Archive for February, 2006

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Trusting Him with Time

February 13, 2006 - 8:34 pm 8 Comments

Week forty is here and the waiting has begun! I say that the waiting has begun because these nine months have really flown by. Surprisingly to me, this has not been anything like I thought it would be. Scores of women have assured me of the discomforts and agonies of these nine months, but I have been exceedingly blessed to have missed out on pretty much all of them. I’ve been told by more than one high school girl that my pregnancy has been extremely boring–I think they wanted some drama–but my doctor refers to this “boring” state as having a record that is “clean as a whistle”. I know that the Lord has been good to me…

The last couple of weeks our excitement has really grown in waiting for the baby to be born. We are as ready as we can be, the room is finished, I have finally packed a bag…now we wait. I have been so amused at people’s responses to our waiting. Yesterday at church half a dozen women came up to me and said, “You haven’t had the baby yet?” or “Still no baby?” I wasn’t sure if I should respond like these were real questions or if they were just meant to be rhetorical statements. As if it wasn’t obvious that the baby had not yet been born! Another funny response is “Give us a call when it happens!” If we had been following that request we would now have a list of eighty people to call! Some specify, “Call us when you’re on the way” or others are willing to find out afterwards as long as they get called!

My favorite response to waiting is from the high school students. Bobby is the high school director at our church so all the students seem excited that the time is soon. Most of the girls in my small group say they really want a personal call or at least a text message! At Bible study last week one girl said as she was leaving, “I always have my phone on so don’t hesitate to give me the call!” The guy leaving after her said, “Me too, I want the call!” When I am out with some of the girls they say, “I wish it would happen right now, this second!” I don’t have the same enthusiasm about it happening instantaneously when we’re having lunch at In ‘n Out or something, haha! But it sure is fun to have people excited with us.

One thing I’ve been reminding myself of is that all the timing is in God’s hands. People often act like the baby decides when it’s ready to be born, but I know this isn’t the case. We know from Psalm 139 that God already has picked the exact time when the baby will be born. He already knows this little person intimately. I’m pretty happy to just wait on the Lord and not go hike three miles or do jumping jacks–some of the crazy things ladies have told me they did when they got impatient! I won’t be trying any of these tactics, but I will be thinking about these verses I love:

“But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord;
I say, ‘You are my God.’
My times are in Your hand…”
Psalm 31:14-15

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Excited About Exodus

February 12, 2006 - 8:04 pm 2 Comments

It has been a very restful weekend. The weather has been spring-like so almost every day I’ve had the windows in the house open for some fresh air. It was so nice out on Saturday that Bobby and I headed to the coast for the afternoon. The drive was beautiful there but shortly after we arrived the clouds started moving in. They moved so fast that it seemed like we were watching them in fast forward mode. We were excited that the Olympic Games have begun and caught some of the opening ceremonies on Friday night. It’s so interesting to see the “Parade of Nations”. Some of the nations are so small, I have never even heard of them, having a population of only one million or less. I like how they all come to one place to compete together, even if they only have one athlete representing their country. Bobby and I especially like watching the luge and half-pipe snowboarding. So we’ll probably be following the games these next couple of weeks.

Today I enjoyed getting to hear Bobby teach twice. In an adult class He taught an excellent lesson from 2 Timothy 2 and in the high school group I was really inspired to hear his lesson from Exodus 33 in his series on God’s glory. This account of Moses and the Israelites always amazes me. God was going to give them all He had prepared for them in the Promised Land but was not going to go with them into it. Moses meets with God and tells Him that they will not go unless He will go before them. But when the people heard this they mourned because God would not go with them. I find a profound lesson here because how easy it would be for many of us to take the gifts but forget about the Giver, to want blessing but to not have to give anything in return. But in this account, the people were not happy to take the blessings and run, but were devastated.

An incredible part of this story is that Moses sees the people mourning and so he goes to meet with the Lord. As he walks outside of the camp to the tabernacle all of the people who sought the Lord rose and stood in the doorway of their tent and watched Moses. When he went into the tabernacle a pillar of cloud descended to the tabernacle and the Lord met with Moses there. Exodus 33:11 says that God spoke there with Moses as a man speaks to a friend. The people, who are all standing in their doorways watching, rise up and worship.

