Mud Pies or Holidays at the Sea

"We are content to go on making mud pies in the slums because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea."

Are you making mud pies or waiting on that holiday at the sea? Oh that we could wait on the Lord to satisfy us in every way and quit settling for earthly treasures!

The Law and Sin

How does the Law help me to know my sin?
(From Pierced by the Word by John Piper)

"What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been from the Law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead." Romans 7:7-8

The law creates all kinds of covetousness. In general, there are two kinds of bad desires (covetousness) that the law stirs up, and both are expressions of our love affair with independence and self-exaltation.

1. One is more obvious, namely for the desires for the very things that are forbidden. This is owing to our ingrained love of being our own god and our distaste for submission.
2. The other kind of bad desire that the law stirs up is the desire to keep the law by our own strength with a view to exalting our own moral prowess. It is not stealing, murder, adultery, lying; instead, just self-righteousness. Not that keeping the law is evil. No, the problem is the desire to keep it by my power, not in childlike reliance on God's power. The problem is desiring the glory of MY achievement, not Gods. That is a subtle form of covetousness.

So know yourself! Know your sins. Know your sinful condition of rebellion and insubordination. If this leads you to the cross and the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone, it will exalt Christ, be healing to your soul, and sweetening to all your relationships.

My Treasures

As my friend Lindsey says, "The Lord spanked my tail". The past couple of days have been very "dry" in my time with the Lord and it is really frustrating me. I have been consistent in spending time with Him even though I feel emotionless and know that it is just part of my walk. Things can't always be on a high, that is not reality. I haven't experience this in a while, actually, lately my times with the Lord have been incredible and I have desired him more than anything. But the Lord is trying to teach me something and I am slowly figuring out what that is. It seems as though I have failed and the Lord was sure to remind me of that this morning. My goal is to never spend more time watching TV than I have spent in the WORD that day but yesterday, I failed. Why do I even care about the tube, nothing about it is eternal! I somehow felt that I deserved a "break" from the routine and to relax. So instead of spending time in the word (I was home alone last night and how often does that happen?) I caught up on some shows. And of course in the gentle little way that the Lord likes to remind us of His truths, he did just that this morning. I was reading out of John 14 and he states, "If you love me, you will obey my commands." Do I love him? OF COURSE! Then why can't I be obedient to what He has called me to and convicted me of? I am so tired of being less than I need to be for Him. Then I was reading in the Daily Light and read for yourself...

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [1] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Where are my treasures? And am I building them here on earth or in Heaven? Oh Lord that you would fill me with you and that I wouldn't desire the things of this world! As my dear friend Amber said the day before her death.... "When will I shake this sin?!"

Diego and Downtown

A bunch of silly girls with bows in their hair? Where in the world could we have possibly taken this crew? DIEGO! Karis calls it "Diego ALIVE." Friday night, we took a group of 4 girls downtown memphis to go see Diego at the Orpheum and boy was it a show! We got to ride the trolley and you would have thought it was a Limo or something! In this picture, they all have a mouthful of gum in case you wondered what that was...

Me and Karis at the Orpheum

Mine and Karis' buddies, Paige and Mari-Morgan (our pastor's wife and daughter)

Psalm 63:3

Wow, God is so good. Last night as I was reading and trying to find a scripture for our blog, the Lord brought me to Psalm 63:3 "Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you." That is such the desire of my heart right now and I thought it was very fitting and even named our blog, "Better Than Life" from that very scripture. Then this morning as I woke up to spend time with the Lord, I was reading out of Pierced By The Word by John Piper (which is excellent by the way) and the title was "Wilderness, Worship, Treason and God" which was a meditation of Psalm 63. It was oh so good and such food to a hungry soul. Psalm 63 was written by David as he was in the wilderness of Judah after he was driven out by his own son, Absalom, who was out to kill his own father. Not only was he in mortal danger but was dealing with his own son hating him and wanting his death in his own hands! I had never noticed this before now, but in the midst of a life-threatening situation and a very emotional moment I am sure, what does he pray for??? Not protection or victory, but God himself! Piper states, "There are seasons of pain and loss and grief and darkness when nothing is worth asking for but GOD. Everything else seems trivial, even life." Oh!!!! I was there just a month ago when my best friend was taken into heaven to be with the Lord. "Life" just seems trivial and nothing matters except the Lord. Oh to know God like David did!

"Would this not be more than all the riches and fame and success and health, indeed all the world can offer? God himself coming near and making our souls drink from His love until all else fades from view, and fear is swallowed up in the unshakable security of everlasting enjoyment at the right hand of God. Oh, that we would come to this place in our walk with God!"

It doesn't end here...the devotion continues and talks about how corporate worship is so important and how it should be a place to meet God. He asks us to join him in praying for our church leaders and to pray for our congregations that we would be so full of the Spirit and truth of God that we would taste and see the fullness of God and to see that the beauty of the Lord is "better than life." So I did that and experienced God this morning in worship in a beautiful way. The last song we sang before the sermon (not really sure of the name) states, "Your kindness Lord leads us to repentance, Your faithfulness is our desire, Your beauty LORD makes us stand in silence, YOUR LOVE...IS BETTER THAN LIFE! The Lord filled me with a hunger for Him like David had in Psalm 63. What about you? Can you say that His love is "better than life" to you?

Old Friends

Recently a friend of mine, Candace Williams Echols had her first baby and his name is Robert Towne Echols and they will call him "Bo." It is so fun to see how the Lord is blessing us with children and what a responsibilty!

Yesterday we got the fun privilege of seeing an old friend, Carey Dunn Willems, who I have known since birth. She currently lives in Louisville, KY and has two children, Karis and Jack. Our "Karis'" had so much fun playing together and they thought it was so cool that they had the same name! It was great to see her.

Pickwick Lake

This past weekend, we went with Nonnie, Pop-Pop and Aunt Jessie to Pickwick Lake. They have some friends that let us borrow their cabin for the weekend. It was so much fun! We went fishing, swang on the hammock, relaxed and ate of course. The kids had the time of their life!


Karis on the porch at PickwickMom and Karis at the Lake

Brayden

Nonnie and Karis at Pickwick

Pop-Pop and Karis throwing rocks in the water