Monday, January 31, 2011

Beware---A mini-sermon!


"...,and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. "---Ezekiel 47: 3b-5



  • Are you ankle deep in what God has for you? Or in what you have for God? Maybe you are just starting out in your walk with the Lord.



  • Are you moving to the knee deep point, where you know just enough to get by, and you want all of what you could have, but you just aren't going to sacrifice for it? You're not going to pray more, or read the Word more, or love more.



  • Are you waist deep in the water? Are you only giving God what you "have to." Just "Enduring till the end." You pray---for yourself, when you need something. You read---every Sunday morning along with the preacher. You are a part of a ministry---because if you give to God, He'll surely reward you....or...



  • Are you all the way in the river, where you are giving God all you have, and not worrying about what else he has for you?!?!?


After all, it's your reasonable service to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God!


I recently heard this preached as a sermon, and it really got me to thinking. I'm always, "strivin' to be like Him." But, am I really? Am I doing everything? Am I willing to give up everything?


We sing a song at our church called Evermore, and one of the lines in it says, "Above all, I live for Your Glory." Not meaning for His Glory to fall upon us, but for us to live to Glorify Him. My life is for His Glory.


One of the most popular radio stations, W.I.I.F.M....What's In It For Me?


But, that's really not it. We should never stop trying to learn about the Lord, or being like the Lord. We should strive always to be our best in Him. Rather than thinking, "Well, I've went to church all my life, bless His name, I've heard it all....." No, we don't!!! I think you could be a Christian for 89 years, and not know everything! Particularly about God. And you can be a Christian for 5 years and know more than the one saved for 89 years!!! It happens all the time. You can be saved 89 years and be only ankle deep, or knee deep. At knee deep, you know enough to quote a scripture or two, but not enough to LOVE unconditionally, without passing judgement. If you follow all the commandments of the Lord, but you don't love, you have nothing!


And, I totally typed this up in Love, not Condemnation. I don't believe in condemning people, Jesus didn't, I'm not going to. I really have had my eyes open to this, and just felt lead to share it on here....maybe you needed to hear it too!



I'll say, "Yes, Lord, Yes, to Your Will and Your Test!"

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

This ole blog ain't what she used to be!

So sorry for short and infrequent posts!!!
Turns out that I, having not been pregnant for 7 years, totally forgot what it's like to be pregnant!!! It's all coming back to me.....
I have been sooooooooo tired; energy---gone. But, I haven't thrown up!!!
That's one of my proudest announcements!!!! People ask me how I am feeling and I reply, "I haven't thrown up!"
But, it has been taking me a lot of energy just to sit at the computer.
And in the meantime, Noah started running a fever with a sore throat, and really had no other symptoms, so after 3 days, I took him to the doctor, only to find out he didn't have strep throat, it's mononucleosis!
So, he's been resting, and I've been washing sheets and lysoling the house!
Here's the good news:
Mr. Noah Givens was selected out of all of Kindergarten for Student of the Month, based on the character trait: Respect!


Be back soon!!!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Everyday life....Bass Pro Shops

So, this past weekend, I found a little lost energy, and with coupon and gift card in hand, I talked D into taking me and Noah to Bass Pro Shops, and somewhere along the way, we picked up little Anthony, my nephew!
Doesn't Anthony looked thrilled to be with us?!?!?!
Anthony: "See the fish Uncle Deck, See the fish Noah?"

And of course, we found the toy section.....Anthony was not impressed by this video game.....
.....but he quickly found something he might like.
Anthony: "Look Uncle Deck, Pow-pow!"
And the boys enjoyed the elevator ride too.Then we found some woodland creatures...And we even took a rest.
All in all, we ended up with a pow-pow and Whitetailopoly(which is awesome!!!) and we headed out to the penny creek!
Anthony wanted to put the pennies in his pocket, but he caught on pretty quick!


Then we took the old Chevy out for a spin....Next was a little chorus of "I'm hungry!"
So, we decided on Burger King.........they waited so patiently!!!

And I think it was worth it!!!
We had a wonderful afternoon together, and then, it was on to naptime for everyone, after a round of Whitetailopoly!!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

7 years and a bowl game

January 1, 2004, we became Mr. and Mrs. Derrick L. Givens....

