somewhere between

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:1-2 The question I am asking myself today based on these verses is "In what ways am I tempted to be conformed to this world?" Don and I talked about it at breakfast this morning. Without really having to think about it, I know one thing I struggle with (not so much right now, but it always comes and goes in intensity - and knowing me it will be a big struggle when the new baby is probably 5-6 weeks old) is the issue of the Bible's definition of womanhood and the popular culture's definition. Many times in the past the main idea on my radar has been the idea that I could make a more significant cont...

Over Romans 9 in my Bible I have written "sovereignty and mercy of God". It is important that I remember both of those absolute, wonderful truths. Many times I can get caught up in the idea of the "sovereignty of God" without also remembering and living by His mercy. This is crazy! One only has to look at the cross to worship in absolute amazement of God's great mercy. Do I understand - like human-logically put together - all that is contained in Romans 9, 10, 11? No way! How can you? It doesn't make sense that a just God who defines HOLY and can not tolerate sin would have mercy on A-N-Y-O-N-E. Yet, He is the author and effector (is that a word?) of salvation to save sinners. "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." Romans 9:16 I remember many years ago riding to a "girl's weekend out" with my sister and talking about this passage all the way. It was a beautiful ride i...

Sovereign Ruler of the skies, Ever gracious, ever wise, All my times are in thy hand, All of events at thy command. His decree who formed the earth Fixed my first and second birth; Parents, native place, and time All appointed were by him. He that formed in the womb, He shall guide me to the tomb; All my times shall ever be Ordered by his wise decree. Times of sickness, times of health, Times of penury and wealth; Times of trial and of grief, Times of triumph and relief; Times the tempter’s power to prove, Times to test the Savior’s love; All must come, and last, and end As shall please my heavenly friend. Plagues and death around me fly; Till he bids, I cannot die. Nor a single shaft can hit, Till the love of God sees fit. John Ryland (1753-1825), Baptist minister, cited by J.I. Packer, God’s Plans for You , pg. 9.

I just can't get out of Romans 8. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" I woke up this morning with thoughts of God's sovereignty on my mind. The fact that He controls everything and will let nothing go further than He has decreed. He is a kind and loving Father who I can trust. So, I don't have to worry about the events of today. Though I can't always trust other people to do the right thing (or even myself for that matter!) or put my confidence in 'things' today - I can put my confidence in my heavenly Father and rest in His adoption of me as a child. So, no need to put on the slave chains of fear again - let me just remind myself of who my Father is.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28) He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things ? (Rom 8:32) all things - greek word "panta" (forgive the laziness in not using greek manuscript) I remember Lance preaching about this. He said that the word used meant literally "all things". Big things, small things, spiritual things, normal things. This is a good word to remember. Especially in the midst of this pregnancy. God is interested in using all aspects of my life to conform me more to the image of His Son.

Not only does the air outside have a wonderful crispness to it, but the air inside seems to after this morning's re-reading of Romans 8. Many times I can get bogged down, defeated, discouraged over the myriad of things in my life where I am failing. The wife-thing. The kids. The house. The budget. and the list could probably go on far enough to challenge the amount of free space Google provides for this blog! But such a refreshing reminder: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" Romans 8:1 Yeah!! Praise the Lord!! Even with all the times I try and fail, ultimately I have Christ's perfect righteousness imputed to me. That's just plain crazy. Absolutely true - but so out-of-this-world! He doesn't just leave believers here and say "Well, make the best of it." He gives us a "spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'" (8:15). The Spirit prays for us (8:26), Jesus C...

"For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace" Romans 8:3-6 As one could easily pick out from my previous entries, I'm currently reading through the book of Romans. It's kind of funny, but God seems to think that Don and I need A LOT of this book - and I agree! Don's listened to John Piper , Lance Quinn , Curtis Thomas and George Zemek preach through Romans. I've heard Lance and Dr. Z . Now, at what will most likely be our new church , Phil Newton is starting to preach through a new book in January - guess which one? Romans. So in preparation for that sermon series I'm re-reading the book - and (though I shouldn't be) quite frankly amazed at how much I STILL don't understand! (and how much more I understand but don't consistently practice...

"For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." Romans 6:10-13 Presenting my "members" as "instruments of righteousness to God" is something I should strive to do. This verse made me think about how I am living - am I letting sin reign? Do I volunteer and sign-up for service to sin? Or am I seeking to be an instrument of righteousness to God. The word "instrument" reminded me of a very good book - Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp . Full of Scripture, the book challenged me and Don to be Biblic...

Recently I have been very convicted about my lack of diligence in training our children. Albeit, the past few months have been crazy , but eventually I knew that I needed and wanted things to get back to where I thought we were at least pointed in the right direction, even if we weren't making any progress. So Don and I talked about things this past Sunday afternoon. Big things like - the vision and direction of our family and small things like - what steps do we take each day to be going that direction. He asked me to start going through Proverbs and making a list of categories of verses regarding a parent's responsibility to instruct and discipline their children and the blessings and warnings given to parents and children alike if they don't heed God's instruction. This morning I read through the first 12 chapters online and though I haven't got to the classic "discipline your child" verses yet, I found many that definitely increased my conviction...

I really am not sure what to write this morning. I didn't get much sleep last night, not due to the kids - well the ones who have been born anyway. I'm going to try and watch more what and when I eat today so maybe tonight I won't be dealing with the acid reflux so bad. I read Romans 5 this morning and there is so much in there that I don't feel like I can get my head around it to pull out something. It's all so very wonderful. The kids aren't awake yet, so I think I'll go lay back down.