Hello all! I just wanted to let you know that I have moved from blogger to wordpress, if you would like to visit me in my new place please go to www.heatherroseschaffner.wordpress.com
Friday, November 09, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Halloween and Leaving the Light On
I received this today in an e-mail and found it to be very convicting of us as Christians and how we portray our "light". I hope you are encouraged and convicted as well.
"This is part of a very helpful post Tim Challies did on how to love your neighbors on Halloween:
I am guessing my neighbourhood is all-too-typical in that people typically arrive home from work and immediately drive their cars into the garage. More often than not they do not emerge again until the next morning when they leave for work once more. We are private, reclusive people who delight in our privacy. We rarely see our neighbors and rarely communicate with them. . . . In the six years we have been living in this area, we have never once had a neighbor come to the door to ask for anything. . . . Yet on Halloween these barriers all come down. I have the opportunity to greet every person in the neighbourhood. I have the opportunity to introduce myself to the family who moved in just down the row a few weeks ago and to greet some other people I have not seen for weeks or months. At the same time, those people's children will come knocking on my door. We have two possible responses. We can turn the lights out and sit inside, seeking to shelter ourselves from the pagan influence of the little Harry Potters, Batmans and ballerinas, or we can greet them, gush over them, and make them feel welcome. We can prove ourselves to be the family who genuinely cares about our neighbours, or we can be the family who shows that we want to interact with them only on our terms. Most of our neighbors know of our faith and of our supposed concern for them. This is a chance to prove our love for them.
The same contributor to the email list concluded his defense of participating in Halloween with these words: "One night does not a neighbor make (and one night does not a pagan make), but Halloween is the one night of the year where the good neighborliness that flows from being in Christ is communicated and reinforced. We are citizens of another Kingdom where The Light is always on."
The truth is that I have several convictions regarding Halloween. I despise the pagan aspects of it. I am convicted that my children should not dress as little devils or ghosts or monsters. But I am also convicted that there could be no worse witness to the neighbours than having a dark house, especially in a neighbourhood like ours which is small and where every person and every home is highly-visible. We know that, if we choose not to participate, the neighbors will notice and will smile knowingly, supposing that we feel too good to participate.
. . . Our door will be open and the light will be on. And we trust that the Light will shine brightly.
My encouragement to you today is to think and pray about this issue. I do not see Halloween as a great evangelistic occasion. I do not foresee it as a time when the people coming to your door are likely to be saved. But I do think it is a time that you can prove to your neighbors that you care about them, that you care about their children, and that you are glad to be in this world and this culture, even if you are not of this world or this culture. Halloween may serve as a bridge to the hearts of those who live around you who so desperately need a Savior."
"This is part of a very helpful post Tim Challies did on how to love your neighbors on Halloween:
I am guessing my neighbourhood is all-too-typical in that people typically arrive home from work and immediately drive their cars into the garage. More often than not they do not emerge again until the next morning when they leave for work once more. We are private, reclusive people who delight in our privacy. We rarely see our neighbors and rarely communicate with them. . . . In the six years we have been living in this area, we have never once had a neighbor come to the door to ask for anything. . . . Yet on Halloween these barriers all come down. I have the opportunity to greet every person in the neighbourhood. I have the opportunity to introduce myself to the family who moved in just down the row a few weeks ago and to greet some other people I have not seen for weeks or months. At the same time, those people's children will come knocking on my door. We have two possible responses. We can turn the lights out and sit inside, seeking to shelter ourselves from the pagan influence of the little Harry Potters, Batmans and ballerinas, or we can greet them, gush over them, and make them feel welcome. We can prove ourselves to be the family who genuinely cares about our neighbours, or we can be the family who shows that we want to interact with them only on our terms. Most of our neighbors know of our faith and of our supposed concern for them. This is a chance to prove our love for them.
The same contributor to the email list concluded his defense of participating in Halloween with these words: "One night does not a neighbor make (and one night does not a pagan make), but Halloween is the one night of the year where the good neighborliness that flows from being in Christ is communicated and reinforced. We are citizens of another Kingdom where The Light is always on."
The truth is that I have several convictions regarding Halloween. I despise the pagan aspects of it. I am convicted that my children should not dress as little devils or ghosts or monsters. But I am also convicted that there could be no worse witness to the neighbours than having a dark house, especially in a neighbourhood like ours which is small and where every person and every home is highly-visible. We know that, if we choose not to participate, the neighbors will notice and will smile knowingly, supposing that we feel too good to participate.
. . . Our door will be open and the light will be on. And we trust that the Light will shine brightly.
