Finding Joy In Saturday

I’m thinking today about the day before the Resurrection. I mean that Sabbath day before Jesus rose on the first day of the week. Last night at our Good Friday service our pastor spoke about the times when it seems God is silent, and it was a good service. Now, I know that God is not silent, I know that we have His word and this is how we hear Him speak to us. But there are times we may feel very much like He is not moving. This, I believe, is why we must not trust our feelings. Maybe we’re praying fervently and we feel like our prayers are not reaching beyond the ceiling. Maybe we find ourselves in a period of soul depth and wonder if God even cares. Maybe we read His word and feel like we’re hearing nothing. I’m stressing feelings for a reason, bear with me, please.

Our pastor last night spoke about the passage when Lazarus died. (John 11) He talked about how when Jesus heard that His friend, the one whom the messengers described as, “he whom You love,” was ill. The Bible says very clearly here that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And yet, He stayed two more days where He was before going to them. We talked about how it is quite likely that by the time the messenger got to Jesus Lazarus may have already been dead, because when Jesus got there Lazarus had been in the grave for 4 days.

Martha and Mary and those with them must have desired Jesus to come immediately, must have earnestly desired that. Yet He waited. He was not working on their time table. He had His own purpose in mind, and He will do what He purposes to do. He said plainly in John 11:15, “And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.” Though they wanted to see Lazarus healed from his illness, Jesus’ purpose was higher - it was that they would believe. It was an eternal purpose, specifically that they would believe that He is the resurrection and the life. See John 11:25. When you think about it, what a blessing that He gave them this gift right before He, Himself, went to the cross. He clearly demonstrated to them that He is Lord over life and death.

So, though the people must have felt during those four days that Jesus wasn’t acting, He had a great and mighty purpose in His silence. I take great comfort in this. How I feel in any given circumstance pales in comparison to the knowledge that God is in control, He does care for His own, He has spoken, and He is sovereign. He is not silent, His purpose will be accomplished, and how I feel is not where I need to focus. Sometimes the answer I seek is not God's purpose for me, and just as He had a great purpose in allowing Martha and Mary to go through the valley, I must trust Him in the midst of my own valleys. Rather than seeking to feel like God is speaking, I must rest in the security of His word and trust Him, in spite of feelings, and I must trust that He is working all things together for our good and for His glory.

I said I was thinking about the day before the Resurrection of Jesus. I cannot imagine what the disciples must have been feeling during that quiet Sabbath day. Specifically, I think of Peter. Can you imagine the agony of soul depth he must have experienced as he thought back and remembered how Jesus had told him that Satan had asked to sift him, but that Jesus had prayed for him? Can you imagine the agony of soul depth he was experiencing as he remembered Jesus’ eyes looking intently at him in the courtyard with the echo of the rooster’s crow fading? The Bible says he went out and wept bitterly. Have you ever wept bitterly at realizing just how enormously you’ve sinned? Have you ever come to that kind of poverty of spirit where you have been brought so low that you know that nothing you could bring would ever atone for your failure to love Him and obey Him and honor Him?

The thing is, we can call Friday, “Good Friday,” and we can find joy in Saturday, because we know what Sunday means. We know that Jesus, in suffering the cross, had a high and glorious purpose that those dismayed disciples couldn’t see on that Sabbath.....yet. If you think about it, though, Jesus had graciously prepared them, even for this. He had told them, more than once, that on the third day He would rise again.

And, glorious truth, He did! Jesus, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. His glorious purpose was to do His Father’s will in reconciling a people to Himself. You hear a lot of sentimental talk about how Jesus was thinking of you on the cross. You know what? I think we don’t really understand, I’m not sure we can fully understand, that His thought, as evidenced by His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, wasn’t simply a sentimental kind of love for us, but His thought was ever to do His Father’s will. Jesus’ consuming passion was to fulfill the will of the Father. It was the Father’s will that Jesus would die to redeem to Himself all who would place their faith in Christ. Yes, He loves us. Oh, what love! He loves us with an amazing and redeeming love. But to think of His love as a gushy, sentimental love doesn't go nearly far enough in comprehending. He loves us with a binding, covenant love. He doesn’t love us because we are lovable, or because there is anything in us that was seeking after Him. He loves us and endured the wrath our sin deserves because it brings the Father glory to show such grace and mercy. He loved us while we were yet sinners, while we were enemies of God, He loved us and provided the way of salvation. He demonstrated what He was thinking about us when He prayed for us, that those who would believe on Him would be one just as He and the Father are one. And it is a thought that brings me to my knees in wonder and awe to think that He has opened my eyes and drawn me to Him in His grace and mercy, and that He has broken the curse of sin and set this captive free to love Him and obey Him. We love Him because He first loved us! Oh, the wonder of His matchless, amazing, incomprehensible love! It is almost more than I can comprehend that He would love me, such a sinner, and forgive my sin and make me whole.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus! His grace and mercy are emphatically displayed in the cross. Let the things of this life grow dim and let me ever seek first His kingdom and His glory. And because He suffered the cross and rose again, my song can now be, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” All my works are as filthy rags, and it is true that nothing I could do or bring could ever atone for my sin. But praise God, Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world! Praise God that He loves us with a covenant love that clothes those who turn to Him in repentance and faith in His righteousness and that He is ever interceding for His people as our Advocate and great High Priest. And when we are tempted to feel that God is silent, let us think again what an amazing thing it is that He came, God With Us, that He endured the shame and mockery that are so scandalous to think of, and let us look again at the wonder of the cross and the power of His resurrection.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Unreal

Wow. I just tuned in to the news and am just stunned by the damage in St. Louis. Hard to believe it when I think how many times Drew has flown in and out of that airport. Praying for all of our friends in St. Louis today, and I'm thankful that from what I'm seeing on Facebook most of the people I know there seem to be doing okay this morning. I hope you're all safe! We love you guys.

When You Can't Think of a Blog Post....**Updated at bottom

You could spend all afternoon trying to redesign your blog header. And yes, I'm so graphic artistically untrained this did take all afternoon. I'm sure I could probably write a whole post about how that was wasted time, but, it is what it is now. I finally decided the other one I amateurishly designed was too busy or big or something....so I worked on this today. I think I need an opinion. Here's whatI came up with first this afternoon:

The type at the bottom is small - it's just what I have up there now without the blue background for the 'with lemon.'

