A Biblical "New Year's Resolution"

My Pastor recently sent the following e-mail to our congregation regarding our church Bible Reading Plan. I mentioned on another blog this Bible reading plan for our church and it's purpose being to further encourage one another to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord as we encourage one another to read God's precious Word as a congregation. I then received several e-mails, including some from pastors, requesting that I inform them when the links to this plan were available on our church website. HERE THEY ARE. After you click that link, you will need to scroll down to the bottom to find both the entire plan on .pdf and also .pdf's of the plan broken down into the 10 sections.

Here is that e-mail from Pastor Ed Godfrey:

As many of you may have heard, the Board of Elders is pushing a Bible reading campaign for 2007. It is our desire that our congregation would commit to reading through the Scriptures together. Our approach is a little bit different this year. While it is our hope that each one will seek to read through the entirety of the Word, we realize that some may fall behind and get discouraged, giving up altogether. To address this, we have broken down the Bible reading into sections. Now some sections are longer than others, but there are ten such sections we are asking the congregation to read through. The first section is entitled, "The Life of Christ" and covers the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John and takes us from January 1 to January 31. Would you prayerfully commit to reading through the life of Christ with the rest of the congregation?

Then, starting in February, we will take on one of the longer sections, "OT Chronology" which will cover Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers. This will be followed by "Christ and His Church" - covering the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts - and so on and so forth.

Again, we are doing this "section" approach so that if anyone does "fall behind" - he might get back on pace with the rest of the congregation at the start of a new section. Additionally, one of the Elders will spend 10 minutes or so at the beginning of our Fellowship Group ... on Sunday Mornings to touch base, ask questions and encourage the congregation to continue reading.

Please remember that you might consider listening to the Word of God in conjunction with this Bible reading campaign. If you have an audio copy of the Bible, take some time to simply have the Word read to you. As noted in Romans 10:17 -

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Does my life match my words?

Sometimes I have sleepless nights. I figure there is a purpose other than me staying in bed feeling sorry for myself, so I often find it to be an opportunity to pray for those on my heart... and then also post what is on my heart.

I go prayer walking in my neighborhood with 2 other ladies once a week. It is a joyous time that I look forward to... and we earnestly do pray... sometimes in tears. We tend to spend the first lap around our 1/2 mile circle of a neighborhood that consists of about 35 homes catching up with each others personal prayer requests. I tend to ask what they are studying in the Word of God, what are they memorizing, what did the Lord teach them this morning in His precious Word... and then we pray for each family as we pass their home.

This most recent prayer walk (as I am limping along), one of the ladies said, "Lisa, you prayed for our children... that we would raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord and that they would grow up boldly proclaiming the Gospel in their lives. I need that prayer too... especially when it pertains to boldness."

I initially began talking to her about the fear of man versus the fear of God... but then she sweetly interrupted... "It isn't really that... I have felt too much pain in my life to worry so much about what people think. I know life is short. It's the fear that the Lord will make me into a Job. I don't want to suffer like that and I feel so selfish. I don't want to think about being a martyr or something."

This young lady who has 4 children and is more like a sister than a neighbor has been through much pain... including that her first husband, who fathered her first 2 children, was diagnosed with leukemia 4 years into their marriage and within 36 hours of the diagnosis... she watched him die in their home.

This made me think of what Brian @ Voice of the Sheep commented on the Team Pyro blog yesterday...He wrote, The blind man was blind from birth...NOT because of his sin or his parents' sin...but so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Oh, how scary it is sometimes to pray to my Father that He would be glorified through me...for His power is perfected in weakness, and I honestly fear sometimes that He will choose to glorify [Himself in my life] in a way that he has these four examples. God forgive my selfishness and little faith.

Every Christian struggles with that. I struggle with that. I know the truth. I know that God's strength is powerfully displayed in my weakness. So yes... Lord forgive also my selfishness and little faith. We serve a faithful and mighty God and I may have all the right words to say... but will my actions match my words in times of affliction or if the Lord so chooses a path for me that includes a wheelchair or debilitating disease?

I write that trembling because I do have multiple sclerosis... and it is possible that I will end up in a wheel chair.

I don't typically write about the MS on other peoples blogs... but I did yesterday. It is still that pride struggle. I just pray that my words match my life.

