Thursday, June 25, 2009

Taking a Break

My summer is about to take off at super-sonic speed. There are photography jobs lining up, VBS lesson plans for which to prepare, a grandson to watch grow. (His big sister Daisy said just the other day that his blue eyes are as big as dinner-plates. I would have to agree, and I could look at them all day long!) Next month hopefully will be a visit from my mom and sister, a trip to California and a family reunion at Mammoth Lakes - in the Sierra Nevada mountains, just south of the high country of Yosemite, one of my most favorite places in all the outdoor world! (God's creation there is breath-takingly beautiful.) And somewhere in there I have to climb on my roof, tear out my carpeting, finish refacing my kitchen cabinets, and paint my bathroom. So, you can see it leaves little time for the fun stuff, like blogging. I've decided to take a break. My son arrives back from Alaska for a week at the end of September and then Lord-willing, I'm having more special company, so perhaps around mid-October I will get back to it.

In the mean time, watch for the signs and then look for His return, and may the Lord always be your life! (That is a 100% word!)

Overcomer

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Daniel


Early Friday morning my cell phone rang at 1:29am. It was my son-in-law. My daughter's water had broken. They would be coming by in about ten minutes to drop my granddaughter Daisy off to stay with Grandpa and pick me up to go to the hospital. As we rushed to the hospital, Annie's contractions were coming hard and just two minutes apart. Annie was scheduled to have a c-section on Tuesday, June 16th, because Daniel was breech. It was apparent that he was not going to wait that long! It was Annie's desire for me to chronicle in pictures this wonderful event. If you click on this link you will be taken to the web album I put together, then click on slideshow. We begin in the triage room where nurses bustled in and out, monitoring Annie's contractions while the doctor was summoned and the OR was being prepared. There are several images of Annie enduring a contraction. She was a real trooper! Only one support person was allowed in the OR. That had to be dad! A nurse took a picture of mom, dad, and baby right after Daniel arrived at 4:46am, on June 12th, four days ahead of his due date, and the date that Gramma predicted! (Aren't the mom's always right?! Well, at least 99.9% of the time!)

Daniel mirrors his father. He has long fingers and big feet! Annie is going to be a wonderful mother. She has not received much sleep since then. I've been at the hospital during the day while my son-in-law takes the night shift as her support. Annie is so tender to Daniel. It's such a delight to watch them interact, to see him searching for the sound of her gentle voice with his eyes as she softly talks to him. His daddy adores him too. That morning has to rank in my top five, of the most joyous days of my life!

Before he was even born, I prayed that the Lord would draw Daniel to Himself. A dear friend wrote after viewing the album that she prayed the same thing for Daniel, that the Lord would bring him into a relationship with Himself at a very young age, avoiding the pitfalls of sin which accompany a youth of rebellion. Rather to walk with the Lord his whole life would be blessing beyond compare...

This truly would be a blessing.

Thank you Lord for sweet, little Daniel, such a precious gift!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

When we understand...

...that we were given life to please the heart of God and not our own hearts, we understand the very meaning of life itself. Since God is without sin and loves with purest love, He has the very best interest of His creation in His heart when He calls us to live for Him. When we live for the pleasure of His heart, we place ourselves under His protective custody and authority. To live for His pleasure is to be in the safest place we can be. To live for His pleasure becomes then not a heavy burden to bear but an endeavor of greatest delight.

2 Corinthians 5:15 - "He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."

Joy!


Just thought I'd post my favorite image from the wedding I shot last Saturday.

Monday, June 8, 2009

CIRCUMSTANCES

Philippians 1:12 caught my attention the other morning – “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel…”

Paul’s circumstances were that he now found himself imprisoned. Most of us would probably view that as a negative thing. Paul had become a prisoner for preaching Christ. He ended up in prison simply by fulfilling his calling. But Paul’s imprisonment proved to be no hindrance to spreading the message of salvation. It actually created new opportunities.

The lesson to be learned is that when my circumstances change to what appear at the onset to be for the negative, I need to remember that God is sovereign, overseeing every detail of my life. I need to look for the opportunities in my circumstances to magnify Him. Is there someone He’s about to bring my way with whom I can share Christ? Is there someone about to cross my path that is going to need a word of encouragement? Life is not about my ease and comfort. It’s about loving the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving those around me.

Paul said for him to live is Christ. In every circumstance let’s look for the opportunities to exalt our Greatest Treasure and to show kindness and love to others.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Overcomer...

...began with all of my articles focusing on end times. You have probably noticed that I have branched out from that theme. The Lord has been opening exciting doors in my life as of late. One is teaching, the other is counseling. I've been reading Elyse Fitzpatrick's book, "Women Counseling Women" and have posted some of her nuggets from that book here at Overcomer. On page forty-eight you will find the goal of the biblical counselor: "to facilitate change in the counselee's life so that her character is changed to conform to the likeness of Christ." The Lord has graciously brought women into my life all along my walk with Him who He used and is using to work Christlike character into my life through His Word.

