Making the Most of Every Opportunity

Oh wow, this is hard to type out. Forgive the blubbering as I type through tears. Here goes: I miscarried about a week before Christmas. Actually, I'm still physically and emotionally in process. Apparently natural miscarriages can take a long time.  I'm blogging about it because we listened to a recording of John Piper's last sermon at Bethlehem a few weeks ago. You can imagine my emotional roller coaster as I listened to this (incredible) sermon  about how the world needs to see people cherishing God while suffering .  You can check it out here:   http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/sorrowful-yet-always-rejoicing Even though my miscarriage is still fresh and raw, i sense God telling me to blog and live it openly now, not down the road. I want others to know someone has been there.   One morning during communion, my Pastor read Jesus in the garden saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup..." it was like he spoke...

My weight. A battle in my life for years. I have a desire to honor God, to look/feel good, and an inability to do it. Most of the time. A friend once shared her own struggle to seek Christ first in it as a struggle between two false gods of pleasure and vanity. That's SO me.  Pleasure-I want whatever food I want, when I want. It's to please me and I look to cake/cookies to satisfy what I know only God can. Vanity- Yet when God gives me the ability to honor Him in daily eating, I lose weight. And i LOVE that I've lost it. I may not brag openly, yet my heart is the same. I still hope people will notice and that becomes my god.  But what is amazing me in my daily battle is God's grace. He knows this about me and as He shows me daily, He's offering a way out. Himself. I'm bouncing back and forth from the path of vanity/glory to the path of pleasure/gluttony and He just keeps gently guiding me back to His path of life and freedom. It's beautiful. I'm so th...

Last year Jimmy asked to start a new Easter tradition. He wanted us to put up a paper cross. Then he cut out black circles for nails. He asked me to write "Jesus died for our sins". But the day of Easter he lead us in a sweet time of confession and forgiveness with that cross. He wrote our names on it by the nails and had us write specific sin near our name and then he stuck the nails over it to show that Jesus' death covered that sin. Wow. Love him and the lessons he teaches me. Jimmy by his cross our sins covered by Jesus the finished cross to remind us in Him is forgiveness of sin

I'm so visual that I knew using candles with lent readings at home would be meaningful to me. But I had no clue how powerful the lenten light readings John and Noel Piper made would be. Wow! Amazing. We use them the week leading up to Easter and place small tea lights from the dollar store on a plate. Each night Andy reads the devotional printed off from desiringgod.org and we blow out a candle each day through Good Friday until Easter Sunday when we light all of them again to show that Jesus beat sin and death and rose again! Andy reading A light is snuffed out after each reading Jim was fascinated Jesus is alive. The tomb is empty. Light of the world has come!!! close up of candles next to our homemade tomb Here's Noel Piper's intro explanation: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” ( John 1:5 ). But for a while it seemed as if the darkness  was  overcoming—for a  long  while. Your seven candles symboliz...

Thinking more and more about Jesus today. Just read this Martin Luther quote. Wow: "If we consider the persons, we ought to suffer a thousand and again a thousand times more than Christ because he is God and we are dust and ashes, yet it is the reverse. He who had a thousand and again a thousand times less need, has taken upon himself a thousand and again a thousand times more than we. No understanding can fathom nor tongue can express, no writing can record, but only the inward feeling can grasp what is involved in the suffering of Christ."

Some things in life have felt impossible to me lately. Like having all our needs met. Being able to own a home. Healing my sick baby. So as things feel impossible, I'm fighting the feelings by remembering just how possible everything is through Christ. What was impossible??? It was impossible for death to keep hold of Him. THAT is what's impossible. Everything else seems so very possible to me when I hang on this truth. Jesus who beat death now gives his own salvation and every good thing. Amazing! "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" Wow! It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. Amen:) I love this JC Ryle reflection on Christ's suffering and resurrection: "We must not be content with a vague belief that Christ’s sufferings on the cross were vicarious.  We are intended to see this truth in every part of His passion.  We may follow Him all through...

I LOVE this post by Dane Ortlund about reading the Old Testament. Check it out here . Here's a glimpse: What are other ways we might read the Bible? The Gold Mine Approach  – reading the Bible as a vast, cavernous, dark mine, in which one occasionally stumbles upon a nugget of inspiration. Result: confused reading.  The Hero Approach  – reading the Bible as a moral hall of fame that gives us one example after another of heroic spiritual giants to emulate. Result: despairing reading.  The Rules Approach  – reading the Bible on the lookout for commands to obey to subtly reinforce a sense of personal superiority. Result: Pharisaical reading.  The Artifact Approach  – reading the Bible as an ancient document about events in the Middle East a few thousand years ago that are irrelevant to my life today. Result: bored reading.  The Guidebook Approach  – reading the Bible as a roadmap to tell me where to work, whom to marry, and what shampo...