Teach What is Good

Wages due

Published on August 22, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

Honestly, I cannot remember my first job.

For many of you, that’s no surprise because you know that I have a terrible memory for all things past, but for others of you, you cannot imagine someone having such a poor memory.

But, anyway, I did have many jobs as a young person. First off, I was raised with a variety of simple chores and I received an allowance.

I was a saver. (In fact, I still am a saver.) It brought me great joy to accumulate money in my savings account. When I finished high school, I had built up quite a pot from my many jobs, working as a secretary at my dad’s law office, working summers as a camp counselor, working my way up to a manager at Arby’s. Any and every which way, I loved to earn money.

Maybe you have never really thought about this as it relates to salvation, but when I read Romans 4:4 last week, the words literally jumped off the page and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.

Read Romans 4:4 with me:
“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”

Isn’t this how many of us are living?

We are working, doing our good works, expecting to be rewarded with salvation because, well, we’ve earned it. We think we deserve salvation because we have done so many good things. Just as I was working hard to save up money, expecting that future reward, we are doing good deeds, expecting God to let us into His presence because of them.

Now read with me the verses on either side:
Romans 4:3-5
3 “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,”

How do we earn righteousness? How do we earn the righteousness that God requires?

By faith.

How about you?
How do you struggle with living by faith?
Have you had some recent victories in your faith walk?

Stay tuned for Wages Due, part two. God willing, tomorrow.

TWIG

No Natural Children – Part Two

Published on August 20, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

After finishing in Romans 8 yesterday, I turned the page to begin Romans 9 and was like, “Wow! No natural children, part TWO.”

Look with me at Romans 9:3-5.

Paul is expressing his compassion for his brothers in the flesh, the Jews. He writes, “They are Israelites and to them BELONG the adoption…” They were the CHOSEN children according to the flesh. And yet, God had chosen to bring in the Gentiles and God was not bringing in all of the Israelites. “What is going on here,” Paul is wondering.

Now move on to Romans 9:6-8

“6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

Do you see why I was like, “WOW. No children of the flesh!?”

But now is where it gets really tricky. Remember what I was writing about yesterday? That it is up to the parent to choose to adopt that child and that adoption is not based on their merit or worth.

Look at Romans 9:10-12

“10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—
12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.””

God had a purpose. He always has a purpose. And His purposes are always good. He chooses, not because of our works, but because of His good purposes.

Which brings us to Romans 9:22-24:

“22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”

I, for one, am thankful that He chooses to have mercy on any of us. Truly, we have all like sheep gone astray. Truly, none of us are without sin. Truly, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

I sincerely pray that all four of my children, both my biological ones and my adopted one, will seek the Lord with their whole hearts and find Him. I pray that they will be among those standing with me before the throne in Heaven. But when it all comes down to it, it is my job to train them up in the way they should go and my job to teach them the ways of the Lord, but it is ultimately between God and them. And not me. I cannot bear children into the kingdom by my own strength.

Which brings me to the end of Romans 9. Look at verses 30-32.

“30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;
31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.
32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,”

It is not by our works or our worth that we are saved, but by our faith. It has always been by faith and it will always be by faith. Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. Unfortunately, just as the Jews were pursuing a righteousness based on the law, many, many of us who bear the name of Christ today are attempting to attain righteousness by our works.

Brothers and sisters, this has never worked and it will never work. You will never be good enough. You will never do enough good needs to merit the favor of God.

God willing, my post tomorrow will be titled Wages Due and we will explore this together in more depth.

I’d love to hear from you. How do you struggle with this idea of No Natural Children? How has this impacted your upbringing? How does it impact how you bring up your own children?

TWIG

No Natural Children

Published on August 19, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

Romans 8:15 (ESV)
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Ephesians 1:3-6
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

“Receive” – lambano
To take, to receive what is offered, to receive what is given.

“Adoption as sons” – huiothesia
Outline of Biblical Usage:
1) adoption, adoption as sons
a) that relationship which God was pleased to establish between himself and the Israelites in preference to all other nations
b) the nature and condition of the true disciples in Christ, who by receiving the Spirit of God into their souls become sons of God
c) the blessed state looked for in the future life after the visible return of Christ from heaven
— a compound of huios (a son) + tithemi (to set, put, place, make)

My thoughts –
Have you considered that no one can choose adoption for themselves?

If my son Nick had WANTED us to adopt him, he could not adopt himself. He could not force us to adopt him. He could only to receive what was given, to take what was offered. He was adopted as a son because we chose him and caused him to be our son. He has only to RECEIVE what is given.

And he was not chosen because he deserved it or earned it. He was not somehow better than all the others. No. He was adopted because his parents chose him because we wanted to.

My three biological children grew in my womb, but in God’s kingdom there are no ‘natural children.’ Every single one of us must be adopted. Every single one. Whether Jew or Gentile, whether first generation Christian or fifteenth, we must each receive adoption. None of us can ride our parent’s coat tails into the kingdom.

