I was singing "Everlasting God" tonight at church, and our dear family came to mind immediately. Our sister-in-law Lindsay is pregnant with her and Mike's (Marc's brother) second child. She is 18 weeks along and is on bed rest because of leaking amniotic fluid. I urge you to go to their blog not2us.net/blog and partner with us in praying for them!
It's so cool how God teaches you something new all the time, even with a familar song. I especially clung to "Strength will rise as you wait upon the Lord." We often think our strength will dwindle as we wait, but God promises renewal if we hope in Him! God's word is amazing. I had to share this with you tonight!
Isaiah 40 28-31
28 Do you not know?Have you not heard?The LORD is the everlasting God,the Creator of the ends of the earth.He will not grow tired or weary,and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the wearyand increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary,they will walk and not be faint.
Steph
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Words from Steph
I haven't written on here in a while. No deep thoughts, really. I am really praying to be a good steward of my time this summer, and so far it's gone pretty well! I spent several days getting things together for applying for grad school (Ball State Distance Learning Program-Masters in El. Ed. with a Reading License), my Ohio teaching license, and Sylvan. It's crazy how much I had to get together. I finally feel like I've done all I can for now...it's a waiting game. I'm excited to continue my masters, and this program seems really neat. I'd love to be a reading instructional coach eventaully. In the fall I hope to sub and work at Sylvan so that I can have a summer job as well. Both the school district and Sylvan said they don't start looking at resumes/hiring until July/August, so I am learning patience and trusting God that I'll have a job by the fall. Subbing is for sure, but Sylvan will depend on numbers.
Besides that, I'm trying to read a lot and not watch so much television. I've continued in the Love Comes Softly series and am currently reading Bad Girls of the Bible, as Marc mentioned. I love learning through the lives of women in the Bible, and I hope to teach a study eventually. I also started a new hobby, card-making! It's a lot of fun, and it's a good intro into scrapbooking type things. I got good deals on my starter supplies and tried a few the other night. I love encouraging people, so I think this will be a fun hobby for me! Another thing to keep me busy is learning new recipes. So far I've made a cookie cake for Marc's birthday, cold corn salad, salsa chicken, and applesauce nut bread. All are relatively easy, so if you actually read this, feel free to ask for the recipes! =)
That's all for now. Oh yeah...I LOVE being a youth pastor's wife. =)
Stephanie
The following was a blog posting on a website I like to read. It was written by Ben Reaoch, a pastor from Pennsylvania. It has a lot to do with the failure of us to take responsibility for our own sin. We, myself included, are experts at shifting blame outside of ourselves to other people or our environment, when Scripture would have us look internally at our own hearts. Here is the post called 12 Sins We Blame On Others:
It started in the Garden. Adam said to God,
The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. (Genesis 3:12)
The first man, caught in the first sin, turns to blame his wife. And he extends the blame to God as well! He implies that he would have remained innocent if God hadn't put Eve in the garden with him.
The blame-shifting in the Garden continues today. Our proud hearts send us desperately looking for someone else to point to every time we're confronted with our own sin. There must be someone else—our spouse, sibling, parent, boss, co-worker, pastor, friend, or God, himself.
We are so desperate to justify ourselves that we become irrational. Here are 12 examples.
1) Anger
I wouldn't lose my temper if my co-workers were easier to get along with, or if my kids behaved better, or if my spouse were more considerate.
2) Impatience
I would be a very patient person if it weren't for traffic jams and long lines in the grocery store. If I didn't have so many things to do, and if the people around me weren't so slow, I would never become impatient!
3) Lust
I would have a pure mind if there weren't so many sensual images in our culture.
4) Anxiety
I wouldn't worry about the future if my life were just a little more secure—if I had more money, and no health problems.
5) Spiritual Apathy
My spiritual life would be so much more vibrant and I would struggle with sin less if my small group were more encouraging, or if Sunday school were more engaging, or if the music in the worship service were more lively, or if the sermons were better.
