Our beloved Pastor is preaching a series on marriage. This past Sunday he spoke on the woman’s mission in life. He called it MISSION POSSIBLE! It was such a good reminder! You can listen to this tape series online at http://stevinsonchapel.com.

Here is the main thing I walked away with:

Stay focused on your mission which is Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus commanded us to make disciples.

For the younger woman her obvious (but not limited to) disciples are in her home… her children.

For the older woman (who’s children are grown) her primary (but not limited to) disciples are the younger women.

 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Titus 2:2-5
ESV

Pastor reminded us that we are in a war. Soldiers don’t get tangled in the things of this world… worrying about our hair color, wrinkles or how much weight we’ve gained. (*ouch*)

 No on engaged in warfare antibes himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 2 Tim. 2:15

I came away from the sermon thinking of all the different things in this world that can tempt me away from my main mission of ‘making disciples’….

television

computer

crafts and hobbies

a job to make ‘extra money’

visiting friends  (in person or on the internet)

entertainment

a ‘better lifestyle’ or ‘keeping up with the Jones’

decorating our homes

what we wear

making a living

None of these things are necessary evil in themselves but they have the capacity to lull us into a lifestyle and attitude that does not keep eternal destination of our loved ones souls (or those the Lord brings to our path) before our eyes.

Pastor encouraged us to ‘not leave our posts’ and to continually remind ourselves that we are in a war and it’s for the souls of our children and grandchildren.

 

 

 

 

 

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4

 

So, He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Deut. 8:3

 

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Jonathan Edwards has a word for our time that could hardly be more pointed if he were living today. It has to do with the foundation of gratitude.

True gratitude or thankfulness to God for his kindness to us, arises from a foundation laid before, of love to God for what he is in himself; whereas a natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation. The gracious stirrings of grateful affection to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds, viz. God’s own excellency.¹

In other words, gratitude that is pleasing to God is not first a delight in the benefits God gives (though that is part of it). True gratitude must be rooted in something else that comes first, namely, a delight in the beauty and excellency of God’s character. If this is not the foundation of our gratitude, then it is not above what the “natural man,” apart from the Spirit and the new nature in Christ, experiences. In that case “gratitude” to God is no more pleasing to God than all the other emotions which unbelievers have without delighting in him.

You would not be honored if I thanked you often for your gifts to me, but had no deep and spontaneous regard for you as a person. You would feel insulted, no matter how much I thanked you for your gifts. If your character and personality do not attract me or give me joy in being around you, then you will just feel used, like a tool or a machine to produce the things I really love.

So it is with God. If we are not captured by his personality and character, then all our declarations of thanksgiving are like the gratitude of a wife to a husband for the money she gets from him to use in her affair with another man. This is exactly the picture in James 4:3-4. James criticizes the motives of prayer that treats God like a cuckold: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” Why does he call these praying people “adulteresses”? Because, even though praying, they are forsaking their husband (God) and going after a paramour (the world). And to make matters worse, they are asking their husband (in prayer) to fund the adultery.

Amazingly, this same flawed spiritual dynamic is sometimes true when people thank God for sending Christ to die for them. Perhaps you have heard people say how thankful we should be for the death of Christ because it shows how much value God puts upon us. What is the foundation of this gratitude?

Jonathan Edwards calls it the gratitude of hypocrites. Why? Because,

they first rejoice, and are elevated with the fact that they are made much of by God; and then on that ground, he seems in a sort, lovely to them. . . . They are pleased in the highest degree, in hearing how much God and Christ make of them. So that their joy is really a joy in themselves, and not in God.²

It is a shocking thing to learn that one of today’s most common descriptions of how to respond to the cross may well be a description of natural self-love with no spiritual value.

