In the meantime

I just finished reading Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung.  After Isaac finished it, he made the comment that “it would be hypocritical to say ‘that was a good book’ and not proceed to then immerse oneself in the Bible.”  And it is true: This little book elevates the sufficiency, clarity, authority,and necessity of the Bible to such an extent that you cannot miss the point that the Bible is the Word of God and as such, we would do well to make reading it and studying it the ultimate priority in our lives ! DeYoung says, “Only in Scripture do we encounter the fullness of God’s self-disclosure.” (page 116) Furthermore, “…Scripture carries all the weight of divine authority because it comes entirely from divine origination.  And this is true for all Scripture.  Every book, every chapter, every line, every word—all of it is breathed out by God.  Not just the obviously theological parts.  Not just the memorable stuff.  Not just the parts...

“If we learn to read the Bible down (into our hearts), across (the plot line of Scripture), out (to the end of the story), and up(to the glory of God in the face of Christ), we will find that every bit of the Bible is profitable for us.  To affirm the sufficiency of Scripture is not to suggest that the Bible tells us everything we want to know about everything, but it does tell us everything we need to know about what matters most.  Scripture does not give exhaustive information on every subject, but in every subject on which it speaks, it says only what is true.  And in its truth we have enough knowledge to                                                           turn from sin, find a Savior, make good decisions, please God, and get to the root of our deepest problems.”  ( Taking God At His Word , by Kevin DeYoung...

In case you want to trace the theme of Christ as Creator and the First and the Last, as well as Christ having attributes that pertain only to God, here are the passages that came up as I studied (and I know this isn't an exhaustive list on the subject): - Exodus 23:20-23 – only God can forgive sins (read also Luke 7:47-50 & Mark 2:5-12) - Isaiah 48:12-16 – The Creator is the First and the Last.  He is sent by the LORD God and His Spirit.  - Jeremiah 23:5-6 – The LORD says that one is coming who will be called “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”  A quick scan of Revelation reveals abundant testimony concerning Christ, the First and the Last, the Eternal One: - Revelation 1:4-8 - Revelation 1:10-11, 17-18 - Revelation 4:8-11 - Revelation 11:15-17 - Revelation 14:7 - Revelation 16:5-7 - Revelation 19:1-2 & 11 - Revelation 21:6 - Revelation 22:12-13 & 20 Be encouraged and challenged by the truth of God’s Word!  

“Jesus is not equal to God.” “Jesus has a God.” “The Spirit and Jesus and Jehovah are equal and one?” These are the statements and questions that were recently posed to me by a Jehovah’s Witness.  Without a shadow of doubt, I believe Christ is God.  I believe He is the Son of God.  I believe He is equal with God.  Yet sometimes it is hard to defend what I believe in such a way that it is clear and concise.  This morning I started down a trail of references in search of what the Bible says about Christ being God.  Colossians 1:16 declares Christ to be the creator of all things.   Jehovah’s Witnesses agree that Christ created all things (yet insist that Christ Himself was also created.) Anyway, let’s lay aside this point of disagreement and focus on Christ as Creator .  Isaiah 48:13 reveals One who says “ Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens.” Looking back one verse to see exactl...

(Again, am finally getting around to posting what has been a draft in my draft files for quite some time!)  Just admit it: Life is about expectations.  We all have them, whether they are good or bad. We have expectations of ourselves and expectations of others.  There are certain expectations of events and businesses. Our employers have expectations of us, their employees.  The list could go on. Some expectations we don’t even realize we have.  That is, until they aren’t met. When this happens, something else happens.  And sometimes, that something else is not always a good thing. (In other words, we sin because of it.) I was rudely reminded of this recently when I discovered that plans I had for some Christmas projects were not working out like I was expecting them to.  Add to that the general expectation of what “Celebrating Christmas” is supposed to look, feel, sound, and even taste like, and  Christmas this year just hasn’t been ...

 I mentioned in my previous post a few favorite Christmas foods, so here are a couple of the recipes! ************************************************ Up until a couple weeks ago, I thought it was normal to make your own summer sausage.  Only after Isaac expressed much surprise at the fact that I had actually just made summer sausage did I realize that it must just be something that you do when you live in Brazil and you don’t have summer sausage readily available at the store!  This recipe is what I grew up with and has always been my favorite kind of summer sausage!  I had never made it myself until this year but it is so incredibly easy that anyone can do it! Summer Sausage 2 lbs. ground hamburger 2 T. Morton’s tender quick (can be found in the grocery store next to regular table salt) 2 t. black pepper 1/8 t. garlic powder or garlic cloves 1 ½ t. liquid smoke ½ t. mustard seeds ¼ c. water (If the hamburger is exceptionally lean, add 1-2...

(I wrote this post a while before Christmas, but never got around to posting it until now.)  This is now our second Christmas together since we got married.  Neither of us are die-hard “traditional-ists,” so we are still figuring out what exactly “Celebrating Christmas” looks like for us. Isaac did not bring any particular Christmas tradition to our marriage. I, on the other hand, do have a few things that I look back on as a part of how we celebrated Christmas growing up: - Making a big batch of peppernuts soon after Thanksgiving is a must in order for it to “feel” like Christmas! - Almond toast, Grandma Lehrman’s cheese ball, Christmas punch, and home-made summer sausage also come to mind.  - My family did do a gift-exchange.  While at times it did feel like it was easy for it to become all about the gifts, I do remember always reading the Christmas story Christmas Eve before ever opening any presents.  Reading the Christmas Story is a must! - In Bra...

I recently read an article about two kinds of blogs: there is the kind that has all original material and then there is the kind that uses the blogspot as an avenue to share what other people have already come up with.  “Aha!” I thought, “Maybe that is my problem: I keep trying to come up with original posts that have some unique perspective to shed on the particular subject at hand, when instead, I could just share stuff that other people have already posted!”  (Maybe that’s cheating, but I don’t care…what rules about blogging are there to cheat on anyway?) So with that in mind, here are a few blogs that I enjoy checking their latest post: I stumbled across Courtney Reissig’s blog a while ago and it is like a breath of fresh air.  Although I can’t exactly put a finger on how or why, her writing resonates with my soul.  She writes about girly stuff (also known as womanhood, femininity, wife-hood, ministry-hood, motherhood) without being too girly about it...