The Hubs on: life changing truth

Week 4:
Psalms 23:1
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Background: 
One of David's many psalms that he wrote. Before God made him into a king, David was a shepherd in the fields of Bethlehem. It is neat to think of him reflecting on those days while he composed these verses. Jesus speaks about being The Good Shepherd in John 10. Try reading both passages together!

Observations: 
Personal background - verse 3 in Psalms 23 "He guides me on paths of righteousness for His namesake" gives me true perspective on why God is helping me battle pornography. Learning why God desires to empower me over my addiction helped me find sobriety for the first time in my life.

Break it down: 
Scripture reveals that God is preeminent "THE Lord", present “The Lord IS”, personal “The Lord is MY”, and protective "The Lord is my SHEPHERD”

So far: 
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

The Hubs on: "resurrection" faith

Week 3:
Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

Background: 
Part of the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus. Food for thought - Paul spent a number of years in Ephesus proclaiming this cross-cultural message of grace. Epaphras was so moved by Paul what said in Ephesus, he returned to his home and started the church of Colossae (Colossians).

Observations: 
This message is not only cross-cultural, it is counter-cultural. A gift from God? I don't have to do anything to earn it? I don't have to do anything in return? My mind doesn't work like that. My mind keeps track of who paid for the last lunch outing with my friends, or who initiated the last phone conversation with my recovery buddies. It feels awkward to not be able to earn/payback this gift.. I feel insufficient.. I guess it's a reminder of my unrighteousness (what could a sinner possibly do that is righteous?).
This last week in the college group we studied about "resurrection" faith - belief that God will take what is dead and bring life out of it. It was in regard to Abram and Sarah - their infertility. God promised them a line of children but it was physically impossible. Yet, they still believed that it will happen - "resurrection" faith.
This is the same for us today. God requires that everyone have "resurrection" faith in order to receive His promises. A sinner can believe that God WILL DO what He has promised - and that is righteous. God WILL take a dead sinner and bring them to everlasting life.

Break it down: 
Salvation is God's work “For by grace you have been saved”, in God's way “through faith, and that not of yourselves”, according to God's will “it is the gift of God”

So far: 
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

Ain't We Got Fun

I found this picture a couple of days ago while looking for some wedding pictures to print.  It brought back such fond memories of our wedding day.  (Photo credit Lisa)  In this particular photo, I was torturing my groom by not letting him see me around the corner.  And those who witnessed it will tell you it was torture.  Poor guy!  But he was rewarded about five minutes later when we snuck a peek and a couple of kisses before the ceremony.  :)

The beginning of a new year is always a time of reflection and looking forward to what is to come.  Here are a few of the things on our radar for 2013:

• Finally finishing our wedding book... a year and a half later!  Hence the above picture.
• Infusing our lives with scripture along with our church family.  
• Summer mission trip to South Carolina with our RealLife peeps.  Feel free to start praying.
• Getting better at playing the guitar?
• Bathroom remodels, oh my!
• Waiting (well, learning to wait) expectantly for the Lord to do BIG things.
• A possible trip to Alaska- oh, how I hope it's true!
• Growing our family.  Hold your horses, though!  We are researching adoption and it is a LONG process.  Don't expect a baby on my hip (or in my belly) the next time you see me.
• Memorizing 52 verses of scripture.  And a guest blogger to boot. 
• More silliness, laughter, and fun!  I started a 2013 folder for photos and this was the first thing in it:

Glad you were curious enough to read.

The Hubs on: ... the greatest

Week 2:

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life

Background: 

This is an excerpt of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, in John 3. Jesus is explaining what it means to be “born from above” and why it is necessary to see the kingdom of God: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born from above”

Observations: 

Often, this is the first verse memorized and the last verse spoken by followers of Jesus. From an unknown, yet wise old sage:

For God… the greatest Lover

so loved… the greatest degree

the world… the greatest company

that He gave… the greatest act

His only begotten Son… the greatest gift

that whoever… the greatest opportunity

believes… the greatest simplicity

in Him… the greatest attraction

should not perish… the greatest promise

but… the greatest difference

have… the greatest certainty

everlasting life… the greatest possession

Break it down: 

Salvation's cause “For God so loved the world”, cost “that He gave His only begotton Son”, condition “that whoever believes in Him”, consequence “should not perish but have eternal life”

So far: 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

The Hubs on: Elohim

Do you believe in something that defines the way you live? The Mrs. and I believe that the Scriptures are literally God’s words to mankind. Since the first time they were written they marked a new means of special revelation: how God communicates with a specific group of people during a specific time in history.

