by Elizabeth | Dec 11, 2014 | Learning Story
After posting earlier in the week on suffering during the “Merry Christmas” season, I read a heart- strengthening word in Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional for December 11. I’ll share part with you; if you want to read the whole thing, click here!
In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing for ever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one’s eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun!
by Elizabeth | Nov 25, 2014 | Learning Story
2 Cor. 2:14: 14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
Oh most Thank-Worthy God, Giver of all Good Gifts,
In this season, forgive us for shrinking THANKSGIVING into a small story about Pilgrims and Native Americans and corn kernels. Or even worse, for thinking of it as the “day before Black Friday”!
It is you, most Merciful Savior, Mighty Deliverer, Steadfast Lover who provides everything we need for life and breath.
Thanksgiving is something we must celebrate every day, not just one Thursday a year. For daily, you feed our hungry hearts with your new mercies. You rescue our wandering hearts from idols that only feed us on dry ashes. You strengthen our weak hearts to spread the sweet aroma of your all-sufficient grace. (2 Cor. 2:15; 2 Cor. 12:9).
This week, many face harsh realities of Thanksgiving Day —
an absent place at the table due to death, disease or divorce,
resentful hearts of elder brothers over prodigals come home,
widows, orphans, the lost and the lonely, aching for a place to belong
the spouse that will drink too much and get rough when the guests have gone…
You know every tear and tear Lord, because you count and collect them all (Ps. 56:8).
We beg you, because of your faithful love, Lord, to “comfort all who are afflicted and in pain” (Ps. 69:29).
May your mighty healing power work to destroy violence, quell fears, restore bodies and hearts, reconcile divided ones….until Christ returns and all is made right.
And help us again to…
“praise your name with a song…
magnify you with thanksgiving” (Ps. 69:30).
We thank you, our Beloved Father, for
the meal you have prepared for us:
Christ’s broken body and spilled blood shed
for the forgiveness of sins
and the redemption of all creation.
We thank you, Mighty Deliverer,
for rescuing us from this body of sin and death.
We thank you, Shalom Restorer,
for the bottomless supply of peace and hope
you feed our starving hearts.
In your Son’s most precious and holy name,
we thank you and praise you!
Amen
by Elizabeth | Nov 20, 2014 | Learning Story
Excessive drinking, casual hookups, secular humanism agendas in the classroom…
College presents an array of startling, and sometimes unexpected, challenges.
As a parent of college children, two graduated, two still on campus, I can honestly say I don’t know how they would have come through it all with any level of gospel sanity if it weren’t for…
Gospel-centered campus ministries.
Today I share an update from my FAVORITE campus ministry worker (in gold LSU tee shirt, above) — our elder daughter, Jackie Turnage.
As you listen to her stories, pray for students and workers on college campuses. While you’re at it, consider supporting a gospel-centered campus ministry today if you don’t already.
Hey Guys!
Here to give you a little update about RUF at LSU.
Fall has finally arrived in Baton Rouge as temps have dropped to an icy 77 degrees or so (although as I’m writing this we have a freeze warning for tonight…don’t ask me), football season is almost over, and we are in the final push of the semester. I’m pretty tired. Things are hard, and also things are really good.
I figured I’d share a story or two and if you want to see some more highlights from the semester just scroll on down!
“I believe in Jesus that he has saved me and that the Bible has authority over my life, but my life does not reflect it at all. I want it to, but honestly I know in my heart I’m not fully willing to give up certain things in my life to obey Jesus. I can say I won’t get drunk this weekend or that I want to stand up for what I believe but I can’t even do the easy things. I’m struggling and I just feel stuck.”
This sweet girl was one of the freshmen I nearly gave up on last fall– never texted back, always cancelled and rescheduled and cancelled again our lunch dates, and one day started showing up to Large group second semester. I’ve gotten to know her pretty well over the last year, but this conversation was the first time she really opened up about her faith and her desire to follow Jesus but inability to do it in her own power. Clearly God has been pursuing her heart from the start.
One of the things I love about my job is that I get to sit across the table from students like this and tell them what I need to hear just as much as they do —
You’re struggling. You need Jesus. In Christ you are washed, you are forgiven, your sin no longer is your identity. And that changes the motivation to do everything you do, to pursue righteousness, to love people. God is not a kill-joy, he wants to make you whole because he loves you.
The thing is, my students don’t need me to help them “make good decisions.” What they need is to come to a fuller knowledge of their sin and a fuller knowledge of Jesus’ profound and perfect love for them demonstrated by his life and death on the cross for us. Don’t we all need that?
Please keep praying for this student, that she would be encouraged and grow in the gospel! And please pray for other students like her, that RUF could be a safe and sweet community for them to come and be welcomed by weary, broken people who are being “renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16) by the love of Christ, together.
If you want to read the entire newsletter and see all the pictures, please click here.
What’s your story?
What struggles did you experience as a college student or a young adult? Were there people who pointed you toward real hope?
Jackie says, “We all need that.” How does knowing “that” change your daily life?
“Our world isn’t even the center of its own universe.” Hazel Morel
“Sin is pleasurable for a season, but when it ends, you’re left with a gaping hole.” Tullian Tchividjian
Read more
by Elizabeth | Nov 13, 2014 | Learning Story
This is an update from 2004, because we still need good news for guilty parents!!
