Nice Surprises

I love surprises. The Lord always sends little ones along and today was one of those days.

I had taken Justin to the mission board to work today. I wanted to introduce myself to some of the staff there since I hadn't had a chance to do that yet. I had heard Justin talk about "Naomi" and he had mentioned something about a lady named "Sarah." But to my surprise, when I walked into the mission "Sarah" was Sarah Joyner that I had known when she was just a little girl. It was so nice to see her and she's just as sweet as she can be. I immediately knew who she was when I saw her but had to look at her name tag just the same. She looks just like her mother, that's how I knew who she was. She was my surprise today. And what a nice surprise that was!

Justin will be working at the mission board again tomorrow. Lord willing, I'll be able to snag some pictures of him if I don't forget my camera. He has a good bit of things to do tomorrow and then he'll be leaving on our church's family retreat to Tennessee Thursday morning. Our family is not going, but he is going as Mrs. Janet's son. He and Jeremy are going with the Poston family. I know they'll have a good time.

Jeremy is my adopted son. Of course, when I say my adopted son, I only mean that he's just one of my kids around here. When he and Justin were younger, people in our church actually thought Jeremy was my child and Justin was his friend. LOL Jeremy doesn't like it when I use "LOL." LOL
Anyway, here's a picture of my "son" and his new car. He's so excited.



Congratulations on your new car, Jeremy. If any kid deserves it, you do! Don't forget to buckle up and, PLEASE, DRIVE SAFE! We love you to pieces around here.

Videos

Here are a couple of links to some videos of Sons of Faith singing "My Name Is Lazrus" and "Forwarding Address." From left to right is Spencer, Justin(my son), Mark, and Nathaniel.

The last video is of Brother RJ leading a song at VBS. He's quite.....ummmm.....animated.

My Name Is Lazrus

Forwarding Address

Brother RJ leading song

ENJOY!

Eternal Security Part V

I discussed in earlier posts why I believe in eternal security. There was one more post I needed for that series and I'm ashamed to say that I am JUST NOW getting that done. Shame on me. I kept putting it off until I'd forgotten about it and as I was getting ready to add some new sites to my sidebar, I realized I had put this last part off long enough. If you would like to read the other posts, please click the links below:

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

In Part IV, I talked about our spiritual location and our possessions. To wrap up this series, I wanted to talk about what is past, and what we are promised.

What is past is the law of sin and death. In Romans 8:2 it says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." When I accepted Christ into my heart, His Holy Spirit set Himself inside of me and freed me from sin. Do I still sin? Every single day. But I am no longer under that bondage. His Spirit not only set me free from the bondage of sin, but it also set free from death. Will I die? If the Lord does not come back before I die, then, yes! I will die. But my soul will live for eternity. I have been spared from eternal death in Hell.

What is past is death and wrath. Colossians 3:3 says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Romans 6:11 "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." I Thessalonians 5:9 "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" I don't have to worry about dying and facing the wrath of God. I'm a child of God. I will live forever free from death and His wrath.

What is past is condemnation. John 5:24 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall no come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." I have heard His words....I believe on God....therefore, I have everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation. When I die, I will pass on into life. There are no stipulations there! Praise the Lord!

What is past is Night and darkness. I Thessalonians 5:5 "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." Everything dark seems to be of evil. It's a comfort to be called a child of light. Jesus Christ Himself is the light of the world. And for those of us who are saved, we have become His child. Shining His light everywhere we go.

Here is what we are promised. I really, really like this one. This is the icing on the cake. God has yet to ever break a promise and so I wait with anticipation the things He has promised His children.

We are promised the glory of God. Romans 5:2 "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

We are promised redemption of the body. Romans 8: 23-24 "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" Philippians 3:21 "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

We are promised NEVER to perish. John 10: 27-28 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall NEVER perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

We are promised to be conformed to the image of Christ. Romans 8:28-29 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethern."

We are promised to appear with Christ in glory. Colossians 3:3-4 "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."

We are promised to be not appointed to wrath, but to salvation. I Thessalonians 5:9 "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."

We are promised to be delivered from the wrath to come. I Thessalonians 1:10 "And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."

