My Mom, Sherry Baker

It’s time for another Mother’s Day that I will celebrate without the presence of my own mom…..such a bummer. But what is not a bummer is that my mom is my friend now that I am adult.

I am grateful and blessed to have had a mom that invested in me in such an intentional way and continues to do so.

Twenty investments:
1. hours of rocking a colicky baby.
2. hours of reading to a little girl
3. hours of being silly
4. hours at church and church-related activities
5. hours of shopping for just the right dress
6. hours of learning to put on make-up!!
7. hours of conversations
8. hours of entertaining friends
9. hours at the beach
10. hours of learning to drive a car
11. hours of working in the yard
12. hours of talks about the future
13. hours of concerts (band concerts, band shows, piano recitals, and voice recitals)
14. hours of deciding where to go to college
15. hours of prayer
16. hours of talks about boys
17. hours of planning a wedding
18. hours of laughing about the crazy things my kids do
19. hours of checking in to see if I’m ok
20. hours of touring CA!

All adds up to a lifetime of mothering!
Thank you, Mama!
I love you,
Angela

Growing in Christ

Wanted to point out that I added a person to my blogroll, Devyn Smith. She just started blogging and has written a beautiful piece about growing in Christ.

I hope it encourages you. Click on her name and it should take you there!

An Amazing Weekend

Norco Women’s Retreat 2010 at Laguna Beach

Getting ready for the retreat on Friday afternoon was difficult. I was spent physically due to fighting a sickness all week and it had seeped over in to making me emotionally tired too. I called and texted a few friends and asked them to pray for me over the weekend. They agreed, which I was grateful for.

So the weekend is over now and I can sum it all up with one word: Blessing! It was all such a blessing. The planners of the retreat had the details down perfectly. It ran smoothly and there were some really fun times to laugh and to get to know each other. I loved spending time with my sisters in Christ.

I planned for our teaching/discussion to be centered on some passages that are directly addressed to women. We dissected these passages, talked about living them, and worked to evaluate where we were in living them. It helped me to think about them for my own life and it REALLY encouraged me to see how my sisters received these verses and were eager to think about them too!

I left the weekend feeling amazed at God’s Spirit and His Word. I also left feeling closer to the women with whom He has given me to worship. I am blessed.

Today is the Beginning!!

Today is the beginning of a read together group of women who want to spend some time studying doctrine. Last night at our accountablility group I talked about why this is important. Often times when you speak of studying doctrine, you get a rather dull look from people. After all, doesn’t doctrine just divide Christians and make them “argue” about things when they should be loving and caring and just sharing the gospel? Well, maybe. The truth is that doctrine does cause Christians to “agree to disagree” and sometimes that is painful. However, they still should be loving and caring and sharing the gospel…absolutely. Another arguement is, “isn’t doctrine dry?” My answer to that is, “Well it could be at times, I suppose, but so are some of the foods I choose to eat because they are nutritious and not sweet and gooey like I really like!!”

So why study doctrine? Doctrine is the meat of what we as Christians believe. The fruit of studying doctrine will bring about strength in the Christian’s life. The timeless truths that are instilled in our hearts as we study doctrine will carry us when the difficult storms of life come. Storms that could rock our worlds if we did not know God according to His Word. We can cling to Truth when the earth beneath us is trembling and we can not focus.

My friends, this week’s assignment is pages 17-21. Stop on page 21 when you get to the subheading B. (Of course, you can read further if you want, but the idea is to keep the goal small and “doable” so that we continue in a steady pace and finish eventually!)

When you read you can comment here that you finished and if you want to write something about what you read, please feel free!

Excited to read with you!

If you do not have the book yet, you can read at google reader here.

Book Club Update

A few weeks ago I announced that I would be starting a book club. I love reading and I love to discuss what I am reading with other people. I have wanted to be a part of a reading club for years; however, there were several red flags to starting one right now. (I was in denial of that for a while but as the date approached, I realized that I was not going to be able to add it to my plate.) It was not going to be wise for me to facilitate another monthly meeting. In addition to that I found out that my husband’s leadership team is beginning some type of reading event as well so that will be an opportunity for reading too.

In the meantime I have morphed my own reading club into a blogging exercise. This blog was originally created to encourage the women that I meet with on a monthly basis for accountability. We are going to start a reading project inspired by the sermon series at FBC, Norco. The sermon series is based on Titus. Consistently we have been exhorted to think about the necessity of sound doctrine in our lives. Sound doctrine keeps us from making decisions based on our culture, our emotions, pressure from others, our own selfish flesh etc., but instead gives us the ability to live life and make decisions based on the safety and strength afforded by God’s Word.

With that in mind we are going to be reading Bible Doctrine by Wayne Grudem and responding to it on my blog. Our goal will be attainable which might make it look like a small goal but it will be definitely better than nothing! We will read 5 pages a week.

This reading exercise will start on February 19. On that day the pages for the next week will be assigned as a post for which anyone who is reading can comment on during that week. I will write at the end of the week and then will assign the pages for the next week! Thanks to all who commented at our last meeting that they were excited about doing this. I think it will be fun and challenging at points.

Be sober-minded

This week I’ve been mulling over the admonition in 1 Peter 1:13. It says this, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This verse was the topic of discussion last Sunday, then on Tuesday night I watched a great debate between an atheist and a Christian, and on Wednesday we discussed Sunday’s sermon in a group of 16 people….I might add one of my very favorite things to do.

For the most part I have been thinking about the admonition to be “sober-minded.” What does that mean? The opposite of sober is intoxicated, but the context of the verse is not dealing with alcohol intoxication. The context is concerning your thinking. What could I be intoxicated with that would prevent me from using my mind well? In a nutshell, me and my passions.

