October 4 sermon

I think I forgot to post this sermon I delivered October 4 at NorthStar.


Audio Source File

A Weekend to Remember

This past weekend Bennett and I had the opportunity to go to the Weekend to Remember Marriage conference. Family Life invites full-time church staff and their wives to attend this conference free of charge, and these conferences take place all over the country. This weekend we along 400 other couples joined together at the Coeur d'alene Resort to invest in our marriages. For us this was a time of refreshment and renewal; however, there were couples attending in which this past weekend was their last resort. Here are some truths that God implanted into my heart:

1. Bennett is my gift from God- the moment I said "I do" he became that gift

2. If our marriage isn't intentionally moving towards ONENESS then we are moving apart

Six months after we were married God moved our new family to Idaho. God reminded me this weekend one of the reasons He moved us. Here in Idaho, thousands of miles away from friends and family I have had the privilege of becoming one with my husband. I have learned to depend on him and love and appreciate him more and more each day. There are lessons we have learned as a family here that would have taken a lot longer in a more comfortable place.

In a few weeks (December 30th), we'll celebrate four years of marriage. I am proud of that and very excited about what the future holds for our family together as we serve Christ. Our prayer is that the world would know God through our love and commitment to each other.

* the picture above is from our wedding when Bennett surprised me by singing "Make us One" with my friend Amy Nobles

Mommy Daughter Interview

Friends having fun

NorthStar Service October 25, 2009 Bennett Sanderson

Audio Source File

Our pastor was out of town for a couple of weeks, so I was allowed to preach a couple of the services here at NorthStar.

our itsy bitsy spider

Bennett's Fill-in Sermon

Audio Source File

pigtails and lessons from little girls

Yesterday while I was fixing L's hair God taught me a lesson. She is easily distracted sometimes. While I fix her hair I usually have to give her something to play with (book, doll, pony-tail holders, etc...). I was about to let her know that after we finished her hair then we'd go brush her teeth, but something stopped me. I knew if I told her that we were going to brush her teeth then off she'd go to the bathroom, forgetting the present circumstances she was involved in (ex. pig-tails).

By the way if you don't know, she LOVES to brush her teeth, and she really loves sucking off her Dora the Explorer toothpaste. The same thing happens when I say we are going to go outside, she runs for the back door most of the time without her shoes.

Then I thought of how I am exactly the same in my relationship with God. I would love to have the plans for the next few years, but God knows I can't handle that. If he gave me a 10 year plan, there I'd be off to the "back door" to the next thing forgetting and loosing focus of where He has me now.

This week in our small group we're talking about how God speaks by the Holy Spirit through prayer, circumstances, His Word, and the Church. Yesterday God spoke to me through my little girl, and I'm thankful that He still speaks.

think outside the box today

We Just Want Dessert

In life we tend to want what we want. What I mean is, we really just want life to be exactly the way we want it to be all the time. Its as if we want everything we eat to taste like dessert and satisfy like steak and make us feel good like exercise. For some reason we think that is our right. We don't see how utterly unnatural that is. Even in the pre-fall Creation there was a limit to what Adam and Eve could have. Isn't it interesting that the serpent had to talk Eve into her rebellion? Do you think we would need as much convincing? Or would we immediately yell back in God's face, "What do you mean I can't have it?"

I'm afraid many in ministry, especially young'uns like me, get the idea that because we are serving Him and sacrificing ourselves in serving the church that God really owes it to us to have a charmed life. If I'm faithful in serving him shouldn't everything always work out the way I want it to? Shouldn't the money always be there, our leadership always be faithful, and strangers always respond to the Gospel? The problem is there is no such promise.

I found a commentary on 2 Corinthians on sale. The introduction outlines a theory about Paul's interaction with the church at Corinth. I hadn't thought about the story much from Paul's perspective before. Here was a church that he had helped start at great personal risk and cost. He had spent time with its people, mentored some of its leaders, and taught them the great truths of Christ. But in his absence there was disunity, power struggles, sexual immorality, attacks against Paul's character, laziness, and on and on. Its probable that Paul had even gone to try to personally address the situation, but was sent packing by his rivals. After some order had been restored Paul wrote 2 Corinthians. With these probabilities in mind it is easy to hear the heartache, passion, and almost frantic urgency that Paul writes with.

After only 30 or so years after Jesus' resurrection, the churches were full of turmoil. People fell shamefully short of the standards set by Christ. Even Paul made mistakes. The inspiring thing is, in spite of all of it they went on. The church grew and spread. It impacted the culture, preserved its teachings, excelled in scholarship and art (for a time). Today we may wish that churches and ministries were an endless buffet of desserts and delicacies, but the truth is until Christ returns we're still all eating out of the dumpster. That means you have to work hard to get at the good stuff. And even the good stuff might be a little tainted. Still, its the only taste of heaven we can get. At least we know the truth and have a hope for the future. As far as unbelievers know, this is as good as it gets.

Life Saving

This weekend we attended Open Arm's Annual Dessert. There were a couple of hundred people there, and it was a great night! We invited friends that were interested in the ministry and heard Ryan Dobson speak (James Dobson's son). The dessert is always such an emotional experience for me. We have clients speak about the impact Open Arms has had on their lives, and I am always so humbled that God would allow me to be a part of this life saving ministry. Ryan spoke about his own experience of being adopted by the Dobsons, and at the end of his talk he thanked his birth mom (who was 16 at the time) for the sacrifice she made choosing life for him and giving him a better family than she could have provided at that time.

