Weekend Getaway

March 31st, 2006

Tyler is six weeks old today! Bobby and I love watching him grow. It is so sweet how he is getting chubby cheeks now and making lots of baby talk. We just go crazy when he coos or says the only word I’ve heard him repeat-”Aagoo.” Today we are even taking him on his first trip away from home. We will be spending the weekend up near Lake Tahoe for a fun getaway in honor of our high school seniors. A few of them have blogs, follow the links to check them out–Kelsey, Evan and Mitch.

I’m looking forward to Bobby’s devotionals this weekend from Psalm 37:4-5. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.



Is Perfection Possible?

March 29th, 2006

On Tuesday nights some high school girls come over and we study passages on holiness. Last night we studied Philippians 3:12-14–

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but
I press on, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has
laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;
but one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I really enjoyed our discussion about this last night. We talked about three things that stood out from this passage–”perfect”, “past”, and “prize”.
Perfect– God is working in the lives of His children to make them perfect like His Son. For every believer this pursuit is life-long and will not be fully attained until we are in heaven. Paul knows that he has not fully arrived at perfection. He was aware of his faults and that he was not finished yet. The girls and I were talking about this part in light of the word “perfectionist”. Most people consider that a definite negative. We should be careful that in this pursuit of holiness that we don’t develop a haughty attitude, as if we have arrived. No one should ever assume that they have reached a peak of maturity in knowledge or experience spiritually so that they can belittle others.
Julie pointed out that when we are striving for perfection and holiness that people around us may get frustrated because even though we have not attained–our striving for perfection will make them feel guilty if they are not pursuing the same thing. But people’s responses should not discourage us from striving after it. We should only measure ourselves to Christ and not each other, being careful to live according to His expectations and not others. We must be humble about our imperfection and eager to change towards the goal of Christ likeness.
Past–Paul says that he presses on “forgetting what is behind.” There is a big temptation to focus too much on the past. If we were to think the way of psychology we would always be trapped there–what so and so did to me, the childhood I deserved but didn’t have, how my father treated me, failures, and disappointments would keep us from ever moving forward. Paul doesn’t necessarily mean that we actually don’t remember anything in our past, of course we should remember things so that we will learn from our mistakes and be encouraged by God’s faithfulness in our lives.

People focus a lot on the past, though. When there is a rift in a relationship the people often say, “I wish things could be the way they were.” We shouldn’t focus or even entertain the idea of going back to how things were because we can’t, we can only go forward. Don’t long for a broken friendship to be as it was, long for it to be renewed, to be better. Don’t dwell on past sins, what God has forgiven should not remain a burden. Sarah said she heard a pastor preach on how Satan likes to get us discouraged about our past and he said, “When Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.” In the end, he will be conquered and we will reign victorious with Christ. So, how we deal with pain, failure, or disappointment in the past will greatly influence how we live today. Since we are not finished not until the Lord returns or calls us home, we must forget the past and live in the present. No change can happen there, only here.
Prize–Paul’s determination is very inspiring to me when he says, “but one thing I do…” In the study note in my Bible John MacArthur says, “Paul had reduced the whole of sanctification to the simple and clear goal of doing ‘one thing’–pursuing Christ likeness.” His life was spent on this one goal and he did not fail. God is faithful to bring each believer to completion. One day each believer will see this goal realized in their life. We won’t have any sin, doubt or failure–what an exciting thought! There is a time each believer will be called to heaven, and in His presence our prize will be actualized in the completion of our faith. The unattainable goal of perfection for us now is a stirring hope for what we will be rewarded with someday in the future.
I have recently become discouraged in this pursuit because the more I strive for perfection the greater my imperfections seem to be. But I am learning that it is very helpful to have this passage memorized so that I can keep my eyes of myself and on the Lord.
Holiness, holiness is what I long for
Holiness is what I need
Holiness, holiness is what You want from me…


Blakey Happenings

March 27th, 2006

The weather here can’t make up its mind if it’s spring yet or still winter. Since my last entry we have enjoyed some beautiful 70-degree sunny days, but when I got up this morning the sky was grey and it was cold and windy. I guess I don’t really mind the rain, I know that it will make everything all green and flowery in a few weeks. It’s just that I’m starting to like the days when I can use our screen door, have all the windows open and wear flip flops. We live in a pretty old apartment, you know how in old houses the floors creak and squeak? Our apartment is like that and there is a window in our living room which must not be sealed well anymore because whenever we have a stormy day the wind makes a draft come through this one window. If it’s strong enough it even blows the shades a little! If anyone knows how to fix that, please let me know!

Days with Tyler are just such a joy! He’ll be six weeks old this week and we’ve settled into a nice routine. It’s so nice how he’s sleeping much longer at night! I am finding that I look forward to certain times of day with him. Every morning when he wakes up I prop him up on my pillow and “play” with him. Playing with Tyler has expanded from just a stare down to having him talk back to me with little sounds or cooing and lots of smiles. At first he hated bath time, but as you can see from the picture it has become a favorite now. Another one I look forward to is his tummy time and we put him on this little play mat that has lots of colors and sounds. When he’s on that he lifts his head up pretty high now. Or other times we put him on our bed and he likes to try to “scooch” already. Bobby called me in there the other day to show me how if he put his hand at Tyler’s feet, he would push against it and gradually make his way to the other side of the bed. Bobby and I are just having such a great time with him and love seeing how he is growing and changing.

