Excerpt from a Kindred Interview, Pt. 2

Here's the other part of the interview that really touched me...

"Linda, can you briefly tell me how Phil died, because I have not yet met this man?

He was not ill, that we knew. In the evening he'd settled down to watch baseball, which you know he loved, had his pizza there, his Bible in his lap. Phil got up and walked to me in the office, and collapsed in my arms. I knew he had gone to the Lord then, but they took him to the hospital in the routine, not very pleasant manner that happens when there is a sudden death at home. That was July 29, 2008.

Do people often ask you how you get through this? From one viewpoint, you had no preparation for losing him, but yet you had a mature faith in Christ which is a life-preserver for any event.

I hold 3 tenets that best sum up my life before Christ:

1. I am resolute in my commitment to His inspired, Holy Word and its many Truths.

2. I am confident in His perfect timing.

3. And I am content in my circumstance because of the first two tenets, and because of Christ Jesus' continuing mercy and grace upon me.

My point is this, when we accept God's authority we release His power into our lives. He is the object and the focus of my faith. It is not about quantity of faith, but qualification of faith, which is in and from Him.

Turning to Jesus Christ - that has been the nature of my walk these 30+ years, with my husband, and now solely with Him. To do anything different based on feelings or circumstance would truly not glorify and give honor to Him.

This loss I have experienced is not void of feelings. I remind myself that Christ gave us feelings. It is part of our humanness. Christ, Himself, exhibited His feelings when He walked in the flesh. He wept and grieved over this fallen world (John 11:35). I weep and grieve over the loss of my husband, but not as one without hope. I can and do rejoice for the wonderful life God has given Phil.

Since Phil's death, everything that could go wrong, has. I am living on the solid Word of God and His promises are magnified in my life. ...Philippians 4:6,7 in particular sums up my walk before Him, which has grown deeper and more broad than I could have ever imagined.

The peace of God that transcends all understanding guards my heart and mind in Christ. I turn to our Lord with gratitude, and thanksgiving and in turn He guards my heart and mind, and my soul sings. I am confident in approaching God because I know He hears my prayers (1 John 5:14)."

What a beautiful example of resting in the Lord's embrace.

Excerpt from a Kindred interview, Pt. 1

The latest WM Kindred newsletter features an inspiring interview of one of the church's members, Linda Presley. I felt it was so inspiring that I'd share excepts of it on the blog for all to read.

Linda and her husband, Phil (former pro baseball chaplain) were both called to believe after they were married. They attended EV Free Fullerton under Swindoll as they grew in the faith. Below is Linda's description of the ways they have been called to serve.

"Did that church nurture your faith?
Hearing Chuck Swindoll preach the Word was a turning point. They had amazing ministries there and we all felt the love and compassion of that Body. The sermons were amazing; that teaching has been the foundation to our life and walk in Christ. A heritage in the faith is what Pastor Swindoll gave our family and his church. That's where Phil and I cut our baby teeth in personal ministry, because we were so well taught and well trained.

What were some of the things you participated in there?
...I was looking to find what I could do to be involved in His salvation plan.

Phil and I always were a team. We got into a variety of things. We were trained and worked with the Red Cross as Spiritual Caregivers. In local emergencies we were "first responders," getting calls at all hours of the day and night to minister to people who'd suddenly been thrown into a crisis. Prior to this, part of the training I received at EV Free was in mentoring women facing crisis pregnancy. We also worked in missions, homeless outreach, and community outreach. We didn't just stay "in the church" - our faith was part of our daily lives, in all places and times, even in the so-called secular world.

It's amazing that you and Phil were such a team for ministry, considering that when you married neither of you had the faintest interest in this.
We lived and worked and worshipped "shoulder to shoulder" in God's purposed plan for us...

Phil had a statement that he wrote on a mirror in our office: "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all."

Phil and I coached, mentored, supported, encouraged, prayed, worshipped and studied the Word together throughout our lives as believers in each and every task the Lord brought to us. We knew we were called out, together as a team. We were wrapped securely in two things: God's love and the full armor of God. With all this activity, none of it came without resistance, struggle around us, and pressure, but we really felt thrilled and free to be allowed to do this.

It is interesting to me that you and Phil didn't stay with one ministry to the point of boredom or habit.
As we opened our lives to Him and accepted His authority completely, He brought opportunity to serve. We did not create one thing out of another, or try to "build a ministry." He simply opened the door and allowed us to walk through it so we could glorify Him, not us. The military prayer chain was one of the opportunities that God set before Phil, through devotional time that we had before Christ in prayer and petition.Then weeks later, God set upon Phil's heart to minister in New York City at Ground Zero, and he was able to go there for three months. As it grew, the military prayer chain encompassed over 20,000 daily prayer warriors, that also met the needs of our men and women in battle both spiritually and in practical ways."

