February & the Gift of Unconditional Love

There's a saying in Oregon, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." And it's so true! On Sunday, just while we were at church, we had sunshine, then snow flurries, then rain, then sideways snow and back to bright sunshine again. Earlier this month we had a series of beautiful spring-like days. It was so nice one day that our kids put on swimsuits and played with super-soakers in the yard for an hour, and I planted flowers. ;) And today we woke up to snow everywhere! But by 10am it was back to blue skies and sunshine and the snow was melting. But the kids made the most of what little snow we had and they played in it for the few hours it lasted. And loved every bit of it!

We had family over to celebrate my mom's birthday earlier this month & had a great time! We ate lunch, had cake and ice cream, and played music all together in the sunroom. Matt, Caleb and I will usually take turns playing piano, and Gina will play her cajon (cool wooden drum box), and Josh likes to play guitar and harmonica. We sang some too. It was a fun, relaxing afternoon all being together. 

We love you, Mom! Happy birthday!! xo

One of my favorite gifts to give for birthdays or Christmas are calendars, because they are personal, (and fun to make with www.mixbook.com), and it's a nice annual gift that lasts all year long. ;)

Caleb and Jen had been out of town and had hardly slept the night before, but they made it just as we were sitting down to eat and we were so happy!

Thankful for this bunch.

We've been out to our property to work on things quite a bit lately. The kids are such troopers and are great at helping us clean up the work site of the house we're remodeling, or pick up piles of leaves in the front yard. They also like to play in the back creek.

My dad has been a huge help with various things, and my mom will keep the kids from time-to-time, and Josh's dad has been a great resource of info in dealing with the county, and Josh's mom has helped me paint. We're so grateful for the help. We're hoping to be done with the back house by late spring.

The sunset view, while standing out in the field one night, was beautiful!

Our friends Aaron and Val and their girls came to stay a night with us recently. Their daughter had a basketball tournament near us. We had a great time with them, as always. We love to chat for hours on end while the kids play. (Josh and Aaron were roommates in college and he was the best man at our wedding. Then he met Val a year later, and the day we met her we knew they'd eventually marry, and they did in 2004, and we've all been friends since.)

These girls are getting so big that they enjoy just sitting with us adults and listening to our conversations. :)

Lily and Ben like to pal around together.

The kids and I whipped up a loaf of banana bread the other day and all I could think was, "why don't I make this more often?!" Yum!

Playing a board game with Dad.

We recently had a fun vacation night at Matt and Gina's house! We've never stayed the night there before, but we did just for fun of it and loved it! We took the kids to the park near their house and soaked up the sunshine, and lots of extra time together. It felt just like when we use to all stay at Dad's beach houses.

We were at my grandparent's new house the other night getting the tour and we had a great time getting to sit and visit in their new living room. I can't believe I didn't take a pic of their place all moved in. It looks great! I'm so happy for them to be settled now. (I borrowed these pics from my mom.) :)

Papa loves his new backyard.

And I love the view from their living room... soon the burn piles will be gone and the backyard will be landscaped. It will be lovely in every season.

While we were there Grandma showed us her great grandma's Bible from the 1800's.

It was amazing to flip through and see the family history and birthdays all recorded inside from the 1800's. And just to hold my great, great, great grandma's Bible was special. I love knowing about my heritage and what a treasure God's Word was to my family on both sides. 

And speaking of Bibles, I got a new journaling Bible (regular Bible but with side columns to take notes in), and I think it's so beautiful.

The kids and I are almost finished reading the Children's Story Bible and it has been such a treasured time for all of us each morning, reading God's big picture of love for each and every one of us. We all agreed that once we finish it, we want to start it again. :) 

One of my favorite things about reading the Bible is how it truly changes you from the inside out. Hebrews 12:4 says that God's Word is living and powerful, discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart, and boy is that ever true! Anyone who chooses to read the Bible will be changed. But I also love how historical it is. Ben loves to look up artifacts online of all of the things we read in the Bible. You can research and find historical evidence through and through. We would search things like the the Philistines and their idols in Google images and up would pop a ton of info. Plus the kids and I have studied so much history from that time period already in school, ranging from the Phoenicians and Egyptians to the Roman Empire, etc., that it was really fun for them to piece the world time line all together as they listened to me read the Bible. They perked up when Israel was divided into two kingdoms and when we read about the Assyrians and how they conquered Israel, then the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians and took over Judah and led them into captivity, and how the Persians took over Babylon, then came the Roman Empire, etc... and how all along the way people prophesied of a Savior who would come, and that He'd be born in Bethlehem... And then when Jesus finally came, the people at that time had a hard time accepting that he didn't come as this grand overlord who would crush the Romans, but instead He came in quiet humility and spent most of his time with the poor and outcast, healing them and showing them love and teaching them about what really mattered. His ways were so different from ours. Man values money and power and accomplishment. God values selflessness, humility, and caring for the poor and outcast. He wasn't impressed by the strict religious people who kept every commandment. In fact, He was upset that their strict rules kept people from a real relationship with God, and instead it had them focusing on the outward appearance of man, not the inward heart. 

