Our first homemade Christmas video

Sal and i decided to make a video this year to embellish our annual letter.

Let us know what you think...

love you all...

cwjr

Advent Songs

Our church just released a Christmas album. It is excellent and I have been listening to it over an over. Here is the blurb from the website:

"The album Songs for the Advent was recorded in 2003: a collection of original, traditional, and instrumental songs celebrating the season of waiting and anticipation before Christmas. This record revisits the spirit and songs of that record, reviving three original tracks and adding five new songs and traditional arrangements. Like the original, the emphasis here is on the already/ not-yet tension of advent.
Advent comes to us in the darkest season of the year — a season when the nights are long, the days are cold, and we look with anticipation for the return of the warmth in the spring. The songs have both a dark sense of anticipation and glimpses of light dawning in the face of the Christ child.
As we celebrate this season, we celebrate that our Messiah has come, and we look with longing to the day when he comes again. As St. John says, “Amen! Come Lord Jesus.”

If you want to buy it...you can click here.

I do want to share my favorite song from the album:

GLORY BE (click the title to listen)

I couldn't find the lyrics to paste here...but there is a line in this song that talks about looking forward to Jesus coming back to finish what he started in Bethlehem. While our salvation was COMPLETELY accomplished on the cross...there is still the "already/not yet" tension that exists. This pumps me up, man! I am so excited about the day to come when Christ returns for his bride and FINISHES what he started that first Christmas morning!!!!!!!

Are you with me here, people??????

cwjr

A MUST READ!!!!! (MUST) NO QUESTIONS.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF SONS
What Some Rude Questions About Adoption Taught Me About the Gospel of Christ
by Russell D. Moore


