A Fearful Thought...

Zechariah 7:13

"As I called, and they would not hear, so they called and I would not hear." says the Lord of hosts.

The children of Israel have come back from exile to rebuild the temple.They sent messengers to ask the priests if they should continue with fasting and mourning traditions they had been keeping while in Babylon. The Lord of Hosts replies by

asking them why they were keeping these traditions, was it for themselves or for His glory?

He was questioning their motives. He was concerned that they were not primarily concerned for His glory, and I must ask myself the same question. Why do I do the things I do? What is my motivation?

Paul tells us "...Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

Christ says " Seek first the kingdom of God."

Do I seek the praise of men or am I doing all to the glory of God?

The children of Israel were told to be generous, hospitable and benevolent this is how genuine faith is shown. Sadly they refused to listen making their hearts diamond hard

v11-12.

So the Lord of Hosts makes this fearful statement....

" As I called and they would not hear, so they called and I would not hear."

I must give serious heed to the Word of God. However, being a hearer is not enough I must also be a doer of it. My works should emanate from the faith I profess.

James tells us in 2:20 "...faith apart from works is dead."

In 2011 may I seek not only to exercise my faith in God but also let that faith be seen by my works, and all done to the Glory of God.

My Christmas card to you all....

Please take to time to open this and read it, have a little fun and enjoy!!

This was sent to me and I would like to pass it on....

Christmas Holidays...

First day off school and enjoying the rest. All my cards are written and sent, the shopping is all but finished and I will plan the Christmas dinner this evening. So I can kick back read, watch a few movies, spend time with the kids and have a good relaxing time.

Saturday and yesterday we had Philip Young stay with us from Northern Ireland.He is studying law at Harvard and took a little vacation over to Cailfornia to see us. Sorry it was raining the whole weekend but the fellowship and 'craic' was good.

Beginning to read 'Age of Opportunity' by Paul Tripp.

Have been meaning to read it for a long time so now is that time. Looking forward to some good teaching on this subject. With 3 teenagers in the house I need to learn a lot. God has been very gracious to us. Our girls are no problem and other than the usual butt of ideas at times we have good relationships with all of them, but I know I can do better.

So I will sign in from time to time these next two weeks, enjoy!!

Glossing over the Truth....

Well, my hubby is on holiday this week. He took the time off with the purpose of helping me to get some painting jobs done that I could not do on my own.

We have had a very successful two days with the living room totally completed and the hallway all done but a wall that I can finish on my own.

Up the mountain...

brush or roller?....brush, roller, roller, brush????

The title I gave this post is referring to a couple of things that happened today.

The first was when someone passed comment on Robert's Facebook page after he uploaded these pictures of our work...

and I quote....

Looks like a "coverup" to me!

If this pun fell "flat" I hope you'll just "gloss" over it. Maybe I just need to "brush up" a bit if I'm ever to get "on a roll." I hope you'll bear with my "off the wall" remarks.

This made me smile I don't think I could have strung all these together in one sentence where they would have made sense!

The second was rather quite sadder.

After we had finished our work for the day and had eaten dinner, the kids decided they would put up the Christmas tree for me while Robert and I went out and did some Christmas shopping and hung out together. So we got the shopping done and decided to go to Starbucks for a wee treat. (By the way if you haven't tried their 'sweet and salty hot chocolate then please do ...it is so good).

So we ordered our drinks and went to sit down to wait when we passed a table where two girls were obviously studying. Rob noticed one of the books was a Bible and made a comment about how encouraging it was to see two young ladies studying their Bible.

When asked what church they went to they told us they were Jehovah Witnesses.

Robert went on to have a discussion with them but they 'glossed over' the truth time and time again. Telling us that you are saved by your works. I had never heard it propagated in such a forthright manner before. It was sad to hear them talk about God and what they thought he was like yet denying Christ as God the Son....I was challenged in my own heart because I was fighting my own selfishness wanting to just chat to Rob...it's not often we get out on our own just to spend time alone...yet I eventually saw that these girls were so in need of hearing the truth of the true gospel. May God help me to have a burden for the lost and have a greater burden for them.

God is still faithful....

God still remains faithful to me and my family, sadly I have not been so faithful on my blog!

Well, over the last week I have spoken to a couple of people who told me they had looked at my blog recently and although I had not posted anything for over a year they had enjoyed reading my past posts. So this prompted me to come back to it and take up where I left off. I think I will make my posts shorter and a bit more bits and bobsy rather than anything structured and formal. Life is too busy to take up too much time here...I sill hope it will be stimulating, encouraging and glorifying to God.

Elizabeth of Brandenburg

The Elector of Brandenburg was one of the Catholic Princes of Germany who in 1502 married Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Denmark. She was only 16 years. She had 4 children. Sadly, after 10 years of happiness her husband began to wander into the arms of other women and a sad, forsaken Elizabeth retreated to her private quarters.

