"What more can He say than to you He hath said"

We are still going through the DVD series of last years Desiring God conference (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God) at church on Wednesday nights. Last night we listened to David Powlison speak on Christ's grace and your sufferings. I was really encouraged as he went through the hymn "How Firm a Foundation", which is one of my favorite hymns if not my favorite. Mr. Powlison went through 6 of the stanzas and explained/laid out what they were about and how they were laid out.

But what really struck me was his explanation of the first stanza

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

He said that this stanza was an exhortation from believers to each other, reminding us that our faith has a foundation that is unbreakable and deep. It has a solid basis. The scriptures have said this, which is what God has said.

He then goes into the line "What more can He say than to you He hath said" and to paraphrase what Mr. Powlison said:

There are a lot of questions that come up when studying scripture. God in his providence did’n't give us all the answers. What more could he have said? When it comes down to what matters, good and evil, love and hate, salvation and destruction, the character of the living God and the nature of the human heart, what more could he have said. There is nothing more that needs to be said. He has said it all.

This was just a great reminder and encouraging to me to know that we have all that we need revealed to us in scripture.

If you'd like to hear for yourself, the sermon is available on the Desiring God website.

Random thoughts...Sin, confession

“if I am not confessing sin I am confessing sinlessness. And we know that does not happen.” Mark Lauterbach

Lately I have been giving some thought to the topics of sin and confession. I am trying to remind myself that the “little” sins (sins we as humans might not deem as bad as murder, stealing, adultery, etc) are just as terrible in the sight of God and that there is no reason for me to take these “little” sins, or any sin, lightly. Jesus death on the cross for sins that he had not done, but that we may be saved should show the vileness of all sin.

Confession, I must remind myself, is not to be taken lightly either. “Confession to God is not merely admitting our sin as real but also rejecting our sin as repulsive.” (John Piper). If I find myself refraining from confession I need to ask myself what is going on. Is it because I am without sin? That’s foolishness! 1 John 1:8 "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Or is it because I fail to see the vileness of sin? Or some other reason?

Getting ready for Labor Day

This week we’ll be gearing up for a fairly busy Labor Day weekend. We will have several groups coming this weekend, Lord willing, to continue serving the Lakeshore, Waveland, and Bay St. Louis area. We are continuing to work at Ms. Redford’s and Ms. Lynn’s and with each group that comes getting a little closer to getting their houses finished.

We have also done a lot of work at Ms. Laura Lambert’s trailer. Ms. Lambert’s trailer was flooded, but has been leveled, gutted out, wired, insulated, had some siding put on.

The office is coming along. There was a team here from Baton Rouge on Saturday to help paint the trim. This will be Pastor Don's office.

The distribution center is still very busy, seeing some days over 500. This is the line that formed this past Wednesday morning. We also had a donation of 50 children’s bikes come in. We were able to give those out to community members

I had the privilege to meet Mr. Malcolm the other day. We have been working on Malcolm’s place for a couple of months now, but I had never met him or been to his house. It was very encouraging for me to listen to him speak of the volunteers that have been to his house and how his life has changed since the storm. He explained how he now has compassion on those who are going though similar things. I also got to go visit the team that was working at his house this past Saturday. The team from Star, MS was laying tile and putting door handles on, making the house more into a home.

Am I being stupid?

I was reading Bob Kauflin's blog "Worship Matters" and for Monday's devotional he asks the question "am I being stupid?". It was a great entry (in my opinion) on obeying Proverbs 12:1 "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid."

Here are a couple of exerpts from his entry, but read I encourage you to read the whole thing for yourself.

"I’ve been aware of my desire to love the encouragement and avoid hearing anything critical. I tend to have the same attitude after I preach a sermon. But God tells me that if that’s my attitude, I’m stupid. He wants me to LOVE reproof and discipline, not run from it.

Why? I can think of a few reasons. Loving reproof makes me more aware of my need for God’s grace in my life. Loving reproof helps me fight my inherent craving for self-exaltation. Loving reproof is a sign that I need others in the process of sanctification. Loving proof is a way of acknowledging I have blind spots and that I don’t know EVERYTHING.

