Crossway Life

Crossway Books is offering members of all Sovereign Grace Churches the opportunity to pre-order the new ESV Study Bible at a significant discount and at the same time provide a donation to Sovereign Grace Ministries. From now until July 31, friends of Sovereign Grace Ministries are invited to pre-order the Study Bible at a 35 percent discount. Simultaneously, Crossway will donate five percent of these purchases to Sovereign Grace Ministries. These donations will be used to support families who are training at the Pastor’s College. The Pastor’s College exists to train men to serve, lead, and plant Sovereign Grace Ministries churches and to support men currently serving as pastors within Sovereign Grace. For more information this offer click here.

“I can’t imagine a greater gift to the body of Christ than the ESV Study Bible. It is a potent combination indeed: the reliability and readability of the ESV translation, supplemented by the best of modern and faithful scholarship, packaged in an accessible and attractive format. A Christian could make no wiser investment for himself, a pastor could recommend no better resource for his congregation.”   ~CJ

With much joy and anticipation, on June 14th at 4:09 am, we welcomed Cianna Noelle into our family.  (She was born on Pete’s mom’s birthday).  What a journey the last nine months have been.  Cianna means “God is gracious”.  As I reflect over my pregnancy I am continually reminded, often with tears, that God is indeed gracious.

This being my fifth pregnancy, I anticipated a pretty smooth ride.  I imagined that I might be little more tired, as I am a little older, but that was it.  I did not anticipate any difficulty in the pregnancy, though.  According to God’s wisdom and plan we did have some medical concerns.  Nothing extremely major, yet we were provided with ample opportunity to trust God or to live in unbelief.  Fear and anxiety were often in my peripheral view during this pregnancy.  Scripture teaches us that worry won’t add anything to our lives -not even a single hour (Matt. 6:27).  So why was it so easy for me to worry?  I wanted to know the outcome without having to walk through the process of trusting the Lord with the unknown.  I would think, “If she is going to be healthy and strong, than this is cake”.  I could easily trust the Lord through a process like that.  But the Lord did not assure me\us of my desired outcome.  He did; however, provide grace enough for the moment, not for my imagination – but for the moment.  He is trustworthy.  His character can be trusted.  So much of life is trusting God through the process; God’s goodness and character as the only guarantee.  I imagine this is a life long lesson.  No quick fix here.

I am so grateful that God, in His kindness, has allowed me/us to begin to learn to trust Him through “the process” of the unknown.  During worship on Sunday I was greatly impacted by the song “Stand in Awe”.   I was reminded of the many Sundays that I would be worshipping and praying for the baby’s health; not knowing what the Lord had in store for our future.  Yet this Sunday was different.  I was at church with our healthy baby in my arms.  The God of the universe has all of my days numbered, knew our baby before she was formed in the womb, and has provided for my greatest need, salvation.  God is truly gracious.

Yes, according to a group of Dutch folk.  In 2012 to be exact.  You can read their brief story here.

Signs abound, for sure: wars, rumors of wars, famines, floods, disasters, earthquakes, cyclones.

As a Christian, I don’t disagree with the conclusion that many groups seem to pepper the airwaves with.  I agree wholeheartedly with this Dutch group: the end is coming.  But, beyond that, there is little I agree with.  2012 is as good a year as any for Christ to return, but Christ has made things plain for us in regard to the actual time of the End, in Mark 13:32

But concerning the day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

God clearly tells us to desire, anticipate and even hurry the coming of Christ in prayer.  But as we eagerly seek His return, we will always reject any man’s claim of knowing the exact time.  That information is TOP secret, for the Living God’s eyes only.

When the day does arrive (may it be quick, Lord!), His return will not be in secret, as some would teach – but in the words of the Savior from Matthew 24:27

For as lightening comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Lord, come split the sky!

What can I say? Youth Camp 2008 was such a wonderful time.  Three days of passionate worship, outstanding teaching, biblical fellowship, tasty food and exciting games.

I am overwhelmed by God’s Grace to us as a church. The teens of this church are some of the most encouraging, humble, engaging teenagers I have ever experienced.  I am confident it’s because they know the Gospel of Christ Jesus. They know what they’ve been saved from and there’s a joy because of this great salvation.

