Amber Baby and the Tick!

Ticks are not fun...not fun at all!lol It seems that when we were out playing with the fire the other night...Amber got a tick! Gross, I know, but the worst part was that when Alicia pulled it out...some of the head was stuck in her!!!!!! Amber was a champ, but her mom was pretty worried, doing what every worried parent does when they don't know exactly what to do: she GOOGLE'd it!

Everything that we read basically said to call a doctor...so thats what we did. We read all about the potential problems from having a tick like that; from Lyme Disease to other infections. When we called the doctor's office, they immediately made room for us to come in that afternoon. They cleaned up the spot pretty good, gave her some local anesthetic, (which Amber said didn't work very well at all) and they removed the 5% of the tick's head that was left under her skin. Amber was very disappointed to find out that they were going to have to take some blood to test for Lyme Disease...but she was very brave and held her Mother's hand. They prescibed Amber with some very stong anti-biotics. We will not know the bloodwork results for a few days...so please pray that everything will come back fine. The picture up above is when Amber returned home from the doctor's office...she is displaying where they took blood!

FBC Promo

This is a little promo me and Amber did for something at church while we were gone...i thought it was really cute. Favorite quote "better not be any of that splenda in it!"lol

Burn baby burn!!

We had us a fire last night! A tree in our yard had gotten struck by lightning a few weeks ago in a storm, so I had gotten a chainsaw (thanks mike) and cut the tree up. We have a nice fire pit in the back yard so we piled it all up there. The wood had really dried out...and when I lit it..BOOM! I love a nice fire!

It was really nice sitting around the fire after it had died down a bit...at first you couldn't stand to be anywhere near it...it was just too hot. The weather was perfect, with a big ol' full moon hangin low in the sky. The tempature had dropped considerably and that helped too.

We roasted marshmellows but the truth is that my kiddos don't really care for eating roasted marshmellows...they just stick 'em in the fire and get them to blazing, blow them out, and then ask me to pull them off and eat them!lol (which I am more than happy to do!)

Once the fire had died down the kiddos and Alicia had a good time poking around with the fire and getting it going good again. Even "Waggy" our beagle had a good time going around eating all the marshmellows that the kiddos dropped!

All in all just a great night with the family!

Rachel and Leah

I recently completed a sermon dealing with Rachel and Leah from Genesis in the Bible. I LOVE this story! There is so much here for us...but I wanted to share a few thoughts that I gleaned from it.

This whole thing starts with Jacob. (Now, Jacob has a story all his own that I'm not really going to get into; this cat had ISSUES--we will save that for another time.) Now Jacob shows up in Haran looking for a wife...and he finds her right away. She is the daughter of his uncle, Laban. Her name is Rachel, and she is H-O-T! Jacob kissed her and actually cried! (check out Genesis 29:11) Jacob begins to work for his Uncle Laban. Laban asks Jacob what his pay should be, and all Jacob wants is Rachel...he agrees to work for Laban for SEVEN years, just to marry Rachel! Laban agrees and Jacob works for seven years; but, to Jacob, the time flies by.

The big day for the wedding comes and Jacob spends the night with his new bride. You see, in that day, the bride wore layers of veils and the groom didn't pull the veil back until the next morning. When he did he got the shock of his life...Leah..not Rachel!

Who is Leah? She is Rachel's sister. In Genesis 29:16-17 it tells us that Laban had two daughters, Rachel and Leah. It says that Leah had "delicate" eyes and that Rachel was "shapely and beautiful." Do you know what the Bible is doing right here? Have you ever heard that expression, "If you don't have anything nice to say...?" It's kinda like when a friend wants to set you up on a blind date and you ask what she looks like...the friend responds with, "Well, she has a pretty face!" That tells you all you need to now, right? The Bible was pointing out how beautiful Rachel was, but all it could come up with for Leah was that she had nice eyes! She wasn't much to look at. Leah was...allright. But nothing like Rachel.

And now Jacob is married to LEAH not RACHEL and he is upset! He confronts Laban and he gives him some kind of lame excuse and convinces Jacob to work for another seven years to marry Rachel. Which Jacob does; after the marriage week (tradition in those times) he married Rachel.

