Letting the Lion out of Cage- God Is Good

Today we are going to a look at the Nahum where the prophet is taking us through God's wrath toward the city of Nineveh. Then in verse 7 Nahum says " The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him." I have read this and reread this it blows me away in the midst of telling the people of Nineveh of the coming wrath he takes the time to give a call to those who hear him to repent and take refuge in the almighty. This speaks to God's faithfulness and goodness to his people, which should lead us to worship.
The other side of this is that he is faithful in carrying out the judgment of his wrath on his adversaries, which should also lead us to worship for it shows us he is a just God.
So for us as readers of this text as believers this should lead us to repentance and worship of our God. we need to understand that Christ is the refuge of God, our belief in and relationship with Christ is difference between us and non-believers. when we are in Christ's Righteousness is what frees us from the wrath of God.
 For the non-believers it should also lead to repentance for apart from Christ he is exposed to the wrath of God which leads to destruction. The same faithfulness he has to his children he has the same faithfulness in carrying out his judgment on his adversaries. It is important that we define who his adversaries are, they are anyone who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which exposes them to the wrath of God.
 So for me this text leads me to repentance, and  worship of my Good, Faithful, Just King My Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture is God's gift to us to reveal him to us more and more of his attributes as we read. For those who read this post I pray that it leads you repentance and worship of our Mighty God.


Sola Deo Gloria
Brian Kingston

Letting the Lion out of the Cage

Hey everybody! This is Brian and I am going to start putting a biweekly post titled "Letting the Lion out of the cage". This will be a post talking about what scripture says about God's character or namely his attributes that show us his character and purpose for us as his creation. This title comes from a quote from the sermon "The Lover of God's Law Filled with Peace" by Charles Hadden Spurgeon

"The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it. See you that lion. They have caged him for his preservation; shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes! See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears! These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries."ve

So my prayer for you all as you read these post is that the gospel will be unleashed on your life as we learn together more and more of this Great King and Lord we serve.

Soli Deo Gloria
Brian Kingston

Lessons from the work

This past week Brian and I had a woman and her five children stay with us. The mom had plans, but needed a helping hand until she could make them happen. Many people would say that she was a bad parent because she had left herself and her children without a place to stay for an entire week, but she isn't. We all need that hand up sometimes. We make bad choices or life knocks us down, but a lot of us will never admit to the help we so desperately need. This mom was humble enough to ask for help when she needed it. She told me the day before she left, "I'm not the mom I wanna be, but I'm working on it." To me, this is what we are all doing, working on being better within our lives as Christ would see fit. I think that I learned a great lesson in this week, and it will surprise many of you. It is that when you think you are being the biggest blessing to someone else, that God uses the situation or the people in it to teach you. I learn so much from this mother and her children, but more than that, I learned just how much I have to how much I need.

This video is what our room looked like the entire week. We had to empty the closet and clean out the spare room to accommodate all these people. This mess frustrated me and challenged my slightly OCD organizational side all week. As I struggled to gain control of my indignation because I was living in a one bedroom apartment for a week, I realized that though we say everything we have is God's, we don't always mean it deep down. This week I had to give my home back to God. I needed to struggle through the fatigue, financial worry, and self-righteousness in order to see that no matter the sacrifice on my part it will never compare with that of God's. On Easter Sunday, we remember that sacrifice, and it should humble us and create a burning desire within our hearts to do His work.

  Sometimes we are called to be inconvenienced for the sake of the Gospel!

 

Learning to do His work,

 

Are you working?

Brian and I have been working at City of Hope Outreach (CoHO) for about a year now. We have had a lot of adventures, but none that I was so prepared for as the latest ministry started by one of the girls that Brian had in a youth group back in his "single" days. (; we don't talk about those dark days before...well...me! LOL) Andrea decided that the teen girls in the community that we work in (Oakwood Village) needed Godly women to mentor them. She felt God was calling her to organize this and she is always incredibly faithful in her work.

We had a girl's retreat to kick off these amazing mentor relationships. We went to a place out in the sticks :) called Glenhaven Youth Ranch. It helps teens that are troubled and they allowed us to us their bunk house for free. They are an amazing ministry...check them out at http://ghyr.org/.