We are embarking on a new journey to better infuse God’s word into our lives. For each week this year, the Mrs. and I will be attempting to memorize another verse in scripture. I’ve decided it would be a good idea to blog about it as a means of tracking our progress. So, without further ado…

Week 1:

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Background:

This verse comes out of Genesis 1. It is the start of the creation narrative and the very first verse in the Scriptures.

Observations:

The Scriptures tell of three things that existed before the world was created: God’s love (John 17:24), God’s glory (John 17:5), and God’s promise of eternal life (Titus 1:2).

“God” - Hebrew translated Elohim: mighty, powerful, deserving glory. It is a plural noun hinting at the Trinity. It is followed by “created” a singular verb (Trinity: 1 God in 3 Persons). It is a special Hebrew word, which means literally: created out of nothing. So God did not use what was already around to make things like mankind has done for all of time. God created everything out of nothing.

Break it down:

When “In the beginning”, who “God”, what “created the heavens and the earth”.

December to Remember

I have simply had to resign myself to the fact that I am not a consistent blog writer.  No matter how badly I would love to write more, I just have not found the time to do it, and I'm learning to be ok with that.  I also understand that I am probably the only one who thinks about this and is disappointed by it.

With all that being said, it is finally time to catch up on our December happenings.  We had the most epic December 1st ever, and the rest of the month lived up to the first day.  Seeing as we have already made quite a bit of headway into January, though, I will just give a few highlights of the month:

• Christmas with the Cave parents- we visited their new home and got to enjoy a weekend with them.  We helped around the house a bit and were able sneak in a date night while the parents were out partying. 
• RealLife Christmas party- (that's the college group at our church)  we had some delicious snacks, played a rowdy round of Bunco involving a whoopie cushion, and did the annual white elephant gift exchange.
• Quality Time with the neighbors- our neighbors invited us to their church's Christmas show.  It was pretty impressive, but we were mostly glad to have them over for lunch and get to know them a little better.
• Three Trees- this is one of the best events our church holds all year.  Over 300 families came to pick out Christmas gifts for their children.  The whole church shows up to volunteer and it is awesome!
• Open House- we decided to hold an open house, which was a lot of fun but not very well attended.  We planned it too close to Christmas, so most people were already out of town, but we LOVED getting to have friends over to visit for an afternoon.
• Christmas Eve- we prepared lunches in the same area I lead worship every week.  A large group of people from our church came down and we fixed boxed lunches to take to the people in the community who are homebound.  We loved it!  We also went to our church's candle light service, made ninjabread cookies, and created our *fingers crossed* first annual singing Christmas card.  (Be sure to make it all the way to the end of the post so you can see it!)
• Christmas Vacation- unlike the movie, it was completely wonderful.  We rented a one room cabin, watched a zillion movies, did a 1,000 piece puzzle, hiked, and rested a lot.  We came home ready to tackle another year.  
• Twin set #2 arrives in the world- bridesmaid two of four from my wedding gave birth to twins on the 29th.  Happy family!
• Christmas/New Years' with the Speegle parents- my parents came to the visit the same day the babies arrived, so we left them at the house and took off on a quick road trip to see the new parents and little ones.  Once we got back we were still able to go to the theater, a Chinese lantern festival, hit up the movies, and eat some steak and black eyed peas... their good luck, you know!

Whew!  Just thinking back to all this wears me out a bit.  January has proven to be much more calm so far.  Here are some picture evidence of last month:

Glad you were curious enough to read.