Husband came home and I asked his opinion, and he said, "It's nice but you can't see the 'with lemon.' Can you just retype that part or put color behind it or something? I got prickly because the program I'm using is really amateur, seeing as I'm cheap and got it free online, and it's not super easy to use. It is not a matter of just retyping. It's a matter of redoing the whole thing. Then I repented the prickliness, because if you're going to ask an opinion, you better be willing to take the constructive criticism. I did want an honest opinion.

So, is it better the way I first did it,or the way it is now with the blue behind the yellow words? I feel like it emphasizes the 'with lemon' a little too much. Then again, since I'm still kind of plumbing the depths, so to speak, I am feeling a little more lemony than sweet at the moment. But I don't exactly want that to be what the blog header is saying when you first step onto the blog front porch.

Any thoughts? I promise that even if I feel prickly, I won't take it out on you. :-)

Update: Here's another one I think maybe will work as a compromise between the two since I like it w/o the blue better:

What do you think?

*Update again: Okay, I changed the font for the 'with lemon' part and added orange underneath the yellow. I think I like that one best. But I'll put the other one with the blue here so you know what it was and can still vote for it.

Okay, the header up there is, hopefully, the last change. Trying to decide now if I like this one better or the one I had up right before it with the Lemon in the same font as the Sweet Tea.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for other bloggers who write ‘Thankful Thursday’ posts, because, to be honest, I’d forgotten about thankfulness and Thursdays....again....until I pulled up my Google reader and saw what others had written today. I am humbled and ashamed when I think about how often I forget to stop and think about thankfulness, especially on Thursdays which seem to be one of my busiest days.

I’m thankful that faith is not dependent on how I feel. Again.

I’m so very thankful for the righteousness that comes from God, the only true righteousness, that depends on faith, not a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. What an amazing thing. And that is not just words, it is life.

I’m thankful for the book of Philippians and the Partnering to Remember project and the encouragement to hide God’s word in my heart. I’ve started going back and writing out notes on what I’ve memorized, and hope to be able to use it to encourage someone else as opportunity arises.

I’m thankful for periods of ‘the blues’ and for opportunities God uses to draw me close to Him and into His word for the only encouragement that will truly satisfy a sinking heart. And I’m thankful that no matter how low I feel, I will ever find the Rock of Ages upon which faith rests and is sustained. Thanks, Octavius Winslow, for that thought.

I’m thankful for joy that is deeper than momentary, or even longer than momentary, blues. The joy that is rooted in knowing Christ Jesus, the security that I may be found in Him and that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. The joy that is found in knowing that my hope is sure because it is anchored in Jesus, and I am clothed in His righteousness. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

I’m thankful for reminders, painful ones, that sometimes I feel blue because I’m thinking too much of myself and not enough of others, and more importantly, not thinking highly enough of God and seeking to love Him and seek His Kingdom with all my heart, and that I need to repent and pray for grace and mercy to retrain my thinking and to think biblically and lay aside weights of selfishness and pride that will not only hinder my race, but strangle me, so please, God, have mercy and may I fling those weights aside and run with endurance and live in obedience a life that is worthy of the gospel!

I’m thankful for my husband, who is encouraging me to get moving with my writing. I'm also thankful for my parents' encouragement to write and keep writing the blog, too. I think I’ve been stalled because I’m scared. I’m scared because as long as I stall and only think about writing, I haven’t actually failed at it. Once I start, if I find out I can’t, well, it’s been part of me for so long....

But I’m thankful for my husband’s patient encouragement when I tearfully told him about a deep and secret hurt and fear yesterday regarding my dream to write. He believes I can do it. I don't know why, but he does. And he understands my insecurities in a way no one else can, but he loves me and is cheering me on. He even helped me find my ‘lost’ notebook of unfinished scribblings so that I can, finally, get busy. Even if the only thing I ever write is the story my little boy requested so long ago and only he ever reads it. Even then, at least I will have written it, if I just will get to it, and it will be worth it to be able to write this story before he is too old to care anymore.

I’m thankful for spring and greatly hopeful that it really will be warm consistently here again one day.

Happy Thursday!

Stormy Night

Watching the weather before we went to bed last night, I asked my husband if he was sure he’d wake up if the tornado sirens went off, because....well.....he’s usually the one who sleeps through kids calling and me getting up to answer such in the night, and I tend to be the lighter sleeper, and I worry about things like not waking up when the sirens blare. Around midnight, I woke up to my husband shaking my arm saying, “C’mon. Sirens are going.” We went downstairs, checked the weather which said a fast-moving storm was on its way, grabbed sleeping bags and clothes and got the upstairs kids down to the basement by the time the storm came through town. I also mentally made notes about what I need to do to prepare ahead of time for next time, but that’s another story. Kids went right back to sleep, middle son never properly woke up, if you want my take on it, because when I woke him up this morning for school, he looked around and said something like, “Why am I down here?” It was kind of funny. Even funnier was oldest son, whose room is already downstairs so we never even woke him up last night, when he woke up and saw his sister asleep in the floor outside his room and all our sleeping bags around, from where I was in the kitchen I heard his confused, “Why is everyone down here?”

I have to confess to you that tornadoes are scary to me. I grew up in Florida where tornadoes are fairly rare. Hurricanes, I’m a little more used to, but you also tend to get more warning and can evacuate if need be. I’m really thankful we were spared anything major last night and the sirens were all bluster and no tornado. I’m thankful we can hear the sirens from our house. I’m also thankful we have a basement safe place now, too. When we lived in Indiana a few years ago, it was the first time I’d ever lived in a place where tornadoes were a danger, but I’d seen The Wizard of Oz enough times to be nervous. My husband was on an all-expense-paid, year-long visit to Bosnia at the Army’s express invitation, our house was far enough from the sirens I couldn’t hear them when they sounded, and we did not have a basement. I spent quite a few sleepless nights that spring trying very hard not to be anxious as I watched the news (they were super-duper proud of their ‘double doppler’ weather radar and seemed to really relish their time in the spotlight when it got stormy, by the way) and once was concerned enough to bundle two small boys and a dog into the hallway for a campout with all the bedroom doors closed and where I still felt much too exposed. When we learned we were moving back to the Midwest a couple of years ago, I told my husband the only real request I had regarding living quarters was a basement.

