"The home and children are not in the way, keeping women from 'ministry'. They are the ideal vehicle for a ministry to families, and every woman in the church has the opportunity for this kind of full-time work. Family ministry is badly needed in the West with the breakdown of the family unit. So many young people have never experienced a loving family and have no models."
Miniskirts, Mothers & Muslims by Christine A. Mallouhi, married to an Arab Christian, having lived in many different Muslim cultures, with a heart for the gospel.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Don't let the devil do the defining.
Here is an exciting (Biblical) definition of marriage from So Much More by Anna Sofia Botkin and Elizabeth Botkin:
"Marriage is about dominion. It's about filling the earth and subduing it. Marriage is about two people of different abilities and roles becoming one flesh, sharing one life and one vision, so that the two will complement each other and complete each other....Marriage isn't where your ministry stops so that you can play house and play family. Marriage is where your new ministry starts, where you become, in a sense, the queen of a little kingdom where you rule with your husband as God's vice-gerents, working together extending the kingdom, subduing the earth, properly managing its resources, and discipling the nations."
"Marriage is about dominion. It's about filling the earth and subduing it. Marriage is about two people of different abilities and roles becoming one flesh, sharing one life and one vision, so that the two will complement each other and complete each other....Marriage isn't where your ministry stops so that you can play house and play family. Marriage is where your new ministry starts, where you become, in a sense, the queen of a little kingdom where you rule with your husband as God's vice-gerents, working together extending the kingdom, subduing the earth, properly managing its resources, and discipling the nations."
Toward Delicious Prayer
In 1974 Banner of Truth reprinted Austin Phelps excellent book on prayer called The Still Hour or Communion with God. They said it was the best they had found on the subject. Phelps longs for prayer to be delicious to his readers. If it is not, it is not God's fault.
Be ready for some self-examination. For example, Phelps says:
Many of the prime objects of prayer enchant us only in the distance. Brought near to us, and in concrete forms,...they very sensibly abate the pulse of our longing to possess them, because we cannot but discover that, to realize them in our lives, certain other darling objects must be sacrificed, which we are not yet willing to part with. The paradox is true to the life, that a man may even fear an answer to his prayers.
For example, a Christian who is a lover of ease prays for a "spirit of self-denial; that he may endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ; that he may take up the cross and follow Christ....." But, says Phelps, conscience pricks him. He is not willing to be like Him who had no place to lay his head. And so his prayer "collapses."
This book is less than 100 pages. If you long for prayer to be delicious, consider letting Phelps be the tool to plow your heart toward that sweet end.
Be ready for some self-examination. For example, Phelps says:
Many of the prime objects of prayer enchant us only in the distance. Brought near to us, and in concrete forms,...they very sensibly abate the pulse of our longing to possess them, because we cannot but discover that, to realize them in our lives, certain other darling objects must be sacrificed, which we are not yet willing to part with. The paradox is true to the life, that a man may even fear an answer to his prayers.
For example, a Christian who is a lover of ease prays for a "spirit of self-denial; that he may endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ; that he may take up the cross and follow Christ....." But, says Phelps, conscience pricks him. He is not willing to be like Him who had no place to lay his head. And so his prayer "collapses."
This book is less than 100 pages. If you long for prayer to be delicious, consider letting Phelps be the tool to plow your heart toward that sweet end.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Define "Friendship" please.
Okay, so our daughter Ruth wants to listen to a sermon by Mark Driscoll on Friendship from his series on Proverbs while I am blogging -- and I consent. I am sure glad I did.
Ill-defined relationships are stressful. Gather the family and take 50 minutes to listen. Maybe on a Sunday afternoon. For one thing, it may keep your children from wasting their lives befriending (and perhaps marrying) people who are simply using them and intend no good toward them. I also found his discussion of "friendshift" extremely helpful.
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/proverbs-2009/friendship
Ill-defined relationships are stressful. Gather the family and take 50 minutes to listen. Maybe on a Sunday afternoon. For one thing, it may keep your children from wasting their lives befriending (and perhaps marrying) people who are simply using them and intend no good toward them. I also found his discussion of "friendshift" extremely helpful.
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/proverbs-2009/friendship
More Flavel on Sinful Fear
Puritan John Flavel has this further so say about causes of sinful fear:
"Another cause and fountain of sinful fear, is guilt upon the conscience. A servant of sin cannot but first or last, be a slave of fear; and they that have done evil, cannot choose but expect evil."
Proverbs says "He who covers his sin will not prosper, but he who confesses his sin will find mercy." I would add "which includes freedom from sinful fear."
"Another cause and fountain of sinful fear, is guilt upon the conscience. A servant of sin cannot but first or last, be a slave of fear; and they that have done evil, cannot choose but expect evil."
Proverbs says "He who covers his sin will not prosper, but he who confesses his sin will find mercy." I would add "which includes freedom from sinful fear."
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Prayer for the New School Year
Oh, Lord, we are weak with many failures and temptations. What shall induce us to get up, dust off the seat of our pants, pick up our pack and head up the road?
