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A couple of weeks ago I posted on C.J. Mahaney’s sermon titled Don’t Waste Your Humor. He’s at it again with another sermon at Covenant Life church, called Don’t Waste Your Sports. Listen and find out how you can glorify God through sports.
This is the latest eNewsletter from 9Marks (also available in PDF).
FAMILY & PARENTING
Wanted: Kingdom Families
Embedded Portraits: A Theological Vision for Families
Part 3: Raising Boys vs. Raising Girls
Book Review: Family Driven Faith By Voddie Baucham Jr
Reviewed by Michael Lawrence
Book Review: Practicing Hospitality By Pat Ennis and Lisa Tatlock
Reviewed by Adrienne Lawrence
Two nights ago we did something that is rare in our house, watched TV. To tell the truth its not so rare for the grownups to turn on the TV for background noise at night (usually Food Network or HGTV) while we do other tasks but it’s never on during the day. I think the boys forget there is such a thing, but from time to time we do enjoy a family movie night. We checked the guide on Sunday night and saw that Animal Planet was showing Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and since we haven’t had a “movie night” in a while we thought it would be nice to cuddle up and watch. We turned on the TV and there was a commercial for another animal show called Untamed & Uncut. The show is about shocking real animal behavior and accidents and the scene on the screen was of an Alligator closing his jaw on a his Trainer’s head. The boys were horrified and asked why people would show this on TV. Good question! I explained that seeing that kind of thing can remind people that animals are wild an unpredictable and they shouldn’t do foolish things like stick their heads in Alligators mouths. My youngest told me that he might have a bad dream now after seeing that so we turned off Animal Planet and put in an Adventures in Odyssey DVD. Sure enough, later that night my older son woke up from a nightmare about a crazed bunny chasing all of us around the house trying to bite our feet! We had seen some cute little bunnies in the field at the park on Saturday and somehow the memory of those innocent bunnies was morphed with the angry Alligator in his dreamy 6 year old mind. It’s amazing how images on a screen can impact us.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” Matthew 6:22-23
This past Friday I turned 36 years old, approximately 13,140 days. That’s a lot of days, how quickly they come and go. Have you ever numbered your days? I’ve spent some time reflecting on this and it had a very sobering effect. How have I spent these days? How have I wasted them? How many have been used for my Creator? What has been done for His kingdom? There are many days highlighted in my mind for the earthly pleasure or pain that they brought. In providence they came and shaped my life and I thank God for each one, but in honest reflection I must acknowledge the dreadful fact that so terribly few of these days were truly devoted to Him or of any use for His kingdom.
In a prayer from Moses we read, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:2). The “so” in this request indicates a response to the previous statements which speak of the might and wrath of the Creator God and our disregard of Him and utter waste of the days He’s given us. I know this is true of myself and so my echoing of Moses’ prayer is heart felt. But I also know that because not a day was wasted by Jesus in His 33 years on earth and was spent perfectly glorifying the Father and accomplishing His will, I will not be dealt with in wrath as deserved but in divine love. By grace I share the reward of His life and receive the credit of His righteousness. And all the more I pray that God would teach me to number my days that I may get a heart of wisdom. That I would not waste another of the days He’s given. Moses went on in his prayer to appeal to God’s steadfast love, to call on God to satisfy us with Himself, to further reveal Himself to us so that we would be glad in Him alone, for His favor to be on us, and for God to establish the work of our hands upon us. What a great prayer. How about secretly whispering this before blowing out the candles? Lord willing may the next 13,000 days be full of His grace and power, and on reflection then may I see a legacy of faith and obedience with some lasting eternal value for His kingdom. Have you ever numbered your days?
