Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept for you in heaven, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Tiling pictures
Thursday, November 22, 2007
an illustration of assurance
Assurance is to be desired because it tends to make a Christian an active working Christian. None, generally speaking, do so much for Christ on earth as those who enjoy the fullest confidence of a free entrance into heaven and trust not in their own works, but in the finished work of Christ. That sounds wonderful, I dare say, but it is true.
A believer who lacks an assured hope will spend much of his time in inward searchings of heart about his own state. Like a nervous, hypochondriacal person, he will be full of his own ailments, his own doubtings and questionings, his own conflicts and corruptions. In short, you will often find he is so taken up with his internal warfare that he has little leisure for other things and little time to work for God.
But a believer who has, like Paul, an assured hope is free from these harassing distractions. He does not vex his soul with doubts about his own pardon and acceptance. He looks at the everlasting covenant sealed with blood, at the finished work and never–broken word of his Lord and Savior, and therefore counts his salvation a settled thing. And thus he is able to give an undivided attention to the work of the Lord and so in the long run to do more.
Take, for an illustration of this, two English emigrants, and suppose them set down side by side in New Zealand or Australia. Give each of them a piece of land to clear and cultivate. Let the portions allotted to them be the same, both in quantity and quality. Secure that land to them by every needful legal instrument; let it be conveyed as freehold to them and theirs forever; let the conveyance be publicly registered and the property made sure to them by every deed and security that man’s ingenuity can devise.
Suppose then that one of them shall set to work to clear his land and bring it into cultivation and labor at it day after day without intermission or cessation.
Suppose in the meanwhile that the other shall be continually leaving his work and going repeatedly to the public registry to ask whether the land really is his own, whether there is not some mistake, whether after all there is not some flaw in the legal instruments which conveyed it to him.
The one shall never doubt his title but just work diligently on. The other shall hardly ever feel sure of his title and spend half his time in going to Sydney or Melbourne or Auckland with needless inquiries about it.
Which now of these two men will have made most progress in a year’s time? Who will have done the most for his land, got the greatest breadth of soil under tillage, have the best crops to show, be altogether the most prosperous?
Anyone of common sense can answer that question. I need not supply an answer. There can be only one reply. Undivided attention will always attain the greatest success.
It is much the same in the matter of our title to "mansions in the skies." None will do so much for the Lord who bought him as the believer who sees his title clear and is not distracted by unbelieving doubts, questionings and hesitations. The joy of the Lord will be that man’s strength. "Restore unto me," says David, "the joy of Your salvation, then will I teach transgressors Your ways" (Ps. 51:12).
Never were there such working Christians as the apostles. They seemed to live to labor. Christ’s work was truly their meat and drink. They counted not their lives dear to themselves. They spent and were spent. They laid down ease, health, worldly comfort, at the foot of the cross. And one grand cause of this, I believe, was their assured hope. They were men who could say, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness" (1 John 5:19).
I hope this illustration will encourage many of you and may make you desire to read this book for yourself. If you would like to read it you can go here. The first eight chapters were his original book. May the Lord be given much thanksgiving today!Tuesday, November 20, 2007
two weeks
P.S. Today is my mom's birthday. Thank you mom, for serving me for many years as you were raising me, I am thankful to the Lord for you. Happy Birthday, I love you!
Monday, November 5, 2007
Tomorrow's the big day
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
1 week to go...
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Pictures!
I know I haven't been posting a lot lately, but I will try to catch up soon!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
the past few weeks
Since I have been back, it has been very busy for me. There was a team here from Providence Baptist Church in Franklin, MA this past week and I was able to spend a lot of time with them. I met them in June when they came down and became good friends with two sisters, Mandy and Jessica. So, I was really looking forward to seeing them again, and this time I was able to meet their parents as well. I worked with them out on the job sites all week and we talked and played games together at night; it was a blast! I think I ate about a year's worth of desserts in that week, but I had such a great time with them all. Now I am at the last month of my time here in Mississippi and it's hard to believe. I pray that God will bear a lot of fruit from this last month, that I will be very diligent in my online coursework, and not be anxious to get back to Louisville, but take each day and serve God wholly where I am, all for His glory.
P.S. I hope to post some pictures of the last few weeks soon!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Update from Lakeshore
That's Doug working in the background.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right
Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right
1. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God,
Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all
2. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me
I take, content,
What He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away
And patiently I wait His day
3. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true,
Each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart
4. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care
Is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all
©1998 David Braud Music.