Then we come to one of the saddest verses in the Bible: Genesis 29:30, it says that Jacob love Rachel more than Leah. This had to of made Leah feel horrible! She had to of wanted the man in her life to love her...and no matter what she does she can't seem to make Jacob look at her the way he does Rachel. Proverbs 30:21 tells us that there are three things that make the earth tremble, and one of those things is a married woman who is unloved.

This brings us to one of my favorite verses: Genesis 29:31 "When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren." HE SAW HER! That means he sees me! He sees you! He knows when we are hurting...and He cares! God provides for His people...He may not answer your prayers the way you think it ought to be answered, but you will have everything you need for life and godliness.

Leah's husband may not of loved her. She had to live in a sad world where women were treated like bargaining chips. But God was looking out for her...He had not forgotten her!

After this Leah became pregnant and begins popping out babies like nobodies business! After each son she gives birth to, she is hoping Jacob will love her.

Then Rachel gets upset and jumps on Jacob's case about not having babies. She said, Give me sons or I will die!" You see, she was getting desperate. While Leah was desperate to get Jacob's love...Rachel was desperate to hold on to it. At this time, not being able to have children was a public disgrace and was considered a curse from God. I wish I could tell you that Rachel went to the Lord in prayer...asking God to help her. Unfortunately thats not what happens. She gives Jacob a servant girl to have children with! (so that through her Rachel would be able to have children with Jacob...desperate, huh?) So Jacob says..."ummm, sure!"

Basically what you have at this point is one big baby making contest...Leah has some more, the servant girl has some...and eventually Rachel starts having children as well. So inspite of all the fussing and fighting, God provided for both of these women. Both women were blessed by God.

The message that shines through Genesis is that the Lord provides for His people. You may not be desperate like Rachel and Leah, but we all need to bring everything before the Lord. Philippians 4:6 says, "Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be known before God." The reason behind asking God to meet our needs isn't to trick Him into doing what we want...we ask God for these things because it teaches us to rely on Him rather than ourselves and our resourcefulness. We should see Him as the source of all things. It teaches us to love and trust God and rely on Him every day.

Many years after the story in our text...Rachel dies. She was buried in Bethlehem. Sometime later Leah passed away and after both of them Jacob passed away in Egypt. In Genesis 49 starting in verse 29 it tells us that when Jacob passed away, he had requested to be buried in Canaan with Leah... not in Bethlehem with Rachel!

You see, in the beginning Jacob could not see God's plan for Leah in his life. (He never asked!) Jacob only saw the problem...he had the wrong wife!! Leah was unloved, and God saw her. The whole world told Leah she was not good enough. Her father had to trick a man to marry her!! Her husband did not love her when he married her. But GOD saw Leah. Leah who was just allright. Nice eyes. Not much to look at. Everybody else saw Rachel. God saw Leah and loved her when no one else did. He blessed her in a very special way!

You see:

Leah was the mother of Judah. And from the line of Juday would come King David. And from the line of King David would come....KING JESUS! That's right, Jesus came from Leah and NOT Rachel!

Our Father in Heaven worked a miracle in Leah's life...and He wants to work one in yours too...will you let Him?

Taylen's Rock-n-Roll Ultra-sound

This was Taylen's ultrasound several months ago... posting my last blog reminded me of this. Look at those rock-n-roll horns he is throwing up!!

Some day they will be showing this picture on VH1's "Behind the Music" when they discuss the man (Taylen Crofford) that re-invented rock-n-roll!!

Of course, it is my prayer that it will be Christian Rock that he re-invents!!

Introducing:

TAYLEN FORRESTER CROFFORD!!

We are very, very excited about the newest addition to our family! (I think I might be more excited than the parents!lol) Taylen was born this past Monday night (aug. 23) at 5:15 p.m. His proud dad is my little brother, Stephen. His mom is Stephen's wife Maria. Taylen has too sisters, Summer and Savannah, and one brother, Tanner.

