The courage to try again...

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" -Mary Anne Radmacher 

How about you try doing something courageous today? ...even if it's just trying to do the thing you couldn't do yesterday.

"The righteous may fall seven times but still get up, but the wicked will stumble into trouble." -Proverbs 24:16

"Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light." -Micah 7:8

Take courage. Get up. Try again.

Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I am second...

UPDATE: **If you are in the Whatcom County area, you can hear this real-life account from Brian "Head" Welch at Cornwall Park Church this weekend (Dec. 3-4). Click here for details.**

This is gritty, scary, and beautiful.  Reminds me of the man that Jesus healed, who was chained up and living in a cemetary...

*if video doesn't load, click here.

Would you have shared Jesus with this man?

I pray that I would be the kind of guy who would be so believing in Jesus power, with such a heart for the lost and broken, that could see past the tattoos and the language and the drugs and violence and the self-destruction and recognize a person made in God's own image and out of love say "I don't mean to be weird with you, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, I felt like this scripture might mean something to you..." and invite him to experience God's peace and rest.

Can you relate in some way to the life this man has lived?

If you are interested in becoming second and letting God be first in your life, visit iamsecond.com.  If you find yourself needing peace and rest, let us know in the comments, or send us an email, we don't have it all figured out, but we do personally know the source of perfect peace and we would love to share it with you.  

We are Ross and Taya, and we are second.

welcome, judah.

God blessed us with a healthy, adorable baby boy on September 24... we named him Judah Ross. His name means "let God be praised."


Psalm 146 has always been our favorite Psalm.

We love that it begins & ends with praise.
We love that it speaks of praising the LORD for all of your life.
We love that it speaks of God remaining faithful forever... He has been to us.
We love the sense of mission that it gives as it reminds us that God gives food to the hungry, sets prisoners free, etc. and it compels us to go out & share that gospel of good news & victory with others.

Our prayer for Judah Ross is that he would praise the LORD with all of his life & as long as he lives, and that he would be a leader who is unafraid to step into some of the most difficult & challenging situations in life- knowing that God sees, God cares, and God will act.

Judah is an incredible gift to us & we praise God for him.

You look like you could use a laugh...

LAUGHS! from Everynone on Vimeo.

"A joyful heart is good medicine..." -Proverbs 17:22
"Laughter really is good medicine. It reduces stress, relieves pain, lowers blood pressure and boosts the immune system. It puts people at ease and can lower the tension level in your relationships. Frequent laughter may even reduce your risk for heart disease." -Craig Hassed (Monash University, Melbourne)

God is my Shepherd...

Elijah loves the song called "House of God, Forever" by Jon Foreman. We caught him singing it the other night before bed. He is such a sweet & gentle guy, & it has been really sweet to see his desire to pray & sing praise songs growing more & more. We were created for relationship, even 2 year-olds can recognize this, & the most important relationship anyone can figure out is their relationship with God.

Watching that video of Elijah also reminded us of another clip featuring Isaiah on the same topic at a similar age:

Thank you God, for being our good shepherd & for filling our life with these wonderful gifts!

It's not my fault (the Devil made me do it)

Heraclitus said: “The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living.”

We are a culture of blamers. In politics we blame the other party. In traffic, we blame the other drivers. In relationships, we blame the other person. It appears that one of the greatest tricks of the enemy is to take the focus off of our faults, and blame other people for our dissatisfaction.

In the story of Genesis 3:1-7, we see that one of the Serpent’s greatest tricks was to cause Eve to become dissatisfied with what she had, desiring what she did not have, and to consider that God was being dishonest towards her.

To put it another way, Satan tempted Eve to blame God for not letting her eat of one certain fruit, blame God for not wanting her to “be like God,” and blame God for making something so attractive to be so wrong.

This same style of temptation attacks us today.

We become dissatisfied with all of the things we have in life. Rather than counting our blessings and considering all that we have, we focus in on the one thing that we do not have (and in 99.9% of the cases it is a thing that we should not have), and we focus in on the one who is withholding it from us.

We are tempted to question God’s goodness and we put ourselves in the place of God when we blame others, or blame God for our dissatisfaction. As believers we ought to follow the Apostle Paul’s example, when he says in Philippians 4:11 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

The heart that is satisfied is the heart that is prepared to submit and worship, and it is the heart that is better equipped to resist the temptation of the enemy.

