Just testing this application out on my phone. I think I just found a way to blog while on bed rest (we have no usable laptop)

Time still goes on...

Well, it's been a while but A LOT has happened since I've written. We moved into my parents house and found out we were expecting our first child. Wow...God is just funny that way right?

I mean the last thing on my mind, no excuse me, the FARTHEST thing from my mind would be to be living at home with my first child. Well, this has been a pregnancy of testing. I mean from the get go God has truly been testing our faith. I found a cyst growing underneath my breast 2 days before I found out I was pregnant. We found out it was a skin cyst and have to wait until after the baby is born to figure out what to do.

Through out the rest of the pregnancy it has been one thing after another. Horrible first trimester (I was so sick and weak). Bleeding through the second trimester has lead me to be on bed rest. They found out that I have an incompetent cervix.

I have been on bed rest now for a little over a month. And it has been a trying time. Trying mostly because of the cramps that I get on occasion. God is good though. Through my mother He gave me this awesome verse:

ZECHARIAH 2:5 For I,' says the LORD, 'will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.'

I pray that through any circumstances you are presently going through you remember this verse. Keep close to your heart my friend that He WILL be a wall of fire all around you.

I love you my friend!

The Mom Song

This is to all the moms out there!

The Faithful Stand Tall

Marcy couldn't help but smile as she let her eyes gaze across the room. This week, 50 people came to visit their small basement church. It never ceased to amaze her how awesome God was. Just 3 weeks ago, there were only 6 people in attendance; including Steve - her husband - and herself.

Just two months ago, they moved to Africa to start their ministry in the small town. They started out with just 3 people: Steve, the local pastor and herself. They felt called of the Lord to help out local pastors in Africa. Steve and Marci had to go through extensive training; but they were ready. They were excited. It has always been their dream to be missionaries in Africa.

"Let us pray in conclusion," said her husband. She smiled as Pastor Fahim translated. She didn't know why, but that always amused her. Hearing her husband teach and someone else translate.

There was a creak on the floorboards above. A whisper - or was that a mouse?

Everyone became silent. Fear raced through Marci's heart and she prayed silently, "Lord please protect these people. Don't let them get caught."

"Were you expecting anyone?" Steve asked no one in particular. "No," Marci looked at Pastor Fahim, "Did you tell anyone you were coming here?"

"No, I did not. Please everyone remain silent. There is no need to fear, but Marci, can you please go upstairs to see what that noise was? Steve maybe you should join her." Pastor Fahim instructed and translated.

Instinctively, she grabbed her husband's hand tight, as they started up the stairs. Steve stopped and looked down at his wife, "Its okay, hun. We are children of God. Keep repeating that, I am a child of God. Keep praying too."

Marci could not help but laugh at her husband, he always knew how to make her smile. "God please protect those people, don't let them get caught. Heavenly Father, please protect Steve and I. Please Lord, let this be nothing."

They continued climbing the stairs together in silence.

Marci jumped as she saw a man standing in their kitchen. Her heart could not stop racing. She kept praying, "Please Lord, protect those people don't let them get caught."

"Can I help you?" Steve asked. Marci stood behind her husband in submission, but kept praying continuously. "Jesus save us. Please don't let those people get caught. They desperately need to hear more of your word. Please Lord. Please."

"Are you Steven and Marci Boretti?" The man asked quietly.

"Yes," he replied cautiously.

"Thank you." The man replied. He then walked out their home; leaving the door wide open.

Steve walked to the door to close it, "What was that all abo-". A shot rang out, as Steve fell to the ground grabbing his chest.

"Steven!" Marci raced to his side. "Honey, where are you hit?" He looked at her and smiled, "I see Jesus". She cried out "Oh God, No! Please NO!"

She heard footsteps run in, but she never took her eyes off her husband. "Steven stay with me!" She felt hands pull her arms off of her husband. "Steven! LOOK AT ME! Jesus save us!"

Pain shot through her head as someone hit her. "JESUS SAVE US!" Marci blacked out.

When she awoke; she found herself in a dark room. She felt around and waited until her eyes adjusted. It seemed like she was in a dungeon of some sorts. Confused she tried to get up from the floor, "Steve?" Chains stopped her from moving around. She was chained to a wall.