He loved everyone and had compassion on them, seeing that they were like lost sheep in need of a Shepherd.

And just as it was prophesied, He laid His life down for us all, and died on a cross, and in that moment that Jesus died, the huge, thick, dense curtain that divided man and God in the temple (from the Holy of Holies) it tore. (The high priest use to go into the Holy of Holies once a year to sacrifice a pure and spotless lamb, without blemish, to cover the sins of all the people.) Well, Jesus was that pure and spotless lamb that was sacrificed for all sin, once and for all. The final sacrifice. There would no longer be a need to make sacrifices for sin after that because His blood covered everything. And that 4 inch thick fabric curtain, that was 60 feet tall, that divided the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple (signifying the divide between God's holiness and man's sin), when Jesus died it didn't tear from the bottom to the top, like a man would try to tear it. It tore from the top to the bottom! Signifying that Jesus' sacrifice paid the price for our sin, the debt was paid, and there was no longer a divide between us and God. We could now boldly enter the throne of God and be seen as blameless (without sin) because Jesus took the punishment and "though our sins were once like scarlet, they are now white as snow" when you accept that free gift. How freeing is that?! That's why it is such Good News! His kindness leads me to repentance, and the joy in my heart causes me to want to love others and lay my life down for others. Not because I feel that I have to, but because I'm rejoicing in how free I am and it causes me to love my Savior SO much that my heart overflows with love for Him and others!! That's the reason for the peace and joy in my life. I'm free because of Jesus! 

I wrote this song a couple years ago when the magnitude of God's love hit me one day after reading about the life of Rich Mullins:

Lord, you're stripping it all away

You're changing the way I see you.

Lord, please show me again today, 

How to lay down my life and follow you.

I'm free because You love me

Just as I am, not as I should be.

Your grace it overwhelms everything I see.

Lord, you openly loved the very least of these

The way that you love me

I'm free because You love me

Just as I am, not as I should be.

One of my favorite words in the Bible is "justified". Because of Jesus I am "justified"... Just As If I'd never sinned.

Some people will hear that and say, "that's too good to be true. I can't believe that." But that right there is the big deal. That's why it is such extraordinarily incredible Good News! Can you imagine how free your heart would feel? Can you imagine how much love you'd feel for the one who took your place and punishment? 

Imagine being in a court of law and being convicted of murder and as you're standing before the judge you say, "but look at all of the good things I've done." He wouldn't care about those good things because the murder would need to be paid for by a life sentence of time. (Jesus said that if you feel hate in your heart toward another that's the same as murder.) Now imagine if  Jesus came into the courtroom as you're being sentenced to life in prison and He traded His free life for your condemned one and took the punishment for you, because He loves you. You would feel overwhelming gratitude for His sacrifice. But what if you then decided to say thank you but that you will also work in order to pay Him back because you didn't believe that your sentence was really paid for. It would negate His sacrificial act of love. It now has become a business transaction instead of one of love and accepting a gift. 

But if you accept that free gift, and believe that He really did take your place and pay for your life sentence, your heart will rejoice!! You're FREE! You will overflow with love because of His act of unconditional love, and you will do good out of the overflow of your heart, because you've been forgiven much, which causes you to love much! And your heart will be at rest, and you will have a life time of building a personal relationship with your Savior as you read His Words in the Bible. He will speak to your heart in a way you never thought possible. There's a relationship there that's real, that you've probably heard people speak of, but you couldn't quite understand. It's there, and it's free for the taking, and it can be yours, because of God's indescribable love!

If you've never read the Bible, can I encourage you in something? Will you pick it up (or download the Bible app on your phone) and read the Gospel of John? The fourth book in the New Testament. Read it with the heart of a child and ask God to speak to you. His Word is living and powerful, and if there's one things I know without a shadow of a doubt, it's that He love YOU. That's what's so incredible about Him. He is patient and kind and slow to anger and abounding in love and compassion. But He's also righteous and He judges justly, and our sin separates us from Him without Jesus. He see you, He knows you, and He loves you. And He traded His life so that you can walk in freedom and know a loving, personal, and very real relationship with Him!

xo,

Bethany

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:9-10