Our last family worship: Proverbs 12:11,

Our last family worship: Proverbs 12:11, good discussion re: “worthless pursuits,” where “worthless” = “not eternal.” Have any of those?

Mourning for friends…with hope

I just received this news from a sweet pastor friend and his wife, who had written this letter to their church family about the death of their 3-month old adopted son. I’m compelled to post their letter to their church as an encouragement to adoptive parents in our churches that the road ahead may not be easy, but God’s grace sustains. May God grant them strength as he flies over to bury his son…

________________________

Dear church family and friends,

It’s been less than 24 hours since the sudden news of our son Mark Joseph’s death was shared with many of you. God’s grace and comfort has already been abundant and though we can’t respond to every person who has expressed love and prayers to us, please know how thankful and blessed we feel and how merciful our Sovereign Savior is and has been to us already through you.

I (Phil) am still leaving this Saturday for my trip, arriving in Congo Monday, with a different type of ministry and mission in mind than originally planned (humanly, but our God is big and good and has His wise ways which are not ours, He has planned this before there was time). My mission is to travel with our dear family friends the Wilmarths as originally planned to support them in the adoption of their twins and to be of ministry to the family of Christ in Congo and the orphanage in any way I can. For those who have asked how you can help or pray, here is the update for now:

• Thank God with us for His mercy in so many things, that we want to remember, rehearse to our hearts and our children, and recount for others for the glory of Christ
• Pray for God’s manifold grace and purposes in my son’s funeral/burial I will get to be a part of in the Congo next week.
• Pray that I would be of great encouragement to Pastor Didier, his wife Annie, and his family, in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 , 7 , 11 , 15 , 2:4 , 8 , 3:5 , 4:7-10 , 15-18 , 5:7-9 , that they would not lose heart in doing good and that God would heal them in every way from the trauma and tragedy of witnessing the loss of one who was a son to them as well
• Pray that I would be a good ambassador for Christ ( 2 Cor. 5:20 ) and to comfort the depressed with my coming (7:6, 8:6-12), that even with the language barrier the love of Christ would come across
• Pray that I would be able to express the love of our family and church to our church family in Lubumbashi in some way on Sunday, Sept. 4th (Saturday evening our time)

We continue to treasure your prayers and care and love and we rest in the sweet and Sovereign hands to whom we give all our children and all things, and pray God will use us weak vessels to magnify our Strong Savior.

Love in Christ,
Phil and Jaime

Preaching tomorrow on Judges 7…God, he

Preaching tomorrow on Judges 7…God, help us to see wonderful things from your Word.

Charity & Its Fruits Application Assignment #9

It’s been a couple weeks since any of us have engaged in Charity, myself included! Hopefully you have enjoyed the break from the class, and hopefully are sticking with the reading and application work down the stretch. Trust me, the best part of the book is coming up. So keep up the good work, and we’ll be done in three weeks!

Here’s the application questions, taken from sermons 10 and 11.

1.   In sermon 10, on page 71 in the notes, Edwards talks about the balance between judging others too quickly, either on the negative or positive side. What does Edwards mean by this, and which way are you naturally prone to judge others?

2.   Edwards lists three arenas where a censorious spirit occurs (points a., b., and c., pp. 71-73). Review the notes on these areas. Which of these are you most prone to judge others, and why?

3.  Based on your answer in question #2, review now the Edwards’ applications on pages 75-76. What particular facets of application are instructive to you, and how will you arm yourself to better fight against a censorious spirit in the future?

4.   Edwards’ text for sermon 11 was 1 Corinthians 13.6. The application portion of his sermon is very heart-searching. Read carefully over this section of the sermon (very bottom of page 245 through page 250 in the book), then review “B. 2.” in the notes (pp. 80-82).
Work through each of the aspects of self-examination by marking down, on a scale of 1 to 5 (where “1″ is poor, “2″ is fair, “3″ is okay, “4″ is good, and “5″ is excellent), how “real and sincere grace is in your soul.” Next to each aspect, write down a 1-2 sentence summary of your rationale for each mark.