We are promised incorruptible inheritance. I Peter 1:4 "To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you"

We are promised that He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

We are promised that we will never die. John 11:26 "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"

We are promised the glorious liberty of the children of God. Romans 8:21 "Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

We are promised that God shall confirm us unto the end. I Corinthians 1:8 "Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We are promised eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:15 "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

We are promised to be saved from wrath. Romans 5:9 "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

We are promised that we cannot be separated from God's love. Romans 8: 31-39 "What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I do hope that if you do not believe in eternal security, that you will prayerfully take all of these scripture into prayerful consideration and one day know the peace that comes from knowing that once you have accepted Christ as your Saviour, you are forever His child. You cannot experience real joy and peace in your Christian walk when you do not believe that you are continually in His righteous hand no matter what.

VBS 2007, Thursday and Friday night

Do you hear that? It's so quiet in blogsphere. Where have y'all been?? Everyone must have had a busy week and weekend like I did. I loved Bible school and it was nice having my nephew Carl here with me the last four days. My B-in law picked him up around 8:00. Harrison was bummed out to see him go, but they had a wonderful time together. And the best part about Carl being here is that he told me he asked Jesus into his heart Wednesday night.

This is Nathaniel. He was one of our teens saved at youth camp last week. And also one of our favored puppeteers for VBS.


Singing Deep and Wide


Isaiah


Jason


Jud


Benjamin


Bailey


Coming in for closing assmebly


Edwin


Trae


That's my dad there in the glasses and Cassie's daddy next to him.


A couple of our bus kids praying


More of our bus kids


Bruce's friend, Mark. His daughter came to VBS with one of our regular bus kids.


The last night of VBS, our lesson was on the gift of Spiritual Influences. I brought pictures of some of my spiritual influences to show the children. Left to right/top to bottom, My Bruce, mom, my daddy, Mrs. Ava & Pastor Goodman, and my friend, Janet.


We fed the children a hotdog supper Friday night. One little girl, and I mean LITTLE girl, ate three hotdogs, a cookie, a cupcake, and a drink. It was really pitiful how hungry she was. Mom was scared to death she would be sick, but she wasn't. She was happy as a lark.


The girls had won the penny war again on Thursday. But now Friday was here. What would happen? I'll tell you.......................

The girls won, of course!


Which led to what every child and adult had been waiting the entire week for. Mrs. Liz eagerly filled her pie shell with whipped cream that would adorn her husband's head and face. There was much glee on her own face as she decorated her husband to resemble Sunday's dessert.


I do admit, though, he took it like a champ.


So that's the end of the story....VBS is over. Lessons were taught, bellies were fed, the girls won, and souls were saved.


That's what it's all about.

Cassie's Corner

Please stop by and say hi to Cassie at Cassie's Corner.

Cassie is a young lady in our youth group who was saved recently. Her brother Clint was the first one to be saved on our youth trip back in March. Just a few weeks later, Cassie gave her heart to Christ also. She's a sweetheart and I love her bunches.

She's also the best friend to Taylor from Taylor's Blog, who by the way, got her salvation settled Sunday also. Praise the LORD!

I know a friendly hello from some other Christians would be an encouragment to Cassie. And by the way, she's going to give me a run for my money. She's like me when it comes to taking pictures. LOL Cassie's Corner

VBS 2007, Wednesday Night

I spent thirty minutes trying to log on tonight but blogger wouldn't let me. It kept saying that my username and password were incorrect. Incorrect? I KNOW MY PASSWORD!!! Just as I was about to give up, I realized my keyboard was set on Caps. So now I'm signed in and I can post. YAY~Let me also add that there's a lot going on here at Thimble Thoughts, and I wanted to make sure you all knew to say hi to Cassie from Cassie's Corner. You can read what I wrote about her a couple posts under this one. Thanks.

The little boy holding the Christian flag is Carl. He's my nephew. He's a smart and wonderful little boy. We love Carl a whole lot.

Our lesson tonight was the third gift God has given to us and that is the sanctuary of the church. Our text was Matthew 16: 17-19 "....and upon this rock I will build my church;....." I told the children that our church must be built on the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that if we didn't build our church on Him, that we would fail in our ministries. So I had a big rock that I let them hold and pass around, which represented Christ. I took the rock and told them that when the storms of life rain on our church, if Christ is the rock, the church will stand firm. So I took water and poured it all over the rock and of course the rock got wet, but that's all the water could do to it. Then I pulled out my bag of sand and poured it next to the rock. I told the children that if Christ wasn't the rock of our church it's like building our church on sand and when the waters come, our church will fall apart. Of course, I poured the water on the sand and it washed away. There was more to the lesson, but that was the illustration I used tonight.

Here's a picture of Brother Johnny holding a church house. Just so you'll know...we were teaching about how church befefits us as Christians. The children do know that the church building is not the body of Christ.


This is Destiny. She's in my class at Super Church. She's so sweet.


