Strength & Dignity Are Her Clothing; She Smiles at the Future

I will be honest with you, I've been wanting to blog for a few weeks now but it goes without saying  the Lord continues to work in my heart.
A few weeks ago a friend of mine shared  the Pinterest website with me.  I will tell you I've been hooked ever since.  I love the new recipes, DIY projects and home decor shared on that site, but one day I came across this the posting of Proverbs 31:25, "She is clothed in strength & dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future."  I began to really think about what that meant in my life.  Do I reflect that attitude in my heart? To be frankly honest with you, I came up short. I was struggling with being a woman who "laughs without fear of the future."  New American Standard translates it, "she smiles at the future." English Standard Version translates it, "she laughs at the time to come."
I began a word study on "strength" & "dignity" in the Scriptures and I was digging away and looking up verses. 

Prov 118:14 "The Lord is my strength and song"

Psalm 18:32 "The God who girds me with strength & makes my way blameless"

Psalm 37:39 "But salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;

He is their strength in time of trouble.."

Psalm 84:5 " How blessed is the man who strength is in You,

in whose heart are highways to Zion"

Psalm 73:26 "But God is the strength of my heart & portion forever"

Dignity; Dignified means "quality or state of worthy of"

"esteem or respect"

I Tim 3:11 "Women must likewise be dignified"

Titus 2:3 "Older women likewise are to be reverent ( also means dignified) in their behavior"

I will be honest... it has been hard to smile or even laugh at the future lately.  Doesn't take much to start to worry.  Listen to talk radio.  Watch the nightly news and it will put you in a complete outrage of what's happening to this country or the world we live in. For some all you have to do is look at your bank account when your monthly bills are due and "smiling at the future" isn't the emotion that stirs up inside of you. 

How do I become this woman who is filled with "strength and dignity" and "smiles at the future." Do I conjure up this strength from my own might? How do I begin to be dignified? These qualities are not anything I can produce. I can try but you will come up short.  These qualities are given to me by faith and by the grace of God who works in my heart and in my life.  I am strong because Christ gives me His strength.  I am dignified because HE gives me the desire to be dignified and the wisdom of His words.  I am nothing without Christ.  It's His righteousness that I am clothed with not with anything I can produce or fabricate.  The main ingredient of this Proverbs 31 woman is that she trusts in her Eternal Groom. She can trust Him because He is Sovereign and He is good.  No matter what the balance is in my checking account, whether my children believe or my loved one has cancer doesn't change the character of my good and caring God who is for my good and His glory.  I am clothed with HIS STRENGH and I am drenched in HIS DIGNITY so that I can SMILE AT THE FUTURE and rest in His grace.

"I will rejoice greatly in the Lord,

My soul will exult in my God;

For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,

He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,

As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,

And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

Isaiah 61:10



Evangelist or Discipler

Last month I had the great privilege of going to the NANC (National Association of Nouthetic Counselors) conference in Walnut Creek, California.  When you plan to go to a conference you have many expectations of what its going to be like and what you are expecting to get out of it.  What always amazes me is that God has a plan for you and your expectations and plans don't always meet up with His.  Truly I didn't have a direct agenda or goals in going to this conference but I sat back and saw how God was in the details of it all and was showing me what He wanted me to get out of the conference. It was exactly what I needed to hear to the utmost detail.  Again I didn't put much planning on the classes I was attending and it changed as I went along BUT GOD and His Sovereignty shines through all of this through and through.
I've been spending time with a young woman (counseling) who I am not sure if she is saved so I decided at the last minute to attend Stuart Scott's class on "Sharing the Gospel with an Unconverted Counselee."  I was familiar with Stuart Scott because he came to my old church to head up the Biblical Counseling Department, but my husband & I were in the process of selling our business and moving to Northern California so we hadn't had the opportunity to be involved in his ministry or hear him speak much.  As the session began a story unfolded that was so unexpected for me.  He began to share about his children and the concerns and struggles him and his wife had in particular with their daughter.  He talked about how as parents our children make professions of faith at young ages and then as parents we embark on disciplining them when in reality they don't completely understand  or come to a saving knowledge of Christ.  Our children are "Christianized Pagans." They talk the talk but they don't walk the walk.  They have no desire or interest to be in God's Word.  They love going to church but that's because they're friends are there.  They know the truths of the Scripture and can repeat them to you but its apparent that they haven't placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He said, "You can't disciple the lost!" Stuart shared that his daughter at the age of sixteen came to him sobbing with the confession that she couldn't live the lie anymore and that she wasn't a Christian.  He said, "I was so thankful that she knew who she was."  That sentence plays back in my thoughts so much since I've heard them.  The deep faith and trust in Christ that it takes to say those words.  Can I say that when it comes to my own children's salvation?  He had to leave the position that he held at the church and so this confession from his daughter had a huge impact on them as a family.  Two years later his daughter was headed off to college and he asked her if he could share the gospel with her one last time and she agreed, which leads to the thorough gospel presentation that he put together that he uses with all his counselees and went over with all of us in his NANC class.  He talked about how some Christians teach how the outcome of their children's salvation is the parent's responsibility.  He said, "what kind of theology is that? SALVATION IS OF THE LORD! God has called some parents to be evangelist their whole lives or God has called them to be evangelist and then disciplers.  There are many Christian parents with huge guilt trips because they think they're children's salvation depended on them." 

