Kids
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
16months old
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
True Biblical Love
By Susan Kinley
With Valentine's day coming up I have been thinking a lot about love and how so many of us have a very misrepresented idea of what love is. I know I personally use to think the flowers, dinner, romance, surprises, affection, and everything else were what defined real love. Brian and I have been reading a chapter of 1 Corinthians together each night. Last night we were in the most known text in the book, 1 Corinthians 13. Over the last couple years of being married to Brian I have grown so much in my knowledge and understanding of these widely known and used texts.
Lets look at the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
God's definition of love has absolutely nothing to do with my needs, my wants, my desires, it also has nothing to do with the flower, the gifts, the kisses, the surprises, or any of the above. A marriage that is made up of two people with their own expectations is a recipe for disaster because someone is always disappointed and wanting and expecting more. A book I used to think was a must for marriages is the Five Love Languages. It makes me sad that churches and believers are so drawn to a book that has nothing to do with scripture and the love God has intended for our marriages. I spent so much of my pre-Christian years watching Hollywood romance movies and dreaming of the man that would sweep me off my feet with banners in the sky proclaiming his love and roses scattered throughout my entire house and not a single fight ever!
The love Brian has taught me is a true biblical love. He loves me in a way that is patient when I am not, he is kind when I am angry, he truly does bear all things, believes all things hopes for all things, and endures all things in our marriage. I love him so much for his biblical love because he draws me closer the the Lord each day. Yes he buys me bouquet of beautiful flowers , and he plans surprises for special occasions, and he writes me sweet love letters every day, but that is not what draws me to this man I married. I hear so many wives talk about how they wish their husbands were more this way and that way but it is never about the ways the man can be Godly or live that out. Of course there are times a friend of mine will tell me all of these romantic things there husband has done and for a minute or two I will find myself envious and then I am drawn back to these verses and remind myself of God's purpose for my marriage and what He has intended for us!
What joy there is when we look outside of ourselves and look to serve and love others whole heartily. I pray to love my husband this Valentine's Day and every day as Christ show's His love for us.
With Valentine's day coming up I have been thinking a lot about love and how so many of us have a very misrepresented idea of what love is. I know I personally use to think the flowers, dinner, romance, surprises, affection, and everything else were what defined real love. Brian and I have been reading a chapter of 1 Corinthians together each night. Last night we were in the most known text in the book, 1 Corinthians 13. Over the last couple years of being married to Brian I have grown so much in my knowledge and understanding of these widely known and used texts.
Lets look at the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
DEFINITION OF GODLY LOVE
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
God's definition of love has absolutely nothing to do with my needs, my wants, my desires, it also has nothing to do with the flower, the gifts, the kisses, the surprises, or any of the above. A marriage that is made up of two people with their own expectations is a recipe for disaster because someone is always disappointed and wanting and expecting more. A book I used to think was a must for marriages is the Five Love Languages. It makes me sad that churches and believers are so drawn to a book that has nothing to do with scripture and the love God has intended for our marriages. I spent so much of my pre-Christian years watching Hollywood romance movies and dreaming of the man that would sweep me off my feet with banners in the sky proclaiming his love and roses scattered throughout my entire house and not a single fight ever!
The love Brian has taught me is a true biblical love. He loves me in a way that is patient when I am not, he is kind when I am angry, he truly does bear all things, believes all things hopes for all things, and endures all things in our marriage. I love him so much for his biblical love because he draws me closer the the Lord each day. Yes he buys me bouquet of beautiful flowers , and he plans surprises for special occasions, and he writes me sweet love letters every day, but that is not what draws me to this man I married. I hear so many wives talk about how they wish their husbands were more this way and that way but it is never about the ways the man can be Godly or live that out. Of course there are times a friend of mine will tell me all of these romantic things there husband has done and for a minute or two I will find myself envious and then I am drawn back to these verses and remind myself of God's purpose for my marriage and what He has intended for us!
What joy there is when we look outside of ourselves and look to serve and love others whole heartily. I pray to love my husband this Valentine's Day and every day as Christ show's His love for us.
