Fantastic Speaker

Listening to Shaun Groves was just awesome yesterday. His music was really good, but I really enjoyed listening to him speak. What are we saved for? This is something Dwayne and I have been working on figuring out for a long time. We really want to serve God with not just our time, but with our money as well. To listen to Shaun yesterday was just a powerful reminder just how important that is. We have been looking at houses in Texas a little bit and we have been looking at some bigger newer houses, but after yesterday, I think we both felt we better stay simple, older and something that needs a little work. Something that costs a less, so that we can continue to keep our lifestyle at the same level and not move it up any. I had really been looking at some nice homes in a really nice neighborhood, a more fancy area than I have ever lived in, but not now. Through this whole process it has been really amazing to see God answer questions, quiet concerns, and even lead us to better choices through different sources.

I am still very interested to see how the whole house selling thing goes. Last weekend at the Women of Joy weekend, before the 2nd speaker on Saturday morning, I prayed that I really hoped to hear God speak to me through her talk. The verse she choose to start with really spoke to me.

Numbers 13:17-33

17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

Report on the Exploration

26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."

30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

This reminds me of going to Texas, we explored, we liked what we saw, but then we came home and started looking at the housing market and it is easy to feel overwhelmed, to feel that it is too big and scary to try and sell our house in this horrible market, it is easier to feel like we can't do it, we can't beat this, than it is to feel that we can. We have to remind ourselves that we can certainly do this. One thing about all this is just loving listening for God to speak to me in all of this.