We received the newest resource catalog from Ligonier Ministries a couple weeks ago, and this phrase was on one of the pages: "Resist the Trivial". What a concept! We are made for great things - no less than the worship of our God.
So the next question is: how do we do that? How do we resist the trivial in our worship of God?
Since we moved to this fair city almost 3 years ago, we have searched for a church that allows us to worship God in a serious, reverent, God-centered way. What we have found is church after church doing the same thing - shallow worship songs, an entertaining worship band and praise chorus, shallow sermons that tickle the ears with relative topics, youth groups that try to entertain the teenagers with "their kind of games and music". The "seeker-sensitive" model. The trivial.
Before you jump on me, understand that I know the people in the churches we've visited are very serious about what they do - but I think they're wrong. The approach that most Protestant Evangelical churches take to worship today is man-centered rather than God-centered. The concern is more about which music will people want to sing rather than what does God want to hear. The concern is more about helping people get their lives "back on track" rather than teaching them who God is. And in many cases, the concern is more about getting bodies in the pews rather than discipling the believers who are already there.
Enough complaining, I'll get to the point - I really think the main reason we haven't found a church isn't because there isn't a good church here, but because God has other plans for us. He has led us to seek out other like-minded Christians to start a Reformed fellowship and Bible study - and we've finally taken those first steps. There is another family in town who has been searching for the same things we've been searching for. We have started meeting and studying together, publicizing our efforts and inviting others to join us. We are small (9 of us representing 2 families), but we have hope that God will bless our time together as we seek to honor Him. Will you pray for us as we seek to "resist the trivial"?
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Planning, planning, planning...
Summer is time for me to start the countdown to school starting again (10 weeks, 9 weeks, 8 weeks...). At 10 weeks I get into my summer schedule of walking/gardening/cleaning in the morning, and working on projects in the afternoon. By 9 weeks I'm rolling.
At 8 weeks (that was last week) I painted the boys' bedroom while they were at camp. Their room is the "bonus room" over the garage, i.e. a huge room, with one window facing north. It had dark green walls when we moved into the house 2 1/2 years ago, and looked a bit like a cave with a very bumpy floor (it is a boy's room, after all!) and dark corners to hide things in. It's now a huge room with light tan walls and no dark corners. In fact, until the boys came home from scout camp, the room was even carpeted with carpeting instead of you-name-it! But the boys have been working hard on making their chores routine, and one of those chores is to clean up the floor of their room - so we'll see how they do! I have confidence that they'll meet that weekly challenge - they are Boy Scouts, after all.
So now we're down to week 7 - the planning week. This is when I start planning for next year's school year. Not that I haven't started already - the curriculum is chosen and some is even purchased, but the planning that needs to be worked on is exactly how the days, weeks and months are going to look. Do we give up a separate Bible study in favor of Tapestry of Grace's world view study for rhetoric students? Do we take the Logic course quickly or more slowly? Was one year of forcing piano lessons enough? (did that one year achieve the goal I had of both boys being able to read music?) And how much time do I set aside for math? How deeply do we need to delve into Latin? These are the questions that have been floating around in my head while I've been gardening, cleaning and painting.
This is the week I sit down with the computer, my Tapestry of Grace curriculum, the internet linked to the library web-site, and hopefully a realistic set of expectations for my boys - neither too high or too low.
At 8 weeks (that was last week) I painted the boys' bedroom while they were at camp. Their room is the "bonus room" over the garage, i.e. a huge room, with one window facing north. It had dark green walls when we moved into the house 2 1/2 years ago, and looked a bit like a cave with a very bumpy floor (it is a boy's room, after all!) and dark corners to hide things in. It's now a huge room with light tan walls and no dark corners. In fact, until the boys came home from scout camp, the room was even carpeted with carpeting instead of you-name-it! But the boys have been working hard on making their chores routine, and one of those chores is to clean up the floor of their room - so we'll see how they do! I have confidence that they'll meet that weekly challenge - they are Boy Scouts, after all.
So now we're down to week 7 - the planning week. This is when I start planning for next year's school year. Not that I haven't started already - the curriculum is chosen and some is even purchased, but the planning that needs to be worked on is exactly how the days, weeks and months are going to look. Do we give up a separate Bible study in favor of Tapestry of Grace's world view study for rhetoric students? Do we take the Logic course quickly or more slowly? Was one year of forcing piano lessons enough? (did that one year achieve the goal I had of both boys being able to read music?) And how much time do I set aside for math? How deeply do we need to delve into Latin? These are the questions that have been floating around in my head while I've been gardening, cleaning and painting.
This is the week I sit down with the computer, my Tapestry of Grace curriculum, the internet linked to the library web-site, and hopefully a realistic set of expectations for my boys - neither too high or too low.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Summertime and the livin' is easy!
After a beautifully cool spring, summer is easing its way into our neighborhood. Highs in the mid 80's and lows in the 60's is great weather - but the afternoons have been pushing (and reaching) 90. Can true summer be far behind?
Yesterday was a working day - put in another small raised bed for blackberries. Now our future fruit harvest should consist of blackberries, red raspberries, 5 kinds of apples and peaches. I also ordered 2 more kinds of apple trees from starkbros.com, so in a few years we should have fresh apples from July through mid-November...and applesauce for the rest of the year!
The garden is growing quickly! The zucchini plants are getting big, peas are getting tall, and I saw a cabbage butterfly leaving unwelcome eggs on the broccoli plants. I haven't decided how far to go in abandoning the true organic spirit of gardening. Last year's garden was quite a disappointment with how well the pests grew compared to the vegetables, so I'm thinking that this year I'll use a small amount of pesticides to keep the squash bugs and cabbage worms in check.
Now that school is done (or mostly) I'll be able to get back into my routine of working in the garden for about 1/2 hour in the morning after walking the dogs. That's the most enjoyable part of the day for me - before the sun is high, while everything is still fresh and cool. We walk our two miles through the neighborhood, then the dogs chill in the back yard while I clean up their messes, fill the bird feeders and take care of whatever needs to be done in the gardens. I know that tomorrow morning it's going to be weeding the flower bed at the mail box. I started on that yesterday morning, but quit when Floyd was ready to take the trip to Lowe's to get the lumber for the blackberry bed.
At the same time that I'm working outside, I can get some serious birdwatching done! More on that next time....
Yesterday was a working day - put in another small raised bed for blackberries. Now our future fruit harvest should consist of blackberries, red raspberries, 5 kinds of apples and peaches. I also ordered 2 more kinds of apple trees from starkbros.com, so in a few years we should have fresh apples from July through mid-November...and applesauce for the rest of the year!
The garden is growing quickly! The zucchini plants are getting big, peas are getting tall, and I saw a cabbage butterfly leaving unwelcome eggs on the broccoli plants. I haven't decided how far to go in abandoning the true organic spirit of gardening. Last year's garden was quite a disappointment with how well the pests grew compared to the vegetables, so I'm thinking that this year I'll use a small amount of pesticides to keep the squash bugs and cabbage worms in check.
Now that school is done (or mostly) I'll be able to get back into my routine of working in the garden for about 1/2 hour in the morning after walking the dogs. That's the most enjoyable part of the day for me - before the sun is high, while everything is still fresh and cool. We walk our two miles through the neighborhood, then the dogs chill in the back yard while I clean up their messes, fill the bird feeders and take care of whatever needs to be done in the gardens. I know that tomorrow morning it's going to be weeding the flower bed at the mail box. I started on that yesterday morning, but quit when Floyd was ready to take the trip to Lowe's to get the lumber for the blackberry bed.
At the same time that I'm working outside, I can get some serious birdwatching done! More on that next time....
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