Praise God that He saw my need. He saw me, a slave, and yet He set His favor on me, choosing me as His daughter. Thank you, Lord, that You showed Your love for me in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Thank you, Father, for calling me out of the dark and putting Your name on me that I can now call myself daughter and so I am. Wow!

Let me not fall back into fear when I have received the spirit of adoption, that I can cry out Abba, Father, as your daughter.

Happy Birthday, Bill

Published on August 14, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

Proverbs 31:11-12
“The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.”

1 Peter 3:5-6
“For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.”

We had a great time celebrating Bill’s birthday including an amazing 3-hour dinner at Melting Pot. Yum! Emily baked a delicious cake shaped like a giant coffee mug. How cool is that?

Happy Birthday, honey! You are a blessing from The Lord to me. I praise His name for giving me you to be my husband. You make me more than I would be without you.

First day of school 2013

Published on August 12, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

Today we started “back to school.”

This, then, entails the ever important trip to Sam’s Donut shop for FIRST DAY DONUTS. In St Louis, it was Krispy Kreme, but here it’s Sam’s on Byhalia Rd in Collierville. Thanks, guys, for making our first day back to the grindstone a little more fun!

Thorn (?) in the flesh

Published on August 12, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

I must say that the past three weeks have been filled with events to keep me on my knees. To keep me humble. To keep me from becoming conceited. To keep me weak. I pray that The Lord has looked at me and said “Have you considered my servant, Kim?” (Job 2:8) and that in all my response I have not sinned or charged God with wrong. (Job 2:22)

I’d say it probably began when our family returned (July 14) from a week long trip to Colorado, knowing we had only ten days to pack up and move our whole house of stuff accumulated over 18 years of marriage. Our closing still held looming uncertainty yet we continued to take steps daily by faith that The Lord would bring this about.

Incredibly, two days after returning our oldest son, Nick, developed a killer, killer headache which was only getting worse as time went by. We rushed him to the ER where he was diagnosed with meningitis.

After a spinal tap and 36 hours in the hospital, it was determined that it was viral, rather than bacterial, and he was discharged already starting to feel better.

I praised God for Nick’s quick improvement, and yet my strong, able bodied, #1 moving assistant was down. In God’s great goodness, our church family, His hands and feet here on earth, stepped up in a MIGHTY way to help us pack and move. We successfully closed on the sale and purchase of our houses and moved the weekend of July 25.

Just as I began to think we’d have a few weeks of smooth sailing, along came poison ivy to keep me humble and weak and on my knees. I ended up with a severe reaction resulting in extreme swelling on the right side of my face and another ER visit. (This time for me.)Yet, once again, God’s grace is sufficient!!!

The week I came home from Colorado, I began memorizing 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 and God has given me plenty of opportunities to put them to use. I remember reciting these verses while Nick bent over holding my hand as the doctor drew spinal fluid out of his arched, pained back.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

This story so far has been about the past few weeks, but what God is working on me now is in Romans 8:18-25.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:18-25.

My hope stands firm in the coming return of Jesus. My hope is not found here. The whole earth is groaning in the pains of meningitis and poison ivy reactions, yet these sufferings are not even worthy comparing with the GLORY that is to be revealed to us.

Tower of Babel Sandcastles

Published on June 20, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

Today as I sit in the shade watching Noelle and Daniel build sand castles with plastic cups, my ears are filled with the sounds of a language foreign to my ears. I pick out certain words I recognize – ‘nina,’ ‘y,’ ‘si’ – and my heart turns to ponder Emily and Nick heading to Mexico tomorrow to serve at Rio Bravo, a children’s home in Reynosa. There they will be the outsiders, the ones who don’t speak the language, but here these young ones struggle to communicate with ours. So, ours build their own structures of sand while they construct an elaborate reservoir of water.
It makes me think of the unity God desires in His body, the church. He desires for us to be ONE, to be co-laborers with Him, building up His body here on earth.
I pray for our team from Collierville Bible Church to be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Christ in Mexico, whether they speak English or Spanish, whether they are from intact families or not. I pray that the God of endurance and encouragement grant them to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together they may with ONE voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)

More Than a Homeschool Mom Retreat – audio uploads

Published on May 29, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

Hi! Yes, after two months, I am finally posting a link to the audio for two of the talks from the March retreat.

I pray they would be a great blessing.

More Than a Homeschool Mom Retreat Attendees

Talk #2 – More Than My Current Circumstances. Click here. (Are you being ruled by your feelings? By human wisdom? I share on the importance to walk by faith in our everyday lives, especially in making tough decisions and enduring trials.)

Talk # 3 – More Than a Hearer. Click here. (Truly, the Lord wants us to know the Bible, yet we must be MORE than mere hearers of the Word, and even MORE than mere “doers” of the Word. God’s best for us is to to live & move & have our being in Him.)

MORE THAN a Homeschool Mom Retreat

Published on February 2, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

Please join us March 8-9 for a special time of spiritual renewal. You can register by clicking on the “Retreat Registration” link at the top of the page or click here.

