by Kimberly | Feb 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
1. I need sound sleep.
2. Held together like a pair of bookends – one of my fave lines right now in a song.
3. What are my other favorite songs right now: Little Miss (Sugarland), Who Are You When I’m Not Looking (Blake Shelton), I Wouldn’t Be a Man (Josh Turner), Made for Colder Weather (ZBB), Hello World (Lady A), I Can’t Love You Back (Easton Corbin).
4. Another way I handle stress is that I don’t eat as much usually because I don’t feel great – this might help me make some weight-loss goals.
5. I love the leadership at my church. They are a grace to me.
6. Just received an iTunes and SBux giftcard in the mail – that’s definitely a great way to start a Monday.
7. Big news comes March 1.
8. Everybody’s experience is different. We can’t let media or other’s experiences dictate ours – we can only stand on Truth of God’s Word.
Link Love
Since I didn’t give you many last week because I did my Valentine’s Post, I owe you some good ones.
1. I do like Andrew Peterson, and I do like this song, but I don’t think I’ll play it at my wedding…just a thought.
2. Definitely want to serve this at a brunch if I have one in the near future – perfect for spring or summer.
3. My friend, Courtney, hits on a topic all of us need to hear!
4. Very much looking forward to this new Gospel Coalition project.
5. I want to make this – maybe with sweet potatoes. Need to go buy some brussel sprouts
6. So thankful for being a part of a church where this issue isn’t a problem for corporate worship, but I know it is a needed discussion!
7. I’m one of these, but I like how Macheesmo handles the criticism. I try not to annoy folks with my camera!
8. Vicki Courtney hits on a HUGE topic…one that is needed. I see a lot of girls go by in the kids area where I serve who are dressed just like adult women just in small sized (heels, halter tops, latest fashions, etc). Be wise.
9. If anyone knows me at all – they will know my fave store bought cookie is the OREO! Here is an amazing cookie I need to make.
Those 9 should hold you over till next week! 🙂
by Kimberly | Feb 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
Yesterday in our ed-staff meeting, one of the pastors at my church brought up the fact that one of the times the NT uses the word example is when Christ shows the example to the disciples of service: wraps a towel and washes their feet. The display of service, grace, unmerited reward, purity.
I started thinking about how I use my home for hospitality. I can make all the excuses I want: time, small apt, shared apt, you name it – but hospitality is still a command that we need to follow. This isn’t going to be a blog post on the hospitality commands or all the verses that talk about it – but more the practical and attitude of showing hospitality in your home.
1. It is not about cooking fancy foods. I remember having a couple in my home back after Christmas. I shared with my brother while I was home that I was nervous about what to cook for them because she is a personal chef and he is just a great cook. He said they would probably just like a normal meal. Well, God helped me figure out what to cook for them by causing snow to fall so I arrived home just an hour or two before their arrival. I picked up a rotisserie chicken from HT, baked some sweet potatoes, roasted some green beans and mushrooms (love) and then created a little semi-homemade trifle dessert. Simple, yet yummy. But, I was still worried about what they thought. Good thing they enjoyed it.
2. It is not about impressing your guests. I am the type with most people that I want to vacuum before they come over, make sure everything is in its place, etc. But, I know the guests that I love because when they come over I don’t worry about if they see that my house is lived in. I always need to be a good steward of what God has given me and not be lazy about picking up my home – but I do not need to bring out the dust rag and Pledge 30 minutes before you walk in my front door. We need to be always ready to have anyone come in our home. I know what a blessing it is for me to walk into a home of families I love and there are toys scattered everywhere, dishes in the sink, maybe things aren’t perfect – but neither is the guest!
3. It is about showing grace. It is always an opportunity to share with your guests the grace of God. God has been so kind to me that I need to pass on those gifts and that grace to others.
3. It is about comfort. I want my apt to be a place of comfort for others now. But, I think more importantly, I want that in my home one day – maybe as a family – maybe as a single – I want to have my home be a place of comfort, life, and ease. I want people to come and be able to “make themselves at home” and come and go as they please. I want my friends to have a home away from home, a retreat. I have wonderful friends who have modeled that for me through the years, and I pray that I can be a blessing to others in the same way. I was just mentioning to someone last night that I don’t want people in my home all the time, because we all need our downtime, our be by ourselves time, strictly family time – so there needs to be guidelines – but again, grace, Kim, grace.
4. It is not about getting something in return. We do not give so that others will give back. We do not shower grace in anticipation of what we might get in the future.
5. It is about having the mind of Christ. I need to keep this in mind. Christ wasn’t worried about if the towel wrapped around his waist was clean and pressed and smelled like lavender. He wasn’t concerned with the floor being swept. His one concern was teaching them humility and service. I want that pressed into me when I have folks in my home – or when I have the ability to serve at a function. The pastors I have the opportunity to serve with model this well: if we have a meeting with food – it is mostly the pastors that are the first to jump up and clear the tables of the plates and trash. It still surprises me every time. I am grateful for their humble hearts and their willingness to serve us.
I write these things out of conviction and out of yearning to be more Christ-like, not that I have this all together. Again – this whole preaching the gospel to myself. Knowing that to die to self is the only way to live to Christ. And that is my gain.
