Captain's Blog

Ahhh I missed a day! I'm sorry for all my dedicated readers. It has been an amazing week. God is so good. If you don't already have the Hillsongs United Look to Him CD with DVD included you need to get it! Watch the DVD.

I love these guys cause they love God and they go hard. It's so encouraging. Put it on and if you are married well Holy Spirit drunk sex here we come! Wow. :)

1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Then it goes on to talk about strict training. Run Hard. Christianity is not for wimps. Too many wimps have given Christianity a bad name. "Change your name or change your behavior."

If you don't have strict training I challenge you to go on an Encounter weekend. (Kinda like Christian military school. :) If you have a church you attend, encourage your leaders to teach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Power, authority, boldness all accompany the infilling of the Holy Spirit. If witnessing is hard for you study the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

If you are reading this and are a bit shocked or wondering what the heck I'm talking about, well let me tell you life with Christ is not boring. It's the biggest ride you could ever take.

Gotta close. Run hard!

Love, Alanne.

Wow what a fun filled, jam packed day! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the kids clothing exchange today!!! What a blast. We proabably could have opened our own used kids clothing store!

I have to say it has been an amazing 2 days. God has blessed me big with amazing friends who have loved us and supported us and held our arms up when we couldn't any longer.

Thank you Lord for what you are doing and what you've done. Lord be with the people going on the Encounter weekend Lord prepare their hearts Lord. Father I trust that you will work everything out and Lord as the leaders look to you that you will give them your peace. Father I'm excited about what you are doing in the hearts and minds of the leaders who are walking the vision. Lord thank you that even though I doubt your sovereign and Lord once again I don't need to feel like I have to do it all. (yeah I'm learning) I love you Lord.

Wow can't wait to see what tomorrow holds. :)

Good night.

Alanne.

Just to clarify yesterdays blog.... We can't assume non Christians have the same values as Christians. Our friendship with them should and will look different than with other Christians.

I love how 1 Corinthians 6 talks about working out disputes between Christians. Let's work things out and deal with things as they come up. Don't miss or overlook things. (speaking to myself here :)

Gotta go but check out the scripture for yourself. Alanne.

Well God has really been working on me in this area. I have been so blessed over the last two days.

1 Corinthians 4:4a My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.

"You did what you knew how to do and when you knew better you did better." Poet Maya Angelou

I've learned some things over the last couple of days and wow, I am trusting I will "did better". :)

1 Corinthians 5:9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."^[b]

God, the in words a a wise woman "you are so smart" and another "you are so amazing" and in mine "you are so balanced" :) I love you Father. Thanks.

Be Blessed.

Alanne.

Everything has an effect on something else. So what does a supermom look and dress like? Well for one she doesn't dress inappropriately and two she spends time to make sure she looks good. Inside and out.

So what is dressing inappropriately? Well I have a website that you need to check out. The last seven or more posts were all talking about modestly. It's amazing!

So why should we look good? That would take time and energy when you don't have either! Well we have to look at Proverbs 31 something about rises early. Ouch! That smarts. Rising early means going to bed when we need to not when we want to. Yes I am speaking to myself here. :)

What is inside us should be reflected on the outside. Christ. We are the temple of the God. 1Corinthians 3:16&17 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

I remember a lady who spoke at a ladies weekend at our church and she looked radiant. When you saw her you saw her inside and out. There was no difference. I am guilty of not spending time to look good for my husband, after all he married me and he'd better think I'm beautiful! I know he does but I would be showing him that I care about him and our relationship if I spent time to look good.

The funny thing is when I read these articles on modesty at the girltalk website, I think to myself I really need to go shopping! Instead of I really need to get rid of some stuff.

What do you think after reading those articles?

Your sis,

Alanne.

1 Corinthians 3 1:15

1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

My passion is that we, you and I are completing our assigned tasks for our common purpose.

Romans 8:28 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.

We all have different tasks. We all have the same purpose. Love God and Love others. That is our common calling like Pastor Mike shared at Tehillah.

So let's start small. Lets start with giving it all over to God. :) yeah real small - NOT.