“So, are they brothers?” the woman asked. My wife Maria and I, jet-lagged from just returning from Russia, looked at each other wearily. This was the twelfth time since we returned that we’d been asked this question. This lady was looking at the grainy pictures, printed off a computer from some digital photographs, of two one-year-old boys in a Russian orphanage, boys who had only days earlier been pronounced by a Russian court to be our children, after the legally mandated waiting period had elapsed for the paperwork to be filed.
Maria and I had returned to Kentucky to wait for the call to return to pick up our children, and had only these pictures of young Maxim and Sergei, our equivalent of a prenatal sonogram, to show to our friends and relatives back home. But people kept asking: “Are they brothers?”
Now Brothers
“They are now,” I replied. “Yes,” the lady snapped, “I know. But are they really brothers?” Clenching my jaw, I coolly responded, “Yes, now they are both our children so they are now really brothers.” The woman sighed, rolled her eyes, and said, “Well, you know what I mean.”
Of course, we did know what she meant. She meant did these two boys—born three weeks apart—share a common biological ancestry, a common bloodline, some common DNA. It struck me that this question betrayed what most of us tend to view as really important when it comes to sonship: traceable genetic material.
This is the reason people would also ask us, “So do you also have any children of your own?” And it is the reason newspaper obituaries will often refer to the deceased’s “adopted child,” as though this were the equivalent of a stepchild or a protégé, rather than a real offspring.
During the weeks that Maria and I waited anxiously for the call to return to Russia to receive our children, I pondered this series of questions. As I read through the Books of Ephesians and Galatians and Romans, it occurred to me that this is precisely the question that was faced by the Apostle Paul and the first-century Christian churches.
As pig-flesh-eating Gentile believers—formerly goddess-worshipers and Caesar-magnifiers and all the rest—began confessing Jesus as Messiah, some Jewish Christians demanded to know, “Are they circumcised?” The Gentile believers would respond, “Yes, with the circumcision made without hands, the circumcision of Christ.” From the heated letters of the New Testament, it is evident that the response was along the lines of, “Yes, but are you really circumcised, and you know what I mean.”
This was no peripheral issue. For the Apostle Paul, the unity of the Church as a household had everything to do with the gospel itself. And where the tribal fracturing of the Church was most threatening, Paul laid out a key insight into the Church’s union with Christ, the spirit of adoption.
We went to Russia and back to accomplish a task, to complete a long paper trail that would help bring us to the legal custody of our sons. Along with that, however, it jolted us with the truth of an adoption more ancient, more veiled, but just as real: our own.
It is one thing when the culture doesn’t “get” adoption, and so speaks, for instance, of buying an animal as “adopting” a pet. When Christians, however, think the same way, we betray that we miss something crucial about our own salvation.
Perhaps if we understood the gospel more clearly, we would then see it more clearly in the icon of adoption. And perhaps if we were more involved—as families and churches—in adopting unwanted children, we would foster a next generation better able to recognize the gospel message when they hear it.
Adopted Identity
Before the apostle begins his discourse on adoption to the Roman church, he addresses them as “brothers” (Rom. 8:12), a word that has lost meaning in our churches because we tend to view it as a more spiritual metaphor for “friend” or “neighbor.” In many Evangelical churches, “brother” is a safe word one uses when one has forgotten someone’s name (“Hey, brother, how are you?”) or when one wishes to soften spiritually a harsh statement (“Johnny, I love you as a brother in Christ, but I just can’t marry you”).
The churches emerging out of the Judaism of the Roman Empire, however, would have understood precisely how radical such language is. The “sons of Israel” started out, after all, not as a government entity, but as twelve brothers. Moses speaks of the Israelite king obeying the Word of God “that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers” (Deut. 17:20). The Mosaic Law speaks of Israelites as “brothers” as opposed to “strangers” and “sojourners” (Lev. 25:35–46).
To a Gentile church in Ephesus, Paul employs this precise language as he tells them they are no longer to be considered “the uncircumcised.” Instead, he tells them, “you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:11, 19).
Within this household—the tribal family of Abraham—all those who are in Christ have found a home through the adopting power of God. It is not simply that they have found a refuge, a safe place, or a foster home. All those in Christ, Paul argues, have received sonship—they are now the “offspring of Abraham” (Gal. 3:29).
Paul speaks of this new household in terms of a liberating rescue, for both Jews and Gentiles. We have a unity in that we were liberated from the tutorship of the Law in the old order (Gal. 4:1–5) and from the “spirit of slavery to fall back into fear” (Rom. 8:15). Instead, as sons, we now come before God as sons, bearing the very same Spirit as was poured out on the Lord Jesus at the Jordan River, a Spirit through which we cry “Abba!”
There is a new identity found in this adoption, an identity forged in the relationship of father and son. This filial identity was easily seen by the first-century Christians. They were accustomed to seeing sons who followed in the vocational patterns of their fathers, men who were called “son of” all their lives (for instance, “Simon Bar Jonah”).
Of Israel, God once said, “Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite” (Ezek. 16:3). But this was not Israel’s identity. Through God’s adoption, they did not consider themselves sons of the pagan Terah or even sons of Abram. They were sons of Abraham; the nation was the son of the living God (Ex. 4:22–23).
In Christ, this is now true of all of those who are grafted onto the vine of the faithful Israel, Jesus of Nazareth.
All Moores Now
