Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

 {March 2007, France}

"But the Lord is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth keep silence before him.”
{Habakkuk 2:20} 

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of Lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to His presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

-French Carol

Not your typical Christmas carol. Yet, I think this hymn carries something that is, more often than not, missed in this upcoming season. Food for thought..

A beautiful song based off of Hab 2:20. This has been previously posted on our blog, but...it's been awhile. The tune of this song matches the solemn but reverent lyrics of this hymn. Basically the hymn tells how Christ came down (verse 1), became a man ( verse 2), "That the powers of hell may vanish" (verse 3), and now read verse 4.... yeah, I like this hymn too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

You'll here from us...later.

:)

How Sweet and Aweful

So...dare I again say that this is another a favorite song? But, 'tis very true.

Why? Well, read the lyrics:

How Sweet and Aweful

How sweet and aweful is the place
With Christ within the doors
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast
Each of us cry with thankful tongues
“Lord, why was I a guest?”

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice
And enter while there's room
When thousands make a wretched choice
And rather starve than come?”

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in
Else we had still refused to taste
And perished in our sin

Pity the nations, O our God
Constrain the earth to come
Send Thy victorious Word abroad
And bring the strangers home

We long to see Thy churches full
That all the chosen race
May with one voice and heart and soul
Sing Thy redeeming grace

         -Isaac Watts (1707)

 Note that the "aweful" is not awful. It's not a horrendous awful, but an awesome aweful.
Yes the Lord may be awful in the sinner's eyes, but He is aweful in the eyes of the saved.
Just a side note.
 From verse 1, "While everlasting love displays, the choicest of her stores ", we can't even comprehend "everlasting", let alone "everlasting love". Yet that is Christ's love, everlasting.
"Each of us cry with thankful tongues, “Lord, why was I a guest?”", only recently has this rang so true, to me, but it has always been true for every soul who has been bought with the blood of Christ.

  Verse three continues this thought with such tenderness. In the second to last verse, "Send Thy victorious Word abroad, and bring the strangers home", we see that the author is pleading for the gospel to be spread, bringing those "Chosen race" into God's flock.

 The last verse slides into home base with, " May with one voice and heart and soul, sing Thy redeeming grace" -similar to The Church's One Foundation,- singing as one body, worshiping our Savior, and bringing Him glory.
In my perilous Google search, I came upon this cool-looking blogger, and some of his thoughts on the fifth verse.

Introducing Curly Designs

{Please note the new tab above this post}

I am happy to announce the opening of my shop -Curly Designs.

About this time last year, I started working on selling the things that were costing me a lot of  time, enjoyment, and money. I had tried selling my products via an open house, and though I was able to break even (and some), it wasn't a good long term solution. At the beginning of this year, I was all ready to open shop, but for some bizarre reason, you and me couldn't see my page when it was published. Now, eight months later, I have finally pulled my act -and my editor's act- together.

One fine, chilly evening I really wanted Elena to make me a headband for me, so she told me to pick out the colors and band. She really encouraged and pretty much forced me to try sewing it by myself after she walked me through the first rose. After that I went off lickety split, making headbands left and right. I tested out different types of fabrics with the same type of rose. Since then I have been trying out different designs of flowers, that I can't wait to share.

One more thing, I have started out with a few items, just to see how business goes, I hope to add more variety as time goes on. I also plan to sell some in local businesses, but want to first try this out. I am newbie to this, but I have my business cards, my products, and packaging.

Be My Escape

I remember walking into that Christian bookstore, nine years ago, clutching my $15 giftcard. I already knew what item I would buy. I had heard Relient K via Elena, and I was finally purchasing their Anatomy Of The Tongue In Cheek album.

Pretty close to the front!

Caro, Joseph and I

Ever since that fateful day I've been a huge fan. Until August, I had never seen them in concert! My good friend, Joseph (pictured above), invited me to their concert. They are definitely still one of my favorite bands and I was so excited to be at their concert. 

In Christ,
~Micaela Marques

All To Us

{2006}

 Looking at this song, reminded me of "O Church Arise". There is this time of waiting, but this time is not a free license for worldliness and idleness. Instead," Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the Church, let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns, let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives, we believe You're all to us". What a beautiful picture of what Christ's church should be. 

All To Us

[Verse 1] Precious cornerstone, sure foundation
You are faithful to the end
We are waiting, on You, Jesus
We believe You're all to us

[Chorus] Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the Church
Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns
Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives
We believe You're all to us

[Verse 2] Only Son of God sent from Heaven
Hope and mercy at the cross
You are everything, You're the Promise
Jesus, You are all to us

You're all to us
You're all to us
You're all to us
Yes, You are

When this passing world is over
We will see You face to face
And forever we will worship
Jesus, You are all to us

-Chris Tomilin

Jumpy Places, a Wedding, and Camping

The Webbies, Apadocas, and Burdell kids at the the Jumpy Place!

Hurrah for Jumpy places! Those are awesome places to go in the morning (no grimy kids...besides ours), have kids burn energy (without being attacked by mosquitoes and heat stroke), and all in one room. Also, it is such an amazing spark for me kids to use your imagination. We celebrated Mia birthday with going to the Jumpy Place and having pizza and cupcakes with the fam.

That evening we all attended Emily and Nathan's Celidah. Everyone had a lovely time dancing. Bedtime that night was usual (which is somewhere close to, or past, twelve).

All the lovely sweets!

At 6:00 am I woke up and convinced myself that taking a shower would make me happy and awake. It didn't. I could still have gone to bed just as well. 

But once we went to the church I woke up.

Many people had come two hours early, thinking we would be short on time to prepare. But (thankfully) we finished everything with plenty of time to spare.

And yes, if you were wondering, I am aware that the "N and E" picture is upside down.

Dear Elizabeth Knippa with (some) of her faithful work on the table

The Reception.

As we sat around the the table and talked, the girls requested Eva's presence, and being the youngest at the table, I brought the baby over. :P

Eva can be quite the catch! She was making everyone work for her smile. Sarah was able to get a smile, after a cell phone was given to Eva, and then Eva was transferred to Anna and Eva gave another smile. 

As the reception came to a natural close (everyone was getting hungry for dinner), Nathan and Emily began to make their escape.

Becca, after a long day of attending a wedding. :)

The new and fresh, Mr and Mrs. Nathan Serven! 

One of my favorite family's.

Mia took a little, unintentional, dip into the lake

Eva and I stole a quick footsie shot (my toes compliments of Aunt Gaby and Eva's are compliments from mommy).

Dom with Grandma's eye shades and Grandpa with Dom's sunglasses!

The Girls. A little side note is that Elena did Emmy's hair in this style.

So, on Thursday after Emily's wedding we geared up and went camping to Pedenales falls. I'm afraid I didn't take too many pictures besides these :(. But other more dedicated bloggers captured some photos.

This is the third or fourth recommendation from our dear friends the Loyd's, and I'm a little bit hooked.

I gobbled read this book in five days. I always forget how much I like fantasy/ adventure/ fiction books, till I read one. Haven't decided if I completely like this one, so I'm reading the series. 

If you've read it tell me what you think.

I told Mica this looks like the place for some really artsy person to make an inde-music video. Can't you see some artsy people coming down the hill with their guitars?

Down at the splendidly cool creek (or river depends where you're from).  This song came to mind almost every single time we came down to the river.

Love, 

            Caro :)