6) Insubordination
If my parents/bosses/elders were godly leaders, then I would joyfully follow them.
7) A Critical Spirit
It's not my fault that the people around me are ignorant and inexperienced.
8) Bitterness
If you knew what that person did to me, you would understand my bitterness. How could I forgive something like that?
9) Gluttony
My wife/husband/roommate/friend is a wonderful cook! The things they make are impossible to resist.
10) Gossip
It's the people around me who start the conversations. There's no way to avoid hearing what others happen to say. And when others ask me questions, I can't avoid sharing what I know.
11) Self-Pity
I'll never be happy, because my marriage/family/job/ministry is so difficult.
12) Selfishness
I would be more generous if we had more money.
Making excuses like this is arrogant and foolish. It's a proud way of trying to justify our actions and pacify our guilty consciences. And it keeps us from humbling ourselves before God to repent of our sins and seek his forgiveness.
Consider James 1:13-15, which leaves us with no way of escaping our own sin and guilt. We cannot blame God, for he "cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one."
Instead, we have to accept the humbling truth that "each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." This will end the blame game, and it will send us pleading for Christ's mercy and grace.
It started in the Garden. Adam said to God,
The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. (Genesis 3:12)
The first man, caught in the first sin, turns to blame his wife. And he extends the blame to God as well! He implies that he would have remained innocent if God hadn't put Eve in the garden with him.
The blame-shifting in the Garden continues today. Our proud hearts send us desperately looking for someone else to point to every time we're confronted with our own sin. There must be someone else—our spouse, sibling, parent, boss, co-worker, pastor, friend, or God, himself.
We are so desperate to justify ourselves that we become irrational. Here are 12 examples.
1) Anger
I wouldn't lose my temper if my co-workers were easier to get along with, or if my kids behaved better, or if my spouse were more considerate.
2) Impatience
I would be a very patient person if it weren't for traffic jams and long lines in the grocery store. If I didn't have so many things to do, and if the people around me weren't so slow, I would never become impatient!
3) Lust
I would have a pure mind if there weren't so many sensual images in our culture.
4) Anxiety
I wouldn't worry about the future if my life were just a little more secure—if I had more money, and no health problems.
5) Spiritual Apathy
My spiritual life would be so much more vibrant and I would struggle with sin less if my small group were more encouraging, or if Sunday school were more engaging, or if the music in the worship service were more lively, or if the sermons were better.
6) Insubordination
If my parents/bosses/elders were godly leaders, then I would joyfully follow them.
7) A Critical Spirit
It's not my fault that the people around me are ignorant and inexperienced.
8) Bitterness
If you knew what that person did to me, you would understand my bitterness. How could I forgive something like that?
9) Gluttony
My wife/husband/roommate/friend is a wonderful cook! The things they make are impossible to resist.
10) Gossip
It's the people around me who start the conversations. There's no way to avoid hearing what others happen to say. And when others ask me questions, I can't avoid sharing what I know.
11) Self-Pity
I'll never be happy, because my marriage/family/job/ministry is so difficult.
12) Selfishness
I would be more generous if we had more money.
Making excuses like this is arrogant and foolish. It's a proud way of trying to justify our actions and pacify our guilty consciences. And it keeps us from humbling ourselves before God to repent of our sins and seek his forgiveness.
Consider James 1:13-15, which leaves us with no way of escaping our own sin and guilt. We cannot blame God, for he "cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one."
Instead, we have to accept the humbling truth that "each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." This will end the blame game, and it will send us pleading for Christ's mercy and grace.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
A belated post about moving to Ohio
I think most of you know this already, but we have officially moved to Ohio. We're Buckeyes now! We've been here three weeks now and are so thrilled about where God has us. He made it abundantly clear that this was where we were supposed to be, and He has continued to encourage us since we've been here. Our church family is wonderful, supportive of us, and excited about serving in God's kingdom. The children and students we work with have shown us a lot of love and respect even as new staff members who are following on the heels of a few youth guys who came and went pretty quickly. The community of Beavercreek is beautiful, and the people are surprisingly friendly!
