Growing in Grace

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I've been reading in the gospels for the past several weeks, slowly, trying to get a grasp on the grace and knowledge of Christ, to learn to really know what His grace is all about. I know my days are filled with His grace, else nothing would be right about anything because we live in a fallen, broken-down world.

God's grace. His grace is the sun climbing over the hill of the morning, bringing the light that He created so I could have day and night. His grace is the beauty in the flowers that bloom in our little gardens, and the sight I have to see them (although I know His grace would still abound if I could not). His grace is my church and their desire to follow after Him and the fellowship we have in Him. His grace is in my sufferings and the fellowship I have with Him in the midst of them. His grace is giving me a husband that loves me extravagantly (although I know His grace would be abundant if my husband were a jerk). His grace is my daughters and sons-in-law who are devoted to Him and seek Him passionately. And it is only by His grace that any of us are even drawn to know Him. For all this I am thankful.

In her devotional book 31 Days Toward Passionate Faith, Joni Earekson Tada asks these questions about how to tell if we're growing.

Is my sense of sin becoming deeper?
Is my hope brighter?
Is my love more extensive?
Is my spiritual discernment more clear?
Is my faith stronger?
Do I love the Lord Jesus more?

All because of His grace.

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A Prayer for the Rectitude of Government

O, Heavenly Father,

we bend the knee before you on behalf of all kings, princes,
and governors of this world,
asking you to give them, by your inspiration,
the ability to rule in righteousness,
to rejoice in peace,
to shine in piety,
and to labor for the well-being of the people committed unto them,
so that by the rectitude of government,
all faithful people may live without disturbance
in the knowledge of you,
and labor without hindrance for your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

~ adapted from Prayers from Mozarabic liturgies, 6th-8th centuries,
Prayers Across the Centuries, Harold Shaw Publishers
 

 

Image ~ By GDJ — https://openclipart.org/user-detail/GDJ [CC0]

via Wikimedia Commons public domain

July in the Book Nook

Going over to the church this morning to rearrange the Book Nook for July highlights. Thought I'd share some brief blurbs of new books going in this month.


Defending the Declaration: How the Bible and Christianity Influenced the Writing of the Declaration of Independence.
Gary T. Amos writes to refute revisionist historians who contend that the Declaration of Independence was a secular document. He reviews the history and religious thinking of the day in which the Declaration was composed, and using primary sources from the period's leaders, he makes the connection between Christian ideas and America's document of freedom.





The Declaration of Independence & The Constitution of the United States
If you've never read these two documents, you really should. For example, we often hear that separation of church and state is in the constitution. Read it for yourself. That concept isn't there. You might be surprised what else is or isn't there. What about the federal government and public education? 90 pages







Getting a Grip: The Heart of Anger Handbook for Teens
A lot of teens are angry at what is going on around them in their homes, with their friends, with life in general. What is the root of this anger? Lou Priolo helps teens understand where it comes from and how to assess it biblically. This is a profitable book even to those who do not consider themselves angry. A good book for families to read and discuss together, heading off provocations.


 

Emotional Purity: An Affair of the Heart
Emotions often take us where we don't want to go, then we wonder how we end up on the wrong road and broken-hearted. Heather Paulsen writes to Christian singles about guarding their hearts in male-female friendships that become too intimate. Heather calls for Christ-centered relationships. This book is about more than saving yourself physically for your future spouse. It's about saving your emotions as well.






When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man
God designed us to focus on Him, not on other people and not on ourselves. Edward Welch points us to being a God glorifier instead of being a people pleaser. He discusses how and why we fear other people, controlling issues, and how to overcome our fear. He calls us to biblically examine our felt needs and see what our real needs are. He asks, "What is the biblical alternative to "people-as-empty-cups?"

The Divisive Tongue

Today's reading from 30 Days to Taming Your Tongue by Deborah Smith Pegues is reflective of a current situation close to my heart........

Sometimes it is hard to believe there are people who deliberately engage in bringing dissension. The sixth chapter of Proverbs lists seven things that the Lord detests; among them is "a man who stirs up dissension among brothers" (verse 19). In Ephesians 4:3, Paul urges believers to keep the "unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Obviously, he knew that keeping peace required tremendous effort.

