I’ve moved the Blog

Just a quick note to let you know that the blog has moved to a permanent home on my server. Check it out here:

http://me.christybroxton.com

It’s just a continuation of the thoughts started here. See ya in the new space.

Read Full Post »

Summer 2012 Bucket List

Our school year is winding down and we’re gearing up for a great summer.

In fact, we’re using one of my favorite tools time-wasters to plan our list of things to do — Pinterest. You can see our 2012 Summer Bucket List and follow along on this blog as we accomplish our plans.

Our list is long and our time is short – less than 80 days! Someone else mentioned making an Instagram photo book with shots from their summer adventures. I think I’ll follow suit. See that cutie up there — consider that they cover shot for the Instagram photo book.

Read Full Post »

Setting Things Right

King Hezekiah orders the idols removed

“Hezekiah encouraged them with this address: “Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side!  He may have a great army, but they are just men. We have the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles for us!” These words greatly encouraged the people.
2 Chronicles 32:6b-8

These words have also greatly encouraged people for centuries. Yes, we do have a power far greater on our side but I believe that King Hezekiah had confidence in uttering these words because of the action he and his people took in the chapters prior.

These great words were uttered as the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, began to lay siege to the towns of Judah and as King Hezekiah was fortifying Jerusalem to ready it for an attack by this same invading force.

This chapter in 2 Chronicles opens with these key words: “After Hezekiah had faithfully carried out this work …”

What work?

The previous chapters recount Hezekiah’s religious reforms:

1. Reopening the Temple in Jerusalem
2. Restoring the true and proper worship there
3. Taking care of the Levites and priests as prescribed by the law
4. Celebrating the Passover as God intended (even following the rule to celebrate one month later if needed due to sanctification reasons)
5. Sacrificing the sin and peace offerings for the entire nation of Israel
6. Tearing down all pagan shrines and temples.

It was as a result of clearing out the false gods that had stolen their hearts and returning to the One True God, that King Hezekiah was confident in proclaiming that God – the God who King Sennacherib mocks openly in chapter 32 – would come to their rescue and not allow their enemies to prevail against them.

I love that King Hezekiah sets about these religious reforms long before there was a threat on his land by the king of Assyria. Sometimes it takes a threat to move people to action, but King Hezekiah’s changes were a direct result of his love for God. Verse three of chapter 29 states that “in the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them.” (emphasis added)

He didn’t wait!

He combined his faith in God’s ability with prayer (2 Chronicles 32:20) and God answered in a big way. They didn’t even have to leave the safety of Jerusalem’s walls to defeat the invading Assyrian force.

“And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its commanders and officers. So Sennacherib was forced to return home in disgrace to his own land.” ~ 2 Chronicles 32:21

Furthermore, when he returned to his home, some of his sons killed him with a sword in the temple of his own god.

It’s time to return to the worship of our God – the one true God – and to do right by Him in how we live our lives. It’s time to clear out the idols we hold dear and toss them into the wastelands. To rejoice in His feasts and enjoy the fact that He will pass over our iniquities because of the Blood of the Lamb that covers us. To sing again the Psalms of David, to build up our faith and to cry out for His deliverance in our lives.

There’s a precedent here … one that God honors every time it’s carried out in sincerity of heart: He has a way of escape for you. Perhaps an angel, perhaps confusion in the enemy’s camp, or maybe he will strengthen you to fight. Either way, He is sure to bring victory over what assails you, if you will turn fully to Him.

Read Full Post »

Random Sites and Programs I Enjoy

Recently, I’ve been enjoying a few new sites and gadgets and thought I’d share some of them with you.

Spotify:

First up is this handy music streaming program, Spotify. I LOVE IT!!! I can listen to whole tracks (as much as I want), make playlists, share them, and if I want I can upgrade so that I can download them as well. Literally, every genre is available and includes all the new and vintage songs my heart would ever need.

Oh, did I mention the basic program is FREE?!!!

Right now it is by invitation only and I, unfortunately, never got invites to send out. But  check the site and see if you can score an invite. It’s worth the effort.

Pinterest:

This fun site lets you create online visual ‘pinboards’ to store all the cool stuff you find around the web. It’s an endless source of ideas and fun stuff. You can follow what your friends ‘pin’ and share things with one another. It all links back to the original content. So, you’ll never forget where you found that cool tutorial or perfect item for your living room.

I do have invites for this one. So, if you’re interested just let me know and I’ll get you hooked up.

Google +

I know, I know, but it is cool and less crazy than FB right now. I also love the photo albums there much better. I have a ton of invites here too. So, hit me up and I’ll send you one. Even if you wind up not liking it/using it, at least you can say you tried. Right?

Got any new things you are diggin’ lately?

 

 

Read Full Post »

Catching you up to speed

Let’s see … where did I leave off? Just kidding! It’s been awhile, huh?

