SGM Free Downloads

If you are not already aware, Sovereign Grace Ministries are now serving us with free downloads of all their talks. My husband and I are quite excited by this and have started to listen to a few together. So far we can recommend a talk given by Danny Jones on The Leaders Home. If you are involved in pastoral ministry, especially starting out, this is a must listen to.

Readers of this blog will particularly want to check out such talks on biblical manhood and womanhood, as well as on parenting, being single and married. There's loads to choose from, or why not work your way through them all?!! So switch off that TV and feed your soul!

Two Great Sermons

Today I'd like to recommend two excellent sermons preached at our home church yesterday. To say the least, I was very challenged.

Firstly, our senior pastor preached from Jeremiah 32, "Investing in God's Future." In the passage, God instructs Jeremiah to buy a field when all others are trying to get shot of their property as Judah is under siege by the Babylonians. I am left this morning meditating on whether everyday life for me is spent investing in God's future? Is most of my financial, leisure, family and church life spent investing only in the here and now or do I heed God's Word and obey that it might have an eternal, future impact?

Secondly, our Assistant Pastor preached from Luke's Gospel taking us through the account of the transfiguration and following passages of Jesus' interaction with the disciples. "Visions of Glory & Delusions of Grandeur" has also left me meditating today on how I can become more cross-focused rather than glory-focussed.

To really appreciate what I mean you'll need to have a listen in. Both sermons were expositionally top notch, but even more so highly practical and challenging. You can access both below.

"Investing in God's Future" by Peter Grainger
"Visions of Glory & Delusions of Grandeur" by James Anderson

From One Weary Mum to Another...

Over these last few months it seems that there has been very little time to fix my hair or clean my teeth in the morning, never mind blog. With the recent birth of our third child and the decorating and moving to a new house, daily habits and disciplines have gone by the wayside and life has become more than crazy. On top of all this, it seems that our delightful two year old daughter has now decided to live up to the "terrible twos" syndrome and my four year old has entered a phase of talking back and arguing.

Last night I found myself describing to my husband how 'weary' I had become in being a mother and how disheartened I found myself in the struggles of each day. However, there are always glimpses of hope and encouragement that come at the right time. To know that others go through the same experiences as I do reminds me that I'm not a terrible mum and that my kids are not the only ones who drive their parents to their knees. And so, if you are facing similar days (and I know you are) then I recommend this past weeks posts over at Girltalk:

• A Coronary Mom
• He Sees
• A Content Mom
• A Joyful Mom
  

Matters of the Heart

I'm not sure if any of you are reading along with Girltalk, Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart by John Ensor. This past week I was particularly struck by something they said in relation to women who are preoccupied with trying to get the attention of the men around them. "Allow a man to win your heart, and if he doesn’t want to, then why would you want him?" This is something I wished I heard many years ago as I feebly attempted to catch the eye of a suitable male. And so I want to share this thought with all our single friends and readers. Here is how John Ensor puts it in his book:

Sisters, all the advice from Vogue, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan that talks about going after and getting your man, all the blather about how in this day and age it is just as acceptable for you to initiate as for him, is just that—blather. Be confident and trust your feelings on this matter. Be confident that if he is the man you hope and wish him to be, he will play the man. You crackle the leaves a bit when he is in the area and let him know you are there. Then wait for him to initiate, or not. In the long run, you will be well served either way.

Love the skin you're in?

You may be familiar with the latest advertising campaign from Dove beauty products, the "Campaign for Natural Beauty". Amongst other things, they are encouraging women to throw off society's expectation that women should be a certain dress size and strive to look a certain way. The slogan of the campaign is "Love the skin you're in". I don't disagree with the sentiment that women should be happy with how they are and not spend an inordinate amount of time and money in an attempt to conform with how the models in magazines and on billboards look. However, I suspect that what lies behind the slogan (as well as a team of shrewd marketing experts) is a belief that self-love is the key to happiness in life.

But that is not a biblical view of love, or of our purpose in life. John Piper puts it well in his book Don't Waste Your Life:

For most people, to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distortion of love. We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone's self esteem. Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees.

This is not what the bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction. We are made to see and savour God- and savouring him, to be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors.

Family Driven Faith

My husband and I have been reading together Voddie Baucham's book, Family Driven Faith. Today I'm going to let Colin do the hard work for us (since I'm still adjusting to middle of the night feeds and endless washing!) in the form of a book review he wrote for Discerning Reader. You can also read an interview he conducted with Voddie about his book here.

“There are many worthwhile pursuits in this world", admits Voddie Baucham Jr, "but few of them rise to the level of training our children to follow the Lord and keep His commandments." Then the author’s convictions literally burst through the pages: "I desperately want my sons and daughters to walk with God, and I am willing to do whatever it takes, whatever the Bible says I must do in order to be used by God as a means to that end.”

