"Grow in grace" -not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fullness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward -having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to "grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior." He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know Him is "life eternal," and to advance in the knowledge of Him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thrist for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus - as the deer panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, "Nearer, nearer." Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in his human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession, in His future royal advent. Abide hard by the cross, and search the mystery of His wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Wednesday 24 December 2008
Thursday 18 December 2008
CNN
*Sigh* Perhaps I shouldn't go onto CNN's website and read people's comments on various issues. I try to go on the website to keep up on news- World and US news. Anyways, Obama decided to pick Rick Warren to deliver his invocation at the presidential inauguration. Personally, I could care less who he picks to deliver that speach and am neither ecstatic nor bummed that he picked Rick Warren. I could honestly care less. But what bothered me about the article was reading the posted comments referencing it. The biggest issue people had with Obama choosing Rick Warren was over the fact that Rick Warren opposes gay and abortion rights and he's "religious." In choosing Rick Warren, people felt like Obama was compromising his liberal stance he claimed to have during the election process. Anger built up inside of me when I read people making mocking comments toward God and Christianity. God is a loving, merciful Savior, but more often than not people think He's a prideful God of war, who is out to condemn, judge, and send to hell anyone who doesn't do what he wants them to do. FRUSTRATING! I know I shouldn't let it get to me- those who do not have the Spirit will not understand the Spirit, and I can't expect them to. Better they be this way than to claim to know Christ, while living a life of hypocrisy.
Often times I don't know how to respond to those who fight so hard for things that are so obviously against God's design. And I don't know how to respond to those who so deliberately curse God. The Spirit inside of me gets so angered by it, and yet at the same time my heart aches.
God is loving, merciful and gracious and the gift of salvation He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ IS available to all. Irregardless of nationalality, race, education, or social position, Christ IS available to all (Colossians 3:11). Yet people are not seeing this. People are seeing condemnation and judgement. ...And yet I know this is not a new thing. Satan is influencing our world and will and has always decieved people into distrusting God. And he will use those he's decieved to decieve others.
We have to have a balance in understanding God's mercy and righteousness and as humans, limited in our understanding, that balance can be hard to find. We can focus too much on His grace and mercy, neglecting His impending holiness, or we can focus too much on His righteousness and hatred of sin, neglecting His love and grace. Neither extreme fully reflects who God is. In witnessing to others I do believe we have to reflect this balance. God is righteous and we desparately need Him to save us from the judgement that will result from sin, and yet in His righteousness God is also loving, gracious, and merciful.
I wish people could see clearly both beautiful characteristics of God, and I wish we knew how to purely reflect it to others. Thanks for letting me vent :)
Often times I don't know how to respond to those who fight so hard for things that are so obviously against God's design. And I don't know how to respond to those who so deliberately curse God. The Spirit inside of me gets so angered by it, and yet at the same time my heart aches.
God is loving, merciful and gracious and the gift of salvation He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ IS available to all. Irregardless of nationalality, race, education, or social position, Christ IS available to all (Colossians 3:11). Yet people are not seeing this. People are seeing condemnation and judgement. ...And yet I know this is not a new thing. Satan is influencing our world and will and has always decieved people into distrusting God. And he will use those he's decieved to decieve others.
We have to have a balance in understanding God's mercy and righteousness and as humans, limited in our understanding, that balance can be hard to find. We can focus too much on His grace and mercy, neglecting His impending holiness, or we can focus too much on His righteousness and hatred of sin, neglecting His love and grace. Neither extreme fully reflects who God is. In witnessing to others I do believe we have to reflect this balance. God is righteous and we desparately need Him to save us from the judgement that will result from sin, and yet in His righteousness God is also loving, gracious, and merciful.
I wish people could see clearly both beautiful characteristics of God, and I wish we knew how to purely reflect it to others. Thanks for letting me vent :)
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Random Recent Photos
This is a recent picture of Jason and I with our very first Christmas tree ever! It was quite the experience hauling it in, struggling to straighten it, decorating it, and now trying to keep it alive. It has 600 lights and brightens up our whole living room!
This is my wonderful husband at Lover's Key Beach in Florida! Such a remote beach- we loved it. Not far to the left of Jason there's a crazy drop off. The tip of this tree dangled over the drop off. I crawled as far as I could and could see schools of fish. God is amazing! 
Yep, it's me in this car! While we were in Florida we found a European car place. This was my fav. I'm sure we annoyed the heck outta the car salespeople- but thankfully, if they were annoyed, they didn't show it.
Sorry these pictures are in no particular order! This is a picture from Lover's Key Beach. Jason, being the alpha man that he is, decided to pick up this dead blow fish. Call us retarded but we were excited about it -the first blowfish we'd ever seen in real life!
Monumental Occassion: I made my first pie! -At least the first one I've made that's been edible. When we were in Florida, Grandma-my female role model, taught me some things about cooking. Mmmmm...a piece of apple pie with a little ice cream...sooo good. 
