Making the Most of Every Opportunity

CJ Mahaney steps down as SGM President... I'm still midprocess, but wanted to share thoughts on what God is teaching me. This week, I read that the President of our family of churches was voluntarily stepping down for a season of discipline and restoration because of sins of pride, sinful judgement, lack of submission to accountability, and even spiritual blackmail. We were assured this has been a year and 1/2 long process and he had already been restored to many he had wounded in his sin, but is stepping down to help healing personally and in Sovereign Grace Ministries as a whole. One (godly) man compiled 600 pages of documents of accusations and emails that he sent to CJ and that were posted online. I read through much of it as I grieved and wondered what this means for the church we've loved these past 6 months and our family. Andy and I prayed. I cried. And then I poured over websites of hurt former members and the official documents. They were written personally to ...

“… looking to Jesus , the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” I have an almost instant desire in this time of preparation for Easter to jump to the celebration of the empty tomb and Christ raised again. But God has been slowing me down to really know the JOY of victory by first looking at the pain from sin that lead to death… and this Jesus who took it on for me. I read Martin Luther describe how Christ’s beauty as Son of God (Psalm 45:2) helps us see and know Him more. But it’s in His lack of beauty in human form (Isaiah 53:2) that we can begin to know ourselves. I deserve those thorns. I deserve the beatings. I deserve the punishment. I don’t want to brush off my hands because I know He took the punishment and miss that I deserved the punishment. I don’t want to forget who I am apart from Christ and who I continually will run back to be again w...

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...

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...