It’s in the midst of a raging thunderstorm that I feel very small and when it hits home how much we are not in control of....anything, really. My friend Lisa wrote a beautiful post thinking about God’s sovereignty in the midst of her own experience with tornadoes, and she’s right that it is in the midst of such things that pondering God’s sovereignty moves from academic to personal and real.

It is also during storms that I often think about this passage:

Matthew 9:23-27

“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’”

I think, having grown up in church and being so very familiar with this account, it’s often easy for me to breeze over it and miss the significance of the fact that Jesus calmed the storm. What I mean is, I’ve read it so often that many times I just read it. I don’t think about it or pause and ponder why the disciples had the reaction they did. I know they had that reaction, I know He calmed the storm, but I don’t always stop and think about how significant that truly is. I think sometimes we can get very comfortable with Jesus, and I’m not sure if I’m adequately expressing what I want so much to say here. It kind of goes back to the shallow, Jesus-is-my-boyfriend kind of songs we sing too often, it goes back to living like functional atheists, even, when we go along muddling along until we need something or until some crisis strikes and then we start praying because we need/want something. But somehow, we all too often miss the awe of who Jesus truly is. We forget in the midst of today that it is in Christ that all things hold together. We forget that He is sovereign and Lord over all, and worthy of all praise, today and every day, in the storm and in the calms.

Hunkering down in the basement, listening to raging and violent wind and hearing thunder booming all around and aware that if a tornado does touch down there is nothing, absolutely nothing I can do to stop it and feeling very small and helpless, I get a glimpse, and only a glimpse, of the awe the disciples felt that day. They went from being afraid of a storm, to fearing the One who was in the boat with them. Jesus, with a word, stopped the wind and the waves. Because He is the Word. He is the Creator, He is the only Savior and Redeemer, and it is good and wise to pause and ponder how awesome He truly is.

And if it takes tornado sirens going off in the middle of the night to get my attention and help me to remember once again and stop to ponder on just Who He is and how very much I can, and must, trust Him, so be it.

Thoughts After Visiting *W___mart*

I spent this Monday morning at that store. Not my favorite place, but I needed a few things this morning, all of which could be found there more easily than having to go to several different elsewheres for a fairly quick stop this morning.

A couple of observations:

Rules only apply to ‘everyone else’ or, put another way, words don’t have any real meaning at all. At least, judging by behavior I can only assume this is how people think. The lane says 20 items or less. I walk up juggling a gallon of milk and 5 small items and have to stand in line behind someone buying a cart full of groceries, so many more than 20 items you couldn’t even fudge it a little and say, ah, 21 items, let it slide. Of course, it’s a little hard to be irritated when there are 3 “20 items or less” lanes open and only one regular “buy out the whole store” lane open and that line is looooooong. Still.

After standing there pondering, on my way home I thought of something. That something is only tangentially related to the previous paragraph in that it got me thinking about how words do, in fact, have real meaning, even if people today want to argue that point.

Which led me to this thought: Have you noticed during some of the recent controversy over a certain book by an ‘emergent’ type pastor how there’s an awful lot of ‘what if’ kind of thinking about God? Just like the serpent said to Eve in the garden, “Has God indeed said....,” questions are used to subtly undermine plain things. As in the plain things are the main things and the main things are the plain things, as Alistair Begg will often say. Instead of digging in and studying and saying, this is what the Bible says, let’s get after living like it’s true, there are all these people saying, “What if.....?” Thing is, ‘what if’ is not all that helpful. In fact, you could argue that those kinds of what ifs can be downright insidious. Jesus clearly says He is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father but through Him. The Bible clearly says that it is appointed to a man once to die and then the judgment. Rather than spinning out a lot of ‘what if’ speculations, and trying to spin it so we’re saying things like, “Well, I know the Bible says this, but surely it can’t possibly mean this,” and being so arrogant as to think we know better than God about what is right and just, and flirting around with things like universalism and whatnot, why not get busy about submitting to God and His word?

Here’s a ‘what if’ for you. What if God means exactly what He says in His word and what if His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and He created us and His word says that He will judge the world with righteousness? What then? What if we were to truly turn our eyes upon Jesus and think deeply about the wonder of the Incarnation and about the sacrifice He made to reconcile sinners to Himself and what it means that the Temple veil was torn in two and that He rose again and that He told His followers to go into all the world and proclaim the good news and make disciples and baptize them? What if we were to truly begin to come to grips with how very offensive our sin is to holy God and what an awesome thing it is that He forgives those who turn to Christ in repentance and faith, and only those who turn to Christ in repentance and faith? What if we were more diligent to read God’s word and hide it in our hearts and remember that bad company corrupts good character and surround ourselves with teaching and people who have a high view of God’s word and tune out and turn away from teaching that questions it? What if we were more concerned with questioning the doubters and standing firm on the Word than we were with fostering and flirting with doubt? Then all our little speculations turn to ash in our mouths and, like Job, we put our hands over our mouths, or like Isaiah we cry, "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips," and we bow before Holy God and say with wonder, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" and "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Because, honestly, I’d certainly rather ‘err’ on the side of taking God and His word too seriously than not seriously enough. Put another way, I’d much rather trust His wisdom than my own.

Another observation:

If I die before my husband and children, I really and truly hope that they will not feel compelled to have a memorial for me on the back windshield of their car. You see a lot of those in the W---mart parking lot, have you noticed? I really and truly hope my loved ones will not be so earthly minded that they feel a need to remember me in that way. Grieve, yes, grieve deeply, yes, but please remember that death has been defeated by our glorious Savior and we have hope in His resurrection. My hope is that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection! Jesus is alive, and in Him I live and move and have my being, and because He lives, I have real hope that anchors my soul! With Resurrection Sunday coming this week, keep that hope in mind!

Hosanna!

Psalm 118:25-26
“Save now, I pray, O LORD;
O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.”


Jesus entered Jerusalem to the shouts of, “Hosanna,” and the people waved palm branches as, seated on a donkey, He passed by on the streets of the holy city. They were ready to welcome Him as King. Or so they thought.

They wanted salvation from the tyranny of Rome. They wanted a temporal salvation tied to this world. They wanted an earthly kingdom.

Their view of God was not nearly high enough.

They did not even realize that He came, not for some temporal, earthly salvation from Rome, but He came to save them from a far more insidious enemy. He came to save them from an enemy they weren’t even aware they needed to be saved from.

