One thing I did learn yesterday, I don't want to waste my life. Heaven is coming and will last for eternity. Are we wasting our lives here? Seriously, what are we doing here. Is it what God has called us to do? 


Watch this today: But be ready!


a href="http://www.brookhills.org/media/series/radical/v49" target="_blank">RADICAL video: RADICAL1_VID

Jake Ewing Sept. 9, 1999-Aug. 26, 2001

Not quite sure what I feel this morning. Eight years, wow, I didn't think we would make it through eight days. And here we are eight years later. Time moves quickly, don't waste it.

This morning I dropped Jackson off for Kindergarden and my sweet baby just waved and screamed out love you mom while blowing me kisses. One thing about Jackson, he loves his momma. I didn't want to drive away, I bawled the whole way home. The first few days of him gone was fun, I got to get some stuff done. Now I just want him to sit in my lap and cuddle me all day.  That boy was God's gift to heal this heart of mine!

I don't have much today, I am pretty raw. Not sure why this one is hitting me harder than the last few anniversaries have. Maybe all the changes lately are getting the best of me?

I can tell you this. Our home is not here, are we living like it is? Don't waste your life! Read my last post by John Piper, it says it all, the words I want to say but can't today.

Beginning of Sermon by John Piper

Galatians 6:14

But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.
But I know that not everybody in this crowd wants your life to make a difference. There are hundreds of you - you don't care whether you make a lasting difference for something great, you just want people to like you. If people would just like you, you'd be satisfied. Of if you could just have good job with a good wife and a couple good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement, and quick and easy death and no hell - if you could have that (minus God) - you'd be satisfied. THAT is a tragedy in the making.
Three weeks ago we got word at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over 80. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: To make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing 80 years old, and serving at Ruby's side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went over the cliff, and they were both killed instantly. And I asked my people: was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ—two decades after almost all their American counterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico. No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.
I tell you what a tragedy is. I'll read to you from Reader's Digest (Feb. 2000, p. 98) what a tragedy is: "Bob and Penny... took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells." The American Dream: come to the end of your life - your one and only life - and let the last great work before you give an account to your Creator, be "I collected shells. See my shells." THAT is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don't buy it.

Worth Watching!

The Gospel Demands Radical Giving - David Platt from Together for Adoption on Vimeo.

Mercy Street

Because I would never ask you to do anything, I am not doing and since I have a quiet house for part of my day. I am starting at the beginning and reading all of the posts from A Long Way from the Theta house. I have cried, laughed, been challenged and mostly encouraged about all the things that I know God is calling Brad and I to do with our lives. To love Jesus and let our lives reflect his love. We can make a difference here, that is what we are here for, to change this world.

A Long Way from the Theta house is the personal blog of a lady whose husband runs Mercy Street ministries. This mercy street is much like my favorite ministry for global outreach Compassion International which takes kids from a poor community and works with the churches and schools to teach them about Jesus. I am amazed to see all that God has done in both ministries but most of all excited that I can do that here in Bossier City, LA and not move across the world (I am not quite ready for that move). Not sure I am ready to move down the street either but feel that God is calling me to something more than nice neighborhoods with big houses. I am not saying that nice neighborhoods with big houses are wrong, I really like them! I am one who gets very attached to my houses and as Brad can tell you, I like a nice house!

What I have been praying each day is that God would change my heart and that I would desire the things that were important to Him. That he would remove the desires that are not of Him. I want to love what He loves and desire what He does! He is being true to His promises and giving me a heart for what He has a heart for. We can't make ourselves change what we desire but He can change our heart and He is slowly changing mine.

I have no idea what God has for us. I do know that wherever He calls, I pray I am obedient. That whatever neighborhood we move to, that we will have a house on mercy street. A house that shows God's love and mercy to the world. A house that is known for it's open door to the community. One that shines like a light in this dark world. Every neighborhood needs that kind of house. Will you change your street to mercy street with me? Decide to use your home for God's glory. What I do know is that Proverbs 28:27 says "whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse." Let's stop hiding our eyes and seeing the need out there!

Check out this blogspot: http://hoodmamamel.blogspot.com/

We Are Moving!

I know that I have been very inconsistent with the blog lately but I have some news that I have been waiting to share.

We are moving to Bossier City, LA. Brad was asked to be the missions and contemporary worship pastor at First Baptist Bossier (www.firstbossier.com). We are very excited and can't believe how God is answering our prayers. We have wanted to live closer to home for a very long time and have really missed our family. Now we will be very close. Most of Brad's family lives in Bossier City and my parents and sisters are close in the Dallas area.

Brad and I have had an increasing heart for missions and this will give us an opportunity to experience more of missions and what God has for us. Also, I will be staying home with the boys and back to my life as a stay at home mom, which I have greatly missed. I will also have more time and flexibility to do some more speaking and give my testimony at churches. God is really opening doors and we are positioning ourselves to be ready for His call and service.

I have missed my long quiet times, lots of time to blog and just being with my boys! I am looking forward to the opportunity for our family to serve at First Bossier. I pray God's blessing on us and the church. Keep as in your prayers as we travel, move in our apartment, and the boys start new schools.

You are loved!