We've had a jampacked few weeks (birthday for me, our third anniversary, getting new drivers licenses, a church car show yesterday, traveling two different weekends, preaching my second week here, a clean-up day at work, unpacking all our boxes and getting organized, etc.), but it's been nice to hit the ground running, and we are excited to see how God uses us to further His kingdom in our new community. Stephanie and I are trying to be better equipped to share the gospel personally with others and pledging to be more bold in our witness for Christ. If you pray for us, you can make that a prayer concern....We have had some really good conversations and time in the Word together recently. God's been teaching Stephanie a lot from the book of Romans about the beauty of the gospel and how much hope it brings us. And I've been reading in Matthew and being freshly reminded about the teaching and the work of Christ while He was on earth. Both of us are trying to memorize long portions of Scripture. There is such great value to hiding God's Word in our hearts and minds. Steph and I definitely recommend trying to memorize long portions--even if it takes you weeks to get it down!
Tonight we had a parent meeting at church, which was pretty productive. Our church has great potential and seems to be moving into a new phase of life as a congregation. That brings exciting opportunities but potential for conflict as well. So we are patiently considering what steps to take and are confident that our Lord will give us direction.
Lastly, Steph and I are reading some good books that we'd recommend to you. I'm reading Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison--a book about Christian counseling and how it should be rooted in Scripture's teachings about the human heart instead of in secular psychology's misunderstandings. And Steph is reading Bad Girls of the Bible. She loves studying women of the Bible and learning through what Scripture has to say about these women--both good and bad. Both would be good reads for you.
Here are some pictures from our move (sorry if they're all jumbled...this always confuses me for some reason):
Our old apartment all packed up
The view from our new balcony
Our new kitchen
Our new apartment living room pre-unpacking
Me and Steph on move-in day
We've had a jampacked few weeks (birthday for me, our third anniversary, getting new drivers licenses, a church car show yesterday, traveling two different weekends, preaching my second week here, a clean-up day at work, unpacking all our boxes and getting organized, etc.), but it's been nice to hit the ground running, and we are excited to see how God uses us to further His kingdom in our new community. Stephanie and I are trying to be better equipped to share the gospel personally with others and pledging to be more bold in our witness for Christ. If you pray for us, you can make that a prayer concern....We have had some really good conversations and time in the Word together recently. God's been teaching Stephanie a lot from the book of Romans about the beauty of the gospel and how much hope it brings us. And I've been reading in Matthew and being freshly reminded about the teaching and the work of Christ while He was on earth. Both of us are trying to memorize long portions of Scripture. There is such great value to hiding God's Word in our hearts and minds. Steph and I definitely recommend trying to memorize long portions--even if it takes you weeks to get it down!
Tonight we had a parent meeting at church, which was pretty productive. Our church has great potential and seems to be moving into a new phase of life as a congregation. That brings exciting opportunities but potential for conflict as well. So we are patiently considering what steps to take and are confident that our Lord will give us direction.
Lastly, Steph and I are reading some good books that we'd recommend to you. I'm reading Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison--a book about Christian counseling and how it should be rooted in Scripture's teachings about the human heart instead of in secular psychology's misunderstandings. And Steph is reading Bad Girls of the Bible. She loves studying women of the Bible and learning through what Scripture has to say about these women--both good and bad. Both would be good reads for you.
Here are some pictures from our move (sorry if they're all jumbled...this always confuses me for some reason):
Our old apartment all packed up
The view from our new balcony
Our new kitchen
Our new apartment living room pre-unpacking
Me and Steph on move-in day
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The nature of lost humanity
I read an article tonight called "The Ascent of Lost Man in Southern Baptist Preaching" by Mark Coppenger. In a nutshell the article is about how, over time, SBC preachers have moved from viewing lost human beings as completely depraved and sinful rebels whose hearts have absolutely no desire to serve God toward a tamer view of them as being more neutral and therefore less in need of God's saving grace, because they already possess a large degree of freedom. (Hopefully I'm not sounding WAY too seminarian here.) Anyways, here are a few quotes from the article....
