Things Christian has said lately.
While playing with an asian strawberry shortcake doll. " Mi Hao" ( this is funny because we don't have cable oh and I realize it's Ni but he said Mi)
While building a fort with Isabelle. " This is difficult"
While playing with my dad " Isabelle stop hogging all the grandpa"
While jumping on the trampoline " I miss my dad, he's working really hard"
While not eating his ravioli, " I'm not gonna eat it, never ever"
And for Isabelle we have many funny discussions together and while my parents were here she was learning from them about worms and centipedes. She was calling them "recipedes"
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Pie, I say.
So here is my wonderful pie. Ha :) Mitch's mom has been toiling away in the evenings picking raspberries and brought us some on the 4th, I threw in a few blueberries I got from the produce area of our grocery store so here is the pie I made today so the berries would not go to waste!! This may not the be the most beautiful pie, it is by my low standards and I even took the time to put foil on the edges.. what IS my problem? :) Also the crust has no crisco a.k.a hydrogneated veg oil. So that's it, my pie, I should get a life, but I make, oh, one pie a year, so this is a big deal.Trusting God and ...
I have slowly ever so slowly started the book Trusting God. I'm still at work to finish Holiness By Grace but I wanted to share this quote from Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.
These Two objectives are never antithetical; they are always in harmony with each other. God never pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good at the expense of His glory. He has designed His eternal purpose so that His glory and our good are inextricably bound together. What comfort and encouragement this should be to us. If we are going to learn to trust God in adversity, we must believe that just as certainly as God will allow nothing to subvert His glory, so He will allow nothing to spoil the good He is working out in us and for us.
Holiness by Grace from the chapter Repentance that Sings
Our obedience is not the foundation or condition of God's receiving our repentance; it is the natural outflow of a heart that has experienced grace. Our new willingness to foloow Christ helps reassure us that we have experienced the transforming power of grace.....though there may be many stumbles and setbacks along the path, true repentance leads naturally to new obedience.
(the Bible) cautions against thinking that God will forgive wehre there is no real change of heart. God is not waiting for us to fix our lives before he forgives us, for then none would be forgiven; but he does not promise forgiveness where repentance is not sincere...we also should not think that God will accept repentance from a heart still in rebellion against him.
In light of God's holiness, we will perceive how awful i sthe disease of our sin and how helpless we are against it. Then we will cry out to God for the help that he alone can give. And when his mercy has made us whole , recognizing how great is our rescue we will experience overwhelming joy.
The chapter Escape from Temptation was also excellent and all encompassing. Thoroughly expands on 1 Corinthians 10:13.
Unless we ackowledge how susceptible our humanity makes us, we are far more vulnerable to wrong that we think.
Paul puts the horror of temptation beofre us so that we will not use its commonness as a rationalization for allowing it into our lives.
Temptation has terrible power. Even those with great spiritual privilege are not immune to its influence.
The images ( of the Lord's supper/crusifiction) remind us that God allowed his own Son to experience the consequences of OUR sin.... we are all participants in the wrong that required his life.
There is so SO much more in this chapter, I'm barely scratching the surface but I'll end with this John Owen quote.
Let us consider what regard we ought to have to our own duty and to the grace of God. some would separate these things as inconsistent. If holiness be our duty, they would say, there is no room for grace; and if it be the result of grace there is no place for duty. But our duty and God's grace are nowhere opposed in the matter of sanctification; for one absolutely supposes the other. We cannot perform our duty without the grace of God; nor does God give his grace for any other purpose than that we may perform our duty.
These Two objectives are never antithetical; they are always in harmony with each other. God never pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good at the expense of His glory. He has designed His eternal purpose so that His glory and our good are inextricably bound together. What comfort and encouragement this should be to us. If we are going to learn to trust God in adversity, we must believe that just as certainly as God will allow nothing to subvert His glory, so He will allow nothing to spoil the good He is working out in us and for us.
Holiness by Grace from the chapter Repentance that Sings
Our obedience is not the foundation or condition of God's receiving our repentance; it is the natural outflow of a heart that has experienced grace. Our new willingness to foloow Christ helps reassure us that we have experienced the transforming power of grace.....though there may be many stumbles and setbacks along the path, true repentance leads naturally to new obedience.
(the Bible) cautions against thinking that God will forgive wehre there is no real change of heart. God is not waiting for us to fix our lives before he forgives us, for then none would be forgiven; but he does not promise forgiveness where repentance is not sincere...we also should not think that God will accept repentance from a heart still in rebellion against him.
In light of God's holiness, we will perceive how awful i sthe disease of our sin and how helpless we are against it. Then we will cry out to God for the help that he alone can give. And when his mercy has made us whole , recognizing how great is our rescue we will experience overwhelming joy.
