Piano Virtuoso!

Her Aunt Wendi should be proud of the intense interest she's taking in the piano! I can see great things in her future. :-)

2 month hiatus

In some ways it seems longer than that. Facebook has filled my desire to "share" things worth sharing. I don't necessarily like that though. I don't take the time to flesh out my thoughts on topics the way I used to here. But, then again, I haven't really wrote an "opinion" piece in quite some time - even on here. The last time I shared my personal thoughts was August 10th, 2010.

Lately a lot of my "learning experience" have centered around Bridget, and watching her interact with a world that is full of new and different. The concept of our depravity is starkly apparent in a developing child. She wants what she wants when she wants it, and if she doesn't get it soon enough she will continue to make things difficult as she expresses her displeasure.

My first reaction is "where does this come from?", but I know where it comes from. Ephesians 2:3 says "among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

Already, at 6+ months old, she is expressing her desire to control her world - to be master of her reality - to dictate as she sees best. And do you know why it's so hard to be patient, loving, and graceful towards her? Because my heart is bent the same way. When she wants fed NOW, my heart can get frustrated, because I want to read my magazine now. When she needs to go home and go bed, I can get frustrated because I was in the middle of a good conversation with friends. When she wants attention, I can get frustrated because I just want to eat my supper and talk to my wife about the day.

I get frustrated and annoyed because she is imposing on my will. She is dictating to me how things should go, and as her father, I have a responsibility to bend to her needs. I have a responsibility to put her first. My flesh rebels against that. I want to be sovereign in my kingdom. I want to say what we'll do and when we'll do it. My flesh is selfish and self-fulfilling.

The beautiful thing about it all is that God, in His mercy and grace, is using Bridget to show me my heart. He's using Bridget to mold and shape my thoughts and my desires. He's using Bridget to bring me to my knees before Him in a new recognition that I can't be who He calls me to be. Similar to how Bridget doesn't have the capacity as a 6 month old to be what we ask of her. Physically she could do it, but morally she doesn't have the capacity to be selfless, patient, and kind. Physically I have the capability to always respond in a Christ-like manner. I have the physically ability to be thankful for all things. I have the physical ability to show love in response to hurt. Yet I oftentimes don't respond as I should.

I need Jesus. I will never not need Jesus. I'm thankful that He is faithful to keep bringing circumstances into my life which drive me back to the cross and to the truth that my sin is taken care of. It's finished. It's covered. I'm covered. Christ has imputed His righteousness to my account. I can boldly approach the throne of Grace.

I'm so thankful that the Father of Lights saw fit to breathe this little light into my life. As He calls me to be His tool in shaping Bridget's soul, He is in turn, using Bridget to shape me more into the likeness of Christ. For that I rejoice.

Is it easy? No.

Is it always fun? No.

Is it beautiful? It doesn't always feel like it when you're in the moment, but yet it is beautiful. It's beautiful in the ways that it perfectly illustrates different aspects of the character of God. Like a cut and polished diamond as you turn it over in the light and the different points of light sparkle and shine off the different facets of the stone. God's character is perfectly displayed by His sovereign balance of justice and mercy - grace and wrath.

I'm thankful for the tools that God has used in my life to help shape and mold me.

I'm thankful that I can be confident that He will continue His work in spite of me.

May we all do well to dwell more on the sovereignty of our Master as we encounter life in all it's ups, downs, and sideways. Let's remember that He is on the stage for His glory.

Killing my Sin

The following Blog Post from Desiring God is a powerful way to think about sanctification in the life of a believer.When it comes to killing my sin I don’t wait for the miracle, I act the miracle.

Acting a miracle is different from working a miracle. If Jesus tells a paralyzed man to get up, and he gets up, Jesus works a miracle. But if I am the paralyzed man and Jesus tells me to get up, and I obey and get up, I act the miracle. If I am dead Lazarus and Jesus commands me to get up, and I obey, Jesus works the miracle, I act the miracle.