Have you used your tongue to sow discord? Know that anytime you tell another person something negative that someone else has said about him, your action will probably cause division. This is not to say that you should avoid warning a person about another who is not acting in his best interests. However, you must be honest about your underlying motive. You may be trying to gain that person's favor by appearing loyal enough to expose the bad guy, or you may be indirectly communicating your own feelings about the person at the expense of another. Whatever your rationale, the result is still the same--a relationship will be damaged and God will be displeased. As you recall the last time you used your tongue as a tool of divisiveness, consider what excuse you used for doing so. Are you ready to repent for this sin?

Not only are we to refrain from causing division, we must also become active agents of peace, using our best efforts to reconcile parties in conflict. Thankful for those who do so.

 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. 

Matthew 5:9 

Painting ~ Recalling the Past 1888, Carlton Alfred Smith 1853-1946
Wikimedia Commons public domain

Introverts in Evangelical America

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I often see parents rather embarrassed that their children are not as outgoing as they'd like for them to be. They offer comments as to their shyness, being backward, or being timid and push or pull them forward to participate in whatever is going on. These children often grow into adulthood feeling inadequate in social settings because the way God made them is not acceptable in our American culture.

As Adam McHugh, pastor/introvert and author of the book Introverts in the Church says, "Introverts are usually defined by what we're not rather than by what we are." I came across an article yesterday by McHugh and thought I'd share just a bit of it with you today. He has some thoughts worth pondering for and about the 50% of Americans whom he says studies have shown to be introverted. For those who are, take heart. For those who aren't and have children who are, take note.  He writes...

But the truth is that we [introverts] are people who are energized in solitude, rather than among people. We may be comfortable and articulate in social situations and we may enjoy people, but our time in the outer worlds drains us and we must retreat into solitude to be recharged. We also process silently before we speak, rather than speaking in order to think, as extroverts do. We generally listen a little more than we talk, observe for a while before we engage, and have a rich inner life that brings us great stimulation and satisfaction. Neurological studies have demonstrated that our brains naturally have more activity and blood flow, and thus we need less external stimulation in order to thrive.

Mainstream American culture values gregarious, aggressive people who are skilled in networking and who can quickly turn strangers into friends. Often we identify leaders as those people who speak up the most and the fastest, whether or not their ideas are the best.

Even more dangerous is the tendency of evangelical churches to unintentionally exalt extroverted qualities as the "ideals" of faithfulness. Too often "ideal" Christians are social and gregarious, with an overt passion and enthusiasm. They find it easy to share the gospel with strangers, eagerly invite people into their homes, participate in a wide variety of activities, and quickly assume leadership responsibilities. Those are wonderful qualities, and our churches suffer when we don't have those sorts of people, but if these qualities epitomize the Christian life, many of us introverts are left feeling excluded and spiritually inadequate. Or we wear ourselves out from constantly masquerading as extroverts.

~ Adam McHugh, author of Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture

Excerpted from an article that first appeared in the Washington Post, September 10, 2010

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On Gardening

Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint,

and the soil and sky as canvas.

~Elizabeth Murray

Painting ~ Tending the Garden, Theophile Emmanuel Duverger 1821-1901

Wikigallery public domain

Forgiveness: Better Instead of Bitter

 Our pastor spoke on forgiveness yesterday, and it reminded me of a book I'd read many years ago--Forgiveness: The Power and the Puzzles by Wendell E. Miller. Our pastor shared an experience that drove him to the Scriptures several years ago, searching out what God intends in forgiveness. I was reminded of my own experience several years ago that had the same effect on me. I read several books on the subject as well, and the one by Miller unlocked the "puzzle" of forgiveness for me in a way that freed me from a great burden.

The key point for me was understanding the difference between judicial forgiveness and fellowship forgiveness. Judicially, we release someone from the penalty of his sin. We release that to God for whatever He may do with it. Fellowship forgiveness requires repentance from the person so our fellowship can be restored. The offender may never ask forgiveness, and fellowship may never be restored. That's not to say that we don't speak to one another, but that his offense is still between us, lacking repentance, confession, and fellowship forgiveness. However, the burden of our heart can be lifted because of judicial forgiveness, and as our pastor pointed out, we get better instead of bitter.

As Wendell Miller says, the difference between these two kinds of forgiveness can be considered as the difference between God's "courtroom" and His "living room."

