Photoshoot: The R Family

Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking pictures of these three amazing siblings.  I have known the oldest for a few years and let me tell you -- she is wise beyond her years.  She is an amazing godly woman and she inspires me with the way she lives her life.  I wish more young women were like this one.  The guy she ends up with is getting a gem!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the shoot:

The Seven Churches

As you know, I started studying Revelation a few weeks ago.  I am really loving the study of this book -- there is so much to grasp and there is a ton of concepts that I can apply to my life now.  It is not just a book about the end times of the world as we know it and our future -- it is a book that can encourage and teach us.  Chapters 2 and 3 talk about seven different churches and the things they are doing right and the things they are doing wrong.  We can learn from each of them.

1. The Church in Ephesus -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE CARELESS CHURCH.  This church had a lot of works - they served.  They also endured patiently and did not grow weary in their works for God.  However -- they were not motivated by love.  They may have done great works for the church, but they did not do them out of love -- it was more of a duty or a labor.  They had lost their passion for Christ.  We must continually grow and continually immerse ourselves in our first love - Christ.  We must not lose the passion we have - the passion we may have had when we first believed.  It is easy for it to fade, but we must keep reminding ourselves to not let it fade.

2. The Church in Smyrna -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE CROWNED CHURCH.  Symrna was an important center of the Roman imperial cult and any person refusing to acknowledge Caesar as lord would be outcast.  There were also a lot of Jews here that persecuted Christians.  Thus, this church was feeling persecuted from all sides - the Jews and the Romans.  This church was told to not fear the suffering - and if they were faithful unto death, then they would be given the crown of life.  We may feel persecuted in our own lives -- most likely not to the point of death as they were - but emotionally - we must remain steadfast and keep our hope in the future.  We must remember that "when we have assurance for the future, we have stability in the present."

3, The Church in Pergamum -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE COMPROMISING CHURCH.  Some in this church held fast to the name of Christ, however, others in the church compromised and held to the teaching of the false god of Balaam.  We may not have false gods in the same way in our lives or our churches -- there may not be a statute that people are sacrificing to - but there are other gods in our lives -- it could be a relationship or reputation or work or friends or tv or whatever.  Anything we put ahead of Christ is a compromise.  And anything we do in order to appease those around us that goes against what we believe is a compromise.

4.  The Church in Thyatira -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE CORRUPTED CHURCH.  This church's main issue was that they tolerated evil among them.  They allowed and condoned those in their church to openly sin.  They tolerated it.  They did not speak the truth and come up beside their fellow church members to try to encourage God's ways and they did not intervene when members were tolerating the evil among them.

5.  The Church in Sardis -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE FEEBLE CHURCH.  This church was living on their past glory.  "When church leaders get accustomed to blessings and complacent in the ministry, that is when Satan comes in."  This church apparently used to have an amazing reputation, but they became complacent.  They did not continue to grow.  It was as if they had died.  We need to be continually growing and not rely on the fact that we have been believers for many years.  Each day we must take our faith and grow it.  We must wake up.

6.  The Church in Philadelphia -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE FAITHFUL CHURCH.  I love verse 8b of this section - "I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name."  This church knew that they may be weak, but with the power of Christ they were strong.  They did not deny Christ.  They lived His name out.  

7.  The Church in Laodicea -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE FOOLISH CHURCH.  This church had become lukewarm.  They were not hot -- they were not on fire for Christ, living for Him.  They were not cold - they were not hating Christ.  They were just lukewarm.  They made no difference.  They took no stance.  They lost their vigor.  They lost their vision.

Looking at all of these seven churches, it is clear that we can learn something from all of them.  It seems to me that the main issues of the churches were that they did not continue to grow, they did not keep their passion for Christ alive.  They became lukewarm.  They began to tolerate sins among them.  They became complacent.  There are issues in our churches and in our lives today.  We must become accountable to each other and to ourselves in order to stop such a cycle from continuing.  

Photoshoot: The C Family

I had the best manager ever at my first job I had when I was seventeen.  She was the "mama" to everyone at the store.  We have remained in touch since then and when she told me she wanted pictures of her family while they were all together during the holidays, I jumped at the chance.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Merry Christmas!

