I wrote this post two days ago and saved it, wanting to review it with my sweet husband, afraid I was unclear. In the meantime, a dear friend experienced significant signs of miscarrying their baby (by the grace of God, Mama & baby are ok), another friend lost her grandfather, and Layla's parents updated their blog. It makes the weight on my heart that much more pressing, I know that these families, and ours as well, can say with utmost assurance "that all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Life is too fragile...know Him.
Why plant a church? Why run our family the way we do? Why not participate in "this"? Why do this? We've heard so many questions over the last 4 years about why we live the way we do and it has become clearer to me this week than ever that I am most certain of the answer: because EVERYTHING we do says something about who we believe God is...
The prayer of our hearts is first to communicate to our children and then to our friends and family and world beyond the walls of our home that we serve a very, very BIG GOD.
And so as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls..." I have adopted that as my new mothering mantra. Paul was keenly aware that it is God who works in and through us and that there is nothing we can do on our own accord to save ourselves, our children or our neighbors, but he labored to the point of death to proclaim the greatness and the glory of this God he knew.
And by His grace for His glory I want to be spent and expended.
When you ask us or even wonder why we emphasize so much the study of theology or why we listen to catechism music in the car or why we do anything we do, I pray that in the next few paragraphs the answer will become increasingly clear to you.
Our small group is going through a series by John Piper and he said something this week that resonated deep in my soul and captured what we truly want to communicate:
In speaking of the Doctrines of Grace "one of the reasons for it is because these realities are in Romans 8 the foundation of the most precious promise in the world. Mainly that everything works together for our good....we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose...the foundation for that promise is "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified"....those are links in a chain which if any of them breaks, that promise is over.
And to see that is practically very very important for me. I don't ever want to lose Romans 8:28. I build my life on Romans 8:28. I do my pastoral ministry on Romans 8:28...if I lose Romans 8:28 I can't do my ministry. I don't know how I would do life. So how the Bible supports Romans 8:28, holds it up, makes a big difference to me and the way it holds it up is through foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification and they all hang together...
I introduce these things where I want them always to be: as a precious, powerful support for the most practical realities in the world. These things aren't for fighting about to me or for winning arguments about, they aren't to puff yourself or distinguish yourself from anybody by, they are to live by, to SURVIVE with... "Had I not heard the word concerning the absolute sovereignty of God over my life I would have gone insane"...I have heard it enough from the depths of peoples' being and I live it enough to know that's reality. That is how it is supposed to work.
These doctrines are not mainly there just to entertain our intellects they are there to provide rock under our feet when everything around our soul gives way. Which it will sooner or later in your life...
While there are many more reasons we hold the convictions we do, this reality has been weighing on my soul so much this week. The past few nights and days, I've been sleepless, tearful, wanting to figure out how to possibly communicate how important a person's beliefs about God really are and it makes it even more pressing and real when I consider Layla Grace, a little girl I was introduced to a month or so ago, who has motivated me to hold our girls a bit longer, a bit tighter and to even now start teaching them what a very big, loving, compassionate, wise and SOVEREIGN God they have... it is critical for all our souls. Because someday, I might be the mother of a Layla Grace or the wife of an Ian or, or... but even today though my suffering compares little with that happening all around me, I am a sometimes-weary mother of soon-to-be three little ones who is keenly aware of my own shortcomings and needs the truth of who my God is just as much as anyone else.
And so to His Word, Joel and I will go and by His grace, lead our children to it as well and we will strive to know this solid rock under our feet so that He will hold us up when everything else around our souls gives way.
Dear ones, it matters.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. ~Romans 8:28-30
Blessed be His name.
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