The Good News

My oldest son, Matthew, wrote his first song, The Good News.  Our fantastic music minister, Steve, wrote the music to the song and brought it to us yesterday.  Here are the words:

1.  The gospel is the good news that Christ became a man to die for us on the cross.
2.  The gospel is Jesus, who bore my sin and pain and died for me on the tree.
3.  The gospel is the good news that, though they buried Him, He rose up from the grave.
4.  Christ Jesus came and will come to take His children home.  He rose, so we're raised with Him.
5.  The gospel is the good news, that Christ became a man to die for us on the cross.

Refrain: Jesus is the Savior; Jesus is the Lord; the good news of the world.


Also, if anyone knows how to add a song from an I-tunes file please share so that I can share the tune to this song.

When You Have To Stay Home From Church

There will be time when sickness may come to you or to one of your children and you have to miss a Lord's Day service.  What do we do on those days to still set it aside as a Sabboth to the Lord?  We want to hear from the Lord and we are sad when we must miss, but there are many things that we can still do to make it a joyous day.  We live in a day of internet access in which the opportunity to hear good, solid, Biblical preaching is available.  I suggest to use this time to listen to a sermon online, spend an extended time reading your Bible if you can, listening to music that focuses our mind on Christ and what He has accomplished for those who are in Him, serving your sick child and loving on him or her, reading books that focus our mind on Christ.  Set this day aside and be intentional to make it special even when you cannot be together with other Christians.  It is only one day a week that we really get to do this and we ought to look forward to being with God's people and hearing from the Lord.

I say all of this today because I was looking forward with great anticipation to hearing my husbands sermon from Colossians this morning on the Colossian hymn: Colossians 1: For by Him and through Him and to Him are all things..."  Our son has had a fever and a stomach ache for the past 3 days and I was really hoping that this morning he would be better.  However, last night the fever was just getting the best of him and he was up a lot.  He is just laying around, drinking water a little at a time, and going to the bathroom.  My energetic little boy is just sick.  It is my duty to serve him and love him through all of this and I wouldn't do anything different.

A Christian Home

O give us homes built firm upon the Savior, Where Christ is Head and Counselor and Guide; Where every child is taught His love and favor and gives his heart to Christ, the Crucified:  How sweet to know that, tho' his footsteps waver, His faithful Lord is walking by his side!

O give us homes with godly fathers, mothers, Who always place their hope and trust in Him;  Whose tender patience turmoil never bothers, Whose calm and courage trouble cannot dim;  A home where each finds joy in serving others,  And love still shines, tho' days be dark and grim.

O give us homes where Christ is Lord and Master,  The Bible read, the precious hymns still sung;  Where pray'r comes first in peace or in disaster, And praise is natural speech to every tongue;  Where mountains move before a faith that's vaster,  And Christ sufficient is for old  and young.

O Lord, our God, our homes are Thine forever!  We trust to Thee their problems, toil, and care;  Their bonds of love no enemy can sever  If Thou art always Lord and Master there:  Be Thou the center of our least endeavor-  Be Thou our guest, our hearts and homes to share.

Barbara B. Hart  1965


Hymns are a vital part of our daily life and I could not resist posting this hymn that we sang tonight during family worship.  The theology is rich.  The words are powerful.  This is my prayer and I hope that it will be your prayer too.

It has become a pattern of ours to sing our way through the hymnal that our church is using, focusing on learning one hymn a week.  Then on Sunday evenings, since we do not have evening services, we have an extended time of family worship in which we pray, read our Bible, review catechism and memory verses from our TAG books, and have a hymn sing.  Everyone gets an opportunity to choose their favorite hymn and we all sing along.  Even our youngest, 19 months, sings along.  We have come across many songs in which we did not know, so Cyber Hymnal has become our friend.  If you go to the site, you can just type in the song and it is played for you with out the words.  So, if you wanted you could all gather around the computer and sing along as the words are written out on the site.

Concluding Thoughts On Holy Week

I want to take a few moments and quote from the Westminster Directory of Public Worship in regards to celebrating Holy Days.

There is no day in scripture commanded to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath.  Festive days, vulgarly (i.e.- commonly) called Holy-days, having no warrant in the Word of God, are not to be continued.