I suppose the root of my annoyance with the question “Are they brothers?” really lay here. It seemed that the good-intentioned conversationalists saw these children as somehow not quite part of our family, as though, if they were “really brothers,” then “at least they’ll have each other.” The same is true of other questions people asked us: “Have you ever seen their mother?” (“Why, yes, and you’ve seen her too. Have you met my wife Maria?”) or “Do you worry that their real parents will ever show up?”
This wasn’t at all the way that we saw it. It didn’t matter to us that the nurses in the orphanage across the seas still called these boys “Maxim” and “Sergei”; we had on their walls nameplates reading “Benjamin” and “Timothy.” It didn’t matter what their current birth certificates read; they would soon be Moores.
This newness of identity also informed the way we responded to questions, whether from social workers or friends, about whether we planned to “teach the children about their cultural heritage.” We assured everyone we would, and we have.
Now, what most people meant by this question is whether we would teach our boys Russian folk-tales and Russian songs, observing Russian holidays, and so forth. But as we see it, that’s not their heritage anymore, and we hardly want to signal to them that they are strangers and aliens, even welcome ones, in our home.
We teach them about their heritage, but their heritage as Mississippians. They learn about their great-grandfather, the faithful Baptist pastor, about their countrymen before them in the Confederate army and the civil rights movement. They wouldn’t know “Peter and the Wolf” if they heard it, but they do know Charley Pride and Hank Williams and “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder.” They are Moores now, with all that entails.
I suppose this is why the New Testament points all of us toward the Old Testament narratives repeatedly, which are given, as Paul told the church at Corinth, “as examples for us” (1 Cor. 10:6). It is not just that these accounts show us something universal about human nature and God’s workings. It is that they are our story, our heritage, our identity.
Those are our ancestors rescued from Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, led back from exile. They are our forefathers and this is our family. Whether our background is Norwegian or Haitian or Indonesian, if we are united to Christ, our family genealogy is found not primarily in the front pages of our dusty old family Bible but inside its pages, in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
No Longer Orphans
When Maria and I first walked into the orphanage, where we were led to the boys the Russian courts had picked out for us to adopt, we almost vomited, in reaction to the stench and the squalor of the place. The boys were in cribs in the dark, lying in their own waste.
Leaving them at the end of each day was painful, but leaving them the final day, before going home to wait for the paperwork to go through, was the hardest thing either of us had ever done. Walking out of the room to prepare for the plane ride home, Maria and I could hear Maxim calling out for us, and falling down in his crib, convulsing in tears. Maria shook with tears, and I turned around to walk back into their room, just for a minute.
I placed my hand on both of their heads and said, knowing they couldn’t understand a word of my English, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” I don’t think I consciously intended to cite Jesus’ words to his disciples in John 14:18; it just seemed like the only thing worth saying at the time.
When Maria and I at long last received the call that the legal process was over, and we returned to Russia to pick up our new sons, we found that their transition from orphanage to family was more difficult than we had supposed. We dressed the boys in outfits our parents had bought for them. My mother-in-law gathered some wildflowers growing between cracks in the pavement outside the orphanage.
We nodded our thanks to the orphanage personnel and walked out into the sunlight, to the terror of the two boys. They’d never seen the sun, and they’d never felt the wind. They had never heard the sound of a car door slamming or had the sensation of being carried along at 100 miles an hour down a Russian road. I noticed that they were shaking, and reaching back to the orphanage in the distance.
I whispered to Sergei, now Timothy, “That place is a pit! If only you knew what’s waiting for you: a home with a Mommy and a Daddy who love you, grandparents, and great-grandparents and cousins and playmates . . . and McDonald’s Happy Meals!” But all they knew was the orphanage. It was squalid, but they had no other reference point, and it was home.
We knew the boys had acclimated to our home, that they trusted us, when they stopped hiding food in their high-chairs. They knew there would be another meal coming, and they wouldn’t have to fight for the scraps. This was the new normal.
They are now thoroughly Americanized, perhaps too much so, able to recognize the sound of a microwave ding from forty yards away. I still remember, though, those little hands reaching for the orphanage, and I see myself there.
The Sons’ Glory
The New Testament teaching on the adoption of believers in Christ isn’t a reassuring metaphor for the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Adoption does not simply tell us we belong to God. It is a legal entitlement, one we are prone to forget.
Paul warns the congregation at Rome that sharing the spirit of Christ means that we will suffer with him (Rom. 8:17). It means that we will groan right along with the rest of the creation for the “sons of God to be revealed,” for our “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23).
But he fits this within the context of a legal inheritance. If we are adopted by God, if we are his children, then we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). If we live through the “sufferings of this present time,” it is only so that we can be conformed to the image of our Christ, “in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29).
Paul identifies Jesus as the One who inherits the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. He is the One of whom it is said, “You are my Son” (Psalm 2:7), who is given “the nations as your heritage, and the ends of the earth as your possession” (Psalm 2:8).
Thus, the Jewish believers in the early Church weren’t to look to their biological ancestry for their inheritance. They were law-breakers (Rom. 2–3). This is why the insistence on circumcision in the Galatian church was anathema to the apostle. They were to look to the One in whom all the promises of God find their Yes: the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20).