We do well to listen to Jonathan Edwards. Does he not simply spell out for us the Biblical truth that we should do all things-including giving thanks-to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)? And God is not glorified if the foundation of our gratitude is the worth of the gift and not the excellency of the Giver. If gratitude is not rooted in the beauty of God before the gift, it is probably disguised idolatry. May God grant us a heart to delight in him for who he is so that all our gratitude for his gifts will be the echo of our joy in the excellency of the Giver!

Excerpted from John Piper, A Godward Life (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah, 1997), 213-214.

Notes

1. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959, orig. 1746, p.247.

2. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, pp. 250-251.

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Give Them Parking Space, But Let Them Starve to Death by Elizabeth Elliot

Another moral threshold was crossed when a tiny baby boy, at the specific request of his parents and with the sanction of the Supreme Court of Indiana, was starved to death in a hospital. “Infant Doe” (he was not allowed the usual recognition of being human by being named), born with Down’s syndrome and a malfunctioning esophagus (the latter could have been corrected with surgery), died, as the Washington Post (April 18) stated, “not because he couldn’t sustain life without a million dollars worth of medical machinery, but because no one fed him.” For six days the nurses in that Bloomington hospital went about their usual routines of bathing and changing and feeding all the newborns except one. They bathed and changed Baby Doe but they never gave him a bottle. Over his crib was a notice, DO NOT FEED. Several couples came forward, begging to be allowed to adopt him. They were turned down.

What went on in that little box during those six terrible days and nights? We turn our imagination away. It’s unthinkable. But if I were to think about it, and put down on paper what my mind saw, I would be accused of playing on people’s feelings, and of making infanticide (yes, infanticide–call it what it is) an “emotional issue.” Let me suppose at least that the baby cried–quite loudly (at first). One report says that he was placed in a room alone, lest his crying disturb others (others, perhaps, who were capable of helping him).

Joseph Sobran, in his column in the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, suggested that “opposition to infanticide will soon be deplored as the dogma of a few religious sects who want to impose their views on everyone else.” The language sounds sickeningly familiar.

There has been a conspicuous silence from those who usually raise shrill protest when other human rights are violated–the rights of smokers, homosexuals, and criminals are often as loudly insisted upon as those of children, women, and the handicapped.

The handicapped? What on earth is happening when a society is so careful to provide premium parking spaces to make things easier for them, but sees no smallest inconsistency when one of them who happens to be too young to scream, “For God’s sake, feed me!” is quietly murdered? It is in the name of humanity, humaneness, compassion, and freedom that these things occur, but never is it acknowledged that the real reasons are comfort and convenience, that is, simple selfishness. “Abortion not only prefers comfort, convenience, or advantage of the pregnant woman to the very life of her unborn child, a fundamentally good thing, but seeks to deny that the life ever existed. In this sense it is a radical denial not only of the worth of a specific life but of the essential goodness of life itself and the Providential ordering of its procreation” (R.V. Young, “Taking Choice Seriously,” The Human Life Review, Vol. VIII, no. 3.)

But weren’t we talking about infanticide and haven’t we now switched to abortion? The premises on which abortion is justified are fundamentally the same on which infanticide is seen as civilized and acceptable. What Hitler used to call eugenics is now called “quality of life,” never mind whether the life in question happens to be the mother’s or the child’s. Death, according to three doctors who put the issue out into the open in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1973, is now considered an option in the “treatment” of infants; in other words, a mortuary may now replace the nursery. One cannot help thinking of the antiseptic “shower rooms” of the Third Reich, where the unwanted were “treated” to death. Nor can one forget the words of Jesus, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40, KJV).

Can any Christian argue that the smallest and most defenseless are, by virtue merely of being too small and too defenseless, not His brethren?

The words in this devotional (by Charles Spurgeon) sparked so many thoughts and convictions. I thought of our children and how we desire to train them for God’s glory yet our sin taints that motive and our reputations for being a good, godly parent creeps in. I thought of our homes and our desire to bring God glory in the way we keep it and use it for His means YET our pride taints that motive and we can get caught up in decorating to impress our friends or even competing in how clean we keep it.

