Making the Most of Every Opportunity

Today, Jesus' death just seemed so strange and radical to me.  All his closest friends run away terrified that He is letting soldiers attack him (Mark 14). He lets t he soldiers lead him away (15:16) and the rest of their battalion come gang up to mock him, strip him, and beat him (16-19). And He did nothing ! He just took this beating and looked so foolish to them.  He couldn't even carry his own cross to be killed because he was that weak from it all (21).  Yet, once on the cross, when offered the wine with myrhh (which would ease the pain), he didn't take it (23). So he's clearly weak, yet chooses to takes the full brunt of the pain .  Everyone walking by mocked as well and shouted at him to come down from the cross and prove himself (30). The chief priests and scribes said loudly that he couldn't save himself (31-32). Even the criminals hung with him reviled him (32). He looks so foolish to everyone. And He doesn't defend Himself or prove Himself. So ha...

Please read post 1 , 2 , 3 , and  4 to gain a better perspective of this post. All correction in our home comes from a loving call from God to engage our children to see their hearts, know their need for a Savior, and see the incredible love and grace of Jesus Christ who is that Savior. Today, we'll look at our "next step" beyond questions in correction when there is outright disobedience. God lead us here through a children's pastor (who our friends introduced us to through a conference cd) As he shared his wisdom and experience with a local church body, we gleaned so much biblical truth. We later read a similar process in Tedd Tripp's book, "Shepherding A Child's Heart" . *Let me stress here that I believe the MOST loving thing God has done was to lay down His life for us. Correction shows love and is an important way to show Christ's love for us, but I do not say it's the only or even the best way . Just one way to show love out of ...

"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious   you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ...  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." I read this Scripture on a facebook status and it just jumped out at me that priesthood, nation, and people are ALL plural . It's not an individual identity described here. I've struggled as God seems to show us a lot in this past year how we (Andy and I) aren't living out His Word fully. We've been missing Him. So we've gone to others and shared openly as we struggle. It's not easy to confess our selfish lifestyle to others, but we know it's healing and good. I'm reminded in...

I've shared throughout these posts about our call as parents to show our boys their heart of sin so they can better see the beauty of Christ's great forgiveness for those who are His and how by beating death, He redeemed ALL that our sin destroys. You can read more in post 1 , post 2 , post 3 . Before I share our full process of correction in sin, I thought I should share how we gauge when to correct. We always look at character and heart, not action! Many things are bad and harmful, but we want our boys to see their sin and seek God. We know that once they are Christ's, their actions will begin to change over time to reflect Him. So we set boundaries to reveal their sin and teach them God's ways.  "Train up a child in the way he should go;  even when he is old he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6 We start showing their sin while they are young. This is to lay a foundation of boundaries and show them how they continually fail. Seeing sin and failu...

I've been sharing about our hearts. In post 1 I said that everything we say and do flows out of our hearts. In Post 2 I shared my tendency to want an easier way than the time it takes with my kids to help them see their hearts. Some of you have (naturally) asked what process we go through with our children to help them see their sin. We have nothing new or unique to us, just what we appreciated as solid biblical truth expounded on by Paul Tripp in his dvd conference "Getting to the Heart of Parenting" and by his brother, Ted Tripp in his book, Shepherding a Child's Heart (discipline process on page 150). Both are amazing and I highly recommend getting them and going through them as a couple. Our main purpose in these questions is to help Jimmy (and Caleb one day) to see that everything he does flows out from his heart... and that is where the lasting change in him will come from as well. Always from the heart outward... "... for out of the abundance of t...

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” - 1 John 4:7 I've been thinking a lot about how we are called to build one another up in love and spur each other on towards Christ. Sometimes I think we get caught up in ourselves and miss it. Yet, I've been so spurred on at times when people have encouraged me intentionally. And sometimes just encouraging others brings such joy and excitement for God as well.   I want to encourage you to tell people that you love them and some reasons why. As I know more and more how God loves me, it should compel me to love others. One of the simplest ways we show love to others is by telling them! I believe we can do this in big ways and small. 1)      Say “I love you. And I’m thankful that you….” when you see him/her. 2)       Make a short list of things you love about each family member and read it in person to immediate family and send ...

Reposting an old Facbeook note of mine: and Freeing Truths.... “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. ”-Matthew 19:16-22 The guy in this story was trying to earn God- He did what was right. He...

For the   Lord   sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the   Lord   looks on the heart.”  - 1 Samuel 16:7 I shared in my first post in this series how the Bible teaches that our our behavior flows from our hearts. I've been watching myself as I parent. Some days I'm SO tired from conversation after conversation with Jimmy. We have a whole process we go through to address his disobedience. We start with 5 quick questions for him to show Jimmy how the disobedience came from his heart. Sometimes, we then go through a correction/discipline and prayer time. Always, he gets to "try again" and be fully restored. It's really cool to walk through his sin with him and come out fully restored. We have no anger or hardship afterwards, but can continue on in our fun as family. We have AMAZING conversations about Christ during it, BUT, it's a long process and as sin compounds on sin, sometimes I can't even remember when we started or what ...

Remember Stephen, the Nigerian Bible translator who was kidnapped? Please keep praying with us for his safe return. A glimpse of Wycliffe's post: Please  intercede with urgency: Ask God to protect and minister to Stephen while he’s being held. Pray also for his family and the Tarok translation team. Pray for Stephen’s immediate release and reunion with his family. Ask God to use Stephen’s witness to bring his captors to repentance and salvation. (See Acts 16:25-34) In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; he saved me from all my troubles. For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. – Psalm 34:6-7 (NLT) Read the full post here

Is sin ever good? The short answer is no. Though God certainly allows sin and uses people’s sin for our good at times. Sin may not be good, but, seeing our sin is beautiful. You really don't have to teach sin. My youngest, Caleb happily went back and back to pull on our blinds (as I would say "no." and move him away) as soon as he could roll on the floor. Jimmy used to run away when we’d say come and went through a painful few months of defiantly coming out of his room well after we had put him to bed for the night over and over again.  One thing I really love about sin being exposed so easily in Jimmy is how it gives him a chance to see it. Though I don't remember anyone teaching me that I was good, I grew up actually believing I deserved love and was good (oh my). As we discipline Jimmy when we see these sin snares he runs to, he sees over and over again how he can't measure up. But it doesn't end there with him not measuring up. That's the beauty of...