Taylen weighed 10.5 pounds at birth...he was 21 inches long...big baby!! Maria had quite a rough pregnancy. Early on in her pregnancy the baby acted as if he was ready come out; doctors had to make sure this didnt happen. Late in the pregnancy their was several trips to the hospital with false labor. The doctor had told Stephen and Maria that if the baby didnt come before Monday, that they would induce labor. Thats what they did, and it went well!

We are truly estatic about this baby boy! This is actually Stephen's "first" baby. His two daughters and son are from Maria's previous relationship. We love Stephen and Maria and all of their children; we count it a blessing from God that they are all doing so good and are healthy! I am really looking forward to watching these kiddos grow up!

Psalm 127:3-5 says, "Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, children, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one's youth. Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them. Such men will never be put to shame when they speak with their enemies at the city gate."

These are pics of my Alicia, Amber and Marcus holding Taylen on Tuesday.

Lil Marcus sharing the Word!!

Bike Ride

We had the Tanya Taylor Family Memorial Bike Ride this past Sunday at church. I LOVE this event! We had 105 motorcycles in the church parking lot. This event is held in memory of a precious family that lost their lives 4 years ago in a tornado and also to raise money for missions. Specifically, we have a team going to Ecuador this year. We had awesome worship, preaching, incredible food and fellowship, getting to see old friends and bunch of wicked cool machines! The only down-side was that I didn't get to ride this year because my motorcycle is temporarily out of commission.

It is really easy for me to get excited about this event...I mean, for a guy like me, whats not to like? I've been looking forward to this and praying for this event for weeks.

But, shouldn't I show the same kind of enthusiasm for events that are used to share the Gospel or raise money for missions, that don't tickle my fancy quite as much as this one? While I'm aware that we all have things that we are naturally drawn to than others and that we are made differently...but when it comes to spreading the Gospel...shouldn't that fire me up regardless of the kind of event or method? After all, the Gospel message IS the IMPORTANT thing. If that doesn't get me going I need to have a heart examination.

Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.

We must examine ourselves and our motives...to make sure that the things that God are pleased with are the things that please us... so that our Father might be pleased.

Secret Keeper Girl!

It was one of the strangest and most out of place experiences of my life. Alicia and Amber were going to the Secret Keeper Girl tour in Jackson. I was asked to help with security for this event. Keep in mind that this a modesty and purity thing for girls in the "tween" years. I have NEVER seen so much pink in a church before! I was literally one of maybe a couple of men in the whole place! My job was to keep kids off the stage before the show, during intermission and at the end. Sooo...during the show I was sitting on the front row, far right side. At one point during the show, one of the ladies on stage is explaining to all of the girls that they were "fearfully and wonderfully made" and telling them that God loves them just the way they are...and then she began pointing to girls in the audience and saying, "God loves each of you the way you are...you,you,you,you, and even that bald headed guy sitting over there!(pointing to me!) I was thinking "thanks lady!" Boy, if I felt out of place before I surely did know because everyone was looking at me!lol

But, while I was really glad that my Amber got to come to this event for girls and what a wonderful message it was for all of them...it also seemed to be a reminder that I needed as well. That God's love for me is not based upon my appearance...He could care less when I have put on a few extra pounds. (ok, more than a few!) God's love is so much more than the superficial expectations that this world puts on us. His love goes so far beyond that.

Psalm 139:13-18 "For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will praise You, because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began. God, how difficult Your thoughts are for me to comprehend; how vast their sum is! If I counted them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; when I wake up, I am still with You.

I love the line in this psalm where it says "how difficult Your thoughts are for me to comprehend..." It is so hard for us to even begin to comprehend how much He loves us...because we KNOW who we are and how undeserving we are of such unconditional perfect love. We can only praise Him and thank Him for all of His love for us...that even if we dont fit in or dont look how this world tells us we need to, to be loved and accepted, His love for us is far better!