Then it all came back to her, her mind flooded with the memories of her husband on the floor. Was he dead? Was she dead?

"Jesus, please help me. Please be with me Lord. Please be with my husband." She stopped herself when she remembered all those people in her basement. "Jesus please protect those people. Don't let them be found." Marci prayed quietly.

The door opened and light flooded into her dark dungeon. "Ah, Mrs. Boretti - you are finally awake. I am so sorry that we have not met sooner." A shadow in the doorway started to talk to her, "You see I am very interested in what you and your husband are doing here. You see, it is against the law to preach about this Jesus. It is punishable by death." The shadow man stopped for effect.

"Now, unfortunately we had to punish your husband - excuse me, I had to punish your husband for teaching about Christianity. However, you on the other hand have never taught about him. You can be set free on several conditions." The shadow man stepped into the room and turned on the light. "You must renounce this Jesus, and turn to our religion. Next, you must leave our country and never come back. If you do, and I find out - I will kill you as I killed your husband."

Marci cocked her head to the side, the shadow man was not tall or scary - just sad. She could not help but notice how sad he was. I see that I got to you, what I will do is leave and give you some time to think about -"

"I don't need to think about it. I know my answer," Marci replied with determination. "Jesus Christ came to this earth to save my soul, and I will never stop telling the world about Him; and I will never leave. If you force me out, I will return. God's word needs to be preached to all, even - no especially you. God loves you and -"

"ENOUGH!" the shadow man yelled. "Do you think this is a joke? I could kill you now."

"Then please do. All I have to say is: may God have mercy on your soul. May your eyes be open to your sin and you give your life to Christ. God loves you, I love you." Marci closed her eyes waiting for a shot to ring out. After several seconds she opened her eyes.

"Mrs. Boretti, I will not kill you yet. My men are scheduled to spend some time with you. Maybe you will change your mind before then." The shadow man gave her a sinister smile and closed the door.

"Jesus, I pray for that man. Save him please. Open his eyes so that he may see his sin. Save him Lord, please save him."

Several days went by - or what seemed like days - and several atrocities occurred - but Marci kept praying for him...and for the soldiers committing those atrocities. "God please save them. Save their souls. Open their eyes to their sin."

The shadow man finally came back. "Stand up Mrs. Boretti."

She could no longer move. Her ravaged body could take no more. The shadow man walked over to her and placed her in a chair, "So Mrs. Boretti, have you decided to change your mind?"

Marci looked up at her captor, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. God loves you, may your eyes be opened to your sin and to the ultimate love He has to offer you. I have never stopped praying for you and your men. May God save you." She closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.

Quietly she started to sing the only song that came to mind, as tears rolled down her face, "Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so, little ones to Him belong. They are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so."

After she finished, Marci looked up at the shadow man, "Aren't you going to kill me?"

"Why do you say those things to me? We have done such horrible things to you. We..." the shadow man lowered his head in shame.

"Jesus loves you, and he is waiting for you to accept Him. Who am I to say I can't pray for you? Who am I to say anything accept: God loves you and He wants you to know Him and accept Him. Open your heart to the only one who can heal it."

The shadow man unlocked her chains turned around and walked away. She stared in amazement as he walked out the door and left it open.

She stayed in her chair wondering what to do next. "You are free to go child." Marci jumped at the voice. She turned her head to see where the voice was coming from. Standing in the back corner was a man dressed in white robes. He had such a kind face, and it seemed familiar somehow - but she did not move. "What?" she asked suspiciously. "You are free to go Marci; your faithfulness has set you free." She smiled, stood up and walked out the door.

Deu 31:8 And the LORD, He [is] the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.

Valentine's Day

This past year has been a year of great hardship for Dave and I. Sorry I haven't written in a while - going through our latest trial. But God is good and faithful! He will guide us through this. I digress, this year at Valentines all I can really think of is how mighty and powerful...and loving our God is. The perfect example of this love is the woman who was going to be stoned.

She was committing adultery when the Pharisees caught her. They brought her to Jesus to test Him - but He gave a great example of love.

