11.05.09
An Encouraging Book
“How great is the blessing which the soul obtains by trusting in God, and by waiting patiently.”
-George Mueller
p. 60 Answers to Prayer
09.02.09
Inspection
Recently in my reading, Jerry Bridges pointed out in his book The Practice of Godliness a very convicting problem. He began by giving a description of how to have a God-centered pursuit of holiness in our lives. He points out that many times we are much more angry with OURSELVES when we sin than we are broken over our disobedience to God.
Bridges says,
“Often when we sin we are vexed at the lowering of our self-esteem than we are grieved at God’s dishonor. We are irritated at our lack of self-control in subjecting ourselves to some unworthy habit. We are unable to stand the disappointment of seeing ourselves fail.”
God give us the God-centered pursuit of holiness in our lives.
03.29.09
A Must Read Series by C.J. Mahaney
Let me plead with you to go and read C.J. Mahaney’s blog posts on Biblical Productivity. They are convicting and essential to those who long to be faithful with the time God has alotted them. The actual link above takes you to a list of the whole series. Please go and read these posts…it is well worth your time!
Here are three bullet points from one of the posts:
- Busyness does not mean I am diligent
- Busyness does not mean I am faithful
- Busyness does not mean I am fruitful
These posts have revealed the error of my ways. Also, to the one who is diligent, faithful, and fruitful please read these posts so that you can encourage your brother because after reading these posts you will know all his excuses. Repenting and Persevering is a community (i.e. church) project.
03.03.09
Live to Eat or Eat to Live?
Over the last several months we have been making changes in the way we eat. We have taken it one step at a time. Once something becomes a part of our lives, we move to another area. When at one time we drank sweet tea at every meal, now it is an occasional treat. At one time we ate all convenience type foods, now we eat almost everything made from scratch. (This includes trying to stay away from processed meat and foods high in preservatives.)
Our most recent change has been trying to add many more fruits and vegetables in our diet. We mostly eat sandwiches for lunch each day and these were always accompanied by chips. We began by adding fruit on the side and then one day when we ran out of chips I decided not to buy anymore. This may be obvious, but when you don’t have something in the house, that really helps out in not eating it! We then replaced it with raw vegetables. Now we have a sandwich, fruit, and broccoli and carrots with dip almost every day for lunch. We all use to think raw broccoli was terrible, but God has changed our taste buds because now we love it!
I thought at first it would be expensive to buy all fresh produce, but actually I spend less at the store now than I did before. I price match at Wal-mart and usually only buy what is on sale. This is still plenty for us in a week. I think it helps that I shop for these items first and I am not buying a bunch of prepackaged ingredients for other dishes.
The kids enjoy helping prepare these foods also. Here they are a few months ago snapping beans!
Now, this is not to say we never eat all that other stuff anymore. There is nothing better to us in the summer than a grilled hot dog with chips, baked beans and potato salad! We are just trying to get to the point where those meals are the exception and not the norm!
02.26.09
Wednesday Tea
About three years ago my *sister* asked if my children and I wanted to come to her house for a tea party. Now, growing up in Tennessee, y’all, tea is supposed to be sweet and on ice. You just don’t drink it yet if it is still warm. However, I was open to try something new, and I knew I would enjoy her company. To my surprise I really liked it!
We continued to have more tea parties, but due to her family’s calling we are not able to be together at this time, so I have tried to keep up the tradition by having tea with Lydia on Wednesdays. We each have our own cup we use each time and we usually fix a special snack for the occasion. Sometimes we include all the children and Jason also if he is home studying, but Lydia mostly likes it to be “just the two of us” she has told me. This is a time that is special for her that we can talk and she has my undivided attention. It also gives me a chance to teach her about cooking, setting the table and making it look nice, etc. Occasionally we have invited friends to tea and that gives her an opportunity to serve.
I hope to continue to share about our tea times and encourage parents to find something simple such as this that you enjoy doing with your children to bond you closer together.
02.23.09
Quiet Time for Kids
After reading Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper a few months ago, I decided to follow her advice in scheduling a "quiet time" for Lydia. We may all call it something different, but this is basically her alone time with God.
At first, she couldn't read well on her own, so her quiet time consisted of singing, praying and looking through her lessons she had colored in her Bible coloring book. Sometimes she would tell me things she had prayed for and usually her songs were "Jesus Loves Me," and "Jesus Loves the Little Children."
Throughout these months we have tried different schedules. Madi, now 2 1/2 years old, wants to do everything Lydia, 6 1/2, does. Our son, Joshua is now 15 months old. So, today we tried something new.
Lydia went to her Dad and Mom's bedroom with her Bible and journal. She can now read on her own and is reading through the book of Matthew (by her own choosing). She is also copying down one verse a day in her journal, working her way through the "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew. (Our pastor is preaching through Matthew at this time and we are trying the keep the same pace with her copywork so that she is copying the verses each week that he will be preaching that Sunday.) Then she has a time of prayer.
I had Madi go to the kids' bedroom and we turned some praise music on their CD player. I gave her several Bible storybooks to look at on her bed.
Joshua and I sat on the couch in the living room. He looked at Bible story board books while I read to him aloud from my Bible. I set the timer for 15 minutes and told the girls I would come get them at that time. Madi was out in about half that time saying, "I'm finished!" The timer went off and Lydia was still reading when I went to get her.
Yes, I still have some adjustments to make, but I think the important thing they see is that this is something special that we (try to!) make time for everyday.
What is working for you? Those of you with small children, how do schedule in "quiet time" and what activities do you use for multiple ages? Or, those of you with older children, how did you do this when they were small?
02.22.09
Name Change
When I began this blog, I did not have in mind my wife desiring to do this with me. After some hints from her and her persistance in prayer for me to live with her in an understanding way, I have asked if she would like to blog together. She has accepted and I thought we should change the name (and theme) in order to reflect the purpose of this blog as we do it together. Thus, the new name is “Together as Vessels of Mercy” with the tag “to make known the riches of His glory” Rom. 9:23. We want to do things that demonstrate how God is making known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy (together). So, this will be our attempt at doing this from now on.
02.19.09
PREACH the GOSPEL!!!
Preach the gospel “for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.” (Rom. 1:16) As the flow of Romans goes, this gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness. This righteousness is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Paul quotes, “The righteous shall live by faith.” He unpacks this in Romans. He then states that God’s wrath is against all unrighteousness. Paul then displays the unrighteousness of the nations. Then, he exposes the unrighteousness of the Jews who have His law. And in ch. 3, he concludes all peoples are unrighteous.
So, there is a big problem–namely, we are unrighteous and God’s wrath is against all unrighteousness. That means His wrath is pending on us. We need to be righteous, so how shall we get this righteousness? The answer is Christ. He is our righteousness. “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” (Rom. 3:22) “And all are justified (counted righteous though you are ungodly) by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.” (Rom. 3:24, 25)
These are the sweetest words a sinner (like myself) will ever hear. You can be righteous, though you are ungodly, by receiving the gift that is in Christ. It is a gift that will never disappoint you. It is a gift not a wage…you can’t work for it. If you tried how much is enough? Well the fact is, only Christ is enough. Not only that, in Him alone you will find and receive forgiveness of your sins and the righteousness needed to turn back the wrath of God.
Throw yourself at the mercy of God in Christ by receiving Him as the treasure of your life!
