Heaven.......will you be there?

Heaven......will you be there?

Maybe an odd topic for some, but as I was sitting in church the other night listening to Pastor Sexton preach about Heaven, I realized I had not talked about Heaven on my blog. Pastor made a comment like, if someone was going to Heaven, you would think they would talk about it every once in a while. Well, today is my day to talk about Heaven. Will you be there?

I know I will be there. How do I know you ask?

John 5:13
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

When I was a 4 year old child, the Holy Spirit allowed me to realize my wicked state! I can hear you now ask "How wicked can a 4 year old be?".

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

I was a sinner, even at 4 years old! Because I was a sinner, I was on my way to Hell!

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I realized on October 26, 1980, that I was in need of a Saviour to save me from Hell! It is only by God's saving grace that we can enter Heaven. It is not the things that we do, because we are as filthy rags in the sight of God!!

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;

It was on that night, that I prayed and asked Jesus to come into my heart and life and be my Saviour!

Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

It is only because of Jesus' that I am saved. I didn't have to DO anything. I didn't have to keep asking Jesus to save me. I don't have to go to church or be a good person. I don't have to hope that one day my good will outweigh my bad, thus being allowed into Heaven! No, my friend, I KNOW that I am on my way to Heaven.

Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done,

but according to his mercy he saved us,

So, I am going to Heaven.........how about you?Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Awards and pitching a fit??

I know this is a weird subject, but I have too much to post and not enough time to do it. I figured I would combine a few posts in one, including lots of pictures! I was informed by someone, you know who you are, that my last post had too much writing and not enough pictures, so I figured I would make up for it on this post! *smile*

Austin missed the big pact meeting with cub scouts because of our "vacation", so this past Monday night, he got his awards that he had earned over the past month. I know he got his bobcat badge, showman and forestry pin among others. Congrats Austin!

Austin receiving his awards from his cubmaster, A.K.A. Daddy!

Getting his awards pinned on to his uniform!

Oooooops! Sorry, Austin!

Forestry pin

Showman pin

Austin Wayne!!!


The other evening we couldn't find Noah. He had put his pj's on and gone to bed. He must have been pretty tired!


Sarah Joy in her walker. She had "walked" through the kitchen and onto the carpet.

I spotted her through the furniture! hehehehe!
This is when she realized it wasn't as easy to drive on the carpet!

"Why isn't this thing moving?"

Isn't that pittiful??? I was told I was provoking her unto wrath.

I thought the scenario was quite humorous!

Wow! Ski says "Help! I'm becoming my dad!"

BTW, nice fish, grandpa Ski!!!

Count your many blessings!

above: Sarah Joy and Nonnie enjoying playing together!

Count your many blessings??? That does seem strange coming from a family who has just been through the most adventuresome "vacation"!! As many of you know, we all made it back home safely on Saturday, pulling into the driveway at approximately 3:00 PM. We then had enough time to get out of the van, change clothes, go potty (a necessity with 6 children!), unload the back of the van, load the van back up with baseball equipment and off we were again to the boys last baseball game and awards ceremony! My head was still spinning when we got to the baseball fields.

above: Austin's baseball team with Daddy as coach, the Reds.

above: Daddy, Austin and Caleb after the awards ceremony.

We got home in time to enjoy our Little Caesar's pizza and go to bed!

Sunday morning we were right back in the swing of things, except we were actually early to Sunday School! Will wonders never cease! We had a wonderful Sunday School lesson learning how Jesus poured Himself out like water (Psalm 22). Ya know how when the children of Israel were wandering around in the desert and God told Moses to strike the rock so water could come out and the people would have drink? Then the second time, God told Moses to just talk to the rock to get water out of it? Well, that rock was a symbol of Jesus and that is why Moses' sin of striking the rock the second time instead of just talking to the rock was so bad. Jesus' was crucified ("struck") once for our sin. Now, we just need to talk to Him. He will never be crucified again! Neat, huh? I had never put those 2 together before.

Another thought for the day.......

You have heard of the saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink!"?

We, as Christians, are to be the salt of the earth. We can bring people to Christ, but we can't make them accept Him as their own personal Saviour, right?

How about this...... you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. But you can put salt in his oats!!!

We need to be putting "salt" in the world's oats so they will want to drink from the water Jesus' has provided for us!!

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,Count your many blessings, name them one by one,And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,Count your blessings, see what God hath done!Count your blessings, name them one by one,And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;Count your many blessings. Wealth can never buyYour reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,Do not be disheartened, God is over all;Count your many blessings, angels will attend,Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Have you counted your blessings today?

Ya know, you can have a party anytime you want!!! *wink*

They made it home!