This is one that was not necessarily central to Dr. Coppenger's point, but that I found thought provoking none the less:
"Here is a man, for instance, who is very sick, he greatly dreads to die; his physician proposes to him to take a potion of very nauseous medicine, the patient is perfectly willing, and greatly desires the medicine. We ask, Is it really, the medicine the man wants, independent of its effects? O no, the medicine itself is disagreeable; it is the good effects of the medicine which is really the object of his desire. He wants to live, and he only desires the medicine as the means of obtaining the end. This, perhaps, unfolds the secret of your situation. If so, you are only a legalist; and it has not been religion you have been wanting all the while, but its good effects. If you will examine yourself closely, perhaps you will find that so far from having desired religion on account of what it is in its own nature, you have in reality been desiring it only as a kind of necessary evil, which you did not want, only as a means of obtaining certain wished-for ends....We see a great many persons who appear to be greatly concerned about keeping out of hell and getting to heaven, while they appear to be very little concerned about sin and holiness." -J.H.T. Kilpatrick
A short quote that shows the distinction between seeing lost man as wholly against God's Lordship and seeing him as just a neutral party who is on the fence and could go either way:
"It is not that the natural man is ignorant and needs instruction, feeble and needs invigorating, sickly and needs doctoring. His case is far more. He is spiritually lifeless, and needs quickening--a spiritual corpse which needs bringing from death to life." -R.G. Lee
This is maybe the best quote. There are echoes of Ephesians 2:1ff here:
"We are dead. We are corpses. We are born in that death. We are born in sin, even conceived in sin. All of our propensities and affinities flow in the direction of sin. We are by nature set in a fallen direction. Have you ever stood by the might Niagara? The great river falls over that precipice. It naturally does. It is uncoerced. It falls by nature. It cannot rise. It does not rise. It falls and each drop of water pushes the other over the rim of that great falls. We are set in a fallen direction....I am bound, paralyzed between two steel rails, one, my fleshly lust and the other, my fallen will. And I stand in the path of an inevitable judgment, inexorable death. I'm like a man paralyzed between two steel rails and thundering down on me is a great chain of cars....I can stand and preach to a dead corpse and say, "Don't you see?" But a corpse doesn't see. I can lift up my voice and say to a dead corpse, "Don't you understand?" But a dead corpse does not understand. I can say to a dead corpse, "Don't you hear?" But a dead corpse does not hear. It cannot will itself to a quickened life. It cannot choose, it cannot see, it cannot hear, it cannot think, it cannot understand. It is dead....The initiation of our salvation, of our calling, of our regeneration, of our new birth, of our salvation is in God and not is us. Consequently, our new birth, our regeneration, our calling is a gift of God....Now, when I read this in the Bible, and I look in my heart, is it confirmed in my experience? It is. And not only in mine, but in every man who has ever come to know Jesus as his savior. A man or a woman. Everyone of us." -W.A. Criswell
Dr. Coppenger wraps up the article with this quote, showing how when we raise our view of lost humanity, we undermine the beauty and power of God's grace in their lives. Forgiveness, regeneration, salvation, and the work of Christ on the cross suddenly aren't worth nearly as much, and aren't nearly as miraculous or amazing. Here is the quote:
"It is a pity that such preaching is more scarce than it once was. While few deny the reality of human free agency (else what sense could we make of the conscious rejection or acceptance of the gospel?), it seems that, today, the "freedom" of the lost has been magnified at the expense of their "bondage." Unlike the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention, some have come to view lost people as discriminating shoppers, whose failure to buy is due to our failure at marketing.
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
Thank God that He has shown grace and mercy to a completely lost and rebellious sinner like me!
