The Magnificent Obsession

The Magnificent Obsession by Ann Graham Lotz is a wonderful book. It was a detailed description of Abraham's faith and his journey of embracing the God-filled life. His example of putting everything aside and trusting in God burns in my heart to know my Heavenly Father and to seek the Magnificent Obsession. Abraham's journey wasn't easy, but so very worth it. To come to the point of giving up his most prized possession, Isaac his son, he had totally embraced the magnificent obsession. He truly 100% trusted in God and in the promises God had given him. Abraham didn't know how things would play out when God asked him to sacrifice his only son, but Abraham had faith in God to trust that God knew what He was doing. In this Abraham's faith became complete. Then to see the parallel of this in what God did for us through His son Jesus. ASTOUNDING!!!!

In the last chapter of the book, this is my longing and my desire described by Ann Graham Lotz.

"Once you have embraced the magnificent obsession for yourself...once you have embraced a truly God-filled life by... leaving everything behind, letting everything go, trusting everything completely, pursuing everything patiently, casting everything out, lifting everything up, laying everything down, mourning everything hopefully. Pass everything on...until your faith becomes sight and you see the only beloved Son of the Father face-to-face. On that day, you are going to see His desire for you as though you're the only one He loves. You will see the delight in His eyes as He takes you into His heavenly tent, and loves you forever and ever. And all that is His will be yours. Because you are His magnificent obsession!"

This is my pursuit for the rest of my life. To know God and to make God known. To pass on the baton of the magnificent obsession to my family and friends. To embrace God completely. Why would I not want that when I am God's magnificent obsession? Each and everyone of us is His magnificent obsession! He gave up His only Son to show us His love for us, us as individuals. Its not a religion, its not a certain group of people, it is for each one of us to have a personal relationship with Him. He sent His son for that reason, to show His unconditional love to each and every person He created. God's desire is that each of us would grasp the magnificent obsession. So I pray that anyone who reads this that God will move in you to seek Him. To put your faith in the cross and to live your life pursuing God, not the things of this world. What we have waiting for us is described in the word of God as this: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him". 1 Corinthians 2:9. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and we pursue the Magnificent Obsession our Spirit within us longs for the things God has in store for us. We long for Heaven, we long to see our maker face to face, we long to be in His presence and to see our faith become our eyes! When this happens it makes what the world has to offer undesirable, because we have fallen so in love with our Heavenly Father that what He has to give us becomes so desirable. Just like in my relationship with Byron, what we have is not good enough, we desire for our relationship to become more. We aren't willing to give into and settle for our relationship to be mediocre. We desire the best for our relationship because not only do we love God, but we love each other unconditionally. We are committed to one another through the best of times and the worst of times. Go sit down with a couple that has been married for 50 years or more and let them share what they have learned through their marriage. I bet that they will talk about the things that worldly possessions couldn't hold a candle to. They will talk about the commitment to each other, the love they shared for one another, the set backs in life, but it comes down to the commitment they made to one another, the trust they have, and the faith that was built because they fully surrendered themselves to one another. When I accepted Jesus as my Savior and I entered into a relationship with my Heavenly Father, I made the commitment to grow in intimacy in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Just as I have made the commitment to Byron, I made the commitment to my Heavenly Father to be faithful to Him and to forsake all the rest!

Good times!