He came to save them from the tyranny of their sin. He came to redeem them from the bondage of sin that is part of every one of us down to our DNA. He came to free us from our sin nature that resulted from the first Adam’s fall.

He came to die. For that is the wage our sin merits. By grace, He came to offer Himself in our place; the spotless, guiltless, sinless Lamb who came to pay the penalty for undeserving sinners such as we are.

He came to reconcile them, and all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, to God.

So, as they hailed Him that Palm Sunday, they had no idea that less than a week later He would hang, bloodied and dying on a Roman cross, the true Passover Lamb, after a Jerusalem crowd cried, “Crucify Him!”

And less than week later, when He gave up His spirit saying, “It is finished,” the curse of sin was broken. The price was paid. He did what He came to do.

Less than a week after that Palm Sunday, the temple veil was torn in two and the Holy of Holies was opened to those who would place their trust in the true King, Jesus Christ whose blood paid the ransom for their souls.

As we sing, “Hosanna,” on this Palm Sunday, we remember that it didn’t end with the triumphal entry. Praise God that Jesus completed the work He came to do, so that a week later, He rose triumphantly from the grave. To God be the glory!

**Originally posted on April 1, 2007

Thankful Thursday

I find myself experiencing a bit of unexpected blues and need to work through it. It's like I'm scrambling on the edge of one of those pits of soul depth that hits sometimes when you just have to anchor your thinking in truth even when you feel really low.

Then one of my long-awaited books came in the mail today. This evening I began reading the first chapter of Soul Depths and Soul Heights by Octavius Winslow. I am so thankful I was encouraged to order it a while back and very thankful it came today. I was so encouraged to see that experiencing momentary ‘depths’ is not singular to me. It is not even something that I, as a Christian, should think I am alone in experiencing at times. But there is encouragement! After being careful to state that the experience he was about to discuss applied only to the believer in Christ, not the unregenerate, there followed a very encouraging passage. Allow me to quote what was very encouraging to me this evening:

“However profound these ‘depths’, they are not the depths of hell, draped with its mist of darkness, and lurid wrath, nor condemnation. Sink as the gracious soul may, it ever finds the Rock of Ages beneath, upon which faith firmly and securely stands. Whatever may be the depressions of the believer, it is important to keep in mind his real standing before God. From this no chequered spiritual history can move him. There is not an angel in heaven so divinely related, so beauteously attired, or who stands so near and is so dear to God, as the accepted believer in Christ, though earth is still his abode, and a body of sin his dwelling.

A practical lesson grows out of this truth. Let it be your aim to know your present standing as in the sight of God. Upon so vital a question not the shadow of a doubt should rest. ‘We believe and are sure.’ Faith brings assurance, and assurance is faith. The measure of our assured interest in Christ, will be the measure of our faith in Christ. This is the true definition of assurance, the nature of which is a question of much perplexity to sincere Christians. Assurance in not something audible, tangible, or visionary - a revelation to the mind, or a voice in the air. Assurance is believing. Faith is the cause, assurance is the effect. Assurance of personal salvation springs from looking to, and dealing only with Jesus. It comes not from believing that I am saved, but from believing that Christ is my Saviour. The object of my salvation is not my faith, but Christ. Faith is but the instrument by which I receive Christ as a sinner.” - Octavius Winslow in Soul Depths and Soul Heights

There is more, but that should whet the appetite, I think. I am thankful that no matter how far my soul may sink in momentary blues, it ever finds the Rock of Ages beneath, upon which faith firmly and securely stands. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Men and Women Are Different

This is one of those days I wish I’d not read the news. I don’t always. Lots of days I go about my little life blissfully ignorant of what the national news media is going on about. For some reason today I paid attention. Now is when the rubber meets the road, so to speak, and I get to practice what I preach about anxiousness and where I truly place my trust. We’re an Army family. I’m a stay-at-home mom, so my husband’s Army paycheck is our sole income. Nothing like hearing we may not get paid this month to give me a little reality check about where I’m really placing my trust for my daily bread and about how earthly minded I am.

I’m really thankful for the fact that men and women are different. Abrupt segue, I guess, but here’s why: I, being the member of this marriage who is more prone to be crippled by emotions, called my husband after reading that distressing bit of ‘news,’ and he was able to talk me down. He’s not worried. He’s much more able to get above the emotion and the political hype and told me this is exactly how ‘they’ want me to feel.

I know I’m not to live by emotions. I know I am to trust the Lord to take care of us. And I do trust Him. Right now I’m struggling a little with remembering not to worry about tomorrow because it hasn’t even come yet, but I’m thankful that my husband is who he is and that he is able to balance out my emotional response.

The Lord is At Hand

Philippians 4:1-7

1 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.

3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

One thing that memorizing the entire book of Philippians (or any large passage of scripture) really helps with is doing away with the artificial divisions of the verse and chapter breaks. It is amazing how the Word comes alive as I ponder whole passages and hear the actual flow of the context. What I mean is, sometimes when we take a verse and memorize it as a stand alone we forget the context that surrounds it which helps us to understand the full meaning of the verse.

I think sometimes we approach scripture as a Facebook status. You know, we want a pithy, short little encouragement. Or maybe we treat it like a blog post - how they say that the ‘good’ blog posts are supposed to be short and quick to the point because readers have short attention spans. So we take a verse and memorize it, and that’s good, I’m not saying it isn’t, but we often fail to read beyond the verse a lot of times to really digest the richness and depth of what is actually being taught.

See, Paul probably wouldn’t have been a great blogger if the bloggity wisdom that tells us to write short posts were to be applied to him. I mean look at how he says, “Finally, my brothers,” in 3:1 and then goes on for two more chapters. It takes time to develop a point, and it’s good to revisit those favorite, comforting verses in their original context. I would argue that in doing so, we can find even more encouragement from them.

I’ve actually blogged on this passage before, but in working to memorize chapter 4:1-7 this week I was struck by something else again. There are many things I could say about these verses, but I want to focus in on verses 6-7 for the sake of this post.