Here are a few comments from some of the youth that attended.

“It was awesome. Great messages and awesome worship time I know I definitely felt convicted in many areas but also encouraged which is always good.”

“Each of the messages convicted me and encouraged me in my walk with Christ.”

“Youth Camp was really life changing for me and my brother, at church I felt I was standing next to a new man.”

“I was challenged to put away pride and to pursue God more and more.”

“This was the best youth camp ever!”

“The discussion times were great! We serve a good God. Each person shared and we were able to address a lot of issues and give encouragement to one another.”

“I had so much fun at youth camp listening to sermons and worshipping and hanging out with friends! I also ate prune baby food! (ummmm)”

We have come to the end of our week of tributes to fathers that turned into two weeks. I want to thank everyone for participating in this venture. The posts have been exceptional. In the words of one reader from another Sovereign Grace church,

I want to thank you for sharing the blog with me. So edifying! Those father’s day tributes and photos are fantastic! I enjoy reading every one of them. Wow! I think it would be great to just keep up the good God glorifying practice of encouraging one another daily through this venue.

We’ll close with a post from Lori Heitland on her husband and father, Steve:

It’s always fun to have a public format in which to thank someone. I am grateful for this chance to thank my hubby, Steve, for being a wonderful father to our 3-almost 4, children.

Shortly after I had met Steve, and before I knew that I wanted to marry him, the one thing that I always thought was that some day, this man will be a great husband and father. Steve was the oldest of 5 children and spent much time caring for (and aggravating) his younger siblings. He is one of those men who when left alone with the kids, has the house in better shape than when I left!

Also, Steve has a gentleness and kindness to him that is characteristic of his parenting. He is not easily angered and has never treated or looked at our children as a burden. I see my children all relating to their dad being confident of his affection, love, and care for them. He is always expressing his affection and love to them and for them.

One of my favorite things about Steve as a father is the time that he invests into our children’s minds. When in Gaithersburg, the girls had a neighbor friend that was Jewish. This spurred on many questions in their little minds. The one night at supper Claudia asked why her friend was not allowed to eat ham. Steve interacted with her for about 20 minutes about OT history to explain this all to her. He has taught our girls to be deep and critical thinkers. They make biblical connections to things that teach me! I know that this will serve them well as they continue to grow and learn.

I asked my girls (Claudia 7, and Morgan 5) some of their favorite things about daddy. Here was their list:

*He loves us

*He makes good homemade macaroni and cheese

*He teaches us to love God

*He helps mom so mom can help us

*Instead of just resting around he spends time with us

*He protects us

*He’s a good BBQer

*He read to us and teaches us

*He serves mom and us when she is sick or pregnant

Steve, I am so grateful for you and for the way that you parent our children. You have been an amazing help and source of strength to me in this area. Our children are very blessed to have you as their daddy, I know that they love you so much! Thank you for investing into their little lives. We love you so much.

I want to take this opportunity to honor my wonderful husband, John Oliver.

He is a devoted father who invests in his children. Even after a long day of work and travel, he will gladly stay up late into the night to talk with one of our children who needs counsel or encouragement. I love the way he touches base with each of our kids and wants to understand their hearts better.

He speaks the Gospel to our family on a daily basis. No matter what is going on.. John always brings it around to the Gospel. He makes the gospel relevant to our everyday situations.

He loves the Word. His example of devotion to the word of God has impacted all of us. Every morning I can count on seeing John sitting at the kitchen table or up in our room reading His bible. I know that our children watch this and I know that it makes a difference in their lives.

John has been a blessing to me and our children in so many ways.. and I have so appreciated his strong, “rock-like” character and faith. In some of our most tumultuous times over the past few years, his steady faith has kept our family afloat when the rest of us (or maybe just me) were freaking out at the waves! I don’t always respond with appreciation when I want to stay in my pity-party.. but oh, how glad I am that John stays faithful to lead our family in the truth. How wonderful of God to give me a husband like this! ~ Chris Oliver