girltalk Blog
Your mom always told you not to wait until the last minute to do something. Well, Mom’s special day is coming up fast and in honor of Mother’s Day we are running an earlybird sale over at the 52home store. For a limited time enter the code “mom” (not so original, but easy to remember) at checkout to receive 25% off your entire order. This sale ends one week from today on April 26th. Order now and you can make your mom proud and happy!
6:20 p.m.
52home
While walking the church basement halls last Sunday with a loud little boy who wasn’t able to attend nursery due to sickness, I ran into another mom doing the same with her (not so loud) little girl. We chatted for a minute, laughing about the challenges of Sunday mornings with little ones and the many missed sermons and times of worship. Then she marveled at the day and age we live in—that the very sermon we were missing would only be a click away on our computer the next morning. I was reminded afresh of the wealth of biblical resources at our fingertips.
Over the past couple of years, as I have found it more challenging to find long stretches of time to read (for 3 little sweet obvious reasons), so I have begun to incorporate sermon listening into my daily routine. The options are endless. For starters just check out the Sovereign Grace store, Gospel Coalition, and Desiring God websites and you will find hundreds of sermons just waiting for your mp3 player.
This morning, while attacking my bedroom floor with the vacuum and mop, I listened to Kevin DeYoung’s sermon from T4G entitled “Spirit-Powered, Gospel-Driven, Faith-Feuled Effort.” It was the perfect message for the job, since my floor was greatly in need of some effort driven by the Spirit’s power. Me (and my floor) were greatly blessed and challenged by his message and I’m so grateful that technology allows me to bring T4G right into my home—and I didn’t even have to get out of my pjs!
So consider adding sermon listening to your daily routine and begin with Kevin’s message. Your floor will thank you.
4:37 p.m. Nourishment for the soul.
52home
I won’t admit to you how many years it has been since I attended the Next conference. It makes me feel my age and I have intentionally forgotten how old I am. But I will tell you that I am still reaping the blessings of that conference in my life today. And there are people all over the country and the world that could say the same. I know them.
There is the girl who came as a non-Christian and left regenerated. She wrote me after the conference to tell me that she had joined a wonderful, gospel-preaching church.
There is the girl who was convicted of lying to her parents and went home and told them the truth.
There is the young man who was ignited with a fire for the local church and the gospel. And I know all about him because I have been happily married to him for the past eleven years.
What is most unique about this conference is that it is more about what happens the other 362 days of the year. The Next conference isn’t about three days of spiritual high but about year round, faithful, grace-enabled service in the local church. And it is this message that continues to shape and inspire my life today.
I don’t want anyone who is still young enough to attend to miss out on this conference. This year more than ever! The conference is being led by Dad and Bob Kauflin and speakers include Kevin DeYoung and Matt Chandler. The theme is You + The Church.
So today, thanks to the kind folks at Next, we have FIVE free registrations (for a single or a married couple) to give away! To win you need to do at leat one of the following:
1. Facebook - like the Next page on fb and post a link to the Next website on your fb page.
2. Twitter - tweet about the Next conference.
3. Blog - write a blog post about the Next conference.
Then simply email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and send us a link to your blog or tell us that you have posted on fb or twitter (we’ll just use the honor system here). You must email us by midnight on Thursday evening and on Friday morning we will choose five random winners.
I can’t wait to hear the life changing stories that will be written this year!
5:43 p.m. Breakfast for dinner.
52home
In our greatest troubles, it often seems as if God has turned His face away. As if He doesn’t see, as if He doesn’t care to see.
And so we cry out as David did, “Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love” (Ps. 6:4). And we ask for the faith that concludes before it sees: “The Lord has heard my pleas; the LORD accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment” (Ps. 6:9-10).
Turn, O Lord and deliver us. And cause our enemies to turn back.
But no answer do we hear. No turning do we see. Or so it seems.
Until we return to the cross.
At the cross, our Heavenly Father turned away from His beloved Son. He did not hear His Son’s pleas. He did not turn back His Son’s enemies. He crushed His Son to fulfill the promise He gave to us through the prophets: “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me” (Jer. 32:40).
God has not turned away from us in our trouble. He will not turn away. We deserve to have Him turn away from us forever, but He turned away from His Son instead—so that He might not turn away from doing good to us.
And what is that good? It is the fear of God. It is the grace that keeps us from turning away from Him.
This turning, our turning away from God is the greatest tragedy, our greatest trial. And in all our trials, it is this turning that God is working to prevent. He is turning back our greatest enemy of all: sin. He is making sure we do not turn from Him, that we might always bask in the light of His face.
Truly, the Lord has heard my pleas.
10:11 a.m. At least he changed them!
52home
“That’s how God works. He gets at our most fundamental idolatry and He ruthlessly crushes it in His unfathomable love and fatherly kindness and inscrutable wisdom and He goes after our greatest treasures and He leaves us with nothing but himself so that we go limping on our way for the rest of our lives having learned: ‘My grace is sufficient for you for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Don’t underestimate God. Don’t underestimate His ruthless compassionate gracious commitment to His glory or His commitment to your everlasting joy and good. He will pursue you graciously and ruthlessly and rip out the idols of your soul that would otherwise consume you. He is working for your joy and your good even when you cannot perceive it and have ceased to be able to feel anything anymore.” ~Ligon Duncan, The Underestimated God, T4G 2012
3:49 p.m. Mommy, come play with us!
52home
Page 102 of 356 pages ‹ First < 100 101 102 103 104 > Last ›
