BSF--Lesson 5

Due to an unexpected outing last night I didn't get my BSF blog done, and now I'm stealing just a few minutes away from folding and putting up laundry to share with all of you what I learned yesterday. Our lesson was taken from Romans 3:21-26, and it is all Good News. After hearing so much bad news this was the Good News that we were waiting on! We talked about righteousness and redemption, justification, propitiation, and sacrifice of atonement...all big words. To simplify...righteousness has nothing to do with what we do, it has to do with our position not behavior, biblically it means to be right with God. Justification is an act whereby God declares us not guilty, we contribute nothing. So righteousness is our position when God declares us justified. Redemption means to buy back. Our teacher gave the illustration of Hosea in the Bible where his wife,Gomer, left him and he bought her back out of slavery. (Third Day fans=Gomers!!) Just like Jesus bought us back . Propitiation, the removal of God's punishment for sin through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice of Atonement, the sacrifice that God gave through his son to atone for our sin. So we deserve death, we are all sinners, and all unworthy of what God did for us. However, God in Love gave his only son so that we might have eternal life. There is nothing that we can do to earn or deserve this, but it is all there for us to receive if we have faith and believe. I pray that we never underestimate the sacrifice that was made for each one of us and that we find the urgency to share it with others that are undeserving, just like us!

Happy Birthday Dean!!

Today is the Day! Today is the day 36 years ago that a new "man" was given life. It was the day that a little baby boy came into this world and started on a journey. A journey to find his Saviour, a journey to find God's will for his life. A journey to become the father for three beautiful girls and one undeserving wife. On this journey he has sometimes had guidance and sometimes been alone, and sometimes been with the one that loves him more than she has ever known. We are so thankful that this Man has had the courage and strength, Godly wisdom and Love to be on this journey with us.

For all the crazy things you do and the sensitive heart that you have... I Love YOU!!
Happy Birthday.

Your Wife.

BSF Tuesday--Lesson 4

"This was a hard lesson," I was so relieved when I went to BSF today and other women in my discussion group were saying the same thing. The passage is short this week, Chapter 3:1-20, thankfully! The overall message of this part of the chapter is that we are ALL sinners, apart from Christ, no one is righteous, no one understands(spiritual discernment), no one seeks God, no one is worthy, no one does good, and all people are completely depraved! Wow, makes you feel good doesn't it. Thankfully God loves us because he wants to not because we are worthy. We are totally depraved; meaning we are unable to do a single thing to please God or understand spiritual things, or to seek God. Total depravity shows us that we need help, we cannot become righteous on our own, and when we turn to God to make us righteous He gets all the Glory!!!

Dedicated to all the "mismatched" 4 yr. olds.

On September 19, Stacy, "blogger," blogged about her daughter, who is 4, and how she has this ability to pick out clothes. I have giggled about this over the past couple of weeks as I have remembered how far I have come. My oldest daughter is 9, my middle 7, and my youngest 4. Each one at about the same age 3-5 yrs. old also went through this independence of picking out and "matching" their own clothes. I would have never let Madi go anywhere in some of the outfits she put on, we definetely struggled to get dressed some days. Merrill has a lot of fashion sense, and has made me proud on many occasions when refusing to wear something that doesn't match, however, she too went through this same independence, however, I was a little less controlling with her. Now Mollie is going through this phase and I think I have totally given up complete control, well, maybe not complete control. However, she has been seen IN PUBLIC in just about every combination you can imagine. Actually just this week as we were picking up Madi at our friend Colleen's house she was wearing jean capri's with butterflies, hawaiin (dress-up) shirt, sandals, ponytail AND headband (note picture). Colleen actually made the comment that she wishes she could dress like that! Knowing Colleen's good taste, I questioned the comment, and she meant look that cute in something like that! Knowing Colleen, I'm sure she would have let her daughter where it too.
Now, instead of thinking "how does that mother let her daughter where that in public" I think, "what a good mom for letting her daughter pick out her own clothes!" Because I'm sure they are saying that about me:)
Then we have the whole dress-up play clothes, my girls did and do plenty of dressing up, we have had more than one person say, "every time we stop by your house your girls have dress-up clothes on." Some days( before school) they would go directly from pajamas to dress-up. Some days they still do. Some days Mollie tries to wear dress-up wherever we go. Some days, I just give in and agree with Stacy when she said "I just swallow my pride and remember it's her heart that matters." I pray that I can teach my girls this and they learn the value of modesty (note to self, get rid of the revealing belly button hawaiin shirt) and the value of a beautiful heart. It's also good to remember they learn how to match... eventually.

