vertical view

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!"

I've spent the last few days disgusted with the world. Disgusted at how people, believers and non-believers alike, can be consumed with idols of the heart. Materialism. Pleasure. Entertainment. Food. Fame. Self. More and more lately, I am realizing how corrupted this world really is. Even the true message of the gospel is skewed. Oh, I could go on and on... and that's precisely my problem. Can you call me judgmental? Probably. But God's Word calls this worldly corruption "sin".

I looked through the book of Ecclesiastes. The side-notes say that "all of life is meaningless, useless, hollow, futile and vain if it is not rightly related to God. Only when based on God and his word is life worthwhile." Humanistic wisdom is meaningless. Pleasures are meaningless. Work apart from God is meaningless. Achievement without God's blessing is meaningless. Advancement is meaningless. Money is meaningless. All this is true, BUT the interesting thing about these passages is that the author wasn't looking only at everybody else. He was evaluating his own heart.

Second Corinthians 13:5 reminds me: "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified." Yes, discernment is good, BUT have I been examining others instead of myself? I need to stop looking horizontally. Instead, I need to assess my heart only, looking vertically, so that I may live a purposeful, meaningful life centered on God.

tromping on my sister's ground

On a beautiful spring day, letting 10 kids loose on a farm is a recipe for fun...

...or perhaps disaster!

I am addicted to photographing this beautiful boy!

It is such a blessing to hang out with sisters and kids. The day was filled with good conversation, occasional concerns, and random phrases from the kids like "You're all a bunch of wimps!" and "Help! Help!" Good times.

big. fat. goodness.

Take a bite of this.

I am not always a recipe-tweaker. But today, I needed a BIG, FAT cookie. This means thick, soft, chewy goodness with chunks. I picked oatmeal for hearty thickness, pecans and Hershey's Mini Kisses for chunks, and peanut butter for extra assurance that this new recipe would taste good. Here is what it came down to:

1 c. butter, slightly softened

2 c. brown sugar

1 c. creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 t. vanilla

1/4 c. chocolate syrup

1/4 c. Irish Creme or whipping cream

1/2 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

2 c. flour

2 1/2 c. oatmeal

1 c. pecans

1 (10 oz.) bag Hershey's Mini Kisses

3/4 c. mini chocolate chips

Beat butters and sugar very well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, syrup, and creme, beating well. Beat in salt and soda. Beat in flour, mixing well. Stir in remaining ingredients by hand. Drop by tablespoonfuls and form and flatten slightly. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Disclaimers:

• Every oven is different. 10 minutes in my oven made soft cookies. If you bake them until the edges are brown, there's a good chance they'll be crunchy.
• Beating cookie dough well is usually a good thing.
• Adding extra baking soda won't make your cookies thicker. I spent years talking to my cookies, telling them to "GROW, already!" or "STAY FAT!" but soda didn't do it. The key is thickness. Dough shouldn't cake to your fingers when you touch it. If it does, add more flour.

Try your own cookie recipe with your favorite ingredients! It's fun fun!

urgent message

A link to Paul Washer's message was posted on Cammie's blog. It is well worth your time. Paul's message from Matthew 7:13-27 is urgent. Click here to listen. If you'd rather read it, here is the written version. With passion, Paul pleads for non-believers to see the Truth and for believers to evaluate our life, examine our hearts. (This message was for a youth audience, but it applies to all.)

Does our life honor Jesus Christ?

Do we look into the Word to find out how we're supposed to live?

Are we bearing fruit?

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil,

come down to make your name known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quake before you!

You come to the help of those who gladly do right,

who remember your ways,

But when we continued to sin against them,

you were angry.

How then can we be saved?

All of us have become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,

and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us

and made us waste away because of our sins.

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:1-2, 5-8

salvation: simple or complex

Sister #2 and I have been discussing this very thing. While we scratched our heads and wrinkled our eyebrows on opposite ends of the phone, we semi-concluded that salvation is a semi-simple concept with complex reasoning: Salvation comes through belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are unworthy sinners. God sent His only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. While salvation cannot be earned, it is received by a personal faith in Jesus Christ and true repentance.