Many of us are familiar with Philippians 4:6-7, or at least verse 6. I’m sure lots of us pull it out when feeling anxious, and that is not a bad thing. However, as I’ve been pondering this passage this week, it was eye-opening for me that the words right before that very familiar exhortation to not be anxious in anything are these: “The Lord is at hand;”.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking: So many times when I’ve felt anxious and pulled out verse 6, I kind of get into this way of thinking that I have to just work up a less anxious way of thinking sort of by force of will or something. Well, it’s commanding us not to be anxious, I am feeling anxious, come on let’s stop being anxious, already. The thing is, this passage doesn’t encourage believers to not be anxious in a vacuum. The words right before this are key....the Lord is at hand! In light of all that has been said up to chapter 4 we are to be less anxious.

Think about all the truth that is presented in chapters 1-3 before this exhortation, and which I’ve had the joy of thinking over and rehearsing for the past 13 1/2 weeks now as we’ve partnered to remember Philippians.

Here are just some of the truths I’ve been pondering from Philippians that I’ll try to draw out for the sake of this thought: We who believe in Christ Jesus are saints in Christ Jesus who partner together for the sake of the gospel. He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. We pray for love that abounds more and more in discernment and knowledge so that we may approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. When Christ is proclaimed, we can rejoice, even when it means hardship or suffering for us personally because it is a joy to see His gospel advanced. God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It is God who works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure, and because this is true, we can work out our own salvation with fear and trembling in the light of His working in us. And because of all of that, we can walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, we can walk blameless and innocent as children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation and shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. We can count any gain as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, we can be found in Him having the righteousness from God that depends on faith in Christ! Not a righteousness of our own that cannot measure up, but the righteousness from God! We can press on and make it our own because Christ Jesus has made us His own! Pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Can you really think on these things and not put an exclamation point? It is THIS Lord Jesus, at whose name every knee will bow and tongue confess that He is Lord, that is at hand.

And in light of ALL of that, we can rejoice! In light of ALL of that, we can not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known to God, trusting that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. We can train our minds to the truth of God’s word and trust Him to reveal to us where our thinking is not mature and to turn our hearts and minds to Him in all things.

Yes, and amen!

Status Update April 2011

Having a somewhat productive Saturday, in a sort of two steps forward, one step back kind of way. Posting a status update to try to revive the seemingly languishing blog.

Drinking....iced tea, what else?

Listening....to my daughter’s updates as she watches Tangled yet again.

Enjoying....Tangled. Really I do. I think it’s my favorite of the more modern Disney movies. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it’s better than, well, pretty much all the other modern Disney princess movies.....seriously, I like it.

Growing.... tired? Irritated? Not sure of the word to use regarding Disney princess fluffiness. But the girl is such a girly girl, and she loves it. I don’t so much mind the non-trademarked dress up fun, that’s fun. But the Disneyness gets to be a bit much. I don’t think there is anything at all wrong with letting her play and imagine and dress up and be fancy, but I do want to be mindful to find balance and teach her that beauty is about so much more than glitz and glam. “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.” Proverbs 31: 30

Making....crock pot roast for tomorrow’s lunch. Related question: Does anyone know if my crock pot will explode tomorrow morning if I put everything in it right now, put the whole thing in the fridge overnight, then take it out early in the morning and turn it on to cook while we’re at church? Because that’s the plan unless someone has prior unfortunate experiences to share between now and bedtime tonight.....

Thinking....I’ve been something of a disaster in the kitchen today. Made homemade salsa because husband is having friends over to watch basketball on Monday evening. Apparently there’s this big game or something :-). Anyway, I dropped a jar of jalapeños on my lethal tile floor. It was a spectacular mess, let me tell you. Oh, and if you cut your pinky on glass that is saturated with jalapeño juice while cleaning up such a spectacular mess, it does sting. In case anyone was wondering. Then, while browning the roast a minute ago, I burned the same pinky on the pan. Good thing all I have to do tomorrow is plug in the crock pot and turn it on. I have been known to forget the ‘on’ part before when crock-potting, too. Just keepin’ it real. Anyway, with that track record, you can see why the question in the point above.

Pondering....hanging up the blog and ending this part of my online life. It's not the first time I've toyed with the idea, and probably won't be the last, but I read this post the other day and realized that could have been my blog he’s talking about, every point. Felt right depressed for a bit, I did. Then I started thinking, well, why do I blog anyway? Is it to generate readership or is it more just to practice writing for my own sake and hope to encourage anyone who may happen to come along? I think it’s more the latter for sure. So, for now it just is what it is, I guess.

Realizing....I’m becoming obsolete in the technological revolution. Not that I was ever all that up on it, mind you, but I’m falling behind and don’t really want to keep up. Couple of things: After more than a year of forwarding through songs I don’t really like on my iPod in the “Christian Songs” playlist that we all share in the music library, it just this morning occurred to me that I can just make my own playlist and only put the songs I want to listen to and just check that list and uncheck the other list, and there you have it, no more forwarding past songs I don’t like. I’m slow. Bigger thing: ebooks, Kindles, and other things I totally don’t understand because I’ve not ventured over yet. I get that reading books that way will save a lot of space since you don’t have hundreds of books on the shelves, but I just don’t think I’ll ever get used to reading my books on a screen. I happen to really like holding a book and turning the pages and seeing the thickness of the pages on the right side slowly lessen and the left side slowly grow as I work my way through a book. I’m scared that by the time I get old, though, paper books may just be a thing of the past.

Wishing....all the numbers that come up “800 service” on my caller ID would get the hint already that I NEVER answer. Also wishing that number that I do recognize and which I've already talked to at least three times saying I truly do not want or need what they are selling would also quit calling. I NEVER answer that one anymore, either. Either leave a message or quit calling. I’m not picking up.

Hoping...I didn’t get someone in trouble the other day. This number I don’t recognize kept calling my cell phone, and I didn’t answer. The next day I got a text that said, “I want a cell phone when you get home.” I texted back and asked, “Who is this? Wrong number?” Got an angry text back saying I’d see if it’s a wrong number when I get home. Thing is, he/she called me ‘Masha.’ A few days later, same number called, so I answered, told her she had a wrong number, haven’t heard from her since. Guess someone else is as technologically hip as I am.

Telling you.....I don’t like the phone very much.

Saying.... “Happy birthday,” to my middle child today. Hard to believe he’s 10 today. Double digits. I’m so thankful for that funny, creative boy.