So I ask you, are you an Evangelist or a Discipler?  I ask myself, "am I a evangelist or a discipler?"  God confirmed for me again that my role in my children's life is to be an example of Christ's work in me and that my life is to reflect His grace, love and redemptive work in me.  To be living it out in profound ways.  I need to be preaching the gospel to myself, to them and to others.  God does the work in their hearts and lives in them just like He does in me and continues to do the work.  There are many who are preaching a different message when it comes to parenting.  Others are preaching a method that leads to "works righteousness" and that it ALL depends on what I am doing. This is not what the Bible teaches, nor is it the gospel. Some are even going to the lengths to say that as parents of non-believing children you did not have enough faith in the promises of God and that is the reason your children aren't believers.   Yes God calls us to love and lead our children to Christ BUT the lie is the doing on our part of any shape or form is a guarantee to produce godly children.  God never guarantees us godly children by raising them a certain way.  There are no recipes out there that create godly children.  SALVATION IS OF THE LORD!

"God doesn't promise our children's salvation in response to our obedience, because He never

encourages self-reliance.  It would be against God's character to give us a promise that our children will be saved if we raise them in a certain way.  That would mean that He was telling us to trust in something other than Christ and His grace & mercy.  He would be encouraging us to trust in ourselves, and God never does that.  The way of the Lord is always a way of faith - faith in His goodness, mercy and love.  Our faith is to be in Him, not in ourselves."

 (Give Them Grace pg.62)

I did plan on going to Elyse Fitzpatrick's teaching session which was after Stuart Scott's.  And the exact words came out of her mouth, "SALVATION IS OF THE LORD!!"  Thank you Jesus for being in the details of my everyday life.  After the NANC conference is when I began to read "Give Them Grace" and highly recommend every parent no matter if you're an Evangelist or a Discipler to read it.  

I have one more book to give away on November 27th, 2011 7pm PST.  Same rules applied follow blog, FB or Twitter.  Repost and/or retweet and receive more entries in the giveaway.  I've saved everyone who entered last week as well so you all still have a chance to win as well.  Let me know how you've entered in my comments.  

2 Winners for "Give Them Grace" Book Giveaway

Drumroll please! Thank you for all the entries, follows, tweets & reposts of the giveaway.  The winners for tonight is:

Sarah Harrison Woodward

&

Jessica Thommarson

Congrats ladies! I messaged you via Facebook to send me your addresses so I can email you your "Give Them Grace" books.  So very excited for you! 

Are you raising a Pharisee or a Lover of Jesus?

Is there a book that you've recently read that has stopped you in your tracks? One that rocks you to the core of your being and makes you rethink your Christian walk and how you live your life? "Give Them Grace - Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus" by Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson is the book that has done that for me recently.   It's a must read for every Christian mom & dad.  I know that you hear that time and time again but this book will change your perspective not only in the way you interact with your children but it will open up your heart and see how you truly see your Saviour.  Do you see him as the Lawgiver and Judge? As the disappointed Father every time you sin? No, He is the God of Grace who loved me even though I was sinner and paid the price for me, not so that I would live perfectly but live in the grace that He's bestowed on me by paying the price of my sin with His perfect life and sacrifice.
This book isn't a "how to" raise godly children.  Are you disappointed? It's a book to show you that your children need the gospel not the law.  What saved us in our trespasses? Not the law, but His grace! Hallelujah for God's grace.  Hallelujah for a Christian parenting book that finally preaches the truth of His grace and not the burden of the law.

"Nearly every parenting book you'll read will tell you how to be a successful parent of successful,

seemingly sinless children.  Our modern worship of personal success stories is clearly seen

in the number of books that outline the methods for producing spiritual giants.  Whether

they encourage family-integrated education and worship, public schools, immersing our family in the culture, or moving to a little house on the prairie, being a successful parent and raising

successful kids is the only paradigm we seem to be willing to accept.  But what if we're measuring

success in the wrong way?  Could it be that our perception of success isn't God's plan

for us or for our family? What if he's going to use our failure and our children's rebellion to make us humble comforters of other sufferers for his glory?" pg.148

"Do you hear the underlying message of that best-selling book? Your child's success depends

entirely on your ability to communicate to him in the right way. "If we do our job right as parents to instill these values, our kids will be a success at whatever they do! We'll have trophy kids!  This is the message of every book about parenting that is not rooted in the grace of God demonstrated

in the gospel. ..... parenting books are not Christian if their primary message is law.  If their

message isn't rooted and grounded in the truth that you and your children are deeply sinful

yet deeply loved, in reality its nothing more than a glorification of the will and work of the parent.

