Welcome, Curtis Michael!

Curtis Michael was born November 18th at 7:24 PM. He was 20.5 inches and 8 pounds, 7 ounces. Laura and Curtis are doing well. (John Mark also seems to be doing well.)

Wesley and I have been hanging out with Owen at home and we came back to the hospital this afternoon to "go see Mommy, Daddy, and baby brother" as Wesley has been saying since we drove home last night. Wesley is a pretty flexible little guy and is taking all of these changes very well too.

I came in from L.A. last night just an hour before Curtis came into the world, which was near perfect timing to whisk Wesley away for dinner. We got a call while at dinner that the baby brother came much quicker than expected!

-Lela

Is the Gospel about the Kingdom or Salvation?

Have you heard anyone say that Jesus preached the 'good news about the kingdom of God' but Christians seem stuck on the good news about forgiveness for our sins through Jesus' death?

I don't think the average tract, average Christian book, or average church goer produces the right picture about the good news. It's often a 2-for-3 score.

Here is what I taught my church's basic Christianity class:

The gospel is the Jesus story with explanation.
1. his death – as the worthy substitute
2. his resurrection – human victory, God’s ancient promises fulfilled, judgment by Jesus is certain
3. his kingdom plan – bringing mankind & creation back into submission to God

I suggested a few easy ways to remember and to explain these three points to others. I also cautioned against letting things replace these three points - things like human response, God's character, blessings received through the gospel, or evidence for the truthfulness of these three points. All these things are important and good, but they must not overshadow these three points.

Our Little Lion and Other Fall Fun

Here's our little lion! He's been a lion at least part of the day every day since Halloween, by request. And he always wants to "yook in miwwow" (mirror).

I don't know if I've had many pregnant pictures on here. Here I am at 37 weeks!

Misha came to visit and got to join in on the Halloween fun.

Our church went to the Main Street celebration in our town again to pass out Bibles and candy to the kids. Wesley got to get a few pieces of candy this year and liked seeing all of the other costumes.

Wesley likes posing on this pumpkin whenever I get the camera out. This was a cold day a couple of weeks ago.

Two Sundays ago we had a hayride and weenie roast with our church. Wesley got a big kick out of the hayride and kept his hands in his pockets the whole time. He seemed pretty laid back. It was cute. He LOVES wearing his little baseball hat.