I needed this today. Maybe you do to?

Ephesians 2

¹ Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.² You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. ³ All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.⁷ So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

¹¹ Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. ¹² In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. ¹³ But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. ¹⁵ He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. ¹⁶ Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

¹⁷ He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. ¹⁸ Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

¹⁹ So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. ²⁰ Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. ²¹ We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.

Now that's an adoption story. :-)

Life is exciting!

I have completely neglected this blog over the last month, but only because life is so abundantly full! So much has happened that I just haven't had the chance to tell you all about it. I'll give you a quick run down:

1. Zeke turned 1! My baby boy is a whole year old! He's learning to walk, talking all the time, and turning into quite the rough and tumble toddler. It's so hard to believe that it's been a year since he was born. Seems like yesterday. When I think about all the things that have happened over the course of the last year I can barely recall anything that isn't Zeke related! His birth has changed my life completely and I'm so happy to have him.

2. We went to CCDA! I love CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) and it is always such an encouraging week. We learned a lot and were very affirmed in our philosophy of ministry at the church and what we're trying to accomplish in our organization. We learned a lot of things about the importance of boldness and discipleship and we've returned home with a whole new level of commitment to discipleship. We've also gotten renewed vision for our ministry and for Northside and we're excited to start spreading that vision around and as John Perkins said, "turn the vision into passion"! I personally also have renewed passion for trying to encourage diversity on our district in the church of the Nazarene. I hope I'll be able to get some non-white speakers and leadership into the district events somehow. Don't know how that's going to happen quite yet, but I'm excited to try!

We're so excited to get to work on all these ideas. We've been trying to purchase the building across the street from the church to house interns in and we've got lots of ideas floating around to create jobs and encourage community development (food coops, men's discipleship, church run micro-enterprise, etc.). We just need to get it all organized in thought and start seeing who we can collaborate with to make it happen! I hope, and envision, God really bringing together the Church in Northside to help develop the people here who are under-resourced and often ignored in leadership and community building. I think it'll be fantastic!

Coming up next is more and more busy life. Our goal is to get our self-studies for the adoption finished by the end of this month and move on to the other paper work. We're also starting tutoring this week and hopefully starting Good News Club at Chase Elementary by the second-ish week of October. Exciting stuff!

If you think to pray for us pray that God will use us to facilitate the growth of Godly leaders in Northside. Pray that the adoption process would go smoothly and that God would provide the funds necessary to pay our upcoming agency fees. And most of all pray for our babies, both the one in our home and the one yet to come!