love to paint

When I was in college and for the past decade, their has been a strong emphasis in the Christian community on apologetics.  We felt we needed to defend our faith against attacks and prove it to people who didn't believe, so that they might come to believe in God.  It was the whole premise of Modern Thought--that everything can and should be explained.  There was a flaw in this.  God cannot be fully explained.  God is far bigger and greater than any of us can fathom. Now, I think the world is using another age-old tactic to keeping people from believing--it's blatant and dangerous in my eyes.   There are three sources of temptation--the world, Satan, and our selves.  The world and Satan blur together and it isn't really all that important to distinguish the two.  The tactic I'm concerned about this morning is one that is employed by the world, but that the self jumps on board with and runs with it.   It is the idea that one must...

Sometimes I think it's worth it to just read a few pages at a time, because then you get to savor, meditate and consider what you read more deeply--rather than racing to the finish line as fast you can as I often do. When I come across a really, really good book, I love to savor it. Whenever I share with a friend that I review a lot of books or that I read 80 last year or 10 last month, their eyes open in surprise and ask "How?" I explain that I am a fast reader. I am. But, I also skim. I will admit to it. If a book is not that good, I just am not able to force myself to read every word. But, when a book is really good, I read every page and every word. This year two fiction books would qualify for that. June Bug by Chris Fabry (Tyndale) and The Familiar Stranger by Christina Berry (Moody Publishing). In non-fiction, it has been such a blessing to come across so many more that have drawn me in. The Cynthia Heald series "Becoming a woman of... " an...

"He who has ears, let him hear..." Matthew 11:15 NIV Yesterday, I was reading a book that I've been slowly making my way through since November. It is the Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges . It is not slow going because it is a bad book--it is actually a very good book, but it is very meaty and it takes me time to get through his books. When I was reading yesterday, everything went right over my head. I couldn't hear--I wasn't hearing. It just wasn't computing. Then, last night, I felt God convict me about how I needed to seek self-control in my life. Right now I am on my own for a while and I am thankful for these experiences because God uses them in my life (each of the times I've been on my own with the kids for several weeks). Throughout the fall we had a very steady routine, though there's always room for improvement. What I'm realizing now is that when there's someone else there, it's a lot easier to stay on track and do a...