"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of your own works, so that no one may boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9




So we arrived here in RI not-too-late Thursday night, and I am so happy to say that we were blessed with safe and expedient travel, enough actually-open gas station and restaurants to afford us enough places to pee and breakfast and lunch during our travels, and can I just say once again- Thank You God! for helping someone think up portable DVD players!! We are, as usual, blessed far more than we could ever deserve! Really starting to see that now more and more as time goes on: Can I steal "better than I deserve" now? Maybe just make up my own~ no~ I couldn't come up with anything more succinct or more true than that!
Anyways, once again I was blessed with the opportunity to share the gospel with my 88 year old grandfather(Dan)last night, and Thank You God for continued opportunities. He consistently opens wide doors that *appear* to be closed tight, to the point where I *almost* no longer despair at a shut door; what's the point in becoming anxious when I know God's power??? Such praises I could go on and on about, but the one I want to get to right now is that I was able to leave one of the How Good Are You? mini-booklets that our pastor CB reminded us to bring with to our family gatherings, and hand it to him as I left out the door to go do some Black Friday Christmas shopping, and thanks to the church for making these booklets available~ and for FREE!~ as well as to God for consistently opening doors!, my grandfather was able and willing to read through the booklet while I was gone, and he was willing to engage in a discussion with me about it upon my return.

So, out came the coffee and the booklet and my Bible(Thank you God for our Bibles!!) and I was able to( thanks to consistent, practical teaching week after week at our church and consistent,daily,mercy-filled teaching at God's feet reading my Bible in the mornings, as well as all I am learning from being a daily, hourly, minute-ly (lol)recipient of God's truly unmerited, free and vast grace,)share with him how God Alone Saves, Not by any merit or works of ours But by His Free and Undeserved Grace, and how while we cannot muster up a desire within ourselves to be Saved and then by our own strength make it happen within our hearts, we can get alone with God and lay our desire to be saved at His feet, awaiting then His gracious and wonderful mercies. You see, my grandfather told me last night that he doesn't understand why God is not pursuing Him harder,why He hasn't bestowed upon him the Faith that he needs to make the leap from merely mental understanding to a heart full of faith in God... I shared with him how God *is* pursuing him,obviously,why else would He put it on my heart and Tyler's heart to share the gospel with him again and again and again, month after month and year into year...why would he have heard the religious programs and radio station snippets he has been hearing lately that gave him much meat to chew on, why would he be alive, breathing still, God giving every one of us each breath that we take in, every heartbeat our heart fires off? But I don't have faith, he said, and faith... faith is a delicate partnership, isn't it?
God has to show us that He is real in order for us to get it, and we have to decide to trust Him in response to His "God-ness"...who/what else could ever be like OurGod???


We ended the conversation like this: if you want to be saved grandpa, beg God to save you. Place your desires before Him,and repent;if you will be faithful to do that,He will be faithful to help you by showing you more about Him,to grow in you a faith. That was it, it went rather quickly.... but God had given us those several minutes alone, when for 15 minutes the kids and my sisters were content with the Wii syatem my new brother-in-law brought with, and grandma stayed busy in the kitchen... God opened his heart and cleared the way... I just hope the words I choose were one's that we righteous, that would bring glory to God... if any of you feel a stirring to pray for us, oh please pray for God to do yet another great work, that He will save my grandfather, that I will be content with His timing, that I will trust Him with the state of my loved one's souls, knowing that He is good and that He is God... thanks :)



HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND! XOXO'S! ;)