The Jewish and Gentile congregations were to find their identity in Christ, not in the social and economic hierarchies of the Roman Empire. The churches were to long for the inheritance to come, a cosmos flowing with milk and honey, not, as their fathers before them, for the slavery from which they came (Deut. 8; Rom. 8:15).
My whispering to my boys, “You won’t miss that orphanage,” is only a shadow of something I should have known. God pronounces Israel his “son,” brings the Israelites through the baptismal waters of judgment, promises to give them an inheritance, and they long for the fleshpots of Egypt (Ex. 16:1–3).
Jesus is pronounced the “beloved Son” of God, is likewise brought through the waters of baptism, and is then tempted by the Evil One to believe that a Father who promises him bread would give him only stones. Listening to his Father’s voice, even to the point of crucifixion and apparent abandonment by God, he “learned obedience through what he suffered,” and he was heard (Heb. 5:7–8).
As he disciplines us—as sons, not as illegitimate children—our Father warns us not to sell our inheritance for a mess of pottage, as our great-great-great-great-great-uncle did a long time ago (Heb. 12:3–17). Why would we covet what seems important to MTV or Wall Street, when we have waiting for us mountain ranges and waterfalls and distant galaxies to rule with our Christ as the resurrected sons of the new creation?
“I know you think this terrestrial orphanage is home,” our Father whispers through prophets and apostles and our consciences and imaginations, “but it’s a pit compared to home.” Or, as the Spirit says through the Apostle Paul’s adoption teaching: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).
Not Ashamed
A few years after we adopted Benjamin and Timothy, the infertility that had plagued Maria and me for years was suddenly lifted, and we gave birth to a son, and then another, in the more typical way. And it was time for the “Are they brothers” business again, this time from an elderly lady who approached Maria and said, in the hearing of my sons, “I’ll bet Dr. Moore is really proud of Samuel.”
Maria replied, “Yes, he is proud of all of his sons.” The lady smiled and retorted, “Yes, but I’ll bet he’s especially proud of Samuel, since he’s his.” In this woman’s mind, there was something admirable but almost shameful about adoption; the adopted children were just not quite as worthy of joy as the “real” son, the biological one.
I was angered when I heard about this, angered because, while I love Samuel and now Jonah, I don’t love them any more than Benjamin and Timothy. As a matter of fact, I don’t think of them as “biological” children, as though they are part of some different classification. Days go by when I never think about the adoption, and when I do think of the boys as “adopted,” it is always as a past-tense verb, not an adjective.
But this lady’s question—like the ones before it—reminds me of our tendency to prize our carnality. We don’t think we were adopted. In our persistent Pelagianism, we assume we’re natural-born children, with a right to all of this grace, to all of this glory.
We think, Paul warns us right before he tells us of our adoption, that we are debtors to the flesh, so we live according to the flesh (Rom. 8:12). We’re ashamed to think of ourselves as adopted, because to do so would focus our minds on the bloody truth that all of us in Christ, like my sons, once were lost but now we’re found, once were strangers and now we’re children, once were slaves and now we’re heirs.
And yet even the flesh and blood we share—not just with our children but with all of humanity—have everything to do with our adoption. Jesus, after all, shares in human “flesh and blood” so that he might deliver those “who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:15).
This is because he “had to be made like his brothers in every respect” (Heb. 2:17). And, speaking of us, our Lord Jesus—the only One with the natural-born right to cry “Abba”—is “not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb. 2:11).
According to the Apostle John, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were quite sure of their biological pedigree. They could trace it back to Abraham, and had no shady parental background as they thought Jesus to have (John 8:39–41). Jesus shockingly identified their birth father as Satan and their inheritance as that of a slave (John 8:34–38).
But John ends his Gospel with a more hopeful sound. When Jesus is raised from the dead, his message to Mary is to go “to my brothers” and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). John isn’t “really” Jesus’ brother, but he shares a mother with him, when Jesus “adopts” him into the family at the Cross (John 19:26–27).
And these unfaithful and fearful disciples, quick to go back to the fisherman’s nets they had when he found them, have no reason to approach a holy “God.” But they—and we—are Jesus’ brothers, and so the Father is our God. He is not ashamed.
One More Time
We fall for all our ideological idolatries—from white supremacy to genocidal warfare and beyond—because we see our “brotherhood” only in our DNA. We engineer radical reproductive technologies that sever procreation from fatherhood and motherhood, precisely because we don’t want children so much as we want ourselves, our own genetic material living on before us. We identify more with our corporate brands and with our political parties than with our churches because we don’t understand the household into which we’ve come.
We dye our hair and Botox our wrinkles, fearing the Reaper, because we don’t really believe that a Father waits for us with a feast on the other side of the Jordan. And we live prayerless lives, paralyzed by our guilty consciences, because someone says to us, as to our Brother before us, “ If you are the son of God . . .” (Luke 4:3).
I don’t think about the adoption of my boys every day. But, when I do, I try to remember the rude questions I once answered—and sometimes still answer—about them. And I remind myself that I’ve been just as far from “getting it” as the good-natured questioners I have resented.
It is difficult to see before us the day when the graves of this planet are emptied, when the great assembly of Christ’s Church is gathered before the Judgment Seat. On that day, the accusing principalities and powers will probably look once more at us—former murderers and fornicators and idolaters, formerly uncircumcised in flesh or in heart—and they may ask one more time, “So are they brothers?”
The hope of adopted children like my sons—and like me—is that the voice that once thundered over the Jordan will respond: “They are now.”