Having time with friends and family always equals good times. Josh, Susan, and Baby Ellie arrived Friday evening January 15th. Byron and I were there to pick them up. Which was a nice treat for all of us. My grandparents watched the kids. Not only do we not have a vehicle large enough to hold all of us, but its quite the job to load up kids and drive over 2 hours to the Dallas airport. The kids have a lot more fun having their freedom to move around and play and us adults get some quality time to catch up.Its a win win situation in my eyes! We had dinner at Chili's and then headed home. Saturday, we had lunch at the famous Chuck Wagon in Velma. Its about 2 miles from our house and its oh so delicious. The afternoon we took it easy just hanging around the house watching football. Byron and Josh did make the rounds on the oil leases for the day, but other than that we kept it pretty low key. On Sunday, we headed North to Norman, OK. We had lunch at Ted's and then did some shopping. Byron, Josh, and Jaycee came back home after lunch and a couple of stores. While the rest of us did a little more shopping and then a stop at Starbucks. Monday, we showed them around Duncan, which is the town closest to us. I took Susan to Loco where I grew up. It takes maybe a whole 5 minutes to show someone the town, but she now knows where I lived in my younger years. We stayed for a little while at my parents and then made a quick stop at my grandparents. That evening I made breakfast for dinner which Ellie became a huge fan of my pancakes. Susan and Josh were able to catch the earlier flight out of Dallas home on Tuesday. Which was super nice for them because they were able to get home in time to spend a few hours with Dan. They originally had a later flight and they probably would not have been able to pick Dan up from Susan's parents. We were sad to see them leave, but understood wanting to get home to see their baby boy. Our time with them was short, but oh so wonderful. It was great just sitting around visiting and enjoying each others company. Here are a few pictures from the McKissick's visit!


Saying good-bye to a wonderful amazing sweet friend! So thankful to have this incredible woman in my life! She is such a blessing to us all!!!

The kiddos! Can't wait to get a pic of all the kiddos together!

Jaycee and Ellie loves each other! Pray that their friendship will be as wonderful as mine and Susan's!!!

Jackson is making the move, huh?!?! Totally down for some prearranged marriages!!!

LOVE IT!!!

This weekend was Kiley's 13th birthday party. The official date of her becoming a teenager, is Thursday January 28th. Wow, I can't believe that she is 13. I was a junior in high school when she came into this world. I wasn't present at her birth do to the fact I had a basketball game the night she was born. I had to be at school to be able to play in the game. As soon as the game was over my parents took me to see my first niece! Oh, how I love that girl. We had matching basketball shoes, she slept with me when she would come to visit, and she loved sitting in my lap as I put on make-up. Now, she is developing into quite the young lady. She is now taller then me. She is absolutely beautiful on the inside and out. So thankful that God blessed our lives with her. We celebrated Kiley's birthday by going to a hockey game and a sleepover with several of her friends. I am definitely getting old because I couldn't survive the all-niter. My mom and I called it quits at 2:00 in the morning. Amy crawled in bed at 3:30 once she got Keely and her friend in bed. The older girls I think were down by 5:00 in the morning. It was lots of fun seeing Kiley being silly with her friends. They are a super group of girls. I laughed a lot that night because if they aren't texting someone they are taking crazy pictures together. Thank goodness for digital cameras and unlimited texting! It was a great fun night and what made it even better was the fact that my kids did so well with their daddy! Jackson never asked about me once. Jaycee did a lot, but more because she wanted to be where I was with her cousins. They both did fabulous. Not that I ever doubted they wouldn't!


Opening gifts!

Blowing out her candles!

Showing her independence by lighting her own candles!

Kiley Dawn-GORGEOUS GIRL!!!!

Busyness of Life!

Sorry, for the lack of postings lately. Once again, life has been extremely busy and I haven't taken the time to post. We are doing great! We had an awesome time with Josh, Susan, and Ellie. The time passed too quickly. It was a delight to have quality time with such wonderful amazing friends. We didn't really go and do a lot, but we did visit our little hearts out. I do have a few pictures to post, but that will probably have to wait til next week. The past 2 days have been spent catching the house back up to our lives. So much laundry has been done, too. Today, I head to Texas with my mom to help my sis with Kiley's 13th birthday slumber party. I can't believe my niece turns 13 next week!!! Its going to be a lot of fun celebrating Kiley with all of her friends tonight. We will be eating pizza, attending a hockey game, and I am sure laughing until our jaws hurt! Byron is keeping the fort down here at home with the 2 kids. Jaycee and Jackson will spend the afternoon with my grandparents til Byron is done with work. I hate being away from my family, but I know its good for them, too. They have a wonderful time with Byron. The kids and I are truly blessed to have such an amazing Dad and hubby in our lives!!! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!! Be back soon with lots of posts for you to read!!!

