Readership

I'm (Lynn) sitting in a practice with Worship Team B right now. They're doing a nice job practicing, but two great things just happened.

1) We stopped and prayed for our sister who needed to sit back on the Lord for a moment. For that sister I have the following lyrics from a praise song written by someone at Christ for the Nations. (The speaker is a worshiper, speaking to Jesus.)

The more I seek You, the more I find You. The more I find You, the more I love You, Jesus. I want to sit at Your feet, drink from the cup in Your hand, lean back against You, and breathe, and feel Your heartbeat. This love is so deep; it's more than I can bear. I melt in Your peace; it's overwhelming.

2) We just had a conversation in which I found out that a few of the worship team members read this blog. Not the worship blog I set up for the church - this one. I love that! :)

Mac

I want everyone to know that I am typing on a Mac. I was afraid to post until the Mac actually came, but the new MacBook is the tool the Lord provided me to do my work through the church. Yes, a Mac. I'm sure I'll get the usual comments from Windows lovers and people who resist change. I'll choose not to defend this transition I've been dying to make for a long time. If you want responses to compatability myths, etc., please visit apple.com. (I still love you all.)

Once Upon a Snowy Afternoon

It's Lynn writing this time. It's a snowy afternoon, and I'm sitting in the home office the Lord provided for us. None of that matters to most anyone reading this, particularly since we've gone on about that a lot. Still, it feels good finally to be here. Natasha rightly observed that it's been almost a month since we last had a place to let our collective hair down. We sat and watched "Two Weeks Notice" last night, after which I fell asleep in record time. That's how I do it. Sleep. Natasha and I had that conversation yesterday. She remarked how she tends to get worked up and feels as though she doesn't handle change very well. She thinks I handle it very well. The only reason she thinks that is because I'm social. It doesn't really matter whether we're in change; I just like to be around people. I get tired, though. She didn't sleep many nights last week prior to settling; I sleep more every night that goes by. I slept in past 10:00 a.m. twice in the past week! (Half the day was gone!!) We have been invited out so many times, but we're often with strong personalities - a good thing, since I tend to get with people and sink into a tired speechlessness. You know, the kind of peaceful speechlessness that feels best with a warm cup of Stash wild blackcurrant tea in my hands with the sounds of my wife's voice in my ears, gratitude to Jesus in my heart, and the jazzy music of someone like Bing in my head - all on a snowy afternoon.

A word from Francis.

The God Whose Name Is Jealous

…True salvation is a betrothal….

…Whatever challenges Jesus' right to our hearts becomes His enemy, which He will confront. Because of His jealousy toward us as His bride, in regard to these false gods, the Lord demands we destroy these idols ourselves.

…The spirit of antichrist [that spirit which exalts self as deity] is resident in much of the church today, opposing the move of God, displaying itself as being God.

…Is there something in your soul which opposes and exalts itself above God, taking its seat in the human temple of God , displaying itself as being God? The resistance in you against God is an idol. It is the most powerful idol in the human heart.

…What mankind has done is move the pagan temples from the high places of the countryside to the hidden places of the human heart.

Every time we inwardly submit to the strongholds of fear, bitterness, and pride, we are bowing to the rulers of darkness.

Would you be holy? Then remove the idols of self and sin from within you. For holiness exists in a soul purified by love; it exudes like incense from a heart without idols.

Francis Frangapane

Random thoughts from the sick wife :)

Yes, I am very unfortunately sick and using this post of random thoughts as a distraction from my misery.

Isn't it interesting that I decided to stop blogging and then asked Lynn if I could post sometimes on his blog, which he then re-designed for us to share, and suddenly he's disappeared and only I remain?

Just to inform anyone who might be wondering, I have not besieged my husband's blog. It's just that for right now, I'm awaiting our final move into our more permanent home, while being miserably sick and lazying around our hosts home; meanwhile Lynn is hard at work at the church, but without a computer as of yet! So I have all the time in the world to sit at the computer and blog, while Lynn is still in the process of ordering his new laptop for the church.

I promise you, he will return!

I would also like to comment about the picture Lynn chose for the new design. A dear feind had innocently commented that it seems "erotic" :). I apologize if we've made anyone uncomfortable for it is not meant to be an "erotic" picture, but rather a soft, gentle, romantic kiss - perfectly appropriate for blogdom :).