This is one that was not necessarily central to Dr. Coppenger's point, but that I found thought provoking none the less:
"Here is a man, for instance, who is very sick, he greatly dreads to die; his physician proposes to him to take a potion of very nauseous medicine, the patient is perfectly willing, and greatly desires the medicine. We ask, Is it really, the medicine the man wants, independent of its effects? O no, the medicine itself is disagreeable; it is the good effects of the medicine which is really the object of his desire. He wants to live, and he only desires the medicine as the means of obtaining the end. This, perhaps, unfolds the secret of your situation. If so, you are only a legalist; and it has not been religion you have been wanting all the while, but its good effects. If you will examine yourself closely, perhaps you will find that so far from having desired religion on account of what it is in its own nature, you have in reality been desiring it only as a kind of necessary evil, which you did not want, only as a means of obtaining certain wished-for ends....We see a great many persons who appear to be greatly concerned about keeping out of hell and getting to heaven, while they appear to be very little concerned about sin and holiness." -J.H.T. Kilpatrick
A short quote that shows the distinction between seeing lost man as wholly against God's Lordship and seeing him as just a neutral party who is on the fence and could go either way:
"It is not that the natural man is ignorant and needs instruction, feeble and needs invigorating, sickly and needs doctoring. His case is far more. He is spiritually lifeless, and needs quickening--a spiritual corpse which needs bringing from death to life." -R.G. Lee
This is maybe the best quote. There are echoes of Ephesians 2:1ff here:
"We are dead. We are corpses. We are born in that death. We are born in sin, even conceived in sin. All of our propensities and affinities flow in the direction of sin. We are by nature set in a fallen direction. Have you ever stood by the might Niagara? The great river falls over that precipice. It naturally does. It is uncoerced. It falls by nature. It cannot rise. It does not rise. It falls and each drop of water pushes the other over the rim of that great falls. We are set in a fallen direction....I am bound, paralyzed between two steel rails, one, my fleshly lust and the other, my fallen will. And I stand in the path of an inevitable judgment, inexorable death. I'm like a man paralyzed between two steel rails and thundering down on me is a great chain of cars....I can stand and preach to a dead corpse and say, "Don't you see?" But a corpse doesn't see. I can lift up my voice and say to a dead corpse, "Don't you understand?" But a dead corpse does not understand. I can say to a dead corpse, "Don't you hear?" But a dead corpse does not hear. It cannot will itself to a quickened life. It cannot choose, it cannot see, it cannot hear, it cannot think, it cannot understand. It is dead....The initiation of our salvation, of our calling, of our regeneration, of our new birth, of our salvation is in God and not is us. Consequently, our new birth, our regeneration, our calling is a gift of God....Now, when I read this in the Bible, and I look in my heart, is it confirmed in my experience? It is. And not only in mine, but in every man who has ever come to know Jesus as his savior. A man or a woman. Everyone of us." -W.A. Criswell
Dr. Coppenger wraps up the article with this quote, showing how when we raise our view of lost humanity, we undermine the beauty and power of God's grace in their lives. Forgiveness, regeneration, salvation, and the work of Christ on the cross suddenly aren't worth nearly as much, and aren't nearly as miraculous or amazing. Here is the quote:
"It is a pity that such preaching is more scarce than it once was. While few deny the reality of human free agency (else what sense could we make of the conscious rejection or acceptance of the gospel?), it seems that, today, the "freedom" of the lost has been magnified at the expense of their "bondage." Unlike the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention, some have come to view lost people as discriminating shoppers, whose failure to buy is due to our failure at marketing.
It is good to note that man's will is free in the sense that his choices flow freely from his character or nature, whether regenerate or unregenerate. But today the spiritual freedom of fallen man is being woefully overrated and, consequently, saving grace is being tragically underrated." -Dr. Mark Coppenger
If you actually made it through this, I am impressed. The clincher for this argument is not in what any of these guys have said, but what God's word says. Listen to what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1-7 and how he describes lost humanity--"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
Thank God that He has shown grace and mercy to a completely lost and rebellious sinner like me!
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