A Bright Sunday

Today during our morning service we listened to two of our young people give public testimony and take their vows of membership. As per most of the covenant children, their testimonies began the same, 'raised in a christian home', but as they went on it began to really set in. The younger of the boys shared how at the age of three he asked the Lord into his heart. At the age of six he was talking to his mother about suffering for growth. At the age of 10 he was really growing in the sermons.

As I looked around the church during offering time I was filled with such a different sort of emotion. I didn't want to cry nor shout for joy, but it was an emotion of.... I guess stillness. I looked at each family and thought about all the testimonies I'd heard in years past from the Covenant children. They were so very much alike, 'raised in a christian home', 'there's not really a time when I didn't know Christ', phrases like this rushed back into my head. I sat there in awe of the knowledge and depth of truth taught in our church to our children at such a young age.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 6:6-8

How true these words became for me today. As I bowed my head in thanksgiving for truth of God's Word in the church, I glanced over to the young gal sitting beside me.

Eric stayed home sick today and I took the kids to church. I was vastly outnumbered as you can imagine. Sweet little Anna, who is not so little anymore, came and sat in our pew to help. I remember her, and maybe always will, as the little three year old Anna. Now she is in high school, helping me with my kids. Anna is so blessed with long dark brown hair and the thickest eyelashes (I'm a little envious). She is really beautiful not only on the outside, but on the inside. For the first time today, I saw a young woman of Christ. I count myself blessed to have been able to get to know Anna and the rest of her family better, now that we are all in the same bible study. And I praised God for her and her way with Luke as I watched him smile at her and laugh with those big blue eyes all a sparkle. I'm so looking forward to hearing her give her testimony.

Our church family has become so precious to me in so many ways. Today was a extra special service filled with many who were brightly shining with Christ's light.

Breaking down a wall

Wow.

With so many wondrous things filling my heart I will try to make sense of them in this blog. It's all so much I feel I might just burst with excitement to share them with you all.

Let me start by asking you this:
Remember that first moment when Salvation became so real that you were left stunned. I do. If you haven't, let me share with you. Salvation is the very word that causes my heart to race and my hands to sweat. Every time. Eph 2:8, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift from God.

What does it actually mean to be saved? How would you answer this? Feel your heart racing.... hands sweating..... hair on the back of your neck standing up....

For me, those reactions used to be fear. God has turned my fear into pure excitement. I cannot put into words the full impact how that change, from fear to excitement, feels. The 'backspace' key has become my new best friend, as I can barely control my fingers just thinking the words I want to type.

Oh to be a child of God.... NO.... A Daughter of the King.

AS HE REVEALS.....
I finally discovered what was holding me back from sharing the gospel with others at any given opportunity. Embarrassment. Am I a people pleaser? No. I have such wonderful friends and family. I am secure with who I am and have little fear of being considered "acceptable" to strangers. My wardrobe or lack thereof the latest fashions will attest to that. :-)

I'm afraid I will embarrass my Father with my lack of knowledge or the right words. Being here on earth, I'm also afraid I will embarrass my husband. I have respect for Eric, more than anyone else on this earth, and to embarrass him is something that would crush me. Satan has used these two fears to subdue me. No more. I let the Great Deceiver hand me the first brick, and today I begin my work of tearing down that wall that I have built between me and my Father.

I sat down and made a list of some of my gifts.
Hospitality- Parties/get togethers.
Creativity- Simple details.
Organization- A well kept home (most days).

These are things that I use to show the world that God has blessed me. I love having people in our home. When we put an offer on the house, I vowed to the Lord that if He would provide the home I would use it to host His people. Having bible study in our home is important to me, and Eric. We both love to have parties and have people in our home, because it is an opportunity to share how the Lord provides for us.
When we made the decision of follow the Lord's path to come to West Lafayette, we had to not only sell our home in Flora, but also find a home here. We knew the area we wanted, but found only one home with the things we needed and wanted. The house was out of our price range, but had the space and land. Eric went through the house by himself and knew I would love it. We put an offer on the house below the asking price. I looked at the house and we received a call from the realtor within 24 hours. There was already a better offer on the table. I cried and sobbed as we withdrew our offer, and the tears continued through the night. Eric's wise words, "It's just not the Lord's will," did comfort me enough to finally fall asleep that night. James 5:16 says, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." All through the night and into the next day every time I thought about the house, I prayed, 'The Lord's Will Be Done.' (Feeling goose bumps on your arms? .... God's providence). We got another call from the realtor 24 hours later, the first offer had fallen through and they were ready for us to submit our low offer. Within 3 months the Lord brought us a buyer for our Flora house and we moved into our new home in August 2006.

God sets before us many choices, but simple choices.
Life or Death
Blessings or Curses

Can this really be considered a choice?

Pray for me this week as tear down my wall of fear:
Confidence to use every opportunity.
Assurance that He has equipped me.
Thankfulness that it is not my words, but God's and He saves by His choice.

The Mom's Group

I started a Mom's Group for our two churches back in September of last year as a "trial". I have found that this group has become very dear to my heart and such a tremendous blessing. I prayed that if God would send just two moms to our group I would pour everything into them. God answered my prayer and then some, give me contact with sixteen gals. I am so thankful for each and every one of the mothers. I pray for them daily and for myself. I am not perfect and this is my first commitment to something I feel God is leading me to be a part of, (that I'm doing on my own). If you think of me, pray for me: for courage and wisdom, because what I thought was just a trial has now become a journey.

