Jesus is Our Ark

Ok, so I promised back in November that I was going to start sharing about the judgement that is going to be poured out on this Earth in the not-so-distant-future.  As believers in Jesus Christ, we will not be here for this judgement.  Jesus is our Savior and he is going to save us from this terrible time of calamity and death.  We will escape these things.  As believers we do not have to endure the wrath of God!  It is reserved for those who choose not to believe on Him.  God gives us every opportunity to turn to Him and be saved.  It is not His will that any should be lost.  If any remain for this period of tribulation, it is by his or her own choice!!  God doesn't send anyone to hell.  We put ourselves there by denying Jesus Christ.  He is the narrow path that leads to LIFE!!!!!!!!!! 

Do you remember the story of Noah from the Old Testament?  Noah and his family were the only righteous people left on Earth.  The Earth was filled with wickedness.  God decided to destroy the inhabitants of the Earth with a flood.  He saved Noah and his family along with 2 of every animal by keeping them safe in the ark.  They floated above the flood waters until the waters receded.  Jesus is our ARK! :)

The details I will be sharing will be coming from my study on the book of Revelation..the very last book of the Bible..and my use of a Bible Study Commentary by J. Vernon McGee.  The purpose of my sharing is to make you aware of the events that are to come and present to you that Jesus is our REFUGE and STRONGTOWER from the impending storm!  You have a CHOICE and do not have to be left behind for this judgement unless you choose to be.  The world today is being controlled by Satan (as it has been since the Fall in the garden of Eden) and the enemy of our souls is lying to us.  He wants us to believe that all roads lead to heaven..that if we are pretty good people and live a decent life that God will let us in the pearly gates.  The truth is, entrance into heaven has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Jesus.  It's all about believing in Him and what He did on the cross.  None of us will ever be "good enough" to earn our way into heaven.  God is so holy and perfect...we can never do enough good to get in by our own merits.  Our best is filthy rags to him!  A dirty menstrual cloth.  It is by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS that we can join Him in heaven.  When we believe on Jesus His righteousness is transferred to us!  Phew!  The pressure is off.  I just have to believe and rest in Him.

So...much more to come..

Parked at Five

It is the Lord's will that our family is to be steady with 5 children for a while longer...we found out on Friday that we are going to be unable to move forward with our adoption until some issues get worked out in our current family.  The Lord prepared my heart for this but at the same time it is difficult to face!  God has put the desire on my heart for more children and it is hard to have to keep waiting.  Zachary is three years old now and the gap between him and a new addition to our family is ever-widening but I rest in the fact that God is writing our family's story.  God has a plan for The Stephenson Family and it is a better plan than I could ever think up!  God's ways are so higher than our ways.  So I will take it day by day and surrender the disappointment to the Lord.  I am trusting in Him and relying on His strength and love.

Judgement Is Coming

In the not too distant future (only God knows the day or the hour) God's wrath is going to be poured out on this planet.  I never would have anticipated writing about end times but when you are a lover of Jesus and pour over His Word, it's all right there to uncover.  In the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, God lays out what is going to happen in the future.  Jesus is going to be coming back soon for His bride, the church, and He is going to remove the church from the world before His judgement is poured out.  As believers, we have not been reserved for wrath!  It is not God's will that ANY should perish, but His free gift must be received.  Jesus loves us and while we were sinners He died on the cross for our sins.  God is holy and perfect and without sin.  He cannot be in the presence of sin.  When Adam and Eve sinned by eating the fruit that was forbidden, there was a problem.  We could no longer be in God's presence.  God made a way for us...He loves us so much that he gave his only son to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we could have a relationship with Him.  The price has been paid (he took our sins upon Himself and died in our place) but we must RESPOND to what Christ did for us.  We must believe on Him and accept Him as our personal Savior.  God draws us to Him and works in us to believe on Him for salvation.  I became God's daughter in 2001.  I am praying that every person reading this blog has salvation in Jesus Christ.  I am going to be writing in upcoming posts about what I have learned from my study of Revelation..what this judgement is going to be like that is going to be coming upon this Earth.  I pray that if you haven't accepted Jesus that you would reach out to His hand of mercy and grace that is already outstretched to you! :)

We Are Almost There...

Yesterday our adoption social worker, Blythe, came to our house to complete our home inspection.  She also did an individual interview with me and also sat down and talked to the kids.  She had the girls draw pictures of what our family was going to look like after the new baby was here.  She asked Antonis to fill out a 3 page questionnaire.  The home inspection was mostly looking around and making sure that our home is safe and that we have room for another child to live here.  If we get a girl, she will go in the girls' room and we will get two sets of bunkbeds.  If it's a boy he will go in Zach's room.  We had to go out and buy a fire extinguisher which we didn't already have.  We also had to get some additional child locks for where we keep cleaning supplies under the bathroom sinks.  In 40 days, God willing, we will be approved and put on the waiting list!  So it will be about a week before Christmas.  Blythe has 30 days in which to submit a report to her supervisor and then the supervisor has 10 days in which to approve our paperwork to adopt!  That puts us at about Dec. 19th.  We are adopting through their newborn adoption program but we have specified that we are willing to accept a child anywhere from birth to 2 years old.  Occasionally they do have children that are older that come through their office for adoption.  We are also open to any race or health condition.  We will see who the Lord has in mind for our family.  We are trusting that God will equip us to handle whatever child He has chosen for us!  Annalise is turning 5 this upcoming Monday and Zachary will be 3 on Thanksgiving.

Enjoying The Fall

School & Fieldtrips

We are on a new homeschool schedule now where we only do school lessons 4 days a week.  God started tugging on my heart about it and I finally decided to obey and make the change.  It gives us a free day to do fieldtrips and for me to get planning done for the upcoming week.  The weekends go too fast!  I like to enjoy the weekend and not have to eat it up doing more homeschooling preparations.  The new 4 day school week will extend our schoolyear through June (instead of being done end of May) but it will be well worth it to have a less stressful school year.  That is one of the great things about homeschooling....the flexibility we have!   

We made it to the Children's Museum a few weeks ago!  The kids still love it so we renewed our annual membership.

One of those days...

Today has been a long one!  It's one of those days when I wonder why I am in the process of adopting and why I even have the number of children that I have! :)  But then I couldn't imagine life without each and every one of them...I love them dearly but it's overwelming at times. 

By about lunchtime the kids had gotten a decent amount of schoolwork done and they piled out the door to climb the tree in the front yard.  Antonis, Karisma, and Annalise love to climb high..Kalista stayed on the ground with Zachary.  I didn't really feel like going out so I just kept checking on them from the window and let them have some fresh air while I stayed inside.  Finally after a while I went out there to check on things and Karisma was digging a BIG hole in the grass in the front yard!!!  The grass that we pay hundreds of dollars to put chemicals on and aerate and overseed.  I was livid.  What would make her think it was okay to do this??? 

I feel like a referee many days.  It can make my head spin. 

Praise the Lord..we had our first Halloween outreach last night.  The kids passed out tracts with our Halloween candy that told people about having a relationship with Jesus.  It was exciting.  We also have started a neighborhood Bible Study every other Friday night on the book of John.  We will be meeting this Friday.