Waiting....for three books to come in the mail from various sources: Slave by John MacArthur, Soul Depths and Soul Heights by Octavius Winslow, and Holiness by J.C. Ryle. Some heavy reading in my future, and I’m looking forward to it. I keep checking the mailbox hopefully every day.

Pondering....how much I want to live in a manner that is worthy of the Gospel and how much I want to honor Jesus with my words and thoughts and actions, and how much I want to hold true to what I've attained and press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own, and how much I want that to be more than just words, but action in daily life.

And that’s about it for today in all its bloggity boringness.

Pressing On

I realized this weekend it’s been two full weeks since I last posted to my blog. I was quite surprised it had been so long, but here we are. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to write or haven’t tried to write or haven’t been thinking about anything worth writing about in those two weeks, but nothing ever made it to the blog. Some did make it to my journal (the spiral bound paper and pen one), and some will just stay there in that private place of reflection and hashing out of thoughts. That is probably not a bad thing.

One kind of silly thing I’ve been doing is that I have been enjoying reading the book series The 39 Clues with my boys during the past few weeks, and trying to get ahead of them in the series so they will quit letting out spoilers, which has occupied not a small amount of time, I have to confess. My oldest boy does not seem to understand just how serious I am about how much I dislike having a story spoiled with plot reveals while I’m still reading along. He’s the kind of kid who will read all about a book on Wikipedia and skip to the last page and read the sum-up companion book at the end of the series because he just has to know. And no matter how often I threaten to quiet him with a well-placed piece of duct tape, he still keeps letting little, and sometimes really big plot twists out. Most of the fun of reading for me is to see if my guesses and theories are right and being surprised along the way. I finally caught up to my son and stole the book he was reading for a day and have now moved ahead in the search for the 39 clues. Equilibrium in the family is restored. :-)

And there are other ebbs and flows of a normal life, some good, some that have made me sad, and some that are kind of neutral but which all occupy a lot of thinking or energy but are not the kinds of things that need to be out here on the blog, and this is how it should be. Blogging is a good hobby, but it needs to stay a hobby and not interfere with the real stuff of every day life. Not only have I sort of involuntarily slowed down with blogging, but I am purposely cutting back on Facebook time this week. That particular little hobby has become much too much of a temptation to waste time, and it’s far more addictive than I really care to admit, so I’m trying to really limit time there this week in an attempt to be a better steward of my time.

And none of that is actually what I sat down to write about this afternoon while I had a few moments.

What I actually meant to write about was the passage in Philippians that I spent last week memorizing and part of this week’s work which I’ll type out here:

Philippians 3:7-16

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith -

10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Before I took my unplanned blogging break, I was following the blog buzz over two controversial books that have become popular/notorious in the Christian world. It isn’t my purpose to discuss either of those books, and I’ve read enough about them to know I really don’t want to read them. I don’t need any help in adding confusing voices to my thinking. But as I read the discussions I have been examining my thinking and heart in recent days, and I am ever more aware of just how often my thinking has been shaped more by my culture and by the Christian subculture than it has by the Bible at times. I find it sad that some of what I’ve imbibed in the Christian subculture isn’t actually Christian, meaning, it is more man’s wisdom and humanistic psychology than biblical wisdom, and I am finding that I need to constantly be on guard to run any idea or way of thinking through the grid of scripture and examine myself to be sure that the opinions I’m holding are godly and biblical and to learn to shed those that are not. In fact, there are times I find it necessary to step out of blog world and examine myself because I do not want to be immature in my thinking and faith, but want to be ever growing toward maturity and biblical thinking. More on this in a future post, I hope, but I am extremely grateful that the reason I persevere in faith is because it is Christ who is holding me firm. It is not because I am so good, it is because He is so good and faithful that I am still holding firm.

In reading the discussions on those books, I see once again and clearly how important it is to know the Bible and to be committed to the understanding that no matter how interesting an idea may sound to our ears, the Bible is the authority for how we are to think about God. He has revealed Himself to us. We don’t have the right to approach Him just any old (or new) way we think is right, but we must be about the business of knowing Him and believing about Him what is true.

I have also found that any time I start to get puffed up or prideful, thinking I have all my theological ducks in a row, I discover some immature or wayward thing in me or I do something really stupid or sinful that proves that I have not yet attained it, and I confess that sometimes I get downright depressed to find such shallow and selfish thinking still holding sway over me, but I do press on.

And now, finally, I get to the point. In thinking on these verses over the past couple of weeks, I find that I really long to have this mind - that I count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He really is the something better that we long for. The Christian subculture is not what I long for. What I long for is Jesus. To be found in Him, not having a false kind of outward righteousness that can spout out Sunday school answers or sound really good or 'spiritual' to anyone listening but has a cold heart, but to really know Him. The only righteousness that is true righteousness is that which comes from God and depends solely on faith in Christ. This is the satisfaction for the hunger and thirst of a soul that finds itself weary in doing what I don’t want to do and not doing what I long to do.

And the only reason I can press on to make it my own is because Jesus has made me His own. I found I couldn’t say that for the first few days last week as I was working to memorize the verses without stopping to marvel at that glorious and extremely humbling thought. He has made me His own. This is the hope of righteousness! This is hope eternal! He is Lord and He has made me His own and He will complete what He has begun in me. Though I may not have yet completely made it my own, He has made me His own, and because He has, I can press on, I can shed those weights that entangle and run the race because He is Lord, and He is worthy of all praise. He has made me His own and freed me to do what is right and believe what is right because of the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ alone. He has freed me to really obey, He has made me righteous in Christ Jesus and for His glory. It is God who works in me to will and to work for His good pleasure, and He will do it. Because this is true, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, and I hold true to what I have attained in Him. And I find it extremely encouraging that God will reveal to me where my thinking needs to change and to become more mature.

I said it before and I’m saying it again, memorizing scripture is becoming a truly wonderful thing for me. I love that it is causing me to think on these things and to make them my own. Rather than a discipline to follow, it is becoming a joy, and I am so glad I was encouraged to do it. There’s so much more I could share just from thinking on this one passage, but this post is long enough as it is.

