a frightening sentence

I am reading through 1 Kings and just wrapped up reading chapter 11.  We learn in the previous chapters that Solomon built a temple for the Lord, which was something his father David had on his heart to personally accomplish. He didn't get to do that; instead his son Solomon had that privilege.  Solomon took great delight in carrying this project out.  He was meticulous with the details.  He blesses the Lord in chapter 8 and dedicates the temple to the Lord and his prayers and petitions for his people are faith-filled.

At the close of Chapter 8, Solomon gets up from his knees and stands to bless the assembly of Israel, ending with this benediction: "Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day." v:61  They offered sacrifices to the Lord and they feasted and celebrated for seven days.  On day eight, they went back to their homes joyful and glad in their hearts for all the goodness that the LORD had shown them.

In chapter 9, the LORD actually appears to Solomon a second time and confirms that He has heard his prayer and then exhorts him to walk with integrity of heart and uprightness, being careful to keep His commands.  He warns Solomon not to turn aside from following Him and commands him not to serve and worship other Gods.

Solomon is a wise man, right.  We are told in Chapter 10 v.24 that "...the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind."  Solomon wasn't just wise - he was filthy rich!  God had blessed this man big time.  There was nothing he needed - nothing.  Nada.

There was something he wanted though.  And what he wanted was the very thing God told him he could not have.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh:  Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods."  v.1-2

The very next sentence is frightening:  "Solomon clung to these in love." v.2

And God was right.  They turned his heart away from the LORD and toward other gods.  The wisest man that ever lived was not walking in the wisdom he knew so well.  He knew what God had commanded him and he knew what the consequences would be because God made that crystal clear.  Solomon knew the goodness of the LORD.  He experienced it daily.  He was prosperous and respected by everyone.  Yet he clung - in love - to the very thing that God said was off limits.

As a Christian in 2008.  As a wife and mom and homeschool teacher.  As a sister, as a daughter, as a friend.  As a foster mom.  As a pastor's wife.  As a woman.  As a human being - this portion of Scripture is sobering.  How easily I drift, especially in "prosperous times", to things that draw my heart away from the Lord.

John Piper offers a helpful prayer from his book "Roots of Endurance".  I read this at the beach this summer and have sought to pray these words often.  They have helped me as I hope they help you!

Let your goodness, O God, bind my heart with a chain to You!  Seal my will to yours with an unbreakable application of your eternal covenant.  Keep me!  Preserve me!  Defeat every rising rebellion!  Overcome every niggling doubt!  Deliver me from every destructive temptation!  Nullify every future allurement!  Shape me!  Incline me!  Hold me!  Master me!  Do whatever must be done to keep me trusting You and fearing You till Jesus comes or calls.

compare & contrast essay

A discovery has been made.  My ten-year old son is a Mac-snob and he doesn't even own a Mac...yet!  Big Daddy has informed us that come December, we're going to more than likely purchase an iMac and since that moment in time, great anticipation has filled our house.  Yes, over a computer.  Pat Santavenere will convince you that it's more than a computer.  Stephen agrees.

In our English class today, Stephen's assignment was to pick a subject and begin outlining the framework for a compare/contrast essay.  He didn't take very long to choose his subject.  "I want to do Mac and PC Mom!"  At first I suggested another idea but he kept coming back to his first choice so that's what he's going with.

I wanted to share with everyone what he wrote on his T-chart, which lists details about each subject.  I think you'll get a laugh.  Pat...well, you'll be beaming with pride at the little monster you helped to create.

Mac

- you can get a desktop or laptop..............with a PC you can get a desktop or laptop

- it can run microsoft word.....................with a PC you can run microsoft word

- it can run iTunes..................with a PC you can run iTunes

- you can play games on it..................with a PC you can play games

- it is fast..........but a PC is slow

- it has funny tv ads..........but the PC tv ads are boring

- it has time machine to back up your stuff........but the PC can't back things up; at least not like TM

- it turns on fast.............but the PC takes forever to turn on

- it has leopard.......but the PC has Vista

Upon learning that we would be purchasing our first Mac, Stephen began creating his own Mac/PC commercials using lego people and his camera.  His tag line is, "I'm a PC but I don't want to be!"

cords of steel and silk

John Piper's latest book, Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ, is a must read! I say this having only read the introduction and chapter one - it's that good.

In this short (it's only 112 pages) book, Dr. Piper seeks to answer four questions:

1- Why does God think it is good for us to know that He is sovereign over sin?
2- Why does God not restrain sin more often (natural disasters, calamaties, personal tragedies, etc.)?
3- How can we have faith and joy during the severity of the last days?
4- How is Christ magnified/glorified in a world of sin like ours?