John 8: 2-11 - Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" This they said, testing Him, that they might have [something] of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with [His] finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard [it], being convicted by [their] conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest [even] to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

Really though, who are we to not accept people? Think about it everyone - what is the real meaning of Love? Is it just to accept people you like or those you don't? I know that I am faced with this daily. I challenge myself daily to see the good in people, to see them the way Christ sees them.

During this Valentine's holiday, I challenge you my friends - Love. No really love someone - just for the simple fact the Christ loves them.

Think about it - who are you to not love someone Christ loves? Of course, when I talk about loving someone I just simply mean taking time out to say "hello, how are you today?" and really care.

Voice Of Truth

Casting Crowns has an awesome song; “Voice of Truth”. It’s a powerful song, and for those who don’t know the song, I have listed the lyrics at the end of this entry. It gave me the inspiration for this next story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jennifer stared at her husband in confusion, he always had the tendency to mumble when he talks. “What did you just say?” Mark looked her right the eye, “I said I was just let go from my second job.” Jennifer was flabbergasted, they just told him he was the best investment they made. “What happened?”

Mark sat down on the couch, disgusted and tired. “They said that I ran a test wrong. But I did exactly what my supervisor told me to do. I don’t understand why they did that, I thought I was doing good there.”

“Baby, that’s not something we can concentrate on right now. God removed you from this job for a reason. Personally, I am so happy that you no longer work there. I feel safer knowing you are going to be home with me, you were working too much and tired. I was scared all the time for your safety.” Jennifer said with determination.

Mark had been working overnight in a retail store that was two hours away. “I mean, we need this job. What are we going to do now, Jennifer?”

After some thought Jennifer finally responded. “We need to move into my parents house. We can’t afford this rent anymore.”

Mark looked at her with such hurt in his eyes, “We can’t. We just signed the lease, they won’t let us out of our contract.” Jennifer looked at her husband in disbelief, “How do you know that? You don’t know what could happen baby. Maybe you should call and talk to them.”

Mark looked dejected and sad, it hurt her to see her husband like this. “God, give me the right words to say to him.” Jennifer prayed silently. “Baby, this is a good thing that happened.” Jennifer moved closer to her husband, “You were getting so tired and cranky. You were missing out on a lot of things because of this job. Now, you can live at least little more. We can now finally go to church during the week, you know how much we missed that.” Jennifer was trying so hard to make her husband feel better.

“Its these stupid bills we have. I have to find a second job so that we can pay off these bills and start a family,” her husband looked at her with such determination.

“Baby, lets just pray right now. We need to pray and ask God for wisdom and peace,” Jennifer said. Mark looked at her in disbelief, “I can’t pray right now, you need to pray.”

Jennifer’s heart sank, “OK honey.” They prayed together for a few minutes. Fearing for her husbands walk Jennifer said, “God is allowing this to happen in our lives for a reason. We need to just sit and wait on Him. Baby, this just means that God has something a million times better waiting for you. He will bless us if we have faith in Him alone.”

Jennifer got up from the couch. “You can’t let this get you down. If you do that’s letting Satan win. You have to have faith even when things look grim.”

“But what about children? I want us to have kids; I want you to be a mother. But now we have to wait again to try for kids.” Mark looked at her as if to challenge her. But she understood all too well that Mark was losing his faith again. She walked back over to him, and sat right in front of him.

“Baby, who says we can’t try while in my parents house? Who says I’m not pregnant now? If we start trying at my parents house, it will be okay. I won’t have the baby that day. We will have time to pay down the debts and find a home. Baby, look at it this way. Now you finally have time to study and pass for your certification. There ya go! That’s probably why this happened! God wants you to be certified in March!” Jennifer said with great faith.

Mark stood silent. Jennifer got up to call her mother. “Where are you going?” Mark asked. “To call my mom, so she can pray for us about the moving out thing. We would probably need someone to come and take our place in order for us to move out without penalty. So she can pray for us.” Jennifer said walking to the phone.

“Hi Mom.”

“Hey sweetie. Whats up?”

“Mark was just fired from his second job. They gave him some lame reason.”

