My roommate and I were just talking about former First Lady Laura Bush the other night. Speaking of her so highly, classy lady, always kept an air of decorum about her. I’ve always liked her.
Well, if she is going to take this stance, then I won’t be “liking” her political views any more.
First, the Bible, the very Word of God, Truth for all times – is not a generational thing.
Second, wow – this would be a key topic for my husband and I to agree upon? Don’t you think?
What are your thoughts?
Kevin DeYoung definitely has been the author of the hour the past few years. He is the Senior Pastor of University Reformed Church in Michigan. His books, such as Why We’re Not Emergent and Why We Love the Church have received many accolades and awards and are widely read – mainly among seminary students and ministry teams.
This book, The Good News We Almost Forgot, takes a pastoral spin on the 16th Century Heidelberg Catechism. If I were learning catechisms, or wanting to teach them to my children (if I had them), I wouldn’t start with this one. It is wordy and long (breaking 129 Q/As into 52 Lord’s Day sections). And I am not in agreement with everything that it says.
But, this book is full of pastoral theology and is quite readable (broken into small chapters). And my copy is underlined well.
“From what I’ve seen and read, the interest in missions among young people is trending away from saving souls and toward saving the world. The interest is too often social to the exclusion of spiritual. The two don’t have to be at odds with each other. Those who deal with the spiritual must not ignore the social and those who engage the social must fully embrace the spiritual. Every Christian engaged in mission – be it medical, educational, agricultural, or just plain being a good neighbor – should care about real-life pain and long for opportunities to share the good news that every person needs to hear.” p 37
“Jesus saves us from our sins. The point of the gospel is not that Jesus saves us from low self-esteem, or from singleness, or from our crummy job. Sin is our deepest, most fundamental, most pervasive problem.” p 64
“We’d probably sin less if we spent less time thinking about our sins, sexual or otherwise, and more time meditating on the love and holiness of God.” p 196
“Perhaps the biggest reason why God has us pray is for His own glory. God is glorified when He is seen clearly to be the giver of what we asked for in prayer. If we didn’t have to ask, we might not notice the answer, and we might forget the one who gave us the blessing. God is glorified in prayer by the expression of our dependence on Him. He is glorified by the faith we put in Him to ask for things. He is glorified when we learn to recognize that every good gift comes down from our Father of Lights.” p 212
My friend, Jared Kennedy, children’s pastor at Sojourn in Louisville – wrote a great post on the release of this new CD – which you can download for free. So, I figured I would let him speak for it. (Just a personal note: I received it Sunday 3rd hour and played it on the way home – easily memorable and great for kids of any age!)
Village Church released their new Kids CD on Sunday! It’s called “The Village: Kids– Jesus Came To Save Sinners.” You can download it for free from the Village website here: http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/music#albums\
This CD contains 5 original songs that teach children about the character and nature of God and His plan to save sinners through Jesus Christ. These songs correspond with the five foundational truths taught as a part of Village’s preschool ministry, The Little Village:
This great little gospel-centered Texas/Country/Rock LP for kids. Village has asked folks to listen to the songs, give feedback, and use the songs in your home and ministry. They are free on the Village website for download. You can also download the chords and lyrics for free. And just for those who need to get their songs off of iTunes, you can find the CD here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-village-kids-jesus-came/id370898822
How bad can butter, sugar, chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate chips be? If you don’t count the calories – these guys are fabulous. My friend Ellie made them for lunch when I went to visit the month before I left Louisville. I loved them – enjoying one with some hazelnut coffee on a rainy afternoon.
You can enjoy these with milk, coffee, on a sunny or rainy day. Just enjoy them. I made these for a birthday boy and a dinner where I have to bring dessert.
2 sticks butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Melt chocolate and butter over medium heat. Add in sugar, stirring till dissolved. Add vanilla. Remove from heat and stir in eggs, one at a time. Add flour and combine till no flour remains visible. Pour in pan – sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Bake in a greased 9×13 pan on 350 for 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy. Thanks Ellie!
Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY, is hosting a conference that will help you and your ministry team get a picture of what this could look like in your church.
Dr. Randy Stinson, Dean of the School of Church Ministries, has brought together a team of experts on church, family, ministry, and culture including Dr. Albert Mohler, Dr. Russell Moore, Dr. Timothy Jones, Steve Wright, and Jay Strother – with many more. You will get a chance to interact with these speakers and have small group discussion. You will get the benefit of sharing in smaller group learning environments about what is going on at other churches, asking questions, and sharing ideas. This would be the perfect conference for you to not only come yourself, but to also bring your entire ministry team.
Mark your calendars now, register, book your travel itinerary, and don’t miss this exciting conference in Louisville.
I am currently reading Radical Womanhood by Carolyn McCulley. In the chapter entitled “The Mommy Wars”, Carolyn points out some of Sanger’s bold statements in regards to planned parenthood and birth control and other “motherhood” topics.
Here is one paragraph that I read to a friend today:
“But right observation do not always lead to right interpretation. Sanger saw poor healthy, poverty, sin, anger, abuse, and numerous other challenges and her interpretation was that the “unwanted” children were the root problem – or even that some poeple shouldn’t reproduce at all. Thus, she was able to make the ourageous statement that “the most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” That is the furthest thing from mercy! But her thinking has influence our culture. Therefore, contraception is not the true issue of contention. (Abortificients, however, are. We need to clearly distinguisth between prevention and abortion.) Understanding Sanger helps us to understand why children are now disposable – seen as anything ranging from inconveniences to parasites – instead of being received as gifts from God. (p 132ff)
on this Monday post-Mother’s Day – thankful to all you mothers out there who have seen, even in the hard years or terrible twos or the rough days – that children are indeed blessings from God.
I have moved. This will definitely take a little bit of time, but I am ecxited about the many possibilities this will bring. Social media and blogs have been around a while and conquering them will never happen (at least for me). But, I’m trying to simplify my crazy but GREAT life – and having one blog – instead of three will definitely help matters.
So…over the next few days I will attempt to move all of my blogs to here, so the recipes and devo thoughts and conferences will be on here. I think I will also keep my blogger ones, but just not add to them anymore.
If anyone can offer helpful suggestions, I’ll be glad to take them. Maybe one day this will be changed into a real dot come of my very own: for cooking, ministry opportunities, thoughts in my head, and photography. But, until then…this will be it.
Thanks for stopping by and follow away!
This week will be slightly normal – I guess. We shall see.
My main meals at home will be: lentil chicken chard soup, salad, pbjs, yogurt, oats. Why – that’s what I have right now.
My magazine recipe of the week: no clue. Have to look through them again. Running out of desserts to cook – so might have to start cooking main meals out of the stack too!
Places I’m eating out this week:
Moes
Champas Sushi Thai
Douglas house
Bux or Bou
Fosters in Chapel Hill
Hot Point Cafe
? for lunch on Friday (haven’t decided yet)
Capitol Hill Baptist Church
Troupe house
Hickman house for birthday celebration
This weekend I’ll be in DC so I can’t wait. It will be busy but good.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there. My mom is pretty special – so thank you Mom!
I’m going to do this a bit different from now on. Something I do at the end of my day is tell back (on facebook) what I am thankful for and how God has graciously blessed me that day. Something I want to do on here to finish out this challenge – is instead of focusing on whole foods – focus on the good things I did for my body. I hope this acts as a reminder to me and a challenge to you – in some way, shape, or form!
1. Took a nap. It was necessary on a comfy couch!
2. Walked to buy groceries instead of driving (almost 2 total RT).
3. Ate raw veggies: romaine, carrots, celery.
4. Had many sources of protein: all natural pb, hummus (chickpeas and tahini), ff yogurt, egg white.
5. Did weight training and cardio with Jillian.
6. Drank plenty of water – and will drink some more tonight.
What have you done good for your body today?