As previously stated, I am back to blogging. Honestly, for a while there, we just didn’t have too much to report outside of the mundane. So, updates of any nature seemed pointless  for a bit. Looking back I guess I was learning how to deal with a lot of the things in my life at the time and blogging was the last thing I wanted to do.

Church Update:

The last church update was nearly a year and 4 months ago — just prior to Easter 2010. In the 16 months since that update, the Lord has been at work. For the better part of 12 of those months, it was within us and the two faithful families that attended each and every service with us. The fourteen (yes, 14) of us met in the building God had blessed us with and believed with all our hearts doors would open and people would visit. (Believe me when I say this was truly not a “build it and they will come” sort of thing.)

In each of our families a war was raging ~ would we make it or would we pack up and head toward something easier and more familiar? In the midst of some of our hardest times, Fran Murphy came for a visit and shared with us some things God had impressed upon her heart. Words like, “You’re about to enter the toughest test of your lives” and “You won’t grow until you get this right” weren’t exactly music to our ears and certainly didn’t help to brighten the mood at the time.

Things did seem to go from bad to worse – for all fourteen of us – after she left, but something was happening. God was knitting us together as a family ~ one great, big extended family! The fourteen of us fought for each other in prayer, helped each other as best we could, and leaned into God probably harder than we ever had.

Around Easter of 2011 – nearly a year had passed with the fourteen of us still faithfully meeting in that building (Yes, we occasionally had a visitor or two and God did send a precious lady during that time that has faithfully attended ever since.) it was as if God flipped a heavenly switch!

If I had to hazard a guess, I would estimate that not more than a week or so passed from when we felt that we had “gotten things right” that a family was added to our mix. This is a faithful family that we all dearly love and are glad God has allowed us to partner together.

We were now 20 strong and I am pleased to tell you that the next three months passed and the church doubled in size. Now  … when you talk about ‘doubling’ and your numbers are still less than 50 some folks may not be impressed. Let me tell you … what GOD has done is nothing less than a miracle. Each Sunday we are seeing new faces and enjoying developing new friendships. Our church is a family and it is so humbling to realize it is nothing (repeat NOTHING) we have done to bring us to this point.

I promise to introduce you to as many of these new faces as possible and to pass along our stories when appropriate, but for now, here is a short synopsis:

A fair majority of those who are regularly attending are between 18 and 30. We have several young families and a good smattering of 40s and up as well.  A large majority of those in attendance are new believers. In fact, we’ve had the privilege of presenting THREE of them with their first Bibles … ever in their adult life. On Memorial Day weekend there were five baptisms and another young man accepted Jesus two weeks ago. This past Sunday, James and I had the extreme privilege of the first baby dedication as a church (I can’t wait to tell you that whole story) and we’ll be firing up a College and Career group this coming Sunday.

The last week of July we finally broke over the 50 mark. 53 to be exact – and we were missing 6 of our regulars.

I know this post is getting long so let me leave you with this story ….

About six weeks ago this idea of having folks actually attend church with us was still pretty new to us. We got a kick out of seeing more than our few cars in the parking lot, so we were standing on the porch of the church admiring the parking lot (it’s really nothing more than a grassy patch of lawn that serves as a parking area) and the cars in it.

I started counting cars and it turned out there were 14 vehicles in the parking lot in all. Out loud I noted that we now had as many cars in the parking lot as we had people in the church at that time last year!

You see … even the small things are big things when God is moving and blessing.

Read Full Post »

Something to remember …

Read Full Post »

Time to Resurrect This Blog

No apologies for missing a year of updates ~ I’ve been busy!
But … consider this blog officially revived. Follow along if you like, but its revival is mostly for me. I need to write – to chronicle –  and this seems the best way to accomplish that for now.

This past year + has been full of exciting ups and downs but God is SO faithful and I’m glad He is in charge of things in my life.

I’ll be updating things as they come to me and highlighting stuff in general ~ same blog format, just with a year’s hiatus.

As an aside … I’ve also setup a professional website for my WordPress site design work. You can find it at http://christybroxton.com 

Read Full Post »

I Serve a Show-Off

I must confess (again) that I am a logical individual the majority of the time. When presented with a challenge I tend to gravitate toward the “strategize and plan” method of conquering it. I lay out action plans to arrive at my goal and worry when things don’t line up the way I think they should.

God has once again shown me how that method of ‘controlling’ and doing things in my own strength is not His way.

You see, I believe that God is inherently a show-off (in a good way) … mostly just because He can and because He likes to remind us He is the one in control – not us. This whole church-plant thing is certainly more under His control than ours. And for that I am grateful.

So … back to the good news!

We recently (by an act of God) acquired a building in which to meet. {See previous post} Randy graciously allowed us to meet while Pastors were in town and extended that offer into the month of March. At the end of March, James was scheduled to meet with him to negotiate monthly payment, etc. for the building.