“Oh no. We’ll definitely keep you guys in prayer.”

“Mom, we are going to need to move in with you guys. We can’t afford this rent without his second job - so please pray for us as we talk to the rental office.”

“Okay, will definitely do that.”

Jennifer talked a little while longer with her mother, while Mark sat patiently waiting for an answer. “Well?” Mark said as soon as she got off the phone. “My mom said that she would talk with my Dad, but that she doesn’t think it would be a problem to move in with them.” Jennifer felt such a peace come over her. “This is what God wanted us to do. Move in with my parents. Accept help.”

Mark looked at her, “I feel like such a failure. Like I’m less of a husband cause I can’t provide for you.” Jennifer sat on the couch next to him, “You are the best husband this woman could ever ask for. Don’t think that. That is just Satan messing with your head.”

Mark put his head in his hands, “This is just too much to handle. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t take this.”

Jennifer hugged her husband and said, “You are not supposed to handle this. You are supposed to give it to God. He is the only one that can handle this. Remember right before we got married how we dedicated our marriage to God? We prayed that our marriage would bring total and ultimate glory to Him. This is how God is going to be glorified. When we are at the bottom of the well and there is no way out but to call AND WAIT on Him. God is going to be glorified through this baby. That is why we must go through this. If we have faith in God, He will definitely bless us.”

“God give us your grace so that we can get through this. Help us Lord.”

Mark hugged her back, “We gotta have that faith.”

I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth.

Oh, what I would do to have
the kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I’m in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown
Where Jesus is,
And he’s holding out his hand

But the waves are calling out my name
and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
time and time again
“Boy, you’ll never win,
you’ll never win.”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
the voice of truth says “do not be afraid!”
and the voice of truth says “this is for my glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh, what I would do
to have the kind of strength it takes
To stand before a giant
with just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound
of a thousand warriors
shaking in their armor
Wishing they’d have had the strength to stand

But the giant’s calling out
my name and he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I’ve tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
time and time again
“Boy you’ll never win,
you’ll never win.”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
the voice of truth says “do not be afraid!”
and the voice of truth says “this is for my glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

But the stone was just the right size
to put the giant on the ground
and the waves they don’t seem so high
from on top of them looking down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
when I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
singing over me

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says “do not be afraid”
And the voice of truth says “this is for my glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me (calling out to me)
I will choose to listen and believe (I will choose to listen and believe)
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

I will listen and believe
I will listen and believe the voice of truth
I will listen and believe
‘Cause Jesus you are the voice of truth
And I will listen to you.. oh you are

Something Odd

There has been something on my heart lately; and I just honestly couldn't place what it was. It has been bugging me since New Year's Eve. I've just been discombobulated, for lack of a better word. My spirit has been unsettled...don't know why. I just have this feeling like something huge is going to happen this year.

Have you ever had that feeling? Just knowing that there is something huge that going to happen and there is nothing you can do about it. Now here's the thing....what could it be? A million things have been going through my mind. Is it that I'm going to get pregnant again? Is it that the economic crisis is going to really adversely affect Dave and I? Is it about my book that I'm writing? Or is it something huge is going to happen to America?

Then it hit me....like a brick to the face. [SIDEBAR: I am going to break my rule and start talking about Politics here]. I really think that we are not going to get out of this crisis...things are just going to get worse. I think, no let me change that....I know that something is happening to America. Can't put my finger on it, but something is happening that we are not going to recover from. Whether it be as Daniel-In-The-Den says in his latest blog entry: A New Year Prediction or just the economic crisis reaching even lower. Just something.

It hit me this morning: I was floored when the TODAY show had a Scientologist on the show defending their religion. When someone in the Christian faith could not do so. They would edit it or interrupt them. There have been many times that people of faith have been seen as the crazy ones, the ones who "leave their brains at the doorway" - and we are not allowed to defend ourselves. I'm not saying that I want people to be able to defend themselves on TV - we have the Lord on our side who needs TV's right? I know God works in mysterious ways....its just so sad to see how crazy we have gotten.

Sorry to rant like this but.....everything is totally screwed up.