The gift I have been given in being able to believe God’s word is not for me and my comfort and my selfish ambitions. It’s for God’s glory and His service and that plays out in living for Him in an otherness ethic.

So to be sober-minded I should fill my mind with understanding of His ways. Some of the ways I do this is by reading…..reading some difficult and sound doctrine and really dealing with the meat of the word. I am ashamed to say that I have not read Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. I have not read The Reason for God nor the book that it was written in a response to. There are times that I am not prepared to give a sound reason for why I think a particular way because I have not done my homework.

And the reason for a sound mind, one that is prepared to discuss the meat of the word, is not so I am be “intelligent” or even respected but so that I can serve. I can serve God by serving my brothers and sisters in Christ with love and compassion (as opposed to selfish motivation….you know a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality) and I can serve those who don’t believe by lovingly and gently pointing to the cross as the way of peace of with God (as opposed to being haughty, embarrassed, or simply unconcerned). Though I might add, even when the convictions that come from God’s Word are said with love and with concern for the individual, they are not always welcomed by the listener.

Why does a sober mind promote this type of living? Because a sober mind works as a result of the principles of God’s word. I loved watching the demeanor of Douglas Wilson when Christopher Hitchens ridiculed his belief in an ancient text. He was not rattled at all. He answered with the quiet assurance of a man whose mind is sober.

I do not think that I live up to Scripture’s admonition because I am not exercising my mind enough and I want to improve. So……anyone want to start a “book club” with me? I am thinking..meet once a month to discuss a “book of the month.” I know everyone is busy….me too….but I think it will help me to actually read if I know I get to talk to someone about it!!!

Change We “Need”?

President Obama spent much time campaigning about how much change we “need” in this country. This short video demonstrates what he thought NEEDED to be changed. I don’t get it. How does he think these changes will make us better off? Why does he not study failed governmental ideas and try not to make those same mistakes here?
And why oh why are we even considering government controlled healthcare when we are worse than BROKE? We simply do NOT have the money to be considering something like this right now. When you are borrowing money just to make budget; you STOP SPENDING as much as possible!  Everyone in America is having to do this but Washington.

Choosing Thomas

Words cannot adequately describe the strength and love of these  parents.

www.bondedtogether.wordpress.com

Quotes that caused me to think

The following are some of the things that I have been thinking about lately. Things I have heard through the teaching at FBC, Norco.  Things that have caused me to “set my mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

“You cannot say that you take the gospel seriously if you do not share it. Christians love the gospel, live the gospel and share the gospel.” paraphrase of Matt Cobb’s teaching

“I cannot understand the gospel on my own, therefore there is no room for boasting….” Matt Cobb

“The church is the community of all true believers of all time bound together through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.” Jeff Mooney

“Your identity is in Christ; you cannot look to the world to define you.” Jeff Mooney

“Grace trains you to say NO to ungodliness.” Titus 2:11-14

“Repentance is knowing, responding, renouncing, and trusting that sin is not better than Christ.” Jeff Mooney

“The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.” Prov. 31:11-12 (memory verse from Bible study)

“The value of God’s word in our lives is directly linked to righteousness.” Darren Meisel

“Sin deadens your senses. The common denominator of all sin is lack of trust in God.” Jeff Mooney

“The vitality of the Christian life is found in the reality of Christ’s work.”

“The biggest hindrances to gospel-living in America are indulgence and diversion.”

“How would Jesus think?” (Noting that I cannot always do the things that Jesus did….like heal a leper, but I can learn to think in terms of glorifying my Father in all situations.) Nik Brownell

“The heart is an idol factory.” Luther

“We must speak, sing, and discuss the gospel with each other daily! Why? to strengthen us, focus us, motivate us, and give us joy!” paraphrased from sermon

“The elemental spirits of this world have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh”  Only by faith in Jesus Christ. He alone is the answer to my sin problem.  from study in Colossians in Sunday School

“Do not resist the struggles of ministering to people.”  comment made in Sunday school as we discussed Paul’s willingness to struggle so that the gospel might go forward.

I will stop here.  Typing all this up has made me grateful for the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the teachers at Norco, the family of believers at Norco and worldwide, and the nursery workers that make it possible for me to hear the word.

I hope you are blessed by these thoughts too.

www.bondedtogether.wordpress.com

Accountability

On September 3, my friends to whom I am accountable for spiritual disciplines, (and who were the inspiration for this blog) met again. As always the meeting was filled with laughter, a few tears, joy, serious conversations, contemplation about God’s work in our lives, goal-setting, and most of all encouragement.  I am amazed at how much these women press me to live what I profess to believe.  It’s not a “checklist” mentality but a “putting yourself in the path of His commands” mentality in order to live for Him.  And it’s not easy. 

It’s not easy for a couple of reasons.  I don’t like to set a goal and not meet it.  And if I don’t meet my goals, I don’t like to admit it, but if I don’t, then I excuse myself quietly and I don’t repent of unwise choices/attitudes/etc. AND THEN, it’s not easy because the “mechanics” of the goal could be met but not the spirit of the goal…..learning from God’s Word and being changed by Him. 

So accountability is difficult because it requires vulnerability, repentance, and true growth, but the benefits outweigh the difficulty.  I have been reminded of my frailty.  I have been checked on attitudes like self-pity, self-indulgence, discontentment, and “light-headed living.”  (“Light-headed living” is my term for not taking life seriously!   These things weigh me down and keep me from enjoying what God has richly blessed me with….HIMSELF!! 

So when these precious ladies gather with their smiles, their lives, their pain, their goals, they bless me and they bless each other.  Accountability is beautiful.  Conviction and repentance are the things of life!!!