Ski, Austin and Noah made it home around 2:30 this morning. They were a little slow getting started this morning, but that is understandable! Thank you all for your prayers. We haven't heard any more on the van today, but there is always tomorrow!

I am including some pictures of Bethany that was taken Saturday (2 days before her 5th birthday). This was the day she learned to ride a bike with NO training wheels! She is getting to be such a big girl!

Update on van

above: Our new mode of transportation!!! LOL!

Well, we didn't find out until almost 5PM EST that they were going to have to rebuild our transmission, what the cost is going to be, and that it will not be done until Friday morning!! So, that left us with the question of Does Ski go home now to work for a couple of day? Do I go with him taking the 3 little ones and leaving behind the 3 older ones with Nonnie and Papa? What do we do? We finally decided that Ski would go on home taking with him Noah (3) and Austin (9). That helps Mommy out alot! We have some gracious friends at home who are willing to watch the 2 boys while Daddy is at work. Please pray for safety as they are travelling now (9PM EST) and it is a 5 hour trip there. Plus, they will be coming back on Thursday night or Friday sometime, then prayerfully, we will all be coming home on Saturday! What an exciting vacation this turned out to be this year! :+)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETHANY!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Bethany!

His way is Perfect, right??

We have had an eventful trip thus far and the excitement just doesn't seem to end. On our way down to SC, our transmission went out. We left TN around 8PM and didn't get to SC until 5AM!!! While we were stranded in the boonies, trying to get to a halfway busy town, we found out that my g'ma had fallen and was in the ER with my mom and dad. My brother, sister in law and niece all piled in 2 of their vehicles to come pick us up and take us to their house while the van got towed to Aiken (where we were headed). What a trip. We were able to witness to a highway patrol officer who stopped us while we were poking down the Interstate at about 30MPH and that was just if we were going downhill! We actually carried on quite a conversation with him once he realized we had 6 kids in the back of the van! We finally made it to gas station and we were able to witness to this kind man behind the counter. Ski also was able to witness to the tow truck guy that he rode all the way to Aiken with. Could that have been the reason for our troubles? We couldn't do anything with the van the next day because of it being the 4th of July. So, on Thursday, we had the van at the most reasonable shop (which is also owned by a distant relative by marriage). They were supposed to get another transmission by Friday the 6th and work on the van the following week while we were at the beach (we were able to get to and from the beach using more than 1 vehicle). We got a call from the shop on Thursday night the 12th saying the van repair was going to cost us double what was originally quoted to us because of another problem they ran into once in the engine. They told Ski that the van should be ready either Friday the 13th or Saturday the 14th. Ski told them we were planning on leaving for TN early Saturday morning. We talked to them again on Friday and he said to call them Saturday morning. Ski called Saturday (the 14th) morning and was told it would be ready at noon. Ski called at noon and was told the transmission they had put in the van was bad and they would have to get another one or rebuild ours, but nothing could be done until Monday!!!! So, here we are "stranded" in SC at my parents house. Ski is hanging out here until noon, when he will call the shop back again and see what is going on. It is completely crazy! We just keep telling ourselves "His way is Perfect".
On the pleasant side of things, we had a great time at Hilton Head. Here is a couple of pictures to lighten the mood! Plus, what better place to be stranded than at Mom and Dad's house?

Sorry, honey, I couldn't resist! We had so much fun with our underwater camera!

On our way to the "beach church", Bible Baptist Church. Little did we know that we would run into Mr. & Mrs. Deeringer and Pollie there!!! How fun!

Another slide show

Hello fellow bloggers! I am writing this while we are on "vacation" in South Carolina. It is a long story, but I will fill you in later. Right now I am just wanting to post some more of our pictures that were taken in June and put in a slide show. Thanks again, Angela!

Click here to view the show

Sarah Joy slideshow

Here is a slideshow of Sarah Joy. More on the way, but I hope you enjoy these of her as much as we have! Thanks Angela!

Click here to view the show

Independence Day picnic 2007

Yesterday, we had a great time at our annual Independence Day picnic at Mt. Moriah. It was a fun time full of food and fellowship! After we stuffed ourselves, Pastor Sexton had a water war with all the elementary aged children. Pastor says he won, but I think all the kids would disagree! We are very thankful for such a wonderful Pastor who takes time out for the little ones!

Here is Pastor Sexton with the 3-5 year old girls.

Pastor getting attacked with water balloons.
Here is Pastor with the 3-5 year old boys.

Here Pastor is having a "war" with the 1st - 5th graders.

They also had some little water slides and sprinklers set up for the little kids.

This is Bethany on the slip-n-slide.

Here is Noah. Great action shot, huh?

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.