Church Renovations

If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all; 
and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it.  
Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.   
Charles Hadden Spurgeon  

Our church is in the process of renovations for some much needed seating space.  When our congregation moved in to our newly purchased building, we knew the space was comfortable and did not allow for much growth, but we also knew the LORD could and would accomplish what he wills for our needs, and He has proven this to be true!  

The LORD has added several young families and singles to our church, and we are thrilled to think of how He will help us make room for everyone who comes any given Sunday morning to worship and learn of Him!  For several weeks in a row, we have been full with just a few seats to spare. 
Our family sits close to the front, so we're not always aware of how quickly the sanctuary fills up during prayer at the beginning of the service.  We've probably all thought, "We can sit big this morning", only to look up and realize, we need to sit a little tighter today after all.    

For this reason, the storage rooms on either side of the pulpit have been removed, the platform will be shortened, and the pulpit will be recessed back to allow for adding additional pews at the front of the sanctuary on each side.   These changes should allow for an additional 28-42 individuals.  

We're thankful the LORD has blessed the gathering of those who meet weekly to worship and hear His word read, prayed, sung, and preached at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church.  
Thank you, LORD, for growing Your church!  

Joy for Living!

The artistic one in our family went to more time and greater effort to make his hot, humid chore FUN this week.  I'll always look back on this memory with much joy and appreciation!
I soo love that he imagined and made lighthearted pleasure in the work that otherwise could of been a drudgery for him!
Thank you our beloved son for enjoying yourself, and for giving the rest of us something to enjoy too!
What fun!
You are a blessing!!
The grass is truly greener on our side of the fence!
I love you!
Mom~

Captive to Christ

Pastor Shane's message Sunday morning from Colossians 2:8-10 continues to resonate on my heart and mind.  Paul warned the Church of Colossae (KJV), "Beware...".  Other translations communicate, "See to it...", with guarded care.   I tend to be the urgent type, even under normal circumstances, but especially when it comes to matters of being taken captive "...by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." 

Paul's concern was that the church there would lose sight and gradually slip away from all that was available to them in Christ's fullness.  He wanted them to grow in their faith to full maturity, and not to be taken away by subtle empty pursuits. 

Pastor Shane's message was packed full.   My weekly feat on Sunday mornings is to take notes to read back on, but I also have the blessing of listening to the recorded podcast.  
There were the fragments of a quote that lingered with me and when I asked him Sunday evening about it's source, he was able to decipher my thoughts and lead me to "An Orthodox Catechism, Being the Sum of Christian Religion, Contained in the Law and Gospel", by Hercules Collins (edited by Michael A. G. Haykin & G. Stephen Weaver, Jr).  Founders Ministries, Tom Ascol, stated it's "a document that retains all of the first-person warmth and Christ-centered instruction of that older, more widely known document", the Heidelberg Catechism. 

I'm thankful for a pastor that carefully studies and faithfully presents the scripture weekly while he warns and encourages our congregation to live with it's instruction/application in mind.   Even if it means giving up pursuits of worldly gain, promises, and practices we think we need, he encourages us to cling to Christ, to look to Him to find the hope, peace, rest, and refuge we long for in His rule and authority.  
The sermon ended with this great encouragement of my faith...

Q. 1.  What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That both in soul and body (a), whether I live or die (b), I am not my own, but belong wholly unto my most faithful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (c).  By His most precious blood fully satisfying for all my sins (d), He has delivered me from all the power of the devil (e), and so preserves me (f), that without the will of my heavenly father not so much as a hair may fall from my head (g).  Yes, all things must serve for my safety (h) and by His Spirit, also He assures me of everlasting life (i), and makes me ready and prepared (j), that from now on I may live to Him. 

(a) 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:10.
(b) Romans 14:8.
(c) 1 Corinthians 3:23.
(d) 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7; 2:2.
(e) 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14-15.
(f) John 6:39. 
(g) Matthew 10:30; Luke 21:18.
(h) Romans 8:28.
(i) 2 Corinthians 1:12; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14.
(j) Romans 8:24-25. 

May it be so, LORD, that my heart would beware and trust You in my living and dying, to have a heart that is in all the thoughts and practices of my life held captive to You!    