At this ranch, the girls and their mentors learned about God's beauty that he has given them and how that differs from the world's ideas of beauty.

One of the speakers put it like this... Godly Beauty never goes out of style, but worldly "coolness" changes all the time.









Although the speakers were wonderful and the girls seemed to enjoy them, the goal of the retreat was to get the girls together with their mentors to form a relationship. It went great. They did crafts and had Bible application times that the mentors got to know their girls in a whole new way.

The event was a success and all of the relationships are off to a great start.
For your consideration today, Who are you influencing? We all have people that are around us that encouragement. Use those gifts that God has given you and really pour into someone else's life.

Working for Christ,

Time flies...

I know it again has been forever since my last post but things around here have been nuts. I will tell you about everything, but it's going to take a minute! So instead of putting it all in one really long post, I will try to catch you up over the next few posts.

First, I have to tell you how much God has been working on me in so many areas of my life. He has presented opportunity after opportunity that challenges me in ways I never thought possible. Life has taken so many turns in the last six years. From military to school to married life, God's plan has never made sense until after I have walked through each open door He placed in front of me.

Can't wait to tell you all about them!

Keep reading,

 

Voting

I am not the most politically minded, but I do feel like I should know what I am going to be punching on my ballot in November before I walk in the door to do so.

This year Brian had the opportunity to go to a political breakfast, hosted by one of our candidates for senate, Jason Rapert. During this event, Brian was given a lot of information, but one of the best was a newspaper that showed every candidate for the house and senate seats. They had given all the major issues that are most important to the people of America, such as abortion, homeschooling, and marriage. All of this information came from the Family Council. They give the web address, www.arkansasvotersguide.com, as a means for getting more information on the candidates. I know that a lot of my readers aren’t from Arkansas, but this might be a good place to start finding information for your state and your candidate.

A quote from the Family Council says, “Bad politicians are elected by good people who don’t vote.”, but I would go further and say that bad politicians are elected by good people who don’t educate themselves before they vote. November 6^th is coming up and we don’t just need to be praying about the election, but studying and researching the issues and candidates that will be on the ballot.

Here are a few more sites to help:

For those without TV, CNN has the debates online: http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/debates/first-presidential-debate

Family council: http://www.familycouncil.org/

Just a reminder! :)

 

ABC Dating

I know it sounds a little childish, but, I think if you will hear me out, you will love it! Brian and I lately have fallen into a pattern of being together, but not spending quality time talking and enjoy each other's company. So I set out to find a solution to our dating needs that fit our budget and time schedule. This is what I found...

You start with the first letter of the alphabet...A (for those of you who were a little slow :)

Find things in your area that start with that letter and plan out your whole date using those things.

Foods, parks, museums, attractions, people to visit, hobbies to perfect, movies to watch...whatever floats your boat or I should say puts fuel in your Airplane!
Here's what Brian and I did on our "A" date:

First, we started out at the Art museum in Little Rock.

I think we should get a bonus for having everything start with an
additional "A" for Arkansas!

Next it was dinner time, so we found an amazing wing place. I know what you are thinking.
"Erin, wings does not start with an A, honey." It was called...

See not just one "A", but two...again!

After our delicious wings, we toured the Arkansas State Capital. It had many amazing facts and it was so fun to just walk hand in hand around such an incredible building.

This was a fun CHEAP date! We only had to buy lunch and yet we spent the entire day together. There was no time limits and nothing to do but talk.

Dating your spouse is important. Life gets busy, so even if it is just a cup of coffee on the couch before bed. Talk. Find out their likes and dislikes again. People change over time and if you don't take that time, you will wake up one day to a stranger laying next to you and have to wonder where the person you married went. But if you take the time to share as life changes both of you, your spouse will always be your best friend and you will grow closer to each other as the years go by. :)

What is your spouses favorite place to watch a movie? In your home, a friends house, a theatre? Find out the little things and ask the silliest questions to get to know your spouse better.

Staying in love with my husband,