Tried With Fire

For about two years, my daughter has spent every other week-end with her father. Last night, we endured the usual Friday traffic to meet him. On the drive up, we were talking about how God has provided for us in so many practical ways, blessing and deepening our relationship, revealing the doctrines of grace to us, and bringing us into fellowship with a local church. As we were listing all that God has done, my daughter said, "We are so blessed." As I was driving home, I was thinking about what she said. Here is a young girl who, in one sense, has lost her father. Any day, her parents' divorce will be final and yet she can say, "We are so blessed." How can this possibly be? I could write a list of verses a mile long, but suffice it to say, this is possible because God is real, the Gospel is real, Jesus Christ's finished work is real, the indwelling and transforming work of the Holy Spirit is real, the Bible is real. To God be the glory.

God sent help from Zion today. I can't go into the details because I still have to go back to court again . But He intervened, and I give Him all the glory. I pray that I would remember today and not forget "till now the Lord has helped us." Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by Thy help I'm come; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.

Today was a blessed Lord's Day. There were three families that joined the church and two men were presented as new deacons. A new teen's Sunday school class started using Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. We celebrated the Lord's supper today which is always a blessing. There were several new families visiting as well. To top it all off, we had a cover dish lunch with an incredible abundance of good food. The weather was unusually warm for February. To take advantage of that, we went for a two mile walk and got to see some nature and a beautiful sunset. God is so good. I am thankful for being a part of Grace Baptist Chapel. I am thankful for the saints there and the encouragement they have been to me. I am thankful for our new pastor, his family, and his faithful preaching of the Word. I am thankful for the beautiful day. I pray I would grow in thankfulness. Even on the days that are hard and I wrongly think that I have nothing to be thankful for, He is al...

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, "In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as ha...

My daughter was baptized today. She had first expressed the desire to be baptized more than a year ago. Through different circumstances, it wasn't possible for that to take place. Beginning in 2008, the Lord led us to a small Reformed Baptist congregation meeting 5 minutes from our home unbeknownst to us. One of the reasons why I believe the Lord led us to this place was so she could be baptized today. Praise the Lord, she took this step in obedience to God. She publicly testified that she is the Lord's, she no longer belongs to the world, and she wants to follow Him. The last year has been a tremendous trial for our family. Today is a testimony to God's faithfulness in keeping His own even through disappointment, heartache, and pain. He is faithful to take something that would be a cause of tremendous bitterness and use it to draw my daughter and myself closer to Him. May He receive all the glory!