We remember past failings -- lack of discipline, heartless prayer, careless words, idolatrous, envious, covetous hearts, thoughtless eating and drinking, a grumbling spirit and an unwillingness to lay down our lives for you and others. Forgive us. Help us to remember our sin. We soon forget and strut like roosters making ourselves a legend in our own minds.
Having no basis for confidence in self, let us put our confidence in you. You came for sinners and when we give ourselves to you, we are changed. By your grace we are not old dogs unable to learn new tricks. Give grace to count and order our days for you -- relishing prayer, choosing words seasoned with salt, growing in single-hearted love for you, brimming with thankfulness to you and consciously glorifying you in our eating, drinking, scrubbing and studying.
Give us to see that if we are yours, we are sons of the King with a high, holy and exciting calling. And because of that, give us -- like Nehemiah -- to resist all distractions and the temptation to run and hide out of fear. Cheer our hearts on the road. Defend us in the battle.
We remember past failings -- lack of discipline, heartless prayer, careless words, idolatrous, envious, covetous hearts, thoughtless eating and drinking, a grumbling spirit and an unwillingness to lay down our lives for you and others. Forgive us. Help us to remember our sin. We soon forget and strut like roosters making ourselves a legend in our own minds.
Having no basis for confidence in self, let us put our confidence in you. You came for sinners and when we give ourselves to you, we are changed. By your grace we are not old dogs unable to learn new tricks. Give grace to count and order our days for you -- relishing prayer, choosing words seasoned with salt, growing in single-hearted love for you, brimming with thankfulness to you and consciously glorifying you in our eating, drinking, scrubbing and studying.
Give us to see that if we are yours, we are sons of the King with a high, holy and exciting calling. And because of that, give us -- like Nehemiah -- to resist all distractions and the temptation to run and hide out of fear. Cheer our hearts on the road. Defend us in the battle.
Why Christians have Sinful Fear.
Puritan John Flavel goes on to discuss why Christians have sinful fear. I will share four things we are ignorant of that make us afraid.
We are ignorant of God -- his "Almighty Power, vigilant care, unspotted faithfulness,and how they are all engaged, by covenant, for his people."
A second cause is ignorance of men; we "over-value" them. We forget that they can only do to us what God allows and that "it is usual with God to cramp their hands, and clap on the bands of restraint upon them, when their hearts are fully set in them to do mischief."
Third, we are ignorant of ourselves and our relationship to God. Assuredly, we are VERY DEAR to him, but we doubt it often.
In a time of bloody persecution Tertullian said to the Christians: "Art thou afraid of a man, O Christian! when devils are afraid of thee..." And Flavel says "O that we could, without pride and vanity, but value ourselves duly, according to our Christian dignities and privileges, which, if ever it be necessary to count over and value, it is in such times of danger and fear, when the heart is so prone to dejection and sinking fears."
Fourth, we are ignorant of our dangers and troubles. We fear that there will be no comfort in the danger and no escape from it. I can't do better than quote Flavel on it: "There is a vast odds betwixt the outward appearance and face of trouble, and the inside of it; it is a lion to the eye at a distance, but open it, and there is honey in the belly. Paul and Silas met that in a prison which made them to sing at mid-night, and so have many more since their day."
These truths put steel in the Christian and can carry us in the times we are filled with fear and tempted to turn back. Maybe these choice truths will induce you to read the Puritans on your own. I have never regretted doing so. The Puritans trembled at God's Word. Drinking from them is drinking very close to the source of the stream.
We are ignorant of God -- his "Almighty Power, vigilant care, unspotted faithfulness,and how they are all engaged, by covenant, for his people."
A second cause is ignorance of men; we "over-value" them. We forget that they can only do to us what God allows and that "it is usual with God to cramp their hands, and clap on the bands of restraint upon them, when their hearts are fully set in them to do mischief."
Third, we are ignorant of ourselves and our relationship to God. Assuredly, we are VERY DEAR to him, but we doubt it often.
In a time of bloody persecution Tertullian said to the Christians: "Art thou afraid of a man, O Christian! when devils are afraid of thee..." And Flavel says "O that we could, without pride and vanity, but value ourselves duly, according to our Christian dignities and privileges, which, if ever it be necessary to count over and value, it is in such times of danger and fear, when the heart is so prone to dejection and sinking fears."
Fourth, we are ignorant of our dangers and troubles. We fear that there will be no comfort in the danger and no escape from it. I can't do better than quote Flavel on it: "There is a vast odds betwixt the outward appearance and face of trouble, and the inside of it; it is a lion to the eye at a distance, but open it, and there is honey in the belly. Paul and Silas met that in a prison which made them to sing at mid-night, and so have many more since their day."
These truths put steel in the Christian and can carry us in the times we are filled with fear and tempted to turn back. Maybe these choice truths will induce you to read the Puritans on your own. I have never regretted doing so. The Puritans trembled at God's Word. Drinking from them is drinking very close to the source of the stream.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