The Presleys' commitment to living out Christ's love and compassion in the world by surrendering time, lifestyle, money, mind and more is truly inspiring to me, and I hope to you. More on the tenants of their life in pt. 2.

Romans 5:3-5

So as most of you know, I have been studying the book of Romans with a few other friends. Slowly but surely we are getting through it and relaying to one another what we felt the Lord was saying to us through each chapter in His word.

Yesterday I read Romans 5 for the 5th time or so over the last few weeks, I am continually drawn back to Romans 5:3-5. Probably more than anything because it mirrors the part of the book of James that I love, but I also believe that for me, the Lord continues to pull me back to it because of my own personal trials that I continue to face with my seizures. Romans 5:3-5, "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance proven character, and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."It made me think again about trials/tribulations and how I might allow them to grow me. Remembering that it means to have, as the commentary notes the, 'ability to remain under tremendous pressure and weight without succumbing.'. Sometimes I just want to 'succumb' because I feel so tired and weary, but I'm always grateful for the strength that I feel God gives me when I remember to pray without ceasing and turn to Him, not myself or medical books or medicine, for relief.

Lately I have been trying to remember to be prayerful when I find myself worrying or feeling uneasy. It has helped me a lot. My next step that I want to take is to be more diligent about reading His book. I need to live by my own words when I say that, "...if you pray and don't read and study God's word then you are just talking to God and not listening to what He has to say back to you...." Not that He doesn't speak to us in other ways, but I just know from my own experiences that He speaks a lot louder and more clearly AND more often when I'm in His word. There are many other wonderful pieces within this chapter but that particular part was what spoke to me.

After having sent those above notes to my friends yesterday that are also studying Romans with me, I then later in the day had a terrible outbreak of what I call my "background noise" seizures. I struggled with them for pretty much the remainder of the day. Later in the afternoon I opened my email and read one of the emails that Kris had wrote me back about her own thoughts on Romans 5. She explained how she loved Romans 5:3-5 as well (among many other beautiful notes she made). It made me reflect yet again on what I had studied earlier in the day especially in light of how the rest of my day had gone. I read my own email (the one above) again, and there it was....God speaking to me through His words in Romans 5:3-5.... I had prayed several times throughout the day yesterday and wasn't really in the right frame of mind to think about praying for much more than, "please Lord, make it stop..." When I read Kris's email and then my own again, I think the Lord used them both (mainly with His words) to really put His hand on my shoulder and to comfort me and remind me that there is a reason for it all.

Today is a new day. I have continued to not feel too hot today in terms of my seizures, but I remember to continue to pray and I am off to seek more of His word for guidance and peace. If it were up to me, I would never have another seizure again, but since it is up to God then we will just have to wait and see what He has in store.

Indelible Grace

On my trip to Oklahoma this past week I was blessed to be lead to Faith Bible Church for Sunday worship. Faith Bible is the Grace Community Church of Edmond. It's tag line is "Making and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ." The little brick sanctuary is bursting at the seams with brothers and sisters of the faith seeking strong expositional Biblical teaching and warm fellowship. Young couples, older folks, kids... all bumped around in the building, bustling from class to church to childcare with smiles and hugs. Suffice it to say, I was filled by terrific teaching (they are currently studying through Ephesians) and soulful worship that morning.

I was bummed that I would be leaving on Wednesday when I head about a concert they'd be having on Thursday, and I came home and looked up the band because it sounded terrific. It's called Indelible Grace. I'm not sure if any of you have heard of it (I hadn't). Anyway, they are unique and I appreciate what they are doing.

Indelible Grace takes hymns and writes new music for them. Some are well-known, some aren't. And some are long forgotten lyrics which never had music put to them to begin with. Here is an excerpt from their "About" page:

"Our goal is not change for change's sake, but to rekindle a love of hymns and to invite many who would never associate rich passion with hymns to actually read the words. We believe that we are impoverished if we cut off our ties with the saints of the past, and that we fail to be faithful to God in our own moment of history if we don't attempt to praise Him in forms that are authentic to who we are.

We believe that the words of a hymn actually have more emotional nuance than one piece of music can adequately capture. Thus singing even familiar hymns with different music can bring out shades of meaning that had remained unnoticed. For instance, while the traditional music for Toplady's "Rock of Ages" conveys the power and strength of the words, James Ward's more recent tune brings out the sweetness and tenderness that is also part of the emotion in the lyric."