I absolutely love Christmas.  Family time, food, friends, a break from the normal routine of life...all of it is just fantastic.  This year was also my church's first Christmas as a church, so we had our first Christmas Eve service which was amazing.

 

We spent Christmas Eve with the hubby's family and with our church family.  Christmas morning we went over to my family's house and had presents and lunch.  Then we headed back to the hubby's family and had Christmas dinner.

 

It has been a wonderful break, one I wish was a little longer...but hey - we have New Years break next week too!

 



The A Family

Last weekend I had the pleasure of shooting family pictures for this adorable family.  It was a great shoot and God held off the rain but kept it a somewhat dreary looking day that actually made the pictures beautiful.  Here are a few of my favorites from the day:

 



Revelation

I have always been afraid to study the book of Revelation.  I am not totally sure why.  I think it overwhelmed me and maybe even freaked me out a bit.  I mean, there are so many symbols in this book and literary symbolism was never really my cup of tea.  So that was overwhelming.  Also, sometimes just thinking about the end times freaked me out.  At least it did -- in reality, when I started studying this book last week, I was more encouraged than anything else.  It is important for us to know what the future holds and this knowledge can encourage us as Christians and should also spur us on to share the gospel.

 

So far I have studied the first chapter and the beginning of the second chapter.  I am using a commentary by Warren Wiersbe to help me delve deeper into the word. 

 

Some points that I have drawn from this book so far --

 

1. I completely lack awe and respect for the Lord.  In 1:17, John fell on his face when he saw Christ.  When have I ever done that?  I feel that I see God as my friend and someone to talk to most of the time - but I am missing the respect and awe and glory that I should be showing to Him.

 

2. "When you have assurance for the future, you have stability in the present."  I LOVE THIS QUOTE from the commentary.  It has been a constant encouragement to me this week.  I feel like I lack stability a lot of the time.  My emotions go up and down by the second and sometimes life stresses me to no end (the hubby can attest to this).  Work stresses me out and lately I feel like I can think of nothing else.  I have to keep reminding myself that each case is temporary.  Yes, I must work to the best of my ability on each case, but my future is secure.  No matter what life throws at me, my future is secure.  There is nothing in this life that can render me hopeless.

 

3. The beginning of chapter 2 talks about the church in Ephesus.  They were great at doing good works and service for the Lord and being separated from those that would bring them down, however, they had lost their love and passion toward the Lord.  Works are no substitute for love; and purity is no substitute for passion.  I think I continually live in the Ephesus church.  Most of the time I lack the passion for Christ, but I keep myself separated and pure and serve...to the point where sometimes I feel very secluded.  That is not what Christ wanted.  He wants our passion for Him.  He wants us to be in awe of God and keep our passion alive for Him daily.  We can't just go through the motions. 

 

So there -- I have already learned a TON from this book and I have barely started.  If you have ever been afraid to drive in to this book, don't be afraid.  It is encouraging, clarifying, and it will remind you of how you need to live each day.

Christmas Time!

Oh yes - it is December which means it is almost Christmas.  Since the hubby and I have been married, every year in the weeks before Christmas I have been studying for finals and writing papers -- NOT THIS YEAR.  This is the first Christmas that I have not been in school and I am trying to take full advantage of this fact.  In fact, this is the first year that I have actually decorated our house somewhat for Christmas and it made me so excited.  The hubby and I did put a fake tree up one year, but it wasn't all that exciting because I still had to study.  This year, I bought and made some decorations, but I was also given a bunch of decorations from my mom that she wasn't using - thanks mom! 

 

First, I bought this pretty red table runner.  My mom gave me the two glass Christmas trees and then I bought the jar and Christmas ornaments.

 

I bought this little cute fake tree to put on our side table.  I love using simple colored ornaments that compliment each other so this is our blue and silver tree.  My mom gave me the little glass tree with ornaments that is sitting next to it.

My mom made this cute this ribbon tree -- isn't she so talented.  She also gave me the white crystals that I put around it at the bottom.

Finally, I got us some stockings and stocking holders.  I decorated these stockings with our names and a cute little picture.  The hubby's name was the only name short enough to fit across the top so the others had to go down the whole stocking - but we each got a stocking - the hubby, me, and our two puppies.