**Update: After I posted this I read this blog post, and I found it very encouraging, so I thought I'd share it.

Monday Morning

Monday morning. Thirty-five callers ahead of me on the Army pediatric clinic appointment line. And I am humbled when I feel the irritation well up over that minor inconvenience and it strikes me how surreal it is that I sit here in comfort while half a world away the people of Japan are gripped by grief, fear and devastation. I struggle to really grasp their plight as real people in real distress, and not just images on a TV screen. Whatever minor inconveniences I may face today pale in comparison to the real tragedy facing the people of Japan. I confess that I cannot wrap my brain around it.

I try to pray for the people, and I don’t even know what words to say. All I know to pray through tears is, “Please, Lord, have mercy. Please may people turn to Jesus in the midst of the horror.”

And I find myself saying stupid, trite things in conversations about it to try to make sense of something so massive that really, it would be wiser to just put my hand over my mouth and bow before holy God who is sovereign and trust Him and allow His Spirit to intercede where I do not have the words or wisdom to know what to say.

Closer to home I am pondering the sermon yesterday that challenged us, challenged me, and I am convicted that I am too much of a hermit too much of the time. I am convicted that my neighbors are lost, and I am called to live blameless and innocent in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation and walk among them as a light in the world. I am humbled when I think that God has placed our family here, in this neighborhood, and we can be a lighthouse to point our neighbors to Jesus. And I confess the fear that fills me and the shame when I confess that I do not often enough think about my lost neighbors and pray for them and get out into the neighborhood and get to know them and learn to care about them. And Saturday when I was out there I missed an opportunity to witness to a neighbor because I was distracted, and I weep because I realize how much I need God’s grace to open my heart in this area.

Studying Revelation in Sunday school the past several months, we are being reminded every week that it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that it is all to His glory, and that the point and purpose of all prophecy is to point us to Jesus. And tuning my heart to recognize that He is coming again, and that all these things I’m pondering are wrapped up in the fact that I aim to love His appearing, that I aim to live in the light of the fact that He is coming again, Hallelujah, what a Savior.

And last night I was reminded as we read Psalm 19 together in our discipleship class that while the heavens declare the glory of God....it is His Word that is perfect, converting the soul. Today as I think on that, I recognize that it is on meditating and studying His Word that my mind is transformed and renewed so that I may think the thoughts that turn my heart and desires to love the LORD my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and I can present myself to God as a living sacrifice and walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Lord, please have mercy - for the people of Japan, and for my neighbors. Please tune my heart to sing Your praise. Teach me to love the LORD my God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength, and as I learn to love You with all I am, teach me, equip me, enable me to love my neighbor as myself. Nothing is impossible with You, Lord, turn my heart of stone to a heart of flesh, soft and teachable and unselfish. I am riddled with selfishness, Lord. Change me, because I cannot change myself. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalm 19

Romans 12:1-2

Saturday Morning

5:15AM: Woke up to daughter calling, “Please turn my light on, it’s too dark!” She had to go potty and it was scary in the dark.

Back to sleep.

5:45AM: “I need a tissue!” - Same daughter. Beginning to think sleeping in this morning is optimistic thinking.

Back to sleep.

6:30AM: Dog retching, my shoulder felt wet, wet spot on bed. Nothing like having the dog puke on you when you’re trying to sleep in on a Saturday morning.

Got up and had shower, noticed that the laundry hamper in the bathroom is full. Interesting that. I just did laundry yesterday, how is it full? Somebody who shall remain nameless on this blog must have cleaned his room after I did laundry and, low and behold, dirty clothes. Lots of them. Explains why the nameless someone only had one shirt that I folded from the entire five loads of laundry I did yesterday. Grrr.

I’m thinking someone probably needs to be taught how to help with the laundry today as a practical lesson.

7:00AM: Carried sheets downstairs to be washed. Made oatmeal. Normally we do fun things for breakfast on Saturdays, but with a 9:00AM basketball game, not today.

7:30AM: Pondered how last night at dinner while having dinner with my family, I glanced at my favorite 12-year-old and thought, “What’s that dirt on his upper lip? Wait, that’s not dirt....that can’t be the beginnings of peach fuzz, not yet, no way, wasn’t he just a cute little toddler only yesterday? Waaaahhhhh!” Sun was shining in the window, and when the light shines just right on his face, you can see the faintest beginning of dark hair there on his lip. Am I ready for this? Teething and sleepless nights and baby stuff were nothing compared to this....

Posted that thought on Facebook and had a young mom ask if she’s ready for her babies to grow up. Answered her: You’ll be ready when you get there. It’s not easy, but God’s grace is enough!

And you know what? God’s grace is sufficient, and more than abundantly enough, for whatever today holds. He is the One who holds all things together, He sustains my very life. He has redeemed me and saved me and equips me to do the work He has prepared for me to do. And He chose to place these kids with me, and He knows them better than I ever could. I can trust Him to draw them to Himself. Because when she’s scared in the dark, or he needs to learn responsibility, or he is growing up so very fast, I can trust God to grant me the wisdom to be the mom He has called me to be, and I can trust Him to draw them to Himself and open their hearts to the gospel. And I fall on my face and thank Him for protecting me from the many and loud voices that are teaching error and plead for mercy and grace to have the discernment to be wise, and to teach my children how to be wise. When I feel so inadequate to this task, and I do so often, I can trust Him and know that He is ever interceding for me as High Priest, Savior and King. I can feast on His word and fill my mind with the wisdom He has provided and be ever mindful of my responsibility to talk to these children of these things as we rise up and as we sit down and as we walk along the way, and I can even trust Him with the many times when I fail or get swept up in the tyranny of the ordinary things and I can trust Him to knit it all together and grant me the grace to remember Him, to worship Him, in the midst of this Saturday.

It's Not a Joke?

Well, this is one book I can safely say won't make my "Books I'm Reading" list. My first thought when I saw it was, "This has got to be a joke. Seriously?" It's a Christian vampire Amish romance saga. I just about can't type those words together without laughing. Or crying. Sigh.

HT: Everyday Mommy

Sort of related post: I Told You I Cannot Write Short Posts

Not Just an Intellectual Exercise

The benefit of memorizing scripture is that as you meditate and ponder on it for weeks, it becomes part of your thinking. And then a situation arises where your emotions and your flesh are telling you, screaming at you to act and think in one way, but the Holy Spirit gently brings to remembrance that very passage that you come to see He has been orchestrating all events so that you would be memorizing for just such a time as this, and you see that God’s Word requires you to act in a way that is 180 degrees in opposition to your emotions and flesh and worldly wisdom and the lies the evil one would woo you to believe. Maybe someone steps on your pride or says words that hurt, or a driver cuts you off and you feel the blood boil, or the kids are acting up and your emotions run high, or a neighbor acts selfishly, like the unbeliever he is, and you're tempted to respond in the flesh rather than to remember to be at peace with all men as much as it depends on you, or any other number of hurts, stresses or frustrations set in. At such a time as this, the great question is, will I obey, will I submit, will I say, "No," to foolish pride, will I listen to truth and shut my ears to lies?