But what will it take to do 'whatever the Bible says' with regards training our children to walk with God? This is the question that Family Driven Faith - a sane, insightful, and at times provocative volume - seeks to address. Baucham's answer is that the Christian community must return to the ‘biblical’ vision of parenting: a vision that entrusts parents with prime responsibility for nurturing their children's faith and enlists the 'home' as the strategic location for that training.

Baucham's sketch of this biblical vision is articulated winsomely and presented logically. The opening two chapters (“The Lay of the Land” and “A God with No Rivals”) offer a diagnosis of contemporary parenting troubles – not least in the church – and in particular addresses the root malady of 'idolatry.' This all too common ailment within the walls of Christian homes and hearts is often nurtured by parents, who encourage their children to pursue the gods of Sports, Academic Achievement and Money.

For a remedy, chapters 3 and 4 prescribe a good dose of Deuteronomy 6. Through Moses speech to the Israelites on the verge of the Promised Land centuries ago, parents today are reminded of their twin priorities. First, they must love God with all their hearts; and second, love their neighbor as themselves. Of course, this must all be a genuine devotion to God's glory and our family's ‘neighbour’s welfare - not heart hypocrisy - as chapter 4 goes on to warn us.

If all of this seems too abstract, chapters 5 through 8 get down to the nitty-gritty. What does a home free of idols, committed to loving God and each other really look like? Baucham responds that the home should be a place where parents are 'teaching' (ch 5) and 'living the word' (ch 6), where family worship is central (ch 7), and where wealth, achievement and status are peripheral (ch 8).

Naturally, since Baucham is considering biological family as the driving force for child-faith development, it is only lastly (ch 9-10) that he addresses how this vision might impact upon the church family. What would our churches look like if 'multi generational faithfulness' were the priority of parents as well as pastors? And what are the obstacles that must be overcome to getting there?

All throughout these ten chapters of captivating melody, Baucham strikes many intriguing notes – notes which could easily sound the departure for books in their own right:

· the necessary pre-eminence of the husband-wife relationship over that of parent-child.

· the subtle, yet increasingly prevalent anti-child culture within the modern day church ('You have how many children?!!')

· the odious threat of legalism within families who practice family devotions; or

· the urgent need for churches to take seriously the biblical qualification for leaders of managing 'the household well' (how many search committees inquire about the quality of a prospective pastor's family devotions?)

In addition, some of Baucham's points are bound to be downright contentious with some. Most controversial is his conviction that the a-typical, age-segregated, church youth ministry often mitigates against the biblical approach of parents taking prime responsibility for their child’s spiritual development. Furthermore, Baucham lifts the lid on the discordant subject of home-schooling, challenging the Christian community to either adopt this approach in greater numbers, or at least show more sympathy toward those who employ it.

Whether you agree with Baucham or not on these matters, one thing you will appreciate is his candid dialog with would-be objectors. All the ideas in Family Driven Faith have been road-tested over many years and seminars before finally being committed to print. The author truly has heard your objections and frequently offers counterpoints to them throughout the book.

This apologetic approach, along with the practical suggestions at the end of each chapter, makes Family Driven Faith an excellent ‘discussion starter’ among parents about marking out their homes as ‘God's territory.’ If we take Baucham seriously, it may also be a serious point of departure for church leaders, as they seek to think biblically about the discipleship of children. For Baucham's central point cannot be easily parried. Scripture does call for parents to take responsibility for training their children in righteousness. The biblical vision for children is not primarily a church driven faith, but a family-driven one.

But will the contemporary church continue to ignore this obvious fact? Or will Baucham's biblical prescription increasingly shape the pattern of church ministry in the years to come?

Baby News!

Just to let you all know that Nicki and her husband Colin are the proud parents of a new baby girl, Grace Sarah Margaret, born at 2pm today and weighing in at an impressive 10lb 3oz. Everyone is doing well!

Children's Pastor

I have a little advert today. Charlotte Baptist Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland (my church fellowship) is looking for a Pastor with responsibilities for Children and Youth. We are looking high and low for an experienced invididual with a passion for children’s ministry; someone with an ability to provide shape and direction to our whole ministry. The role will involve some ministry with the children directly but even more so it will be working alongside a large number of dedicated children’s leaders, equipping them for their work of service. Our city-centre location provides a great opportunity and we have several hundred children who come in and around our church on Friday evenings (uniformed organisations), Saturdays and Sundays.

So, if you know of anyone who might possibly fit the bill, please do contact my husband and he can send you further information. It may be that someone on the other side of the pond would be eminently suitable.

Rev. Colin Adams
Associate Pastor
Charlotte Baptist Chapel
colin@charlottechapel.org
(UK) 0131 225 4812

Don't Waste this Opportunity!

If you are anything like me and enjoy books and a good bargain then this is for you.

On June 27th-28th, Wednesday and Thursday of next week, Desiring God are selling online, all their books for $5 a piece. No limits! See you there! Don't waste this opportunity!