7 Ways to Enjoy Friendship with Your Husband

Here is a great post for the wives out there, written by a pastor’s wife. And even if you have young kids, you have time to read it…

Click on the picture and the post will open in a new tab or window. Enjoy.

Preparing for Valentine’s Day – part 2

Valentine’s Day is now only two and a half weeks away. In my post two weeks ago I challenged you to put on paper in a sentence or two the goal of your marriage. How did you do? What did you say? And what influenced you to answer the way that you did?

Here’s my goal: “Tracy finds in Jesus all the intimacy, compassion, and significance that she could ever hope for – and I point her to Him through my life and words.”

I want Tracy to feel and believe that she is deeply loved; that her life matters. But I also know that significance like that must be tied to someone eternal, all-powerful, perfectly relational, and incredibly beautiful. As God said in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Essentially, I am called to be both the groom and the best man in my marriage (Jonathan Edwards came up with that one).

New Class: Gospel-Powered Prayer

Our new Sunday School class, “Gospel-Powered Prayer” begins Sunday, Jan 22. Together we’ll learn to pray biblically, passionately and expectantly by looking to the gospel-saturated prayers of the apostle Paul. Come and join us! We will be meeting in the upstairs gathering place at 11am.

Please RSVP online, here.

Dazzling Glory

    The heavens declare the glory of God,
        and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
    Day to day pours out speech,
        and night to night reveals knowledge.
    There is no speech, nor are there words,
        whose voice is not heard.
    Their voice goes out through all the earth,
        and their words to the end of the world.
    In them he has set a tent for the sun,
(Psalm 19:1-4 ESV)

Behold the dazzling handiwork of the Creator!

Preparing for Valentine’s Day – part 1

Hard to believe it, but we are just about a month away from Valentine’s Day. While some of you feel that the day is just another way corporations shame us into spending money, we know we have the opportunity to do better. There is nothing magic about the 14^th of February – but neither is there a problem with allowing it to serve our married good.

What if we made it more than a day of flowers and cards, but allowed it to serve and strengthen our vows. What if we gave our spouse the gift of our presence, rather than a bunch of presents? I want to encourage you to invest in your marriage (even if you are not married yet).

Interestingly, a challenge like this will draw out your perception of the goal of marriage. Flooding your mind will be ways to strengthen and invest in your marriage – and the ideas will tell you what you think marriage is first and foremost about. There could be hundreds of possible answers. For example, if you believe God made marriage so that people would feel loved and accepted, you will begin to plan dates and gifts and notes. That is a good goal and one of the reasons that God made marriage. But if God made marriage so that we would see and savor Jesus more than anything else that life can give to us, our plans may change. Now, I think we will still plan dates and write notes and think through gifts – but won’t our goal for those times be different? Falling in love with Jesus while nurturing our love for each other becomes our “win”.

Here’s my challenge: write out your goal for your marriage in a sentence or two.

Pray about it. Do some research. What verses shape your thinking? What Biblical principles? Who could help you gain clarity on this? Wrestle well with this – it will be a blessing to your soul and to your spouse and to others who are part of your life. And one more thing – to all the singles out there, you don’t need to be married to answer this call, do you?

I am praying for you as you take this to heart. In a follow up post, I will offer some resources to help you strengthen your marriage.

Toilet Paper, Worship and You

Did you know that replacing toilet paper in the WBC bathrooms can be an act of worship and Christ-like service? And vacuuming the hallways can be an important way of extending Jesus’ hospitality to visitors during gathered worship? You bet! Cleaning the WBC building is a vital ministry of our church and you’re invited to serve!

Would you consider volunteering to help clean the WBC building every 6 weeks? A clean church building shows that we take our stewardship of God’s gifts seriously and offers Christ-like hospitality to all who gather with us to worship Jesus.

Please contact Tim or Cindy Irish and let them know you can help. Currently our Missional Communities rotate the cleaning responsibilities, but we would love to include all of WBC in this servant-ministry. This would be a wonderful blessing if more of us could serve together!

Mueller on Prayer

On Sunday I quoted George Mueller, from A.T. Pierson’s work, George Mueller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith. If you are not familiar, George Mueller is known the world over because of his great trust and reliance on God, especially in prayer. John Piper gave an excellent synopsis of his life (audio and print) at the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference – check it out.

Mueller points to a critical attitude necessary to rely on God in prayer:

There was a day when I died, utterly died — died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends — and since then I have only to show myself approved to God.

Now, not all of his prayers were answered the way he wanted. This is not a technique to get God to do what you want. But it is a heart attitude that prepares us to lean on God, knowing that He is the perfect Father who loves us more than we can imagine, and proved it by sending Jesus.

Was it worth it? Let’s allow Mueller speak for himself:

Join Us January 25th at 6pm

Let’s face it, it is possible to think more about praying than spend time praying. In fact, some of us may spend more time focusing on how we pray, than on the God we are praying to. An encouraging resource to help you in your prayer life is A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller. If you get it, you will be encouraged.

Now I believe that there are many at WBC who pray – a lot. Our Missional Communities pray for each other. There are dozens of discipleship relationships springing up (whether you call them Fight Clubs, or DNA groups, or just time that we get together) and they are praying for each other. Ministries pray together. Families pray together. Spouses pray together. Moms pray together. People are in their “closets” meeting with God and praying to Him. These are all happening quietly, persistently, passionately and virtually unseen.

Here’s the rub – often, if I cannot see something, I may assume it is not happening.

A Call to Memorize and Pray

What a great opportunity! This year we began 2012 gathered together as a church body singing, sharing, giving, opening to God’s word, then enjoying the Lord’s Table. That’s the way to kick off a new year. There was a great group that gathered, as well as some who participated through our streamed service (Jess Lamson deserves a prize, I guess, for the longest distance – she joined us from the Czech Republic).

As part of our Gathered Worship, I asked our faith family to memorize 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 and to pray that for us this year. Will you take that challenge this year? I know, God helping you, that you can do it. I also know that you will be blessed if you do it. I also believe that God wants us to ask Him to cause the word of the Lord (the Gospel) to speed ahead and be honored in our faith family, as well as to draw new people to faith in Jesus as their Forgiver, Leader, and the Treasure of their lives.

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

(2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 ESV)

Bible Reading Plans for 2012

There are a lot of ways to read the Bible. But one of the best ways is to read it with other people! I want to invite you to join a group that will be reading through the Bible chronologically in 2012. My good friend, Josh Cousineau, has put together a reading group that will help us encourage each other as well as share what God is teaching us through His Word. Check out his blog post and how to join the Facebook group too!

If that reading plan doesn’t seem to be a good fit for you, check out this great list of that Justin Taylor has put together.