Loving God Purely

This Momentary Marriage-The Story of Ian & Larissa

(Shared from the Desiring God Blog. To read the full blog post please visit this link: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-story-of-ian-larissa.) 

   

Here is an excerpt from the blog article that really cut right to my heart.

"Being satisfied in God (or anything) always seems easier when all is going well. But when things you love are being stripped out of your hands, then the test is real. If God remains precious in those moments, then his supreme worth shines more brightly. He is most glorified."

God has really been showing me how adulterous my heart is towards Him.  Reading this article and watching this video really made me ask the question to my heart, "How precious is God to me?  Is He precious to me because of what He does for me and what He gives me, or is He precious for who He is?"

Matt and I are reading a book titled The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler.  I am going to share a portion of the book that God has used to also cause me to examine my heart in my love for God.
  

        "We are a worshiping people.  Worship is an innate desire, an instinct and impulse wired into us by God Himself.  This is a gift from God.  But what happens when instead of using the gift of worship from God for God, we terminate our worship on the stuff God made?  What happens when we attempt to hijack God's story about Himself and rewrite it with ourselves at the center?

        This is insurrection.  It is infernal mutiny.  What happens when we argue with God about how God should govern, even daring to threaten that if He doesn't govern the way we want Him to, we won't believe in Him, won't follow Him, and will become His enemy?

        The Scriptures always paint the universe as a kind of interactive, living thing.  For instance, the book of Isaiah says the mountains and hills sing and the trees clap (55:12).  Luke 19:40 talks about stones crying out when we don't.  All creation groans (Rom. 8:22).  The Bible depicts creation as a sort of cosmic concert of interactive worship.  In Jeremiah 2, for example, we see that the creation responds in different ways to us in relation to how we relate to God.  When God's people embrace idolatry and "changed their glory for that which does not profit," the Lord commanded: "Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate" (Jer. 2:11-12).

        Why?  The universe shudders in horror that we have this infinitely valuable, infinitely deep, infinitely rich, infinitely wise, infinitely loving God, and instead of pursuing Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; instead of attributing to Him glory and honor and praise and power and wisdom and strength--we just try to take His toys and run.  It is still idolatry to want God for His benefits but not for Himself.  Why would the universe shudder in horror at this idea?  (In the original language, Hebrew, the essential idea is that they're literally terrified that God might snap and rip the universe to shreds.)  It shudders because the universe is the theater of God's glory and the Scriptures portray this theater as having the instinct itself that it is there to showcase worship.  When we, who have been placed as stewards over God's creation, go rogue and worship not the Creator but the creation, the theater is shaken by this blasphemous treason."

As I look at my life and see the biggest blessings that God has given me--salvation, my husband Matt, family, house, good job, abundance of money, the ability to go to the grocery store and buy whatever ingredients I want, resources to travel, and on and on and on......I really question my response to God if He had never given me any of those things.  How precious would He be to me then?  If He had not in His grace given me salvation would He be a mean God that doesn't deserve praise?  Absolutely not.  I do think that blessings God gives me can grow me in thankfulness and love towards Him, but more often then not I do base my love for God because of the things He does for me.  If He chose to take all those things away I'm scared to know where my love for Him would be.  I honestly think most of it would have gone away with all the "stuff".  

In Psalm 78:58-59 Asaph is talking about the Israelites when He writes, "For they provoked Him to anger with their high places; they moved Him to jealousy with their idols.  When God heard, He was full of wrath and He utterly rejected Israel."

I don't want that to be my life story, and I know because of God's grace and my salvation that it won't be. However, I am as a follower of Christ to grow in Christ-likeness which means learning to love God for who He is and not for the things He has given me.

T4G

I (Matt) was extremely blessed to be able to attend the Together for the Gospel (T4G) Conference in Louisville, KY with 7 other men from church.  It was an incredible experience and God taught me many things from the conference, but most importantly, as the theme of the conference went, I learned how often I "underestimate" the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In some areas it is how I live my life, where I don't fully surrender God's money and talents back to Him due to my "underestimating" the power of the gospel in my giving and serving.  Maybe it is the co-worker/friend who I am afraid to share the gospel with due to the fact that I have to see them every day and don't want to annoy them or make them uncomfortable (do I really even love them?).  Maybe it is in my prayer life, where I have given up praying for unbelieving friends due to "underestimating" the power of the best news ever known to man! Irregardless of which part of my life I am reflecting on, God showed me my immense lack of belief at times in the power of the cross throughout the week at T4G. I also had an amazing time getting to know men from church who sharpened and challenged me to a deeper walk with Christ, a greater love for Kait, and a greater desire to grow in Holiness.   

Chris Guyer and I with CJ Mahaney.  One of the speakers at the conference. 

One of my favorite parts of the conference was singing hymns of praise under the leading of Bob Kauflin (Sovereign Grace Music).  How sweet to hear 7000 men (with a few women sprinkled in) praising Jesus for the work that He has done for us, but most importantly, for the Glory of the Father!

To watch one or all of main sessions from the conference feel free to click on the following link: http://t4g.org/resources/video/

Of course, they were all spectacular, but my top 3 in order were:

1) David Platt

2) Kevin DeYoung

3) Ligon Duncan

A huge to thanks to my wonderful wife (Kait), Northridge Church, and to my employer (KSi) for this opportunity to spend three days under wonderful, spirit-powered teaching!

The Anatomy of Holiness

Article from the Gospel Coalition Blog

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/04/13/the-anatomy-of-holiness/

KEVIN DEYOUNG
The Anatomy of Holiness
What exactly does it mean to be holy?  What does it look like?