We're still in the midst of the Experiencing God study at our church. If you've been a part of that, you can probably remember the first reality that "God is always at work around us." The study encourages you to find out where God is working and then join him there. Each time I read that reality I am reminded that He is at work at Open Arms. Daily clients enter our doors who need to hear the great Gospel of Christ, and it's our privilege to share with them.

Well speaking of the study now is my chance to complete mine for today (while L is napping). Thanks for reading. Please pray for Pregnancy care centers all over the country today that are standing up for life and sharing Christ with their communities.

It seems like August and September have flown by for us at the Sanderson home. In August my sweet friend Sheri came up for her second visit to Idaho. We had a BLAST! She is so much fun, and I miss her lots. In September L and I took a trip to the Florida for my sister's wedding. The weather was amazing, and L was a great traveling buddy.

Lately we've been preparing at NorthStar for our big youth event this Saturday. Fall was supposed to meet us yesterday, but it has decided to let summer stay for a while longer. That's ok with us, but we're looking forward to some trips to the apple orchards and watching the leaves change.

My pregnancy has been bliss so far, and most of the time I forget I am pregnant until friends ask me how I am feeling. However, in pregnancy news two good friends of mine just had little boys, my other friends are on a flight home tomorrow with their little boy they just adopted overseas, and another friend at church is due any day now (with you guessed it... a little boy). So it's the season for boys because if you haven't heard, we'll have one joining our family in February. We haven't settled on a name yet, but it will include Fenton in some way.

Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure...


spending some time with her Nana at the beach


playing in her baby pool


enjoying the lake


visiting with Sheri and the statues


riding bikes with Papaw


reminiscing...

Back to School, Back to Life Groups

With our new pastor, Gary Brown, my responsibilities have changed at NorthStar. Now my main focus will be our small group ministry we call Life Groups. Original, I know. This Fall all of our groups will be going through the Experiencing God study. If you've been in church for a while you've probably heard of this study written by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. We had our fall kick-off meeting last Sunday. There were about 40 people there. We ordered 60 books and only have 9 left.

I'm really excited to see what God will do in our people over the next 13 weeks as they are challenged to change the way they look at serving God. We have a couple of new Life Group leaders and several new people getting involved. In fact there were several first time visitors that showed up for the kick-off meeting; so many that we started a new group on the spot!

My hope is that these Life Groups with become more than just a Bible-study or fellowship group. My prayer is that they will strive to be what Ed Stetzer calls "small missional communities". That means that we are forming groups of believers gathered for the purpose of the Gospel focused on the Great Commission. We hear the word "mission" and we think mission-trips or missions giving. Stetzer popularized the term "missional" in an effort to get Christians to think of themselves as being on a mission daily, weekly, yearly and so on. So for a small group this means that the meetings are only a smart part of what the group means to the members' lives. The group meeting is a chance for disciples to come together for encouragement, direction, nourishment in the word, teaming up in prayer, and even Christ-centered worship. I know that if God establishes these groups in our church then the church will not only be strong in numbers, but it will also be a church that is impacting our culture for Christ.

Faith Like Potatoes

We watched Faith Like Potatoes about a week ago. Perhaps you haven't heard of it. It came out 3 years ago. It's based on a true story about a Scottish farmer living in Africa who comes to faith in Christ and eventually leads a major prayer movement in South Africa.

Before I watched the movie I had pretty low expectations, I'm sorry to say. Christian movies have been improving over the last few years, but the best reaction I've had to a faith-based film have usually been included the phrase "...for a Christian movie." Exceptions have included and The Passion and The Nativity. But usually, it seems like movies about faith either have a preachy, yet watered-down message or they are just down right cheesy.

Faith Like Potatoes was a pleasant surprise. It is a movie that honestly talks about real-life faith in a way that is actually believable. The acting was high caliber for the most part; of course, I might have been fooled by the accents. They were pretty thick. We finally just turned on the subtitles. Speaking of accents, this is one of the few movies set in Africa that seemed like a realistic portrayal of the culture there, at least in one region. It also exposed me to African scenery that I haven't seen before.

You should definitely watch this movie. It is inspiring, entertaining, and a little bit informative.

taking a little vacation

she likes the sand- but not so sure about those waves


the sand kinda tastes good


a little lemon for dinner

"i think i'm in heaven"

What to say

Sister-in-law reminded me that we haven't updated the blog in a while. So here is a quick update.

Jana is doing well. She is officially "showing", and is as cute as ever! She's doing great as a mommy. I think her and Laurel make a great team. Although I feel like sometimes Laurel thinks this is her world and mommy and daddy are just her support team. Its hard not to spoil someone so cute. At 13 months old she is showing lots of personality. She is walking and almost running. She loves to laugh, eat bananas, and point to eyes wherever she sees them. Yes, she points to eyes. We don't know why. But she loves to do it while enunciating the word "eye" over and over.

At NorthStar we are gearing up for our Fall Life Group Season Kick Off Extravaganza. I just made that name up. Seriously though we are getting organized to take our small group ministry we call "Life Groups" (creative I know) to the next level. The ministry has been successful at NorthStar in spite of the fact that few of us knew what we were doing! The next step for us is to help our leaders become more than just teachers or facilitators. We want them to be shepherds. We want them to care for their group like it is God's little flock of sheep. And we want our Life Groups to be Gospel subcommunities within the unified community of NorthStar.

So pray for me as I learn and lead at the same time in the area of Life Groups. Also, Sept. 6 I'll be preaching at Crossroads Baptist Church in Rose Lake, Idaho.

And now for what you really wanted. This is a cute picture of my daughter and her friend.