The Mother in Laws

Kimberly and Ben are happily situated in their new home.
We two, the mother in laws, enjoy their new home and have laid claim
to the mother in law suite. I will leave our picture on the wall in the bedroom as a reminder.  Oh, and the cute one with the pony tails is Lucy.

Eternally thankful ...

Sometimes I get so sick of myself, my sin and the pretenses of life. I think about our amazing God in heaven that is SO patient that He would even consider me. I look around and I see others not meeting my expectations and then with His love He gently shows me the road He walked for me. Via Dolorosa

Not only do I get no credit for His sacrifice, I made no effort in the price He paid .. my response? I can be prideful and deserving. Deserving? What even is that? I grumble in my heart that what I need is to be considered and what I think is important must be acknowledged.

What about my image? What about what people will think about me .. or maybe you?
What are people going to think about you?

I have my pretense. I have my image. My dad used to tell me "you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."
Dad .. you are right.

As my beautiful savior walked down this road for me He had no pretense. He carried me on His back. My full weight, my pretense, my sin, my pride. Oh Jesus ... You are perfect, holy and righteous.

My point to this post is to remind us all who we actually are. We are the weight on Jesus back as He walked on the road of suffering .. the Via Dolorosa.

We can take two messages from that .. one, amazingly, the Perfect loves us and lived and died for us.
Second .. we can let go of all of our pretenses. We are all sinners saved by His grace .. we can take off our masks, we can get off of our own thrones, we can be satisfied that His love is enough for our self image.

He is enough.

Listen to this while you read the lyrics following it.. it's wonderful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMlQgQmHtx0

He traded his crown for a crown of thorns

He picked up His cross and laid down His sword

He stumbled down the road bruised and beaten for me

Jesus walked the way of grief

Hallelujah! 



[Chorus]

On the via dolorosa! 

All my sin was carried away! 

And the power of Him was broken

As He gave His life away



He knew it was to come from the very start

But his love for the world beat inside His heart

He climbed the road of suffering to the hill of calvary

Where the saints would be redeemed.

Hallelujah! 



[Chorus]

On the via dolorosa! 

All my sin was carried away! 

And the power of Him was broken

As He gave His life away



Jesus fixed His eyes upon the new horizon

Soon he would arise and the world would be forgiven! 

Jesus fixed His eyes upon the new horizon

Soon he would arise and the world would be forgiven! 



Hallelujah, Jesus rose again! 

On the cross He she'd His blood on Calvary

I'm thankful for the journey of my King! 



[Chorus]

On the via dolorosa! 

All my sin was carried away! 

And the power of Him was broken

As He gave His life away

As He gave His life away

I have been reading

Women of the Book .. 

That's what I read in one of John Piper's sermons. Doesn't that sound amazing? 

I want to be a "Woman of the Book." Of course, we know the book is God's holy Word. 

The book, which encloses His Word, His love letter to us. 

Yes, I want to be a Woman of the Book. 

A holy woman. That sounds so unattainable. To be Holy. 

But He calls us to be holy.

I will believe, 

I will believe in Him.

That will be the beginning of holiness. 

"We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, 

holy through and through, asking for nothing but 

what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands 

and with all my heart whatever that is." 

— 

Elisabeth Elliot

The Limit of Grace

I often wonder how far grace should go as a parent. After reading Isaiah 5 I think I might have gotten a better picture of how the Lord parents.

The Lord speaks through Isaiah telling us about His beloved - His son Jesus. His Son Jesus built a beautiful vineyard, He put in the best of everything.

My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;

I have read that the Lord provided a fertile hill .. as a parent we would provide a good, strong healthy environment for our family to grow.

For our families the fertile soil would be full of the goodness of the Lord. We would have accepted His love for us, we would be full of His mercy because we would understand our own sinful condition and the eternal plan that the God of the universe had put into place so that we could be redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus. As a result of that revelation to our soul we would be exhibiting our own good fruit   - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
That would be a fertile land for our children to grow in.

Next Isaiah told us that the beloved dug it and cleared it of stones. As we parent we will work the soil of our children's hearts .. we will cultivate an understanding of God and His sovereignty, teaching them their place in the eternal plan of God and we will show them the Word of God - His holy standard. Recently, I read an excerpt from a John Piper statement that spoke about how we are to relate the Word of God to our children.

… the Bible will be the sun in the solar system of all that we teach our children. It will not be one among many books. It will be the central book, the all-permeating book. The other books are dark planets; the Bible is the light-giving sun. All other books will be read in the light of this book. 

All books will be judged by this book. All books will find meaning in the worldview built by this book. Which means that this book must be known first and known better than all the other books.”