Forgotten God by Francis Chan

I highly recommend this book! It's phenomenal! I have postponed all my other books to read this one. I finished it this morning. I am going to start it over tonight. God has spoken to both Byron and myself through this book. After each chapter in the book he gives a biography of different peoples' lives. All of them are amazing stories of people being obedient to the call of God and in return God doing amazing things to change the lives of many. The last biography is the most powerful. I will share it with you now.

"What if this last biography were about your life? What would be written here? Would we read stories about the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit or stories about what you have accomplished on your own? Don't be discouraged if there is not a lot of the Holy Spirit's working in your past. Pray in complete faith right now. Ask God to have His Spirit work so mightily in you that it would make for an amazing biography. A biography that speaks of a life so supernatural that no one would even consider giving you the glory. A biography that displays the power of the Spirit and lifts up the name of Jesus to the glory of God the Father. Amen"

Not sure about you, but I definitely want a life that when people look at it that it points to Christ alone. I can definitely say that at this point I am not confident that my life has displayed that type of life. My desire is that truly in all I do that God will be glorified. This book has opened my eyes to see the life that God desires for every single one of us. A life that is truly surrendered to the Lord. A life that is passionate for the things of God. My core has been shaken by this book. Another quote from the book that struck a chord with me is this: "Some people encounter Jesus and say, 'Sweet! Jesus, do You want to join the party of my life with this sin, that addiction, this destructive relationship, and we'll all just coexist together?' But repentance means saying, 'Sweet Jesus, You are the best thing that has ever happened to me! I want to turn from all the sin and selfishness that rules me. I want to let it go and walk with You. Only You. You are my life now. Help me to walk away from the enslaving, worthless things in life.' Do you see the difference between these two examples? Which do you think more accurately portrays your own life? Is there anything you need to go and make right with your Savior, the One who was killed for your sake? Nothing else matters more than this relationship."
These are some powerful convicting words. I would like to say that my life more portrays the second example, but it doesn't. Not saying that I have addictions or destructive relationships in my life, but the feeling of lets just coexist happens way too often. Not wanting to let go of certain parts of my life. Being selfish in things. Which of course these things are sin. That lifestyle is saying God I want all of what you have to offer in blessings, wisdom, favor, etc., but I am not willing to give you all of me. God, sent His ONLY son to die for me. Jesus is perfect and sinless totally sacrificing everything because He loves me, but I am not willing to do it for Him? I would do anything for my husband and children, because I love them. I say that I love God, but why am I not willing to do anything for Him? He is my creator, He loves me unconditionally, He sent His ONLY son to take my punishment and my death so that I could have eternal life with Him! When God did all that for me why would I not do the same for Him? Like I stated in an earlier post, I am at a place that I have never been before. I am thankful that God has brought me to this place. I am thankful that He has not given up on me. What an amazing journey this is going to be. At the end I hope my life will point to the one and only God, that there will be no way to explain the things done in my life, but by saying that it was God Almighty at work in her life!

Psalm 139

This is one of my most favorite chapters out of the Bible!

1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2You know when I sit and stand. When far away you know my every thought. 3You chart the path ahead of me, and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment, you know where I am. 4You know what I am going to say before I even say it. 5You both precede and follow me, and place your hand of blessing on my head."

6 This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe! 7 I can never be lost to your Spirit! I can never get away from my God! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. 9 If I ride the morning winds to the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, your strength will support me. 11 If I try to hide in the darkness, the night becomes light around me. 12 For even darkness cannot hide from God; to you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother's womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous-and how well I know it. 15 You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! 16 You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!