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Today I reflect on simple thoughts and simple pleasures. My leads are somewhat similar to other in The Simple Woman's Daybook group, yet a bit different as well.  

Sharing a Picture

On our anniversary a few days ago, we took a trip to a lodge in the mountains of West Virginia. As we topped the mountain near Thomas, we came upon these wind turbines. They spread for miles along the mountaintop. They're much taller than they appear--over 300 feet tall. 

As we travel on I-65 through Indiana on our way to Chicago, there are hundreds of them row upon row, mile after mile throughout the cornfields.

Controversial, to be sure, for those who believe they blight the landscape. I tend toward that thought, preferring natural beauty. But, then, I tend toward thinking tatooes blot the landscape of natural beauty as well.

Outside my window... 
A little bunny rabbit nibbling on the clover. Plenty of yummies in the yard, so please stay away from my flowers, little bunny!

Noticing the sound of...

Cawing crows. We thought at first it was the neighbor's grandsons blowing kazoos.

From the gardens... 
We finally decided what to do with a small area by the garage where we had a cherry tree cut down a few years ago. Can't plant much there because of the roots, so we moved some fountain grass, mounded some soil around it, and planted a few shallow annuals. Turned out rather nice looking.

Around the house...
My Beloved is working some more on an upstairs bath. Hoping to get the floor finished before Elizabeth and her family come to visit next week.

From the kitchen...
Thought about making a pie to take to a pie social at church tomorrow. Opted to buy an apple caramel walnut pie from Honeybaked Ham while we were there for lunch today. I'm sure this will be much more appreciated than my feeble attempt at making a pie.

From the sewing room...
More strip quilting practice. It's getting easier! Now I'm into log cabin blocks. Making a baby girl quilt for a new little addition to our church a couple of weeks ago.

Learning...
To measure and trim quilt blocks as I go so they'll end up the same size.

This coming week I'm looking forward to...

Having little Elijah come for a brief visit. Oh, yes--his mommy and daddy, too!

Thinking...       

About yesterday's phone conversation with a homeschooling friend from the past. Her daughter graduated a year early, a blessed occasion for this family. Probably more of a milestone than for most us--the mom was not expected to live through May. Mom and daughter worked diligently to get the schooling finished first. They made it. Now they're considering college. To God be the glory. Great things He has done!

Thankful...    

That my mother's CT scan showed no growth of a spot that has been there through a couple of scans. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights.
 

A thought from my Quiet Time...
I've been reading through the gospels in my chronological Bible, and my attention has been arrested  over and again that after healing a variety of people, Jesus tells them not to tell anyone. Then off they go and tell everyone they know. I find this curious. Instant disobedience. Even more curious to me, though, is why Jesus told them not to tell.
 

Currently reading...

Almost finished with Decision-Making and the Will of God by Garry Friesen. It's not a quick read. Much food for thought. Sharing a bit with you today.

God sovereignly superintends every circumstance showing that He cares personally for every detail and decision in your life (Luke 12:6-7). So, on the positive side, sovereign guidance should give a calm sense of security and peace that God is working all the details together for good. He helps us make choices that are moral and wise. And when circumstances are beyond our knowledge or control, we can confidently place them in His hands, knowing that they are under His control.

[I]n noncommanded decisions made with God-given freedom, the goal of the believer is to choose the alternative that will best expedite and promote the revealed will and purposes of God. To accomplish that objective, we should seek for wisdom through the channels God has provided: prayer, Bible study, research, counselors, past experience, and personal reflection. The amount of time and energy invested in such a search should be in proportion to the importance of the decision (Eph. 5:15-16). If one option is recognized as the most spiritually advantageous, it should be chosen. If two alternatives appear equally prudent, either may be selected. 

We should be able to explain and defend our final decision on the basis of moral guidance ("God Word says...") and wisdom guidance ("It seemed best..."). The decision should be in harmony with the moral will of God in all its details. Then the decision maker should demonstrate that the decision is spiritually advantageous for promoting God's moral will.

The Morphing of A Desire

 One of my pleasures in life is spending time on my screened-in back porch. Some days I have to remind myself that there are other things in life to do and pull myself away. When the season allows, I love to go out early of the morning for my quiet time and watch the sun break over the hill. I enjoy serving meals there whenever we can, and it’s a wonderful place for quiet chats and talking into the night. Well, you get the idea!