We looked over what little bit of finances are coming in on a monthly basis – needless to say it didn’t take long and determined what we could do at this point toward the mortgage. Mind you it was pitifully shy of the full $1700 per month and James admitted he felt embarrassed to even make the offer. (Let me put into perspective for you how HUGE a step of faith this is to even pursue this. In ALL of last year, our church offerings totaled $3400 (yes, for the YEAR!). Ummmm … that’s only 2 months at $1700 – LOL — but I digress.)

Naturally we will be putting insurance on the content of the building and taking over the utilities, but beyond that we were woefully inadequate in what we could pay. But he offered to Randy what we could with a promise to revisit it in 6 months. God-willing we could increase it at that point.

Randy told James that he felt our offer was too high. WHAT??? Too high? Did he really just say that?  Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

As it shakes out, Randy wants to allow us time to build finances toward a down payment on the property so that it can be transferred into our name as soon as possible. So … he wants us to take care of utilities, upkeep and improvements, insurance as planned, and begin to sock cash away for the down payment on the property.

WHAT A BLESSING!!

So many emotions are running through us right now and so many thoughts – which I’m sure will be blogged about, but one overriding desire is for God to bless Randy with more than he can hope, think, or imagine! (Eph 3:20)

God has used Randy and Acts III to bless us and our prayer is that as he sows that mortgage payment into Brookstone, that God will pour back to him and Acts III in such huge amounts that they can’t even calculate the exponential ROI that comes from this act of generosity.

Please join with James, myself, and the members of Brookstone in praying for Randy and Acts III. Pray Luke 6:38 over them. Pray that God will bless him.

“A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Now … isn’t God good?

Read Full Post »

Obligatory New Year’s Post

Yup! You know it. I’m going to start the year with a post and see if I can do a better job of keeping this digital journal up to date in Twenty Ten.

I’m eclectic and have grown accustomed to the fact that most of my posts are that way too. So, in the spirit of all things eclectic … here are a few things on my radar as we head into 2010.

Organization:

I’ll be working through Simple Mom’s post about New Year’s Goals. I life calling them goals rather than resolutions. Most of my knee-jerk reactions at end of year are not nearly resolute enough to be actual resolutions.

I’m also going to be sending off for a few more FREE calendars. Freebies 4 Mom has a round up of who has FREE Calendars available. (Just in case you are a little slow and still need a calendar ~ or you’re like me and just like free calendars. *wink*)

And if you like Digital Calendars and want to make your desktop or iPhone purty for January, grab some from:

• Little Dreamer Designs
• Shabby Princess
• Hawt Mama Team Blog

Also, a while back I mentioned Cozi ~ a home organizational tool. Modern Media Mom had a nice post revisiting the Cozi.com site and new features they’ve added. If you’re not already locked into a favorite way to track calendars for everyone, journal, keep to-do lists, etc. then check it out

Reading:

Maybe you’re planning on reading though the Bible this year. YouVersion has a reading plan to assist with that.

Simple Mom has a book club that is cranking up. They kick off the year with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. Read the details here.

I’m also personally looking forward to Mark Batterson new Book, Primal. If you’ve not read his other stuff I highly recommend them. You can pick them up at most bookstores or loads of places online.

Here are links to his other two books:

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day
Wild Goose Chase

Again, I heartily recommend both!

HomeSchooling, Kids, Fun, Etc:

I’m going to be re-organizing things in the HomeSchool area as well. I plan on making things like this Reading Center and watching blogs more closely for other ideas.

I’m also thinking of making some of these cute crafts with Steph:

Salty Snow Prints featured on Blissfully Domestic

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh BTW … let me insert a short PSA here. Blissfully Domestic is having their annual conference in NASHVILLE soon. I found out about their first one shortly after moving away from Nashville. Figures!

Check out Blissdom ‘10

If you blog, live near Nashville and would enjoy a girlie getaway, you definitely want to check this one out.

http://blissdomconference.com/

OK

PSA over

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last but not least, I pray you all have a blessed, prosperous and joyful year.

Read Full Post »

Looking forward to seeing the Girl

I can’t wait for this movie to be released because I can’t wait to see the girl – and I’m not talking ‘bout Miley. I’m talking ‘bout Savannah and her beach – Tybee.

From what I can tell this movie is doing a tremendous job spotlighting the beauty and history that surrounds me here in Savannah.

I love that Tybee gets to be Tybee and not some fictitious place or a stand-in for some other locale.

Check out this trailer:

“>

Yeah, baby!!! That’s all Savannah, Tybee and her environs. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

And after you’ve watched that take a gander at this song. One of my new favs.

“>

Again …   Savannah, Salt Marshes, Wormsloe — love it!!!

Read Full Post »