Here are a few ways I try to cultivate the love of discipline and reproof (and I still have a long way to go):

1. Pray for reproof. That’s right. Ask God to bring people into your life who will point out where you’re making mistakes, sinning, or could do things better.
2. Expect reproof. Be on the lookout for it. I find that when I’m surprised by critical feedback from others, it’s usually because I'm looking for their praise.
3. Ask others for input. That’s why we hand out evaluation forms at the conferences. We read every one of them. They have been invaluable each year for making the next conference better. It’s best to ask people for input when they have time enough to think about it, and are convinced that you really want to hear it.
4. Thank people for reproof. It’s rarely easy to reprove someone else. When a friend approaches me and says they want to share something with me (and I don’t get the feeling it’s encouragement), I want to make sure I thank them for caring enough to give me input, whether I agree with them at the moment or not.
5. Ask questions about reproof. Oftentimes, people don't say everything they're thinking. Ask them to elaborate, expand upon, or fill out what they're saying. It will help you hear it more clearly and respond more humbly.
6. Thank God for reproof. Every critic is a gift from God. God is the one who enables others to overcome their fears and tell us what we need to hear. What an evidence of God’s kindness!"

End of the summer update

The summer is about coming to an end, and that leaves me trying to figure out where it went. This summer has been a great time of growth for me in several aspects of my life. I admit it’s hard for me to even know where to begin, because there’s just so much and a lot of that is hard for me to put into words. But here I go:

1. The Lord has blessed me with great friends and fellowship. I knew coming down here that for the most part I’d be around Christians a lot of the time, but I didn’t know that I’d be blessed with such great friends. And meeting people from all over the United States and being able to have conversations with them has been much fun but relationships that I have made with folks from here has truly been a blessing.

2. I’ve been encouraged to think theologically and know that as a female it’s alright to be thinking theologically (while I never thought it was wrong I felt a bit out of place when discussing theology since not many of my female friends didn’t care to learn and felt like others thought it wasn’t necessary for females to know).

3. Realizing my frailty and sinfulness and the need to lean on God and his strength and power. It is humbling when I come to the point of realizing that I am acknowledging God in provision and doing so much work here, but I fail to run to him and fully trust and rather being self-sufficient. I came to realize very quickly that if I was going to be self-sufficient I wasn’t going to make it too long. Not everyday has been easy, but then when was that ever promised. But I definitely see a difference in the times I am trying to be self-sufficient rather than being in prayer, reading scripture, and trusting God.

4. Seems small but huge to me…Realizing the advantages of singleness and seriously enjoying it. Still I’m pretty sure I don’t have the gift of singleness and don’t desire to be single forever; however, at this point I love it and realize that there is no need to be in a hurry.

5. I’ve been stretched this summer beyond what I ever could have thought. And busier than ever. But still have had a lot of fun. Working as a project coordinator and mainly coordinating the inexperienced teams has been an experience in itself. Like we say around here a team of experienced workers will work on a project for a couple of days, but a group of teens will work on a site and have the work done in a couple of hours, and be ready to move on to the next project. It has kept me busy and hasn’t left much time to be shy. But I have been able to meet many teens, adults, and community members.
   

I know there is much more that I have learned and experienced so far, but to be able to communicate it is difficult without rambling, so I’ll spare you.

There has been a lot to learn this summer and we have kept busy the entire time summer; this week, however, we are pretty quiet around the church grounds. We have one family volunteering this this week and had a day team come in on Monday, but that's it for this week. With the beginning of the school year our numbers have dropped a lot, but there is still plenty to be done here on the gulf coast and a need for more folks to come help.

Brief reflections

I was able to stop by Ms. Malstrom's camper yesterday and chat with her for a while. The church has sent several teams over to her house this summer and she almost ready to move in, she is hoping to be in within the next month. Basically just waiting on the gas company and a refrigerator and stove, then she'll be able to get in. She took me in to see the progress that has been made. It is such a cute little place now.

Through the course of the summer I have had some time to reflect on what is happening all around me, however, as I try to explain it the words I can come up with don't seem like enough. But in a very brief summary: It has been awesome to see the ways God is working here. Working in the hearts and lives of folks around here and in other parts of the country; seeing the church stand firm on the truth; provision for the biggest of needs and the smallest; and seeing folks frodifferentnt denominations, states, walks of life come together and unselfishly serve along side each other.