Rooted and Grounded

But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. 
Jeremiah 17:7-8 

The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of storm...
At certain periods clouds cover the believer's sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light...and they say, "Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen."
Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness...
Perhaps the LORD allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid...
but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown children.  We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ.
The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.
Charles Hadden Spurgeon

For this reason  I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breatdth and length and height and depth, 

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, 

to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. 

Ephesians 3:14-21 

God's Unsearchable Ways

How unsearchable the ways He often chooses to accomplish His purposes of mercy and His designs of goodness towards us!  The event is, perhaps, enshrouded in the deepest obscurity.
The handwriting upon the wall is entirely unintelligible...
Is your God, beloved, thus dealing with you now?
His thoughts are, perhaps, a great deep, His ways with you past finding out.  The event is mysterious, the calamity dark, the blow crushing.  You are awe-struck and gazing in mute astonishment upon the scene, you marvel what He means and where the whole will end.  But, "God is light."  What to your mind is mysterious is to Him as a perfect whole.  What to your eye is obscure, to His is all luminous.  And like some rustic gazing with mute wonder upon a piece of machinery, lost in ignorant conjecture, we are confounded and silent, God stands by, and, smiling at our fruitless speculation, with a word says, "Let there be light," and in a moment the whole scene is radiant with brightness; and in this light we see with what skill and harmony, wisdom and love, He was working all things after the counsel of His own will, and all things for our good...All may be dark to you now--circumstances dark, Providence dark, your path draped with the deepest, gloomiest shadow.  Be it so.  God is light, and God is love, and God is unchangeable.  And if, in this time of dark Providence, integrity and uprightness are restraining you from any false step, from the employment of any dubious, carnal means of relieving the gloom that enshrouds you, then shall be fulfilled the precious promise we have already quoted, "Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness."
Octavius Winslow

My Precious Friend, Sarah, from Tennessee made and sent me a box of encouraging notes and quotes last fall when I was diagnosed with cancer.  Since that time, I've also read through a book she  made for me of handwritten quotations with Scripture.  I have poured over both, drawing from each the gifts of love and encouragement she desired I receive from the LORD for my journey.  So few know how I still struggle with anxiety and fear of the cancer returning, the side effects from the medication,  insecurity regarding the weight I've lost, and how the ongoing medical expenses will be managed...will we continue to pay out of pocket?  Samaritans Ministries has paid us back for the bulk of my radiation treatment and ongoing bills, but like I said, fear lingers.  I know I shouldn't allow myself to question the future in fear, but so oft a fleeting thought overwhelms me, like a flood that surges.  It's a daily struggle.

I'm thankful to have friends who know how to encourage my deepest heart's needs, best met and only met in Christ, and His word.  
I treasure you, Sarah!  Thank you for always steering me to Christ, and for taking time to comfort and lift my weary soul over and over again through your ministry of encouragement.   

So here I will begin recording a month's worth of encouraging notes/quotes.  

Perspective Meditation

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  
The LORD is the stronghold (or refuge) of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"  Psalm 27:1

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.   John 1:3-5

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!  The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.  

They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.  

Psalm 36:7-9

There is always something to be happy about if we look for it:
Two men looked through prison bars.
The one saw mud, and the other stars. 
Amy Carmichael


I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.  
Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.  
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.  
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!  
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!  
Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!  
The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.  
Psalm 34:4-10

Finn Again

This time last week, we were preparing to spend our last night with Finn, for knowing the next day his Mom and Dad would come for him, to take him to his new home.

Mark, being the one allergic to our other cats suggested, "Just let him sleep with us."  Sooo, Finn slept with us on our bed.  

He and I shared our last morning together reading God's word, and enjoying a slow start to the day, which I'm always fond of! We call it "catechizing" around here!  >*.*<

Later that evening, Caroline and I bathed the little guy, and he did amazingly well.  We'd attempted to remove fleas from his silky fur all along, but he still had many to dispose of.  He was so patient with us, which benefitted he and us greatly! 

It didn't take long for Finn to dry, and he was out of his towel and pouncing around again.

Then, before we knew it, he'd found his carrier to be a cozy spot to hide out, and that was the cue for his parents to take him home... 

Sad for us, but we were happy for them.  

Sometimes, it feels like there will never be an end to letting go.  

I never want our time together to end, but until next time...

I'll look forward to our next beginning.