During the religious agitations that arose soon after, a German New Testament as translated by Luther came into Elizabeth's hands. Alone in her private room this 'wife forsaken' read comfort in the blessed words. Her heart was opened, she believed what she read and from that time she became a secret believer. The more trying her lot the more precious did the word of God become to her. She was given much prudence, and although her children were, of course, brought up under Catholic teachers she skilfully instilled the oil of the Gospel into their receptive minds.

Her husband was an enemy of the Reformation and indeed had been at the Diet of Worms advising the Emperor to have the 'heretic' ie. Luther, thrown to the flames. Unknown to her husband Elizabeth had given refuge to her brother, King Christian of Denmark after he been deposed and had fled to Berlin.

In the Elector's absence one year they had celebrated communion together and held private services, but she was betrayed to her husband by none other than her 18 year old daughter. Like her father she was an ardent romanist who regarded to Reformers as the enemies of religion.When the Elector heard what had happened he ordered Elizabeth to her room and demanded a recantation. His passion choked him and he was carried to his bed as dead! Days went by and Elizabeth held stedfastly against recantation. She decided to flee to Saxony to her Uncle John, (Frederick, John's elder brother who was Luther's patron was now dead.) The Prince was very kind to her and granted her the castle of Lichtenburg on the Elbe, near Wittenburg. She frequently sent for Luther whose instructions she greatly valued.

In her later years Elizabeth enjoyed much comfort in her children, all of whom, some earlier, some later, made an open profession of the Protestant faith. She would assemble her household daily for worship. She loved and studied Luther's translation of the Bible, 'God be forever praised above that these words are thus recorded,' she said 'for more than a thousand times I have felt in my heart that they are true.'

She lived to be 69 years old.

Encouragements and the Reformation...

Hi to everyone who takes the time to read through my blog and also apologies for not being so diligent at posting articles.

Life gets too busy at times and certain areas seem to take a back seat.

I want to thank those of you who read the posts I have made in the past and pass comment on them. This is such an encouragement to my soul. Please keep them coming.

On October 30th we hold Reformation Night in our church to celebrate and remember those who took a stand for God at a time when things were very dark. Some paying the ultimate price with their lives. Over the next few weeks I am going to post some articles that pay tribute to the Ladies of that Reformation.

Each of the ladies that I will mention were born into the 'old faith' (Roman Catholicism) and each was brought out of it. It was not loyalty to a few new ideas that sustained them but the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they loved and who made each a useful instrument for his work.

I trust you will enjoy these as much as I have.

Our faithful pastors...

"I also saw in my dream that when the shepherds realised that the men were travellers, they questioned the pilgrims about where they were from, how they had gotten into the way, and how they had perservered this far. For only a few who begin on the Way are ever seen in these mountains. When the shepherds heard their answers they were very pleased, and they looked upon the pilgrims with love and favour, saying, 'Welcome to the Delectable Mountains.'

The Shepherds, whose names were Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and sincere, took them by the hand, led them to their tents, and served them a meal. Then they said,'We would like to stay here for a while that we might get better acquainted and also to allow you to gain more solace here on these Delectable Mountains.' So the pilgrims agreed to stay, and then they went to bed because by this time it was quite late."

These shepherd are pastors. In the New Testament, the greek word for shepherd , poimen, is used metaphorically of Christian Pastors. Like all shepherds, these four not only feed their flocks, but tend then, too. Their names - Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and Sincere - describe vital characteristicsof a spiritual pastor.

When evaluating pastoral leaders, often the tendency is to focus more on charisma, eloquence, or credentials. Though these are important assets, a pastor proves sadly deficient without knowledge, experience, watchfulness and sincerity.

Knowledge: Do our pastors know God and His Word in a way that glorifies him and saves and nurtures souls?

Experience: Have they experienced the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in their lives and applied the faithful promises of God's word to their lives?Do they demonstrate a maturity in Christ that grows out of walking closely with him over anuber of years?

Watchful: Are they diligent to caution their flock against errors and snares that might defile and deceive them?Do they keep awake spiritually to guide and guard the flock from attack when others might slumber?

Sincerity: Do they truly know that Christ has called them? Do they look out for Christs interests, not their own? Do they sincerely love the flock God has given them?Will they care for the sick and wounded sheep and seek to find and recover the lost or trapped ones? Do they 'practice what they preach' or do they simply enjoy preaching?"

- The Pilgrims Progress Devotional

I thank God that He has been gracious to us in Immanuel Baptist Church, Sacramento to give us pastors who seek to do these things by God's grace.

Thank You Pastors Ernie King, Robert Briggs and our intern - Jeremy Twombly