Help bring our daughter home from Ethiopia!

This very cool shirt comes in sizes Adult Small, Medium, Large and X-Large. We also have a some child sizes, youth Small and Medium. We are asking $20, and all profits will go towards our adoption travel expenses to bring our little girl home from Ethiopia! It's no problem if you need your order mailed to you, but just add $3 for each shirt.

Let us know if you would like one OR MORE! :)
(email me or my wife, Tammy at ... heytams AT gmail.com)


THANK YOU!

Auction Item for our Adoption!

Mrs. Martin will beautifully HAND ADDRESS your Christmas cards, baby announcements, etc... whatever style you like best!! This lady is amazingly talented and her handwriting is beautiful... you will be amazed! She can do it however you like - print, scrolly, fancy, fun, whatever. She can write your return address or you can provide labels. You will just need to provide us the envelopes and the addresses.
She can do it super early if you want to get it checked off your list! How NICE to not have to worry about this during all of the craziness surrounding the up and coming holidays!!

If you live in our area, we can deliver the envelopes to and from Mrs. Martin. If you don't, you can still bid, and we can ship them back to you, envelopes beautifully addressed and ready to stuff and mail!

Here are some examples of her work..






Send me an email with your bid (kentpjones at gmail.com), or a message on FB.

Remember, not only do you get this service, all proceeds go towards the travel expenses to bring our Ethiopian daughter home!!!!

Our Adoption

As you may know, we are adopting a little girl from Ethiopia (God knows her face and name) and one of the ways we want to try and raise some money is through a silent online auction. You may have seen it before through friends, but it is kind of a new idea since technology has become so easy to use and communicate with mass groups of people! We are blessed to know so many people that have something valuable to offer others (skill/talent/product) and have a compassionate heart for children/Christ/the orphan, and/or our family. God has surrounded us with tremendous friends/family!

I have already asked many, and so many are excited to be a part! We are extremely grateful for their generosity and willingness to help bring our little girl home!! Thank you! God has been SO good in providing what we need thus far, and we KNOW He will continue to do so, hopefully using our fundraisers! :) There are still pending expenses surrounding the adoption, but a BIG one is travel since we have to make two trips to Ethiopia. The projected expenses are approximately $8,000 - $10,000. So, our goal is to raise the funds for travel. We know it is huge, but God can do it!
Our first fundraiser is this Silent Online Auction.

So, this is how it will work... I am sending an email/message/post to all of our connections near and far of the item up for auction, and give it a certain amount of time. Whoever has the highest bid wins the product!! If you want to bid, just shoot me an email (kentpjones at gmail.com), message me on FB, or respond to an email I send and we will mark your bid down. When the allotted time is up, we will make the announcement of the winning bidder!!

Thank you so much for considering bidding and helping us bring our daughter home!

The Consecration of Jonathan Edwards

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:33

I’m confident that I didn’t understand all that was required when I came to faith in Christ at the young age of six. All I knew at that time was that I wanted the benefit of knowing for sure I’d be in heaven one day. I had no clue what Jesus was demanding from me if I was to be a follower of His, and not sure a six year old even can really comprehend all the implications of surrendering a life to a God who requires everything from me. Renouncing everything then and now—all my dreams, all my plans for life, all my money, all my comforts, all my security, all my possessions, all of me. Even a quick glance at even a few passages in the Gospels will lead to an understanding as to why so many people turned away when Jesus listed what was required to be a follower of His.

Following Jesus is so much more than praying some superstitious sinner’s prayer, hoping to get out of hell. If that’s all there is to following Jesus, well, then that’s a cheap Gospel. In fact, based on scripture, that’s a false Gospel. The true and and Biblical Gospel calls for unconditional complete abandonment of all that I am and all that I have for all that He is and all He’s done. Plain and simple, that’s it. It’s all or nothing.

This past week I was reminded again of the words of Jonathan Edwards that relates to this subject. I’ve been encouraged and challenged when I read this, and desire to confidently say in unison with Edwards, “I have given myself wholly to Him”. So easy to say, but an entirely different thing to actually do. The demands of Jesus are heavy and costly. But in light of what Jesus did at the cross, no matter what He demands, He’s so obviously worth it.

“I claim no right to myself—no right to this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me; neither do I have any right to this body or its members—no right to this tongue, to these hands, feet, ears, or eyes. I have given myself clear away and not retained anything of my own. I have been to God this morning and told Him I have given myself wholly to Him. I have given every power, so that for the future I claim no right to myself in any respect. I have expressly promised Him, for by His grace I will not fail. I take Him as my whole portion and felicity, looking upon nothing else as any part of my happiness. His law is the constant rule of my obedience. I will fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil to the end of my life. I will adhere to the faith of the Gospel, however hazardous and difficult the profession and practice of it may be. I pray God for the sake of others, to look upon this as a self-dedication, and receive me as His own. Henceforth, I am not to act in any respect as my own. I purpose to be absolutely His.”

-Jonathan Edwards

One Line Connects History from Creation to Eternity

The Line Video from Jonathan Culp on Vimeo.

John Piper & Rick Warren

Interesting clip of Piper talking about Rick Warren...good stuff.

Husbands Love Your Wives

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her... Ephesians 5:25

I’ve been teaching on the subject of marriage the last three weeks and while studying, thought much about what Paul says about how I’m to love my wife. If I’m to love Tammy as Christ loved the church, I have to look to the example of Christ and His relationship with the church.

So, how did Christ love the church? He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. He was full of grace, full of unconditional love, love without strings attached, love that would always be there, love that would never leave. Much, much more could be said here about the way Christ loved the church, but the few I’ve listed above are the ones I’ve been thinking about most.

And so, when I consider the many ways Christ loved the church and the implications it has on me and how I am to love my wife, I’ve got a lot on my plate if I’m to live up to the calling God has placed on me as Tammy’s husband. I’m far from being the perfect husband, but the model Christ has given is definitely something to strive towards.