Stacy, glad to hear you enjoyed the muffins! sad to hear you are on "blogging strike" :)

Disney World --Here We Come!

Two weeks from Today, Saturday, we will be traveling to Orlando Florida to have a fun-filled week at Disney World. This post is for those of you who enjoy Disney and would like to give us any tips or advice. Those of you who are not Disney fans, I would ask that you hold all comments until we at least get home:) This will be our first trip to Disney with the girls, we are planning on going to Magic Kingdom one day and Epcot one day. We are also seriously considering doing a character dinner, and the "not so scary halloween party." We are flying, yes Cat and Jed, this will be the first time for your nieces to fly, I'm sure your kids can't imagine that!!! This is actually only the 4th time for me to fly, and it has been 10 yrs. since the last time I flew (with Cat and Scott Orlando). I have to admit, I'm a little nervous. Anyway, my parents are also making the trip with us, so we are all very excited. The countdown begins...

A DAY WITH DAD By; Madi

Well, hello everyone i'm Madi Gourley the oldest ''chick''. As you probibly know today I went on a field trip with my dad,''The Hunter'' is what mom calls him. I kinda just want to tell you how my day was.We met tons of people and had a fun time. We learned what it was like back then. We went around and people acted like it was back then we even went shoe shopping with a gal! We went to the blacksmith,Doc.'s house,inn, pottery shop and more!I really liked the Doc's house. Anyway, during the day we saw W.Conner's home. We waxed candels and had a 1 hour busride!That is to long cause that made us have not enough time for everything! We missed the ''POW WOW!'' That was something special you could see. We missed the Zimmerman Farm that is supposed to be good. While we were waiting after lunch we rolled down the huge,tall hills.And I felt like I was back then.Thank you all for listing I will love to write soon.
Love,
Madison Noel Gourley (Madi)

P.S.I LOVED HUNTING TOO!

A Day with the "Hunter"

Today, Madi our oldest "chick" spent the day with her dad, the "hunter". They first started the day with a school field trip to Connor Praire, which is a living museum about pioneer days. They had a beautiful sunny, brisk, Indiana fall day. Then they spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening hunting. All of our little "chicks" enjoy their special time with their dad. They seem to especially enjoy hunting with him. They reflect on God's creation and enjoy the walk together. They also get pretty excited when they see wildlife, the girls and Dean:) The girls' enjoy this time for many reasons, but I think they enjoy it the most because they know this is something that their dad loves and he is willing to share it with them. I also think that is pretty cool.
Thank you God for not only giving me a loving husband, but also a loving father for our girls!!

BSF Tuesday--a day late!

So it's Wednesday, the lesson is still the same, maybe I'm avoiding talking about Chapter 2 in Romans because it hits too close to home! Paul starts the chapter out by by telling us "we have no excuse!" Yes, you, "who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things." Wow, and we thought we avoided God's wrath because we don't have "depraved minds" and" we aren't full of every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity or full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice," Romans 1:29 We need to be careful that we are not to eager to judge another, because we may be guilty of the same offense. I'm guilty of gossip, envy, jealousy, the list goes on, but I have no problem stopping my girls when they start to talk about someone from school or each other in an unkind way or when they are complaining about not having something the other one may have. It' s easy to see it in them, but not so easy to see in myself.
In chapter 2, we learn from Paul that, we all deserve God's wrath, however, we need to be aware of God's kindness, patience, and tolerance that leads us to repentance, and if we are persistent in seeking Gods' glory and honor he will reward us with eternal life. As christians all of our sins have already been judged, and they have already been forgiven!!
However, we must be be careful not to become hypocrites. We can't take God's forgiveness for granted and continue in our sin when we know the difference between right and wrong. We need to be careful not to show contempt towards God and think we have a right to God's patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. It should be the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
If God never did another good thing for me, would he have done enough?
Finally, God is more interested in our heart than in our outward signs of christianity. One of our questions this week was to substitute the terms, "baptism," "confirmation," or "church member" for the word "circumcision" in verses 25-27, How do people today rely on these outward signs for their relationship with God?" Paul, says that "a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God." Romans 2:29 God's judgment is based on truth and reality, not on perception. God judges the heart.