Aside from placing a crushing burden of guilt and fear upon the backs of dads and moms, the thought that we can change any one's heart is laughable. Change our children's hearts?

Only God has the power to change the heart!.....

When we make parenting more complex than God has made it, we afflict ourselves with burdens

too heavy for us to carry, and we are unintentionally presuming that the good news of the gospel

is insufficient." pg 161

There isn't a page in this book of mine that isn't highlighted in yellow.  These are only some of the quotes that made the ground underneath me move and quake that I walk on daily.  If you know me you wouldn't think or even suggest that I am legalistic or struggle with that in my Christian walk but this book really made me examine how I have explained or have been an example of what the gospel is to my children. 

A few weeks ago I was driving my oldest son to school and I asked him, "What makes a person a Christian?" He proceeded to give me a list of things Christians don't do.  My worse fear may have come true.  Have I raised a Pharisee? Have a raised a rule keeper or a Jesus' lover? I proceeded to tell him that a Christian isn't necessarily a person who goes to church, doesn't cuss, doesn't do drugs, etc.  Just because you do those things isn't what makes you a Christian.  It's what you love and do you love Christ more than anything and want to live your life for Him is why you do or don't do those things.  We go to church because we love Christ and want to worship Him and be with His people.  We try to live holy lives because He is holy and we love Him and want to please Him, but doing those things doesn't make us holy or make us right with Him.  He has done that already by His death on the cross. 

I want to get this book in parent's hands so I will be doing a book giveaway Sunday, November 20th & Sunday, November 27th. You can enter numerous ways and each one will give you another entry in the giveaway.  You can  follow my blog, "like" my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, repost & retweet the giveaway on your pages or blogs. I will keep all entries till we give away both copies of "Give Them Grace" on Nov. 27th.  Leave comments on my blog to show me which way you've entered the giveaway.  Please include me in your reposts so I can accurately keep track of your entries. 

I will continue to post my favorite quotes of "Give Them Grace" during the duration of the two giveaways. 

I See You Now For Who You Truly Are

I can honestly say that the last few years have been the hardest I've experienced but yet if you were to ask me, "What would you do differently?" I don't know if I would do it differently or ask God to change it.  It has been the most trying of times but truly the best of times.  I can look back the last four years and see God so clearly sustaining, guiding, instructing, stretching, providing His will for my life and my family. 

One of the books God used to mightly in my life was "Trusting God" by Jerry Bridges.  I read this book right after I got married in 1992.  What does that tell you about me? I remember it had a huge impact on me to the point that when I wanted to start a Bible study with the young ladies at church that was the book I went for and grabbed.  What unfolded was God displaying His magnificent power and beauty of His sovereignity to me in ways that I've never experienced before.  As the world as I knew it seemed to be shaking and crumbling around me, God used that book to remind me of who He was.  A good and loving God who was in control of every detail of my life who wanted me to trust Him with every aspect of my life even though it might mean that my life as I know it would change completely but it was for my good and His glory.  God used that book to show me the idols in my heart.  I was trusting in those idols not in Him.  At the end of the day, it was my flesh and it was what others thought of me.  I learned that my hope was tied to this world instead of the living hope of Jesus Christ.  God began to strip me of these idols.  It hurt.  Hurt so deep that the only way to get out of this deep hole was to look up and say, "all I have is Christ."  I am thankful for a loving God who is using everything in my life to refine me into the image of His Son.  Who created me, who knows me and loves me that nothing escapes His plan for me.  As the ground beneath me was shaking (not literally) acting like Job and asking and questioning why God would allow this in my life.  I felt as though God was saying to me, "do you trust me?" Bridges goes through the attributes of  God and shows us who God truly is and uses the truths of Scripure to back it up.  I am convinced that you cannot know God if you don't believe who the Scriptures says He is.  It's not until that you view yourself rightly compared to the God of the Bible that you can completely understand His beauty, splendor and majesty to where you completely surrender your life wholely to Him and be able to say, "yes Lord, I trust you!"  Job understood this completely in Job 42: 1-5

"Then Job answered the Lord and said, "I know that You can do all things,

And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel

without knowledge?  Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,

Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, now, and I will speak;

I will ask You, and You instruct me.  I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;

But now my eye sees You;"

See Him for who He truly is,  the one who holds every detail of your life in His hand.  His name is Jesus.