Every Wednesday night during the summer we gather the high school students at a nearby beach for a game of Ultimate Frisbee, BBQ dinner, worship and a lesson from God’s Word. I have really enjoyed our study this summer, Bobby calls it “In-N-Out Evangelism.” Now I realize that some of you might not even be familiar with the culinary delicacy of In-N-Out because you don’t live in California, but I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like it!

My husband’s series wasn’t sparked because he was trying to just be innovative and keep students attention. In-N-Out actually prints references to Bible verses on their paper goods because this fast-food establishment is owned by a Christian family. Since our students love In-N-Out Bobby had the idea to study one of these wrapper references a week and challenge the students to use them as a way to evangelize their unsaved friends.

Printed on the Double-Double wrappers is Nahum 1:7 which says–

This seems like a very encouraging and comforting verse, doesn’t it? Well, we all were challenged took take a look at context last night as Bobby had us read almost all of chapter 1 to get a bigger perspective of the depth of this verse’s meaning. Here is Nahum 1:2, just to give you a glimpse of the tone–

The rest of the chapter goes on to say that God is great in power, will not leave the guilty unpunished, the earth trembles before Him, no one can withstand His indignation and He will pursue His foes into darkness…

Not exactly the warm fuzzy feelings we typically want to have about God. I have a great concern for how people and churches are obsessed with trying to recreate God into our image. People are so insistent on trying to feel good about themselves that they will let their mind accept only the god they feel they are willing to deal with. In the end this is not even God at all.

God is powerful. He is our comforter. His wrath is all consuming. He is patient.
He is the righteous judge. He is gracious. He is jealous. His compassion never fails.

Some of these things seem like they contradict themselves, but as attributes of God they perfectly exist in Him. Someone might want to skip all of Nahum and just cherish verse 7, but that isn’t a full picture of what the verse is saying. Amidst judgment, wrath and vengeance on the wicked–“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.”  Bobby challenged us to be careful that we don’t pull verses out of their context to make them mean something they don’t.

What a powerful backdrop for His goodness and care. So many people want to question God, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Really we should be asking “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Since the beginning of history mankind has deserved judgment for sin, and yet consider all the good that is daily poured into our lives from God–the sun rises and sets, the rain falls, food, homes, family. Those are even just common ways that God is good to all people. Imagine how good He is and tender the care He gives to those who trust in Him?

At the beginning of the year I started re-reading Martha Peace’s The Excellent Wife. After talking with some of my friends who had not read it, I was motivated to post once a week on the section I was reading. Well, 12 weeks have passed and I haven’t read or posted on it, but today as I was cleaning my computer desk I cracked it open to my book marker to read this–

As difficult as it is to give someone a reproof, it is usually more difficult to humbly receive one. How you receive reproof will be one measure of your maturity in Christ. You can know you are receiving reproof from your husband sinfully when…

• You become angry and lash out at him.
  “Through presumption (pride) comes nothing but
  strife, But with those who receive counsel is wisdom.”
  Proverbs 13:10
• You feel hurt, resentful, and unforgiving.
  “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
  and slander be put away from you, along with all
  malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted,
  forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has
  forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31-32
• You focus on the things he is doing wrong.
  “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye,
  and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of
  your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:5
• You suffer intense personal hurt.
  “…He (God) disciplines us for good, that we may share
  His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not
  to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been
  trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of
  righteousness.” Hebrews 12:10-11, emphasis added

Any reproof may be humiliating and may make you feel badly. However, do not add to your personal hurt by reacting sinfully. If you do not respond with humility and gentleness, you will compound your sin. Even if you husband reproves you in an angry and unkind manner, you are still responsible before God for how you respond back.

The Excellent Wife, pp. 44-45

Now I remember why I gave the book a rest…What conviction! So often we justify our reactions by making our obedience conditional on someone else’s obedience. When they are sinful, we think that our sinful response make sense. But it doesn’t. God is expecting our obedience despite all circumstances and all provocation to disobey.

A big part of receiving correction is embracing the fact that we are sinful. That seems pretty basic, but how often we forget this! Someone comes to us with a reproof and we stand there mouth gaping–You think I did what?!?! Let’s not find it so hard to believe that we are capable of terrible sin. Having this right perspective of our own hearts will help us have humility when someone brings correction to us.

Another part of receiving reproof well is embracing the fact that no matter how much we’ve learned, we still have so much more to learn. If we have an inflated view of our own spiritual maturity, we will be offended at the suggestion that we are immature in some area. Let’s not find it so hard to believe that there is a lot of room for growth in our lives and accept that confrontation as another opportunity to do so.
I really like Hebrews 12:11 that Peace quoted above.

“…all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

It doesn’t feel happy or exciting to have someone give us reproof, but if we listen to them and are trained by it, we will bear the fruit of righteousness. And how much fruit we bear is linked to our teachable attitude toward correction.

Tyler is almost a year and a half old and I have been amazed the last couple of weeks at how much he has grown. He has had a huge burst of communication, coordination and well… overall cuteness. But I’m his mother, so I’m pretty biased.

Today I gave him his sixth haircut. This was the first one he has made a fuss over. He kept grabbing at the scissors and rubbing hair in his eyes. But eventually with Bobby’s help, a bowl of lucky charms and some Elmo I finished it and I think even he likes it now. You can see his funny new “scrunch” face in the after picture!