My encouragement to you today is to think and pray about this issue. I do not see Halloween as a great evangelistic occasion. I do not foresee it as a time when the people coming to your door are likely to be saved. But I do think it is a time that you can prove to your neighbors that you care about them, that you care about their children, and that you are glad to be in this world and this culture, even if you are not of this world or this culture. Halloween may serve as a bridge to the hearts of those who live around you who so desperately need a Savior."
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
::Joshua Tree-Kaleo 2007::
A few weekends ago I went camping out in Joshua Tree with Kaleo. It was such an amazing time to build friendships and have great fellowship. These are just some of the pictures from hiking, climbing and traveling with the gnome.....
Fire!
So on Saturday as we were trying to figure out why there was no water coming out of the faucets in our house, we walked outside and saw that there was a fire. I got a few pics of some of the planes that were flying over head. I thought that they were pretty cool. They look a lot further away then they actually were. I felt like I could have reached up and touched them! Mom was a little bit worried at the fact that our water pump had gone out in the well(that was why there was no water coming out of the faucets) and there was a fire so close to the house. But it all worked out and the fire dept. had the fire out within an hour!
Monday, October 08, 2007
No More Payments
I just have to say that I will now have $500 a month back from my paycheck due to the lovely fact that my car is now paid off!!!!!! Such a HUGE bill lifted off my shoulders. I love this feeling and I told my mom I never want to have a car payment again. Honda Civics last forever anyways, so I shouldn't have to get a new car for quite some time :)
Monday, September 24, 2007
The battles faced at work
Over the past few weeks, God has really been working on my heart towards the people that I work with. He has been stretching me and testing me in ways that I never really had put much thought into. We recently hired some new people in my department, one of which is a christian. I have been in a few situations where I see how this person reacts or responds to different things that have to do with training for his job. The reaction that i saw in this person was a bit shocking and I started to take offense to it, the other people in the office were also a bit shocked. It bothered me because in my mind I thought he should react one way and he didn't. I felt that I was right and he was in the wrong. It's something that I have truly struggled with over the past few weeks, but then someone brought up a good point and it really hit home. They said Heather don't let his sin cause you to sin also. By him reacting the way that he did, it caused me to be bitter and basically have not held him in high regards. I know that is not healthy or the way that God wants us to treat others around us, especially someone who is a brother or sister in the Lord. It was rather convicting because I wonder how many times I have been in that same situation and never thought twice about it. It also helped soften my heart towards him and to realize that no matter what that person says or does, or whether they are christians or not that we are called to love one another. God showed me a verse that I have heard many a times....But seemed to hit me more then ever before.
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35
It was challenging to me because I don't know that I was showing love towards this person. And that is a clear way that God tells us they will know we are his disciples...if we love.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Growing
Over the past month or so I have been visiting a church that I have come to really enjoy and love! I had been praying about where God wanted me to be fellowshipping and also where he wanted me serving. I have been going to Calvary Chapel Murrieta since the middle of third grade, so it is difficult moving churches when you have gone to the same place for over 16 years! It also makes it a bit harder when the rest of my family is still going to CCM. But God has led me to Faith Bible Church in the Temecula/Murrieta area. It is a much smaller church then I am used to though and will take a bit of adjusting but it is where God has led me and I have been blessed beyond belief! The first Sunday that I visited this lady came up to me and started talking with me and just getting to know me, she was real and genuine and wanted to know about me and what led me there. I told her that I had been praying about moving churches and so I decided to visit here, but that one of the things that was holding me back from moving was the serving aspect. I know that when you move churches a lot of people end up being disconnected from serving and I really didn't want that to happen but usually you have to be going to church for a certain amount of time before you can start serving. Anyways, this woman (Jean is her name) was just such a blessing to me and an encouragement. She told me that if God wants me somewhere that He would work all of that out. Come to find out she was actually was going to be teaching the kindergartners along with a girl that I know from Kaleo. This was perfect because I have been teaching Kindergarten for about 5 years and taught 4 year olds before that. She said that I could help them with serving there! So I have officially made the switch and I start serving in Children's ministry next Sunday! It's been really neat because a lot of the people that go to the college group on Sunday Nights go there, and it has been such a blessing to have fellowship with people after church and just hang out. I cannot wait to see all that God does in this switch! I'm sure there will be a lot of changes and growth in my life from it and I just pray that He will use me and guide me in a mighty way!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Retreat Time
So I need some ideas. I'm in charge of games at the Kaleo Retreat that is coming up and I need some really good unique team building games to do with College age people. Any ideas? I would love to hear some :) any help is good....
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