ummm...i am an undercover car sales consultant.

Hey People,
Well....I just got back from Nashvegas this evening. This was
my second weekend of sales training for my new job at
"a car place". I am ready to "hit the floor" this week. I have to sell
my first car while being shadowed by my mentor, but then I
will be on my own.

I am pretty fired up about it. "a car place" is an awesome company and there is great potential to increase my income tremendously. It will take hard work and dedication, but the training that they provided has certainly helped prepare me for the task. I am grateful for God's provision of this job as it has allowed me to get rest and finish the semester stronger than I would have if I were still at UPS.

At "a car place", we have 4 Equities that drive us:
1) Low "no haggle" prices
2) Great selection
3) High Quality
4) Excellent Customer Service

Sally helped me practice my greeting and the 5 "essential questions" tonight on the way back from Nashville. She was a huge help. I need lots of practice though...so, can I ask you...

What are you driving now?
What are your plans for your current vehicle?
What kind of vehicle are you looking for today?
What features are important to you?
What is your budget?

Great...well lets head over here to our Customer Info Center and we can see what we have in our inventory right now.

Whatever...anyway...thanks for listening to my pitch...

For real...if you all are interested in any one of the 25,000 cars at "acarplace.com" just give me a ring and I will hook you up. I do get significant discount. I also have access to our wholesale lot which is not online. So let me know even if you are just considering buying a different car. I found a car for Dad this week and I think it is going to work out great.

Talk soon.

cliftonwjr

PS>>>i added a link (to the right) to Corey and Kristy Shepherd's blog. They are our best friends from VA. There are some great pictures of thier boys CJ and Will. Just thought I would share.

GOD MOVES

God Moves
Music and additional lyrics by Bob Kauflin
Lyrics by William Cowper
As recorded on Worship God Live

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm
Deep in His dark and hidden mines
With never-failing skill
He fashions all His bright designs
And works His sovereign will

So God we trust in You
O God we trust in You

O fearful saints new courage take
The clouds that you now dread
Are big with mercy and will break
In blessings on your head
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust Him for His grace
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face

So God we trust in You
O God we trust in You
When tears are great
And comforts few
We hope in mercies ever new
We trust in You

God’s purposes will ripen fast
Unfolding every hour
The bud may have a bitter taste
But sweet will be the flower
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain
God is His own interpreter
And He will make it plain

© 2005 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI).

4 Things...I BEG YOU TO READ THIS POST

1) Hi! I miss you all...and look forward to seeing some of you in a few weeks at Grandma's house. You know...i just had this thought...a good name for a band: "Cleo's Farmhouse." sounds pretty good to me. I mean, I would buy thier music just for the name's sake.

2) I updated the links (LOOK TO THE RIGHT, NOW!!!!!!!!!!) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
HELLOOOOO...check them out. I updated the churches to include the spouse name.(cbmw correct...we are all one flesh--see the link for help on husbanding and wifing) I also added some of my faves and one for Caleb (betcha can't guess which one that is :-) love you bro)
I would love to dialogue with you all about any of the links at any time.

3) Listen to this song...Lead us Back. (it rocks a little...so turn down your speakers if necessary)
Read the words here.

4) Remember that I want to serve you in any way possible! Mom, Dad, Bros, Sis, and In-Laws, I want you all to know how DEEPLY grateful I am for the way each of you have ministered to Sal and I over the last couple of months. They have indeed been some of the toughest months we have ever experienced. Seminary is a whole new world. Thanks for your prayers, your gifts, and your phone calls. We NEED each of you. That being said, we want you to know that we too want to serve you. Please let us know of your needs. Of course we can't pay off your car, but we would love to chat about real life...love to host you when you come to gamble at the horse races...you know, whatever it is. We love each of you and desire a deeper relationship despite the miles. Let us know.

Ok...those were my 4 things. Actually that is only 2 of them. I will share the other 2 later. They are pretty heavy and deserve their own post.
Talk soon. PLEASE COMMENT. Show some love.

ahhite. peace out.
hollaback yall.
knowhatimsayin?

Sneeking!

Okay you guys, I'm so sneeking on "Clif's blog" right now! Just wanted to direct you all to click on the link to the right side that says, "Sally's blog"!!! Hehehe! Pics of the new house are there!

Love you all!

Let Justice Roll like a River (any comments?)

(Bobby Gilles/Rebecca Bales)

Forgive us Lord, for passing by When children cry for bread
Forbid it Lord, that justice lie in tatters, cold and dead
Outside these walls run desperate streets where greed is law and life is cheap
We bar the doors, refuse to see, or hear the words You said:

Let justice roll like a river. Like a river, let it roll.
Let justice roll like a river. Like a river, let it roll.

Convict us Lord, we dance and laugh ignoring those who weep
Correct us Lord, our golden calf has lulled our hearts to sleep
The gap between the rich and poor grows ever wider, shore to shore
There's racial hate, religious war and wolves among the sheep

Let justice roll like a river. Like a river, let it roll.
Let justice roll like a river. Like a river, let it roll.


Indwell us Lord, and purify our hands to work for You
Enlist us Lord, to serve nearby and ‘cross the waters, too
Your image-bearers on the earth will never know how much they’re worth
unless we love and help them first and show the way to You.

Let justice roll like a river. Like a river, let it roll.
Let justice roll like a river. Like a river, let it roll.

"I Can See a Light"

You Never Let Go
by matt redman

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life I won’t turn back
I know You are near
And I will fear no evil For my God is with me
And if my God is with me Whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear?


Oh no, You never let go Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth


Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You!