"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." 1 John 3:16
"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10
"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
Baby Bean #3
I had my first prenatal appointment today at 8 weeks! Baby bean is growing and has a strong heartbeat! I knew the baby was going to have a good heartbeat considering how sick this mommy is:) I was happy to see there was only one little bean and not two. I can not even imagine! I think mom's who have twins are amazing and they are my heroes.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Abby is back
Our little girl has been very difficult through teething and sickness for a few weeks if not longer. It seemed as though the season was here to stay and her personality was coming through. It was hard to not see Abby smiling, giggling, and being herself. Every word was NO, lots of tantrums, and little sleep.
That all changed a few days ago by the grace of God. I praise God for this sweet few days that I needed so bad. I was really lacking joy which was very sinful!
Abby has been so much fun again. She laughs and smiles most of the day and has been hamming it up! Brian has got to be goofy with Abby and we play lots of silly games with her. She recently decided she is hungry all day and has been eating a little better and nursing much less. I am so grateful for this time. I was really thinking the terrible two's were in full force. Our friend gave Abby a baby stroller on Sunday and that really perked her up. She walks her babies around every where:) it's so sweet!
Thank you Lord Jesus for these sweet times! Thank you for the hard times as well which grow and refine us. I pray I would be able to find more joy in the sufferings.
That all changed a few days ago by the grace of God. I praise God for this sweet few days that I needed so bad. I was really lacking joy which was very sinful!
Abby has been so much fun again. She laughs and smiles most of the day and has been hamming it up! Brian has got to be goofy with Abby and we play lots of silly games with her. She recently decided she is hungry all day and has been eating a little better and nursing much less. I am so grateful for this time. I was really thinking the terrible two's were in full force. Our friend gave Abby a baby stroller on Sunday and that really perked her up. She walks her babies around every where:) it's so sweet!
Thank you Lord Jesus for these sweet times! Thank you for the hard times as well which grow and refine us. I pray I would be able to find more joy in the sufferings.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Apples and peanut butter
Abby loves to say the word apple and she loves to stick her hands in her peanut butter and eat it. She is still not eating much which has been hard on me but I imagine she will enjoy food soon.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Homemade Pizza
I forgot how fun it is to make pizza and how delicious and easy and inexpensive it is! I posted this awhile back but wanted to repost it with a few helpful changes!
Collin kept telling me to open a pizza shop:) it made my night!
Pizza Dough
For the crust
1 1/3 cup water
2 TBSP Olive oil
3 Cups of flour
1 tsp Salt
Few sprinkles of Italian Seasoning, oregano, and thyme
2 teaspoon sugar
1 Package Active Dry Yeast
First dissolve the yeast in very warm water for 5-10 minutes.
Combine dry mixture minus one cup of flour and liquid ingredients in mixing bowl with paddle or beaters for 4 minutes on medium speed. Gradually add remaining flour and knead with dough hook 5 to 7 minutes until smooth and elastic. Continue to add extra flour until your bowl is completely clear of flour and your dough forms into a ball. I then knead it by hand for a minute with some extra flour until it is the consistency it needs to be.
Let dough rest 15 minutes in a warmed up oven. I warm my oven for a few minutes to 250 and turn it off. Divide into 2 parts (I have a large pizza pan so I do not divide the dough and we like thick crust). Press each half into a generously greased (I use olive oil) 12-inch round pizza pan sprinkled with cornmeal. Pre-bake for 10-12 minutes in pre-heated 400°F oven until edges of crust begin to turn light golden brown. Add desired toppings and bake an additional 15 minutes.
Pizza Sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 tablespoon of each: oregano, basil, garlic powder,red pepper, Italian seasoning, and parmesan cheese
Pizza Toppings
You can put anything you want on the pizza. We love spicy food so I used 1lb of spicy chicken sausage (I took it out of the casing and cooked it in a frying pan), black olives, mushrooms, jalapenos, and red bell pepper.
And of course top it all off with Mozzarella Cheese!
ENJOY!
