Upcoming Sermon!

Hello Everyone!

For those of you who don't already know, I'm going to be preaching at Household of Faith Community Church this Sunday.

I'll be preaching from John 12:27-36. The title of the sermon is 'The Son of Man to be Lifted Up'.

You're more than welcome to come and watch me present my first sermon. :)

Please pray for me as I prepare to present it on Sunday.

FYI- Our church address is 4335 Williams Highway. If you need directions, just leave a comment.

Thank you for your prayers!
-Aaron

Courageous!

Check out the Announcement of the latest Sherwood Pictures movie production! (Sherwood Pictures is a church film production company that produced Facing the Giants, Flywheel, and Fireproof)

www.courageousthemovie.com

Our family watched the announcement and we're all looking forward to seeing it! But more than that we're very excited to see the impact it will have the viewers. The message is one that our family has been jazzed about for a very long time... Challenging men to be servant leaders in their home.

The Plot
Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, they face danger every day. Yet when tragedy strikes close to home, these fathers are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, and their faith. From this struggle will come a decision that changes all of their lives.

With action, drama, and humor, the fourth film from Sherwood Pictures embraces God’s promise to "turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers." Souls will be stirred, and hearts will be challenged to be ... courageous!

A Look At Their Budget
Facing the Giants- $100,000

Fireproof- $500,000

Courageous- $2,500,000 (projected budget)


Pray for Sherwood Pictures and the production of their latest movie- Courageous!

God bless!
-Aaron

HOFGP.ORG- Updated Look!

We have yet another version of the Household of Faith Website! It's still under construction but the main theme and look of the site is up and running!

WWW.HOFGP.ORG

Check it out! And let me know what you think!

-Aaron

P. S. I was considering titling my post as- "Fresh New Look! Same Great Church!".... but I thought maybe that'd be a little bit overboard. I dunno... sounds like something you'd see on a Ranch Dressing bottle... not on a church website. ...whatever.... :D

Manly Indeed :)

Here are some photos I took 2 Sundays ago. We went shooting at the Phillips with Nathanael. It was super fun!

Thoughts on Proverbs 3:5-6

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

For some reason this verse has been in my head for the past few weeks or so. I've heard it many times before and it has always been one of those 'nice' verses that I just listen to without thinking about what it says. But I wanted to really consider what it means. Here are some thoughts I had on the verse.

It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." .....with ALL your heart....

I was recently reading in "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" that when scripture refers to 'heart' it rarely means your emotions or feelings. It's referring to your will, to your decisions.

With that in mind, trusting in the Lord with all your heart is a conscious decision to trust God. "I will trust you God." It means to trust Him in EVERY decision and choice you make.

Someone who truly trusts in the Lord with ALL their heart is a very confident person.

Why? Because they know that God is sovereign over the decisions they make and if they make a bad decision they trust that God's infinite grace and mercy will cover for their mistake. Am I a confident person? .....Are you a confident person?

Trusting in the Lord with all your heart is NOT an overwhelming feeling or emotion like butterflies in your stomach.

The reason I say this is because all too often we wait for the 'feeling' or 'emotion' to come before we decide to trust in God. And then when it's gone we wonder if we really trusted.

Trusting in God is a DECISION. The emotions are only the frosting on the cake. They may or may not be there when you trust God. But it shouldn't matter what you're feeling, God commands you to trust in Him.


It's similar to the love of a Godly man for his wife. The man may not always be overwhelmed with those butterflies and feelings toward his wife but he still loves her. As in he's decided to love her; to be her man; to be faithful to his vows to her; to love her for life.

And he shouldn't be dependent on his emotions to love her. That means he loves her even when he doesn't feel giddy about her; even when they've had an argument; and even when they're both droopy-eyed and grumpy in the morning.

The culture doesn't understand this. So many marriages are broken because couples think that love is a feeling or emotion. It's not! It's a decision of the heart! Yes, there are butterflies and feelings but they aren't the cake. They're just the frosting.

Similarly, so many Christians DON'T trust in God because they think it's a feeling. It's not! It's a decision of the heart!

Does that make sense? I hope the marriage analogy hasn't confused you.

Trusting in the Lord is a decision that you make regardless of your emotions.

If you're like me, you know that your emotions are all over the place. Some days you feel really happy, other days you feel really depressed. I think it's something that's part of our fallen nature... we can't control our own emotions.