This picture was actually taken by Ryan Wiedmaier in downtown St. John. It was a scheme against me for a surprise Lynn was conjuring up.

We do seem to be outward with our affection, more than some... or maybe most. When we first started dating I was terribly shy! I tried to keep Lynn from making his random outbursts across the cafeteria or from the car window as he passed me going down the hill (at BBC)... but my efforts to control his random outbursts were completely fruitless. So I eventually learned to work with it :)

More seriously, though, when Lynn and I were falling in love, both sets of parents were experiencing extreme marriage difficulties. Two completely different situations that also had completely different outcomes led us to question love and its ability to last a lifetime. The outcome of these difficulties as they've shaped our relationship (along with the combination of our ridiculous personalities) led us to operate in our marriage out of a certain "philosphy". As Christians living in a world depraved of love, why not shout out from the rooftops that the enemy has been defeated and the love of Christ reigns in our marriage forever!? Why not reflect the love of Christ through our love for one another to people who have long since stopped believing that they could ever know a love that never fails...

This "philosphy" (for lack of a better word, and as tribute to Rev. Starks) is most certainly influenced by the innocent and unashamed love that exherts from my husband's pure heart. He is so precious and we couldn't be different even if we tried because he cannot contain his joy and love for the Lord which overflows onto his abundantly blessed wife.

So without shame, we will keep our "erotic" picture on our blog, proclaiming to all the world that love prevails!

How's that for a dramatic ending? :)

One "first" down.

I just have to say, though none of us are surprised, that my husband is the best worship pastor ever!

We had our first Sunday yesterday and Lynn did an exceptional job. He is obviously very capable musicaly, but also walks with the anointing and favor of a son - a son who knows His Father, is like His Father in image and character, and trusts in His Father's faithfulness.

I am so proud of you, Husband :).

(From Natasha)

A Blessed Life.

I (Natasha) am taking this opportunity to post about our current situation. Some of it will likely be redundant; but hopefully it will make more sense all compliled into one neat summary :).

Okay, here's the gist. We (meaning Lynn) accepted the position of pastor of worship arts and small groups at Immanuel Baptist Church in Truro, NS, Canada. We finished up my internship in Presque Isle, ME, moved our stuff into a very kind man's basement, celebrated our anniversary, then left for the holidays. We had a wonderful time with Lynn's family in DE over Christmas and mine over New Years. We arrived back in Truro just in time for Lynn's first day on January 2nd. Needless to say it has been a busy few weeks!

We had announced earlier that we were going to buy a house in Truro. We loved the house for a starter home and were in the middle of drawing up a formal offer with our lawyer when we felt a very strong need to pull back. We stalled for a little bit, but ultimately had to face the fact that we did not have peace about buying this house. Lynn had to make the difficult phone calls, informing those involved that we were pulling out. We found oursleves homeless once again.

Just around that time, however, we received an e-mail from the senior pastor of our new church, mentioning a possible house sitting option. Both of us immediately felt peace and a release of tension at this suggestion! Since then it has been blessing after blessing! The Lord has provided a more than perfect solution to an impossble situation (without getting into the details...) and has also used us to be that very same thing for another member of the body of Christ! Somehow, He took two impossible situations and molded them together creating an abundance of blessing, warmth, and peace.

Lynn and I will be house sitting through the spring and possibly until August. A bigger, better home awaits us on the other end :).

It is surely a blessed life to be in the hands of a loving father who promises to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever think or imagine!

Drake

Happy New Year! Baby Emmerson now has a name: Drake John Emmerson. He is my favorite nephew, mostly because he's beautiful. Is this superficial? Absolutely, but I haven't held him, talked to him on the phone, or taken him to a basketball game yet, so we don't really have much history. Drake and I only go back about a week, to be honest. It looks like we have a lot of ground to cover. In the meantime, I'm going to live vicariously through my in-laws, who have wonderful children worth a lot of love!

In other news, Natasha says "Hi!" and "Happy New Year!" We're going to be lazy and watch a movie before the big "Christmas" dinner this afternoon (with my in-laws, who weren't with us at Christmas) and the trip home. We hope 2007 is a big one for all of you. The Lord is literally standing in front of us, waiting for us to run after Him. He has a new world to unfold, should we actually challenge Him to prove it.