Collin kept telling me to open a pizza shop:) it made my night!
Pizza Dough
For the crust
1 1/3 cup water
2 TBSP Olive oil
3 Cups of flour
1 tsp Salt
Few sprinkles of Italian Seasoning, oregano, and thyme
2 teaspoon sugar
1 Package Active Dry Yeast
First dissolve the yeast in very warm water for 5-10 minutes.
Combine dry mixture minus one cup of flour and liquid ingredients in mixing bowl with paddle or beaters for 4 minutes on medium speed. Gradually add remaining flour and knead with dough hook 5 to 7 minutes until smooth and elastic. Continue to add extra flour until your bowl is completely clear of flour and your dough forms into a ball. I then knead it by hand for a minute with some extra flour until it is the consistency it needs to be.
Let dough rest 15 minutes in a warmed up oven. I warm my oven for a few minutes to 250 and turn it off. Divide into 2 parts (I have a large pizza pan so I do not divide the dough and we like thick crust). Press each half into a generously greased (I use olive oil) 12-inch round pizza pan sprinkled with cornmeal. Pre-bake for 10-12 minutes in pre-heated 400°F oven until edges of crust begin to turn light golden brown. Add desired toppings and bake an additional 15 minutes.
Pizza Sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 tablespoon of each: oregano, basil, garlic powder,red pepper, Italian seasoning, and parmesan cheese
Pizza Toppings
You can put anything you want on the pizza. We love spicy food so I used 1lb of spicy chicken sausage (I took it out of the casing and cooked it in a frying pan), black olives, mushrooms, jalapenos, and red bell pepper.
And of course top it all off with Mozzarella Cheese!
ENJOY!
Biblical Counseling for Women: Death of the Church
Biblical Counseling for Women: Death of the Church:
From Julie at biblical counseling for women. You can click on the link above to subscribe to her blog.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Is the imperative of Ephesians 4:31.
These sin issues are poison and will be the death of a church. In Ephesians 4 Paul is speaking to the church, and he opens the chapter telling us to walk worthy of the calling we have received in Christ. He speaks about being unified as one body in Christ Jesus and the passage flows into the personal responsibility we all share in making this happen.
I am so sad to say it is not that way in many of our fellowships. Our churches have become hotbeds for dissension, and factions have developed over issues of music, proper attire and Bible translations. Add to this the personal insults and hurt feelings some people struggle with along with pride that comes from a sinful heart, and you have a real sorry spiritual environment.
To some degree, factions are necessary. Paul said "there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you." (1 Corinthians 11:19) This is how we separate the sheep from the wolves in some cases! We are not to be lemmings blindly following our leaders without question, we are told to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), to approve the doctrine being taught to us (1 Tim. 6:3, 2 Tim. 4:3-4), and to approve them as being faithful (2 Tim. 2:2, Titus 1:9) to the teaching of the Word and to the standards set forth in Scripture for spiritual leaders.
However, too many of our factions are over purely sinful things. You don't like me or something I said, I don't like you because of music, or clothing or any of the other previously mentioned things. And then we all come together on Sunday morning pretend we like each other and call it worship and yet our hearts are full of all this unrepentant sin toward one another! We ask God's blessing on it and pretend that somehow we are bringing God glory by these actions...
In reality, these things are a nauseating stench to God's nostrils and it is for the same kinds of hypocrisy that Jesus said "woe to you"! (Matt. 23:27) This is false unity which is beautiful on the outside but is full of crawling worms inside because the inside is dead and rotting.
When will the church realize that God sees the hearts of men? When will she realize that despite the pretense of holiness she is deeply sinful and in need of repentance? Taking it out of the abstract, we must collectively realize that we are our own worst enemies and admit to God that our worship is not from a pure heart!
We must confess our sin to one another-admit our own wrongs. What usually happens is our confessions include "but" (the great dis-qualifier) and we want to shift the blame for our sinful behavior on the other person. This is obvious when we say that we would not have said or done something if the other person would not have said or done what they did. This is not repentance or confession, it is blame shifting and justification of personal sin! True confession is done in humility and seeks to reconcile with others rather than justify ones self.
