Over the weekend I was blessed to receive an e-mail from my college roommate, Meghan. She and I try to keep in touch as often as we can. I am always encouraged to hear her updates. Re-reading the e-mail tonight I was struck by her last line. After several paragraphs about what God is doing in her life she says, “In short, God is good.”Our praise and adoration of God is, at best, a brief and limited affirmation of Him. Meghan could have gone on and on but she had to try to put it in just a few words–God is good.

I started reading the gospel of Luke yesterday and in chapter 1, after Mary visits Elizabeth and the two talk about what God was working in them, Mary has an amazing song.

And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”

Luke 1:46-55

We need to regularly remember God’s goodness in the past and present. Maybe you even want to have a song like Mary did, actually sit down and put some thought into how you have seen God work. Or maybe you just need to remember to give credit where it is due when you are sharing about something in your life. Our verbal assent to His goodness is such a small praise of His majesty. Let’s remember to glorify God for His goodness!

The last two weekends I’ve invited high school girls from our group to come over to hang out and watch a movie with me at our place. It’s such a great time to connect and just talk about life, ask questions and look at picture albums we have. On Friday before girls came over I looked at all our movies and said, “Hm…What movie should watch with the girls?” Tyler pipped up with an idea, “How about Peter Pan, Mommy?”

This morning during Bobby’s sermon I thought of how much Tyler likes Peter Pan, especially the part where John leads all the children into the woods and they sing “We’re following the leader, the leader, the leader. We’re following the leader wherever he may go.”

Bobby taught Titus 1:1-9 about the qualifications of leaders in the church. Pastors are held to high standards and they must continually work hard to teach God’s Word correctly. But what stood out to me the most was a cross-reference we turned to.

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13:7

To be a Christian is to be a follower. In Luke 9, Jesus instructs us how to follow Him. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul tells us to follow him as he followed Christ. Many times in the New Testament we are given an example and then commanded to imitate or follow what we’ve seen. We are to follow the example of Christ in all things and one way we can do this is by following the examples of other followers of Christ.

Hebrews shows us that our Pastors are some of the main people that you and I should be following. They are required to live up to the standard of blamelessness (Titus 1:6) so we should be able to watch and learn from them as we do what they do and teach us to do.

Not only do we need to be following godly examples before us, but we need to be leaving an example to be followed. My husband often talks about ministry as a 4-person relay race.

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

2 Timothy 2:2

This is a great dynamic where each person is passing on to the next what they have learned and their example of following Christ. Here are the parts of the passage broken down:

#1 - “Me” is your Pastor.
#2 - “You” is you!
#3 - “Reliable men” is someone that you disciple, passing on what you have learned.
#4 - “Others” is the people that they pass on to what you have taught them.

Consider these questions to see how you are doing with Christ’s example: Do you have a pastor who is qualified? Do you follow him? Who are other godly examples that you follow? Who follows you? Are you challenging them to reach out to others?

We need to make sure we’re following the Leader and those He’s given us to follow.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:25-27

What do you worry about?

Some people worry about their family, finances or future. Some people worry about their life, if they will die. Others worry about school, work, food, clothes and if people think well of them. People are used to worrying, but Christians must be different. As Christians we don’t have anything to worry about.

In our high school small groups this last week we talked about worry. We called worry what it is: a sin. I think that for some this was shocker and many didn’t want to agree that all worry is wrong. When our friend Brad taught one of the small groups he said, “Life is changing and uncertain but we can have confidence in a certain God.”

Someone who is not a Christian worries because everything around them is changing and undependable. They don’t have real trust in anyone because people will always fail them. No assurance of tomorrow. They have reason to worry because they don’t have Christ.

Everything around a Christian is changing and undependable, but a Christian rests confidently in an unchanging God. Throughout all of time God remains the same. He has never broken a promise, never dealt wrongly with His children. God has a perfect track record. If we have trusted Him for our salvation then we have no reason not to fully entrust all the details of our lives and our future to Him.

In Matthew 6:25-27, Jesus gives us at least 3 reasons not to worry.

1) Life is more important than anything we could worry about. Later in this chapter in verse 33 Jesus instructs us to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” We get caught up in the physical but life is really all about the spiritual. What we need to do instead of worry is seek salvation and righteousness–these things are what is most important.

2) We are valuable to God. Jesus contrasts God’s care for us with His care for birds and the flowers in a field. God makes sure that the birds have food and the fields are clothed with grass and flowers. How much more will He see to the needs of creatures made in His own image? (Genesis 1:27) God knows everything that we need and because He made us and loves us He provides. What we need to do instead of worry is trust Him.

3) It won’t do anything. Jesus asks, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Worrying isn’t going to change the situation or give you insight into the future outcome. What it will do is distract you and take your time and energy from what you should be doing. Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” What we need to do instead of worry is take everything earnestly to God in prayer and remind ourselves who God is and what He has done by being thankful.

This might seem overly simplistic. But it’s not! For the Christian there is not one situation that calls for worry. There is nothing happening in our lives that validates worry as a response. After our small group discussion about this I began to feel kind of stupid for the things I worry about.  I am so thankful for this reminder to keep my heart fixed confidently on my unchanging Father.

