My home 6.5 years later...and other thoughts, of course

On Oct. 4, 1999, I found a poem/song lyric that is below. I wrote on the top of the paper, "What I Dream my home will be like..." WOW! Here I am 12 years later with my home and my family (6.5 years after building our home)and I just found that paper this morning and it was so sobering. I have to say that I don't feel like I am doing badly at making it that type of place, but I have so far to go and truly desire for God to use our home.

If we are afraid to be different from the world, how can we make a difference in the world? ~Rev. John I. Jenkins
In Chan’s book, he mentions that, “something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.”
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” Chinese proverb
“All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen
Let us build a house
where love can dwell
And all can safely live,
A place where
saints and children tell
How hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
Rock of faith and vault of grace;
Here the love of Christ shall end divisions;
All are welcome, all are welcome,
All are welcome in this place.


Let us build a house where prophets speak,
And words are strong and true,
Where all God's children dare to seek
To dream God's reign anew.

Here the cross shall stand as witness
And a symbol of God's grace;
Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
All are welcome in this place.


Let us build a house where love is found
In water, wine and wheat:
A banquet hall on holy ground,
Where peace and justice meet.

Here the love of God, through Jesus,
Is revealed in time and space;
As we share in Christ the feast that frees us:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
All are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where hands will reach beyond wood and stone.
To heal and strengthen, serve and teach, and live the Word they’ve known.
Here the outcast and the strange bears the image of God’s face.
Let us bring an end to fear and dangerl
Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard,
And loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayers of faith and songs of grace.
Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:

All are welcome, all are welcome,
All are welcome in this place.

Other Thoughts I've been thinking and hearing lately...

Sometimes we love our kids too much...so much we don't discipline them anymore. We love them so much we look just like the world raising them to be in the perfect school, have perfect clothes/shoes, have perfect attitudes on the surface--but their hearts are far from God, TOO SPOILED!! And then, we overprotect (I am not saying that in today's world we shouldn't protect) but sometimes we take it too far. Sometimes they grow up thinking the world owes them and that they are blessing to others (not vice versa) and then they are terrible employees and citizens and friends. I am praying against raising my children to be so self-centered, but it in today's world that is TOUGH. In Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love, he mentions that, “something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.” I think too much of our child rearing makes sense to others.

"Don't let God's blessings take the place of God."

I heard a speaker say that lots of parents are going to be surprised when they end up in Hell and their kids are in heaven. They might say, "what can I do God to be in heaven with my kids?" And God might say--hey, that's why you're in hell....you loved them more than me!

If we are afraid to be different from the world, how can we make a difference in the world? ~Rev. John I. Jenkins


“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” Chinese proverb