This is another picture from Florida. -One we took with Grandpa and Grandma the day we left :( Grandpa was trying to look "spiritual." His words: "Don't take it yet, Reva... I have to put on my spiritual face." He's hilarious. Jason and I were trying to pose for the picture but were having a hard time cause Grandpa was making us laugh.
I miss them :(
Monday 15 December 2008
I Was Reading Last Night....
I was reading, last night, a book about the importance of knowing Scripture. Here are some quotes from the book to think about:
"There is a prevalent conviction that the faith the church has confessed in the past is not adequate for a post-Enlightenment culture; the idea that faith must be accommodated to culture has undermined the teaching of the church's faith. Popular evangelical faith has developed a bias against theology (not to mention the intellect) and has elevated the bias to the level of a virtue, defending it as vigorously as democracy. This is reflected more and more in the pulpits of professing evangelical churches. Doctrine...is purposefully avoided...
They focus on practical matters, such as family concerns and personal growth, not doctrine, sometimes mixing psychotherepeutic concepts with biblical teaching. They often emphasize religious experience. They seek to feel God's love, not understand church theology, a theme that plays well with the decreasing importance of denominational doctrine among baby boomers."
And another:
"Most importantly, God chose to communicate the Truth about Himself and His world by words contained in the Scriptures and the language of the Heavens (Psalm 19). God's words do not depend upon a reader's interpretation. Instead, the reader is to interpret the Bible according to God's intention. The Apostle Peter is clear when he writes, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had it's origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1: 19-21).
To correctly understand the meaning of any text of Scripture, we should heed Paul's advice to Timothy: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). By acknowledging that God has communicated in language Truth about the real world, and by diligently studying the Bible, you can know the truth that sets you free (John 8:32)".
"There is a prevalent conviction that the faith the church has confessed in the past is not adequate for a post-Enlightenment culture; the idea that faith must be accommodated to culture has undermined the teaching of the church's faith. Popular evangelical faith has developed a bias against theology (not to mention the intellect) and has elevated the bias to the level of a virtue, defending it as vigorously as democracy. This is reflected more and more in the pulpits of professing evangelical churches. Doctrine...is purposefully avoided...
They focus on practical matters, such as family concerns and personal growth, not doctrine, sometimes mixing psychotherepeutic concepts with biblical teaching. They often emphasize religious experience. They seek to feel God's love, not understand church theology, a theme that plays well with the decreasing importance of denominational doctrine among baby boomers."
And another:
"Most importantly, God chose to communicate the Truth about Himself and His world by words contained in the Scriptures and the language of the Heavens (Psalm 19). God's words do not depend upon a reader's interpretation. Instead, the reader is to interpret the Bible according to God's intention. The Apostle Peter is clear when he writes, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had it's origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1: 19-21).
To correctly understand the meaning of any text of Scripture, we should heed Paul's advice to Timothy: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). By acknowledging that God has communicated in language Truth about the real world, and by diligently studying the Bible, you can know the truth that sets you free (John 8:32)".
Thursday 11 December 2008
The Light Within
I'm at work doing pretty mindless things...and I'm thinking. I'm thinking....how do I share my faith with those around me? How can I be the "city on a hill shining in the night for all to see?" that Jesus talks of in Matthew 5? How do I follow Matthew 10: 24, which says, "What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light. What you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops?" And how can I remember the following verse, which says, "Do not fear those who are able to kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell?" And how do I begin to do something that I have rarely, regretably, had the confidence to do? God has been laying this on my heart incredibly. Every day I encounter those who have not surrendered their lives to Christ. And the Holy Spirit gives me an aching desire for them to hear the pure Gospel and to find their refuge in their Creator. I feel His Spirit pressing on my heart to share the joy that's inside of me, and yet I have not managed to allow God to bring me beyond my own insecurities. I feel like Moses must have felt when he pleaded with God in Exodus 4: 10: ".....O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." I feel like Moses- "Lord, why not someone else?" And yet I know that before Christ ascended He gave the command to all his disciples in Mark 16:15: " He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation.' " Because of this I know that I must share the hope that is within me. It is my prayer and my plea that God equips me to do His will and to influence a world that is lost without Him. I will continue to grow in Christ- I will pray He gives me the strength to surrender every part of my life to Him and in doing so further His Kingdom. And I know and trust that He will answer my prayer and equip me....
Tuesday 2 December 2008
Weaknesses
This is an email I wrote to my brother. After I had written it I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to post it.
"I read that sermon. It was very good. It's so hard nowadays to hear sound teaching and doctrine. I DRINK it in when I get the opportunity. I'm realizing SO MUCH how "lukewarm" so many believers are. The Holy Spirit has been working in me to pull me away from that. We give in so much to the culture around us and don’t even realize it. We're afraid to claim Christ- to be bold in Him. We’re ashamed of the Gospel but would never admit it. We're afraid to rebuke one another in love because we're convinced its judgment. We're afraid to study Scripture and share it with others because we don't want them to think we're better than they are. We think the definition of humility equates with cowardliness- though we wouldn't admit it. We place ourselves and mankind above God but are oblivious that we’re doing it.
