brittany.

I wipe booties, noses, tears. I cook meals, clean messes. I'm a wife to a pretty [almost always] amazing man. I'm a mommy of three [ages 7, 2, 1] sweet loves who |bring out| the very best of me and |show me| the very worst of me. I'm a lover of Jesus Christ. I'm a very imperfect human, saved by Grace. I'm here to share {a part of} my life with you, which consists mostly of pictures of my littles, the word of God, and my love |and frustrations| of motherhood and marriage. ♡ ✌

[brichan92-blog]

"It's a grace to regret. Grace allows you to face your sin, to own it and not shift the blame. But it is also grace that forgives what has been exposed. Grace forces you to feel the pain of your regrets, but never asks you to pay for them... because the price has already been paid by Jesus." #grace #regret #jesuspaidyourdebt #forgiveness #pauldavidtripp

[brichan92-blog]

I hear some couples, you know the type, that brag about never fighting, never arguing.. I feel sorry for them! I'm in it for LIFE with my husband & let's be real, we fight. We do. And that works for us. No I'm not talking about physical altercations, that's not cool. However, I feel in order to grow, you have to "fight" (constructively). Because there's always going to be disagreements. You're gonna bump heads. And for me? If I'm upset, he's hearing about it. And if he's upset, I WANT to hear about it. Let's talk, let's navigate through these thoughts & frustrations. Let's come to a common ground, an understanding of each others' minds. Let's WORK ON US! #yourmarriageisyourfirstministry #marriageaintalwayspretty #Godisourfoundation #coupleswhoargue #coupleswhocare #notperfectbutstrivingtobe

[worshipgifs]

Keith Green

[brichan92-blog]

From one sinner to another:

We are all sinners. This isn’t news to anyone. I mention this a lot because it’s an important truth we must accept and it’s one thing we all have in common. I’m aware that some or most of you have been witnesses to my sins and foolish worldly ways, so please recognize that I am talking TO you, I’m sharing some good news, I’m sharing God’s word… from one sinner to another.

We all KNOW we are sinners. We all know that lying is a sin. That cheating is a sin. That pre-marital (and immoral sex) is a sin. That drunkenness is a sin. That overeating/gluttony is a sin. Racism is a sin. That doing anything to harm your body- your temple- is a sin. The list goes on and on.. and on. And the truth is, is that we will never be free of sin, as long as we live on this Earth. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” [1 John 1:8]. {“Yes, the power of sin has been broken, but the presence of sin still remains inside of us and is being progressively eradicated by God’s delivering grace”- Paul David Tripp}

If you know anything about God’s word, you know that God sent his perfect, blameless, sinless son, Jesus, to die… to save us from our sin. Because he loved us. We are not |free| from sin, but we are free from the chains, the shame, the condemnation of sin. But the thing about sin.. is that is has to bother you. It has to break your heart. You have to want to change, to do better, to improve yourself & your life. You have to want to |grow|. You can’t be conformable with your sin. You can’t try to justify it. You can’t be okay with it.

Grace cannot be an excuse to sin, to live selfishly and for the desires of your flesh. You have to recognize your sin. & when I said that sin has to break your heart, this is because if you have the Holy Spirit living within you, then this will be a natural response. You will |mourn| your sin. [Matthew 5:4] says that “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” And [1 John 1:9] tells us that if we admit & confess our sins, God is faithful and will forgive our sins, cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Finally, [Acts 3:19] says “so repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return to God, that your sins may be erased, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

The point is, you must not be okay with your sin. You must not remain there. You must repent, accept God’s forgiveness, and move on. I feel it important to also point out that Satan will try to make you feel unworthy of forgiveness or of having a deeper relationship with God. You must not believe these lies, because no matter what you have done, God loves you and will forgive and accept you if you ask Him to!

I think a lot of people, myself included, feel like a hypocrite and are afraid of being viewed as one, so they don’t worry too much with addressing their sin and trying to have a relationship with God, or sharing the word of God, because after all, they (i) have believed the lie from Satan that they are unworthy, that they are a hypocrite, that they have strayed too far away. But this is never true.

Did you know that nothing is a surprise to God? I’m sure you did. God has never thought “wow, I didn’t see that coming, what shall I do now?” or “I can’t believe she/he just did that”. God is all knowing and he is so much greater than we are.

I am going to end this by saying that whatever you are going through, wherever you are in life – whether you are a drug addict, an alcoholic, an adulterous, WHATEVER– you are not too far gone from God. You are broken, yes. You are flawed, yes.. but not too much for God. He has a plan for you and he has a life prepared for you, but he is waiting on you. “Cast all your worries on Him because he cares about you” [1 Peter 5:7]. Today, do that right now. Start living the life God has prepared for you! “And we know that in all things, God works for the GOOD of those who love him.” [Romans 8:28] ♡♡♡

[brichan92-blog]

#rileyjean #easter2016 Look at that smile Thought I was done posting, but these are too presh.

