In the wilderness

Hello, I have been away for along time . You might say I have been in the wilderness . The cool thing about the wilderness is that you really have an opportunity to spend time with the Lord and savior. God is so true to his word I encourage anyone to start reading the Bible and see how the Holy Spirit will start to do His work in your heart. So many things have taken place since I posted last. God has completely transformed our family in ways unimaginable to me 3 years ago. My wife and I are going to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary on the 8th of February. I am so blessed to have a wife who is so loving,supportive,strong,sweet and beautiful to the point that I am still captivated by her. God has taken my heart of stone and transformed into a heart of flesh for my children. God is preparing us as a family for the next step in this journey he started 3 years ago. I am not sure what direction he is leading but He has put several different paths in front of us. We are praying it through. I will be posting more frequent as the Lord lays things on my heart to share. For now I want to encourage the reading of God's word not only to your selves but also to those who God has placed in your life. Isaiah 55:11 so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The Continuing Journey of why I believe what I believe

Continuing on with the prior post of why I believe what I believe:

There are those that say if you except Christ, you can never make a choice to walk away from God. In light of that, I am on a search to understand exactly what the Bible has to say about salvation vs. sin.

1 John chapter 3 is where I start. There are a number of verses that state, if you live in a state of sin yet call yourself saved, you are a liar. There are also verses that state if you have known God and depart, there is no hope for you. Where does the truth lie?

Is it possible to forfeit your salvation? Or as I have been told, will God just end your life early to save you from hell?

My question is, if God ends your life because you are sinning so bad, is he doing that so you won't reach the point of rejecting him?

The search will continue. Please pray that our Lord will open my eyes to his Word as I seek to know Him more.

Do you know why you believe?

First off I would like to apologize for the lack of posts. We have been very busy at the ranch this summer. We aren't used to posting yet. We keep forgetting. Oops!

Recently, I was faced with questions regarding some core beliefs that I have. I was talking with a gentleman and he asked me for the scripture references I have to back up my beliefs. I suddenly realized that a large number of things I had held as the gospel truth were in fact conclusions I had made based on what I had heard from preachers and people that I respected throughout my life. I thank God for this man who was put in my life to open my eyes to the fact that I sounded well read and knowledgeable in His word, but in fact I was a hypocrite.


I have now made a decision to read the Word of God as much as possible. In doing so, I have been challenged on a number of my beliefs. However, I now know why I believe the things I believe.

So where do you stand. Do you know why you believe what you believe?

2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Gods Beautiful Creation

Most every morning another woman and I go on a jog right as the sun is coming up. It is a great time to talk and view God's beautiful creation. These past weeks have been especially fun because of the animal tracks we have seen. All summer we have seen deer tracks and just last week we saw bear tracks. We think we also saw a cougar print last week. But, this morning we were so blessed to see a female moose walking on the road. What a site!! It was exciting. Also, we saw huge bear tracks this morning. I have been told when fall approaches they are seen more and more. I am not sure how I feel about seeing a bear. I am excited to see the tracks but that is enought for me! Thank God we have two dogs that wait for us to take our jog in the morning. I am not sure that I would go without them.
Remember to take time to notice God's creation today. Show your children God's handiwork and teach them how to observe nature. Use God's Word and creation to teach character traits to your children. A great resource to guide you in this are the Character Sketches books or booklets from the Institute in Basic Life Principles. You can view and order their resources online at www.iblp.org.
Join me in thanking God for taking such care to create a beautiful world for us to live on. He did it all for us! Wow, thank you God for loving us so much even though we don't deserve it. Have a beautifully blessed day!

Out of Debt!!!

We went back home this past weekend to sign papers for our van. We are debt free (except for our house)!!! Praise the Lord. We are very grateful to not be burdened by payments anymore. What freedom. For those of you who are going for the same goal of financial freedom, we will be praying for you.