It is never my intention to minimize anyone else's pain or affliction... but I do believe when we put it in perspective in light of eternity, every pain, every trial, every loss... whether it be spending a lifetime in a wheelchair or watching your spouse die within 36 hours of a cancer diagnosis is a temporary light affliction in light of the eternal weight of glory. Such Christian people, like Joni Erickson Tada, would rather live with such affliction knowing and living for Christ now... than live in fleeting comfort here on this earth yet separated from Christ for eternity.

I was immensely blessed by the recent string of posts over at Pyro. They were certainly on a role. Even though they are sometimes a little crazy, I have learned so much from them.

Continue reading "Does my life match my words?" »

My husband was stabbed on Christmas morning

...by a knife he was using to help open one of the presents for the kids. Yep... he stabbed his own leg. He quietly walked to his bedroom and temporarily bandaged it up. I did not know how deep it was until my oldest son showed me the blade. It was surprisely quite deep. We finished watching the children unwrap their presents and then Jon and Brandon, my second oldest son that wants to be a doctor like his dad, went to the hospital. Jon sewed up his own leg while Brandon assisted.

One of those Christmas memories ... (nervous laugh)

Famine... Enemies... Plagues...

I have been studying 1st and 2nd Samuel for awhile and just finished it up this morning. I have to admit there were times in the process of reading and studying this book I was fighting boredom and would find myself praying for the Lord to help me through it. He did and I was most certainly blessed by this time in His Word.

Continue reading "Famine... Enemies... Plagues..." »

Christmas Party in Our Home

Christmas party pics 2006
(the first set are of the youth group at the church... scroll down after clicking the link above and you will see pics of the Bible Fellowship Christmas party at my husband and I's home)

This is a pic of my husband and I in our home celebrating the birth of our Savior with our church family.

By the way... I did some last minute shopping at Frank Turk's bookstore for my husband. I was thankful that he actually carried books with substance. Mr. Turk was very helpful... as is his staff. His wife truly is a delightful woman.

A Christmas Conversation

Santa: The key to getting a gift little baby is to just "believe" in me and be good.

Jesus: Only my Father is the gracious Giver of Gifts... and besides... no one is capable of good apart from Him. (James 1:17; Rom 3:23)

Santa: Well, I see you when you're sleeping, I know when you're awake, I know if you've been bad or good...so be good for goodness sake.

Jesus: My Father is intimately acquainted with all of my ways, he formed my inward parts and wove me in my mother's womb... His eyes are in every place and he knows what I need before I even ask... and "to be good for goodness sake" instead of for the glory of my Father and for the sake of His holy name as you are clothed in my righteousness is worthless. (Psalm 139; Prov 15:13; Mt 6:8)

Santa: But at the mention of my name every child's eyes light up! Children beleive and love me with all their hearts. And why would their parents lie to them if I was not who they say I am?

Jesus: At the mention of my name every knee shall bow, those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that I am Lord, to the glory of my Father. (Php 2:9-11) I have layed down my life and been raised again so that believing in my name, children of all ages will receive the gift of eternal life and they will love my Father with all their hearts and all their soul and all their mind and they will receive the Spirit of Truth which the world will not know apart from my Father. (Mt 22:37; John 14:16-17; Acts 16:31)

Santa: I come bearing gifts to the children in one "quick as a wink" night.

Jesus: I will come again in the blink of an eye. To some I will come as a blessed hope fulfilled... to others I will bring inescapable, just and sudden destruction. (I Cor 15:52; I Thess 5:2; Titus 2:13; I John 2:28)

Santa: I've made a list and I check it twice. Naughty children fear me because they know they get what they deserve... coal in their stocking.

Jesus: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and not one deserves my gift, though I give it freely to those whose names are written in the Book of Life... those whom my Father draws to Himself. (Psalm 111:10; Rom 14:12; Rev 20:12-15; Mal 3:16; Rom 3:10; 23; John 6:44)

Santa: WOW! So... who IS your daddy?

Jesus: My Father is perfect in holiness, a righteous judge... He is the beginning and the end, the Maker of all things, Kings of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Great I Am, the One Most High. He is living and ever faithful, boundless in mercy and grace... He is love and yet, He is to be feared. He is all-wise, infinite, sovereign. All life in this universe is a gift from Him. He is full of goodwill, actively compassionate and justifiably wrathful. He is the One and only true God and yet, He is Three in One.