First of all, I don’t know why the new issue of Parenting Magazine seems to show up in my mailbox once a month. I suspect there is a mom out there who has judged me the worst mother in the state of Florida and has taken me on as a mercy ministry. She probably sponsored my subscription hoping the articles will help me.
But I don’t read it.
I make it a practice to throw it in the recycling bin along with the other 90 percent of the mail that lands there. This time, though, I had grabbed the mail on the way to wait for a child, and since there was nothing else decent in the mailbox, I had kept it in the car.
Then, on the way to school this morning, one of the headers on the front cover caught my eye:
5 Things Moms Don’t Have to Feel Guilty About
ONLY FIVE? (I have recently prided myself on upping the number on my list to 7 and a half.) I couldn’t wait to see which ones this author had discovered.
But at this point I was driving so I asked my 11-year-old to find the article.
While she looked, I mused, “Why isn’t it 5 things Moms and Dads no longer have to feel guilty about? Is it because Dads should not feel guilty about them, or because they would never bother to feel guilty about them?”
The list deeply disappointed. I wouldn’t have felt guilty about the mothering failures she described:
…either because I would never have done them – oohh…mothering righteousness!
…or because I don’t find them worth my shame…
…or because I had long ago gotten over feeling guilty about them (well, for the most part).
But since you are probably dying to know, here they are
- bribing your kids;
- having a messy house;
- ignoring your kids;
- letting your kids watch videos;
- not having family dinners…
Okay, I confess. I would feel guilty about some of those things. But by that point I had realized — and you probably know this too —
Guilt, whether over things we shouldn’t feel guilty about — or over sins we truly should…
IS SUCH AN ENERGY-SUCKER.
And, as I’ve written so many times here before, because it’s the only life-giving parenting “TIP” I know that truly “works” on mom-guilt…
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ died for the real guilt and shame we experience over our true failures as moms (and Dads). Real mom’s liberation comes from knowing the hope of forgiveness and renewal…
- when I have ignored my children because I’d rather scroll through my friend’s Facebook feed,
- or bribed my kids because I’d rather they like me than suffer the conflict of requiring them to do something they should do (like put down the candy in the grocery aisle),
- or — something not on her list — treated them like fools by yelling “WHO DOES THAT” when they fingerpaint on paper laid over carpet…
So, here’s the real reason you and I don’t need to feel guilty about that list in Parenting Magazine — Christ has already died for it. He beckons us to come to him, to lay our sins upon his shoulders and to remember the righteousness and hope for change we have in him.
Want more good news about liberation from parenting guilt? Try these articles!
Elizabeth Turnage, not the perfect mom, and still the guilt-tripping mom, but ever becoming more freed from myths and traps, works with parents as a life coach.
by Elizabeth | Oct 27, 2014 | Learning Story
I love ministry; I hate the temptations that accompany it.
The Temptation to Believe our Work is Meaningless
Today I share some of the ugly thoughts that intrude at times, even though I’d rather pretend I don’t have these. But from what my coaching clients and others tell me, I believe we all struggle at times with the temptation to believe that what we do somehow doesn’t matter — to anyone, to God…
The doubts and ingratitude show up, unwelcome, unannounced, clamoring for your attention…
NO ONE CARES about your Bible study.
Only two people show up to Bible study.
Several have dropped out to play bridge. One got the flu. One went on vacation and never returned.
Others want to try something new.
One has a new baby, and another has to work.
No one cares.
No matter that one drives an hour and a half to come to a grace-filled Bible study.
No matter that the two people who come so desperately hunger for good news and live undeniable stories of grace.
NO ONE CARES about your blog.
You write a blog. Three people read it. No one comments. No one cares.
You write another blog. Your mother reads it and comments. She has to care; she’s your mom.
You write another blog. Your friend reads it and tells you she loves it. She cares, but no one else does.
FOR THAT MATTER…
You don’t really matter. What you do doesn’t matter. Don’t do it. Why bother? No one appreciates you. You are way deeper than all those big-hair glossy-faced Bible study leaders.
Doubt. Self-contempt. Sense of meaninglessness. Self-pity. Envy.
On one such war-torn morning, I opened my Bible app on my IPad, desperately seeking wise words to speak into the barrage.
I entered the story where Paul is writing about suffering for the sake of the Colossians’, but the Spirit nailed my heart, my sin struggle broadside with…
For the sake of his body, that is the church,
OF WHICH I BECAME A MINISTER ACCORDING TO THE STEWARDSHIP FROM GOD THAT WAS GIVEN ME FOR YOU, TO MAKE THE WORD OF GOD FULLY KNOWN,
the mystery hidden for all ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. Col. 1:25-26
Boom. Take that, temptation.
Though Paul’s situation is specific to his story, the Word has implications for all of us:
You’ve been given a ministry. (Yes, even those who don’t teach, preach, or blog).
That ministry is a gift from God.
Your job is to “make the word of God fully known.” Nothing more, nothing less.
The rest is up to Him.
And in that whole mystery and reality, gratitude returns.
A Prayer about Temptation
Dear Holy God,
Forgive us for believing the lie that no one cares.Thank you for the great gift of your Son, who gives meaning and purpose to what we do in this world. Thank you for letting us be your message. Thank you for letting us be part of your kingdom coming. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.
