Here is the July 4th shootout that our church has every year at our beloved Larry Cernik's house, Christ Church's eloquent Yosemite Sam-Bahnsenian-Knoxian-Redneck. I am the obvious goofy one in the middle shooting a 8mm Mauzer made by Nazi's, I think literally.

I love this pic of my bride and oldest!

You know, this reminds me of something I have been studying lately. The Holy Spirit is pictured as a dove in the Bible that is associated with water. God's Spirit is there at creation hovering over the waters. The Hebrew word "ruach" is the same word for spirit, wind, breath. God's "breath" is creating the world in a trinitarian mixture with the Lord Jesus who is the "Word" of the Father. He spoke everything into existence, like Tolkein's Eru singing everything into existence. The Spirit pushed back the flood waters of judgment during Noah's salvation, and of course, he sends out what at the end??? A dove. Guess who is at Jesus' baptism, who is hovering? and He is there at the "waters" of baptism. A new creation baby.

This was a pic from a hike Jana, Elijah, and myself did in 2005.

This is a great little book on bitterness. Doug Wilson, our pastor has a father, and he's great. He wrote this, and he and his wife are by the grace of God principally behind the incredible reformation and revival that has taken place here in Moscow.

Christ Church's new cookbook--Jana of course, is in here in style.

This pic is a classic. It captures the moment. It shows the emotion of our little ones quintessentially, though the emotion expressed is not characteristic entirely of the one showing it!

The Lord's Supper and Unity

\Here we come to the Lord’s Table. At our Lord’s Last Supper the disciples were confused and still trying to figure out all that the Lord Jesus was doing. Thinking that one of the “lowest” ranking disciples was going to wash the filth off and take the humble position of washing everyone’s feet, the Lord Jesus himself did it. He says, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
As we come to share in One Loaf, and “One Cup” we are One Body. We are not striving to become One, we will not become One in 5,10, or 20 years. We are already One. Jesus prayed that His church would be One. We are already One Body, One Loaf, the Bride of Christ. And not just here in this fellowship but all over the world.
This being the case, we are all One together united with Christ. John 17:23 “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” How are we serving one another? How are we demonstrating to the world that we love one another? Everyday brethren, think of ways to utilize the phone, e-mail, visit, and service to this your fellow family. Seek fervently to love one another, and be known in the Body as a person who always seeks to bless others. And as you do this, remember that you do this because you are One. And you do this because our Great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did this for all of us to become united to us, giving His body for bread, “true food,” His blood for red wine, “true drink,” and His Spirit to us through the symbol of cleansing grace water.
The Body of Christ broken for you….
The death/ blood of Christ tasted for you so that you may taste Grace..

For Moms

God’s promises have never failed nor will they ever. His oaths, covenants, and His word is sure. The essential thing to know therefore is whether or not you are living as a benefactor of His promises. What kind of encouragement and exhortation do you Moms need? If you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus for your salvation, trusting in Him alone, and are baptized in union with Him and His church, you should come to the Lord’s table casting off idols and sin and partake of His love and His assurance of salvation to you. The preached Word and the Lord’s Supper are some of God’s main means of assurance to His people, there is no reason to doubt. IF one departs from His grace then he chooses his sin, it is not a mystery. But we should be encouraged as the LORD rejoices over you with singing to just simply come…
As you Moms are endeavoring to literally be a slave and servant of all to your husband, children and home know that if you do this hard and arduous work in faith, you surely will be blessed and enriched beyond all that you could dream. God’s love , favor, and His promises are SURE and immutable to those who live by faith in future grace. Psalm 31:23,24 “O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.” Remember that God hearing your prayer and blessing you will not come in the form of a fairy that will take care of wiping the kids messies, getting up with them at night and all the chores, but you must know that God will reward faith by His perfect design, and it is perfect brethren. Consider Hebrews 5:7 which says, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;” Did you hear that? Jesus, the very Son of God was heard in His loving/trusting fervent prayer to the Father regarding the cup He had to drink, and God knew, and He comforted Him with angels. God hears you mothers in your struggles with contentment, in the middle of the messy room with each and every one of your kids squaking and belly-aching! “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (!!) Mothers, you are building on a foundation of covenant promises to your children!! “Do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season you shall reap. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain IN THE LORD And know mothers, take heart, you and your work is in the Lord,
And this reminds us of our need to confess our sins, and to hear His forgiveness…

Ah, yes... My crown and my glory!

Here is Mom and Dad with Mom's first fish. Caught with a broken fly rod and a fly.

Here are Jana's fantastic parents. They live in Mongolia now.

Here is Elijah and his cousin Natalie, they're pretty close. Though in this pic I think she might have been a little upset.

Here is a pic of our apartment. It's actually pretty nice. We have a big screen TV inside, a jacuzzi, a king side bed, a basement complete with a pool table, and the kitchen, wow, just wait until you can see the kitchen. Martha Stewart said she was jealous.

Here of course is Elijah Benjamin and his Dad not exactly thrilled at the post season abscence of the Rangers in the baseball playoffs

Here is Abby's 4th B'Day party. Emma, on the left, is our 4th. We forgot to tell everyone that we had twins a couple of years ago, sorry!

Just kidding, dear little Emma is a friend of Abby's. Her dad is a pro surfer sponsored by Microsoft. He and his family, including Emma live here in Moscow now. Her dad's name is Jordan Brownlee and he also has a band named "Brother Down." He can play the guitar classically like no one's business.

Abigail means "Father be delighted," and indeed it is so.

Elk River, didn't catch didley here, but it looks good

I am so sorry everyone. I forgot to mention that the Garden of Eden is here in Moscow!

Yes, I know, I will be taking applications with possible suiters for this one with a down payment bridal price at $10,000 per app. Give us a call, we can arrange the details... Our firstborn, our Hannah Nicole.

Pops as everyone knows, is my Dad, and he took this pic

This was an amazing shot that God delighted in setting up for me in the resort area that I keep on bugging the whole family about to come and see --yes you... This was Couer De' Alene Lake Idaho. Probably not spelled right.

1 min. drive away, on the way to work

sunset-rain-sky

We had one night with an amazing sunset sky, I took all kinds of pics and there was a double rainbow at that.

Life in Idaho

Well, Jana and I have decided to enter the blog world. I know my Dad will be happy to see me progressing in technology. Maybe someday I can be like him with a microchip in his brain that works as his blackberry! This blog will primarily be a great way for family and friends to see how we are and a good way to "keep in touch" through word and picture.... :) Here are the chillins just about to go to the annual Reformation Day party on Oct. 31st. October 31st is the day that a Catholic monk named Martin Luther, filled to the top in frustration with the abuses of the Catholic church posted his famous "95 Theses" on the door of the church at Wittenberg in Germany in 1517. God would use him to really shake up the western world in showing what the true holy, catholic and apostolic church believed. He recaptured many things that the church "once and for all delivered to the saints" has always believed. Anyway, here are the kids here--happy that they have a relationship with God by faith alone, which is one of the principal truths that Luther helped the church to recover by His Spirit. See all of the links to the right there, go and see them, they're a bunch of pics! I also have an exhortation for Moms there too. See ya!