Beyond The Red Door

Welcome to our family's blogging home - where I share life beyond our red door! I hope that you will enjoy your visit with us.

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Things That Make Me Smile

Seeing the kids reading their Bibles on their own
Hearing the ocean
Smelling a cake baking
Remembering our wedding day
Singing in the church choir
Shopping for my family
Feeling good
Reading in the tub
A quiet house
Watching a funny movie with the kids
Seeing my kids playing a game together
Ron's little finger dance
Hearing my kids being excited about church
Watching Ron play with Faith (our dog)
Hearing Ron snoring beside me after he has been gone on a long trip
Chatting with special friends
Feeling hot sand under my feet on a beach somewhere
Game night with Brian & Kim and kids
Spending one on one time with Kim
Double Dating With Brian and Kim
A clean house
Sitting on my front porch in my new rockers
Walking on a cool evening with my family
Losing weight
Seeing my kids make a great play on the soccer field

About The Hunters

My dear sweet hubby, Ron, and I have been married for 20+ years. We began dating during my freshman year at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville. He is my college sweetheart. We have ministered together in various ministries during our lives together. We pastored for 10 years in Florida. We moved to TN in 2000 to Co-Pastor with some friends of ours. The Lord has given me a fabulous provider whom I love more than any words I write could ever express. He is now the CEO at our denomination's publishing company, Randall House Publications. I am honored to support him.

Our oldest child is named Michael. He is now officially a teenager, although I don't think I'm old enough to have a teenager. He is a very sweet and considerate young man. He is my thinker and my reader. He absorbs every piece of new information that he comes across. He loves playing soccer, riding his bike, skateboarding, reading, watching the History Channel, the Military Channel, ESPN and any documentary on TV. I am privileged to be his Mother.

Lauren is our youngest child. She is just 15 months behind her brother in age. She is wise beyond her years. She has a sharp-witted tongue (which sometimes has to be tamed), a quick sense of humor and a heart for people and animals. She loves organizing anything and everything. She loves being with her friends, singing, talking on her cell phone and playing soccer. I am blessed to be her Mother.

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. - Kathleen Norris

On My Nightstand

When I Lay My Isaac Down by Carol Kent
Esther: It's Tough Being A Woman by Beth Moore
NIV Life Application Study Bible

Back On The Bookshelf 2009

~Beyond The Red Door~

Oct. 6, 2009
From The Inside Out

Is this your prayer? It should be for all of us as Christians.

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Oct. 1, 2009
Lessons Learned

Posted in Studying The Word

I have been doing Beth Moore's newest study on Esther. We just finished Week 3. Every day of homework this past week has reached up off the page and shook me to the core. I wanted to share some of the thoughts I've had. We met last night and discussed a lot of it. It's so hard for me not to spend the whole study doing all the talking. Beth just brings it out in me. She is incredible!!! Anyway, I'm not gonna rehash the study. I'm just gonna mention some of the lines from each day that spoke to me. And I will say a few things about how it challenged me. Let me know if any of them shake you up like they did me.

"No matter how we sparkle at church or Bible study, on earth we still have pain. Instead of going ahead and feeling the pain, processing it before God, and letting HIm heal us, sometimes we opt for a trade-in. We swap pain for anger because it's easier for a while, and boy, can it be energizing!" - OUCH!!! Ain't that the truth?! Anger is so much easier than dealing with the real problem. It's easy to REACT instead of ACT on the actual issue at the root. I will admit that I have had issues with anger in my life. Doing Beth's study, Breaking Free, years ago helped me to deal with it. It is not a healthy way to respond to anything. It never brings good results. It ALWAYS brings more hurt. And it's the easy way out.

"Because Satan has a limited leash where believers are concerned, his most powerful tactics are psychological. Thought he can't possess our minds, he profoundly and destructively influences our thoughts." - now I KNOW if you are human then your thought life has given you problems just as mine has mine. I just really figured this principle out a few years ago. Satan can't control our actions but he can control our thoughts which lead us to control our actions in such a way that is unhealthy for us spiritually, emotionally and physically. He can make us THINK we are a bad parent because of some specific sin in our life. He can make us THINK we are a failure because we aren't losing weight. He can make us THINK we aren't a Christian because he has made us THINK we are unloveable. See the pattern! THAT is the reason we need to focus on the Word. When those thoughts overtake us we should replace those thoughts with promises from scripture. Make Satan huff his way out of your head. Let him know he is wasting his time on you. MAJOR lesson for me!!

"The beautifully frustrating part of Satan's insatiable bloodlust is that ultimately he cannot have what he wants...God always trumps Satan." That goes hand in hand with my remarks above. Praise the Lord!! I have the WINNER on my side!

The next thought is more of a soap-box thought - which I won't dwell on. But I just can't pass up mentioning it. "The enemies of the Jews in Esther were a small group in leadership". WHY IS IT THAT WE ALLOW THAT SMALL GROUP RULE WHAT THE MAJORITY FEEL/BELIEVE IS RIGHT??? Why do they get to "win"? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr - Ok, moving on!

"The heart can grow so hard that it no longer feels. It becomes callous. Seared...God designed conviction to be uncomfortable so that we'd hurry to repentance and find relief in restoration." I have found that when I put the Spirit off day after day about a certain matter he is dealing with me about I do feel further and further from Him. Conviction is VERY uncomfortable. But it lets me know just how close/far I am from God. When I start feeling less and less convicted about some sin in my life that should be a scary feeling. I want to rush to repentance and begin restoration at the first sign of conviction before I no longer FEEL the conviction.

The week has opened my eyes and led me to renew my relationship with the Lord. I want to live a victorious life - not one imprisoned by sin. On to week 4!

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Sep. 25, 2009
Challenged in Dallas

Posted in Got Teens?

This has been an amazing week full of challenging speakers who enjoyed dancing all over my toes - many many times. But we need sore toes every now and then to keep us straight I suppose.

I did have to work a lot this week. If you know me then you know that I avoid all manual labor as much as I possibly can. But I really did enjoy working alongside the Randall House team members in registration and at the book tables. The Lord blessed enormously!

I am ready to get home and put some of the lessons I have learned into practice. I hope that this will make an incredible difference all across the United States. I will have to ask Ron where the person is from who came the farthest. But when I was working the pre-registration tables we checked a guy in from New York state. I know that next year we will blow this year's attendance out of the water. Once these 1600 people go home and share the excitement and spread the word I expect the numbers to double for the next one. It will be in the same location - Frisco/Dallas and around the same time (September) but I don't have exact dates yet.

I tweeted and updated my FB status a lot with various comments that the speakers would say when something would strike me. I was truly challenged by Rob Rienow, the author of Visionary Parenting. He said "the enemy tells our children not to share their heart with their parents". Do you see that in your home? Your children clamming up when you try to talk to them? I DO!!!! That's why this was so startling to me. He also talked about returning our hearts to our children instead of everywhere else or in places it shouldn't be at all. WOW! Later on he said "the shortest distance between your child's heart and Christ is YOU". Of course it's great and important to take them to church and youth group. But our primary goal should be to disciple our children ourselves. That's what D6 is all about.

Whew - I could almost shout thinking about the amazing ways I was challenged. As I let more of it sink in I will certainly be sharing more here. It's just the beginning!!

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