost his iPod and morning that more than anything else. 

Here in Fergus

So, we're in town for a visit and business.
But it's been a strange health weekend so far. Both of us have had what can only be described as sinus attacks. Our noses are plugging, and draining, and in my case, gagging me. Jeremy's getting wiped out though. I hope we start feeling better. I'm really glad that I thought to bring the sinus medicine with us, or we'd be miserable!

We're due at church in an hour. I'm a little nervous, but looking forward to it. Meeting new people isn't usually my thing, but I'm really quite calm. And well, Jeremy is snoring!

We're planning on spending the day with Barb & Steve. We saw them a little last night, and peppered them with our stockpile of questions. They look good! Then tonight we get to go to the President of the school's house for dinner. We've felt very welcome!

Then tomorrow while Jeremy is at the school, I've got a list so daunting I can't even start to describe. Errands mostly, but I think we'll start the morning at Anora's new school. I hoping to get a tour. I think it'll make Anora more excited, and something to look forward to.
We have appointments at the community college and with a Realtor tomorrow too.

Pray we find some humidity for our sinuses!

My First Gig

Well, before I had the chance to so much as visit the seminary I will be attending in the fall, I had the opportunity to stand up and preach in front of some of our congregation. Our pastor has been fighting a terrible cold, and mentioned that he may not be able to perform the Lent service tonight. When I had heard that, I couldn't stop my mind from turning over ideas of what I could talk about in his place. The Holy Spirit was working in me in a big way. So, I contacted him and asked if I could be of service. He said yes, so I went on to get all of these thoughts down on paper, and prepared myself to lead the service this evening. What follows is my notes I wrote up for the sermon. I would welcome and encourage any and all thoughts and comments on what you see here.

-Jeremy

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Lenten Service Message, 02-25-09 - Why Jesus?
Or, more importantly, why not Jesus right away? God had a plan, and he knew exactly how our minds work, so he had to accomplish that plan in such a way that we would really get it.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;

We were created in God's image - Sinless, Just, Righteous. We had a nature that, because we were sinless, allowed us to have fellowship with God and that allowed us to remain in his perfect presence without the stench of sin driving us away from Him. But, we were not mindless puppets that God controlled. We were created with a will. A will that can be convinced to go wrong because of the lies of the devil.

So, what happened?

Genesis 2:16-17 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 3:4-6  4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.;

We fell, lied to by the devil, convinced to sin against God's one and only commandment at the time. And as soon as the skin of the fruit was broken by the human tooth...

God shook his head and said, "no." The devil raised his fist and said, "Yes!"

Now, God could have said, "you screwed up, I'm done with you" but the God of Love prevailed. He found Adam and Eve ("where are you", as if He didn't know), showed them their sin, promised a constant struggle between mankind and the devil, and told us that we shall surly die an eternal death separated from God because of our sins, but then cleaned them up and clothed them. He wiped the tears from their eyes, wiped the juice from their chins, and made for them some L.L. Bean for their backs and Birkenstocks for their feet.

Now, God's plan is set into motion to restore us to him and His promise of eternity. We learn slow. He had to do it in a manner in which we would understand how it is that we can be righteous enough to remain with him in eternity.

Part 1 – Figuring it out for ourselves
We were then on our own for a while to try to figure out how to live righteously.

So, what happened?

Genesis 6:5-8 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

In trying to sort out what it means to be righteous, we got it horribly wrong and the flood happened. Our floundering around, trying to get it right prepared us for what was to come next. We were now ready for the Law.

Part 2 – A blueprint for righteousness
What did the law do for us? The law revealed God’s righteous nature so that we had a blueprint to guide us in righteous living. We had a way of figuring out how we need to live in order to stack up against God in righteousness. Eventually, we figured out that we don't have it in us to figure out on our own how to live righteously, so God sent His law through Moses.

So, what happened?

Ezekiel 33:17-19 17 “Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair! 18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it. 19 But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it.

It took a couple of thousand years for it to finally sink in that we don't have it in us to follow all the rules and restrictions ourselves in order to live righteously. We were now ready for Jesus.

Part 3 – The answer
Jesus came and explained to us what righteousness really is. It is so much more than simply following the letter of the law. Our hearts, minds, and souls also have to follow the law. We can't possibly present ourselves as righteous before God by following the rules because our hearts, minds, and souls remain focused on the sin our nature wants us to commit. Jesus taught us that instead of our suffering and dying an eternal death separated from God, that He would be the one God would punish for all of our sins.
Just try to comprehend the Father pouring out his wrath on His Son for every sin that ever was committed, is being committed, and ever will be committed, all the while knowing that not one of these sins was committed by His Son. Jesus felt the full brunt of that pain, and God had to too. Finally, when Jesus had breathed His last breath, and his heart had beat it's last beat, and his body hung limp in defeat…

God smiled and said, "yes." The devil fell to his knees and said, "No!"

The devil knew that he had been beat once and for all. He knew that now he had no power to win souls for his own purposes in the face of the realization of what the death of God's son had now accomplished. The rest was just a formality. Jesus went down into hell for a one-on-one with the devil to let him know just how beat he was, and then rose again, triumphing over not only His own death, but for all of ours.

God had planned a way to restore us to righteousness that we could never have done on our own. God also carried out this plan in the only way it could have worked: by letting us sin, leaving us to try to be righteous on our own, giving us a blueprint of what it means to be righteous, and finally sending His Son as that one perfect and total sacrifice that paid for all of our sins, allowing God to once again look on us as we once were when we were first created in Adam.