blast from the past

Last year I posted this quote (find it from previous posts here and here) and as yet another year is upon us I thought it might be beneficial to put it out there again.

If God doesn’t rule your mundane,

then he doesn’t rule you, because

that’s where you live.

-Paul Tripp

Happy New Year!

question of the day:

I love Christmas Carols, especially the really good ones that exalt Christ as God coming to earth on behalf of sinners. What I wonder is, do non-believers who sing songs like Hark the Herald Angels Sing, etc. really not get the Truth of which they sing? How can some sing God-glorifying Christmas carols so flippantly? For example, I wonder if Bob Dylan really understands what he is singing about when he sings The First Noel or O' Come all Ye Faithful? Just curious. Anyway, here's to praying that when people sing or hear a Truth-saturated Christmas carol this year they will come to know the everlasting joy found only in the Christ of which they sing.

Merry Christmas!

May you rejoice in Christ this season...

the Lord is near!

A couple of weeks ago, one of our pastors served my church family well by quoting the entire book of Philippians at our annual members meeting. In the midst of his quoting the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see something I'd never seen before. And over the last couple of weeks, I can't count the number of times the Lord has brought this truth back to the forefront of my mind. So what is this truth? It is simply this: So many times we quote Philippians 4:6, "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." It's a great verse that most of us have heard a million times. But I submit to you that if you took a poll asking folks what the verse preceding verse 6 in Philippians chapter 4 says, you would get a bunch of blank stares. We hardly ever quote verses 5 in conjunction with 6 despite the fact that they are separated by a semicolon (in the ESV). Now, I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best grammarian BUT I think I remember from high school English (Mrs. Minnis for all you WMHS grads!) that two thoughts separated by a semicolon implies that they are related in some way. So I think in the context of this verse, what gives verse 6 weight and your ability to not be anxious about things and the fact that our requests can be made known to God is precisely because of the end of verse 5: "The Lord is at hand." Or if you read the NASB, "The Lord is near." I love it! Christ is near to his children! So all together now:

"[5] ...The Lord is at hand; [6] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. [7] And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:5-7

So, the constant reminder of the Holy Spirit over the past couple of weeks to my soul has been: Because the Lord is near, do NOT be anxious about anything and make all your requests known to God by prayer and supplication abounding with thanksgiving. The result: verse 7! Praise God for the reality that his risen Son sits enthroned at his right hand and is so near his children!

it's definitely been a while...

Suffice to say, I've taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging since my last post. To be perfectly honest I've lacked motivation and inspiration (I don't have cute, entertaining kids to post about :). However, I think my break is over and for the one reader that just might still be out there (if I'm lucky), I'll begin blogging again.

Since it's been a while, here's a brief run down of my life since the last post on June 5:

-Summer rolled by without any major note worthy events.

-At the conclusion of the summer, I got to enjoy a brief trip down to the gulf for a little girl time with my mom at the beach. This turned out to be perfect because the guys in my family aren't the biggest beach fans.

-I did indeed have the privilege to run in the 40th running of the ING New York Marathon. It was quite the experience! Fun city. Fabulous race. The experience is worth its own post, so look for that coming soon.

-I also had the joy of going to India for several days on a mission trip at the beginning of November. THAT definitely is worth its own post or even series of posts!

-I've finished a couple of good books since I last posted so don't be surprised if you see a couple of book review in the coming weeks.

-Lastly, I'm running the St. Jude 1/2 marathon this weekend. I LOVE this race... or at least the 1/2 is a blast. I'm running it with a couple of girls from my office and we decided to raise money for St. Jude so if you are in the giving mood hop on over to this site and make a donation!

By the way... it's great to be back!