Click PAUSE on my Music PLayer first.

http://www.cjbergmenmusic.com/wordpress/

c.j. & renee from bradley gregg on Vimeo.

Tattoo or not to tattoo????? That seems to be the question.

We love Nica. We love Nica. We love Nica.

I am well aware that many may read my recent posts and think to themselves..."What the heck is she going on about? She's rambling!"

I simply want to share what I am living. Plain and simple.

With that said..............

It is wild...living within a "Christian" culture which does not recognize, acknowledge, like, or choose to call sin sin.

We've found ourselves getting a lot of blank stares and raised eyebrows over the years...when addressing certain situations. Sometimes people get angry with us. Usually, we are ignored.

That can get depressing. That can be frustrating. That can exasperate. I can recognize in my own life..the times when truth (confirmed by the Word, the Spirit, and Godly counsel) has been rejected...triggering me into bouts of depression...episodes of frustration and seasons of exasperation.

But we know because the Word tells us... that when we ourselves act or react in sin....it is because we follow after the evil desires of our own hearts.

Pride = Sin
Arrogance = Sin
Fear = Sin
Apathy = Sin
Bitterness = Sin

Matthew 7:3-5

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

This walk with the Lord really is like the peeling away of an onion. With it comes some tears...then often a sharp bite...and after some slow cooking...

...sweetness.

I have been encouraged lately through unfolding circumstances to walk in integrity...humbleness, conviction, and strength....submitting to the Lord while exercising the spiritual gifts He has given me.

Also...I am personally convinced more than ever...that repentance is the avenue by which grace travels.

_____________________________________

Here is what is ringing in my ears...

"A disciple is not better than his teacher. But everyone who is fully-trained will be like his teacher." Luke 6:40


Who are our teachers?


Education System? ??????????? Good thing?

Government?????????? Good thing?

Entertainment? ????????????? Good thing?

Friends? Similarities? Good thing?

Parents? Family resemblance? Good thing?

Church Leaders? Are we like them? Is that a good thing?

Desert life.

Bradley and I ran through the L.A. rain on one of our very first dates....and....stopped everything to notice when it began to drizzle outside our NYC wedding reception.


We celebrate the rain around here.

We welcome the storms.

It got me thinking.

Life will bring with it...many storms. It's a given.

Like the rain soaking into the parched Sonoran soil...can we see the storms of our lives as opportunities to allow the Lord to do His quenching work?

The Sanctification Road is filled with twists and u turns.. roundabouts...bunny trails and dead ends. It's filled with steep inclines...steep declines.... long straightaways...peaks & pinnacles as well.

We have had a breakthrough over here.

Please pray for our family...We are under conviction and the Lord is changing minds and hearts rapidly.

Oh, that You Lord would wake us from our slumbers...that You would eradicate our self deception because your Word is truth and Your Word tells us:


"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:1

One day...again and again over time... the living Word of the Lord comes on to the scene of our lives and brings with it conviction.

Where have we been unfaithful in our own homes?

Conviction.

Ushered in by the Holy Spirit...with such tender loving care..... blended with the firm hand of ultimate authority.

It causes one to weep and bow down in worship.

Ushered in through the faithful preaching of His Word.

He has chosen to decimate Bradley and I.

He has chosen to bring so much hope to this home.

All in the very same week-end.

Arizona Summers.


Photos courtesy of Chad Wilhoite.

Read this book. Please, read this book.


Also...visit Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron over at Way of the Master.
Their website might be a little cheesey but they certainly are not. Spurgeon, Comfort, Cameron....right on the money.

What do kids who live in 115 degree heat do at noon?

Fry an egg on the driveway...of course.

Dance Troupe delivering gifts to the Children's' Wing of the hospital. It is so sweet. Donated gifts are collected and placed in a large rolling cabinet. When patients have been poked and prodded...x-rayed and scanned...when they have been super duper brave troopers through all the yuckiness of their illnesses...they get to shop in the cabinet and choose a gift.

Oh Lord, a prayer for the kids in the hospital tonight. For them to know your presence. For their parents and families to know your peace in intimate ways.

We recently noticed that Zion's right eye started to turn in a bit...stray towards the center. Doc put her in glasses and she will be rechecked in three months. I swear....there is nothing cuter than this kid in her new glasses with her new lisp. We are dying over here....so in love.

You know those people who gave you the heebie jeebies the first time you met them...and you couldn't help shake the feeling that "something was off"...every subsequent time?

Ummmmmm....yeah.....heed those red flags.

Time does tell.

Work it out!

All this for $2.50 at CVS. Don't forget about those Extra Bucks, girls...and shop the 90% off rack. Those tissue paper packs were $0.14 each!

And all we had to do was dress up as a bunch of cows in order to get a free lunch at Chick- fil-A. They gave us $25 bucks worth of delicious food for nothin'! And we got coupons for 2 free sandwiches, 1 free soda and one free dessert on our way out the door.


Work it out!