Micah James!
Look at this Stud in the orange tie! Micah James has the privalege of singing in the seminary choir at the 2009 Shepherd’s Conference. So glad that he can be there along with all the other men from our church, and praying that God will greatly use it in their lives and the waves of change will affect us all upon their return.
We cannot see with new eyes until we repent. So often we have a new idea, a new person, a new place or something that grabs our heart, and we convince ourselves that this thing will change our lives and transform all the difficult and the bad things about it. However, this is truly not the case. We can only be transformed by the sovereign grace of God in our hearts, as he grants us faith in repentance. Ephesians 2:8, “For by GRACE, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the GIFT of God.”
I am so thankful to God today for repentance! I am not stuck in my sin, but am saved from it. Tonight we had a praise night at one28, and many students shared how God is working in their lives. Many shared about the sin that they are seeing and repenting of even a month after SR09. It is a joy to see this kind of faith and a joy to see God changing lives.
For sure the True Joy in God is far more satisfying than the emptiness of false idols and sin. The True Joy is worth fighting for and repenting over. It is worth the battle.
Today, God’s work of repentance in my heart gave me a fresh love and adoration of Him. Happy that God chose me for repentance, and happy to meditate on John 15.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear much fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (verses 4-5)
“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (verses 8-11)
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (verses 16-17)
What is True Womanhood? John Piper will explain: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/2008/3296_The_Ultimate_Meaning_of_True_Womanhood/
I was immensely challenged by this message by John PIper explaining the ultimate meaning of true womanhood. After reading this, I went home wanting to fight hard against being a wimpy woman who acts on her emotions, feelings or circumstances. This is not faith. Faith means that she lives and acts and thinks on what is true in a way that points to Christ. As women in our specific roles and giftedness, we can point to Christ and the cross by depending on him and living his way rather than our way. Let’s not be wimpy women and point to Christ today!
One of the best things about fall is that it is time to harvest. Cool air, warm afternoon sunshine, full size blackberries barley hanging on the branches, tomatoes in full color, carrots popping from the earth, all called out for a celebration of Autumn today. Nathaniel snapped this photo before I brought my few little organic vegetables inside. We enjoyed a cup of tea by the fireside for the second time this week (and I’m sure that there will be many more coming shortly). I have been thinking about Ecclesiastes 3 lately – and how there is a season for everything. God did not ordain everything to happen at once, but for each little thing to be enjoyed in the moment in which he has planned it. Praise God that there is “a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted” (Ecclesiastes 3:2).
Once again, I am indebted to Charles Spurgeon. Chapter eleven of “The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life” was particularly challenging to me this week. I didn’t realize how often I am “careful” about life, thinking, mulling, worrying about things that are to come until Spurgeon challenged this thinking.
Perhaps you say, “But I am thinking about the future.” Are you? Let me ask you what you have to do with the future? Do you know what a day will bring? You worry about what will become of you when you are old, but are you sure that you ever will old? You can always find a stick with which to beat a do, and if you want a care, you can always find a care with which to beat your soul; but that is a poor occupation for anyone. Instead of doing that, turn everything that might be a subject of care into a subject for prayer. It will not be long until it becomes a holy habit. Cross out the word care and write in its place the word prayer. Then, though your cares are manifold, your prayers will also be manifold.”
If only I could learn to turn every care into prayer! I want this holy habit, but 0ften it seems that we need a constant sin to constantly remind us to turn to God.
“If we could but stand on this earth as upon a mere shadow and live as those who will soon be done with this poor transient life! If we held every earthly thing with a very loose hand, we would not be caring and worrying and fretting, but we would be praying, for thus we grasp the real, the substantial, and plant our feet upon the invisible–which is after all the eternal! Let the text drop into your heart as a pebble falls into a mountain lake, and as it enters, let it make rings of comfort upon the very surface of your soul.”
The reward of being prayerful and not careful is that an unusual peace will steal over your heart and mind! We will be able to live a humble joyful life in Jesus. He will be able to sour in “divine trustfulness and sing all the day.”
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
There were many ways that I was challenged at Resolved, but one personal way that God changed my thinking about Himself was because of C.J. Mahaney’s message on Saturday night about adoption. I have heard countless messages about adoption, but I never understood that I grieve the Father when I don’t apply the biblical view of adoption. This fact alone was a motivation to love my Father more intimately.
I did not realize that our understanding of adoption is vital to one’s relationship with the Father. J.I. Packer says in his book Knowing God, “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not undertand Christianity very well at all.”
I typically think of God as my judge who will punish my sin. He is righteous and just and holy and therefore is worthy to be my judge. Christ is my Savior and my propitiation; He has redeemed me and covered my sin. Therefore God no longer sees me as a sinner, but as righteous because of Christ! God has forgiven me of my sin, and I often find hope and joy in the doctrine. However, J.I. Packer says, “To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is far greater.” Not only has he forgiven me of my sin, but he also wants a close and intimate relationship with me, and is generous towards me. He is my Father and He cares about me personally.