But what we can do is make the right decisions for God and be patient for our emotions to fall into place. And they will.

Trusting in God may be hard at first but if you keep making the right decision to not worry about anything, the peace and happiness will come. It will.



Well, I'm going to have to cut this post in half and finish it another time.

I encourage everyone to read the whole chapter of Proverbs 3. You can read it here.

If you have any comments don't hesitate to post them.

God bless!
-Aaron

The Treasure Of Jesus

What can I do
How can I live
To show my world
The treasure of Jesus

What will it take
What could I give
So they can know
The treasure He is

If I can sing
Let my songs be full of His Glory
If I can speak
Let my words be full of His Grace
If I should live or die
Let me be found pursuing this prize
The One that alone satisfies
The Treasure of Jesus

And if I can sing
Let my songs be full of His Glory
If I can speak
Let all my words be full of His Grace
And if I should live or die
Let me be found pursuing this prize
The One that alone satisfies
The Treasure of Jesus

-Steven Curtis Chapman (from his song- "Treasure of Jesus")

The Joy of a Christian

No thoughtful person can question the fact that, for the most part, the Christian life, as it is generally lived is not entirely a happy life. A keen observer once said to me,

"You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it. You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable."

Then for the first time I saw, as in a flash, that the religion of Christ ought to be and was meant to be, to its possessors, not something to make them miserable but something to make them happy; and I began then there to ask the Lord to show me the secret of a happy Christian life.

- Hannah Whitall Smith
(1832-1911), author of 'The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life'

An Excellent Quote

No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant.

Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God.

If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.

‐Alexander MacLaren (1826‐1910), Scottish preacher

Hmm.... :D

Well, I'm one of those kinds of people who can be in the darkest depths of depression one minute and then be as hyper as Tigger flying off the walls the next. And right now I'm feeling like Tigger. :)

And that explains why I'm posting for no reason whatsoever. :D

Life is good, music is good, rain is good, siblings are good, work is good, Saturdays are good, and above all, God is good!

See ya all later!


-Aaronski -or- Ronnie (You decide :D )

Left-handed and Loving Life!

I am a cripple. My fickle shoulder decided it wanted to pop out of it's socket during an awesome ultimate frisbee game on Saturday. I was not happy. It apologized but it's still feeling sad and sorry. I have to cradle it and treat it gently all the time. It has very sensitive feelings. But it is getting better. :D

My left hand has proudly stepped up to the responsibility of primary duty doer, though it is having trouble in several areas. It has a difficult time tying shoes and holding silverware for eating. However, it is improving handsomely. My left and right arms have served me well. I try to take good care of both of them. :D

As you can see I have to take especially good care of my arm. :)

This picture was taken today as I waited to take the physics exam. We took it at Grants Pass High School. It was pretty intense. I'm glad it's over. :D


Beautiful Shoes!
(at Baskin Robbins. The Emmons are jealous, I know. :D )

Good-lookin' Jeb.

My dream come true; to set up and play my drums out on a field. Very cool. :D

My very own rock band. "The Benevolent Irish Band of St. Patrick's Classy Clan."

Having trouble with our touring van.

Rocking out some more.

Me with my faithful body guard. :D
You know how it is when you're a celebrity and everyone likes you; you have to hire a body guard to fight off all the screaming fans! ....haha! Juuuust kidding.... :D

Photo Credit Goes to Alexa, Destiny, and Mrs. Kruse!

Teenpact Update

Hello everybody!

Well, I had another great day today! The student government elections took place and Isaac was elected as one of the representatives. Yeah for Isaac! And Quinton Cools got elected for governor! Hurrah for Quinton!

I got to meet with Jason Atkinson personally! He's a very busy guy but he was still kind enough to meet me and answer some of my questions. And there's something huge in our state coming up that he told me about but I can't tell anyone else. :D Check out his site at- http://jasonatkinson.us/

I had better get to bed to be awake for the ride home tomorrow!

Enjoy the pictures!

I've been nominated for Governor!

Today was awesome! I learned a ton and had a blast! It is very fun getting to know new people. It's probably even a good thing that no one I know really well is here because if they were, then I would only hang out with them and not meet as many new people.... It's kind of like what Tait was saying about Regionals. But at the same time I wish you all were here so you could learn all the amazing things I've been learning.