Submit. Worship. Resist. Repeat.

Points to Ponder:

• Who are the people I am most prone to blame? (God, spouse, children, boss, etc.)
• Make a list of the things you are desiring or the areas of your life you find yourself dissatisfied with. After writing the list, take a few minutes to pray & surrender every single item on the list to God’s care. Then ask Him to give you a heart like Paul’s: satisfied regardless of the situation.

Warning, Falling Cows Ahead

Shakespeare once wrote that it is “'one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.”  If we were to look back on the things we regret in our lives, we probably don’t regret temptations that came along as much as we regret our response to them.

 

How many people would see a sign that warns of cows falling on the road and dismiss it as ridiculous, and just carry along down the road?

In Genesis 3:1-7, we see Adam and Eve responding to temptation. Unlike the sign in the photo, Adam and Eve did not have a sign warning them temptation was coming. However, much like the sign, who knows if they would have even heeded taken it seriously?!?

If someone had warned them, “a talking snake will tempt you to deny God’s authority in your life and will tempt you to do the ONLY THING God forbids you to do...” I would imagine that they may have laughed, considered the advice insignificant, and just carried along down the road.

The Genesis account says that “the Serpent was crafty...”  (skilled in deception)

As believers, we must recognize that temptation may come in an unexpected form, and that it may come at an unexpected time.

Like a driver being warned of the possibility that strange debris may be falling from the sky, 1 Peter 5:8 warns us of unexpected and dangerous debris headed our way: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Points to Ponder:

• Are there certain “roads” I travel where I may be oblivious to the warning signs? (Certain people, situations, attitudes where temptation could especially catch me off guard)
• Ask God to make you alert, and give you a sober mind. Consider areas that may make your mind “drunk” or easily unaware of the danger lurking. Ask your spouse or a friend to shine light on areas that you may not be seeing with a sober mind right now.

Rules for Rebellion

“I have moved from certainty to doubt, from devotion to rebellion.” -Phil Donahue

If the text of Genesis 3:1-7 could be summed up in one word, I think it would be:

REBELLION

Webster’s dictionary defines rebellion as an act of violent or open resistance to an established government or ruler. It is the action of resisting authority, resisting control, or resisting convention.

In Genesis, we see the Serpent tempting and succeeding in getting both the woman and the man to blatantly rebel against God’s command. The woman takes the initiative in rebelling, while the man is a silent rebel. The text goes to show that whether loud or quiet, whether sneaky or bold, defying God’s commands is not just a little mess up, it is war against God. It is in essence saying to God, “although we stand on a battlefield and you are offering to protect me behind your shield, I am going to take my chances, align with the enemy, and defy your sovereignty in my life.”  

As believers, we need to hear God speaking to us through the Bible, specifically pleading with us in Hebrews 3:7-8: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness...” Scripture is clear that God is speaking, but our hard hearts in a time of testing can cause us to ignore His words and resist His authority.

Points to Ponder:

• Do you see yourself as a “rule-breaker” or a “rule-follower”? 
• Do you realize that you can land on either side of that spectrum and still have a hard heart towards God? 
• Have you ever thought about even your “tiniest” sins as being an act of war against the Creator of the Universe? 
• Ask God in advance of any testing or trial you may face to give you ears to hear His voice, and a heart that remains soft & tender towards Him.

God is my Salvation...

"It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent." -Jeremy Taylor

 
Exodus 2 ends with some beautiful words about God:

"They cried out for help... their cry rose up to God.  
God heard... 
God remembered his covenant...  
God looked down... and knew it was time to act."

When we were picking a name for Isaiah, we saw that the meaning of it is "God is my salvation" and we knew it was perfect. We wanted our son to know that there is such a thing as salvation, and we wanted him to know where it can be found.

When times are hard, we can't count on money, talent, good works, good looks, or luck to bail us out. We need to know that there is a God who hears and saves. That's our God. 

When you see people or a situation in need of rescue, do you look to technology, money, talent, or teamwork as the solution, or do you first look to God? Whether it's in the Sudan or the suburbs, God hears, God remembers, & God will act at just the right time.


p.s. We've already got a great name chosen for our third little boy (due in September), but we're always on the lookout for meaningful middle names. Feel free to share your suggestions with us!