Nevertheless, it is lawful and necessary, upon special emergent occasions, to separate a day or days for public fasting or thanksgiving, as the several eminent and extraordinary dispensations of God's providence shall administer cause and opportunity to his people. 

What are your responses?

What Do You Believe about Celebrating Holy Week

While the rest of the world is waking up this morning to celebrate Christ's resurrection, I am asking a question.  Why do we need Holy Week to reflect on Christ's death and resurrection?  I grew up in Texas.  When I was a child on Easter morning, I would wake up to new clothes, shoes, and a hat.   Later in the morning, my family and I would attend a traditional southern Easter service.    The choir would sing a special Easter cantata, and the pastor would preach on the resurrection.  After the service, we would have an Easter egg hunt for all the children.  People, who gave no thought of Christ throughout the year,  would pack the pews, wanting to punch their spiritual time clock in order to earn their way into heaven.

This week I reflected on why many professing evangelicals celebrate Holy Week.  It wasn't always the case.  In a distant past, evangelicals would have felt that such practice was catholic in conviction.   Why is Easter so special?  Don't we celebrate the resurrection of Christ every Sunday?  Why did the early church assemble on the first day of the week?  Was it because of their Lord's resurrection?  Isn't every Lord's day an Easter celebration?

 What do you believe about celebrating Holy Week?  Do you find it helpful?  Have you given it much thought as to why you observe these religious holidays?  Is it conviction or just tradition?  How do these religious holidays affect people's view of the Lord's day?

Is Your Confidence In The Lord Or Your Circumstances?

Our lives for the most part are pretty ordinary, routine, and mundane.  We get up each morning, get dressed, spend time with the Lord, and start our routines thinking that today will not be much different than yesterday.  We do not plan on getting sick, caring for sick ones in our families, losing our jobs, losing our spouses, seeing others suffer all around us, or enduring other trials.  However, trials are a very real part of our lives.  For those who are repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ alone for their salvation they draw us near to Jesus.  Jesus went to the cross for us and endured the greatest suffering of all.  We are created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever no matter what trial we may go through in our lives.  We are to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and not lean on our own understanding, but acknowledge Him in all our ways and He will direct our paths (Prov. 3:4-5).

Many times we plan our days thinking that we are going to do certain things and are confident that certain things in life will work out.  We assume that all will always be well.  We live as though we will never die or get sick.  We think that we can decide on what our plans for life will be.  We will graduate from high school, go on to college, get married, work for a while, and then have children.  This is all what society teaches us.  We are taught that we are in control of our destinies.

When I first married my wonderful husband we were in Bible college and decided to wait a little while to have children.  After a time when we were ready we would start trying.  All this time I was thinking that it would happen on my schedule.  God had other plans.  We ended up having to seek out an infertility specialist.  Four and a half years later our first child was born 7 weeks early.  Once again this was not my schedule.  Didn't the Lord know that I had to work that day and that I was actually starting to like looking pregnant?  I wasn't ready to deliver our baby yet.  I still had another 7 weeks to go.  It all ended up turning out fine, but had me petrified in the whole process.  Then we decided to go to seminary and once again wait to have children.  When we were ready we would try again (assuming that we would need to see a fertility specialist again) and low and behold I was now Fertile Mertile!  Our oldest was 15 months when I conceived our second child and then again our second child was only 10 months (I was still nursing) when I conceived our third child.  Still not totally convinced that I was not in control of all of this, we decided to try again for a fourth child and ended up conceiving after three months of trying.  At this point we were starting to see that God was in control and we were really fine with that.  Right on schedule we conceived our fifth child.  I was starting to become rather confident that I was either going to deliver a child every 19 months or 26 months, so we were not surprised when I conceived our sixth child.   I always had wonderful pregnancies and nothing was ever wrong.  However, I was being prideful once again and living my life assuming that all would always be well and that one day I would have a large family with 7 or 8 children since I was only 35 and pregnant with our 6th child.  Then on November 11th this past year my world came crashing down when I went to the doctor and had our sonogram only to find out that our baby was dead and that I needed to schedule a d&c because it was a partial molar pregnancy and that I had to have my hcg levels checked weekly then monthly for 1 year with no conceptions!  That was all more than I could take.  How could I, who always had picture perfect pregnancies, have a miscarriage at 10 weeks?  I was suppose to be pregnant now and preparing for delivery around June 10th and not on birth control waiting to conceive for 1 year.  Didn't the Lord know just how strong I felt about birth control and that I was Fertile Mertile?  Didn't He know that both my husband and I had finally come to the conclusion that the He was in control of my womb?  Where did this trial come from and was I ready to go through this kind of trial?  It came from the Lord, who gave me the ability to say at the hospital and still today, "blessed be the name of the Lord.  He gives and He takes away, blessed be His name."  I said and meant that in all confidence.  Two months later, I found out that I had glaucoma and I was only 35!  How many 35 year old's have glaucoma especially when it is not in their family?  35 year olds are suppose to be healthy and not have these kind of problems.  Din't the Lord know that this was an old persons disease and that I was not old?  Of course, He did.  I was placing my confidence in my vision and not in the Lord who is in control of my vision.

