Gracie's party and Jonathan's concert

Hey everyone! I hope all is well with everyone. Were all doing fine. On saturday we had Gracie's 2nd birthday party. Chris had to work so it was me and the kids. It was fun and the kids had a great time. They had a bouncer in the backyard so basically that took care of the kids for the most part. But it was fun for them to get out of the house on the weekend and play and goof around so it was a good day. On Sunday, we had church, which was awesome. It was on Romans 7 and so interesting and informative. I love the book of Romans, it seems no matter how often you read it or are taught it, it continues to teach you something new and has so much depth. I loved how pastor Tom gave the illustration: DOA---Justification---Sanctification---Glorification Basically saying the when were born were dead on arrival. Were born in sin and spiritually dead, then comes a time for most of us, hopefully, that we accept Christ and we are then justified. Were cleansed and made pure before the Lord so when the Father sees us, He sees Jesus. Then obviously the glorification is heaven, when were in the presence of God, but there's that middle part. And it's sanctification. Being set apart for a holy purpose. And it SOOOOOO hard. So pastor Tom was saying, why not just accept Christ (be justified) and then God just wipes us out and we can be glorified immediately. I mean if it's all about eternity anyway, why bother with the the sanctification part. If were forgiven already of sin, and past sin is erased, then why have this difficult middle part, that for most of us could be decades? Well as we learned it's to bear fruit. That's huge. Our whole reason for existence once we accept Christ, is to bear fruit to the Lord. To be a living example of Christ's love, to tell people about Him not only with our words but with our lives and our actions. That why we have an "oikos". For those of you who don't go to HDC, that might be a foreign word to you, but it's the greek word for household and it's referred to in the bible. Its our 8-15 people (on average) that God has intentionally placed in our lives so we can tell them about Him. It was so interesting and just a study! Anyway, after church Chris took Nathan to spend his birthday money and get the fish for his aquarium. He also had to get some "pozole" for Jonathan's class to sample after he gave his speech. It was part of his missions project. His speech went well by the way, thank you for the prayers. Today, was Jonathan's "concierto" at school. When Chris got home I took Jon, because Jeremiah was sleeping. It was so good. I have pics of that too to put on here. He really loves playing and I hope he continues with it, he does have a lot of talent musically. Well I hope you all have wonderful week. Holy week is so special and I pray we all give the Lord His due time this week. It's a wonderful time to reflect on what He's done for us and continues to do for us daily! Blessings to you all!