God begins to provide.

Brenda and I signed up for a short term mission trip to Israel a few weeks ago on Sept. 21. We had to have the money for the down payment to secure our places on the trip by Oct. 5. I had been saving for a new road bicycle, but I am sure of God's desire for us to go on this trip, so I figured this was much more important. They will still have nice shiny new bikes another time and my bike still works. With that money we were still $100 short.

Brenda had already planned to have a yard sale the following Friday and Saturday. So we decided that any of the money that she made would go toward the trip. After VERY disappointing sales, she totaled up $89 and some change. She was very discouraged because she had prayed that God would just provide $100.

The next day, Sunday, she dumped her purse out on the bed so she could change purses for the day (she was going to use her "Day of the Triphods" purse. It is suede with feathers and fake fur on top. It scares me, I've seen too many movies where slimy tentacles crawl out of things like that). When she turned her purse upside down, out fell a $10 bill that she had forgotten about! The day before the yard sale a lady from church had dropped by to see if she could buy some baby clothes. She gave Brenda the $10 for a garbage bag full of clothes. We both praised God with the girls for His provision.

I understand that $100 may seem like a paltry sum. It isn't the amount that God provides, it is the promise God keeps! He has promised to fulfill our needs, and that is what He did! In fact, after all the totaling, we now have $125 toward our next payment due on Nov. 1.

Proverbs 30: 8-9 says, "Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."

We serve a God who richly provides in His time and in His way!!

New Translation!

Proverbs 23:9

King James Version (KJV):
"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words."

Chris Gravesen Version (CGV):
"Don't waste your time arguing with an idiot!"


WORDS TO LIVE BY!!!

An Introduction

If you aren’t a friend or family member, you have stumbled on to the blog of the Indiana chapter of the Gravesen family. I’m Chris, I’ll do most of the blogging. My beautiful wife is Brenda, and we have two angelic daughters, Cecily, age 7, and Corinna, age 5. The idea of the blog is “Serving God with a Goofy Heart”, and that is a fair description of our family. We love to laugh and play and a lot of the blog entries to come will highlight the fact that our family motto is ‘NORMAL IS BORING!’, but some will be very serious because not all of life is goofy. But in all of these entries I will do my best to always glorify God the Father, who sent his Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for our sins. We hope our lives, faith, and ideas will be an encouragement to you.