Pleasures Evermore

Last night, I began reading Sam Storms' book "Pleasures Evermore", which is very similar to Piper's "Desiring God" (one of few books that significantly changed my life). Like Piper, Storms' premise is that if we are really looking for ultimate pleasure, we will find it in God alone. Motivating ourselves toward righteousness through guilt or self-control is not needed, and never very effective. This is the essense of Christian Hedonism - the believer's search for the most satisfying pleasures in every area of life. Psalm 16:11 says "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

CS Lewis says it this way "If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not to strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered [to] us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased." (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)

Have we lost our hunger for truly satisfying joy and pleasure in life? Have we tried to satisfy ourselves on a diet of religion when we were given a hunger for relationship with Him? I couldn't help but ask myself how many times I've self-medicated myself on the stuff of life that truly does not bring the joy and satisfaction only He can offer (and I was created for). He alone gives us the satisfaction we are looking for, but He does not force it upon us. We need to hunger for it in the first place. Even the best of foods lacks taste to the one who is stuffed with empty calories.

The Green Letters

A mentor-friend recently lent me a copy of Miles Stanford's "The Green Letters", aka "Principles of Spiritual Growth". I'd never heard of Stanford till now, but really appreciate his sage advice on the process of Spiritual development. Stanford is a deep writer, reminding me of AW Tozer. Of particular interest, I enjoyed his reminder of what we have already been given through the work of Christ on the cross.

"God is not trusted, not honored, in our continually asking Him for help. In the face of 'my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19), how can we beg for help? Our responsibility is to see in the Word all that is ours in Christ and then thank and trust Him fo that which we need."

Later, quoting from Watchmen Nee, "God's way of deliverance is altogether different from man's way. Mans' way is to try to suppress sin by seeking to overcome it; God's way is to remove the sinner. Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well."

In reading this, I'm convicted of the times I've tried to conquer sin by "trying harder", excercising my strength, my understanding, my plan toward freedom. All the while, Stanford contends, Christ tells us that freedom lies not in our exersion of strength, but in realizing how helpless we really are. Only our submission to Him will bring the power we need. As another mentor of mine, Mark Driscoll would say, "We take ourselves too seriously and don't take God seriously enough"

Face to Face, Fully Known, by Molly

Nathan Beau was due to be born on March 10, 2009. The day before his due date, God gave me a special present in the form of a verse.

I’d had a low day emotionally a few days before, and there was a part of me that wondered if that might have been the day he would have been born. There was no reason to be feeling as weepy as I was.

But on the 9th I was perusing a friends’ facebook page and she had some pictures up of her new little one that arrived a few days before. We had shared our exact same due date and both of us were having boys. As I was looking at the pictures, making comments and rejoicing with her, I realized that God had done so much healing in my life. Though I shed some tears thinking about Nathan, they were not sad tears, just thankful ones. Her family picture totally ministered to me as I looked at it.

As I looked at the pictures and thought about Nathan, I began thanking Jesus that Nathan Beau is seeing Him face to face and He reminded me of the verse,

I Cor 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

I love the fact that Nathan is enjoying Jesus face to face, knowing Him fully and being fully known by Him. I can’t wait to be there someday. I am so grateful for God's “birth-date” gift to me in that Scripture. He truly good to me.

Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone!

So here I sit, trying to come up with a new introduction to the ever-familiar letter. 2008 has been a memorable year, for more than a few reasons. In both the mountains and the valleys, we have clearly seen God at work. We have been reminded more this year than any, that God is a good God – in both joy and sorrow. We’ll recap the year, beginning with the shortest of us…

Silas is a “man in action”. He eagerly steps in whenever someone needs a hand. His specialties include: closing doors, cleaning up spills, emptying the tupperware from the dishwasher and warning everyone of any impending danger. His first word was Daddy, but his first sentence was “Oh no!” When he’s not “on duty” he likes to play outside, wrestle with Daddy, dance with Maggie or thumb through a book. He dutifully responds with, “Wow!” when Maggie runs up to show him her pretty dresses. The big man will be two years old in February!

Maggie is the girly girl of the house. She took a “Mommy and Me” ballet course with Mama, Esther and Mishayla last year and loves dancing and singing around the house. As of late, we rarely see her in anything but a “pretty dress” that she begs to wear. When she’s not looking in the mirror, she’s trying to marry her “boy” Silas or collecting “beeeeutiful flowers” from the yard. We can definitely see gardening in her future. Maggie just turned four in November!

