News from Jesse and Levi

Although thier faces look more confused than happy...Jesse and Levi are very excited to announce they get a cousin in February! Baby Spann is due Feb 11!

Paul's the man...

So - I've been reading in Acts this month and this morning I was just in awe at Paul. After being beaten and imprisoned at least three times now (I'm not done w/ Acts yet) he continues to travel the world and tell people about Jesus. He's not afraid of being asked questions and not knowing the answer, he's not afraid of going to jail again, and he's certainly not afraid of those who oppose him. I pray that I will someday have his boldness and that our world will be consumed with people as passionate as Paul about the gospel.

Since I never like to post w/out a picture...I'll just put a picture that reminds me of God's beauty - enjoy Paul's words to the men in Athens.

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."