It was wonderful to see friends and family. It was a lot of fun being able to surprise some people. The kids enjoyed seeing their cousins and good friends again. They just took off running and playing like they were continuing a game from just the other day. It was great to see. We will be back in town in a few weeks, so we brought our niece back with us to the ranch for the time until we return.
It was a quick trip. We arrived Sat. am around 1:30 and left at 10pm Sun. and arrived back at the ranch around 3:30 am on Mon. We are very tired. The children prefer to travel at night and sleep because they have a tendency to get car sick while awake. It is very different to drive at night because you notice new things. Many structures are lit up at night but aren't anything worth noting during the day.

We are glad to be back at the ranch and resting now. Trying to catch up on our sleep today. Later today and the rest of the week, we are preparing for a very large family camp this weekend for Labor Day. It will be wonderful to network and get to know other homeschool Christian families.
Please be praying for the ranch as they prepare to minister to these families. Pray for health and endurance in the ranch staff as we will be serving the most people that have ever been here for a retreat (over 200). Thank you for your continued prayers. Have a blessed day!

Preference or Conviction?

We recently had a couple visiting the Ranch and the wife stood up during a meeting and gave her testimony of God's mercy and grace upon her life. They homeschooled their daughters back when it was still illegal and didn't know it at the time but were integral players in our current WA homeschool laws. They made many sacrifices to be able to teach their daughters at home (even facing jail). She talked about being able to prove your faith (Christianity) in your life. It was very convicting and I have been wanting to pass it along. She said that at one point in order to keep homeschooling they had to prove that their religion was not just a preference but a conviction. That spoke directly to things that we have been thinking upon and talking with the children about. I began to think, if we were faced with the same dilemma today, what would the authorities see? Of course with where we are and the entire picture of our circumstances speaks volumes, but what about inside the walls of our trailer when "nobody" is watching? It got me thinking that if they came into my home today and observed for the day, would they see that our faith in God is a way of life? I hope so. What about you?
I am always reminding the children that God wants us to witness to others by the way we live. We are to serve others first, speak in love, only use words that are uplifting to others and glorifying to God, never letting any unwholesome talk come from our lips, always be kind to each other, be careful what we read and watch, be careful what we do with our freetime, and always keep a lookout for an opportunity to help someone in need. Of course their are many ways to witness, but these are the things we are currently working on. Also I remind them that if the Lord leads us to speak to people, we need to listen to that prompting as well. Our first witness is our family and how we interact with each other. We are to be a light to the world whether at a distance or in close up personal observation!
Through prayer, our Lord has been opening my eyes to see some areas that need some work. Of course, right! We are always changing and hopefully in prayer and through God's word, we are changing more into his image. According to a Godly elder on the Ranch, the only thing we can be sure of is change. What a great thing to remember as we go through life being careful not to hold on to things/people so tightly, but always giving glory to God for his provisions during times of plenty and in times of need. A passage I like to remember is Philippians 4:4-13.
In conclusion, is your family walking minute by minute with the Lord or are you a convenient Christian? Times right now are sketchy. We don't know how long we will have our wonderful freedom of religion and homeschooling. Be proactive in your family while you can. Take steps right now to draw closer to the Lord as a family and step out into a life of faith and conviction! Have your family a ready and willing witness for the Lord. You never know what you will be called to do. Maybe move into a 5th wheel trailer and go where he leads, ha ha!! With the Lords help, we are living a life of conviction. We are far from perfect, but God shows us so much grace. Good thing!! Be proactive in your family while you can, the only thing we can be sure of is change. Make it known that your faith is a conviction in your family, not a preference!!

Missing my husband

My husband has been gone for 11 days. He left on a road trip to PA to see his mom who is not doing so well. He is on his way home now. It was a difficult but good trip. At least he got to see his mom one last time. She has Huntington's Chorea and has slowly been deteriorating for about 15 years. Hopefully soon she will home with Jesus with a brand new body! Our Lord is so good to have provided and orchestrated this opportunity for him. The kids and I are being taken care of and he is not having to take time off of a job. The funds were even provided for in God's perfect timing (the day before he left). Please be praying for him as he is mentally recapping the trip and also having to drive another 2400 miles home. Thank you for your prayers.