Molly has enjoyed (most of the time) running around after two little munchkins who exhaust her and keep her in stitches. The newness and beauty of her home hasn’t worn off and she really does like trying to keep it beautiful, despite the fact that it seems like she never stops cleaning. She loves having friends over, the small group twice a month at our house, journaling, doing mystery shopping, making photo books, keeping up with friends online, going through lots of books on the treadmill and talking about theology, philosophy and what God is doing in their lives with Todd and friends and family.

Todd spent most the summer working in the yard. Thanks to help from Dad, Mom and others, we were able to: build a deck, pour concrete, spread gravel, topsoil and play chips, and even get the lawn seeded. It was a whirlwind of a task and we’re glad it’s over. On to the garage! Todd is still active at the fire department, working on the union board and serving as Chaplain. Todd also enjoyed teaching on the Gospel of John for Sunday School, preaching at TBC, riding his bike into work during the summer, doing some cooking and vacationing with the family.

2008 was a year of great family vacations! In March, we spent a few days at the ocean, enjoying amazingly warm 70 degree days with the kids! In May, Todd and Molly spent a few days in Lake Chelan (with no kids), then returned in August with the whole crew. We especially loved spending about six hours a day either in the pool or the lake, picking blueberries and hiking up the ridges around the lake. We enjoyed camping this summer a few times with Pada and Grandma Linda, as well as with good friends. We had our annual trip with Grandma Melquist and Mishayla to visit the cousins in Pomeroy. Granny has moved there now and we are hoping to get there more often than once a year. Todd’s Step-Grandma Rosa came for a week-long visit in September and we enjoyed spending time with Rosa, Grandma Merry, Ade, Jill and the cousins.

In July we happily found out that we were expecting. However, God had other plans for our baby and after a difficult pregnancy, we miscarried our third-born, Nathan Beau at 15 weeks. Yet, even through the tragedy, we saw so much of God’s grace and beauty. He gave us an opportunity to hold our tiny son, which we were very grateful for. He truly makes all things beautiful in His time and we are grateful for the short time we had with Nathan Beau. You can view some of what God taught right here on our blog in September's archive.

We attended some great conferences this year including a home school conference, a writer’s conference and a church conference about giving. We are still writing but have no specific projects right now. We are excited about different ideas God has given us for ministry through these conferences and have enjoyed the teaching. Todd is still active at TBC, and we also enjoy downloading sermons from Mark Driscoll and Judah Smith.

We’ve been attending another small group led by our friends Mike and Kristy. Last year they wrote the book, “What Does God Really Want?” and we’re going through it together. God has used it to challenge our hearts and draw us closer to Him. He has shown us His power in a way we’ve never seen before.

He has been showing us the real power of forgiveness in our lives in a new way as well as the concept of receiving his love. As Christians, we often focus on how we can better ourselves, or on how we can do more for God. We focus on the “fruit” rather than on our relationship with our Father and receiving His love. We’ve loved learning how to simply receive from Him instead of working harder to produce fruit. The amazing thing is, as we receive His love, fruit is just a natural outflow of the love we have received. We had no idea of the power of this concept.

We’ve also realized this year, the power of forgiveness and blessing. God has drawn our attention to the fact that we often don’t make forgiveness a priority or even realize how much it affects our hearts. We’ve thought that forgiveness is a onetime event, but now we are making it a daily habit. This concept is true both in forgiving others and forgiving ourselves. Forgiveness reaches the heart when you add blessing to the forgiveness.

God has used a couple verses in our lives in a big way this year. God has put Jas 1:20 on Molly’s heart over and over. “For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” It’s a simple verse, but we’ve been realizing that our anger toward ourselves (or others), berating ourselves for not being good enough does not produce God’s righteousness in us. As Christians, we often think that if we try to experience conviction, tell ourselves how sinful we are etc, that we will somehow produce more righteousness in us (or in others). Doing this may produce a self-righteousness that glories in actions, but it never produces a heart change evidenced by the fruits of the Spirit. It does not move us toward God’s righteousness, but toward our own. (Rom 10:3 “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God”.) In truth, God’s kindness toward us is what leads us to repentance (Rom 2:10). When we realize that Christ is in us, we see ourselves as God sees us – righteous because of what Christ has done – and we start acting that way!

God has used Rom 5:10 in Todd’s life. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” The simple realization of what God has done for us in reconciling us while we were still sinning against Him is mind boggling. What a wonderful thing to think about this Christmas. This is the whole purpose for Jesus’ birth and the reason we celebrate.

We hope that you have seen God at work in 2008. As we look back over key events in our life, we see so many signs of God’s grace – in both the good times and bad. We wish the same for you as you begin 2009.

Lots of Love,
Todd, Molly, Maggie & Silas
toddandmolly@gmail.com

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Merry Christmas 2008!

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