Friend Day

Today was "friend day" at church...the kids did an amazing job! The Children's classes did extremely well..the 5th and 6th grade class had 18 children! The kids were told that whichever class had the highest would get to have a pizza party in the youth house..and boy they wanted it. For the youth the goal was 50 in the youth house. We ended up with exactly 50...although we were stuck at 48 for a while. Joe actually took off and woke two of his friends out of bed to make it to the magic number! (the prize for the youth was a new wii for the youth house) What was revealing to me was how some were willing to go above and beyond to reach the goal...while others didn't seem to try at all. I know that I cant necessarily judge a students efforts by the results, they might have invited till they were blue in the face, and no one showed up for them. But the truth is that if just our students had shown up for this day, we would have had way over 50! That's without inviting anyone outside the church. Now, I'm not saying that I'm not extremely proud of our students efforts, because I am...but I wonder about whether or not we have our priorities right. If we can't even be coerced into inviting someone to church, how can our priorities be right?

In John 8:31 Jesus said, "If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples..."

Jesus was saying this to Jews who had believed in Him. He was saying that if you do what I have commanded, it's an outward sign that you belong to me. I am fairly certain that anyone who has spent any time at all in the Word or under sound preaching, would know that Christ wants us to lead our friends and family to Him. When we refuse to do this, is it safe to say that we are not continuing in His word and showing that perhaps it would seem that we are not "His disciples?

Later in chapter 8 in verse 47 Jesus went on to say, "The one who is from God listens to God's words. This is why you don't listen, because you are not from God."

I am certainly not trying to draw some kind of conclusion between students inviting or not inviting friends to friend day and their salvation. I'm just pointing out that eveeeeentually, when someone refuses to do what God has called all believers to do...they must examine themselves and their attitude and check up and make sure that the reason they aren't listening isn't because they aren't "from God."

The great thing is that Jesus says that "the one who is from God listens to God's words!" God will convict us and guide us every step of the way...so that when we stray and don't listen, we will hear from God the Holy Spirit, and this will let us know that we are "from" Him and He is truly ours!

Complaining Again...

Do you ever find yourself complaining about stuff that you know that you should'nt? Believe it or not, I have been guilty of this! (sarcasm goes here)
For those that dont know...I'm finishing up my degree at Union right now. I was in class Monday night and we were finishing the current class up and picking up our text books for the next one. As I looked at the syllabus and the work load for the next course, I began to join the others in complaining about the class and how much work it was going to require. Man! I found myself dreading it! I guess I expected for Union just to giiiiive me my degree with the least amount of effort possible from me! (ok, more sarcasm) I realized that I needed a attitude adjustment. (My grandad called it a "swift kick in the pants!"lol) After all, what was I really complaining about? I am so blessed!
I wonder how it makes God our Father feel when I complain about such small things? It makes me think about our children: Sometimes before we eat, the children might be asked to set the table, clear the table, fix drinks etc...and can you believe it?? Sometimes they dont want to!! (I know this is shattering to their grandparents who think they are perfect!lol) When the kiddos whine about something like this I sometimes think: How ungrateful!! Here I have worked to provide a meal for them and they dont even appreciate it enough to NOT complain when helping?? Their mother is slaaaaaaving in the kitchen... what do the kiddos have to complain about? Im pretty sure you parents know what I mean.
So, when God has blessed me beyond measure to allow me to work and recieve an education, how does He feel to hear me whine a little? Surely my attitude wasnt honoring to God!
Ephesians 6:7 tells me to "Render service with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to men..."
2 Chronicles 31:21 tells me of Hezekiah's hard work: "He was diligent in every deed that he began in the service of God's temple, in the law and in the commandment, in order to seek his God, and he prospered."
Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are His creation--created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them."

This lets me know that I need to stop whining about a little bit of school work and get focused on the blessings of God because everything I have comes from Him! It is in Him that we should always rejoice!

Grateful!

I'm on my way to Memphis right now with Dewayne. We are going to visit with a family from church who have a child that has some medical issues. This is just another reminder for me that I am so blessed. Often when things are going good for my family and everyone is healthy and happy in my house-- sometimes if I'm not careful, I might forget about others who are hurting. Our faith is not supposed to be self-focused, but rather, other-focused. When I thank God for His blessings, its not enough to just think of myself and my family. We all need to remember each other...isn't it encouraging when pain or suffering or tragedies land at our feet, that the saints of God are praying for us? Then we should be doing the same for others!