So when it comes to killing my sin, I don’t wait passively for the miracle of sin-killing to be worked on me, I act the miracle.

Read the rest of the article here

Challenging Changes

I wrote the following email this morning to family and friends. Since I know I don't have everyone's email that I would like to send it to, I decided to post it here.Good morning all,

It is with a prayerful heart that I type out this email. Heidi & I are sending you this email because you have a special place in our heart. You've all been a part of our life's journey and we're so thankful for that.

Over the last couple of years God has taken us through some rugged terrain. He's had us on mountain tops and He's taken us through dark valleys. Through it all He has been faithful. Romans 8:28-29 have been rock verses for us through it all. (And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.) We're so thankful that we can trust God's promise to work ALL things in our lives to mold us into the "image of His Son". Heidi & I have surely felt that work in our lives. Our prayer is that you have been aware of that work also.

It is with much emotion that we are taking this next step in our lives. After years of prayers, counsel, and seeking the principles of the Word, Heidi & I feel that we must move in faith regarding our church membership. Tonight (2-16-11) Ron Messner will remove our membership from the Apostolic church. We are currently planning on becoming members of Bethany Community Church in Washington IL. We know this decision will be difficult to accept for some of you. We have been praying hard for our family and friends that the Spirit will work in you all to trust Him and His work in our lives. Our reasons for this move in our lives are not easy to summarize as they've been developed over a long period of time and involve many different circumstances, teachings, joys, hardships, and lessons. Our heart is not to pursue ease, comfort, or self, but rather to passionately pursue a deepening relationship with Christ through His Spirit and through His revealed and Holy Scriptures.

We know our decision will bring pain to some of you that receive this email. We pray that, as we've seen God do in the past, He will use our pain to draw us closer to His father heart and teach us how to be more like our Savior. Heidi & I have a heart for our relationship with each one of you who receive this letter. It's our sincere prayer that God would continue to knit us together in Love even if we disagree on some things.

Heidi & I are open to discussion and sharing where we're at with anyone who has a heart towards that. We are willing to communicate as much or as little as you are each comfortable with.

Again, we want each of you to know we love you and are thankful for how God has used you in our lives to grow, shape, encourage, and challenge us.

Love in Christ,
Luke & Heidi

P.S. I'm sorry for those of you who may have gotten this twice. And I know I didn't have everyone's email that I would've liked to have sent it to. Please feel free to share this with our mutual family & friends.

The Entabulator!

It's not cheap, but once you understand what it does, you'll definitely want one!!

For those of you on Facebook, you'll probably have to go to my blog to see the video. It's worth it. :-) Especially for you engineering types.
Some years back, Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy
duty automatic transmission business and they were getting ready to tape
their first introductory video. As a warm up, the stage crew began what
has become a legend within the training industry.

This man should have won an academy award for his stellar performance.
Now remember and keep in mind, this guy is strictly speaking off the
cuff and nothing is written down. Nothing he says is true, even if you
could understand it. He had NO script! This was a rehearsal for camera,
lighting and stage crew. It's all total meaningless drivel made up as he
goes along.

Parenting

Can there be joy in realizing that I am powerless to complete a task? What if it's a task I desperately want completed?

In this blog post Paul Tripp explains how and why he finds joy in the impossibility of parenting.It was eleven o’clock on a Sunday night, and I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot exhausted and overwhelmed. After we had put our four children to bed, later than we had planned, Luella discovered that we had nothing in the house to pack for lunches the next day. With an attitude that couldn’t be described as joy, I got in the car and did the late-night food run. As I waited for the light to change so I could leave the parking lot and drive home, it all hit me. It seemed like I had been given an impossible job to do; I had been chosen to be the dad of four children.
Continue...

Ambassador

2 Corinthians 5:20 - Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us...

That's a pretty incredible and humbling thought - God is appealing to the world through His people.

An ambassador is…

• Ready. An Ambassador is alert for chances to represent Christ and will not back away from a challenge or an opportunity.


• Patient. An Ambassador won’t quarrel, but will listen in order to understand, then with gentleness will seek to respectfully engage those who disagree.


