Merry Christmas from the Nixons!!

Merry Ho Ho Everyone!!!!

I just wanted to send out our Christmas card electronically as well as paper in case I missed someone. First, though, the family made a little video for you. :)  From all of us to all of you, Merry Merry.

Click Here

And Here's the Xmas card!

Clipped the side part on the back because I didn't want to put our address on the world wide internetssssss.

So thankful for this season this year, and yet very aware that this time of year brings a lot of pain, whether from loss, tragedy (as we have recently heard so much about), or tension between in family. So fitting that the enemy would seek to 'steal, kill and destroy' (John 10:10) the abundant life God has for us. Praying this season that we all surround ourselves with the truth of the Gospel, and that come glory or pain, trial or blessing, you would relish in the gift God so freely gave us - His Son. May His life be enough for ours!

Merry Christmas! 

Arise Africa Christmas Catalog! *Link Fixed

Hey Gang,

I am super privileged to serve on a Board of a Ministry called Arise Africa.  Arise is run by a close friend of mine, Alissa Hollimon. She is an uber-talented, uber-passionate woman who fell in love with Africa and is passionate about feeding and educating its orphaned youth.  We do a Christmas Catalog every year, and this years' is truly incredible. Need a gift idea for someone you love? Why not buy some text books for a child in their name?  Click on the box below to check out our catalog!! :) Merry Merry!

UPDATE: I FIXED THE LINK!!! CHECK IT OUT!

Check out our Christmas Catalog!

Well Hello, Little Blog. Meet Evie Leigh.

Hello There.

My name is Callie, and I have a blog. Kind of. Brief Hiatus was had. The LONG kind of brief. However, in that time, MANY things have happened and I'm excited to hopefully dust off this sweet little vessel for keeping friends and family near and far away (and interested...) on the goings-on of the Nixon Household.

Couple 'o bullet points:
* I got pregnant.
* We moved to Richardson.
* We had an A/C bust and water leaks and moved back in with my sweet parental units for 8 weeks.
* We remodeled our kitchen. (Go Summey Industries)
* I'm still pregnant.
* We move back in.
* I complete certification to be a Bradley Certified Childbirth Educator. {call me}.
* I sing in about 14 weddings.
* I have a baby! August 16, 2012. Sweet Evie Leigh.


I think about covers the basic gist.  Anyhoo, Fall in our house has included the "Newborn Vortex."
I think that I'm beginning to exit the whirling cycle of crazy that is newborns. Almost 3 months. Hello again, world.  So, that being said, prayerfully this blog will once again come alive with colorful pictures of giggling babies.

To start things of right, here's a picture book of our Fall.
Welcome back to Blog Land, Nixons.

Manhattan Defends Freedom of Insurance Coverage

Got this in my mailbox today. It's heart breaking but stirring at the same time. Half a million people have already signed! Please help and join in!


Take Action to Defend Religious Liberty


Dear Manhattan Declaration Signer,

We have arrived at the crisis point we knew would come. Our religious liberties are in the greatest peril and we need you to act immediately and sign this petition.  

Our federal government, charged under the Constitution not only to respect, but to protect and defend, our most fundamental freedoms, has now imposed upon people of all faiths a mandate that their institutions provide insurance to their employees to pay for abortion inducing drugs, surgical sterilizations, and contraceptives. There is, for all intents and purposes, no recognition of the rights of conscience for those Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or other faith-based employers to be free of this imposition.

The Catholic Church, as the largest provider of faith-based education, health care, and social services for the poor, is on the front lines of the struggle, but because of the required abortion drug coverage and the violation of religious freedom at the heart of the mandate, it is a struggle that implicates all believers. If the mandate is rammed down the throats of Catholics, no people of faith will be safe.

The Catholic bishops of the United States, dozens of whom are signers of the Manhattan Declaration, have made clear that they cannot and will not bend to the mandate. If forced to choose between the law of Christ and the edict of Caesar, they have no doubt about which master they will serve. If necessary, they are prepared to close institutions, and even go to jail, rather than comply with a human dictate in violation of what they believe, in conscience, to be the will of God.

All of us pledged such fidelity in the Manhattan Declaration. We saw this day coming, though few of us realized it would come so soon. Now we face the test: Will we, as we promised to do, “ungrudgingly give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but under no circumstances give to Caesar what belongs to God”?

For our part, we renew our pledge to each other and to each of you. We ask you to do the same. Let us not scatter in fear or yield our precious spiritual and constitutional rights. Let us stand with the Catholic bishops and with those of every faith who will stand with us in the defense of religious liberty and the rights of conscience.

We ask you to do two things:
First, we posted on the Manhattan Declaration website a petition to President Obama prepared by the Becket Fund, which we’re asking everyone to sign. Please let your friends know about this petition. Get 10 others to come to the ManhattanDeclaration.org website to sign it, and at the same time ask them to sign the Manhattan Declaration itself if they haven’t already. Please encourage all of your friends, family, and colleagues to sign it today! Those who would deny our liberties need to know millions of Christians are standing together to oppose them.

Second, we are also raising funds to hire a full-time helper with the Manhattan Declaration enterprise. The list of Manhattan Declaration signers could now double, and there will be significant grass roots activity that we want to encourage.  Up until now, three of the sponsoring ministries have provided funding and part-time staff support. To get the job done we must have a separate staff dedicated to the work of the Manhattan Declaration movement. We haven’t had staff enough to answer all the correspondence let alone do some events. 