They have six CDs I believe, all of which can be sampled on their site. The music is great and I'm so happy for this little treasure of a find that I thought I would share it with you.

Oh, and Carlos, if you're reading this, their CDs would make great Christmas gifts...wink wink...

A Facebook Conversation

So the other day I was watching t.v. and was horrified at the news that there is going to be a new reality show coming out soon on TLC about polygamy; specifically one particular family that has 3 wives and approx. 19 kids or so. I decided to post a note on my facebook stating, "What have we come to when we have a reality show about polygamy?! And whats worse is they are making it seem like its no big deal!! I am totally disgusted." I then received a few comments back, one noting that they agreed with me, and another saying, "What's wrong with it". Let me start by saying that I have over 300 people as friends on my facebook that range from clients, people I knew in high school, to my current friends that I see on a regular basis. So when I say there are some fruity people on my facebook...I mean...fruity. I only keep them for potential business purposes, and who knows, maybe the Lord will use that as an avenue to reach them? Ok, so to continue, I noted back to this gentleman, "...are you serious..." because I genuinely thought he was kidding. That was my naivety kicking it... This started a two day back and forth between myself and two other of my friends on facebook. I actually only engaged him twice out of the 27 some odd posts that were made back and forth from that one initial comment that I had. One of his first comments that he made back of which was a little sarcastic, he noted, "...I'm not saying it's something I would want, I'm just saying that calling it disgusting is going a little far. I'm not religious so I don't care what people do one way or the other, but from your perspective WWJD? BTW neither one of you answered my first question." (His first question being, what's wrong with it.) So I was of course, fired up but wanted to meditate on my thoughts and think about what I should say back. I talked to Ryan who really helped me to gather my thoughts and to reach into the Word for a response.

So about 12 hours later after praying and talking to Ryan, my response was, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1 "...the husband of one wife..." 1 Tim 3:2 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife (singular, not plural),... and they shall become one (singular not plural) flesh." Permanent monogamy was and continues to be God's design and law for marriage....as far as WWJD...all I know is, "that's what Jesus said..." He then noted back, "...Does that 'book' have any quotes/passages/verses regarding being respectful and forgiving of people who do not choose the same path you have chosen? I am not being sarcastic or rude, I've just never read it all the way through...." I then thought...ok, he is not going to stop. Should I continue to engage him, or just stop myself. What kept coming to my mind was to not throw pearls before swine... In between my thinking, some of my other friends were making comments, to which he then responded again with several things, the following in conjunction with the previous comment I wrote, caught my eye, "...I'm gonna just throw it out there that if there is a god and he decides that some people go to heaven and some people don't it isn't based purely on your belief in him. What if mother Theresa wasn't a believer but was still the amazing woman she was, you really think your god sent her to hell? I believe that if such a supreme being exists that simply living a good and honest life where you regret the things you shouldn't have done and always tried to do good is probably good enough to be rewarded. Do you really believe that your god is so conceded that if you don't believe in him then you go to hell, no matter how great of a person you were? I doubt it..." So then I was fired up again.... After talking to Ryan and then sitting down and praying, I opened by bible again and let the Lord's word guide me. I took some of the passages that Ryan had given me to look into and from the commentary on those, as well as some things that Ray Comfort had on his website, I posted the following about 12 hours later, "So if someone commits a horrific murder and then says they feel remorse for their actions, is the judge then justified to just let him go? Only a corrupt judge would do so. A good judge would say justice demands that they pay for their actions. God is not a corrupt judge; he is a holy, righteous judge. He hates sin. Jesus warned that on judgment day everyone who had sinned against God would justly end up in hell. The only way to heaven is through believing in Christ Jesus (John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me”). Jesus sacrificed His life to pay for our sins (which we have all committed – Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God…”). None of us are good, not even one of us. Luke 18:19 “Jesus said to him, “…no one is good except God alone.” Furthermore, there is nothing that can truly be said to “convince” anyone of God. It is through God’s Word and your own belief and faith that you might come to know Him. When things seem unbelievable or hard to comprehend I go to Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” As Christians we have researched His word, and through all the evidence, have faith that His Word is the truth. By no means do we expect everyone to believe and understand, it is only our hope that those that we love, both friends and family alike, will come to believe so that they to can enjoy a life of eternity in heaven with our Lord and Savior. Bob (I am not using his real name) – if you are ever interested in researching it a bit further, please let me know. I would love to challenge you to maybe come to my church on any given Sunday (however right now would be an awesome time because of what we are studying) and just listen for one Sunday. The service is about 1 hour and 15 minutes long, but maybe it will solidify either your belief, or maybe encourage you to research Christianity a little more. Regardless of your thoughts and beliefs we all love you and hope for the best for you and your family." He finally responded with the following, "I'm gonna let this conversation fizzle out on the note that I asked you guys for 30 seconds of your time to look at a picture and walk outside and look up, at something that you believe your god created that is one of the most amazing things you will ever see and you wouldn't do it. Instead you asked me for over an hour of my time to listen to someone preach to me." What he was referring to was looking up at the sky and thinking about the picture he sent a link to that showed a picture from the hubble ultra deep field scope. I didn't respond, and I have left it, but I just thought it was an interesting conversation that I wanted to post. More than anything it has just encouraged me to continue to study God's word and to really speak up more. I don't have to be sassy, I don't have to be pushy, I just have to speak His word and plant the seed (as Ryan reminded me). Hope this is encouraging to you all!