Transition

We are in that process of construction on our home in which we had to take down my computer and the network to move it. I am actually typing this entry on my blackberry... Which if you have ever experienced typing on one, you would know it is, by now, causing my thumbs to cramp. Though it is quite odd to me that technology has advanced so much that this is even possible. The downside to this is that there is no spell check. I am not sure when we will be able to get it back up. We have a Christmas party over here on Thursday to also prepare for.
E-mails and comment moderation for my blog go directly to this blackberry so until we get our computers running again, this is how I will keep in touch. I can even read my favorite blogs, websites, morning and evening Spurgeon on this thing. It is more like a techy toy and I feel like a kid in a candy store. I have to admit that my favorite thing about this (birthday gift from my husband) is the fact that it allows me to communicate more with my husband. He is on call at the hospital 16 days out of this month... Along with all of our home construction, that spells "quality time, not quantity time." I can send e-mails to him in the middle of surgery to remind him that I love him, etc. For that alone it makes thumb typing worth it. Gotta go soak my thumbs now. In the meantime, press on in HIS truth and HIS love for HIS glory.

Family Photo

Bum Leg

Okay... so I am losing the ability to use my left leg. It's the MS. Typically when I go through an illness like we went through this past week or if I am under tremendous amounts of stress there tends to be physical consequences. The last time I got this physically ill with a virus, it was so hard on my body that the MS exacerbated and I ended up having to use a walker (watch out Stan... we might have a race to "run").

I am, however, encouraged. Why? Because the exacerbation usually hits harder sooner. But then I'm a wee bit bummed because I just bought these gorgeous high heel knee-high chocolate brown calf skin leather boots.

'kay. That made me laugh and laughter is good medicine.

Now go read this sort-of poem I wrote the last time I had an exacerbation.

Homeschool or DIE???

In regards to Challies posts on why he doesn't homeschool ( part one and part two ). Here is my response. (and by the way... My husband and I really like Challies and just think his latest string of controversial posts are his crazy way of promoting his book on discernment. ;-) ...

We homeschool all 6 children and love it (most of the time)... but I have run into parents who literally might murder their children if they homeschool them. They don't seem to get that their children are gifts from God and that life is a blip. There are other reasons I do not believe homeschooling is for every family, nor even for every Christian family. I am not a homeschool or die mom. I have met too many ...people.
I do respect Challies reasons, though I do not completely agree with them for our own family and through our own experiences with public school, private school and homeschool. We have done them all at various points, but to date, I have been homeschooling for almost 6 years now.
I do understand Challies convictions and also respect that he knows that the Lord may (or may not) change them in the near future regarding how to educate his children. It also hit me when he wrote that someday homeschooling may not be an option. He's right.
What stuck with me and appears to be one of his main points is that God is powerful and will not allow His children to fall out of His grasp. Boy that makes me think of my own childhood, my life, and how amazing it is that I am adopted into HIS kingdom.
What else stuck with me in his article is the word deliberate. Whatever way we choose to educate our children, there are deliberate things that we must do as parents to be lights in this dark world. And this world is only getting darker... until the Lord comes again.
In light of the word deliberate, all that Challies writes about in regards to his reasons to educate his children via public school can be achieved in the homeschool enviroment as well.
Such as his statements: I want them to see and know and understand and believe in the superiority of Christianity to any other religion or way of life. I want them to see what the world has to offer and to see that it quickly loses its lustre. AND I want them to experience the joy of sharing their faith and to grow in their ability to do this. AND My wife and I feel called to reach out to the people in our neighborhood and our community.
All those things can be accomplished as homeschoolers. How do I know? Because we are deliberate, for the glory of God, about such things. I could fill a book with all of the ways the Lord has worked in and through our family to be lights that shine as a beacon on a hill. I could fill it with all the letters we have received, the e-mails, the comments that have been made by neighbors, by strangers in the grocery store, by people who have come into our home or just watched us at the park. People who have witnessed our genuine heart for the Lord, our brokenness for the lost, our sincere repentance when we fail... I could go on. But all of this is achieved based on the merit of Christ and what HE did for undeserving vile wretches such as I.

Whatever way you choose to educate your children, prayerfully consider the consequences (good and bad) and the desperate need to be deliberate in your involvement in your children's lives in teaching them in word and deed about Christ.

Bottomline: Do you live out in word and deed what you proclaim to believe? I am not talking about perfectionism. I am including even how you respond WHEN you fail to be Christ-like. This really isn't about homeschooling, public schooling or private schooling. Some do not have a choice. This is about being teachable in the school of Christ and uncompromising in HIS truth and HIS love for HIS glory.