This is Naomi, our Sunday school teacher's daughter. Isn't she cute?


One of my favorite kiddos sitting down to eat his cupcake that was slathered with red butter cream icing. Don't you just love his smile?

Here's Nanny enjoying her cupcake too. I can't believe how much icing were on these cupcakes. But I sure didn't hear the kids complaining. Nor did I hear mother comlaining.

I don't know who this little boy is, but I loved the fact that his little mouth was covered in red icing. There was green icing too. Red and green teeth are not attractive at all, by the way. I know...I had a green one and my friends were telling me it wasn't pretty.

Time for the penny war. The children rise and watch with anticipation to see who will win tonight. Will it be the boys????

NO!!!!!! THE GIRLS WON AGAIN! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!


We had 390 in attendance tonight. What a blessing. Several were saved including my little nephew who shared his experience with me on the way home tonight. We had the sweetest conversation about him getting saved and what it meant.

That's what it's all about.

I've Been Tagged!

MOOBEAR from Claudia's Place has tagged me for "Eight things about me" Meme. So let's see what interesting facts I can come up with.

1. I was bitten by a timber rattler on the left foot when I was 15 years old. It was MONTHS before I was back to normal from the horse syrum they had to give me. At the time we didn't know what kind of snake it was so they had to act fast and give me what they would give horses. For months after that, I craved oats and sugar cubes. HA, just kidding about that part. But the rest of it is true.

2. One year later, almost to the date, I was horseback riding, was thrown from the horse, shattering the right tibia of my leg and breaking the ankle in two. I pulled well over 90% of the ligaments in that leg which hurt much more than the breaks. I still have plates and screws today.

3. I was married to Bruce when I was nineteen years old and we made our very first home in a small appartment on Gabelsbergerstrasse in Frankfurt, Germany where I was the young, proud wife of one of the Air Force's finest airman.

4. My first solo in church was at the Faith Baptist Church of Simpsonville, SC when I was five years old. I sang "We Three Kings" in the Christmas pagaent. It was a surprise for my parents. Although Bruce and I lived here in NC, an hour and a half away, Pastor Euete (the pastor of said church) wasn't going to miss the opportunity of performing our wedding ceremony for his "favorite orange-headed child."

5. I defaced a rock at Lake Erie with the words, "Kristi -n- Bruce 1989" painted in black after my dad told me I couldn't, while vacationing in Ohio. When he and my mom went out to eat with some old friends of theirs, my Great Aunt Mavis (daddy's Aunt) took me to Kmart and bought the crime supplies. Then drove me to Lake Erie where the crime was committed. I told daddy about it and he was furious. So furious that he scolded me in front of everyone then drove out to the lake with his video camera and filmed it after taking several snapshots of it. I have an 8X10 of it somewhere around here.

6. I stood outside in a group of army/air force men and women in the courtyard of a Rhein Main Air Base Hotel in nothing but a very short, very thin night gown, holding my little baby in the middle of the night because someone pulled the fire alarm for a prank and I panicked. All I could think about was getting my baby out of a burning hotel. Apparently it happened often and everyone knew it but me because they were all dressed and even took time to tie their shoes. An army fellow was gentlemanly enough to remove his Army coat to let me cover up with it. What humiliation!!

7. I have this thing about watches. I love them. I've been like that for years. But when I first got into buying them, it was the Swatch Watches that attracted me. I bought a Swatch Watch every payday for a long time. Bruce thought I was nuts. They were all different colors, sizes, and shapes. A couple of them were just weird. Do you remember the Swatch Watches of the early 90's? Weren't they so cool??? I think I still have couple of them in the attic.

8. I used to pluck hairs from my daddy's eyebrows while he was sleeping. Not to be mean, but he thought it was funny to let these two wild hairs grow long, so I'd wait til he was asleep on the couch and I'd pluck 'em. He didn't think THAT was funny. As a matter of fact, he'd wake up screaming at me.

RULES BEFORE DOING THE ME ME ME
01. Post rules before giving the facts OOPS....MISSED THAT ONE!
02. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves
03. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
04. At the end of the your blog you need to tag eight people and list their names. Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

I've decided to only tag six people. But if you would like to do this meme, please do it. Let me know if you do so I can read it. I look forward to it!!