Bebez and Cribs

Well, I am sure you are all aware now that Sally is pregnant and in about 8 months or so, Lord willing, we will be a family of 3 rather than 2. For all of the details on the pregnancy and for updates from the mommy herself, check out her BLOG. And as if that were not enough excitment for us...we have decided to buy a house. We will be meeting a home inspector on Tuesday to go over the house with a fine tooth comb to make sure that this house is structurally sound and is not going to collapse after a year or two. The house is located on 5th Street very close to Downtown Louisville and about 8 blocks from the campus of the University of Louisville. It is also about 5 or 6 blocks from Churchill Downs. Please pray for us concerning both of these life changing commitments. We are so grateful for the way God has provided for us since we moved to Louisville. You all have been a source of much encouragement and help. Thanks again for the way each of you gave to us when we visited Chattanooga on Labor Day weekend. That is all for now. We love you all.

c and s

Pics of our Apartment

Hey All,

Thought I would share these pictures with you. This is our crib in Louisville. The stairs are at the entrance of the house that is divided into 3 apartments. We occupy the 1st floor. It is a great space and we are so thankful to be able to live here. It is old...which adds character and also a few challenges (eg...doors that don't close and some other wierd things). Anyway, I thought I would share these with you all. I hope each of you get the opportunity to come and visit. We are pumped about this labor day weekend. We will certainly miss Caleb and April and the kids but we a excited to spend some time with the southerners.

Love you all.

clif and sal

Preparing for Judgement Day

Well, classes start today. I will be taking Old Testament 1, Systematic Theology 1, and a class entitled "Typical Problems in Biblical Counseling." I am looking forward to each one. Orientation was last week and went very well. I was just all the more grateful for this opportunity and that God has led Sally and me to such an AWESOME place. During orientation, Dr. Russel Moore, the Dean of the School of Theology here at Southern, made a statement concerning why we are here and what we are looking forward to. He reminded us that we are here preparing for JUDGEMENT DAY. Preparing our own souls, but also preparing our minds that we might help others be ready for judgement day as we seek to be faithfully committed to Biblical Truth and Jesus' kind of Love. Anyway... I don't have much time...but thought i would share some of my thoughts with you all. Please pray for Sally and I as we continue to adjust here in Louisville. Pray that we trust God in all things...

We love you all and are really looking forward to hanging with mom and dad this week, Lord willing.

Peace out...

cwjr.

Live from "The 'Ville"

hey peeps...
Hope everyone is doing well and resting in God's grace. Sally and I are certainly finding His grace in full supply as we make the adjustment to life in Louisville and a house that was built in 391 B.C. (early 1900's). Really, things are going well. I am sleepy for a few weeks as I adjust to UPS (2:30 -8:30 am) and Sal is working on finding a new job. AHC is laying her off due to the move. She has until the end of August. We are praying that she will be able to nail down a job at the seminary as that would provide us with "bennies" (benefits) until mine kick in at UPS in October (this whole union thing is crazy) and she could also take one class per semester free of charge. NICE, HUH? Well. anyway...not sure what else to share with you all right now. Oh...our new contact info...

1061 Cherokee Rd. Apt. 1
Louisville, KY 40204

502-451-2794 (we may nix the phone since sal won't be working from home anymore.)

rothcwj@gmail.com

NO ONE, but Caleb and mom ever email me. Come on...people...pick it up.

Ok...I suppose that is all for now. We will certainly post some pics of our new place when we get some. The neighborhood is quite cool. Click HERE for a sampling of some pictures.

Talk soon...hopefully.

cwjr

God Shed His Grace on Thee

Hey guys. Thought it might be time for a new thread here on the crothblog. While this is not a patriotic theme I thought borrowing a line from America the Beautiful would be appropriate.
Anyway, before bed last night April and I were discussing what it means to “grow in grace.” We came down to two basic ideas. The first was the idea of growing in an understanding of what God’s grace has done for us in the past and how he has spared us from our own poor choices and sinful actions. The second was the aspect of growing in our experience of God’s grace becoming more real to us. His word promises that His grace is sufficient and so rather than praying that He would give us grace I try to pray that His grace would be more real to us or that we would fully experience the grace He offers. I would appreciate hearing what your idea of what growing in grace is like and how it has taken place in your life. I believe it involves looking behind us and seeing where God has brought us by His grace as well as on a daily basis choosing to live in light of His grace and basking in it during each situation whether positive or negative.

We certainly have experienced His grace by being placed in this great land of ours!

Hope your Independance Day was fantastic. Here are a few pictures that I thought I would share...

Love you all,

Caleb

Graymatters

Defined: those issues to which we believe the Bible does not speak directly. We usually leave these issues up to the conscience.

Any thoughts on how to handle these issues?
Any thoughts no your struggles with these issues?