Even though we may plan our days, the Lord directs our steps.  He knows all things and has all things already planned out.  He is in control of all things.  Trust in Him.  He uses times like these to draw us close to Himself and to glorify Himself.  Hide yourself in the shadow of His wings.  The Lord is full of mercy and compassion.  If you are going through a trial that seems too difficult to bear cast you burdens on the Lord, for He cares for you.  He loves you and is conforming you to His image.  This trial did not take Him by surprise.  He is controlling all things.  This life that we are living is not about our comfort, but His glory.  Rest in Him today and every day.  It is okay to weep and to be sad.  There are still many day where I still find myself wondering why this had to happen and watching other bloggers pregnancy's progress.  Sadly to say, I sometimes find myself jealous that I, too, am not pregnant.  This seems to happen when I take my eyes off of Jesus and place them on my circumstances.  Fix my eyes on Jesus, He is the author and finisher of my faith, is what I need to do.  Find your rest, comfort, and solace in Him.  He cares for you like no other.

Making The Sabbath A Day Of Rest When You Have Energetic Little Children

How can you make the Sabbath a day of rest and worship of the Lord when your life is full of little ones to care for and your husband is a pastor?

My husband has been pastoring a tiny church for 4 years now and it has been our conviction that they should worship the Lord right along beside us and that we need to teach them that the Sabbath can be a day full of joy and not a list of don'ts.  So, you may be asking what are some of the things that we do to make this day a special day?  I want this to be an encouragement to other moms, so I will just list a few things that we do and greatly encourage others to share what you do to make this a special day.

1. First of all it is our goal to have all the children sit with us throughout the entire worship service.  However, I have found that the more children I have with no other help sometimes it means that I am taking the two youngest with me to sit in the nursery and listen to my husband preach through the speakers while the older ones hopefully sit still upstairs.  Sometimes, despite your own convictions, you just must do what works best for your own family.
2. We try and begin the morning with a reading of the scripture that my husband will be preaching through (currently it is Titus) and we sing a hymn with the help of cyber hymnal (this morning it was Follow On).
3. Once everyone has eaten breakfast, I make sure that everyone is fully ready and we listen to music that focuses our mind on Christ.  I prefer hymns, Getty music, Sovereign Grace music, Andrew Peterson, Bob Kaufman, Indelible Grace, and others such as these.
4. We all try and walk out the door together as a family to go on over to Sunday School.
5. After worship service, I encourage the children to play outside to release a lot of energy.  If it is terribly cold, then they will watch either a Moody science video, a creation science video, or a Veggie Tale.
6. We eat lunch together and talk all about the worship service.
7. I will sometimes read a special book that focuses our minds on Christ and then the little ones will lay down and nap while the older ones will lay down in the front room usually with a book while my husband and I either nap, read, or write letters.
8. After nap is outside play again, walks, or just play inside while listening to music.  We also sometimes listen to sermons online, watch t.v., or go hiking as a family.
9. We then have dinner together.  We do not currently have evening worship.  
10. Everyone does a quick pick up.  I give baths to the little ones.  We then have an extended time of family worship in which everyone gets to request their favorite hymn and we all have fun singing together.  This is followed by catechism questions, verse memory, prayer time, Bible reading, and the closing Doxology.
11. At this point it is bedtime and the children will read their Bibles in bed.