Here are some hopefully helpful quotes from wise women that I hope will encourage you in your effort to proclaim the gospel in your hospitality:
“God urges us to deny ourselves, to lose our lives, and to give preference to others.” – Dorothy Patterson, BeAttitudes for Women
“The home may not (be) a place of luxury, but (hopefully it is) a place of community.” – Carolyn McCulley, Radical Womanhood
“Simplicity frees you to extend hospitality more easily and more often, so that it can become a true ministry of the Christian home regardless of other demands on your time and energy.” – Eilizabeth Skoglund, The Welcoming Hearth
“Cultivating a love for the home means acquiring practical skills and training so that you can intentionally make your home a mission field, not a museum.” – Carolyn McCulley, Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye (and just to add…this mission field does not only apply to having non-believers in your home – but I truly think it also means to have the Body in your home and show them Christ.)
I hope this post encourages you. It has me. Even as I put the final period.
by Kimberly | Feb 16, 2011 | Books
Libraries are so fun to look at. Man, I could spend days reading or looking at others’ libraries. They inspire. They encourage. Yes, the libraries themselves, but also the books themselves. They inspire thinking, writing, and action.
I will be ultra spiritual and say my Top Book ever is The Bible – but I’ll leave it with Colossians 3:16
Top Books for Women/Wives (all of these are in no particular order unless otherwise stated)
1. Helper By Design – Elyse Fitzpatrick
2. When Sinners Say I Do – Dave Harvey (great book for pre-marital counseling)
3. Feminine Appeal – Carolyn Mahaney
4. Radical Womanhood – Carolyn McCulley
5. Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye – Carolyn McCulley
6. Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild – Mary Kassian
7. Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God – Noel Piper
8. Biblical Foundation for Manhood and Womanhood – Wayne Grudem
9. Sacred Influence – Gary Thomas
Here are my top authors – so you could really read this to say: anything by these authors are in my top books!
1. Jerry Bridges – yes, my favorite author – EVER – fave book is Respectable Sins
2. John Piper – his Swans series is my favorite
3. D. A. Carson
4. Paul Tripp – ANYTHING
5. C. S. Lewis – Narnia and the 4 Loves
6. Mark Driscoll
7. Wayne Grudem
8. Carolyn Mahaney
9. Carolyn McCulley
10. Elyse Fitzpatrick (hands-down favorite female author)
11. Mary Kassian
Now for some random books:
1. No Other Gospel – Josh Moody
2. Valley of Vision
3. Mortification of Sin – Owen
4. Esther & Ruth Commentary by Duguid
5. Journals of Jim Elliot (and anything about his life)
There you have it – what are your fave books or top authors? And yes, I’ve only highlighted my “Christian reading”. I also love cookbooks, biographies, history, magazines, Jane Austen, classics, and John Grisham, and Charlie Brown!
by Kimberly | Feb 16, 2011 | Uncategorized
There is a false belief out there for some people that all the good music for church was written at least 100 years ago and then there is the false belief that says only good music is stuff written today (or in the last 100 years). Both of those are indeed false.
So, how do we discern if something is fit to be sung in church? Since I’m not a worship pastor, nor have a degree in music, this is not going to hit on anything musically (though I have sung my entire life and can play, I’m not the expert, there are plenty who know so much more than I do). However, the lyrics we sing need to be grounded in truth and useful for the edification of the Body of Christ. This grounding in truth needs to be grounded in the WORD – which is our source for hearing the very Words of God.
All that to say – this modern hymn written by Stuart Townend, is amazing, truth-filled, purposed for edification in the truth of the love of Christ, the GIFT of the Father, and the power of the Cross. I figured it fitting since this week was Valentine’s Day and Easter is only 2 months away! You can click here to hear Stuart talk about this song – which I love hearing (especially with his accent). (And on a side note: he has written some fabulous music – much of what you might even sing in your own church and you don’t even know that it was Stuart Townend).
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory
Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrectionWhy should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
Even reading these words and singing through them as I type them – bring pain, introspection, HOPE, and glory only in Christ. There is so much truth here. Sorta like Paul in Romans (almost a gospel in a book) – this is very much one of the gospels in a song for me.
by Kimberly | Feb 15, 2011 | Bible, Books
“Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes.” – Psalm 119.5
Continuing with the Tuesday is for Tools idea, I thought I would take one of my favorite Bibles and highlight it. One of the Bibles I purchased during my time at THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was Crossway’s ESV Journaling Bible. I didn’t use it that much for a while, but now it is the one I constantly have with me (though at this moment it is on my desk at the office, and I am in my bedroom, so not 24/7, but you get the picture).
The view inside the ESV Journaling Bible is a 4 column text (2 on each page) with lines on the outside of the columns to write in. There are very few reference notes found at the bottom. At the back there are introductions to each of the books of the Bible, though definitely not as in-depth as in the ESV Study Bible.
How I use it: Since I write curriculum for my day job, I use it to take notes on passages that I’m writing on, so if I get to teach on those passages or don’t have the curriculum with me, I can know the exact points that I brought out in the curriculum. Or…if someone is speaking on a given passage, I can take notes because others are more brilliant than I am and come up with more insightful thoughts into Scripture. I love sitting, listening to someone preach, and just jot away (either with pencil or a fine-tip pen that won’t bleed through the pages).
The only thing I don’t like about this Bible is there is not a concordance in the back. The good thing about it is I’m learning to know where certain verses are and trying to keep their addresses tucked away in my brain.
Fun thing about it: on a random day at the offices: you can walk by both my office and my boss’ office and find the ESV Journaling Bible in black laid open in front of our monitors. And my boss’ wife has one too – but hers is prettier.
Do you have a favorite Bible? Are you a person who writes in their Bibles or not? How long have you had your Bible? I do have one from my late elementary years, but I don’t think I have one from any earlier than that.
