Captain's Blog

Thankfully God doesn't take vacations. I couldn't imagine if you went to pray and you heard. "God will be out of the Universe till next Friday" AHHHHH

Our family is preparing to go on our vacation. God has taught me a lot leading up to our vacation and I have a feeling God's not done yet. I do feel that he will give me rest and refresh our family before we do what God has planned for the fall. I'm looking forward to coming back to hear what the Pastors have decided our church plans and directions to be, to get our kids into school. Starting preschool with Orin (and I'm sure Rueben will want to do what Orin's doing :) Getting together with my friends and being real with everyone.

I just want to leave you with a quote from the girltalk.blogs.com website.

Vacation is great. I can get in a car and drive away from many of the responsibilities of everyday life. I can clean my house and not clean it again for two whole weeks. I can leave behind the errands and the meetings and the emails. But as much as vacation is an "escape," there is one thing I can't get away from: sin.

As my dad is in the habit of reminding people: indwelling sin doesn't take a vacation. As long as we're in this world, we can't escape it. We can't get in the car and leave it behind. We take it with us. Everywhere.

In fact, it seems to me as if new sins sneak into my luggage. Serving others sometimes seems like more of a sacrifice on vacation. I'm often more tempted to be impatient and self-centered. Worst of all, is the temptation to spiritual lethargy; the lure of pleasure and ease that seeks to pull my soul away from communion with God.

Because sin doesn't take a vacation, I cannot—I must not—take a vacation from dependence upon God. I desperately need His help to fight the sins that surface on vacation. But, sadly, I must confess that all too often I have neglected the spiritual disciplines. I start off with good intentions, but by the end of vacation my soul is cold and lacks passion for God.

That's why I need others on vacation. My husband challenges me and encourages me in my walk with God. My mom and sisters and I trade off watching the kids so each of us gets time with the Lord. They all provide an example that inspires me.

But even though sin travels with me, the good news is that I cannot escape the grace of God! And I don't want to! The gospel tells me that God sent His Son to redeem vacationing sinners like me. And even better—one day I will truly escape from sin, and spend eternity worshipping Him!

Remember sin doesn't take a vacation either so please pray for our family. Please also pray that we will be refreshed and renewed on this trip. I will try to post from whereever we are to keep you updated.

Blessings,

Alanne.

Hello Ladies,

Sorry it's been awhile, I've been thinking about you (my readers!) and I'm finally getting around to it. So I may have already written about this but as Pastor Dave would say Anything said more than once must be important, anything said more than once must be important. He he. So spiritual surgery.....

One lady that I was praying with at the alter shared with me that she doesn't want to cry anymore. She just wants the past to be the past. I just shared with her that if she's feeling pain God may need to reopen the wound in order to clean it out so that it will heal properly. Ouch!

Take the time to let God do the deep works He needs to do. Don't settle for a bandaid.

I love you.

Alanne.

4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

If there is a portion of scripture devoted to discerning spirits we need to sit up and pay attention. Who are you listening to. I know for myself it is a constant battle to keep on track all day. I can easily get off track and do what I want to do and ignore my responsibilities. I think the image of the person with the devil on one sholder and the angel on the other is not far off. There's always talking even when there is silence who are we listening to and moreso who are we going to follow.

Accountability and being in the word are 2 very important things. Also I would say schedule your time. Don't even allow moments to be wasted.

Bless you today.

Alanne.