There have been other things that we have wanted to do like have special toys that are only brought out on the Lord's Day, special books only read on the Lord's Day, and maybe do things like plays, but for now this is what is working.  It may look a lot different during the summer months since we all love being outside then.  The key is to make it an enjoyable and a restful day for everyone in the family and to not feel bound by a list of do's and don'ts.  I want my children to look back and say that Sunday was their favorite day of the week.  What are some of the things that you do to make Sunday's special and restful?  Next week I would like to talk about some of the books that have been most influential in our lives.

Do You Find Yourself Worrying And Not Realizing That Is What You Are Doing?

Do you wake up at the start of the day and stress out over how you are going to accomplish it all, have enough energy to get through the day, endure this heavy trial (sickness, or other things) that God has placed in your life, feel overwhelmed by sins that you are struggling with, worry about the salvation of your children, or any thing else?  I do and I am sure that you do too.  Please be encouraged today as you worship in your local church and then listen to Joel Beeke deliver a sermon about Anxiety.  He is one of my favorite authors and preachers.  His messages are so simple, powerful, and applicational.  I highly recommend his book on Family Worship and then his wife's book on The Law of Kindness.  The church's website where you can listen to his sermon, entitled, Anxiety Out Of Order, is http://www.hnrc.org/  .  If you go to the sermons tab you can find that he preached this sermon on March 3, 2010.

Discussion Starter: At What Age Did Your Children Become A Christian And How Could You Tell?

Having 5 children who are growing up in a pastor's home where family worship is practiced twice a day with Bible reading, hymn singing, scripture memory, and catechism can make it rather difficult to determine if your child has repented of their sins and placed their faith in Christ alone.    They know all the right words to say and the right actions to practice.  How do you know if they have started repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ alone for their salvation?  I would love feedback!

The Lord's Mercies Are New Each Morning And I Will Chose To Not Be Crabby Today

Do you ever wake up on a Sunday morning and suddenly realize, after walking down stairs, that you don't have things all together?  Your kitchen floor was not swept or mopped the night before, kids do not have clean socks, a shoe is lost, your husband's socks are not clean, you decided that because the day before your body was hurting to stay in bed for an extra few minutes and you missed your Bible reading time, you forgot to turn on the crock pot last night (which was your breakfast), you wake up grouchy because you stayed in bed a few extra minutes  and now it is the Lord's day and you are unprepared?  Well, fear not!  The Lord's mercies are new each and every day!  It is your decision as to whether or not to continue with a bad attitude, therefore putting everyone else in a bad mood.  Put on some cheery Sunday music, pray asking the Lord to change your heart and attitude and ask Him to help you to rejoice because this IS the day the LORD has made, I will chose to rejoice today!!!

A Successful Mom Is Genuinely Loving

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gang or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."  I Corinthians 13:1-3

What is the definition of love?  Many people have tried to define it, but upon reading I Corinthians 13, Paul tells us what love is and what it is not.  It is not rude, envious, boastful, arrogant, selfish, easily irritable, resentful, does not rejoice in wrong doing.  Love is patient, kind,  and rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and it never ends.  True love is from God and is genuine.  Love acts in self sacrifice.  Love is totally giving of myself to meet the needs of the other person without expecting anything in return.

Moms, do you genuinely love those children that God has placed in your life?  How about your husband?  Is what you do motivated out of a heart of genuine love or self praise.  Do you clean your house so that others will say, "Wow, she has a clean house and she has it all together."  Do you teach your children at home so that others will praise you for doing a good job?  Do you chose to be quiver full so that others will look at you and say, "she must be a godly woman because she is choosing to obey scripture."?  Do you submit to your husband so that others will look at you and want to follow your good example?  Do you read your Bible, pray, and memorize scripture because it is your christian duty and you want others to think that you are a godly mom?