Here's an inside look at how personal this quest is for him:

"...I preached a series of messages under the title "Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ."  It marked the beginning of my twenty-eighth year of preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church.  There was death that autumn, just like there had been death in the spring.  My father and my granddaughter.  The I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed.  Darkness overcame the young.  And steady-state suffering kept its inexorable pace.  I write out of the way I experience the word of God.  And what I experience almost every day is someone's pain.  Sometimes my own.  Always someone else's that, in part, becomes mine."

Dr. Piper will seek to show how the Bible answer these questions as he navigates through various historical accounts throughout the pages of Holy Scripture.   His prayer for the reader (that's me and hopefully you!) is

"that as these great historical vistas of God's sovereignty over sin take their place in your mind, they would have a profoundly practical effect in making you strong in the face of breath-stopping sorrows and making you bold for Christ in the face of dangerous opposition - Christ-exalting strength in calamity and Christ-exalting courage in conflict.  I pray that the Lord will weave cords of steel and silk into the fabric of your soul."

Cords of steel and silk.....

I love John Piper.   Get the book and read it!

all in his head?

We have a bees' nest under one of our bushes in the front of our yard.  The bummer is, the bush is at our front walkway so everytime we go out or come in, we need to walk around so as to avoid the mad rush of bees.  I for one just walk right by figuring that if I don't bother them, they won't bother me.  Matt and the kids are not so carefree.

Matt had to preach this morning so he left early and was probably in a rush, so instead of walking across our lawn, he just risked it and walked quickly past the bush.  Bad move.  Before even reaching his car, he realized he had been stung and as he was driving to church, his arm was swelling up.  Did I mention that Matt is allergic to bees and as long as I've known him, I've heard him proclaim, "The only good bee is a dead bee!"

After church when I saw him, he showed me his arm and I immediately pulled him over to Steve Bickel - the resident pastor/pharmacist.  Treatment required:  Benadryl.

When Matt arrived home, his arm was swollen even more and he was finding it extremely difficult not to scratch it.  Treatment required: anti-itch cream.  Sounds good, right.  He found some cream upstairs that he apparently really lathered on - BIG TIME lathered on.  It seemed to help.  Or, was it all in his head?

My friend Allyson was over and we were all watching The Amazing Race when she slipped into the kitchen for a cookie.  When she walked back out, her face was turning a bright pink and she looked like she was holding back laughter.  I asked her a few times what was going on and she finally whispered in my ear that the cream Matt was using was this.  Of course I cracked up and then told Matt to check out the cream he had been using.  He got up, walked into the kitchen and broke out in his deep laughter upon the discovery.

ever feel stuck?

If you're like me and you struggle with your speech, feeling stuck is a daily experience.  I am talking about feeling stuck in your ability to change for more than a day or maybe even for more than an hour on a rough day.

I went to the Power of Words and the Wonder of God conference with one simple prayer.  It sort of came out of a feeling of dread and fear due to the anticipation of the messages that I believed would strike me with deep conviction.   When you feel stuck, conviction is not really what you want.  You want quick solutions to what is always a much deeper problem.  Or, you get used to being stuck and you get comfortable.  At least I do.  So I went to the conference half scared to take a hard, serious look at my "talk problem", as Paul Tripp calls it.

What I heard was not what I expected to hear but it's what I needed to hear.  Here are two quotes that set the foundation for me.  Almost immediately, they wiped away my fears and refocused my attention on what matters most - the glory of God.

"The greatest aid is to have the word of God preached over me so that it can do its spiritual work in me.  God's word sanctifies.  All my vain efforts to train my tongue will be left in the past because He will transform me through His word."   - Sinclair Ferguson

"The gospel is so robust that we don't need to be afraid of looking at the trouble of our talk."    - Paul Tripp

If you find yourself battling with speech, these two messages in particular will serve you well.  They are free online to listen to or watch right here.

john piper in a skater jacket...

This was a hilarious conference highlight...and it happened the first night.

check it out here

goin' steady

Ok.  So here's the scene - We just finished dinner and the following conversation takes place:

Stephen: Mom, I think I wanna go steady.

Me: What?  Do you even know what going steady means?

Stephen: No. But I remember hearing it on the Brady Bunch.  Is it when you fall in love?

Abbie: (enthusiastically) I know what it means, Mom!

Me: What does it mean Abs?

Abbie: It's standing on one leg and being still.