Photo Review

So here is a photo rundown of just SOME of the things we've been up to lately

Camping in Southern Indiana:
The First trail we hiked

Set-up the tent

My Birthday @ West Baden
The beautiful hotel in the background (yes it is that huge)

The Atrium or dome

The awesome porch:lovely coffee and homemade granola bar breakfast out here the morning we left...sigh....it was wonderful.

Everyone hanging out in Baltimore when we road-tripped for Ian's High School Graduation

465 to Eden's First Concert!

We'd really like to fill you in on all the lovely details of the last 2 months but, there is way too much to say. Know that we are moving forward with where we feel like the Lord is calling us, learning a lot and really just having a lot of fun! 

Love

The Gills

We're Still Here

Hello again!
We haven't forgotten about you blog-land.
We'll be returning soon....I promise. Life has been busy and fun and we'll have lots of fun pictures and updates about all the wonderful things we've been doing....including:
Camping
Weddings
Fantastic Hotels
Road Trips
and the GARDEN!
Hold tight we're coming back!

The Gills

It's Friday!

So it's been Finals Week around here and we've been living under the shadow of long lists and stacks of unwashed dishes, ready for that final presentation to be in our past.
Yes I understand that I could have easily lived life as normal, while Michael finished his semester up but....what fun is that? I pushed aside my normal householdly tasks to join w/him in his last push of the semester, supporting and encouraging him.
By cooking.
I can't help it.
When someone is stressed out or things aren't going right I try to stuff their face.
It's just who I am today.

But now we have FREEDOM!!! The semester is over, I have my husband back and now we can stuff our faces for the joy of freedom, not from the oppressive power-point presentations lurking around the corner. Woo Hoo!!!!
I don't know about you, but I'm jumping for joy.

Love the Law

If the end of the law is Christ, what then is the purpose of the law now that we have Christ?

We see David, a man after God's own heart, himself a prophet, testifying of the Messiah in his writings about the Lord and His Anointed One, speaking very highly of the Law of the Lord. "More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold."(Psalm 19)

We know that the Scriptures are given by inspiration and are able to make us wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The scripture is also there for completeness and equipping of the people of God. (2 Timothy 3)

Throughout scripture we see the term, "word of God". This word is the logos of God. Logos is a Greek word which may be used to mean various kinds of communication, including: language, talk, statement, story, prose, thought, reason, account, analogy, and many others. I will use logos to mean God's message to us. This logos cannot merely be contained in a book, but Scripture is there to help us see what His logos has been over the ages.

The logos of God was given primarily to the Jews, but at one time, the Logos of God became flesh. Jesus is that ultimate communication to us from the Father. This Logos(Jesus) is now preached to all people and all nations. And so Jesus is the key to and the end result of the law, all of scripture, giftings, miracles, marriage, teaching, and all of creation. He is the source of it, and the end of it all. Literally the Alpha and Omega.

We as Christians should take full advantage of both the Logos that is near to our hearts and our mouths(Rom. 10:8), which comes by the Spirit through faith, and the form of His logos that is written down. So we should learn to love and meditate on the law, not because the works of the law make us righteous, but because it contains the logos of our King throughout. The shadows and types in the Law and Prophets are a reflection of the kingdom in which we now live. When we study the written logos with a true knowledge and faith in the living and active Logos made flesh, we will be equipped and ready in and out of season to speak the gospel(logos) to all that they may hear and believe. Also this is for reminding each other to turn to God's continual message and voice.

Study, ask the Spirit to show you where to act, and have fun. :)

The Goal of the Law

In Romans chapter 9 and 10, Paul talks some about the law of righteousness. Read Rom. 9:30-33; 10:1-4.

In particular, Rom 10:14 says, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

Israel didn't pursue the law of righteousness by faith in a salvation of the heart. Instead, the end of their pursuit of the law of righteousness was a belief that the works of the law brought salvation. So it is with many today.

So when Jesus shows up and says that the kingdom is here and He is the promise (Luke 4:18-19; 20:9-18), the Pharisees and religious leaders stumbled over that stone. Those whose hearts weren't turned toward God, not having faith in Him for their salvation but rather having faith in their own ability to fulfill God's law, weren't able to see the salvation offered to them in the Word made flesh.

The end goal of the law of righteousness is always Jesus.

Citrus!

So Michael and I have made a commitment to try to spend $50 a week or less on food.
Today I splurged over budget.


On citrus.

:)

Flour Mill Adventures

My mother-in-law (M-I-L) is pretty much awesome, for more than several reasons....one of them being that she and her husband gave Michael and I their old flour mill.

So, it goes like this....I have wanted to be a frontier girl since I was like, maybe 11. Seriously...Kirsten from American Girl was my favorite, I wanted to be her and have a little indian friend I brought bread to down by the creek and have warm stones at the foot of my bed to keep my toes from freezing. Or Frontier House anyone? I LOVE PBS...but that is for another time. And now that I have a little time on my hands I have started making homemade bread.

My MIL asked me how that was going and after talking about what it would look like to get locally milled flour, she offered their old flour mill. She used to make homemade bread all the time and even made some 'dough' by selling it (hehe), and they ground their own flour. She sent us home w/the mill, some wheatberries and instructions.

The Mill

When I turned the mill on it sort of sounded like a jet trying to take off in my dining room....and there was a big puff of flour-it was so awesome.

The basic idea of grinding wheatberries into flour is you put them through the mill and the end result is nicely ground flour. This mill has varying settings from coarse (cracked wheat-ish) to fine (pastry flour). I followed my MIL recommendations for medium fine ground.

The Berries

Into The Mill

And The Finished Product

So, now we grind our own wheat! Hurray for lots of healthy, freshly baked bread! Now I just need that little indian friend. ;)

~Jenny