Somehow in my battle against sin, I have come to see God as the lawgiver, with whom I either meet his standard or fall far short of his standard. Therefore, I do not always feel as though He is a loving Father. Mahaney said, “You may conclude with absolute certainty that if you love God, that he has loved you. All this is through God and for God and to the glory of God.” He has certainly loved me far more than I can ever love Him.
One cannot stop at understanding the doctrine of adoption without loving God more affectionately because of it! I left that Saturday night message personally resolved to know my God as my Father, who wants a personal, affectionate, and intimate relationship with me. God is my Father and He has done all to provide this relationship for me, but my unbelief hinders this type of relationship. Yet I am not left to my unbelief because the Spirit will apply this doctrine to my life! He will teach me to have this type of relationship with my heavenly Father.
Who would have thought that Zucchini and Coffee would have such an effect? I think that I’ll have to try this new combination tongiht!
Zucchini-Enhanced Coffee
Eating zucchini while drinking coffee has a dramatic effect, says AntarcticWidow, causing subtle nuances in the coffee’s flavor to come jumping out. “I thought it might have been my imagination but my husband said he experienced the same taste awakening,” explains Antarctic Widow. “Thinking that we were both nuts, I tested this out [again] this morning with sautéed zucchini. The coffee definitely tasted different, with more depth and flavor after eating the cooked squash.”
It’s not just the bitterness of the zucchini, says AntarcticWidow. She has gotten the same flavor-enhancing effect with both supersweet and fairly bitter batches of the vegetable. And it’s not salt, as the zucchini was prepared without it. For now, the cause remains a pleasant mystery.
Board Link: Coffee and zucchini ~ is it my imagination …?
Posted by Sarah Perry | Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:29:00 -0700 | Tagged with: general topics
On Saturday morning of Resolved Conference, I got to meet with Leslie Davis (my RD, my mentor, my friend) for a cup of coffee at Starbucks and catch up from the past couple of years. God used this conversation to set a tone focused on Jesus Christ for the weekend. She helped me to see one thing that I may be missing in my pursuit against sin, namely perspective. We fight sin not because we merely need to put off the sin, but because the worship of Jesus Christ is at stake.
If I am in sin, it is because there is something wrong with my relationship with Christ. I am not in a quest against sin simply to get rid of sin in my life, but to magnify and worship Christ. The issue is whether or not I worship CHRIST, not whether or not I am dealing with a specific sin. The specific sin is evidence that I am worshipping something other than Christ, and need to repent of worshipping something other than Christ.
I tend to focus on getting rid of sin and to put it to death, but the turning from one to the other is not in itself the focus. If the turning for the purpose of looking more righteous, or so that my sin is not so grossly obvious, it is all in vain. If I am grossly aware of it and, get discouraged and dragged down by it, thinking that I am such an ill-deserving sinner that I cannot ever get back to the place of worshipping God rightly, my thoughts are also unbiblical.
I cannot ever repent of worshipping another idol, or begin worshipping Christ, or focus on Him unless in his divine intervention allows me to do so! I am completely inadequate to trust Christ. I cannot believe the gospel without Him, or put off and put on sin. I cannot turn from unrighteousness to righteousness. The only thing that matters is that Christ is magnified, and therefore I trust Christ to turn from sin, to repent, to put on righteousness, and to worship Him alone – all for the magnitude of Christ! He does the work, and he gets the glory.
This past weekend I went to the Resolved Conference in Palm Springs, CA. It was a great weekend in many ways, and I am so thankful to God both for the teaching, and for the many people who I was able to fellowship with! I was blessed, and encouraged, and convicted, and edified. God was definitely glorified through the worship of Himself at Resolved 2008. I am excited to share some things that I learned in some of the posts that will follow, but I thought I would begin by posting some photos.
Everyone is talking about all the rain. It seems that you can’t talk to anyone without a grumble and a complain about the rain. It has definitely been a much colder, wetter year than any I can remember in a long time, and it is easy to start dreaming of warmer, sunnier days. However. A.W. Pink has given me a whole new perspective of God’s sovereignty in the weather in chapter 2 of “The Sovereignty of God.”
Learn then this basic truth, that the Creator is absolute Sovereign, executing His own will, performing His own pleasure, and considering nought but His own glory. “The Lord hath made all things FOR HIMSELF” (Proverbs 16:4). And had He not a perfect right to? Since God is God, who dare challenge His preogative? To murmur against Him is rank rebellion. To question His ways is to impugn His wisdom. To criticise Him is sin of the deepest dye. Have we forgtten who he is? Behold, “All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God?” (Isaiah 40:17, 18).
If God has created every part of creation for His pleasure, has He not created this moment of rain or storm or overcast skies for His Pleasure? Would we complain the same way about the rain if we thought of it as “rank rebellion?” Have we forgotten who our God is in that moment, thinking that somehow the weather was ordained by another?
We have an opportunity to show our love for God, and adoration of Him by enjoying the weather that He has ordained. What if we gave thanks continually for what He ordained in the skies rather than succumbing to the lowliness of mumbling? w
Autumn Grace 