As I listened to Bobby teaching I wondered what I would have thought if I were an Israelite back then. Would I have just said, “Ah, let’s go into this place flowing with milk and honey!” and left God behind? Or would I have been devastated remembering all the things I had seen, the great miracles God worked to free the Israelites from Egypt and said, “This is my God, if He isn’t coming I will stay here”? I think that we are much more prone to have the first attitude easily forgetting all that God has done in our lives, how He has shown Himself to us, kept His promises to us and blessed us. Like the Israelites we are often quick to complain, slow to believe. I’m thankful to have learned from this passage today. I don’t want to go anywhere, if He isn’t there.I am praying that as my life goes on–no matter the hardships or changes– that I will be faithful to remember His great faithfulness to me.

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The Gospel and the Day-to-Day

February 10, 2006 - 9:51 am 1 Comment

I’m reading a great book by Martin Lloyd-Jones called Spiritual Depression and this portion I read last night simply blared off the page at me. In this chapter Lloyd-Jones is writing about how true salvation must take over the mind, heart and will–the whole person. He thinks the reason so many Christians are unhappy, defeated and poor witnesses of the Gospel is because they do not let it take hold of all of them in normal day-to-day living.

——————————————————–
There is no aspect of life but that the gospel has something to say
about it. The whole of life must come under its influence because it
is all inclusive; the gospel is meant to control and govern everything
in our lives. If we do not realize that, we are sooner or later to find
ourselves in an unhappy condition. So many, because they indulge in
these harmful and unscriptural dichotomies and only apply their
Christianity to certain aspects of their lives, are bound to be in trouble.
It is quite inevitable.

We must realize the greatness of the gospel, its vast eternal span.
We must dwell more on the riches, and in the riches of these great
doctrinal absolutes. We must not always stay in the gospels. We
start there but we must go on; and then as we see it all worked out
and put into its great context we shall realize what a mighty thing the
gospel is, and how the whole of our life is meant to be governed by it.
——————————————————–

A couple of years ago I was in a group study on the book The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges. One week the group broke up into small groups for discussion and the first question we were to answer was “How does the Gospel play a part in your day-today life?” Many things ran through my mind before it came around the circle to me–forgiveness for my sin, freedom from sin because I now have the ability to choose not to sin, my life has purpose in God’s will, I can draw near to God each day in prayer and seek Him in His Word, I have the hope of the Holy Spirit to convict me and guide me, no guilt, no fear in death. But before I got to share any of this someone had said, “I guess it doesn’t really impact the normal day-to-day stuff that much.”

This is not an uncommon perspective. If someone thinks of the gospel as a one-time thing they came to grips with in the past it has no power in their life. All too often people have a mindset of Christianity as being something they try to fit into all the aspects of their life rather than the one aspect that takes over their life. This is why people continue to struggle and be unfulfilled and unhappy Christians or maybe not even Christians at all. We cannot pick and choose what we like about the gospel. People selectively take what is convenient about salvation, giving some of their heart to the Lord, but wanting to have control of the rest themselves. Maybe people feel that they aren’t ready to surrender and really live for Christ. Christianity is to be lost to yourself and found in Christ as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

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Fun Facts of Four…

February 9, 2006 - 3:24 pm 1 Comment

I never post things like this! But one of my good friends e-mailed this as a “get-to-know-your-friends-better” forward and said that I should be fun and post it on my blog. So here goes!

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Making hospital beds (one summer in high school)
2. Washing dishes in a cafeteria (where I met my husband, Bobby!)
3. A nanny
4. An admin for a CPA firm

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. CLUE (The hilarious ’80′s movie about the board game)
2. The Lord of the Rings (any of the three)
3. It’s a Wonderful Life
4. The Incredibles

Four places you have lived:
1. Clovis, New Mexico
2. Austin, Texas
3. Mountain Home, Idaho
4. Lompoc, California

Four TV shows you like to watch:
1. Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Meals
2. What Not to Wear
3. LOST
4. 24

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Honolulu, Hawaii
2. Orlando, Florida
3. Monterey, California
4. Sun Valley, Idaho

Four websites I visit daily:
1. Godsong Music
2. The Upward Call
3. CAMPONTHIS
4. Grace to You (I really like the daily devotional page)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Toast (especially with peanut butter)
2. Spinach Artichoke Dip (from California Pizza Kitchen)
3. Hash Browns
4. Dried apple rings

Four places I would rather be right now: (I’m happy to just be here at home right now, but four places I like or would like are…)
1. Heaven will be an awesome place!
2. Any part of the California coast (especially Mavericks, Carmel or Santa Barbara)
3. Disneyland (it is the Happiest Place on Earth after all!)
4. Our hospital (It’s less than a week till I’m due, so I’m excited to meet our baby!)