It takes diligence to daily keep our thoughts lined up with God’s Word and to not allow motives that are unbiblical to creep in. 

Heb 4:12-13 - For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

I find such a daily need for Christ’s power in my life. Without Him I can do nothing! That even includes bringing Him glory!

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“To whom be glory for ever. Amen”
Romans 11:36

“To whom be glory for ever.” This should be the single desire of the Christian. All other wishes must be subservient and tributary to this one. The Christian may wish for prosperity in his business, but only so far as it may help him to promote this–”To Him be glory for ever.” He may desire to attain more gifts and more graces, but it should only be that “To Him may be glory for ever.” You are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than a single eye to your Lord’s glory. As a Christian, you are “of God, and through God,” then live “to God.” Let nothing ever set your heart beating so mightily as love to Him. Let this ambition fire your soul; be this the foundation of every enterprise upon which you enter, and this your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow chill; make God your only object. Depend upon it, where self begins sorrow begins; but if God be my supreme delight and only object,

“To me ’tis equal whether love ordain
My life or death–appoint me ease or pain.”

Let your desire for God’s glory be a growing desire. You blessed Him in your youth, do not be content with such praises as you gave Him then. Has God prospered you in business? Give Him more as He has given you more. Has God given you experience? Praise Him by stronger faith than you exercised at first. Does your knowledge grow? Then sing more sweetly. Do you enjoy happier times than you once had? Have you been restored from sickness, and has your sorrow been turned into peace and joy? Then give Him more music; put more coals and more sweet frankincense into the censer of your praise. Practically in your life give Him honour, putting the “Amen” to this doxology to your great and gracious Lord, by your own individual service and increasing holiness.

 My days are extra full lately and I’m finding it difficult to post but many of you are in my thoughts. I’ve missed my Xanga friends. It’s amazing how one can become ‘attached’ to a person they have never met.

We still haven’t sold our home. It’s been on the market for over a year. The real estate market is very bad right now in California but thankfully God is not effected by the fluctuations of our times. I know that if He wants us to move then He will send a buyer. We thank Him for providing for our daily needs inspite of the hard times. There is no way to explain how we are still able to meet our mortgage except that God continues to provide. On paper it doesn’t make any sense. What a good Daddy He is!

I’ve been given an opportunity to help a friend two days a week and at the same time make a little extra money for Christmas and groceries. This is a great blessing at this time and I’m thankful for the work. But,, at the same time it’s  been such a good reminder of how much I value my time in the home.  I will be so happy when I can be back home fulltime.

My husband and I have posted and sold and unbelievable amount of things on Craigs List. This has helped meet our mortgage payments. I just make sure that I don’t have anyone come look at the items until my husband is home for safety reasons.

I had a major COOKING DAY last week. I made enough beef meals to last more than 2 weeks to stick in the freezer. Today I made 4 chicken meals to freeze. Here is a picture of the beef meals all ready for the freezer. I cook on the days that I am home and then I pull out a ready-made meal on the days I’m busy or not home during the day. The other night I had to run an errand for my husband and got home late. I was so tempted to pick up fast food but instead pulled out a freezer meal. YEAH!

I am still continuing to do the following to save money:

* I hand my clothes on the line to dry and then I ‘fluff’ them in the dryer so they are soft.

* I make my own homemade laundry detergent. I just made a huge bucket and decided to go ahead and grate all the soap. I divided it in baggies for the next batch of detergent. This is the part of the job I dread so now it’s all ready to go.

* I wash my car by hand instead of running it through the car wash.

* I purchased a phone card (2.8 cents a minute) for long distance instead of using the unlimited long distance for $50.00 a month. This saves me $15.00 each month. I make use of my cell phone minutes and call family on the weekends.

