Recent Pictures of our Life - Enjoy!

Hope you guys enjoy a little glimpse into our life recently:

Here is our wonderful small group at Believers Church -- it has been such a privilege to journey with them this past year and we are looking forward to another year together!


Just a little peek at our humble Christmas tree :)


We got to spend some time with the Watson family. Micah and Joel get some quality time with Wii Boxing.

Joel also got Micah a Red Ryder BBgun...


Here they are with Lego the attack dog.


We got to spend New Year's Eve with lots of really precious friends. $3.00 burger night & going to see over a million lights at Rhema Church -- all in a 15 passenger van. Great fun!

Winter wonderland = two days off for Melissa, Joel still goes to work :( Lego is not the biggest fan of the snow.

Love from us here in Tulsa!

If I ever preach at ORU...

Or any large Christian college, or anywhere there are lots of young people, I have been thinking about a sermon I would love to give. Probably because I need to hear it. Also because I work with awesome college students all day, some of whom seem to have not a clue.

I actually have two sermons. The first one is called something more catchy than this, but in essence: "Scriptures people always misquote or don't finish and it bugs the heck out of me because it's just bad theology"...but my OTHER message, the one I am talking about here - is about obedience.

I think (disclaimer: I am not a theologian) that Jesus had something about obedience. I think God the Father and the Holy Spirit agree with Him. When I say I think, I mean I know. It seems to be the greatest lacking characteristic trait in many believers lives (although, technically speaking, if we love Him - we follow His commands...so if we don't follow His commands, does it then follow that we don't love Him...??). Especially in this gray and murky postmodern culture we call America.

I love my mother. She is full of wisdom and talks to you straight. I was once expounding to her several years ago on my great revelations about Truth (and they were very real and beautiful)...she, being the wonderful person she is, proceeded to tell me after I had exhausted all of my theological wanderings - "Melissa, that's great and all, but knowing truth doesn't amount to a hill of beans if you don't obey"...
Okay, not word for word, but that was the gist.
And it's stuck with me.

Obedience. This would be the center of my message - if we love Him, then we must obey. We don't get to obey when we feel like it, or if we "agree" with the command.
My husband also graciously pointed out that all of this must be cloaked in grace...which is another post all together (see the one right before this)...

The greatest example of obedience: