sermon notes

in church we've been going through the book of james for the last few weeks.
it's pretty much kicking our tails.
in a really good way.

a few weeks ago our main teaching pastor talked about taming the tongue. {listen to it here}
whew.  so. so. good.
i think i took about five pages of notes and then went over them all that next week.

i am an avid church note taker.
it helps me stay focused and really receive what i'm hearing.
also, i love to go back over my notes throughout the week.

this past week our college pastor preached on James 4.
it was really good.
you can listen to it here. {click on James 4:1-12, July 22, 2012}

i thought i'd share some of my notes from james 4.....

******************************************************************

*do not have a love affair with a world system that opposes Jesus.

*God yearns jealously for us. (vs. 5: Or do you think it's without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit He has caused to live in us yearns jealously?)

*His grace is greater than our sin and our need (vs. 6 He gives greater grace)

Humble Yourself:

1. pray with the right heart (1peter5:6-7)
2. let others speak into your life {be teachable}
3. be grateful

Submit to God:

*He wants the key to every part of your life

Resist the devil:

*sometimes verbally resisting
*also living in the opposing spirit
*we have to do the resisting!

*we take a few steps towards Him and He runs towards us.

{jer 29:13 seek me & find me when you seek me with all your heart}

*key way to draw near to God = repentance.

*wash your hands { doing. right.}
*purify your heart {internal, attitude}
*grieve, be devastated over your sin
*ask God to tenderize your heart . . .
  -think about how my sin affects the heart of God
  -consider what my sin cost God.

***************************************************************

we've seen a lot of spiritual battle around us lately and people close to us are going through some really difficult times.
we have felt Jesus so close.
so thankful to serve a living God who is for. us. 




{also i ask you to please pray for my friend amber and her sweet son titus who is at children's hospital right now. read her words here.}





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a family retreat

last weekend we had the best time at our church's family retreat.
aj and i are not so much into men's or women's retreats but we love the family retreat.
honestly, we just really like to be around each other.
we have the most fun when we're all together.

the retreat was friday evening through sunday morning.
a whole slew of families from our church came & our children's pastor, his wife {who is also on staff at our church}, the youth pastor and his wife and a bunch of interns worked their tails off to make this an amazing weekend.
you can tell that so much planning goes into it.
you can also tell that they know kids.
it was great.

when we loaded all of our stuff into our room, sawyer was so excited about the bunkbeds.
much more excited than his six month pregnant mama. ;)

he wanted to be zipped up in his sleeping bag immediately.
which he didn't even use...he actually slept in a pack n play in the bathroom. ;)


we had several "chapel times" with praise & worship led by the interns, skits & Bible teaching.

all of it was super geared towards young children.
the lessons were short & very interactive.

even sawyer listened really well.....which was probably due in large part to the fact that he was sleep deprived.

on saturday we had a beautiful sunny day which was a miracle in itself.
we spent the morning doing field games.
each family was a team.
so. fun.

the afternoon was full of fun....horseback riding, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, napping, etc.

you wanna know what one of my very favorite parts of the retreat is?

yep, the food.
prepared for me.
cleaned up for me.
it was bliss, really.

okay this is a cruddy/grainy picture, but i just love how sweet the boys are with their arms around each other...i had to share it.  :)

we were totally exhausted by the end of the weekend but it was so worth it...so much fun family time and time with our community group.
love making memories with our family. Pin It