I love the word justified and I love how Elyse Fitzpatrick defined it. I heard this definition at her "Am I My Sister's Keeper?" conference that was held here in the Northwest in February. Justified means just as if I've never sinned and just as if I'd always obeyed. Our obedience in practice is not perfect but we are not condemned for it because the Lord's perfect obedience is placed to our account. Does this mean we can live life any way we want now? Absolutely not! To do that would be to slap grace in the face. Paul tells us we were buried with Christ through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. We are to consider ourselves now to be dead to sin and alive to God. This is how we are to think.

I've learned that Paul's put off and put on principle in Ephesians 4:22-24 is invaluable and absolutely necessary for our sanctification - that change in which the Holy Spirit takes the Word and uses it to conform us into Christlikeness. Here it is: "that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."

We are able to walk in newness of life because the power of sin has been broken. How do we deal with sinful thoughts and behaviors? Here are a few Paul named in Ephesians 4 - lying, sinful anger, stealing, unwholesome words, bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, malice. Here are a few more that I thought of - lust, overeating, gossiping... We deal with these sinful behaviors by remembering that we are dead to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. We recognize our thoughts and actions as being sinful, we confess it, we ask forgiveness, and we repent or turn from it. Here is where we lay it aside, we put it off, seeking to renew our minds by being in the Word, and then put on new habits. The thief stops stealing and begins working. The liar stops lying and speaks the truth. The gossiper stops gossiping and speaks words that bring edification. Gals, if you are in the habit of reading those cheap romance novels instead of delighting in your husband, take them out and burn them and get back to delighting in your husband. Guys, if you are in the habit of sitting in front the computer screen instead of delighting in your wife, take a baseball bat to your monitor and delight only in your wife. As we seek to comply with God's design for our lives, we will be changed! As we walk in obedience the good work God began of conforming us into the image of Christ, He will perfect it until the day of Christ, the day the Lord returns - Philippians 1:6.

Speaking of the day of Christ, Prewrath Rapture Dot Com posted a great article today entitled "The Prewrath Rapture - A Biblical Synthesis." Be sure and check it out!

Friday, June 5, 2009

"If we as Christians want to see true change in our lives...

...we must return to diligently studying our Bibles. We must once again embrace coming to know God through His Word. We must repent of our self-serving ways and seek instead to lay down our lives for Christ and others....Do you have a passion for truth?"

Elyse Fitzpatrick

Monday, June 1, 2009

THINGS IN WHICH GODLY MOTHERS DELIGHT


I had the great delight of giving the devotional at my daughter Annie's baby shower. She is due on June 16th. I think Daniel, my first grandson, is going to arrive before then!

Here is the devotional...

I have the wonderful privilege this evening of talking to you mothers with one of you being my very own daughter! As I was thinking of what to put together for you I remembered that both of you are already mothers. Hannah, you have two precious little ones now and Annie, when you became a wife nearly five years ago you became an instant mother.

When Ben was about four, we had out of town relatives visiting. We took them to China Town in San Francisco, to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We ordered, but Ben was ready to eat before the food was brought out to us. He began complaining, rather loudly. Tim gave him a warning that his behavior was not pleasing but he continued right on. Tim ended up taking him out to our van and applying the loving, warm hand of discipline. Annie was our compliant child. While I probably don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the times Ben required the loving, warm hand of discipline, I don’t think I needed to spank Annie more than a couple of times for disobedience. When we told her it was time to pick up her toys, she promptly obeyed. When we said it was time to get ready for bed, she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. She wasn’t perfect by any means and her sin nature did manifest itself, but generally, she pleased us with quick obedience. The joy we felt at her simple obedience is a treasured emotion and it brought us much delight.

As mothers, you’ve both experienced the pleasure your children’s obedience brings to you, and because of the effect that sin has on our lives you’ve also experienced the undesirable results from their disobedience. We take delight in our children’s obedience, don’t we? Why is that? It’s because it brings benefit to the home and benefit to our children’s lives. The home is more peaceful and pleasant when our children are obedient, as well as during meal times at restaurants…I love you Ben! (And he’s a joy now to take to a restaurant…) Just as we desire obedience from our children, God desires obedience from us. We take pleasure and delight in our children's obedience and I want to remind us all that our Heavenly Father takes pleasure and delights in our own obedience. The home is more peaceful and pleasant when the parents are obedient to their Heavenly Father as well!

There are three other things in which a godly mother will delight and when these three things are delighted in by us, our children will benefit and most importantly the Lord will be glorified as well.