1. USE IT UP! I’ve been trying to use up items that I’ve bought in the past instead of buying new ones. These are items that I didn’t like and stopped using. I decided that I was being wasteful and I’ve committed to using those items before I buy news ones. CINDY’S PORCH calls it ‘Shop at Home First’. Here is a list of items I’m currently USING UP:

a. Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap. I bought this and then rarely used it as a face wash because it made my skin so tight. I told myself to stop being such a ‘soft American’ and USE IT UP!

b. Toilet Paper: I had quite a few rolls of THIN, ROUGH toilet paper from an outhouse we had for our business. I kept it for emergencies. I told myself to stop being so PICKY and USE IT UP!

c. Small samples of shampoos and soaps. I’m pouring the shampoo into our bottle in the shower and will continue to use the sample sizes until they are gone.

d. I’m working on using up what I have in both my freezers before I purchase more meats and frozen veggies.

2. Soup container in freezer. I put all my extra bits of leftover veggies in this container for soup. I made a big pot of soup the other day and didn’t have to use hardly any other veggies except the ‘leftover’ veggies I had frozen.

3. Fruit bread container in freezer. I put my leftover bits of canned and fresh fruit in a cottage cheese container I keep in the freezer. When it’s full I make fruit bread.

4. I throw my over ripe bananas into the freezer (in their skin) to use for banana muffins, banana bread or banana cake.

5. I started leaving my radio on instead of the tv when I leave the house to cut down on my energy bill.

6. I used newspaper to line my garbage can when I ran out of garbage bags. I remember this is all my mother used to use before plastic garbage bags were invented. I don’t like it as well but it comes in handy for a pinch when I run out of my free grocery bags.

7. I have a VERY small ink cartridge in my printer so I’m cutting back on what I print. I used to print out recipes and inspirational messages but now I write out as many things by hand as possible.

8. I keep a small fan in my kitchen and bathroom and use them first before turning on the air conditioning. Most the time they will cool me off enough that I won’t have to turn on the AC.

9. I found that I can stretch my face moisturizer if my face is wet first. I read recently that you should be careful about the amount of cream you put around your eyes so this technique helps in applying a thin layer.

10. I reorganized my freezer shelves so that I can find my veggies, fruits, meats and leftovers quickly. My freezers are full so I’m not buying anymore meat or veggies until I use up what I have.

11. I found a tea tree cream that worked well in the summer months for areas that got too moist from the heat. (That’s all I’m going to say about THAT subject! *S*)

12. Kevin got pink eye and couldn’t afford to take a day off. So, I did some research and read that sometimes very warm goldenseal tea bags put on the eye for 10 minutes brings relief. It’s been working great so far. There are different kinds of pink eye so I’m not sure this would work on all types.

13. I love to read Laine’s Letters. Last month she told about the items she purchased at the Dollar Stores. I picked up some new ideas from her list. I decided to try their brand of Kotex pads. They are definitely not as ‘plush’ as the more expensive ones but they worked well enough. I keep telling myself that I’m just going to throw them away so why pay a lot of money. I’m having some difficulties the closer I get to menopause and it was costing me a small fortune to use the brand names so this should save me quite a lot.

I made a mistake at the Dollar Store which is teaching me that I really need to know my prices. I bought a small box of raisins thinking I was getting a good deal. I checked Walmart’s prices and realized I had spent twice as much on the small amount I purchased at the Dollar Store. I’m trying to update my ‘Price Book’ so I can keep better track of my prices at the different stores.

Well, that’s it for now. I finished one of my grandchildren’s Christmas stocking (felt and sequin kit) and I’m nearly finished with the last one. The majority of my christmas gifts have been purchased. I’m working on December birthdays now. I really had hoped to make some pj’s for the grandchildren but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Oh, one more picture of my oldest grandson. Below he is showing off the GeoTrak track we created.

 

 

My grandson LOVES science so we made a sundial which really worked. I was amazed at how accurate it was!

Here Grammy and oldest grandson are competing at 4-wheel racing on PlayStation. Grammy lost! She also lost at the card games!

So, what are you ladies up to in your homes?