I’m very thankful for my back porch, partly because I enjoy it so much and partly because God used it to change my heart. You see, I’ve wanted a back porch for years and years and years. It started out as a good desire, but became something that controlled me. God used a counseling class that I took about a few years ago to teach me something about myself. One of the papers that I had to write was a response to a reading assignment by Paul David Tripp on how a desire can become an idol of the heart. Let’s pick up here with my response paper—

One of the concepts that particularly struck me in this reading was the morphing of a good desire into something that controls me. The desire itself can be positive, something that could be a blessing if it stayed simply as a desire and didn’t become an idol. As I look back at it now, I see this downward progression in a simple desire to have a back porch.

I think porches are calming and offer brief respites in the midst of the tasks of the day. We have a deck, but a porch would be different. A porch has a roof, so I could go there whether it was sunny or rainy. I dislike dragging out a chair cushion for a few moments of rest and cranking up the umbrella to get out of the sun, so I don’t use our deck very much. With a porch I would simply take a few minutes to rest, watch the birds, maybe read a chapter or two of a good book, and breathe in the fresh air.

I’ve seen this desire for a porch morph over the past several years into a controlling desire. Tripp says that the next step is demand, followed by need. However, with my porch it seems to me that I first viewed it as a need before I began to demand it. I needed it for times of tranquil rest. I needed it so I could go outside and be out of the sun without a lot of rigmarole. I needed it so I could invite people to come and sit for a spell and we could have a good chat. Once I convinced myself that I needed that porch, I tried to convince my husband that I needed it. The demanding came in the form of ‘You must help me get what I think I need.’ Because I know he loves me and wants to provide what he can for my perceived needs, I soon began to expect him to jot this little need in his planner and set aside time to tend to it. But it seemed to me that he was giving half-hearted attention to it. Time and again I would bring up the need for a porch, and I soon realized that I probably was not going to get it. There were various and sundry reasons given for not getting a porch—how to attach it to the house, the slope of the roof, the cost, the time to personally build it.

My expectation was not being realized, and I began to equate my husband’s resistance to getting me a porch with poor character qualities on his part. Even though I didn’t express this to him, I began to feel sorry for myself that I didn’t have a porch because of my husband’s self-centeredness and lack of ambition. And so disappointment set in when year after year I didn’t get my porch. To my shame, a big disappointment was his birthday gift to me this summer—a screened canvas gazebo to sit on the deck. I felt like it was his way of saying that was as close as I was going to get to having a porch, and my heart rebelled! I kept my thoughts about it to myself as he happily installed it on the deck. It didn’t even match the house, and I was wallowing deep in self-pity. As Tripp says, disappointment leads to some form of punishment. I didn’t thank my dear husband for his gift. I didn’t even sit in it for several days. Even though I didn’t express my attitude to him, I was angry because he substituted what I desired for something I felt was easier for him.

God began to show me the sinfulness of my heart. I was the one who was self-centered with an ungrateful heart. My husband had done what he could to give me what I wanted. I asked God’s forgiveness for my attitude, and He gave me a grateful heart. I began to show my husband that I enjoyed our little gazebo and appreciated the gift. We have Saturday breakfast there and often sit there together after he gets home from a day’s work. We enjoy watching the birds come up close that don’t even seem to notice us behind the screen. I do some of my reading there in the cool of the morning or the quiet of the afternoon.

I don’t even want a porch now. I’m satisfied with the little screened gazebo sitting on the deck because I see the loving heart of my husband in desiring to give me something he knew I wanted. I now see that the porch had become an idol, morphing from a simple desire to controlling my heart.

Ezekiel 14:2 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity."

Now the deck and the little gazebo are gone. Two autumns ago Mike had my back porch built. I believe God in His goodness had kept a good thing from me to work a better thing in my heart. He often withholds something good to give something better. And then in His abundant grace He gave me my porch as well. 

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; 

The LORD gives grace and glory; 

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. 

~ Psalm 84:11

Friendship

He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God.
~Abraham Kuyper

Painting ~ Confidences 1878, Pierre Auguste Renoir 1841-1919

via Wikimedia Commons public domain