[brichan92-blog]

#rileyjean #thumbsucker #easter2016 #mommysgirl

[brichan92-blog]

#family #myheart #easter2016

[parenting]

[brichan92-blog]

This. This just whole thing. I can't stop sharing these with you! I just can't help it! "It is true that the thing that you and I most need to he rescued from is us!" & the part about parenting and our children? How true, how eye opening! #obedience #submission #rescued #parenting #weareourchildren #godsword #devotional #pauldavidtripp #newmorningmercies

[brichan92-blog]

"Your acceptance has not been, nor will it ever be, based on your performance. You have not been welcomed into an eternal relationship with God because you have kept the law, but because Jesus did." Praise God, is all I can say. #morningmercies #dailygospeldevotional #godsword #blessed #accepted #thankful #humbled

[brichan92-blog]

God did not create us to be the same. We need to understand and accept that we are all different. We are all made in His image, but He has given us different personalities, different qualities, different convictions, different ideas, and callings. A lot of us REJECT different. Or even ENVY different. But we are called to Love each other, inspite of our differences, and embrace one another. Rejection, nor envy, has any place in our calling to love Each Other. #godsword #truth #loveyourneighbor

[brichan92-blog]

If you have been looking for a good daily devotionals book & something to further your bible study, there are tons of books out there..this one in particular I had to share, because it is amazing and has been such a blessing. #dailydevotional #newmorningmercies

[theadamjohnson]

Worship Knowledge.

 “To worship God is to ascribe to him the worth of which he is worthy”. – R.G. Rayburn Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Second Edition)

   I recently viewed a video from Dr. Alistair Begg (https://www.facebook.com/thedirtychristian/posts/1748475745381333) and in this Dr. Begg got me thinking about his central point, knowing instead of feeling corporate worship (i.e. the part of church where you stand with other believers and sing songs to God).  

   David Mathis contributed an article on the website Desiring God (http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/five-benefits-of-corporate-worship) detailing five benefits of corporate worship which are listed as Awakening, Assurance, Advance, Accepting Another’s Leading, and Accentuated Joy.  These are all great points and I honestly I can see how these are played out in my life and in the lives of some friends of mine.  However, it’s become very apparent that we tend to walk away with some fleeting idea of these things rather than benefits that carry over into the hours and days after church is over and the spiritual high has left. Dr. Begg in the aforementioned video recounts a story where he visits some church in California and describes the corporate worship there as something very familiar.  Bright lights, upbeat band, and a charismatic worship director who decides the first thing to say on Sunday is “How do you all feel this morning”.  Now I personally have heard that line many times before and quite honestly never got to me until I saw this video.  The Holy Spirit began to stir in me and drove me into a nature of observation and reflection upon the current state of corporate worship.  What I concluded in my observations is that Dr. Begg has a point, we need to concentrate more on what we KNOW about God instead of what we FEEL about Him or ourselves for that matter.  If we concentrate on what we know about God then we can shape what we feel instead of allowing our natural feelings to shape what we choose to know.

   What we need to know is that God is a loving God and that His love, as described by Timothy Keller in Jesus the King drives his righteous anger towards sin.  We need to know that it is only through Jesus that we can achieve salvation and that we are made to worship Him by not praising His name in corporate worship but by living out The Primary Commands that Jesus responded to the scribe with in Mark 12:30-31.  Even still there is some more knowledge to be learned for corporate worship and this is the part that even I myself still need to work on and that is understanding the scriptural context for the words I am singing.  This may seem somewhat unimportant but I assure you that doing so will bring far greater depth and understanding to the songs we are presented with during our churches worship services.  I’m going to use “Break Every Chain” and bring to light some of the scriptural backing for that song. According to some research online, we can see the line “there is power in the name of Jesus” is rooted partially in Jeremiah 10:6 which tells us the Lord’s name has great might.  One other scripture connected to this lyric is Acts 3:16 which finds Peter being somewhat praised for a miracle but instead of being receptive of the praise he redirects it to the power of name of Jesus.  You see even in the main line of the song, knowing some of the scriptural context brings it whole new meaning.  Knowing this we can see that this line and the entire song is calling us to crushing humility.  It’s also calling us to action by pointing out that we actually have to authoritatively proclaim the name of our King for chains to be broken meaning that we can’t just passively say it in the same way we passively pay attention to how bad McDonald’s or Chik-fil-a is for us.  We have to speak with somewhat of an authority similar to the authority Paul uses when he tells the Romans in Romans 6:22-23 that Jesus has set them free and that His way is eternal life but if they stay in their current condition they will only find death.  That verse is also coincidentally one of the verse that the line “break every chain” is rooted in.  

   The sad part is that a song such as this is sung with such emotional response during most worship services and yet by the time the pastor is ready to preach we have already forgotten about the promises we just sang.  My hope is that we will continue to try and enrich our worship services with more scripture instead of just allowing ourselves and our brothers/sisters in the Body to be so stagnant in their praise.

✌︎

[onceuponawildflower]

Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor. “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them . Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.

Matthew 7:1-5, 7-12 MSG (via onceuponawildflower)