In the meantime

I don’t really want to write a review or summary of this book.  However, I would like to share a little of what I took away from it, now that I finished it.  In short, it was a really good book. Kevin DeYoung’s style of writing is easy to follow, being spiritually meaty, while at the same time, not too deep for the average person. Bottom line, now that I’ve finished the book, I’ve been challenged in the area of growing in holiness in “the little things:” obedience and holiness begins there.  We all know that if we get enough small things together, they become big. Very related to holiness is the matter of abiding in Christ and having communion with Him. I know…I’ve heard all the facts and passed all the theology exams in school, but the dots are only now slowly connecting on how exactly I am to abide in Him. For starters, the statement “ We obey as we abide and abide as we obey” (pg. 127) is simplistic yet profound. And it helped me to understand...

Unlike my husband, I am a slow and very un-dedicated reader.  However, I have started reading “The Hole in Our Holiness”  by Kevin DeYoung (Wheaton, Illinois:Crossway, 2012) and already it has been a challenging read! I don’t know about you, but for me, when I think about being holy, it always seems like something that is far beyond my spiritual grasp. Something that I’ll never quite reach.  Maybe it is because I like to have things detailed and concrete; I like to know exactly what holiness is supposed to look like in my life (but obviously [and thankfully!], the Bible doesn’t list it off as if it were a checklist to complete.) The last chapter that I read from DeYoung’s book, however, was particularly encouraging and challenging.  He made several points that brought home to me the necessity and the “grasp-ability” of holiness in the believer’s life. 1.  The Bible is full of examples of believers being declared upright and godly, walking blamelessly ...

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...

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...