A test for you. The "are you ok?" check.

Bang your knee really hard accidently. If you blow your cork, chances are you have too much on your mind. (Why would I know this? yeah you guessed it.) If you can live in the moment with only the thoughts for that moment then you will be better able to focus on the situation / pain and deal with it.

Often times the issue is not the issue. Yes it hurts. Yes it was the last straw but if it was the only straw it wouldn't be as big of an issue.

"the fire will test the quality of each man's work."

Let God get to your heart. Let him hold everything. "I want to be the one to hold you high, I want to be the one to give you glory."(the song in my head)

I love you. I'm living, learning this. Glad to walk and share and learn with you.

Alanne

Lord you are so good. You are faithful and wow when people walk in your will, POWERFUL. You are gracious and you tenderly love us. Lord help me to be like you. To tenderly love others beginning with my family.

Wow we just had the most amazing Mom Moments!! Thanks Laurie for allowing God to share through you today. It was such a delight seeing you passionately speak and touch lives. Let's just say if you weren't here you missed out!

If you think "I can't, or not me, I'm not educated enough, who am I, or I just don't have the strength. THROW IT OFF! I don't say that lightly but be very aware that satan wants us down and out so that we will not do the work of the Lord.

1Corinthians 1:26-end, 2

26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."^[d]

1 Corinthians 2

1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Wisdom From the Spirit

6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"^[b]— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.^[c] 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"^[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

But we have the mind of Christ. Anything said more than once must be important.

Blessings, Alanne.

Good morning! What a great morning! It's my son Gabe's birthday today. He's 5! I can't believe it.

1Cor 1:10-17 Talks about quarrel's. I love how God gives us insite and like I shared yesterday gives us instructions for the day through His word. Thank you Lord.

Lose the quarrels and useless arguements. As it says in 1 Corinthians Agree and be united. Is Christ divided?

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom (wisdoom) lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."

Lord please make us aware of what is useless arguements and how to be united. Help us discern today what is not of you.

Blessings today,

Alanne.

I Cor 1:9

I have to say I love all the things I've read lately and all the colors of light I am seeing through my "God glasses".

My son Levi and I were talking today about selfish attitudes and how we need to be in the word to hear from God. He said, "I don't hear him Mommy." I said God doesn't speak out loud like mommy does very often. He speaks to us through His word. (Blank look on his face). I continued to say the Bible is God's love letter to you. (still a blank look) Levi it's like an instruction book. You know when you are trying to put a toy together and beside you is the instructions but you don't look at them? It's frustrating. (the light when on) Well the Bible is our instruction book for everyday life. How to live and what to do and be like.

He got it.

Put the glasses on - be in the word and talk to the Inventor. Life will look very different. :)

Blessings, Alanne.

Hi Everybody,

This Easter has really hit me hard. We just watched the Chronicles of Narnia or whatever it is called and wow. (Definately not good for kids.) But I loved watching it especially at Easter.

I went to bed after and cried. It has been 11 years since my dad died and he died on April 16th Easter Sunday in 1995. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday April 16, 2006. I miss him lots and life is so fragile. The concerns I have for my kids and the love I feel for them. Wow.

Thank you God for loving me. Col 4:2-6.

Thanks for listening and Happy Easter.

Alanne.

Colossians 3: 1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3For you died, (past tense) and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5Put to death,(present tense) therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^[b] 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self (past tense - done) with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

18Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

19Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

20Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

21Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23Whatever you do, (not do whatever) work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. (don't worry about it and it's not your responsibility to repay).

Deut 32:35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them."

Thank you Lord for your word and Truth.

Alanne.

My mom has always said to us growing up "For every unnecessary word we will give account..." I guess this is her take on Matt 12:36.

But if you think about it. We waste many words a day. We waste many minutes in a day.

I will be as bold as to say that if we do only what God wants us to and say only what he wants us to say we will have the perfect amount of time everyday for everything.

So practically what does that look like? Well our relationship with God is supposed to be an open line. We should be in constant communication with him all day.