How Firm a Foundation
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
1787, John Rippon
I pray for the dear members of Immanuel, who are going through such hard trials this day, that they might be sustained by God's grace and given the faith to trust Him as an all-wise, all-loving Father who is the author of their trials. And these trials, which indeed come to us all, are sent for the purpose of our sanctification and, ultimately, so that God might be glorified more through our lives. Oh that God would strengthen my feeble heart to believe!
Friday, September 7, 2007
2-year mark, Labor Day, and sweat!
Over Labor Day two friends of mine from Louisville drove 11 long hours to visit me and see Lakeshore again. It was so good to see these friends, I am so thankful that they would spend the few days they had off for the holiday to come down here to visit and help. Also, Joel, who was here over the summer, came to visit, and we all had a great time. We worked, played Mexican Train Dominoes (very fun!), watched movies, went to New Orleans, and just spent good time together. It was sad to see them go, but made me thankful for God's sustaining grace in my life, this visit from friends being one of those graces!
Lastly, a funny, strangely ironic story. You see, there's this school gym that the county has let the church use for storage since the storm. There have been rumors for some time now that the gym would be torn down at any time in order to move forward with rebuilding the school. In the first few weeks I was here, I lead team after team in emptying the gym, no easy task with some of the items that were in there: industrial kitchen equipment, big sliding glass doors, steel pallets, and all manner of other things. Nevertheless, the teams were great and we got it emptied. It was such an accomplishment to me and I was sooooo happy! Then, the contractors who had begun working on clearing the land for the new school told us that they would not be tearing down the gym for about another 6 months. Great we said, we can put more stuff in it, and we did! Well, that didn't last for long because a few weeks ago we got a letter from the county saying that we needed to be out pronto. We called the contractors to try to get an extension or confirm when we did need to be out of the gym, and they said it was true, we have to be out by the 10th of September. So, for the past few days, since we don't have any volunteers here this week, Jamie and I have been sweating like crazy while working to clear out the gym! It's going pretty well and we will have some local people and maybe a few nearby churches help us finish up on Saturday. It would be easy to get frustrated about this back-and-forth game we've played concerning this gym, but it's all part of life here in Lakeshore: flexibility!! Instead, we laugh and get to work and I wanted to share this little laugh with you!!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
J.C. Ryle's Holiness
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Disgust of Sin
My mom's boss, whom I've known my whole life, died this morning after battling severe cancer for close to a year. I have so many thoughts concerning this man's life, most of them bring me sadness and a bit of righteous anger. He was not a follower of Christ, therefore I know where his soul resides this very hour, and this thought is, I think, the saddest of the lot. I know God's justice and I would not presume to feel in any way as if God is in the wrong in this matter, He is the Sovereign of the universe and does what He pleases and I accept His will for this man, though it breaks my heart. Second, the cancer that he battled was some of the worst of which I've personally heard. He didn't find out about the cancer until it had already spread to his bones, which bode fatal from the beginning. He went through all the routine cancer treatments, chemotherapy, radiation, etc. with no improvement, but an actual worsening as some of the treatments were too strong for him to take. The tumors did not enlarge, but he lost 50 lbs and was sick and in the hospital regularly. Finally the inevitable happened and he contracted pneumonia last week. At first, the doctors tried to treat it with antibiotics, but with no success. That's when the doctors told his family that he had, at most, a week to live. The cancer was now 'everywhere' and he was beginning to lapse in and out of consciousness. The family moved him to a hospice and he died today, 4 days later. Third and last, I think of the death he died. When mom called me today to tell me that he had died, we talked a bit about his last few days. They sounded so horrible: lungs slowly filling with fluid, him having a harder and harder time breathing, gasping for breath, longer periods of unconsciousness, him telling his family he was dying (what would it feel like to know this inherently), not being able to recognize people as much, etc. All of these things make me think that he truly did feel the sting of death. Sure we may all die a death such as this man and I do not presume to know what death will be like, but this man was still in his sins, he had no hope and was 'without God in the world.' There was no trust for Christ in his heart and I think there must be quite a sting in a death like that.