17,18 How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can't even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!

19 Surely you will slay the wicked, Lord! Away, bloodthirsty men! Begone! 20 They blaspheme your name and stand in arrogance against you- how silly can they be? 21 O Lord, shouldn't I hate those who hate you? Shouldn't I be grieved with them? 22 Yes, I hate them , for your enemies are my enemies too. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test my thoughts. 24 Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

I love reading this Psalm. What peace it brings to my soul. Also, what value it brings to me as well. That my Creator, the one who knew me before time and who knows every detail of my life, thinks about me constantly. With all that I have done wrong in my life, and God still loves me and cares for me. Isn't that just breath-taking? Isn't it so reassuring as well? The moments when you think, why am I even here? I must have been made just to fill a hole in the earth. Then you read Psalms 139! Then you realize that God Almighty has planned every moment of your life. He has it all written in His book. How comforting that is to know. I am thankful to know I can never get away from my Heavenly Father!!! There isn't a single place that He won't be right there with me. God Almighty is all knowing and all present. Apply that to your life. Think about it. The next time you discipline your child, He is right there with you. The next presentation you have to give at work, He is with you. When you need to ask for forgiveness or to say good-bye to a loved one, He is there with you. When you are welcoming a newborn into this world, planning your big wedding day, or stepping out in faith in what God has called you to do, He is right there with you. To be a missionary, to adopt, to change jobs, or to move cross country or whatever it maybe, He is right there with you supporting and giving you strength. If its a bad habit, drinking, cursing, drugs, whatever it is He is right there with you.
We come to God's enemies. Even though David's words are strong and a little violent, that is not necessarily the message David is sending. Its that he is so passionate about God and what He knows about God, he can't imagine someone hating God.Just think about someone in your life that you love and know so well, and that someone would say ugly things about them. You want to get up defend them and to some extent even be like well I hate them too. Understand where David is coming from here. The more we seek our Heavenly Father the more we understand this as well. But we know those people are out there. David's hatred is a desire for God's righteous justice not for vengeance. If we truly love God, then it hurts us to know that someone could hate our God the way that some people in this world do. In verse 23, David ask God to search his heart and mind and point out the selfish and wrong motives he has. We need to do the same as well. Ask God to show you the areas you need to make right. In this instance, its with enemies. Are we going after those people with vengeance or are we reaching out to them in God's love and justice? As we seek for justice against evil we need to pray for the enemies of God. That they will turn towards Him and not reject His great unconditional love for them. It doesn't matter how badly we think they are God's grace is more then enough to take away their sins and that same grace was enough to take away our sins. Once you have experienced that unconditional love from your Heavenly Father and as you get to know Him more, you will know how incredible God is and how His passion for this world will become your passion as well.

Help!

I am literally at my whit's end with the whole potty training Jackson thing!!! He still has never gone #2 in the toilet. I haven't forced the issue, but I have tried many times of putting him on the toilet and sitting for long amounts of time. With no success whatsoever. He continues to do #2 in a pull-up or his undies. This morning, he took care of his business right when he woke up. I didn't even know he was awake until I heard him trying to close his door. He had successfully done his business at this point. I cleaned him up and got him dressed for the day. After breakfast and a little cartoons he went off to his room to play. Which he plays very well in his room. Jaycee went to see what he was up to and she immediately comes running out saying how bad it smelled in Jackson's room. Horror struck my face as I entered the room seeing Jackson bottomless with little poop pebbles strung across his floor. He lost 2 cars forever due to the fact that he had driven them through his poop. Yes, I am sure as you read this you are laughing out loud and thanking God that Jackson is not your child or that your child has never done this! Really, did he not think I was going to find out what he had done? Simply, amazing! I put him in the tub, got clean clothes on him, and went to work on cleaning and sanitizing everything in his room! Right before lunch I went back into his room to check on him and to make sure I had gotten all of the evidence from his mishap cleaned up too. Much to my dismay I looked down to find that he had soaked his undies, pants, and his rug with pee. I really wanted to scream at this point! I believe we started in August with the potty training. I would like to say at best I am the one potty trained here, if you can even call it that. Jackson does have days where he is awesome at telling me he needs to go pee pee. Then we have days that I think he really should still be in a diaper. We are this far in and I still don't trust the little guy to wear undies anywhere, but our house. So I am going to need to go back to square one with this little guy. I will be praying a lot for patience, wisdom, and understanding for both Jackson and myself. I really hope by his birthday in March I can say that we are fully potty trained in this house!!! So if you have any hints or ideas please share! I will be thrilled if you want to lift us up in prayer, too!!!

