Month: December 2009

  • I’ve been sorting through items as I pack them away for our move. As
    I’ve been organizing and sorting, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking
    about what I should keep and what I should toss. The more I thought
    about it the more I realized that there is generally a motive behind
    much of what we do. As Christian women our motive should always be for
    the glory of God.

    So, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and
    meditating and praying about what the biblical motive should be behind
    what I keep and what I toss. The consistent thought that continues to
    come back to me is this… what kind of life do I want when I move to
    this new house? How do I want to spend my days? Do I want to spend my
    days dusting a lot of knickknacks and pictures? Do I want to spend my
    days shuffling around stuff from one room to the next? How much time do
    I want to spend on my housework? And by simplifying my days as far as
    housekeeping goes, what would I plan to do with the time left over?

    I
    am so eternally grateful that God’s Word addresses these questions.
    Yes, God calls us to be keepers at home, but He has not given us just
    this one command. We are to be lovers of our husband and children. We
    all have gifts that we are to use to benefit the body of Christ. We are
    told to visit those in prison and those who are sick. We are to take
    care of the orphans and the widows. These are just a few of the duties
    that God has assigned to us.

    Each of us has a different
    situation where God has placed us. There will be a difference in how I
    spend my days since my children are grown and gone compared to a woman
    who still has her children left at home to minister to. I may have
    neighbors living next door that God has called me to minister to, where
    other women may live miles from their nearest neighbor so the
    opportunity to minister may be more of a challenge.

    I guess
    what I am trying to say is that I want to think deliberately about how
    I want to spend my days this coming year and not just blindly take each
    day as it comes without any thought of eternity. If I were to stand
    before the Lord tomorrow and give an account for today and how I spent
    my hours would I believe that I had spent them for His glory?

    I’m
    reminded of an innocent last summer where I spent 5 or 6 hours making
    fruit cocktail to only end up with 5 jars. And to top it off… my
    husband doesn’t even care for fruit cocktail and my children aren’t
    home to help me eat it. So, WHY did I choose to spend that amount of
    time on something that ended up being useless? Because I didn’t wisely
    think through the best way to use my time. There are things I can do in
    my home to save a good amount of money to make it worth my while but
    this was not one of those best uses of my time.

    Our escrow is due to close in a week. We’ve either sold, given away or stored all of our items except just the basics.

    A friend
    recently asked me what I would take if I knew I was packing for the
    mission field. I had to really stop and think about that. What would I
    take? I’d want to take study tools, books, bibles,etc. that would help
    teach others about His Word. I’d need clothes, of course, but I
    wouldn’t be taking as many as I have now. I’m still trying to think
    through that question to decide what would be the essentials. And if I
    could live with so much less on a foreign land, why do I think I need
    SO much stuff here?

    So, as I am going through each drawer to
    pack away items for our new home, I am asking myself if this item is
    something that is really going to help me in serving my family or
    others or is it something that is going to require time to maintain,
    pack, move or dust that could better be spent on something or someone
    else. I’m making a choice each time I handle an item. There will be
    many things I keep. But, my hope is that there will be much I give
    away, sell and throw away, too.   Will I end this year having served my
    ‘things’ or served the Lord by ministering to those He has put along my
    path each and every day.

    Love to you all! May God teach us to redeem our time and days for His glory!

    Georgene

  • Don’t waste your life!

    Boasting Only in the Cross

    By John Piper

    May 20, 2000

     

    Galatians 6:14

    But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord
    Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I
    to the world.

    You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a
    lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great
    things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for
    them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not
    the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by
    a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the
    ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the
    ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you
    don’t have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don’t have to have to have good
    looks or riches; you don’t have to come from a fine family or a fine
    school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious,
    simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.

    But I know that not everybody in this crowd wants your life to make
    a difference. There are hundreds of you – you don’t care whether you
    make a lasting difference for something great, you just want people to
    like you. If people would just like you, you’d be satisfied. Of if you
    could just have good job with a good wife and a couple good kids and a
    nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement,
    and quick and easy death and no hell – if you could have that (minus
    God) – you’d be satisfied. THAT is a tragedy in the making.