My Tags are:
Nanny, from Maw Maw's House
Hannah, from Sugar & Spice
Justin, from A View of My World
Angela, from A-Team's Adventures
Taylor, from Taylor's Blog
Cassie, from Cassie's Corner

VBS 2007, Tuesday Night

Here are two of our flag and Bible bearers. The little boy holding the Bible is one of our favorites at church. He's the foster child of our good friends, Mike and Susan. If you'll recall, it was the Christmas season that Mike and Bruce had to wear those tiaras for their birthday roastings. Hehehehe. For pictures of that, see the December 2006 archives. :) So Jarrett is one of the most loving kids I've ever met. His hugs are so special and when he likes you, he lets you know it. I could just hug him all day. His little hands are soft too. What a sweetheart he is!!

The other little boy is another favorite of ours at church. Benjamin. What a riot this kid is. His understanding and knowledge of the Bible is probably more than the average adult. I got tickled last night because we studied the first gift God gave us was His Son, Jesus. I told the class of FIVE YEAR OLDS, "...and boys and girls, do you know what God's greatest gift to us is? He sent His only Son to die for us!"
Benjamin raised his hand and said, "Mrs. Kristi, that's not right."
"What do you mean, Benjamin?"
"Well, God has all kinds of sons, but He only has one BEGOTTEN Son."
I believe this is where the student becomes the master, aye? LOL


This was tonight's puppeteers. We rotate our youth for this or they fight over it. No, I'm kidding, but we do rotate them out. It's good there's so many of them that are willing to do it.


Pastor Goodman brought Bubba for the children to see. He always brings his dog up and walks him across the platform. The kids love it. Bubba is a favorite at VBS. Bubba likes to play outside with the giant basketballs and soccerballs too.


This is our class. Tonight we had 16 kindergarteners. We studied the second gift God has given to us is the Gift of Scripture. I was reading Psalm 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." I quickly turned out the lights and told them how dark the world is when we don't have God's word in our hearts to guide us. But that when we have His word hidden in our hearts, it shines like a lamp to our feet. Then I turned on a flash light at my feet and was able to see where I was walking. It was really dark at first, until the light shone down. I didn't tell my helpers what I was doing, so they were surprised by the dark too. HA! Here the children are coloring pictures of the Bible.



Then it was popsicle time!!! WOOHOO! After popsicles the children were taken to the shelter there in the back and they did handprints in concrete with little jewels around them. They make such sweet stepping stones or garden ornaments. I'll make sure to post pictures of them later this week.


Last night the girls won the penny war, but we were outwitted by the boys tonight. Yes, they won. But that's OK....we still have three nights to go.


Last night we had 264 children and tonight there were 322. There were several saved tonight. That's what it's all about!

VBS 2007, Christmas In July

Monday morning we were busy in the hopes of a dust-free environment.

Harrison was busy with the lamp shades, the silk flowers around the house, and whatever else his little hands could find to do.


Hannah made cleaning water and washed the doors where our washer and dryer are, the front and back doors, and the walls above the cabinets in the kitchen. That was a big job, but it looked so good when she was finished. I wish I had taken before and after pics.


Justin went through the house and got the little dust bunnies that hung from the ceiling and also dusted our ceiling fans.


While we worked in the house, Bruce was working on my car. He was cleaning something that had clogged up with gunk. If you look at the smoke coming out of the tailpipe, that was when he had finished working and was burning all that stuff out of there. My car flies now!! Just the way I like it.



Bruce left for work, the kids and I put our cleaning supplies away, and we started getting ready for VBS 2007, Christmas in July.



If you haven't already guessed, our theme for Vacation Bible School this year is Christmas in July. I really like this theme. The look on the younger children's faces when they walked in and saw everything decorated for Christmas was so funny.


Happy faces all aglow in anticipation for the upcoming week.


We began with opening assembly, saying pledges to the flags and the Bible.



Then the puppets came out. The children always look forward to the puppets. They know the puppets will be there for VBS.


Brother Johnny had a wrapped box and inside that box was a special gift that everyone could share.....God's only begotten Son.


Pastor Goodman came out to welcome the children and open in prayer.


After our Bible lesson, we went outside for cookies, juice hugs, and the favor of the day.....THE CANDY GUN!!!!!!!



Even Moms were excited to see their babies scatter the grounds for candy.


Here you see the six cannon candy gun. That's a lot of candy!


And here they go! Killing each other for a tootsie roll....OH WHAT FUN!!!



Poor Alex in the wrong place....the candy is the other way. But don't you worry. This girl has attitude. She will get her fair share, for sure!


These are our puppeteers.


Closing Assmebly


And the girls won the penny war. But then it's only Monday....four days to go.


The highlight of the night was hearing that we had a six year old boy saved. That's what it's all about!