So why do I call this post 'the disgust of sin'? Well, all these thoughts, along with a host of personal sins that I have been dealing with as of late, make me hate sin all the more. Originally, it was, in God's providence, because of the fall of Adam that these things of death, sin, pain, and disease came into the world and still survive today. Knowing a life like the life of this man I've just told you about makes me grieve that he was not a believer when he died, but it also causes anger in me toward sin and death. I only pray that my hatred for sin in this situation would fuel more hatred for my own sin and cause me to treasure Christ more than my sin. O God, I pray you would be glorified through this man's death and many people would be brought to repentance and faith in Christ through it, for your glory. Amen.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
long time no post...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Matthew 25
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Ah, the wonderful world of books
The book I want to focus now, however, is a book I just finished last night by Joshua Harris: Stop Dating the Church. This is a really good little book about being committed to local church membership and loving it. Some of what's contained in this book was review for me, as I, by God's grace, have been an active member at my church for 2+ years, but it is very helpful information nonetheless. The section of this book I most enjoyed was Chapter 6 entitled "Rescuing Sunday." In this chapter, Harris provides a lot of good, practical, and convicting advise on what we can to do reclaim a cherishing of the Lord's Day. His advice is not a legalistic list of do's and dont's, but rather a good lesson in what I'll call the fear of the Lord and how this should affect our actions before, during, and after every Sunday meeting. One quote that especially humbled me was from a fellow pastor of Harris' named Jeff Purswell, and he states: "When God's Word is being preached...God Himself is addressing you through His Word" (111). What a thought! How much should the truth of that statement affect our preparation before and listening during each church service! Harris talks about how the importance of Sunday should affect what we do Saturday night, that we should spend time preparing our hearts and minds to receive God's Word and prepare our bodies by getting plenty of sleep. Oh Lord, please grow me in these areas and allow me to apply what I have learned from this book and so cherish the Lord's Day all the more! These few reflections are just a sampling of the treasures I mined from this book and I hope they will motivate you to read it and may the Lord bless you with growth in the knowledge of Him!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Found: God's Will
Friday, August 10, 2007
Faithfulness
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Departing with friends...
Thursday, July 26, 2007
More Pictures...
peanut butter milkshakes by Doug....yummm!!!
putting tar paper on a roof...AWESOME!!!
the cake the gang made me for my b-day, so sweet! Thanks guys!
a fun expedition to Wendy's...item on the menu: mixed frosty! Yes
it's true ladies and gentlemen, they can do mixed frosties and they
are oh, so good!!
Psalm 73
This idea links perfectly into Psalm 73 because in this Psalm Asaph spends the first half of it saying how envious he was of the prosperity of the wicked. While this idea isn't specifically related to what I was saying, the conclusion that Asaph comes to in the last half of the Psalm is. After going on through all the seeming benefits that the wicked have in this life, the tone of the passage changes dramatically. This change all hinges on v.17. Asaph says that it wasn't until he 'went into the sanctuary of God' that he was able to discern their end. Pastor Don explained that 'sanctuary of God' in this passage means being in the presence of God, so Asaph could have been thinking of physically going to the temple, but it was more that merely being in that place. It could also be applied as being in the presence of God as under the teaching of His Word. The bottom line is that the Word of God is what we need to conform our minds to think rightly about issues in life. After this verse, Asaph begins to speak truth about the wicked, that they are despised by the Lord, not favored. The last several verses of the Psalm are spent recounting the truths of God concerning the righteous, specifically Asaph himself. He says that God is his only hope, the only thing he has to hold on to in heaven or on earth. Don was quick to point out that having and caring about houses and our things is not bad, but that when compared to the supreme value of Christ in our lives, those things become, as Paul said, rubbish. May this truth typify my life (and yours as well) and color our view of what it means to live 'a good life.' I pray it would be so for us, brothers and sisters, and that God would be glorified for it.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Lakeshore Mississippi Part 2
These past few weeks of my life here in Lakeshore have been busy to say the least. We have still had many volunteer teams coming in and out, working on several different houses and projects. I have done everything from getting teams out where they need to go to writing up a press release for the VBS we had here last week to using a miter saw to cut trim and then installing it in an elderly man's home we are trying to finish. I even got to pick out the counter top that will go in this man's kitchen, that was fun!