    Three weeks ago we got word at our church that Ruby Eliason and
    Laura Edwards had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over 80.
    Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: To make
    Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura
    was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing 80 years old, and serving at
    Ruby’s side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went over the
    cliff, and they were both killed instantly. And I asked my people: was
    that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great vision, spent in
    unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus
    Christ—two decades after almost all their American counterparts have
    retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico.
    No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.

    I tell you what a tragedy is. I’ll read to you from Reader’s Digest
    (Feb. 2000, p. 98) what a tragedy is: “Bob and Penny… took early
    retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was
    59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they
    cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” The
    American Dream: come to the end of your life – your one and only life -
    and let the last great work before you give an account to your Creator,
    be “I collected shells. See my shells.” THAT is a tragedy. And people
    today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that
    tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don’t buy it.

    Don’t waste your life. It is so short and so precious. I grew up in
    a home where my father spent himself as an evangelist to bring the
    gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. He had one consuming vision: Preach
    the gospel. There was a plaque in our kitchen for all my growing up
    years. Now it hangs in our living room. I have looked at it almost
    daily for about 48 years. It says, “Only one life, twill soon be past.
    Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

    I am here at One Day in a sense as a father. I am 54 years old. I
    have four sons and one daughter: Karsten is 27, Benjamin is 24, Abraham
    is 20, Barnabas is 17. Talitha is four. Few things, if any, fill me
    with more longing these months and years than the longing that my grown
    sons not waste their lives on fatal success.

    So I look out on you as sons and daughters and I plead with you as a
    father – perhaps the father you never had. Or the father who never had
    a vision for you like I have for you, and God has for you. Or the
    father who HAS a vision for you, but its all about money and status. I
    look out on you as sons and daughters and I plead with you: Want your
    lives to count for something great and for eternity. Want this. Don’t
    coast through life without a passion.

    One of the reasons I have loved the vision of Passion 98 and Passion
    99 and One Day is that the 268 declaration is so clearly what my life
    is about. The declaration is based on Isaiah 26:8
    - “Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your
    name and renown are the desire of our hearts.” Here is not just a body
    but a soul. Here is not just a soul, but a soul with a passion and a
    desire. Here is not just a desire for being liked or for softball and
    shells, here is a desire for something infinitely great, and infinitely
    beautiful, and infinitely valuable and infinitely satisfying – The name
    and the glory of God – “Your name and your renown are the desire of our
    souls.”

    This is what I live to know and long to experience. The mission
    statement of my life and the church I serve: “We exist – I exist – to
    spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of
    all peoples.”

    You don’t have to say it like I say it. You don’t have to say it
    like Louie Giglio says it (or like Beth Moore says it or like Voddie
    Baucham says it).

    But whatever you do, find your passion and find your way to say it
    and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that
    lasts. You will be like the apostle Paul. Nobody had a more single
    minded vision for his life than Paul did. He could say it in different
    ways.

    Acts 20:24:
    “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if
    only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from
    the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

    One thing mattered: Finish my course, run my race.

    Philippians 3:7-8:
    “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
    Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of
    knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of
    all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.”

    (This is only a portion of this article. The rest can be found on John Piper’s website: http://www.desiringgod.org)

  • Update and a recipe :-)

    Our house is in escrow.  The realtor said it should close by the 31st.  That is fine with us because it gives us a longer time to prepare and pack. We’ve moved most of the boxes we won’t be using on a regular basis into storage.  Our home looks bare but it’s sure easier to clean. We’ve given away a LOT of stuff. I’m hoping once we are actually in our home to go through things again and downsize even more. It’s hard to know what to keep and what to get rid of.  We’re not sure if the Lord will allow us to be in a home again so I don’t want to get rid of everything. 

    Here is a picture of the road leading up to the barn where our little ‘bungalow’ is.