We returned late last night from vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine. Thanks to some very generous friends who lent us their home we were able to enjoy 5 days in a fun and scenic place. Our schedule was packed and we had a great time exploring the seacoast, finding huge starfish at The Ovens, picking wild blueberries on top of Cadillac Mountain, and taking in the sites and sounds of Acadia National Park. We were mostly out an about but I knew there would be a couple of afternoons at the house where the boys would be bored and anxious for the next adventure so I surprised them with a vacation gift, their very first archery set. That’s right, a real bow and arrow (mom loved that) complete with finger guard and quiver. I also picked up a large foam target from Wal-Mart. They loved it and did a good job hitting the target (5 feet away) and not each other or me Read the rest of this entry »
I listened to an excellent sermon this week from John Piper called “How the Supremacy of Christ Creates a Radical Christian Sacrifice.” Piper’s words were gripping and challenging and I think a lot closer to real Christianity then most of what we normally hear. It’s been on my mind all week and I’ve been praying that God would not let the message slip away but instead press it into my heart. So timely was this quote I came accross today which touches on some of what I’m being challenged with:
When the prosperous man on a dark but starlit night drives comfortably in his carriage and has the lanterns lighted, aye, then he is safe, he fears no difficulty, he carries his light with him, and it is not dark close around him. But precisely because he has the lanterns lighted, and has a strong light close to him, precisely for this reason, he cannot see the stars. For his lights obscure the stars, which the poor peasant, driving without lights, can see gloriously in the dark but starry night. So those deceived ones live in the temporal existence: either, occupied with the necessities of life, they are too busy to avail themselves of the view, or in their prosperity and good days they have, as it were, lanterns lighted, and close about them everything is so satisfactory, so pleasant, so comfortable—but the view is lacking, the prospect, the view of the stars.
Søren Kierkegaard, The Gospel of Suffering, trans. David and Lillian Swenson (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1948), 123, cited in Vernard Eller, The Simple Life
One day last week my older son schemed with his little brother how to avoid their daily quiet time. This is an hour or so break each day around 2 o’clock where they sit quietly with a blanket and a stack of books. They don’t like the break from their play and often express their objection but it is non-negotiable, they usually NEED the rest. This day Mommy was busy in a task and my oldest had noticed that the 2 o’clock hour was slipping by. It’s very uncharacteristic of him to intentionally deceive (that’s the closest word I can think of to describe the offense) and his younger brother seized the opportunity to blow the whistle on his normally very compliant brother. He was questioned by Mommy Read the rest of this entry »
The Bible reading plan I’m using has me in Job this week and today I read Job’s response to his friend Bildad in chapter 9. Job starts by asking a question, “how can a man be in the right before God?” (v2) It’s the one question that every human being of all ages, of all times, must ask. Have you asked this question? Are you sure of the answer? “how can a man be in the right before God?”
Job lived before the prophets, and priests, and kings, and Jesus, and the disciples, and the Westminster catechism, and John Piper, but he knew enough about God and enough about man to see clearly the predicament of man. Job was an upright and blameless man who shunned evil and feared God, he was one of only a few who did in a land full of idolatry. He knew his morals and religion exceeded those of his neighbors but he also knew his righteous living could never pardon his sins. “Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.” (v15) In his sorrow, Job declares that no one is wiser in heart or mightier in strength then God, that God is Creator over all, that God is invisible, that God cannot be convinced of anything since He knows everything, and that God is not impressed by anything since He is sovereign over all. “If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?” (v19)
Job had no confidence in his own righteousness, rituals, or religion. He knew his own flesh would betray him and that in the end man has no ability to justify himself to God. “Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.” (v20) Even the very best of men, must ask “how can a man be in the right before God?” Then, in hopeless desperation and emptiness Job cries out “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.” (v33-35) Can you feel Jobs anguish? Oh! If only there was an Arbiter! Who might stand between God and man and lay His hand on us both! Job asks the monumental question we all must ask, he defines the terrible problem we all have, and in prophetic allusion he introduces the glorious answer to it all. Read the rest of this entry »
Remember Evel Knievel? If you do you’re too old. Nevertheless, I was reminded of the stunt man on Saturday when my 5 year old dare-devil… which by the way is a biblical term: “and give no opportunity to the devil” Eph 4:27, but I digress… my 5 year old discovered that tricycles cannot fly over swimming pools and I discovered that he can swim quite well in the deep end. I was ready to dive in to the rescue but I hesitated for a second to see what he would do, and to my delight and relief, he calmly resurfaced and swam to the side of the pool like an expert. Well done! His older brother (6yr) even had the wits to pluck the tricycle from the pool before it sank. Read the rest of this entry »
