Challies has a great post today. I’ve posted the first part here, but I hope you’ll take the time and go meditate on the truths He shares…

It Is Good To Thirst

Every soul thirsts. It may not be felt every moment, but to some degree every soul thirsts after something it does not have. We are rarely content in our current condition and it seems that this is the way we have been Divinely wired. But while we all thirst, we do not all thirst in the same way. A couple of years ago I read Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health which was written by Don Whitney. I posted a review of it here and highly recommend that you read this book for yourself. The one chapter that gave me the most to think about and meditate upon was the one dealing with spiritual thirst. It has proven helpful in times of weakness and times of thirst in helping me discern just what it is I seek after. In this article I will list the three types of thirst the author outlines and briefly discuss each of them.

Yesterday, Justin was trying to feel the baby moving inside my tummy and he had his hand there. Then, Lela came over to try to feel too and stuck her hand in under mine. Then, Justin said, “I feel the baby’s fingers”. It was tooo funny!

This week’s selection:

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart(X’s2)

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me
(Yes Lord, Thank You Lord)

Behold Him there! The risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of glory and of grace
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased with His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God
With Christ my Savior and my God

One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased with His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God
With Christ my Savior and my God
With Christ my Savior and my God

Charitie L. Bancroft, 1863.

Jeremy here with another bit-o-cuteness from Justin… Nate was talking about having a headache, and then we were discussing a potential trip to the zoo. Justin asked how long it takes to get to the zoo, and when I told him, he sighed and said, “Daddy, when we go far like that, I get a car-ache.”

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This is a prayer from the Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. I pray that it encourages your heart and causes you to glory afresh in our Redeemer and the way that He has made for us while we were yet sinners. What a Savior! Amen!!

Blessed Lord Jesus,

No human mind could conceive or invent the Gospel.

Acting in eternal grace, thou art both its messenger and its message, lived out on earth through infinite compassion, applying thy life to insult, injury, death, that I might be redeemed, ransomed, freed.

Blessed be thou, O Father, for contriving this way,

Eternal thanks to thee, O Lamb of God, for opening this way,

Praise everlasting to thee, O Holy Spirit, for applying this way to my heart.

Glorious Trinity, impress the gospel on my soul, until its virtue diffuses every faculty;

Let it be heard, acknowledged, professed, felt.

Teach me to secure this mighty blessing;

Help me to give up every darling lust, to submit heart and life to its command, to have it in my will, controlling my affections, moulding my understanding; to adhere strictly to the rules of true religion, not departing from them in any instance, nor for any advantage in order to escape evil, inconvenience or danger.

Take me to the cross to seek glory from its infamy;

Strip me of every pleasing pretence of righteousness by my own doings.

O gracious Redeemer, I have neglected thee too long, often crucified thee, crucified thee afresh by my impenitence, put thee to open shame.

I thank thee for the patience that has borne with me so long, and for the grace that now makes me willing to be thine.

O unite me to thyself with inseparable bonds, that nothing may ever draw me back from thee, my Lord, my Savior.

Yesterday we had a wonderful message at church that reminded me that keeping the cross at the center of my life is not a one time event, but something I must decide to do each day. All of the blessings in my life are only possible because of what Jesus did for me on the cross and the only way to make it through the hard times is by resting in this same truth.

Josh used the analogy of decorating a room. We want the cross to be the central focus, but it is so easy to move it over to the side and make something else the focus. It takes great effort to keep it central and evaluate everything else in our lives based on it. If something in the room of our life doesn’t “match” the Gospel it needs to go! In light of the difficulty in keeping the main thing the main thing, I want to start posting a Cross-centered song once a week to keep my heart focused in on the “only essential message in all of history” (Jerry Bridges). Afterall, the gospel is all that will matter when we’re dead!!

Thank you, Josh, for keeping us zoned in on this one essential message as a church!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been living here for 3 yrs now. September 1st marked our third year since we rolled into town and called it home. In a way it seems like longer, but it also seems like we haven’t been here long. I think what really brings it home for me is that Lela was only 3 when we came and she doesn’t really remember living in TX. She gets the visits mixed up with the fact that we lived there.  Happy Anniversary to us!!

The entirety of the message can be read at girl talk but,I wanted to just post this here for my benefit and others.  From Spurgeon’s Beside Still Waters: “Some have only learned to trust the smile of His face, but they must also learn to trust the blows of His fist” (pg. 15)

Wow!

The next few days I will be in Texas enjoying fellowship with my dear friend, Tamra, and a few others.  My wonderful, gracious, encouraging, sacrificing husband has released me to go be with my friend during a most difficult trial.  Thank you, Jeremy!!  I’m praying the Lord will strengthen you as you serve Him by caring for our little ones.  I pray you’ll feel His presence and help for the task.

Today as I prepare to leave I will also be homeschooling the children, getting my dh set up somewhat to make the task easier, getting all the laundry caught up, packing my own clothes and stuff, etc. etc.

I’ll be back online Monday.

Appreciate your prayers!

In a previous post I mentioned that we’d helped with preparing the soil and planting the seeds at the 4H Ag Farm Garden. This is a picture of it late in the season. If you notice those sunflowers, please note that we have 5 of them growing outside of our front door at our house! They are HUGE!!! We look forward to enjoying the seeds after we let them dry out on the stalks. Until then we have to deal with some pretty unsightly plants. If the name of the seeds give you any hint as to how big they are: Mammoth Sunflowers! It has been a fun experiment though! We kept wondering if it was going to be a “Jack and the Beanstalk” experience.