Below is the annual report that I submitted to our church:

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.
Psalm 31:28

The Mom’s Group is a ministry of the Immanuel Reformed Presbyterian Church not only to the mothers of both the IRPC and the Lafayette RPC, but also as an outreach ministry to the mothers of the entire community.

Our Mission is to:
· unify, strengthen, encourage, and embrace one another as sisters in Christ
· grow as Godly mothers in faith and wisdom
· lift up one another
· be a testimony of our faith and love in Christ Jesus, to all we come in contact with
bring God glory


We meet at 7:00pm the second and the fourth Tuesday of the month at Lafayette RPC with babysitting being provided for those who need it.

We open the evening with prayer and then have dessert where we discuss any upcoming community/church events along with any relative announcements from the churches represented. Following this we have our time of faith and fellowship. We are currently working through the book, “The Mom You’re Meant to Be” by Cheri Fuller. We cover two chapters each meeting. We encourage, but do not require these chapters to be read prior to the meeting. We then close the meeting with prayer, asking for requests from the group, and then always remembering to pray for our children in a specific area of their life. To aid in this, we are using a prayer list from the book “The Power of a Praying Parent” by Stormie OMartian.

Currently, there are sixteen moms the group has contact with on a regular basis, twelve of which attend regularly. Also, of the moms that attend, we have been blessed to have five from the surrounding community. We welcome any and all moms who want to attend.

Romans 12:15 says “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”
The goals set last year for the group were simple goals, but some of the most important. We wanted to create a unity and bond between all of the mothers through openly sharing our strengths and struggles. Also, we wanted to establish a foundation of knowledge and love, built upon our Lord and savior. It was such a wonderful gift to see all the mothers share tears in times of sadness, laughter in stories of our children and lean on one another in times of struggles.

The goals set for the upcoming year, having accomplished the goals set for last year, are to start implementing activities during the meetings to help all the mothers grow in wisdom and godliness.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it..” It is a difficult task that God has graciously granted to all the mothers, while here on earth, to raise His children. I ask that you pray for our mothers for strength during the days that seem long, patience with the child that is having difficulties, understanding and clarity for the things the Lord is teaching to help raise His children.

The Beginning

Proverbs 19:21 says, For many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

I was born and raised in the Great State of Texas, where Southern pride is at it's finest. My mother cleaned houses and my father was a bricklayer. To this day they are both still at their skill of trade. My mother took us to church every Sunday that I can remember and our church family was of course, our second family. There were always many hugs, kisses and love seemed to overflow from the windows and doors.

My home church split when I was in Elementary School and being too young to fully understand everything it had little effect on me at the time. In attending the "new" church I grew into a teenager and all the problems that come along with that title. My parents divorced when I was in Middle School which brought more freedom to do things that I should not have become involved in. My mother remarried a loving man who supports and loves her to this day. During this time of freedom I attended church, but was not walking with the Lord.

In High School I was your "all american girl" and even became Homecoming Queen. Still my life lacked spiritual discipline in every way other than attendance on Sundays.

It was by the providence of God and His grace that I met my husband my Senior year of high school. A story so miraculas that it's a testimony in of itself. (See http://bibbyfam.blogspot.com/2008/02/our-story-gods-providence.html). We were married just seven months after meeting on February 7, 1998. God is so good.

The day after graduation we packed up all my things and we moved to Indiana. My first move.
My plans were not God's plans, as was the lesson I would learn over the next six years. Our first two years we lived with my In-Laws, though they are not referred to as such. Mom and Dad graciously took us in until we were able to stand on our own feet financially. Eric, my husband, attended Purdue University and was a full time student majoring in Electrical Engineering and striving for a minor in Japanese. Bitterness and anger found a way into my heart towards Eric and his family. I was selfish and immature and wanted to go "home." I chose to wallow in self-pitty, behind closed doors, and selfishly lost many opportunities to learn from the wisdom of Eric's mother.

We moved to campus where I formed life changing friendships with the other young married couples from our church. It was through a particular friendship with a Godly woman named Beka who opened my heart to the Lord and taught me of the precious gift of assurance. I finally found the path that I need to be on. Once I found that path and started my journey, it became rocky and uphill. I found the nearest bench and parked myself there for nearly four years. Sitting on that bench I received much knowledge while attending the Reformed Church, but I sat that knowledge next to me on that same bench on which I sat. Though the Lord was urging me to "take up my bed and walk", I would occasionally rise ready to 'hit the trail', but found myself sitting back down.

Our first born son, Luke Jonathan, was born in January of 2004. It was again God's providence and perfect plan for our lives. We were visiting my oldest girlfriend in Texas after celebrating the birth of her first baby girl, Jacelynn (my god-daughter), when her husband was called away on active duty. Being there to witness this family separated for nineteen months and the love we had for this new baby girl, was more than we could both bare. It was the day we decided not to 'wait' any longer that I became pregnant with Luke. Again, God showed me His plans were better than mine.

Luke's birth and his first year was the most challenging and joyous time in my life, second only to that of my marriage. God used the announcement of pregnancy of our second child, Kayla Marie to bring me to my knees.

God again used, Beka, to show me an example of a what a Godly mother is supposed to look like. And I found my face buried in my hands and tears, at my lack of strength to do it on my own.

I finally rose up off the bench I had planted myself on for so long and dusted off all the knowledge the Lord had equipped me with.

Eph 4:1-2 says, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, patience, bearing one another's burdens.

I have found my path, my calling, my gifts, my assurance, my love for my children and husband, my humility, God's grace and mercy, His forgiveness, the forgiveness of my family and Eric's, and my strength.

Praise our mighty God, to Him be glorified with this life He has so graciously given to me.