~Tiff

Book Review - SHATTERED by Frank Pastore

Frank Pastore's new book "Shattered: Struck Down But Not Destroyed" has recently been released - I believe it is his first book.  In this autobiography, a quick and easy read, Frank tells stories of his childhood, his baseball career, his marriage, starting a family, and his life after baseball, which is really the point of the book, despite the first two-thirds of the book covering childhood through the end of his baseball career. 

Anyhow, throughout the book, Frank tells his life story through the context of different times aspects of his life were 'shattered' and how God saw him through (even as he reflected and looked back, Frank details how God in his providence saw him through during the times when Frank was a raging athiest!)

I think you will definitely enjoy reading this book... It is light and quick to read - short chapters about 2-3 pages average, and it probably about 3-4 hours total to read and I was done!  My favorite part was the short chapters - I love having 'good stopping points' when reading, and thats exactly what you get -- to give you an idea, the book is 220 pages long and there are 38 chapters!  : )

Anyhow, its basically him writing down his testimony - it might take about 45 min to an hour for him to say all of this to an audience, and a few of the things I have heard him say on the radio - however, one of the things I was hoping he would get into (and he did, though not in great detail) was his falling out with BIOLA.  He lays out what happened, although doesn't really get into names and very specific, but that is OK with me... I just always wondered what happened!

Anyhow, I would definitely recommend it - and if you aren't interested in dropping $10-15 to own it, I know where you can get an an autographed copy on loan!

Planned Parenthood - the Christ-like way

Noel Piper's "Treasuring God in Our Traditions" (thanks for supplying the book, Ed & Stacy) is awesome. I thought the excerpt below was worth sharing. Although it is set in the context of parenthood, it really extends beyond parenthood into all parts of our lives as Christians.
"In order to 'teach [God's words] to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise' (Deut. 11:19), you have to be planning--planning what to say when and where, how and when to say it. For me, NOT planning means my children receive a burst of God-talk every day or two. Then when that particular gush of affection dies down, we're back to just taking God for granted, rather than talking about Him and recognizing Him in all the parts of our day. That's not what I want to teach my children--that God is experienced in a random pattern of a few days of enthusiasm followed by days of silence. One of the things Deut. 11:19 makes clear is that God doesn't like being taken for granted. Rather, He wants to be talked about a lot.

All of us are training our children both intentionally and unintentionally. We need to make sure we aren't leaving the important things to happenstance. We know it's crucial that they become familiar with God, our Heirloom and our only hope for real life. We yearn for them to love and trust and follow Christ. It would be foolish just to wait for them to learn that by chance. We must plan to reflect God and teach about Christ in the repeated events of our lives."

"Johnny Mac" Sermons... Topical

I am not sure if you all have this link, but Bible Bulletin Board (JMAC SERMONS) has some good resources, but it also contains links to many of John MacArthur's sermons (text) - you all know where to get the audio from GTY or the app - which are listed alphabetical by topic which is really cool when you are looking for a particular message...

I am going to put the link on the sidebar, but you could save it to your bookmarks on your browser for those few times that you are online, but aren't on the blog!

WELCOME!

We officially have a post!

Welcome ALL to the blog - I slapped it together tonight and will be making a few changes - please email me suggestions!  What do we want to see on here?  I am thinking about a link list, and possibly making a few links to categorize our posts (study, etc.) and if we add a label at the bottom, it will pull when the link is clicked...

Anyhow, I may be calling on peeps to help me with some elements - buy we could start by adding a 'description' to the blog - something short, sweet and to the point... any suggestions?