All of these are good and godly things to be doing, but we must examine our motives behind the things that we do.  Do we do all of these things mentioned above because it is our job as mothers?  Are we doing them out of genuine love?  If not, then we are noisy, clanging symbols that amount to no good.  Today as we go about our day, let us hold one another accountable.  Let us pray for one another and encourage one another because without love our life is meaningless.  Let's check in on each other and encourage each other as the scriptures teach us to follow in godliness and to do everything we do in genuine love which comes from God alone.  Let us ask Him for help today to love our families and to have much joy in the sometimes mundane tasks of life.

Love will mourn over sin.  Love will speak well of others around us.  Love will be willing to absorb the wrongs done around us with out wanting to get even.  Love will be willing to give of yourself to your husband even when you are tired.  Love will build each other up.  Love will yield certain behaviors if it causes others to fall into sin.  Love will seek the best interest of others.  Do you have a child who easily irritates you?  Genuinely love him today!  Ask God to give you the grace to do be filled with genuine love.

If we can speak great truths to others around us, teach home school with eloquence, teach other ladies with out love it is a noisy symbol.  There were two prophets in scripture who were sent to proclaim God's Word who are a great example of teaching in love and teaching without love, Jonah and Jeremiah.  Jeremiah had genuine love.  Jonah did not really love the people.  He was just doing duty.  Amy Carmichael said that you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.  Love involves much sacrifice.  What motivates this sacrifice that you make daily?  Is it genuine love?  Love is not only the act, but the heart of the matter.  If I do good to others around me, with out love, it profits me nothing. No matter what "good" we do, if it is not done in love, it profits us nothing.  Follow God in love.  Ask Him to give you the grace necessary to genuinely love today without expecting anything in return.

Hospitality

I mentioned that I would write a post about hospitality and here it is. Alexander Strauch wrote an excellant book on hospitality entitled, The Hospitality Commands. I highly recommend it! In it he speaks about how that hospitality is missing from our culture and how that the church is a family and as a family we are showing love for one another when we practice hospitality. In addition by practicing hospitality we can use these times to further the message of the gospel and to encourage pastors in their ministry. He explains six commands given in scripture to practice hospitality and he also gives some helpful hints in practicing hospitality.

Many of you may be saying, "I am too busy to practice hospitality". I say to that just give it a try and see how the Lord blesses you. Pray for more time. Keep it simple. If you plan on having someone over you don't have to serve an elegant meal. The most simple meals are usually the best anyway. Then this allows you the time to relax and enjoy one anothers company. As you continue to have people over you slowly get to know one another and then you know how to pray for them.

Family Worship

One of the things that we have found helpful as a family is to have a regular time of family worship in which we spend time reading the Bible, praying, singing a hymn, memorizing catechism, and memorizing Bible verses.

Our children are 8, 5, 4, 20 months, and 12 days. The Bible that we read from is Catherine Vos's Story Bible and it is the most complete children's story Bible that we have ever read. For Bible memory and catechism we use Truth and Grace memory books published by Founders Press. It is designed for age 2 through 12th grade. These booklets are amazing! They have a format all set up for you with age appropriate verse memory, catechism, and hymns. As for the hymns, we use the Celebration Hymnal (since it is the hymn book used by our church). We memorize the hymns (not the choruses). We focus on singing one hymn a week.

On a later post I will also share some doctrine books that have been helpful to us that we have read to our children on Sundays.

tips I have learned on my journey in motherhood

Over the next few days I will be posting some helpful tips that I have learned either from others or the hard way by trial and error on my journey in motherhood.

First and foremost I have learned to follow the advice given in scripture that says the husband is to be the head of the house. When I try to lead our family it does not always work out. God has blessed me with a husband who leads and I just need to trust him enough to follow him everytime. This does not mean that I have no imput and can say nothing when I question his leadership abilities. In fact, we do discuss decisions often. He may not always no how to lead in certain situations and that is okay. We spend much time in prayer. Our heavenly Father knows what is right for us. What is right for me is to trust that God knew what He was doing when He placed Don into my life and to trust His command for the husband to be the leader in the family and to joyfully submit to his leadership. When I do this I know that I am in the will of God. It is all a matter of trust. Will you trust that the Lord knows what He is doing?