God is good

Life is wonderful.  I'm totally amazed everyday at how wonderfully gracious our God is in the many beautiful ways He has blessed us.  The phrase "my cup overfloweth" in Psalm 23 is something I believe I am beginning to really understand.  My husband is wonderful and we love each other more and more every day.  He's very attentive to my needs and loving, but I think what I am the most thankful for is the fact that he always keeps my focus on Christ and trusting Him.  Lately we've been staying up til midnight almost every night just talking and then finally drift off happy.  God is really good.  Our babies are doing well.  We had a little scare with Ezra, and he was in the ICU for 4 days with RSV at 7 weeks, but now at 11 weeks he is totally healthy and 12 lbs.  (Abigail weighed that much at 6 months).  So, we are not without trial but God is keeping us safe through it all.  He's crying now, so I'm going to run.

Rachel

Well we have a ton of stuff going on.  I had our baby boy 4 weeks ago.  We named him Ezra Lane.  He is so precious!   Abigail likes him a lot and is very excited to be a big sister. 

We also have started a new home business.  I'll probably write more about both these things later, but with a newborn in the house I don't have much time!  Our business website is:  http://curtisandrachel.stayinhomeandlovinit.com  Check it out, especially if you are interested in a home business opportunity or are concerned about harsh chemicals in household products and are looking for an alternative.

I'm just looking at that theological worldview quiz I took... The results were basically what I expected (it's a pretty good quiz considering just anyone and their dog come up with these things) but the fact that it says "the most important thing the church can do is tell people how to get to heaven" doesn't sit well with me.  And actually, to me, that sounds more like an Arminian position than a Calvinistic position.  Don't misunderstand, Calvinists are totally for preaching the gospel, but according to reformed understanding, glorifying God is the most important thing.  Obviously, God is greatly glorified when a person becomes a Christian, but the ultimate goal in everything -- even our evangelism -- is the glory of God.  And, God desires to glorify Himself as well.  By saving sinners He demonstrates His beautiful love and mercy and thus is glorified.  So, I have a little bit of a problem with the concept of saving souls being the *most* important thing a church does.  One practical application of this is... If the Glory of God is the most important thing to a church, and a church believes that worshipping Him according to His Word and preaching the gospel according to His Word glorifies Christ, then the church will always be encouraged that it is glorifying Him as long as it seeks to do this.  It will also be even further encouraged when more and more people are saved under that preaching. However, if the saving of souls is the *ultimate* goal, then during a dry spell where, in God's providence, there are fewer people being saved, then the church is discouraged that it is not meeting the ultimate goal and thus is tempted to change the worship or preaching (by the way, on another note, I actually believe preaching is part of worship but for clarity here I am distinguishing the two) to something that is more pleasing to the sinner.  Thus, because of an incorrect goal, the church ends up forsaking Biblical preaching. 

Another thing this makes me thing of, in terms of the life of the individual believer is, if the church's sole purpose is to save people, then the believer greatly misses out on the power of the gospel here and now in dealing with our sin as we live out our daily lives.  While we will never reach perfection this side of heaven, the gospel is mightily powerful and is able to heal us of sins even in this life.  This is something the believer should take comfort in, realizing that all is not without hope, but that Jesus saves, Jesus saves, even now.

Just some thoughts..

Rachel

Currently Reading Financial Peace: Revisited By Dave Ramsey, Sharon Ramsey see related

Well, last night we started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.  So far, it looks pretty good.  We're going to be meeting once at week the the Methodist Church with some other people who are going through the class.  There are 6 couples.  Curtis and I already know a lot of this stuff, but hopefully getting it pound into us will help us really be serious about getting out of debt and saving money.  I'm starting to already get really serious about it just because with Curtis getting out of the Navy in about a year, we may have a different income, and also there are just a lot of unknowns (like what is he going to do, etc.)  Having no debt and money saved up will help us be ready for whatever happens.  So far we've gotten the debt down to just two things, and we're hoping that with selling his truck, we'll be down to just one (other than the house).   Looks like we're making progress.  I think right now, the main thing holding us back is all the trips to Oklahoma... gas is really expensive!  It's hard to cut back on that though because we love hanging out with our families.  This last trip down there though, we drove 55 mph the whole way and saved about $35 on gas.   We've gotten to where we always drive 55 when the speed limit is 70.  It really helps.