Here's one to think about: consider growth in godliness as the sanctification of your body.

• The mind is filled with the knowledge of God and fixed on what is good.
• The eyes turn away from sensuality and shudder at the sight of evil.
• The mouth tells the truth and refuses to gossip, slander, or speak what is coarse or obscene.
• The spirit is earnest, steadfast, and gentle.
• The soul rests and rejoices in Jesus.
• The muscles toil and strive after Christlike virtue.
• The hear is full of joy instead of hopelessness, patience instead of irritability, kindness instead of anger, and humility instead of pride, thankfulness instead of envy.
• The sexual organs are pure, being reserved for the privacy of marriage between one man and one woman.
• The feet move toward the lowly and away from senseless conflict, divisions, and wild parties.
• The hands are quick to help those in need and ready to fold in prayer.

When I loose track of what holiness is actually about, I try to scan down the body from head to toe and remember what God desires from me.  And just as importantly,  I need to remember who Christ is and is making me to become. 

Some Little, Special Blessings

Last week I headed to Champaign to meet my 6 day-old niece Vienna.    

Here I am....finally at their apartment!  Of course the first thing I do is put both of them in my lap.  While, actually I was holding Vienna and I think Reuben was a little ticked at leaving him out, so he crawled up.

Grandpa snuggling with Vienna.

Reuben and I cheesing it up.  Are those cookies in the background....?  Maybe that is why we are soooo happy! =)  

Playing some euchre.  Mark had the day off, so it was fun to have him around. 

Reuben was very much wanting to get out of the apartment and do something, so we played some ball in the parking lot.

Balls are his favorite thing and not surprisingly the first word he said.

Shooting some hoops!

After the basketball Reuben and I went on a walk.

Finally, Vienna is awake!  This was a rare moment of seeing her eyes.  It cracks me up how wide-eyed she is.

Absolutely love all her hair!

Grandpa reading a story.  Reuben looks very into it.  =)

Reuben likes to hold Vienna and not let her go!  In time he will grow into a gentle big brother.

On the way home from Champaign I got to spend the night in Quincy.  Alex, Aubs, and I got up early and went on a breakfast date to a new coffee shop in town, which has now most likely become our new favorite place to go!  It was encouraging to just sit around and hear what is going on in each others lives.  We are all in such different stages in life that sometimes it can be hard to keep up with what all is going on in our lives.  We got to open the Word together and spend time sharing different passages that God had been teaching us through.  It's so encouraging to see my younger sisters growing in Christ and teaching me through what the Spirit has taught them.

This was a special moment that I will think back on often!

By the end of the week I was very ready to get in my car and head home to see Matt!!!

=)

Vienna Ashley

Introducing my newest niece Vienna Ashley!

Huge congratulations to my sister Ashely and brother Mark.  They had quite the experience in the delivery of this little gal.  Thankful that God was with them and that He kept little Vienna and Ashley healthy.  

Click on the link to read their story:

http://cowsandteeth.blogspot.com/2012/04/viennas-birth-storythe-juicy-details.html

Some Good Company

I have been wanting to have my great aunt Pearl over for an evening for quite some time, and since my dad is back in Kansas with us for a few weeks I thought it was the perfect time to act on my thought.  We had a lovely evening together and Aunt Pearl got to share with us what life was like for her as a child compared to the world today.  She grew up during the depression and said that her family was very poor but never knew it.  They had fun with what they had.  She had 7 siblings, and when Sunday would come around only half of them could go to church because there were only enough nice clothes for half of them.  She said that back them everyone knew their neighbors and not only knew them but were always spending time at each others homes.  It was neat to hear her tell us about her childhood, and how things have changed over time.  She definitely challenged me in thinking about what kind of a neighbor I am to those that I live around.  Many of my neighbors I know of or am somewhat acquainted to, but I know I have not made too much of an effort to get to know them.  Something that I think Matt and I need to make more of an effort in.

Pearl then taught us all how to play the game of Rook the "real way".  Let me just say she is quite the Rook player. =)

23 Has Come to Me

My 23rd Birthday

About a week ago I celebrated my 23rd birthday.  The night before my birthday Matt gave me my gift.........a Keurig coffee maker.

He wanted me to be able to use it the morning of my birthday.  It was such a great idea!  He knows since I've moved to this little town of Sabetha that I have really, really missed my coffee shops.  I think he was trying to create a coffee shop at home experience for me. =)  We tested it out that night and made some sleepy time tea.  The next I made a couple different types of coffee.  I have to say that I was really impressed and loved all the different brands of coffee that go with the machine.  The only thing that I really didn't like about it was how much room it took up on my kitchen counters, and for that reason alone I decided to return it.  I know...I know, seems kinda like a silly reason, but thankfully Matt didn't mind. 

My amazing husband took work off early that day and took me to Topeka to return the Keurig and pick something else out.  I ended up buying a new pair of running shoes that will maybe help encourage me to run. =)  Matt definitely liked my pick of shoes thanks to the grey and purple K-state colors!

We had a fun birthday date, and as I reflect back on it I realize all the beautiful things that I have to praise God for that day: a cute, thoughtful husband, extra time to spend with him, sweet shoes, plenty of food, a beautiful day, the Spirit that continually helps change me inside to be more Christ-like, God's never changing, steadfast love for me.......and on and on and on!  I pray that this next year of my life I will grown in thankfulness to God so that I can learn to glorify Him with a genuine, joyful attitude.