And with tears you pray and cry out to God, at the end of yourself, recognizing that His word requires you to do nothing from rivalry or conceit but with humility to count others more significant than yourself, and to look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others, and to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, to not be one of those who seeks her own interests but to seek those of Jesus Christ, to do all things without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. And you know this is truth. You know this is who you are in Christ, and you cry out to Him for mercy because you know that right now, you cannot do it. Your emotions and your flesh are screaming at you to be angry, or to lash out with angry words, or to pout, or to take a small slight and magnify it into something it wasn’t intended to be, or to hold a grudge, or to be hurt and to feed that hurt by rehearsing a list of grievances you could so easily fill up your mind with.

But the mercy of grace, the wonder of the gospel is that I can’t do it. But He can. Jesus Christ is ever interceding for me, when I don't even know how to pray, He is my advocate and Redeemer. By the power of the Holy Spirit living in me, if it kill me, I will obey Him. I will crucify the emotions and flesh and lies, and I will submit to His Word, though it be with tears and difficulty, I will mortify this flesh and live in the light of the gospel of Christ. I will love with His love and forgive as He has forgiven me. He is master, I am slave, bound to Him by the precious blood of Christ, shed for me, shed to forgive me of my sin and reconcile me to God. And by His grace, He will do it. And there I bow and worship Him and find freedom and peace.

Some Kid Music We've Enjoyed At Our House

I discovered the GO FISH guys when a friend came back from a MOPS convention and told us about this fun group she'd heard. This won't be everybody's cup of tea, but I have to tell you that my daughter and I will sometimes crank these guys up really loud in the car or dance around in the kitchen with them. She likes them, and I do too! I really enjoyed their Christmas album this past Christmas.

Enjoy....

Thankful Thursday

I was opening up the window to try to air out the house a bit - two sick boys at home today. Well, one boy probably could have gone back to school, but tummy still hurts him this morning and he was still pretty puny last evening, so I thought another day at home wouldn’t hurt. On the roof outside the window was a beautiful bluebird. I love it when the little bluebirds come back! Brilliant blue feathers and a rusty red belly. So, I’m thankful for the beauty of God’s creation and the smile that little bluebird brought to my face as a reminder that Spring really is coming.

I’m thankful it’s not terribly cold and I can open the windows for a little bit. It’s getting chilly, so I’ll have to close up soon, but the fresh air is nice.

I'm thankful for good books to read.

I’m thankful for hot tea, especially Constant Comment. I’m going to go have some now.

Happy Thursday!

Status Update March 2011

Thanks again to Lisa for the status update blog post rescue format.

Sitting....on the back porch. Well, by the time I am typing this I won’t be on the porch anymore because I don’t have a lap top. I know...how very late 1980’s early 1990’s of me. Anywho, it’s such a pretty day I just needed to be out and enjoy the sunshine while we have it, so I brought my notebook (the spiral-bound paper kind) and pen out and here I sit (sat). Thermometer in the car only read 55 degrees, but with only a slight breeze and nice, sunny spot on the porch, I am just peachy keen.

Drinking...a jumbo cup of sweet tea from Chick-fil-A. That’s real sweet tea, not Sweet-N-Low this time. Splurged and went through the drive through with my girl for lunch. I’m a Chick-fil-A girl. I’m a sweet tea girl, too, but you already knew that.

Hearing...the booms as the tanks do their training thing over on post. One of the more disconcerting surreal interesting things about living this close to Ft. Knox. No, I haven’t seen the gold.They don’t let normal people anywhere near that building.

Listening..to Boo playing down on the lower porch and yard. Nice to hear outside play again. Spring is on the move...hoping the warming trend holds. Also listening to Roscoe-the-hyper-dog whine because he can’t come outside with us. He’ll be really glad when Drew finishes the fence he’s building out back.

Wishing...my middle boy felt better. Stomach bug. Cleaning freak, germophobic, sympathy-stomach-lurching mother. Poor kid. He’s feeling pretty puny today. Been pushing ginger ale, jello and crackers on him all day. Ginger ale and jello tolerated okay, crackers not so much. Poor guy.

Thankful...for my darling husband. It’s never good when you hear frantic footsteps at 4:30 in the morning, slamming bathroom door and then shortly a puny, “Mom......” My stomach immediately lurched and I poked Drew and said, “I don’t think I can...” He could and did, and I’m thankful. That’s not the only reason I’m thankful for him, but at 4:30 this morning, you betcha.

Also thankful...for automatic washer and dryer. Come on, y’all. For all the complaining about laundry, it could be much harder than it is, you know.

Thinking...about how even though our church is without a senior pastor at the moment, how blessed we’ve been by the men who have stepped in to open God’s word and teach us over the past 5 months so far. From lay men in our own congregation who are apt to teach (and God has richly blessed us there), to seminary professors (a decided benefit to living where I live so close to Southern Seminary), to men from our state association, we have heard challenging and encouraging and enriching Bible teaching that is making us think. Good stuff.

Pondering...last Sunday’s sermon. 2 Timothy 4:6-8 was the passage we examined, and I am challenged that, by God’s grace and by the power of the Spirit working in me, I want to be able to say at the end of my time on earth that I fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. I am mindful that this is something I must do more than ponder about but must invest in now, today, as I walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, and take seriously the charge and calling to strive alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ for the faith of the gospel. Have I mentioned how meditating on the book of Philippians is challenging me? It is.

Waiting...for my copy of John MacArthur’s new book Slave to come in the mail. Looking forward to reading it. I am sure it will be challenging as well.

Glad...spring is on its way. My bulbs are poking little green sprouts through the formerly frozen ground. Can’t wait to see the flowers bloom!

Enough...rambling for now. My daughter is busy slathering bubble stuff all over her little legs, and I should go check on my puny boy. Must go be parental.

Happy March!