Retreat Schedule
March 8-9, 2013

FRIDAY

5:30pm
Optional Dinner Fellowship – bring your own dinner

6:30-8:30pm
MORE THAN my Past
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11

8:30-9:30pm Connection time!

SATURDAY

8:30am
Optional Breakfast Fellowship – continental breakfast provided on site

9:30-11:30am
MORE THAN my Current Circumstances
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

11:30am-12:30pm
Catered Lunch – provided on site

12:30-2:30pm
MORE THAN a Hearer of the Word
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

2:30-4:30pm
MORE THAN a Servant
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.” 1 John 3:1

4:30-5:00pm
Private Time of Reflection and Prayer

Each two-hour block will include a time of singing, prayer, teaching, personal reflection and group fellowship.

Additional Information

Retreat Location

Collierville Bible Church
806 Wolf River Blvd.
Collierville, TN 38017

Registration fee:

$15 (early bird until February 28)

$20 (March 1 – March 5)

Registration includes lunch and continental breakfast

Hotel Information for Friday, March 8
(for those coming from out of town or for moms who want to enjoy a night out!)

Courtyard by Marriott: Memphis Collierville (at the Avenue Carriage Crossing)
4640 Merchants Park Circle
Collierville, TN 38017
901-850-9390

A block of rooms is being held as “Homeschool Mom Retreat” for attendees at the discounted rate of $99. Rate includes room with two queen beds and a hot breakfast buffet.
Reservations must be made by February 22, 2013.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I am a homeschool mom seeking renewal and encouragement. Is this the retreat for me?

A. Absolutely!

Q. Can I tell others homeschool moms about this retreat?

A. Please do. We are in prayer for this retreat to be a great outreach ministry to many moms.

Q. Is there anything I should bring with me?

A. It would be great to bring a Bible along with you.

Q. Do I have to currently homeschool to attend?

A. No! The spiritual truths that will be shared will be applicable for moms who are not homeschooling as well.

Q. Will childcare be provided at the retreat? What about nursing babies?

A. There is no childcare provided at the retreat so alternate childcare arrangements will need to be made; however, nursing babies are always welcome!

Q. I see that the dinner and breakfast are listed as optional. Can you please explain that further?

A. Certainly! Some moms will prefer to bring their “brown bag” dinner and have some fellowship on Friday night while others may need to arrive in time for the evening session; likewise, on Saturday morning, some moms will prefer to attend the continental breakfast while other moms will prefer to get a bit more sleep before arriving for the first session.

Q. What should I expect from this retreat?

A. Expect to hear uplifting messages from God’s Word, engage in dialogue with other homeschool moms, and ponder ways to live out the “More Than” message!

Q. I want to come. What should I do next?

A. Register and spread the word about the retreat to your friends! If you need hotel arrangements, please make them early as well. Finally, and most importantly, please pray for God’s blessings on this retreat.

No Grumbling! In Everything Give Thanks!

Published on January 11, 2013 by teachwhatisgoodLeave a comment

This week I’ve been reading in Exodus. It drove home to me how easy it is to get caught up in a poor-me mentality.

The Hebrew people had just watched God perform incredible, mind-blowing miracles before their very eyes — from horrific plagues, to parting the Red Sea — yet as soon as they’re thirsty they fall into grumbling.

God impressed on me how often people grumble just because we can’t see that “blessing around the bend” like I’ve written about before. God knows His people need water and He knows how long they can go without. He also knows they need food and He knows how long they can go without.

In Exodus 15, just after the people of God have grumbled about the bitter water and He turns it sweet, God leads them to Elim with its twelve springs of water and 70 palm trees. It made me wonder, “God KNEW that they were going to get to Elim, yet they didn’t wait on Him … they wanted water NOW.”

Then, in Exodus 16, the people are grumbling about their hunger and wishing they were back in Egypt. God says, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you.” (Exodus 16:4) Is he ABOUT to because they have grumbled, or because He was already about to do it and once again they refused to WAIT on Him? Doesn’t God know that the humans that He created have to eat? Yes, He does. He knows us. He remembers that we are dust. He knows our every need.

I am absolutely not saying that we should not cry out to God and lay our hearts bare before Him. We should. God is such a good Father and He loves it when we humble ourselves before Him. But, grumbling is not humbling ourselves. Grumbling is being selfish, demanding our way. Crying out to Him that you need a drink or need a morsel of bread, is not the same as complaining that He has brought you out into this stinking desert and left you here to die!

One other thought I had in reading these passages about the grumbling Hebrews was about who they were grumbling against. Each time they grumbled to Moses, saying that HE had led them out to die in the wilderness. Yet, truly they are grumbling against God. Moses tells the people, “Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.” (Exodus 16:8)

Am I really trusting in God who has brought me to this very place and time, or am I just trusting in myself or in my circumstances? When I find myself grumbling, as I often do, what does that say about my faith in God?

As 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” May we not grumble or grow discouraged, but may we TRUST God, believing that He knows our needs, that He knows the future and that He cares for us.

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