Following God whole-heartedly

As Jesus commands in Matthew 22:37 "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. 38,39 Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. 40 All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others."

These are verses that I have heard all of my life. Many times these words have come out of my mouth, but my actions have fallen way short on too many occasions. This is truly my life's desire to obey these 2 commandments set forth. Its a journey, but a journey worth taking. I have justified many of my actions to satisfy my flesh in too many ways. God has not given up on me or the plans that He has in store for this family. So grateful that God has once again awakened in me the purpose He has set before me. I am at a place in life that I have never been before, surrendering my life to the will of God. Surrendering it ALL, not a little, not some, and not most but ALL of it! I am relinquishing all power to my Heavenly Father. Too long have I been deceived by the works of Satan with thinking that I could make more out of my life or that my plans were the best. God is good and God is faithful. I have proof. In my past, the areas that I have surrendered to God, He has always brought the best for me. Why would He not continue to do the same? His word promises us His love, forgiveness, wisdom, understanding, peace, joy, grace, mercy, and the lists goes on. As 1 Samuel 15:29 states, "And He who is the glory of Israel is not lying, nor will He change His mind, for He is not man." God is true to His word and His promises are not broken. As hard as it is for my flesh to give over control, I know that it must be done. That whatever God has in store for myself and this family is for one thing, that is to bring glory to our Heavenly Father.

So with all this said, almost a year ago God spoke to my heart to share the things that He had been placing on my heart. Well, I half way-obeyed, which was being disobedient to God. I justified to myself that starting a separate blog was what was best to share the things God was laying on my heart. I shared the blog address with like 3 people I think. I discussed it a little with Byron, but I honestly don't think he even knew that I had another blog. So how sad and pathetic is that. God is not separate from this family's life. This blog is to share our journey through life, and God is not only apart of that journey He is the journey. But, because I was afraid of possibly offending some people or people not liking me, I chose to go my own route. Well, my own route led to nothing as in God's word was not being shared and that my pursuit for God was not going anywhere. Why, because I wasn't being obedient to what God had shown me. I was letting doubt and unbelief set in instead of letting God be gloried. Once again, God is telling me to share the things that He has placed on my heart. The few posts that I had on the other blog I will re-post here. Last night I read through those posts and God totally touched my heart, again. God's word is so wonderful and God's timing is so perfect! God's love is unconditional and His mercies new every morning. I am so thankful that God has not given up on me. I am thankful to be called a child of the Most High God. So as much joy as I receive sharing the stories of our family's life, how much more joy I will receive in being obedient to my Heavenly Father! I pray that each and every person that reads this blog will come to know the unconditional love of God. That it will either help increase your walk with the Lord or help begin your walk with the Lord as accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. May our family's life be a living testimony to the unconditional love of God, the sacrifice of a Savior, and the power of the Holy Spirit. That our life will reflect the glory of God.

Weekly Schedule!

Monday-Laundry and paint the big bathroom with 2 kids at home! Should be interesting and fun!

Tuesday-Hair Appointment for myself and a little grocery shopping! A mother's dream when she can grocery shop alone! (LOL!)