I have also had the privilege of working with several people who came for a longer period of time this summer, like me. Aside from Andrew and Doug, two guys from my church back in Louisville, I met and became friends with Joel Cupp, Jayme Deeb, and Liz Hawkins, and have continued to get to know Jamie Dunbar, the intern here. It was really fun to have these people around this summer, we played lots of card games, talked late many nights, and went out on the weekends together. Andrew left several weeks ago and is now off to basic training for the military and Joel, Jayme, and Liz all left last week, so the atmosphere around here has definitely changed. It has been somewhat lonely with everyone leaving, and I think we have all felt it, but, at the same time, it has brought some sense of normalcy back to life. Instead of having a party every night, we now have time read, go to bed early, etc. This past weekend, I think Doug, Jamie, and I watched a movie every day, partly from loneliness, but mostly because we were all so exhausted and worn out.
I mentioned that this past week has brought some normalcy back to me. It is normalcy because this will be my life for another 3 months. Pastor Don asked me a few weeks ago to consider staying here in Lakeshore through the fall. My initial reaction was one of dislike as I was already in the mindset of going home in a few weeks. I had, however, promised Don I would think about it, and so I did. I spoke with many of my close friends and mentors and tried to think it out logically as well. At the end of the day, the more I thought and prayed about it, the clearer it became that this is a good opportunity for me and will benefit the people of Lakeshore as well. I will be able to stay here for a minimal amount of money, work part time at the church helping in whatever ways I can, and work about 15-20 hours a week on my online medical transcription training. I know this will be a challenging and stretching time for me, as well as a good time. So, I am seeking, by God's grace, to stay focused on things above, not on earthly things, and to focus on how I can glorify God while I'm here and depend on the Lord's new mercies every morning. I feel the imminent temptation to be focused on what I'm missing in Louisville this fall with all my friends and church family there, but I really pray the Lord would allow me to consider others needs above my own wants and count it a joy to be here this fall. I don't know the exact date I will be coming home yet, but somewhere around the 1st of November. Please pray for me, brothers and sisters, that I would be used here to God's glory, and I pray the same for you all too.
I think that's all I have for now. May you know His mercies this day and depend on them wholly.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Some Highlights of Lakeshore
from the first week I was here...movin' dirt (well, mud actually)...it's
harder than it sounds
Jamie with Cheez-it's..........and..........me on the forklift
(I learned to drive this the 2nd week I was here)
This is all of us hanging out one Wednesday night after church. From
the left: Pastor Don, me, Joel Cupp, Andrew Beard, Doug Thorpe, and
the back of Jamie's head.
This was a fun adventure: Joel, Jamie and I are soaking wet because
we had just gotten poured on while trying to cover up some wood. Doug
and Andrew had gone to cover wood as well, don't ask me how they
aren't soaked as well...
Well, closing another day here in Lakeshore. Hopefully, I will update in more detail soon, but I'm hanging out with my friends right now, so I'm checking out for now. Grace and peace to you all.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
My new blog
Anyway, through the model of a great friend, Jamie Dunbar (www.jamiedunbar.blogspot.com), who has been here in Lakeshore for over a year, I have been seeking to be more diligent at reading consistently through one book at a time. This attempt has been so helpful in many ways. I not only remember the book a lot better because I am reading it more cohesively, but I am able to read more books because, let me tell you, when I am reading 4 books at once, I don't finish any of them! So, right now I am nearing the end of The Attributes of God by Arthur Pink. It is a very good book which systematically goes through several attributes of God such as His solitariness, sovereignty, holiness, power, love, mercy, and wrath. It has been so beneficial for my soul to be immersed with a biblical picture of God's character. I pray that the truth I am gaining from this book will infiltrate my mind and that God will use it to cause me to trust Him as He is my all-wise, sovereign, and loving Father who cares for me perfectly!
It has been a good day here in Lakeshore. My friends have been very kind to me today, making my birthday very special. First, I was able to sleep in until about 8:15, which was very nice. Then, when I got to the office, there was a card and a pack of Twizzlers waiting for me! Pastor Don, the pastor of Lakeshore Baptist Church, took us out to lunch. Then, at dinner, they sang me Happy Birthday and we had cupcakes with cute green frogs on them!
As I was talking to my mom earlier today we were reflecting on the past few years of my life. When I think back over the past few years of my life I am amazed at the grace of God that has been shown in my life. God has done such a work in my heart and life and grown me so much these past two years, it is almost hard for me to believe where I was a few years ago! Praise the Lord for His bounty! It is amazing to think that on this day last year I was in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia celebrating my 21st birthday with my good friend Katye Green and the missionaries there that we were serving alongside. I am so thankful to the Lord that He has allowed me to spend my last two birthdays serving Him in these ways!