I will share this link with you to a sermon that I listened to today and found very helpful...

http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=A2270-05-51 (free download)

You don't have to listen to share your thoughts...

Love you all...it was so awesome to be together again at Curtis's wedding. Talk soon.

clif

CURTIS IS BACK FROM IRAQ!!!!!

He is currently out in CA and should be back in Knoxville on or around the 29th of April.
He will be in Chattanooga soon after that and then he will be going up to PA around the 8th or 9th of May. Thank God for his safety and continue to pray for him as he re-adjusts his mind and emotions. Curt...love you bro...can't wait to kiss you...i mean hug you, sorry.

In Case Your Reading

Ummm...Well, I think I scared everyone away.

Is anyone still checking this?

I am interested to know. Please comment. ANYTHING will do!!!!!!!!1

A "BLOG" Misconception

NOTE: This is not intended to be negative, nor are these thoughts directed at any one party.

God has graciously given us the gift of the INTERNET. Along with this gift come some amazing features, two of which are: EMAIL and BLOGGING

Now, my purpose here is twofold:
1) I desire to remind you of the advantages of email.
2) I hope to give a different purpose and mission to "C" Roth Blog
(I may fail in both goals, but it is worth a try)

EMAIL
Email is a wonderful thing...it allows you to communicate privately with another person quickly and efficiently without picking up the phone. However, there is one very important requirement: If the person with which you are hoping to communicate never checks their email...you can forget the quick and efficient part.
See this quote from of an official definition of email:

"Sent messages are stored in electronic mailboxes until the recipient fetches them."

The fetching must be done. Ok? You have to hold up your end of the deal.
The other great thing about email is that you can email one or more people all at the same time. You know how this works, you get those annoying forwards all of the time...sent to 10000000 people telling you that they are the best friend of the person that forwarded this email and that if you don't send it to all of your 10000000 best friends, well...you will probably slip on some ice and bust your butt wide open (or something ridiculous like that). Anyway, the advantage is real, nonetheless, you can send it to multiple people. By the way, do you know what the CC and BCC lines are for? (that is extra credit)
So...my point for explaining this is to help remind you that all of our family members that use the blog each have their own personal email addresses. I can send you a list if you would like. Use those things...they are great. Also...if you would like to take advantage of some more great technology...you should sign up for Google Mail. (otherwise known as Gmail). Caleb and I use this a lot to chat during the day. It is pretty neat.

BLOG
This blog has been such a blessing to me and I know to many of you. It has served us well for over a year now as we have sought to keep in touch with one another's lives. PRAISE GOD!!!
Well, I want to challenge you all try another approach to this blogging thing. I have in my mind the thought that this blog could serve as more of a discussion tool than an email tool. I mean, we could certainly still say hello to one another and a talk about what insane thing happened to us today...but I am hoping that the POSTS will serve as thought provokers that will then spark some discussion among the brethren and sisteren and motheren and fatheren. Do you know what i mean? This means that Clair, Tina, Cita, Chuck, Cary, Amanda, Caleb, April, Sally, Curtis, Lauren, Mom and Dad will all have to be willing to POST. In order to post...you would simply email me (as we spoke about above) and I will have to "fetch" the email and then post it on the blog. At that point all of the family could interact based on that POST. It serves as a talking point. If Caleb wants to talk about University of Wisconsin sports, well we can all join in and tell him how much we love UT. If Cita wants to share with us about her latest Tastefully Simple item, that is what we will talk about. I really believe that this will serve us all as we seek to KNOW one another better. Does this make sense? It will kind of shift the focus of the blog to be talking about each other's lives and focusing on someone else other than ourselves. It will take discipline and it will take time. But i think it will serve us all. The schedule for posting will follow shortly. I will do my best to hold you accountable. If you wish to not participate...well...ummm...hmmm...not sure what to say about that. I love you, though, that's for sure.

I love you all...
Tell me if you think I am absolutely ridiculous and idealistic and all of that...
I have my tendencies toward that direction.

cwjr
2cor8.9

The Goal of Christian Hope: The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ

Romans 5:1-2
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

"The goal or the object of our hope is at the end of verse 2: “Werejoicein hope of the glory of God.” The ultimate hope of the human heart is not forgiveness or justification or heaven or freedom from disease. The ultimate hope of every heart is the glory of God. You were made to see and savor the glory of God. Christmas happened, Good Friday happened, Easter happened so that sinners might not be incinerated by the beauty of God but might see it and savor it with ever-increasing joy. Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoice in hope.” Romans 5:2 completes the thought, “Rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
This is the ultimate experience that will wipe away every tear. This will rectify every wrong. This will make you say that it was all worth it, no matter what you suffered. Listen to the way Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “This slight momentary affliction [=all this life’s afflictions] is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” This was the hope that sustained Paul’s joy in affliction. He preached to himself (and we must): this affliction is not meaningless, it is not absurd, it is not cruel, it is not pointless. No, it is working for me an experience of the glory of God that will outweigh every moment and every degree of suffering in this life.
That is our hope. Its ground is the blood and righteousness of Christ by which we are justified through faith. Its goal or object is the glory of God that one day we will experience in the face of Jesus Christ."