Wednesday-Hopefully have my friend Allison and her 2 precious girls over for a play date! I hope to get some cute pics of Jaycee, Paisley, and Jackson play dress up! Jackson got a cowboy costume for Christmas. So he won't feel left out when the girls are in their Princess outfits! Also, that night going to church.

Thursday-Cleaning house, car, and the dogs' backyard.

Friday- Josh, Susan, and Ellie arrives!!! WOOHOO!!! So excited to have our wonderful good friends the McKissick Family come to visit! Bummed that Dan is not joining on the visit, but still thankful for the time we will have with the rest of the family. They will be here til Tuesday the 19th.

Each Sunday evening or Monday morning I will try to post our weekly schedule.Byron and I have recently deactivated our Facebook accounts. We have some family/friends that would like to know what we are still up to during the week. I am sure at some point I will re-enter the Facebook world, but I needed a break. It was consuming too much of my time. I needed to re-focus on my priorities. I must say that it has definitely made a huge impact already. I am so thankful for God's grace because I haven't had withdraws from knowing what every Facebook friend is up to for the day. Anyways, I don't know if I will get a weekly post up next Sunday/Monday since we will still have a company. I hope that this will be a normal routine, though!

Hope everyone has a great and blessed week!!!!

Life changing-Videos!

Sorry, I don't know how to make the website links accessible by clicking on them. Please, take a moment to copy and paste these addresses and watch these clips! Both of them are amazing!!!

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_awe.html

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_stop.html

TWENTY-TEN!!!

This post really should have been made January 1st, but you are getting it almost a week later, not too bad, huh?!?! Can't believe that we have made it through the first decade of the 21st century! Time has flown by so quickly. Our family is so looking forward to this year and the new decade ahead. Its amazing how a new year can bring such a refreshing new hope to living life. Life gets so busy and so hectic that things get out of sorts and you find yourself just trying to make it through each day. So when it comes to a new year, you can take a deep breath re-focus on the things that truly matter and go forth.

2009 was a good year for us, but personally I got into some trenches that were very difficult for me. I am thrilled that a new year is upon us. That God has once again grabbed my attention and I once again have my passion and drive for life back.

I so love how God pursues and never gives up on us. That even in our inconsistencies, our doubts and unbelief, He is still reaching out to us, drawing us, and calling us because He has a plan for our life. I am so thankful that God loves me unconditionally and that He knows the life He has laid before me. Honestly, this past year I have questioned many things. But, God has been there all along loving me and directing me. My relationship with my Lord and Savior is changing and becoming much more intimate and personal. I am in awe of my Creator! I am excited and thrilled for the plans God has in store for our family.

God has led Byron and I to some amazing books that have brought clarity to a lot of areas in our life. Our faith in God has exploded! Our passion for God has never been stronger. We both have totally surrendered our lives to God and His will for our lives. Will it be easy, not at all, but will it be worth it, YES!!!!!!!! The God of the Universe has a plan for each and every one of us. As we both have learned and now we both desire is that our lives will be a living testimony to the glory of God. Our life will not be in question as to how we made it, but can only be defined that it was God who made us and created our life. There will be no human explanation as to what our lives will entail, the only explanation will be that it was God, and God alone.

Here are the books that God has used to change and inspire us to make the commitment to serve Him with our whole-heart and to live a life a faith!

The Magnificent Obsession by Anne Graham Lotz
Forgotten God by Francis Chan
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Family Driven Faith by Voddie Bauchman, Jr.

Yay, for a new year, a new decade, and a God that loves us so unconditionally. A God who created the entire universe. A god who sent His one and only Son so that we could have a personal intimate relationship with Him. Oh, how my heart is filled with complete joy knowing that my life, and my family's life is in the hands of an Almighty God. That no matter what this life brings, that God is God, God is in control, and that God's love is unconditional. That our ultimate reward is spending forever in His presence!!!

Happy New Year!!!