God At Your Wit's End (Hope for wherever you are

April's Book Review is the book entitled above by Marilyn Meberg. (Her name may be familiar to you from the Women of Faith Conferences.) Once again, it would be impossible to highlight all the great quotes from her book, but the following are some of my favorites. I hope they challenge you to look deep at your faith:

"Faith is believing what we can't see, what is not tangible, and in some cases, does not make sense."

"...I ask myself..., is this discouragement you're feeling due to shaky faith or faulty thinking? I have to remind myself that in order to have faith, I must move beyond mental acceptance. In faith I hold fast to something, or rather, to Someone, whom I cannot see. And that Someone is Jesus."

"I want to leave the battlefield and focus on the ultimate victory that always comes with siding with God. The battle isn't mine; it's God's and He has already won."

"The fact that we cannot see the evidence does not make our faith blind. Our faith is not in that which is observable. It is placed on God."

"We all get in trouble with our faith lives when we forget we ourselves are not the authors and finishers of our faith. We do not earn our salvation; we do not earn our faith. We must know Him, rely on Him.....believers must remember that apart from connecting us to Jesus, faith has no merit. Faith is the cable..the rod..the conduit. Faith is not our savior. It was not faith that loved us and died for us. It was not faith that took our sins upon the cross, died and rose again. It was Jesus. Faith connects us to Jesus."

"Do you believe God is in control of "all" things? Or do you draw a line somewhere and say there are a few things He is not in control of? If so, where do you draw the line?"

"That's what freedom is: I can choose good, or I can choose evil. Both opposites have to be present in order for a choice to be made."

About honest communication with God..."David, writer of Psalms, did not tiptoe around God out of fear that God would judge him, reject him, or hold his thoughts against him. David whined, fussed, and praised, depending on how he felt and what his circumstances were. He was secure in his relationship with God." (He already knows what we're feeling. But we tell Him what we're feeling for the good our our relationship with Him.)

"I believe many of us are afraid to cry out because we think to do so would alienate us from God. The result of that faulty thinking is that we don't go home, where honesty is rewarded and faith is increased."

"The person who struggles with major doubts about her beliefs also struggles with her behavior because the two don't mesh...These doubts affect not only our peace, but our actions....Doubt is sin if it translates into an action that rejects God....Doubt is not rejecting truth, it is questioning truth."

"It is common for people to throw up a few smoke screens to distract themselves from or cover up the real problem that is causing them to doubt. One of those root problems may be not wanting to lose personal control. Another smoke screen may be based on anger at God and what He has allowed to happen."

"If knowing answers to life's questions is absolutely necessary to you, then forget about the journey. You will never make it, for this is a journey of unknowables - of unanswered questions, enigmas, incomprehensibles, and most of all, things unfair. Our challenge is to love Him for what we do see and trust Him for what we cannot see."

"There's an old Gaelic blessing that gives me a giggle:
May those who love us, love us.
And those that don't love us
May God turn their hearts;
And if He does not turn their hearts,
may He turn their ankles
So we'll know them by their limping."

"God always delivers us from our distresses just as He promised, but sometimes that deliverance is WITHIN our hears, where the pain of our circumstances has shredded our interior being. God meets us at the shredding place....His deliverance may be simply to give us comfort in that place. His deliverance may be lifting of our heads..our spirits...an assurance that He is there with us. His deliverance may be giving us the knowledge that we will have His strength to endure even though our circumstances may not change."

Remodel on Master (bath)

OK, I've gotta brag about my man. It's not because Rachel makes me feel guilty about how she talks about Nathan or even my sister going on her marriage enrichments (are those like second honeymoons???)ha Today, the final touches were done on our bathroom. Kevin took pictures after the tile work was finished (last week), but to me, it was not finished until the shade and the prized stain glass window was hung. What a great feeling! But, back to the reason for the post - I am so proud of Kevin as I think he did a great job and his patience in getting it done right was great.

Book Quotes from "RADICAL" by David Platt

Just as promised in our Bible Fellowship Group, I wanted to post some of the great quotes from 'Radical' to encourage you to read the book. Let me warn you that many are very convicting!

"We've missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves."

"We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. We are molding Jesus into our image."

"....cost of discipleship is great. But I wonder if cost of non-discipleship is even greater."

"Accept Him? Do we really think Jesus needs our acceptance? Don't we need Him?"

"...the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God."

"In prayer, we ask God for gifts, and He gives the Giver; we ask for supplies, He gives the Source; we ask for money and He give us the bank!"

"Instead of asserting ourselves, we crucify ourselves. Instead of imagining all the things we can accomplish, we ask God to do what only He can accomplish."

"Would you say that your life is marked right now by the desperation for the Spirit of God?"

"...we have unnecessarily (and unbiblically) drawn a line of distinction, assigning the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges of Christianity for us all."

The population of world (at time of book published): 6,783,421,727. According to most liberal estimates 1/3 of world is Christian. That leaves 4.5 BILLION headed to hell."

"We are by nature, receivers. Even listening to God's word we ask, "What can I get out of this?" What if we began to ask instead, "How can I listen to His Word so that I am equipped to teach this Word to others?... when we realize we have the responsibility to teach the Word, it changes everything about how we hear the Word."

"Good intentions, regular worship, Bible study, do not prevent blindness. Part of our sinful nature instinctively chooses to see what we want to see and to ignore what we want to ignore."

"The question therefore is not, "Can we find God's will?" The question is, "Will we obey God's will?"

"Do we believe the reward found in Jesus is worth the risk of following Him?"

"This is the unavoidable conclusion of Matthew 10. To everyone wanting a safe, untroubled, comfortable life free from danger, stay away from Jesus."

The main challenge of the book ended with 5 recommendations for the "Radical experiment":
1) Pray for the entire world
2) Read through the entire Word
3) Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose
4) Spend your time in another context
5) Commit your life to a multiplying community

Hey Rachel and Sandy

Remember the Christmas baskets you found me Christmas at 90% off at Michael's? Well, I finally finished the project - I spray painted them brown and took off of some of the glitter message of Ho Ho Ho on liner. I just finished pressing the liners and getting them back in baskets. Aren't they cute? What a great deal at $1.49 each. Thanks for thinking of me! I am going to put them upstairs on the bookshelves.

Kids on a Mission

In Awana group this Wednesday night, after the segment of Hudson Taylor, we had a relay game with international costumes. The kids loved it. I captured this picture (best one of many) as want to enlarge it and display it in room as "Future International Missions Department". My prayer is that from this class will come either full-time missionaries or great financial supporter and prayer warriors for missions!
But as you well know, kids love to pose for their 'silly' picture which turned our to be very very funny. Thought you might get a good laugh, too!

Snowed In Again?

Sunday night we had 'thunder snow' and we received 6" of snow that made it look like a winter wonderland on the farm. Monday, we got the 4-wheeler and sled and I took videos (waiting for my $10,000 prize winning America's Funniest Video shot). Caleb is still out of school and for who knows how long. Day 1 the snow was fun. Not sure what Day 3 or 4 will be like.ha Don't get me wrong, I love the snow, but is just a reminder that too much of even a good thing is too much!

Snowed In

Ok, I am fully aware Kevin took this picture on Christmas Day and the snow has all melted and I can no longer use the excuse that I am snowed in for putting off stuff I need to do.... BUT, be proud of me because I did actually organize the pictures on the computer and just found where Kevin put these photos to share with you.