• Reasonable. An Ambassador has informed convictions (not just feelings), gives reasons, asks questions, aggressively seeks answers, and will not be stumped by the same challenge twice.


• Tactical. An Ambassador adapts to each unique person and situation, maneuvering with wisdom to challenge bad thinking, presenting the truth in an understandable and compelling way.


• Clear. An Ambassador is careful with language and will not rely on Christian lingo or gain unfair advantage by resorting to empty rhetoric.


• Fair. An Ambassador is sympathetic and understanding towards others and will acknowledge the merits of contrary views.


• Honest. An Ambassador is careful with the facts and will not misrepresent another’s view, overstate his own case, or understate the demands of the Gospel.


• Humble. An Ambassador is provisional in his claims, knowing that his understanding of truth is fallible. He will not press a point beyond what his evidence allows.


• Attractive. An Ambassador will act with grace, kindness, and good manners. He will not dishonor Christ in his conduct.


• Dependent. An Ambassador knows that effectiveness requires joining his best efforts with God’s power.

Source

Power in Truth

I read a great article this morning titled "How to Deal with the Guilt of Sexual Failure for the Glory of Christ and His Global Cause".

I provided the link at the bottom, but before I give you the link, I want to share a few excerpts that I found exceptionally compelling. I hope they will inspire you to listen and read the entire sermon.

• The great tragedy is not mainly masturbation or fornication or acting like a peeping Tom (or curious Cathy) on the internet. The tragedy is that Satan uses the guilt of these failures to strip you of every radical dream you ever had, or might have, and in its place give you a happy, safe, secure, American life of superficial pleasures until you die in your lakeside rocking chair, wrinkled and useless, leaving a big fat inheritance to your middle-aged children to confirm them in their worldliness. That’s the main tragedy.


• Have you ever wondered what the next verse in Colossians 2:15 means? Right after saying that God nailed the record of our debt to the cross, Paul says, “[God] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” This is a reference to the devil and all his demonic hosts. How are they disarmed? How are they defeated? Don’t they prowl around like a roaring lion today (1 Peter 5:8)?
  
  The answer is: They have many weapons. They can do much damage. But they are disarmed of the one weapon that can damn us. The weapon of unforgiven sin. Be sure you see the connection between Colossians 2:14 and 15. In 2:14, it says God nailed the record of our debt to the cross. It’s punished. It’s finished. And in the next breath he says that God disarmed the rulers and authorities. He triumphed over them. Sure, they can beat us up. They can make us see weird things on the walls of our rooms. They can shake your house and cause lying signs and wonders. They accuse you and call you a loser, but they cannot damn you. That weapon is out of their hands. Only unforgiven sin damns. And that was nailed to the cross for everyone of you who despairs of saving yourself and trusts in Jesus.


• Justification is the act by which God declares us not only forgiven because of the work of Christ, but also righteous because of the work of Christ. God requires two things for our right standing before him: 1) our sins must be punished and 2) our lives must be righteous. But we cannot bear our own punishment (Psalm 49:7-8), and we cannot provide our own righteousness. None is righteous; no, not one (Romans 3:10).
  
  Therefore, God, out of his immeasurable love for us, provided his own Son to do both. Christ bears our punishment and performs our righteousness. And when we receive Christ as the Savior and Lord and Treasure of our lives, all of his punishment and all of his righteousness is counted as ours (Romans 4:4-6; 5:19; 5:1; 8:1; 10:4; Philippians 3:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

I hope those short excerpts inspired you to go read the rest of the sermon (or listen to it). Plus, the article has hot-links to all the scripture. It's powerful stuff, and it applies to much more than just sexual failure. It applies to any and all sin in our lives.

May God be glorified in and through His people.

Excellent TED talk on "How Great Leaders Inspire Action"

I thought this was a great first post of 2011. I'd love to hear my readers thoughts on this guys speech.


For those of you on Facebook who can't see the video, here's the link to my blogpost.