You know how when you hang out with your best friend or someone you love hanging out with it's fun talking and doing things together but there are times even when it's just cool to be in the same room. When your busy doing stuff you have the assurance that he is there just hanging out with you in the room.

I don't know about any religion where you can just hang out with your creator (and He wants to).

Lord forgive me for the minutes I have wasted and the words I have carelessly used. I love you Lord.

Blessings,

Alanne.

For those of you who didn't get the skateboard thing in yesterdays blog, just know God cares about the smallest detail.

Today in prayer I was thinking about God as a parent to us. I thanked Him for always being there and being available. He's not off working at his job and not available (not that working is bad when needed). He's available whenever for whatever. He loves us. We're his kids. I know in my head that he loves us more than anyone could ever love another but to think that he loves us more than I love my kids? That blows my mind. I'm typing all this while my baby lays across my lap and has his bottle. The love I feel for him right now is huge, it's all consuming. God is all consumed with you. Right now. He's looking at you and loves you with his whole heart.

Don't resist. There's no time for that.

From my heart.

Alanne

Thank you Lord. You are good.

I have to hit the hay. Good night

I just had an amazing quiet time. I loved what I have blogged so far but I really wanted to get more personal. So what are my ambitions and why?

(and now I have learned to save my blogs while typing them so little fingers don't accidently erase what you just wrote.)

Romans 15:20 Paul says, "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation."

My ambitions are to be a reference point. To connect people to whereever they need to be in order to grow in God. Often times it's to a cell or to a person that would be able to impact their lives. I find though that because I am friendly and outgoing people want to connect only to me. Pastor Dave has said that in your life time you will have only about 6 close friends. I have to realize that I can't be a close friend to everyone I meet and some how I feel I need to express that.

In the Children's book The Legend of the Three Tree's I would have to say I would most likely want to be the Pine Tree (I think it was) that wanted to stay on the mountain top and forever point people to God. Interestingly enough though as the book says the dreams of the trees happened just not in the way they expected and that pine tree was the tree that was chopped down and made into the cross. Ouch.

Blessings to you as you think about what your ambitions are and why.

Anything repeated more than must be important. Anything repeated more than once must be important. :)

Romans 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

Later in Chapter 15 verse 1 it states "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves."

Acceptance and support for the weak in faith. We've all been there at some point in our walk.

Then again in verse 7 "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."

That's what life is all about bringing praise to God. One way is to accept and "..bear with the failings...".

vs 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragment give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

vs 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Good night ladies.

I have been raised with this verse....

2Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

As Christians we need to be like Christ. I see 3 types of people the ones that stand out in the negative, the ones that don't stand out (and who don't affect their surroundings) and the ones that excel in the positive.

In the book "A Mothers Heart" by Jean Fleming the author shares that as Christians we need to be especially good at forgiving. Espeically good not just good.

Romans 13:5 The verse I was trying to find!!!

Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

So what does this look like for us? My encouragement to you is to excel in the positive. You will stand out and it may not be the place you want to be. But you will be at peace, you will have confidence with the Holy Spirit directing you, and you will never, ever be bored. Freaked maybe but never bored.

Love you!

A huge thank you to James for setting this whole thing up! We appreciate you and we treasure your friendship.

In this space I want to share what I am learning in order to encourage women of faith to go deeper. I will encourage you, challenge you and do whatever it takes to help you grow.

Some things I say may offend you as I want to present the truth. My intentions are not to hurt but sometimes we need to hear things we don't want to hear and apply things we don't want to apply in order to grow.

My goal is for all ladies to reach the highest standard. To be examples and be united in purpose. I am not perfect just to put that on record. Your responsiblity is to check what I say with the Word of God. I am open to reading your comments although I have limited time.

I love you and look forward to the walk. Blessings.

So I was very encouraged by my Pastor's message on Sunday. He ended with 2 questions.

1. Do people enjoy being around you? and

2. Do you feel comfortable in the presence of God?

If you can't answer with an honest yes, there is a problem.

Romans 13:1-7.

Fear or Peace which will you have?

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