Labor Of Love

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

Christmas Present for a Friend

A friend of ours called and asked for us to provide a Christmas present for her daughter. Her daughter had mentioned how she would like to know what various people had as their favorite Bible verse or passage and why it was important to them. So her mom was collecting these to place into a little keepsake book and she asked if we would participate. I agreed and thought I would share the same contents here.

My favorite verse or passage is II Corinthians 4:16-18 "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

This passage is so powerful! It gives us hope to face any trial or struggle that may come our way as believers. Here we see the proper perspective we are to have as we face this thing we call life, we are to view them as light afflictions. Barely an issue for us, certainly no problem for God. We also see that not only are our struggles not an issue for God, but we also see that God is working through them in His divine purposes for our good. For He is using them to "prepare for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." I'm not sure what the weight of glory is, but I can't wait to find out! But there is a caveat, our focus or vision. What are we looking at? There is nothing that we can see with our physical eyes that will matter in the end, but with the eyes of our heart (Ephesians 1:18) we can be Christ focused and cross centered. A quote I borrowed from someone goes like this, "People with eternal natures cannot be made happy by temporal things." Keep your eyes on the prize of Christ Jesus and you will find that any challenge that God asks you to face will seem as nothing in the end when it is compared with the supreme knowledge of knowing Christ.

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Now playing: Third Day - Show Me Your Glory
via FoxyTunes

A Glimpse Into Forgiveness

For those of you who know the Scott Willis family, here are a few articles that shine a light into what Biblical forgiveness looks like. For those of you who may not know, ex-Governor Ryan of Illinois just recently asked for a Presidential pardon that has brought the Willis story back into the limelight. Scott and Janet Willis's response is gracious and Biblical and it is a response we could all learn from. You can read the Chicago Tribune article here and another portion of the story here.


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Now playing: Sara Groves - Less Like Scars
via FoxyTunes

We Now Return To Our Regular Scheduled Blogging

After the last few hectic weeks I feel almost as if I can breathe again. I hope to start blogging again soon and maybe even try to get a Christmas letter out (I'm not betting on the last part.) Anyway, I just thought I would let everyone know that we are still alive and are still maintaining the status quo.

I also wanted to let you know of a very good new album that was just released by Covenant Life Church. It is an album of 10 of the most loved hymns of the church. They keep the melodies of the hymns the same but update the instrumentation that normally goes with them. For those who are not aware, Covenant Life is affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries so you can expect the same quality in this new album as you would get on the albums from Sovereign Grace. Here is the best part. You can get if for free! Noise Trade is offering it as a free download. Just provide them with a few e-mails (you can use mine as one of them) and you get the album for free.

If you are in the Christmas music mood yet, you might want to take a listen to the group Sojourn and their album Advent Songs. More folk sounding with a couple of original rewrites of standard classic Christmas hymns, I really like this album. It is also free at Noise Trade.

You can find both albums here as well as many others.

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Now playing: Covenant Life Church - And Can It Be
via FoxyTunes