This belief seems simple, but there are so many underlying details within it all. With the belief of the gospel (not just the profession...the true belief) comes the commitment to making Christ the ultimate manager of our life. This church explains it well: Salvation "begins the moment someone commits their life to Christ, continues as God grows in us to be like him, and will be completed at Christ's return to earth." This concept seems to become more complex the more you think about it...not to mention any question starting with "Why?!"

In his Hard to Believe book, John MacArthur describes the cross as "hard truth." Many churches have conformed this message and their entire belief systems to a customer-satisfaction mentality. Many have developed a consumer mind-set. "The church service is too long, you say? We'll shorten it... Too formal? Wear your sweatsuit. Too boring? Wait'll you hear our band! And if the message is too confrontational, or too judgmental, or too exclusive, scary, unbelievable, hard to understand, or too much anything else for your taste, churches everywhere are eager to adjust that message to make you more comfortable." This is NOT GOSPEL-focused! What is it all about anyway? Not US! Correct answer: Christ! (Have I gone off on a rabbit trail?)

Society has distorted the message of salvation. In an interview regarding his book Willing to Believe, R.C. Sproul stated, "One of my great concerns is that we've got to understand the difference between a profession of faith and faith. Everyone who has faith is called to profess faith, but not everybody who professes faith has faith. We are not saved by a profession of faith. A lot of people, it seems to me, in the evangelical world, believe that if they have walked the walk, raised the hand, signed the card - that is, made some kind of methodological profession of faith - that they're saved. And that's scary! [And why is it scary?] Because salvation comes through trust in the gospel. Now, I don't think God requires that we ourselves understand how we come to faith in order to be saved... In other words, I believe that I came to faith through the pure, unvarnished, sovereign work of God, by an immediate, supernatural work of regeneration in my heart, that my heart was a heart of stone and utterly incapable of making any positive response to Christ until God the Holy Spirit changed my soul by regeneration.... Just because my doctrine is right - and I believe it is - doesn't save me. Likewise, another person, who I believe comes to faith the same way I came to faith, through the sovereign, immediate work of the Holy Spirit - they may not understand all the nuances of that, and they may be deceived about how they came to faith, but that's not the issue that's going to keep them out of heaven. The question is, "Do they have saving faith?" Not how they understood how they got there."

Seem complex? Yep. Perhaps because God is sovereign--a term we'll never fully grasp. His "greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3b); His "understanding is inscrutable" (Isaiah 40:28b). But even so, we who have that salvation are charged to allow Christ to be preeminent in our lives.

"And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, 'Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me...'" Matthew 18:2-5

Simple or complex? Or both?

good reads

If you're a fan of Virginia Lee Burton's Choo Choo, you'll definitely like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. This was written for boys (the author's boys), but Carly sure loves it too. Included in this treasury are the stories Katy and the Big Snow, The Little House, and Maybelle the Cable Car as well. What a neat book. I am truly a fan of Burton, plus her illustrations are outstanding. These are good old-fashioned stories from the 30s and 40s that have stood the test of time.

Bob Books

Ever heard of these? The kids are loving these books. Or perhaps they like the box that the set comes in. These books are for beginning readers. They help build confidence as children learn to memorize and sound out sight words. There are 12 books in each set. Isaac's starting on the beginner (blue) set. Books 1 and 2 are about the extent of his reading.

Carly is working her way through the advanced beginner (orange) set. It's easy for them to memorize the words of these simple stories, but it's oh so neat to watch them point to the words as they sound like real readers.

This is one of the most eye-opening women's books I've read. Martha Peace describes what marriage is really about, which is not the way the world portrays it. She paints a picture of an "Excellent Wife" using practical advice and solid Biblical teaching. Even though I'm only halfway through, I strongly recommend this book to every woman. If The Exemplary Husband is anything like it, I recommend that too (for men, of course).

Eisenhower by Geoffrey Perret is probably Jared's best read for the last couple months. You can even read this book online.