If you can make a donation to help with this, please do so, but not at the expense of your church or other Christian organizations. We are asking you to contribute only if you can make an extra, sacrificial gift above and beyond your regular donations. Only twice have we asked the Manhattan Declaration signers to make a gift and you responded.  However, if there is a moment for sacrifice, the moment is now.

Like no other time in recent American history we must stand together no matter the consequences. May God use our strong alliance to prevent this outrageous attack on our most fundamental civil liberty.

Sincerely,

Chuck Colson
Robert George
Timothy George


The Manhattan Declaration is a non-partisan statement of conscience in defense of human life, traditional marriage and religious freedom.


Visit us online at www.manhattandeclaration.org

Watermark Gots a Facelift.

I go to Watermark Community Church. They got themselves a new SMASHING website.
Best part? You can listen to services live streaming! Hot ma zing!
I took a screen shot. Looks like this.

Now you can watch in your jammies with your coffee and not worry about who all is going to see your praise dance while you are worshipping!

Wahooey!

Pedastals

One thing I totally respect about Larry King - he is fearless.  I found this clip with Jennifer Knapp regarding her sexuality and a pastor from a church really interesting (and disheartening).  I didn't walk away encouraged by either one of them. Oh Lord we try to draw lines in shades of gray when you have made them much darker. We also try to darken lines you have made light. 



also an interesting interview in Christianity Today.

LIFE | There's Not an Ap For That.

My brother in law passed along this incredible few words on the reality of Steve Jobs passing. I loved it. I have heard/read so many pithy, quick witted, "Steve Jobs was successful on earth but not in Heaven"-type twitter posts that I kind of had to surpress my gag reflex.  Christians, are we that calloused that we comment on someone's eternity in 160 words or less? I don't know Ryan Bricker, but I'm thankful for his words.

From: Ryan xxxxxxx@xxxx.com
Date: October 6, 2011 11:16:44 AM CDT

Subject: LIFE
'There not an Ap for that'

I feel compelled to share some thoughts in light of Steve Jobs passing. Thoughts that may be very hard for us to accept and to proclaim to a lost world. Without question, I can offer up my utmost respect and dignified remorse to Steve’s family, his friends and his fans for their loss. And all of them are fully deserved of their own loss and grief. And while I fully understand the need to reflect on all his accomplishments and his undeniable success, even still I have been utterly blown away by the responses I have seen and read in the media.
But it’s at this very moment in time at this unique juxtaposition of life, death, wealth and success that we can see all that Solomon spoke of in Ecclesiastics, ”….meaningless..meaningless “

The morning news shows are filled with stories of how he “changed the world!”, and “changed our lives” and interviews with Apple executives and devoted followers leaving flower shrines at Apple stores and how their lives we ever changed by Apple. Facebook and Twitter posts are going rampant on with adorations, and condolences at the world’s great loss.

All of Apple’s influence and accomplishments is last week’s news. Today’s news is about coming to the end of your life. And if there is anything to see here, it’s that 7 billion dollars can’t save your life or even sustain your life for one more day. It’s that technology will not save us, and that all our empires mean nothing when we leave the earth. Eventually, all the ipods and all the Macs in the world (even mine) will return back to the silicon from which they came.

The continual notion that He or apple has “changed our lives”, should make us ask ourselves, “What is life about?”. Apple is not life (ironically is brought death in the Garden), the things of this world are not life. Jesus alone came that we would have life and have it to the fullest. And even so you and I and the world fill our lives over and over again with more and more crap hoping that this trip to the well will be the last.

All the “i-world” has exposed is our ever quenching thirst for “ i ”, (ourselves) to be entertained and to be distracted. For us, life is found in our entertainment, in any way we can fill the silence and interrupt any stillness that may cause us to “really feel” or “really hear”.

I’ve watched people camp out for weeks in the heat of a Texas summer to be the first in line to get a new version of a phone they already have, and that will be available to everyone that same day. It looks like Zaccaeus climbing up a tree, or friends of a leper on the roof lowering their friend down to get the new Ipad at times in these stores. The same zeal for the search of life, but that well will not bring life, you’ll need to keep going back to draw water. (by design). If your life has been changed by instant access to your entire music collection, or a computer that fits in your purse or by Angry Birds, then where was your life to begin with?

I will never forget the time I was at the Grand Canyon watching an amazing sunset. I couldn’t help but to notice one girl amongst the entire crowd. Hers was the only head not peering out into the vast canyon. No hers was bowed down deep into her lap doing something else, something very intently. And then she shrugged to the side, seemingly annoyed by everyone else in the isles and I could see what it was that she was so reverently connected to, a Nintendo gameboy. I sat in amazement as the sun was setting and noticed she had never lifted her head, not even for a moment. Never did she even glance at one of the most beautiful places on earth. Eventually the crowd at the canyon’s edge were too distracting, so she actually turned her back to the canyon and the crowd, perhaps to get a better shadow and contrast on her 3 inch game screen. And as sad as I became to see a generation that seemed so lost that they could not disconnect for one moment of man-made entertainment, I was even sadder to think that they could not even recognize anything that wasn’t.
So when I reflect on Steve Jobs I ask the question that Jesus asked.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” – Jesus
I did not know Steve nor do I know what his last moments entailed (I am not his judge), but by all accounts he was an eastern religion spiritualist or Buddhist. At the moment of our death nothing done in our life will matter, no greatness we leave behind will mean anything. We will be face to face with the God of the universe who will look for our name in the book of life written in blood red ink from Jesus alone, the author of life.

There’s not an ‘Ap’ for that.
Glory to the King of Kings alone!

-Ryan (Even so I would like an Ipad for Christmas)