Roadtrippin' Adventures

So Grayson and I have been traveling around Mississippi and Arkansas for the last several weeks. We love adventures! Hope y’all enjoy some of these pictures of our adventure.

We started out in Amory, MS (where Grayson was a youth minister for several years). Visiting with friends, baking half-baked cupcakes with some youth girls, playing some much-missed basketball with some of the youth guys, and seeing one of our old dogs made our trip there very enjoyable and encouraging.

Then we were on the road to Huntsville, AL to visit some great friends from college, see some relatives, and go see Lecrae and others at the Rock and Worship Roadshow.

We hit some pretty hard bumps in the road and couldn’t go to the concert. :(  During this time, the Lord taught us a lot about how our joys are only found in Him and about how the Lord is a redeeming God and that He wants to redeem all situations. Isn’t it so good to have a faithful and good God who finds joy in making all things new? Do any of you ever find yourselves putting your hope and faith in things or events or people to make life a little better or to make you feel better about terrible things that happen? I know that I had been thinking this way, because the Lord broke us that day. I know He did it so that He could teach us that our hope can only be found in Him and that He longs to be our Redeemer. #thecostofhumilityishigh

            Our next stop was Batesville, AR!

 

        Grayson grew up in Batesville until he was a junior in high school when his family moved to Hattiesburg.  It was super fun staying with his childhood babysitter and her adorable son!  We got an awesome chance to hang out with the youth and roast some marshmallows at a bonfire on a beautiful farm.

(ASIDE: While we were on the road, McDonald’s and Dairy Queen were some of our best WiFi buddies. --#coffeehousesareoverrated--While we were at one of the McDonald’s, we had the PRIVILEGE of meeting the famous Batesville Walmart Bird Lady--as she so dubbed herself haha. She introduced herself to us in McDonald’s and insisted that we take a picture and post it to Facebook. So Walmart Bird Lady, here’s your shout out!)

We LOVE adventures and road trips, but as many of you know, trips can really run you weary. We were so blessed with the opportunity to stay in a cabin for a few nights in Mountain View, Arkansas. We took many mountain dirt roads to stay in a beautiful cabin, walk mountain trails, and play in a creek. What a relaxing time with the Lord we had! The Lord really encouraged us and spoke to us while we stayed there. Thank you to the Rays and the Mays!

 

After staying there for a few days, we visited with Granny Freddie and had a great time visiting with some relatives in Mountain View. Anyone like cows? I got to feed cattle for the first time! 200 head of cattle that is. (Granted, Grayson did most of the scary parts) Doing some good manual labor and serving Granny was really enjoyable. Staying at Granny’s meant homemade breakfast every morning, fried pies, roasted pecans, and homemade pizza! Hungry anyone?
 

Now we are back in Madison, MS and so glad to be somewhere for longer than 5 days! We’re excited to see what the Lord has in store for us while we are here for a little while!

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Sinners In The Hand Of A Loving God

How much do you think you sin? Do you think you sin everyday? How many times a day? One, two, five times?

What constitutes as sin? Overindulging on food? Cheating on a girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse? Not reading your Bible? Saying “JESUS!” when you’re angry? Smiling and laughing at someone’s joke when in your mind, you’re really criticizing their weird laugh and poor storytelling abilities?

What makes sin bad? Breaking God’s law? Breaking our own moral standards? Someone getting hurt?

What does God think about all our sins? Does He look at us and want to send fire down to burn us up into ashes? Or can He not even see our evil acts at all because Jesus already won that case in the courtroom? Maybe He cries? Or just shakes His head with disappointment?

Back to you. Do you ever go to bed at night thinking, “Today was a  pretty good day, I didn’t do anything really bad today (or at least bad enough to really matter)”? Do you ever go a day without sinning?

I ask all these questions, because I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks these things sometimes. I was reading When Helping Hurts the other night, and the Lord stabbed my heart and said, “Rachel, you were about to go to bed tonight thinking you lived today perfectly/without a fault/sinless. What made you think that? Do you think you live some days as holy?”

Now I know what you’re thinking, is she questioning her faith? Does she know Jesus dying on the cross wiped away all her sins and now God looks at her as holy? Is Rachel becoming all legalistic about her sins?

I promise I’m not. But…

I think God just wanted to remind me that just because Jesus’ paid for my sins and the burnt offering of His body counted in the place of the burning of my sinful body, does not mean that this fleshly, sinful body doesn’t do wrong in the eyes of the Lord. I still open up myself to evil and in turn grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). I sometimes invite the kingdom of darkness/evil instead of the kingdom of God. How? Pride. Lust. Slander. Anger. Greed.

God, Your grace is abounding. Lord, I need it everyday, every moment. There is not a day/minute/hour that I don’t need You Lord to look at me with grace. Jesus you died so we could live a holy life from God’s point of view, not a holy life from our point of view. I believe you remind us of our sin so that we love you more and know that we need your grace now. Now. And even now.

Let’s not forget what our Father thinks about sin (Mark 9:42-48). And let’s not ever forget that we are sinful beings in need of grace everyday. What would happen if we lost sight of our need for a savior and thought we could make it on our own in this world? All of us trying to be gods of our own little kingdoms. Can you imagine 7 billion little gods running around this world? I choose to live in God’s kingdom under the authority of the one and only King, Jesus.

Let’s choose to be objects of humility so we can fully receive God’s grace (Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5-6).

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