First and foremost, a godly mother delights in the Lord and desires to live for His pleasure. A godly mother, which I would actually like to refer to as a biblically minded mother, places God at the center of her life - not her “perceived needs.” Let me explain what I mean by perceived needs by giving you an illustration to which I think you can relate. You have been caring for your little ones all day long. Perhaps they are sick. You are tired. Your husband comes home from work and he fails to recognize that you are exhausted. You begin to feel neglected, unnoticed, unappreciated. Two hours before he arrived home the washing machine shredded your favorite blouse just after the dog threw-up in the living room. You get the idea about the kind of a day I’m describing? We’ve all experienced it, or you will! Are you familiar with Job 5:7? “Man is born to trouble, surely as sparks fly upward.” I want to insert 2 Peter 1:3 right now…it is a powerful verse and a good one to put to memory, “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” You are ready to indulge in a pity party right about the time the dog left the chicken bones on your recently shampooed carpet. Yes you are tired and your husband didn’t notice. It would be nice if he did! Are you getting the picture, about how we allow perceived needs to crop into our thinking? A biblically minded mother’s “perceived needs” are not issues in her life because she understands that all her needs have already been met by her Lord. Your actual need for the moment is grace and God has already supplied this for you! Even if we fail, a godly mother, a biblically minded mother works from the knowledge that God has supplied everything she needs for life and godliness, including forgiveness for our failures and sinful behavior. She doesn’t have to wait for her husband or children or circumstances to change to enable her to grow in Christ-likeness. She draws her strength from delighting in the Lord and knowing that pleasing Him is her calling. She places Him at the center of her life, and not her perceived needs. The more you delight in the Lord the more strength you will have to draw upon as the demands of motherhood are placed upon you.

Three things come to mind that a mother thinks she needs. Love, wisdom, and patience. God has already richly met those needs for you Annie and Hannah. Romans 5:5 tells us that the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Paul used the Greek word for the love of sacrifice. God loved us with the extreme love of sacrifice and enables us through the Holy Spirit to in turn love others with the extreme love of sacrifice. We just need to choose to walk in it. James 1:5 tells us that God generously gives wisdom to all who ask. And don’t be afraid to seek out an experienced mother when you have a perplexing issue with one of your children. As far as patience goes, you have it, even if you feel like you don’t! God says He’s given you all things (all is a 100% word!) pertaining to life and godliness. Patience is included in all things Annie and Hannah. Hannah, you’ve probably already experienced a sleepless night or two with Tirzah or Kyra being sick. Annie, your turn is coming. I remember when Ben was about two and he had a very bad cold with a cough. He was up most of the night, and I was up with him too of course. But the Lord graciously supplied the strength and the patience to get through that night and the next day without any sleep. You already know that children will test your patience with lack of obedience. We have it, it is ours, God has met this need for patience in all areas of our life, we need to choose to display it!

Next, it is important that we delight in our husbands, our children’s father. You’ve lived long enough with your husbands to learn that your husbands are sinful and flawed, but they’ve also learned that about us as well! Delighting in our husbands begins with how we think about them. They are not perfect, just like we are not perfect. They will not always recognize that you are tired from your long day with your precious little ones. Our children will feel secure however when they see that we are their father’s biggest fan. We are called to respect our children’s fathers in Ephesians 5:33. I want to introduce you to the put off and put on principle of Eph. 4. At verse 22 it says, “in reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self…be renewed in the spirit of your mind…and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” If it has become a habit to dwell on what we wish our children’s father would do, we are behaving like the old self. We need to put it off, lay it aside, and put on a heart of thanksgiving for our children’s father instead of a complaining spirit for the times we feel their father has not met our “perceived needs.” Your children will bless you when they are adults and you will have set a God-glorifying example before them of how to treat their future spouses.

Finally, it benefits our children when we delight in the Word. Psalm 1 talks about this as being a daily delight. A young mother’s days are filled with dirty diapers and runny noses, but we usually can manage to find ten minutes to do some delighting in the Word. It is where we draw our strength. Here we can enlarge our view of God, here we gain leviathan faith. We learn that God is sovereign and trustworthy when we dwell in it richly. We can be comforted knowing that God is causing all things to work to benefit us. A godly mother will model a love for the Word to her children by being in it consistently and obeying it’s ordinances and teaching its precepts to them. When the storms and trials of life hit, for a mother who has been in the Word, her children will see her as a firmly planted tree.

Delight in your children’s obedience Annie and Hannah, always remembering that your Heavenly Father also delights in yours.
Delight in the Lord.
Delight in your husbands.
Delight in God’s Word.

It will be of great benefit to your children and will bring great glory and pleasure to your Heavenly Father!