John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.

Taking the Gospel to Honduras

I found this picture on the Honduras Outreach Inc. website. I thought it would be a good visual for us as we pray for Cary in Honduras. We all know what it is like going to a foriegn country with the message of Jesus. It can feel like the task is insurmountable. That is why i think pictures like this one are helpful. They assist us in remembering that God cares about individuals and that He knows the heart of each one. If these three girls were the only lives that Cary was able to touch with the love of Jesus the trip would still have been worth every bit of trouble and time and money. Here is what Cary had to say about the trip before he left...

"I am leaving February 3rd to go to Honduras on a mission trip through Honduras Outreach, Inc. in Decatur, GA. I am joining a team from Tabernacle and First Baptist in Newnan, GA. We will be working in the village of Mal Pais. Our work will consist of building latrines, roofing, pouring concrete, vacation Bible school, and medical clinics. I am excited about this trip. it will be my first organized mission trip since college. I pray that the Lord will use me and that I will be sensitive to His spirit and "seize the day" when the opportunities arise. I want to work hard and share the gospel of Christ at every chance. This is a ministry of building relationships and through the love of Christ drawing people to Him. For they will know that you are Christians by your love. I will be returning late Saturday the 10th. Please pray for the 24 missionaries that are going. Talk to you later."

Cary, thanks for serving bro. We love you. Amanda thanks for the info and thanks for supporting Cary in this effort. I hope you have a great week with your madre.

Good to hear from you little bro...

Curtis,
So great to hear from you!!!!
It's been a while since I heard from you on the phone. I was fired up when I saw that you wrote on the blog. Glad to hear you are doing well. Thanks a lot for the update on Lauren.
Love you bro...
Hope to hear from you soon.

clif

In Memory of "Little Robby"

I wanted to take a moment to ask you all to pray for our very good friends the McCay family. Most of you know Beka, Sally's best friend. Over the weekend Beka's nephew Robby passed away. He was 19 months old. (If you know the McCay's, Robby was Lauren's, the oldest daughter's, baby.) The whole situation is quite tragic and I am certain it will be a rough road to travel as the family copes with his death. Please, please pray for them. Pray that they will remember God's soveriegnty. We are hoping to be able to see some of the family as Lauren and her husband live in Charlottesville, about 2 hours from us. Thanks for praying.
Love you all.

clif

"I Have a Dream"

Not sure if you have ever watched the full version of this speech, but I would encourage you to do so. Look past the man to the message that he brings. I believe that his message reflects God's kind of love. Two other things to note about this speech...his mention of a famous Chattanooga landmark and the drastic change that takes place in his demeanor mid speech. He goes from reading his notes to preaching. I like it...Let me know you thoughts.

cwjr

2 Weeks Later

Well, here we are, two weeks after Christmas and I have just now found time to update the blog as I watch the 2nd half of the BCS National Championship game. (great game by the way)
I hope all is well with everyone in this new year! Sal and I are doing well. She has a bit of a cough right now, but is doing just about everything possible to get well. We have been reading a book together entitled The Pressure's Off by Larry Crabb. I wanted to use this post to share with you a few paragraghs that we read tonight that were very helpful to me and I thought may be helpful to you. I think the theme of the book can be gleaned from the following...


Using anorexia to prove a point about idols in our lives...Crabb writes,

"The anorexic shouts, "To me, anorexia is everything." And we shout with her, "To us, a better life is everything." It may not be the experience of power that anorexia brings. It may not be the instant pleasure that pornograghy brings. It may be the rush of achievment that seeing our kinds do well provides, or the quiet joy of climbing into a nice car we can afford, or the deep pleasure of spending an evening with a much-loved spouse, or the excitement of a growing ministry.
If something other than Christ is the reason for which we live, if we depend for our deepest joy on anything other than seeing Christ, if the 'Better Life of Blessing' is everything to us, then we're living the Old Way.
Then the pressure's on. And we're vulnerable to troubles of description.
But if we live the New Way, the pressure's off. We may still experience a variety of trials, but our souls will be in line with the Immanuel Agenda--God will be our God, and we will be His people."


Well, I found those words helpful. Let me know your thoughts...

cwjr
ps...curtis, praying for you bro.