    Bungalow 09 002

    The ‘retreat’ (we’re trying out new names ) is in the barn to the left and this road leads to my aunt’s home. I hope to post pictures once we are settled.

    Bungalow 09 004

    Kevin is doing so much better since he is not working. He is still in pain 24 hours a day but he can rest and change positions often which helps lessen it.  He is back to spending more time in God’s Word. Thank you, Lord! We received his first disability paperwork this weekend and spent quite a few hours filling it out. Our prayer (will you pray with us?) is that his case will have favor with whoever is processing it and that he will be approved within this next year. God is able!

    *~*~*

    I have some extra cans of pumpkin and needed a dish to take to a funeral this past Saturday so I made Pumpkin Spice Bars. It’s a family favorite.

    Love to you all and thank you for your prayers!

    Pumpkin Spice Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

    4 eggs
    2 c. sugar
    1 c. veg. oil
    1 can (16oz.) pumpkin
    2 c. flour
    2 tsp. baking powder
    2 tsp. ground cinnamon
    1 t. baking soda
    3/4 tsp. salt
    1/2 tsp. ground ginger
    1/4 tsp. ground cloves
    1/2 cup raisins (optional)
    1/2 cup nuts

    Bake 350 degrees in jelly roll pan (15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1 in). I don’t have a jelly roll pan so I use a standard cookie sheet pan.

    Beat eggs sugar, oil and pumpkin. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour in pan. Bake until light brown apprx. 25-30 minutes. Let cool.

    Cream Cheese Frosting

    3 oz. cream cheese softened
    1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. margarine, softened
    1 tsp. vanilla

    Gradually beat in 2 c. powdered sugar(sifted) until frosting is smooth and spreading consistency.

    I like to sprinkle crushed walnuts on top after the cake is frosted.

  • God is supplying our needs

    I am so enjoying my study on the names of God. How rich, full and personal this study is turning out to be!  I’m finding that the Lord is using His Names to increase my faith during this season of so many changes in our lives.

    A few weeks ago I started studying the name, El Shaddai.  The name literally means ‘God- the breasted One’.  Any mother who has breastfed her children will immediately understand this definition. She knows that her child depends on the nourishment from her breast to supply all of her needs.  This is the meaning behind El Shaddai. ‘El’ means power and ‘shad’ means ‘ breast’ (or more specifically a ‘woman’s breast’).

    Last Sunday, God made Himself known to me as El Shaddai  through the generosity of two of our dear friends. We had decided  to stay home from church (a rarity in our lives) because my husband had been in extreme back pain the day before and had to be given a morphine shot in his hip. He was still dealing with quite a bit of pain the next morning even though it had lessened. The minute I got up and checked my email I saw that my friend Yvonne was waiting for me. She wanted to know if she and her husband could come and help us pack and move. Boy, could they!!!

    I remember coming home from taking my husband to the Dr. the night before and crying out to God, “Lord, my husband will not be able to help me do anything else on this move because of his back! How will I ever get everything moved and packed on my own? Yet, I know you will provide and I’m trusting you!” And He did!

    Between the two of them and my son helping on the last move we made 5 loads. My daughter and daughter-in-love and my mother have offered to come help this week. And then several other friends offered their help along with trailers and moving trucks plus one dear friend has brought me several loads of boxes.

    What a faith-builder! What a God! He has provided AGAIN!  These acts of provision draw my heart closer and closer to my gracious, gracious God.

    Oh, how I love Him!

    *~*~*

    This is a picture of my first grandchild as an infant! Joshua’s head now reaches the top of my shoulder (and Grammy’s hair is much more gray)!

    Grammy sleeping with Joshua

  • Are we willing to do with less in order to give more?

    I pray that God will continue to change my Americanized view of money to reflect what the bible teaches about our possessions and our money. Hard lessons to learn but oh.. so rich.. so valuable!

    Go deep, dear Lord! Please make it a lasting change in my heart that I would value your kingdom above all that I own or desire.