We have what are called 'field experiences' about twice or 3 times a day. A field experience is where you leave 'home base' (the room where we met regularly), and go somewhere in the capitol to see the government in action.

Today we watched the house of representatives for a short period . This was after we had learned all the procedures and rules of conduct that they follow. We watched it from the balcony and I was able to look down and see all the representatives, the speaker of the house, etc. Dennis Richardson, the representative from our district, was down there. It was very organized and official.

Another highlight of the day was during one of the breakout sessions. We were split into 4 different made-up political parties. I was in the Dehydrated Rain party. So in that session we had to vote on different issues our party would support and then we nominated and elected a governor and 3 representatives. This was the primarys of the election.

So that was when they elected me as governor nominee. That was kind of exciting. :)

Tomorrow we'll do the general election. So I'll be campaigning and running against the governors from the 3 other parties. And 2 of them I already know- Taylor Wells and Quinton Cools. I really look forward to it!!!! :D

I've been having a great time so far. The conversations have all been excellent! Mr. Harris and those leading the camp have a lot of insight and wisdom on issues such government, its role, and how it compares with the church, the family, and the individual person.

I'll try and keep you all updated!
-Aaron

In Salem for Teenpact

Good morning, everyone! I'm sitting here at the Harrises eating breakfast and getting ready for the second day of Teenpact! How is everyone doing down there?

Yesterday we got to read all the bills that we had written and they assigned them to different committees to review each bill. We were split up into several different committees and I think we'll be reviewing and passing the bills today!

God bless you all! I gotta run! Enjoy the banquet tonight! :)

-Aaron

A Prayer Request

The Moores are asking for prayer for their family. Their son, Jacob, is home now after living at a Boys ranch in Texas for 5 months. He was expelled for bad behavior. Please pray for reconciliation between Jacob and his family. Pray that God would give the Moores wisdom about how to deal with this new situation. Pray that He would soften Jacob's heart to mend the relationships that are broken.

I talked to Zane tonight and he said they're holding up pretty good but it was quite a sudden change to have Jacob home again. Please pray for Jacob. He is young and already struggling spiritually in many ways. He needs prayer more than anything else right now.



James 5:13- "Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

God bless you all!
-Aaron

The Grueling 10 mile Run!

The Rugged Runners- (from left to right) Me, Dylan, Kolton(ran the 5k), Jachin, Kaila, Victoria, Christina, Dad Stephanie, Natalie(ran the 5k), and Steve.

Alexa forgot to picture Jachin, myself, and Steve in the last stretch, so in case you were wondering, yes, we did run. :D

You can see all our running times and results on the pear blossom website.

It was very fun, at least when we were finished. :D There was also a great atmosphere of encouragement and wholesomeness among everyone. 1260 people ran the 10 mile. It was a wonderful group of people! I look forward to running next year and with even more friends! ....hint hint. :D

God bless you all!
-Aaron

Spring Break!

Today marks the end of this years' spring break. It was very fun and productive. Here are a few things I did this week.

Working on my Car... sorta :D

The carpet in my car was growing mildew so I figured I would take out the seats to make vacuuming easier. And while I was at it, I figured I might as well transform my Tercel into a luxury car, ya know. So I put a rocking chair in it. But sadly it didn't work.

Actually, after taking out the fronts seats, I ended up taking out the dash board, the side panels, the entire rug, the back seats, purty much everything. It was worth it though. I was able to vacuum up a bunch of junk (like cigarette butts, lots of dirt, you name it) and I also found some holes that were letting water in which caused the mildew.

So I'm almost finished cleaning it.

Later, we went to see nephews...



And then we went to a party!





And then we went to get our graduation photos taken...

(there were a ton of pictures taken, which means lots of smiling... and if you ask Tait, I'm sure he'd be more than willing to expound generously on that very topic.... :D )

I have to admit... it is fun being fuzzed over and bossed around and all that celebrity stuff. :D

Once again, life is good. God is good, friends are good, and..... and so is food. :D

God bless!
-Aaron

Pear Blossom Update #2

I ran 8.1 miles in 1hr 17min today. It was hard but worth it by the end. It's funny how when you're running you don't think that its 'super fun' but when you're finished and you look at your time, that's when its good and satisfying! Awwghl..... yup. That's right. :D


Yes, life is good. Very good.

God bless!
-Aaron