We must forgive one another from the heart! Often our forgiveness is just lip service and meaningless! We say we forgive but continue to cherish the hurt or offense in the heart. We continue to think critical thoughts, gossip about them to others, and rehearse the events over and over in our minds. Heart level forgiveness means that you transfer the hurt to the cross, the desire for revenge to the cross, and the anger and hatred to the cross. It means that you see the offender through the eyes of Christ- from the cross.
True forgiveness means that you do not ever bring up the incident again. You do not bring it up to others, you do not bring it up to them, and you do not bring it up to yourself. True forgiveness mirrors that of God towards us! The offense is thrown as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), and the forgiveness is all of grace (Eph. 1:7). We do not forgive them because they deserve to be forgiven, we forgive them because we were undeserving and were shown mercy and grace.
From Julie at biblical counseling for women. You can click on the link above to subscribe to her blog.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Is the imperative of Ephesians 4:31.
These sin issues are poison and will be the death of a church. In Ephesians 4 Paul is speaking to the church, and he opens the chapter telling us to walk worthy of the calling we have received in Christ. He speaks about being unified as one body in Christ Jesus and the passage flows into the personal responsibility we all share in making this happen.
I am so sad to say it is not that way in many of our fellowships. Our churches have become hotbeds for dissension, and factions have developed over issues of music, proper attire and Bible translations. Add to this the personal insults and hurt feelings some people struggle with along with pride that comes from a sinful heart, and you have a real sorry spiritual environment.
To some degree, factions are necessary. Paul said "there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you." (1 Corinthians 11:19) This is how we separate the sheep from the wolves in some cases! We are not to be lemmings blindly following our leaders without question, we are told to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), to approve the doctrine being taught to us (1 Tim. 6:3, 2 Tim. 4:3-4), and to approve them as being faithful (2 Tim. 2:2, Titus 1:9) to the teaching of the Word and to the standards set forth in Scripture for spiritual leaders.
However, too many of our factions are over purely sinful things. You don't like me or something I said, I don't like you because of music, or clothing or any of the other previously mentioned things. And then we all come together on Sunday morning pretend we like each other and call it worship and yet our hearts are full of all this unrepentant sin toward one another! We ask God's blessing on it and pretend that somehow we are bringing God glory by these actions...
In reality, these things are a nauseating stench to God's nostrils and it is for the same kinds of hypocrisy that Jesus said "woe to you"! (Matt. 23:27) This is false unity which is beautiful on the outside but is full of crawling worms inside because the inside is dead and rotting.
When will the church realize that God sees the hearts of men? When will she realize that despite the pretense of holiness she is deeply sinful and in need of repentance? Taking it out of the abstract, we must collectively realize that we are our own worst enemies and admit to God that our worship is not from a pure heart!
We must confess our sin to one another-admit our own wrongs. What usually happens is our confessions include "but" (the great dis-qualifier) and we want to shift the blame for our sinful behavior on the other person. This is obvious when we say that we would not have said or done something if the other person would not have said or done what they did. This is not repentance or confession, it is blame shifting and justification of personal sin! True confession is done in humility and seeks to reconcile with others rather than justify ones self.
We must forgive one another from the heart! Often our forgiveness is just lip service and meaningless! We say we forgive but continue to cherish the hurt or offense in the heart. We continue to think critical thoughts, gossip about them to others, and rehearse the events over and over in our minds. Heart level forgiveness means that you transfer the hurt to the cross, the desire for revenge to the cross, and the anger and hatred to the cross. It means that you see the offender through the eyes of Christ- from the cross.
True forgiveness means that you do not ever bring up the incident again. You do not bring it up to others, you do not bring it up to them, and you do not bring it up to yourself. True forgiveness mirrors that of God towards us! The offense is thrown as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), and the forgiveness is all of grace (Eph. 1:7). We do not forgive them because they deserve to be forgiven, we forgive them because we were undeserving and were shown mercy and grace.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)