.....and 7 years later, we went to the Capital One Bowl game to see our Tide play, and WIN!!!!
We had a dadgum blast, pregame, during the game, after the game. It was an enjoyable day, around 75 degrees and breezy!!!
Here we are when we first arrived around 10 am.


We happened to be at the right places at the right times because we got to see the band come through, followed by the cheerleaders and BIG AL!!!

I was so excited that I was jumping around and shouting......over a big stuffed elephant!!!

Little did I know what, or maybe I should say who, my eyes would see next...

That's right....coach!!! Led in by an ALABAMA State Trooper, and followed by the players!!! So exciting! Please notice behind coach, behind the Orlando officer, over to the right, the annoying Michigan State fan. She was awful. The whole time we were cheering, led by OUR cheerleaders, and OUR band, she was shouting, Go Green, Go White. Well, I hope she had a nice 18 hour ride back to Michigan singing Rammer Jammer Yeller Hammer!!!
Anyway, I met some other nice people.....



Let me just say these are real tatoos. And this is also probably where someone wearing green walked by and said, "Where are you guys from?" To which we replied, "Up round Alabamer!!!"
And, of course I have a thousand pictures from the game, including the scoreboard at the end (and once at half-time, just in case that team from the first half left like they did in the past!), I'll not bore you with those.

I'll just end it with, although we were exhausted, it was our anniversary,
and we saw a local steakhouse the day before that we were excited about trying, only to find it closed on New Year's Day, so Logan's to the rescue!

"You had me at Roll Tide!"

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Greetings from the Holy Land

No, not Jerusalem, just TBN's "The Holy Land Experience!" And boy, did we have an experience!!! If you are ever in the Orlando, FL area (which we were for our anniversary!) you should make plans to go by the Holy Land. We had a wonderful time, and while an actual post of the whole day, complete with the 200 pictures I took, would take forty days and nights to write, I'll just hit the high points!
This guy (a wilderness tabernacle priest) came out to the street market and blew into a ram horn of some type, opening the park for the day.
While there, we visited a couple of exhibits, including the Wilderness Tabernacle, the Scriptorium, we had communion with Jesus, we saw a replica of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, we saw several plays and productions....TBN does not disappoint...and really had an overall good time. We arrived at 10am, and left at 7pm!!! It was that good.

Over in the Smile of a Child (TBN's children's network) area, they had several Bible story sets, including.......
....the parting of the Red Sea....

.......Samson......
......walking on the water.....

....and a couple of others that didn't make the blog cut: Zaccheus, Noah's Ark, and Jonah and the Whale.


This was a beautiful dedication to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Then we went to one of the plays : Behold the Lamb
It was very real, graphic, and moving.
And it was a beautiful sun-shiney day, until the part where they raised up the cross, then the clouds came (real ones!) then at the end, they disappeared.
In the end, everything turns out ok, of course, He is not here, for He is risen!!!

Here's me and Derrick, and well, you know, the big guy!

Here we are in the Reflection Garden. It was gorgeous, and nice to sit down!

This is a lake, and behind it, the Scriptorium, which is a 55 minute tour on the history of the Bible. Derrick thinks I should sell this to TBN for a postcard!!!

Oh, and it's hard to see in the above picture, but on the other side of the lake, the hedges spelled out He is Risen! It's behind the water fall.


Oh yeah, they had this little place where you could dress up like a king or queen, and Derrick and I were going to do it, we were behind this little 94 year old granny. She said she wanted to make her picture with Derrick, since he's so young. Her family guessed he was about 25, what's that make me....10?

Here's Derrick with his real queen....

And their Grand Finale was nothing short of amazing. They had angels come in and dance, then blow the horns, announcing the way for King Jesus.
That's his robe!!! And to the right of the picture is the head Roman Soldier who beat Him at the whipping post!!!

I'm telling you, pictures and words could not describe all of the heartfelt things we witnessed that day. What a glorious time!

And I will have to return with Orlando Part 2....Capital One Bowl Game/Seven Years of Marriage!!!