"Instead of being special, they wanted to be similar."
1 Samuel 8
I read this from a commentary on 1 Samuel the other day. It was referring to the Israelites wanting a king after God had delivered them from the Philistines. All the other nations had a king. They wanted to be similar, to be like them, to "fit in". How many times do we as Christians forget that God has called us to be set apart, to be special, to be different from the ways of this world. We fight it... from the moment we are born we want to be liked, to fit in, to have what others have. I wonder if it's because we don't trust Him. His plans for us may be scary, may not be exactly what we had planned or envisioned... so we settle for what we think looks good. We try to convince God that our ideas are best... "everyone else is married with 2.5 kids, a good job, and a white picket fence" None of these things are bad or unGodly, but when we lose perspective on what our goal (God's plan for us) is , we stop looking like children of the king, and start becoming like anyone else.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
New Mexico with only 4 dogs?
We had a few hits on Bella this week and a family from Little Rock wants to meet her and try her out this weekend! Hopefully she'll get adopted so we won't have to take 5 dogs to our tiny backyard in New Mexico!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Work Day
We just wanted to say THANK YOU so much for everyone's help yesterday with the work day. We have such a wonderful church family at Journey and we appreciate you all so much!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Marlins win Big!
Monticello Marlins Swim Team competed in Magnolia today against 6 teams from around SE Arkansas. Despite many of our swimmers being out due to softball and other "stuff" and some of our kids not swimming our best times, we pulled out a win over second place Crosset by over 100 points! Congrats kids and thanks for letting me be your coach!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Decision is...
Wow... I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've posted. I guess we've just been so busy. We finally made the choice- we're headed back to New Mexico- the last place I ever expected to go back to. I really think that God has called us there for my parents... why is it so much harder to share Christ in a meaningful way with people whom you already have relationships? I know this part of our journey is going to take lots of prayer and patience.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Toxic People
So I've been meaning to post about this for a week or so, but better late than never...
While Justin was at drill a couple weeks ago, I got to go back and visit some old friends at Rock Creek and hear a great sermon by Greg Kirksey
The first thing that got me was a surveillance video from a local restaurant... basically, this family is in a rush and throughout the meal, the wife is complaining about the service, pestering the waitress about how long things are taking, etc. The family then bows their heads to pray after receiving their food and continue to be incredibly rude to this poor waitress. By the end of the meal, she is almost in tears due to their rude comments and pushy attitudes.
Greg preached on the toxic church...
He talked about staying away from extreme legalism (Pharisees). So many churches seem to make people feel like dirt because of their sin... I've even heard of churches making unwed pregnant teenagers stand in front of the church body and confess their sin. Not that we shouldn't hate the sin, but there are so many better ways to go about things than developing a critical spirit toward others.
Matthew 23:4, 6-7, 13-15
He talked about staying away from extreme liberalism (not political liberalism), but the whole believe whatever you want, cafeteria plan Christianity. Liberal teaching provides no roots! As in the days of Moses, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" seems to be the common theme among our lives today. We often are enamoured by good communicators and forget to investigate the whole truth.
2 Timothy 2:15-18
My favorite thing he said that was so simple was "The greater the relationship- the fewer rules you need." For example, someone who loves their spouse and has a great relationship doesn't need a rule that tells them not to commit adultery. So it should be with us, the closer we get to God, and the more like Jesus we become, the less rules we should need to live.
While Justin was at drill a couple weeks ago, I got to go back and visit some old friends at Rock Creek and hear a great sermon by Greg Kirksey
The first thing that got me was a surveillance video from a local restaurant... basically, this family is in a rush and throughout the meal, the wife is complaining about the service, pestering the waitress about how long things are taking, etc. The family then bows their heads to pray after receiving their food and continue to be incredibly rude to this poor waitress. By the end of the meal, she is almost in tears due to their rude comments and pushy attitudes.
Greg preached on the toxic church...
He talked about staying away from extreme legalism (Pharisees). So many churches seem to make people feel like dirt because of their sin... I've even heard of churches making unwed pregnant teenagers stand in front of the church body and confess their sin. Not that we shouldn't hate the sin, but there are so many better ways to go about things than developing a critical spirit toward others.
Matthew 23:4, 6-7, 13-15
He talked about staying away from extreme liberalism (not political liberalism), but the whole believe whatever you want, cafeteria plan Christianity. Liberal teaching provides no roots! As in the days of Moses, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" seems to be the common theme among our lives today. We often are enamoured by good communicators and forget to investigate the whole truth.
2 Timothy 2:15-18
My favorite thing he said that was so simple was "The greater the relationship- the fewer rules you need." For example, someone who loves their spouse and has a great relationship doesn't need a rule that tells them not to commit adultery. So it should be with us, the closer we get to God, and the more like Jesus we become, the less rules we should need to live.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Job Search Update
So... life in the Dreyer world has become a little crazy as we search for jobs, houses, schools.... I don't really like the idea of not knowing where we will be living 3 months from now. Amanda didn't get her #1 choice job at Denver Children's Hospital... we're still looking in Denver, but it's not looking too promising as they don't pay their school SLP's very well. We are still looking in NM, but the housing prices are still exorbitant so we would have to find a great deal. We have now added options 3 and 4. Option 3 is in Orlando... Amanda was offered a part time position with a great Auditory verbal therapy company that would pretty much be an incredible opportunity except that I would need to find additional part time work so that we could afford to live... the good thing is Florida pays their school and preschool SLPs very well... so after sending out 10 resumes and applications last night, hopefully I can find something. Option 4 is a Children's Hospital in Tulsa Oklahoma... random... this position was passed onto me from a geriatric hospital that wanted to recruit me in OK City so I applied just to see what happens. Jeff joked Sunday night that maybe we need to move to Alaska.... I know God has a sense of humor, but OH MY... I was kinda freaking out about Colorado... I wear sweats and have to have a blanket in our house when the air is below 70! Justin is pretty much content to go where I can get the best job and he can finish his degree although he's really pulling for Colorado Anyways... all this to say we need some prayer (that we sell our house, that we end up where God wants us, and that we "aka me" will be patient and learn to trust God through this)
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