The last couple of months Tyler has picked up a little on prayer. We always pray for him before bedtime and at our meals and awhile ago he started saying “Amen!” when we would. A few days ago Bobby and I were praying together at the dining room table and Tyler kept saying, “More pray” and would clasp his hands and bow his head. I thought about how natural that seems for a child to want to imitate their parents. Especially at Tyler’s age right now. He always wants to play with our computers, cell phones and to sit in the drivers seat of the car just to do what we do.

Our high school students are reading through the Gospel of Matthew together over at Godsong Music and the passage tomorrow is Matthew 10. As I was reading it tonight one part definitely stands out is a quote from Jesus Himself–

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…” (Matthew 10:37)

Wow, that is intense. I like how Bobby said when he was preaching this weekend that Jesus is not degrading family, but rather elevating the position of priority He is to have in our hearts and lives. Our devotion to Him is to be complete. We can really see the idea of Him requiring all our hearts spelled out here. But then there is more–

…and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39)

In my MacArthur study Bible I really appreciated the notes for verse 38. MacArthur says,

“Here is Jesus’ first mention of the word ‘cross’ to his disciples.
To them it would have evoked a picture of a violent, degrading death.
He was demanding total commitment from them–even unto physical
death–and making this call to full surrender a part of the message
they were to proclaim to others.”

This is so different from the gospel we hear proclaimed today. It seems that more and more churches are promoting a feel-good, boost your self-worth message. It is rare to hear a gospel presentation that actually spells out the requirements Christ has spelled out for His followers. The thought of physical sacrifice being associated with following Christ is probably never mentioned. It’s scary how people are twisting and changing His demands to imply that Jesus is just another tactic you should try to be happier and feel more purpose in your life. All that is really doing is deceiving people into having a false assurance of themselves without losing their lives to be found in Him.

As I read through this passage and felt the weight of Christ’s words I thought about little Tyler and how sweet it seems that he likes it when we pray. But salvation is serious and I certainly don’t want just outward mimicking. Every time we pray with Tyler we ask for God to bring him salvation through true repentance and faith in Christ. Being a follower of Christ isn’t cute or easy. It isn’t about praying a prayer or “asking Jesus into our hearts.” He requires everything to be worthy of Him. My prayer is that someday Tyler will come to know this for himself because he saw us living this way…

These are lyrics to a song that my husband, Bobby and his friend Ty wrote not too long ago. (Please click here to go to Godsong Music to listen to the song!) Today Ty had the opportunity to sing this song for our Compass family and I was so encouraged by it.

This song is convicting because it’s so easy to go through life just doing what people do without having right motives.  Even as Christians we can be trying to have love or faith, but if the Lord doesn’t have all of our heart, it doesn’t amount to anything. Most people probably think this is extreme or too intense, but 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 is pretty clear, that God wants us to love Him with all of our hearts and for everything we do to flow from that abundance.

The message of this song definitely came home as Bobby preached this weekend (Please click here to listen to this sermon) he referred to 1 Corinthians 15:58–

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

God isn’t pleased with half our hearts or half a job. He wants us to always give ourselves fully to Him. I think we kind of trick ourselves into thinking that God understands that we are so busy or that it would be just too hard to give our all to Him. But we can’t excuse away what God requires of us.

All week I was getting us organized from Revival Camp the week before. I think my laundry count is at 13 loads (I have an apartment sized washer and dryer). Today I realized that God even wants me to fold that laundry with my heart all His. I used to think I had to be reading my Bible, in prayer or in church to really be giving God what He wants, so things like laundry, being stuck in traffic, grocery shopping and errands definitely seemed like trivial me-focused times. But what He is really looking for is not the formal fulfilling of duties for Him, but rather a constant God-ward focus in all I do, even folding 13 loads of laundry.

My prayer is that you will go listen to this song, at least once, and have a heart check to ask yourself if God really has all of it all the time…

I’ve just started reading the book of Job with our church’s daily Bible reading plan. Chapter 9 is an amazing response of Job to the destruction happening in his life–

But how can a mortal be righteous before God?
Though one wish to dispute with him,
he could not answer him one time out of a thousand.

His wisdom is profound, his power is vast.
Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?

He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.

When he passes me, I cannot see him;
when he goes by, I cannot perceive him.

Job 9:1-4,10-11

God does not make sense to us. We cannot figure Him out or define Him. But just because we don’t understand Him does not mean that hard to believe things about Him aren’t true. After a conversation with a student at camp last week I started thinking of things about God that are hard to believe. The student was having a hard time with the fact that God will judge people and punish them eternally. I started thinking that really most things about God are very hard to believe, because they just don’t make sense to us. Like the fact that…

• God is good, everything He does is perfectly right.
• God is sovereign, exercising ultimate authority over everyone and everything.
• He is eternal, has always existed and will exist forever. He has no limits, no beginning and no end.
• God is unchanging and always fulfills His promises.

If we could understand God, He wouldn’t be God. He is altogether different from us, in every way He is perfect and we are not. As a Christian I can accept these characteristics of God. That doesn’t mean I understand them or that they make complete sense to me. But as I depend on Him and put all my trust and faith in Him, He gives me the faith to believe that He really is all that He is. The more I see of Him, the more I want to bow down in worship to the one, true and living God!

Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;
Nor are there any works like Your works

All nations whom You have made
Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
And shall glorify Your name.

For You are great, and do wondrous things;
You alone are God.

Psalm 86:8-10