The chapter Escape from Temptation was also excellent and all encompassing. Thoroughly expands on 1 Corinthians 10:13.
Unless we ackowledge how susceptible our humanity makes us, we are far more vulnerable to wrong that we think.
Paul puts the horror of temptation beofre us so that we will not use its commonness as a rationalization for allowing it into our lives.
Temptation has terrible power. Even those with great spiritual privilege are not immune to its influence.
The images ( of the Lord's supper/crusifiction) remind us that God allowed his own Son to experience the consequences of OUR sin.... we are all participants in the wrong that required his life.
There is so SO much more in this chapter, I'm barely scratching the surface but I'll end with this John Owen quote.
Let us consider what regard we ought to have to our own duty and to the grace of God. some would separate these things as inconsistent. If holiness be our duty, they would say, there is no room for grace; and if it be the result of grace there is no place for duty. But our duty and God's grace are nowhere opposed in the matter of sanctification; for one absolutely supposes the other. We cannot perform our duty without the grace of God; nor does God give his grace for any other purpose than that we may perform our duty.
Spurgeon Quote/Mark of True Believer
THE distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in the love of Christ, and the yielding of his affections to Christ in return. First, faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling the soul to say with the apostle, “Christ loved me and gave Himself for me.” Then love gives the countersign, and stamps upon the heart gratitude and love to Jesus in return. “We love Him because He first loved us.” In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian religion, this double mark was clearly to be seen in all believers in Jesus; they were men who knew the love of Christ, and rested upon it as a man leaneth upon a staff whose trustiness he has tried. The love which they felt towards the Lord was not a quiet emotion which they hid within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls, and which they only spake of in their private assemblies when they met on the first day of the week, and sang hymns in honor of Christ Jesus the crucified, but it was a passion with them of such a vehement and all-consuming energy, that it was visible in all their actions, spoke in their common talk, and looked out of their eyes even in their commonest glances. Love to Jesus was a flame which fed upon the core and heart of their being; and, therefore, from its own force burned its way into the outer man, and shone there. Zeal for the glory of King Jesus was the seal and mark of all genuine Christians. Because of their dependence upon Christ’s love they dared much, and because of their love to Christ they did much, and it is the same now. The children of God are ruled in their inmost powers by love—the love of Christ constraineth them; they rejoice that divine love is set upon them, they feel it shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto them, and then by force of gratitude they love the Saviour with a pure heart, fervently. My reader, do you love Him? Ere you sleep give an honest answer to a weighty question.
I would have condensed this more but I couldn't cut anything out. Too good.
I would have condensed this more but I couldn't cut anything out. Too good.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Girl's Nights and The 4th
Our 4th consisted of a cookout at our house with Mitch's folks and sister. Then later the fireworks. The kids loved them of course and Isabelle told " It's ok Mommy, don't be scared" and patted me as I jumped at the loud ones. I can't help it! What took us 10 minutes to get there, took us almost an hour to get home. The traffic was AWFUL. The things you do for fond family memories, I tell you what... Did I mention I had to tinkle quite BAD even before getting into the van to go home???
In other news, I have gotten to have lots of fun girl outings lately. With my two sis in laws on my side when they were here and this last weekend with my other two wonderful sis in laws on Mitch's side! Soon I will get to have another night out with friends. So unlike my normal schedule, everything at once but I'll take it!! Structured schedules will take shape soon enough.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
"Be Still, My Soul"
"Be Still, My Soul": "1. Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
3. Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away."
My favorite parts are in italics. These are PRECIOUS words. How easily life distracts us with things that will matter to nothing when this life is over and eternity begins... or continues..? :)
Still reading Holiness By Grace, one of my MOST FAVORITE books on biblical sanctification( and in general)!! Hopefully I'll get some time to share some highlights from what I've been reading in it.
Check it out on Amazon... really, read the reviews, this book is comforting, liberating and empowering.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
3. Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away."
My favorite parts are in italics. These are PRECIOUS words. How easily life distracts us with things that will matter to nothing when this life is over and eternity begins... or continues..? :)
Still reading Holiness By Grace, one of my MOST FAVORITE books on biblical sanctification( and in general)!! Hopefully I'll get some time to share some highlights from what I've been reading in it.
Check it out on Amazon... really, read the reviews, this book is comforting, liberating and empowering.
Under Construction
So obviously my blog is a work in a progess at this point as far as the look goes. I want something simpler but have yet to mess with the colors of it. A lot of my little widgets are gone and now my old header isn't big enough for this template so it's not centered...I have been reading a lot of good stuff lately that I don't get around to sharing, I guess if maybe I picked just a quote here or there that would be better than nothing right?
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