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Getting the Big Picture

February 8, 2006 - 2:27 pm 1 Comment
It’s been a wonderful week here. Not only because we are enjoying 70-degree weather in the middle of February but also because Bobby has recovered from his bout with the flu. This week we’ve celebrated his 26th birthday, our good friend Missy’s birthday and maybe even that of our own baby who is due in less than a week now!

I’ve been very encouraged by a small group of high school girls who have been gathering at our place for one hour every Tuesday night to get serious about holiness. Usually when people hear the word holiness they coil up thinking that is not something they exactly want to go out of their way to talk about. Someone once told me of holiness, “I’m a Christian and all, but that is way to heavy for me.” In his Sunday morning teaching, Bobby once mentioned Hebrews 12:14 which calls us to pursue holiness “without which no one will see God.” It has been a great blessing to have just a few girls step forward in their desire to seek after God in this way. Each week we sit around the dining room table or in the living room with our Bibles and talk and pray to this end. I have learned so much from the mutual discussion and the perspectives that are offered and prayers shared.

Last night we talked about 2 Corinthians 7:1-
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

At first this just seemed like one little verse to me and read pretty self explained I thought. But as we dissected it, it went from being a little postage stamp picture of a verse to a huge panoramic window of a picture of this call to holiness. I’m excited to write about the four things that really stood out to us from this verse.

Promises- “Therefore, having these promises, beloved…” Paul is writing to believers of the promises God has made. Looking at the previous chapter we see some of these promises. In 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 God promises to dwell with us, be our God, to receive us and to be a Father to us. Everyone shared some of the many other promises God has given to us as His children. And we noted that these promises are our motivation toward holiness. Because we have these promises, we ought to do what the Lord commands of us. God promises to never leave or forsake us (Josh. 1:5), renew mercy to us each day (Lam. 3:22-23), forgive our sins (1 John 1:9), provides a way out of temptation (1 Cor. 10:13), all we need in His Word (2 Pet. 3:1).

Cleanse- “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit…” We must seek to be pure in our lives, taking out all sin. We found it pretty interesting that holiness is not just a matter of our souls–cleansing our thoughts, hearts, minds and desires. But purity must come from our spirit to our bodies as well as they are temples of the Holy Spirit Himself (1 Cor. 6:19). We cannot allow our bodies to be lazy and undisciplined while training our minds and hearts to be under Christ, it just doesn’t make sense.

I remember hearing a speaker in chapel at the Master’s College talk about holiness. He said that Christians permit far too much sin in their lives that we compromise on “small” things and end up with a weak perspective on sin and no drive for holiness. He had one of those huge bottles of purified water for office water dispensers. He took a trash bag and from it pulled just tiny drop of horse or cow manure and dropped it into the bottle. He shook it some and then asked, “Is it pure?” His point has stuck with me because I know I do that in my life in terms of being pure from sin. Seeing water contaminated with manure is disgusting and makes me shudder, but allowing myself to compromise with “small” sins or laziness in my body doesn’t seem to get the same response. I want to see my life become more and more purified like the bottle of water, free from anything that contaminates or corrupts.

Perfecting Holiness- When we got to this part of the verse I reminded them that weeks ago we had defined holiness as perfection. How can you perfect perfection? One of the girls said it so well in that we are never there, in this life we cannot arrive at holiness. To perfect holiness means that we must keep faithfully striving after our calling all the way to the end of our lives. Only at the end of our lives or when Jesus returns will we be made whole and perfectly like Him.

Fear of God- The deep reverence and respect that we must have for God grows as we see how small and sinful we are in light or how amazingly holy He is. The more I see this reality, the more I want to please Him, to be made pure before Him. In defining “fear of God” we looked up Proverbs 8:13 which says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” This brought us full circle in our understanding of holiness in this verse because to be holy is to be free of sin.

God’s promises enable and motivate us to keep seeking His glory in our lives. We need to be diligent to flee from sin and anything that contaminates our love for Him. One of God’s promises to His children that I find very motivating in my walk with Him is that He did not save me and then abandon me to be sanctified on my own. He has done the work of salvation in my life and will continue to work His will in my growth toward holiness.

“…Being confident of this very thing,
that He who has begun a good work in you
will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6

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