That standard will be the tool to help us remove the stones and obstacles to growth in the Lord. It is with His Holy Word that we will build and then plant. It is His Word that will be the seed for our family's vineyard.

The seeds that are planted in their souls are the seeds that will grow. In John Piper's statement he is referring to a comparison of  books to the Bible, that other books will be judged by the truth of the Bible so and it goes to reason that he is referring to any knowledge as well. We have many different kinds of knowledge. For instance their is knowledge regarding relationships and our social world, there is an academic kind of knowledge, there is a spiritual knowledge. Those knowledge will only have it's value in it's relation to the truth we find in God's Word.
The hearts of our family will be planted as we growc. The example the Lord has shown us in Isaiah is the beloved using only the best seed. As our days go by we can be like His beloved and choose only the best seed for our children.

Stolen article

Why Moms Are So Important to the Church

by AMELTON on APRIL 21, 2010

I don’t think that Christians really grasp the immense value of moms to the church and to society at large. More than anyone else in our lifetime, during the first few weeks of our life, moms do for us what Jesus did for His disciples. Our lives are profoundly impacted by this Christ-like care that we receive. For most of us, these weeks or months or years were a special time in our lives when we experienced something very akin to the way Jesus made disciples. God designed disciple-making into every mother’s DNA.

Consider the way that Jesus made disciples. For the three years of His public ministry Jesus clearly showed the world how disciples are made. Here are a few of the remarkable similarities of what Jesus did and what moms do.

• Like moms, Jesus personally shepherded His disciples. Rather than delegate this task, Jesus realized that one day His disciples would change the world because of His personal influence. Like Jesus, moms of infants have a God-given maternal instinct that trusts no one else to the job of caring for her child. A mom alone knows what is best for her child. No one else knows her child like mom.  No one else loves her child like mom. No one else communicates better than mom with her child.  There is a bond between a mom and her child that is unique. Like Jesus, moms lay a strong foundation through their love that will remain with their child for life.
• Like moms, Jesus was with His disciples all day long. Rather than “quality time” Jesus invested “quantity time” in His disciples. He sacrificed personal time, convenience, sleep, and comforts to care for His disciples. The result was deep relationships and commitment that changed the world. These uneducated and untrained disciples turned the world upside down!  Moms of infants also sacrifice personal time, sleep, comforts and convenience to care for their children. Like Jesus, moms and children develop deep relationships and memories; the future rewards for mom, child, church and society are beyond measure.
• Like moms, Jesus frequently taught His disciples throughout the day. Jesus was constantly teaching scripture and biblical principles. He used the Deuteronomy 6 process; He taught them when they arose, when they walked by the way, when they sat in houses and when they lay down at night. Moms of infants sing to their children and play games with them and teach them to walk and talk throughout the day. Moms teach their children to love Jesus; they read the Bible to them, and they enjoy Christian songs and media.
• Like moms, Jesus showed his disciples how to minister to others. He took His disciples into the community and fed others, taught them, prayed for them and shared the gospel with them. Many moms of infants minister to others like Jesus did. They may take a meal or cookies and/or tracts to neighbors, pray for other moms with sick children, or witness or share the gospel with those they encounter. They may send encouraging notes to families in need. Many children benefit richly by being a part of their mom’s ministry to others. These moms and children are “salt and light” to the world in the same way that Jesus was “salt and light” with His disciples.
• Finally, like moms, Jesus protected His disciples from wolves.  Jesus didn’t send them out until they were fully trained, and they were grown men!  Then when Jesus did send His disciples out, He sent them out in twos. Moms of infants are like a mama bear; you better not mess with her babies! Like Jesus, many moms don’t trust their children to other people. It violates their consciences to turn their children over to someone they don’t know well. These moms keep their children in the safety and protection that only they will provide.

My mom died when I was five years old, but I can clearly recall times we spent together. She may or may not have been a Christian, but she demonstrated to me the most important virtue in the Bible, the virtue of love. She shepherded me, spent time with me, taught me and protected me; that’s the way Jesus made disciples. Over the last five decades I have had the good fortune to have been influenced by a number of godly people, but those five decades don’t hold a candle to five years with my mom.

Moms, remember that what you are doing has eternal value to the church. You are making disciples like Jesus did and never again will your child have the opportunity to be so deeply impacted for Christ! No pastor, evangelist, or missionary has a more important job. You are creating memories with your children that cannot be replaced. You are changing the world because you are like Jesus.

http://www.disciplelikejesus.com/blog/?p=205

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

When love beckons to you, follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams

as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. 

Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep,

 but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.