The Best Day of the Week

My favorite day of the week for many years now has been Sunday. I love Sunday mornings. I love going to church to worship Jesus with some of the dearest people I know. I love listening to the messages and being fed by the Word of God. This past Sunday Steve left early to get ready to play for worship (which was absolutely, positively wonderful and refreshing!) and the girls and I got off to a bit of a rocky start. Two were whining (well, if you add me, that's 3) and we were running behind. Of course no one was out of bed or eager to get dressed or do their chores. In a moment I just thought "This is what the enemy would love to do. He loves to come in a destroy and distract. But God is bigger than him. And He is so much bigger than my own sin." So, the girls and I sat down and prayed and read through and talked about Proverbs 3. We thanked God that not only is His mercy new every morning, but it was new for that moment!

Matt Rawlings from the Greenville church came to serve our church and speak while Aaron is on vacation with his sweet family. God, in His kindness, used him to remind me of His nearness and His care for us. He didn't need too, nor did He have too, but through the message on Sunday I was so encouraged that the Lord does indeed hear our prayers. I really do believe that, but it was just one of those moments where I was overwhelmed by His kindness and my hope was built even more!

Matt spoke on Proverbs 3 (what I've been reading with the girls) and Jeremiah 32:17. The verse that I wrote about earlier in the week that has been such an encouragement to me. I sat there thinking, "Seriously, out of all the passages, all the verses, this pastor could preach on, he's using Jeremiah 32:17. I've never heard a pastor preach from that Scripture!"

Here are a couple of questions/thoughts from the message on Sunday:

* What do I do when I am tempted to doubt? Where do I run? Do I wake up proclaiming trust in God? Do I believe He will sustain us? Where am I attempting to trust my abilities?

* What is trust? It is an active reliance on God and who He is!

* Who do we trust? We trust in the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God - if we doubt any of these areas, we are not trusting God.

* We can trust God not because of our experiences, but because of who He is.

OH, and then if that weren't already enough, toward the end of the message he referenced Hebrews 11. Yep. Sunday was super.

Please take the time to listen to this message. It will encourage you and remind you that God is indeed all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving!

Are We Fighting For Our Marriages??

My sweet friend Amanda was sharing with me about a message Joshua Harris spoke a few Sundays ago at Covenant Life Church. It is from Proverbs and it is about sexual purity. It is excellent for married couples and singles alike. Let me encourage you to listen to it...now! How we need to be fighting for our marriages! Thank God for men like Josh who will challenge us with Truth and speak about sexuality from the pulpit. May we run from temptations and may we delight in our spouses!

Love Your Enemies

How do I respond in the midst of conflict?

How do I respond when I'm hurt?

How do I respond when I'm sinned against?

How do I respond when someone takes advantage of me?

How do I respond when someone "hurts my feelings"? (I added this one.)

These are some of the questions our pastor, Aaron, started his message with this past Sunday. He spoke from Luke 6:27-36 on loving our enemies. It was excellent and worth listening to and listening to again. I can't think of any enemies I have, but we don't have to have enemies to be challenged by this passage of Scripture. We can simply have friends or children or a spouse!!! (The Lord gave Steve and I an opportunity to put what we learned Sunday morning into practice Sunday evening - over a dumb phone charger!)

Here are just a few lines from his message. And here is where you can listen to it! I just checked and they don't have it up yet, but hopefully it will be on there soon!

The ability to love our enemies is an evidence of God's work and grace in our lives.

Do I allow bitterness to take root in my heart?

What do I do when someone says something I don't want to hear?

When we are consumed with ourselves it is hard to love others.

Jesus is kind to the ungrateful and evil. (This is probably what stood out to me the most...especially in this season of training my girls in being grateful and how I so easily get offended and angry when they don't seem grateful when I think I've done something so wonderful for them!)

God builds His kingdom through forgiveness.

How I respond in these moments reveals how much I really grasp the Gospel.

Love is proactive. It LOOKS like blessing, being kind, doing good, constantly giving.

We must fight to love.

OK, so those are just a few nuggets from the message. You can't wait to listen to it now, right?!?!

Trial #8

A few weeks ago Steve listened to a message for our care group's guys meeting. It was by Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church on Men and Marriage. I've heard of Mark Driscoll but had never heard him speak. Steve had quite a bit to say about the message - as did quite a few of the other men around here.

Mr. Driscoll is very passionate on men being men and caring for and loving their wives. Honestly, his message could be quite offensive, as is anything that challenges us towards holiness and Christ-likeness and blows a wound to our flesh can be (his "tone" is quite different from messages I'm accustomed to listening too). He challenged the men. He defined different men. He preached the Gospel.

Now Steve could have listened to this message, talked about it in men's accountability and that could have been the end to that. But he didn't. He came home and told me about it and then he went even farther. We watched it together and then he asked me questions about how he's doing in light of what I heard in the message. I am grateful that the Lord has given me a husband who desires to grow and change - and I have seen much growth in him over the last 6 or so months in particular!

Listen here if you dare!

Time to Download

So recently I've been able to listen to several excellent messages. Covenant Life up in Maryland did a parenting series not too long ago and you can get to it by going here. Danny Jones message from Mother's Day was excellent and you can get to it by going here. Carolyn Mahaney spoke at the Leadership Conference on mentoring. Here's the link for that one. You'll want to scroll down to Seminars for Women. It is The Pastor’s Wife and Ministry Opportunities: Five Great Deals She Won’t Want to Miss. CJ Mahaney spoke at Metro a few weeks ago, and although I'm not done listening to it, anytime he speaks, it's worth hearing! Get it here! OH, and Melodye Jones spoke at the Moms Meeting at Metro Life a couple of months back. It's one I will listen to over and over again! Go here and look under Mom's Meeting - March 2009. Hey! If you have the time all of those messages are both convicting and very, very encouraging!!

I am so grateful for the way the Lord has gifted these people to speak and I'm also grateful for the time and energy they spend preparing to teach and share!