It was wonderful to be at church again this weekend. After not going for a month after Tyler was born I sure missed it. I always enjoy Bobby’s lessons and this week was no exception. He taught on evangelism from 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 and answered the question–”Why aren’t Christians excited to evangelize?” In this passage Paul says “the love of Christ compels us.” I’ve often wondered why Christians seem hesitant, intimidated or even embarrassed to speak the truth of the Gospel to others. I really like what Bobby said about it–

———————————————-
“I am afraid that too many Christians think of evangelism like going to the dentist.
When they hear a message like this, it’s like getting one of those flyers in the mail
from your dentist reminding you that you need to get your teeth checked every six
months to a year or something like that. Do you get those in the mail? I do.
And I think to myself, you know that would probably be a good idea to go to the
dentist. When I can find the time, and when I have the money, and when I finally
feel like it, I’ll go. And this is how we think of evangelism. We think that we should
do it. But we don’t want to. We aren’t compelled to act.”
———————————————-
The Godsongmusic site is always a happening place and continues to be so with their newest feature–a sermon section. You can now go read and even listen to some of Bobby’s lessons right there at the site! I hope you’ll go check out the lesson in writing at least even if you can’t listen to it. So many people seem to have misconceptions of evangelism–it isn’t just inviting someone to church– and Bobby’s lesson sheds refreshing Biblical light on the subject. Just click on the link to go to this week’’s sermon–“A Plea For Evanglism”


Spring Is Here!

March 21st, 2006

Yesterday was the first day of spring, but the weather could have fooled me because it is cold and pouring rain. We even had some thunder. This picture to the right is of the wall in Tyler’s nursery where my good friend, Missy, is painting a lovely mural of a picture we liked in an old Pooh book. It’s originally of the classic “hundred acre wood” but we’ve made a few additions such as “Blakey Point”, “Ty’s House”, and, in the bottom right corner, the pond and fountains where we go for walks.

Now that Tyler is a little older I’ve been taking him places. Not many–just Bobby’s office, a couple of stores, and of course, Starbucks. I like (and so does he) to put him in our baby carrier, which is like a backpack but goes in the front. I was excited when two of the high school girls, Kelsey and Michaela, put our stroller together for us. The infant seat snaps on the top until he’s big enough to sit in the stroller seat. It will be nice to use that if we are out for longer periods of time. Having people over is another great thing about Tyler being a little older. He’s much better with an eating-sleeping routine so having people over is much easier than it was the first couple of weeks.

I am really enjoying my iPod these days. Not only do I have all my music readily available but I can hear sermons too! I’ve been downloading John MacArthur’s messages from Grace to You and just finished a four part series “A Call For Discernment”. Grace to You messages are only about 20 minutes long, which is just about how long it takes to feed Tyler, so I have found that to be a great use of that time during the day.

In his series on discernment MacArthur preaches from 1 Thessalonians 5:21–”Test all things; hold fast what is good.” He talks a lot about how in our culture people not only shy away from making judgment, but it is seen as a bad thing. People are so afraid of stepping on anyone’s toes, no one wants to say that they are right and the other is wrong. In being so grey we end up forfeiting any good judgment. In each segment he keeps saying that good discernment will flow from being rooted in God’s Word, “Scripture is the standard by which all claims to truth must be tested.” I was very encouraged by these messages because I want to live with a Berean perspective. It is sad how so many Christians fall into the extremes. Many seem harsh, divisive and unloving in trying to exercise good judgment. Or others, never wanting to make any judgments at all, end up tolerating unbiblical teaching and sinful behavior. It is imperative that Christians learn to test all things and hold fast only to the Truth. If you would like to listen to these messages just follow this link and you can download them for free! “A Call For Discernment.”



Path of Joy

March 14th, 2006

It’s been a cold week with lots of rain and even some hail. Things continue to go well with Tyler. I’m enjoying every day, even though it’s mostly only feeding, naps and a few hours of wake time. I’m so glad that I can stay home to take care of him. Things around our place are adapting to a whole new rhythm. I’m cooking all our meals again–which I love! Laundry, house cleaning and showers are all just routine instead of the difficult task they seemed to be the first week after we brought Tyler home. People at our church are so gracious to us. Tyler is three weeks old now, but Bobby is still coming home from work with cards and gifts, many from people we don’t even know very well. This weekend he brought a gift from one lady–a little red sweater and hat that she had knit especially for Tyler!

I’ve been sad to miss the fellowship and teaching at church these last few weeks. Tyler is just too young to go there and have everybody meet him just yet. Plus it being cold/flu season we’re going to wait till we think he’s ready for something like that. However, I was really blessed to hear a recording of Bobby’s lesson for the high schoolers. He is talking with them about how being a Christian radically affects a person’s whole life, as if they were born into a completely new life. At one point he said that our lives boil down to one of two things–living for self or living for God. We cannot do both. I was challenged by this because I know in my mind that I must live for God and follow Him, but much of the time I give way to the temptation to live for myself instead. I can easily let my personal comforts warp my devotion to the Lord, making me feel as though following Him is a burden.

In Bobby’s message he addressed the problem of selfish living in terms of how we become preoccupied with the future–college, marriage, and career. He described following God as the stepping stones in his grandma’s garden. You only step on one at a time and might not even know what the next step is, but when God wants you to take it, He will provide a place for your foot to stand. I think we always want to know what is next, but I have learned that what the Lord wants from me is to trust Him and be faithful to obey Him. I’ve also realized that when I’m focused on Christ at the end of the path–and not so busy looking around at other people, comparing my life to theirs or trying to do things on my own–if I deny myself, following Him is anything but a burden. It’s really such a joy!

“You make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence there is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 16:8



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