We had such a beautiful weekend! It’s been in the high 70’s outside, sunny and clear and with the time change it’s light so much longer! We have a nice park at our condo community so Sunday I took Tyler and he had such a blast on the swings and I had a blast just watching him!

I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer. It seems the last two weeks it keeps coming up and then my husband even preached about prayer in church this weekend. I’m thankful for the theme of reminders and instruction about this discipline and I definitely need some practical help.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:18

Each month my wonderful Pastor’s wife, Carlynn, gathers all the staff wives for two hours of fellowship, accountability, dinner, and my favorite part is that she teaches us about the life of a woman in history who embodies a characteristic we commit to working on that month. This month she shared Fern Nichols with us, who started Mom’s In Touch a group of moms who pray for their children and schools. Carlynn challenged each of us to commit to growing in prayer this month.

Then this weekend my husband, Bobby, had the opportunity to preach the main service of our church and his passage (1 Thessalonians 9-13) was about intercessory prayer.

Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again
and supply what is lacking in your faith.

1 Thessalonians 3:10

Bobby’s sermon was a strong reminder that I need to be passionate in my prayer on behalf of others. I can’t just have a nice list and read it off to the Lord each day. I need to care deeply for my brothers and sisters in Christ, concern myself with their needs and pray intensely for them. Something he said that really stood out is that I should ask God to make me a part of the answer. I should be eager and willing to be used by Him in any way for the person I’m praying for.

Both of these teaching times came together for two prayer commitments I’ve started this month. One is to extend my focused time of prayer each day by doubling that time. It still doesn’t seem like that long, because sometimes when I sit down to pray in the mornings I feel rushed and then not as purposeful. I don’t want my prayer time to be something I check off a list, but where I set aside concentrated time to pour my heart before the Lord and not be rushing on to other things.

The second is a very practical addition to my prayer time. Each day I pray with a journal that is made up of seven tabbed sections (one for each day) and has pages in it with things I’m praying for that day–mostly Scriptures and names. My husband is the high school pastor at Compass and I serve along side him by ministering to the girls. I love these girls and the ministry we have for them is one of the biggest passions on my heart. I made five new pages for my notebook so I can apply what I learned by interceding day and night for these girls! The pages are broken down by our five mid-week small groups so I can do one each weekday that has the names of each girl who attends that small group listed with a space so I can write next to it. I would like to use a good amount of my extended time to pray specifically for them and their needs.

I’m excited about these two things and always bringing all kinds of prayers before the Lord because He is listening!

Over the weekend Bobby and I had the opportunity to go to Compass’s Marriage Retreat. Bobby was the “Master of Ceremonies” and the retreat donned a Western theme which means that Bobby brought his best accent and even dressed up in a cowboy costume to set the tone, boots and all! Saturday night the activity was Texas two-stepping, barn dancing and the cowboy cha-cha. I’ve never done any Western dancing, but it was so fun!

Usually at marriage retreats the teaching addresses such topics as husband/wife roles, communication or intimacy. And all of those are relevant topics to marriage but I was tremendously blessed by what Pastor Mike challenged us on–to make the goal of our marriages the glory of God and the glory of His gospel.

Pastor Mike opened the weekend with Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

The heading for this passage is “Doxology” a Greek word which means glory, honor, praise, and weight. The concept of “weight” was profound to me, that in my marriage I need to do all things to give weight to who God is.

I can get in the housekeeping zone where I’ve got the laundry going and the dishwasher going, I’m scrubbing the shower and Bobby came home asking for something to eat, but I just kept working. Having a clean house is a good thing and is definitely on my list, but if I was so consumed with my house being neat and orderly that I wouldn’t stop to serve my husband’s immediate need or maybe reach out to a friend with a phone call or spend time witnessing to my neighbor, then my priorities are out of order. This affects my marriage but even more so my relationship with the Lord.

One thing I came away from retreat with was that knowing Him must always be the priority. I was convicted that I need to do whatever it takes to keep that time each morning to spend with the Lord–studying His Word and in prayer. Not because it will benefit myself or my marriage but because He is God and is the only one worthy of glory.

The second big point hit home for me was that we can express the gospel to others. In the last session Pastor Mike talked about how amazing the gospel is in eight words!

Thoughtless Transgressions – we all sin, we have all “crossed the line” of God’s law. (Jeremiah. 3:12)

Real Damage – Because of our sin we are separated from God. (Isaiah. 59:2)

Indomitable Love – When I got home I looked up indomitable. It means “incapable of being subdued.” This is how God loves us, lost sinners. (Romans 5:6-8)

Complete Forgiveness — “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)

With these eight words, Pastor Mike showed us how our marriages should bring glory to the gospel by expressing the gospel to each other. In our marriages there will be thoughtless transgressions that cause real damage, but we, as Christians, can choose to love because Christ first loved us (1 John 4:19) and we can grant complete and full forgiveness when someone has sinned against us. Our relationship should be an expression of the gospel by exemplifying these dynamics. The first four words are always present, the last four I am able to, as a recipient and participant in the gospel, do to others!

What an incredible reality that we as small sinful people can bring glory to our glorious God! I can love my husband because God first loved me and I must forgive my husband because I will never have to forgive him or any other person as much as God has forgiven me.

I’m glad I took down a lot of notes because with the motivation of God’s glory I will be striving to change many practical things as a wife and in my marriage over the weeks and months!

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.

Psalm 115:1