Hi, we're Seth and Rachel Rader.

Monday, February 23, 2015

We Were Made For This...

Body builders and power lifters practice this, ergonomic chair makers design for this, parents watch this in their children for years but never see it. 

Let it begin...

Standing near the front at my church often leads to seeing many people come to the alter, kneeling, laying before God or just crying out, but what struck me the most is that as I watched others do this my knees begin to ache from standing for forty-five minutes.
At this moment the Holy Spirit gave me a revelation.
Why is it that one of the top ergonomic ( proper body aligning ) chairs is a kneeling chair which is designed to put the body in a kneeling position?  Why do power lifters and body builders say "squat deep", "go beyond parallel" and "make the knees bend"?  Why do parents bandage and kiss five million scraped knees before their children are ten?  

Sunday, February 8, 2015

The Wall Builder Challenge

Do you remember being challenged as a child?  Double-dog dares, or God forbid the triple-dog dares with no backsies! God knows that desire in me keeps me going; it pushes me to do what I wouldn't allow in my comfort bubble at other times.  It's that desire of being "the one" to have done that, or having accomplished that, or even to have just lived that.

Dead battery(jump-starters please)...

A young couple gave a message this morning at church.  It was a great message that I needed more than I realized, at least until I found myself weeping, on my knees, at the alter.  All the while not understanding what but knowing something had broken that had been strained under tension for far too long.  The message that caused such reckoning?  Repair the Breach!(At least that's my title for it) A powerful message about restoring the walls of our homes, our families, our lives. We, as God's children, joint heirs to the throne, and Christ's followers, are designed, but more like molded to do the impossible.  This is where God's dare kicked in.

Monday, January 26, 2015

7 Day Challenge

Every year a couple from church preaches a foundational message about marriage, how to keep it strong, keeping Christ in the focus of it, and how to re-engage each other as not only husband and wife but as best friends.  A main focus they hit on is the dying life of intimacy among married couples and the crucial need to bring it back.  Half of the congregation always roll their eyes while the other half shouts "Amen" with a strong fist pump!

7 Days...

Some friends of ours begin telling us about the same message given two years ago with a challenge; 21 days of intimate bedroom talk for each married couple.  Most failed after 3 days but for those who stuck to it, they were never the same.  Me being the one who never initiates intimacy in my marriage and almost always the one who turns it down knew that starting out with 21 days would be impossible.  7 days seemed the perfect number; enough to push us and grown us.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Tiny Gummy Bear Life

One month ago today my wife sprinted into the bedroom excitedly screaming what sounded like "wha-wha-wha-wha" at 5 am, but I soon discovered to be the announcement of our first pregnancy.  After panic, peace, joy, fear, anxiety and an uncontrollable urge to tell someone came in waves I grabbed a hold of the fact.   

Unprepared...

A very wise man pulled my wife and I aside, a few months prior, to tell us God had great plans for our family and our ministry and it would be when we least expected it.  Christmas day; yep that'll do it.  Needless to say my world flipped completely and for the first time in my marriage I felt utterly helpless.