Proverbs 9: 8 says “Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you; reprove a wise man and he will love you." Our faith is often so fragile and we are such fools that we cannot take rebuke. We scoff at it by claiming others are "judging us," rather than prayerfully considering the words being spoken to us.
It's heartbreaking and it's scary how weak the church has become. I'm praying that the TRUE church takes an ever increasingly strong stand for Christ. We cannot expect God's Kingdom to spread while we sit back and watch TV shows and movies we shouldn't even be watching- these things consume more of our time than God does. We cannot expect God's Kingdom to spread when we idolize other things before Him. We cannot expect to grow closer to God when we are not sacrificing to God by giving our time to Him. We have to learn what true discipleship is.
The other day I was reading Mark 4- the parable of the seeds that were sown. Jesus talks about how seeds were sown among thorns.
"And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among thorns; these are the ones who have heard the Word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful." (Mark 4: 18-19 NASB).
This is our culture’s church. We are so deceived by riches and by what we think we ought to have. We "think" we're advancing God's Kingdom but don't even know what that looks like because we're so distracted. We can focus on everything but God and God's Word. There is something fearfully wrong with this. We are not being who God’s called us to be.
Prayer is essential but how often do we fail in this? All throughout the Epistles, prayer is emphasized. We NEED to lift each other up in prayer. We fail to even find time to pray, let alone to pray for one another. This is pleasing to our enemy. Yet if we continue living in this way God will be ashamed of us.
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and my Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
(Mark 8:38 NASB)
Anyways, sorry this is kinda long- I just couldn't stop! Thanks for the sermon!"
"I read that sermon. It was very good. It's so hard nowadays to hear sound teaching and doctrine. I DRINK it in when I get the opportunity. I'm realizing SO MUCH how "lukewarm" so many believers are. The Holy Spirit has been working in me to pull me away from that. We give in so much to the culture around us and don’t even realize it. We're afraid to claim Christ- to be bold in Him. We’re ashamed of the Gospel but would never admit it. We're afraid to rebuke one another in love because we're convinced its judgment. We're afraid to study Scripture and share it with others because we don't want them to think we're better than they are. We think the definition of humility equates with cowardliness- though we wouldn't admit it. We place ourselves and mankind above God but are oblivious that we’re doing it.
Proverbs 9: 8 says “Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you; reprove a wise man and he will love you." Our faith is often so fragile and we are such fools that we cannot take rebuke. We scoff at it by claiming others are "judging us," rather than prayerfully considering the words being spoken to us.
It's heartbreaking and it's scary how weak the church has become. I'm praying that the TRUE church takes an ever increasingly strong stand for Christ. We cannot expect God's Kingdom to spread while we sit back and watch TV shows and movies we shouldn't even be watching- these things consume more of our time than God does. We cannot expect God's Kingdom to spread when we idolize other things before Him. We cannot expect to grow closer to God when we are not sacrificing to God by giving our time to Him. We have to learn what true discipleship is.
The other day I was reading Mark 4- the parable of the seeds that were sown. Jesus talks about how seeds were sown among thorns.
"And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among thorns; these are the ones who have heard the Word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful." (Mark 4: 18-19 NASB).
This is our culture’s church. We are so deceived by riches and by what we think we ought to have. We "think" we're advancing God's Kingdom but don't even know what that looks like because we're so distracted. We can focus on everything but God and God's Word. There is something fearfully wrong with this. We are not being who God’s called us to be.
Prayer is essential but how often do we fail in this? All throughout the Epistles, prayer is emphasized. We NEED to lift each other up in prayer. We fail to even find time to pray, let alone to pray for one another. This is pleasing to our enemy. Yet if we continue living in this way God will be ashamed of us.
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and my Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
(Mark 8:38 NASB)
Anyways, sorry this is kinda long- I just couldn't stop! Thanks for the sermon!"
Monday 1 December 2008
Christmas!
I am excited for Christmas this year! Every year, Christmas becomes more meaningful for me. I can't exactly be sure why but I know that as I've been growing in my relationship with God, the focus of the Christmas season becomes more real to me. It's all about HIM! Sure Santa's fun and all but Santa's not the reason we celebrate. Jesus Christ is.
Jason and I bought a nativity for the 1st time ever this year and we love it- it's a great reminder- even though we've only had it up for a day :)
Praise God for sending His Son! How crazily mind-boggling it is that Christ would sacrifice His life for such a perverse group of people. And that somehow, through the death of His Son, we can be made pure before Him.
We do not deserve the sacrifice He made. I pray that EVERY area of my life brings Him the glory that He deserves- I want to give to Him ALL that I have to give!
Jason and I bought a nativity for the 1st time ever this year and we love it- it's a great reminder- even though we've only had it up for a day :)
Praise God for sending His Son! How crazily mind-boggling it is that Christ would sacrifice His life for such a perverse group of people. And that somehow, through the death of His Son, we can be made pure before Him.
We do not deserve the sacrifice He made. I pray that EVERY area of my life brings Him the glory that He deserves- I want to give to Him ALL that I have to give!
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