Category Archives: Exhortations

Clinging to Christ’s Word

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One of my favorite authors, Octavius Winslow (1860) said,

 

“Oh, cling to Christ’s Word, as the mariner to the plank, as the mother to her infant, yes, as a humble believer in that divine and gracious Savior who has said, “Him that comes unto me I will in no wise” literally, “I will never, no, never, cast out.”

And when I don’t know
what is the best advice to give,
what to say or
how to pray;
I meditate on Christ’s Word,
I cling to it.
I repeat it to myself;
because O, how much I need to hear it,
to drink from it,
to be established on it.
There is no other way
to build my trust in Him,
unless I cling to His Word.
Source
Source
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Today cling to the Word of God, hold fast to it, embrace it and don’t let it go…

Becky

We Do Not Lose Heart

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I am still thinking on these verses in which I found such a great delight last week, and today I found out that Rachel has been pondering on them too. And look at what she made, isn’t it pretty? Perfect to keep in a place to see all day.

Do not lose heart today, dear friends. His grace is sufficient to uphold us and renew our strength.

“Hast thou not known?
Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD,
the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary?
There is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint;
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Isaiah 40-28-31

Becky

>Preparing Our Hearts for Affliction

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Annie Pliego
We are reading the book A Place for Weakness by M.Horton, over at my friend Elizabeth’s blog, and because of all the travels, I have not been able to post my weekly chapter review here (I highly recommend you to read this book, it is very important!). Today, however, I want to share some things that I have found along the way about affliction in other sources that I am also reading.
Some believers have gone through much and long lasting suffering in their lives, some others have not. God has chosen different paths for everyone of his children, all for His glory and to sanctify us.
The most terrible thing that I have gone through was when my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I was about 12 yrs old, but it turned out to be a wonderful story, because of God’s mercy on her. Today she is alive, strong and full of energy to even play all day with my children, and cook all of our favorite meals.
I live in peace, my soul is at rest. But I have learned in the Scriptures and by seeing my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that affliction comes to the saints. And when it comes, we better be prepared and not surprised. I am not looking forward to it, neither do I seek it (no way!) but I have learned that we must prepare ourselves for that day; and we must teach our children from their early years about affliction.
Memorizing and studying* James has been such a tremendous blessing to me. James 1 tells us many things about affliction; the Lord reveals to us through this saint’s words many important ways on how we should prepare for afflictions.
For example see these:
1. We should count it (affliction) all joy.  v. 2
2. We should KNOW why God afflicts his people. And here I just keep thinking how being diligent in the study of the Word and prayer are the only way for us to KNOW what God wants us to KNOW. v.3-4
3. Being double minded is a sign that men might not be really Christians;  the double minded woman will sure be tossed away like an ocean wave when affliction comes. (v.6-7)
4. We must never think too much of ourselves, of our position, of our comfort, we WILL pass away.  None of us will stand on this earth forever. We will die. We must live for the eternal not the temporary. (V. 9- 11)
5. We must be ready to persevere under trials. Trials, afflictions, the testing of our faith will come sooner or later and in different degrees, we must be ready to stand strong in the Word that day. (v. 12- 16)
There are so much more teachings on this chapter, but I think this summarizes clearly what James has to say ( I would really like to encourage you to read and study James this week).
So, we sit at the family table, and while enjoying a beautiful evening with a table full of food, and laughters around it; we talk about suffering, about the affliction of the saints.  We don’t want our children to be surprised if one day God decides to lead them through the Valley of Death. We have seen so many families that the only thing they taught their children about God is “Jesus loves you and wants you to be happy”. Even the children’s Bibles that I see sitting in the “Christian bookstores” have titles like “God’s Word for Beautiful Princesses Like You”  No wonder that when these girls grow and affliction comes the way they get mad at God and throw their fists against Him; their parents lied to them, teaching them a watered gospel; which knows no affliction.
This morning as I was reading my Bible, I read these words on Psalm 119: 92:
If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.
This is a master key that will open a way out to our afflicted hearts: delighting in the Word of God will help us not to perish even through the hardest circumstances.
Today, if you are walking in affliction,my dear friend, I pray for you (you can leave me a comment, or send me an email saying you want me to pray for you -and no, you don’t have to share your trials openly-) and if you are enjoying a time of peace, health, prosperity, don’t waste it. Go deep in the Word, pray, pray, pray, lest you fall in the snares of  prosperity.   Fill your soul with the Word, make it your delight, rise up early and bless your Maker!
Becky
* I have been studying the epistle of James using John MacArhur’s commentary, which I highly recommend.

>New Year’s Name, "Living in the Sacred"

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I did this last year for the first time; I gave the year a name. I walked through 365 days thinking of the name of the year, its theme, “Yes, I am Listening”, and how much I learned from it! How many times I came into my prayer closet asking my God to help me. In order to listen I had to learn, to practice being quiet; in order to say yes to others, I had to say no to my own desires more than often.

This year again, after praying and thinking, and talking with my husband; I have decided to do it again. This practice has worked for me much better than writing “New Year’s Resolutions”.  So here it is, my new year ‘s name (or theme):

Living in the Sacred

The last chapter on the book The Holiness of God by RC Sproul was decisive for me into choosing this theme (actually the whole book was!) I need to live purposely, knowing that  because of Jesus, I live in Holy Space and Holy Time, every day, every moment; I am living naked before a Holy God.

C.S Lewis said,

“Where, except in the present, can the Eternal be met?”

I want to live fully aware of this truth. Whatever I do, I want to do it for Him, because of Him, to bring glory to Him. I want to meet Him in my daily journey through continuous prayer; I long to live praying without ceasing (I Thessalonian 5:17)

This is a year in which we are expecting many big changes in our family, changes that will certainly make us grow. The only way I will be able to walk through them glorifying God and not being anxious is knowing that I am living in the Sacred. He has written our life’s story. He is the Author. He holds me and my family in His hand. Our times are indeed in His hand. I don’t want to miss this awareness.

Living in the Sacred, means living before God in prayer.

J.R Miller says,

“Think what it would mean to have every word that passes our lips winged and blessed with prayer—always to breathe a little prayer before we speak, as we speak. This would put heavenly sweetness into all our speech! It would make all our words kindly, loving, inspiring words—words that would edify and minister grace to those who hear.”

“Think of a woman amid her household cares—taking everything to God for His blessing, for His approval, for His direction. These are not by any means impossible suppositions. Indeed, this is the way a Christian is to live, should always live—doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus!”

This is what I long for this year; to Live in the Sacred; to live breathing out prayers.

May God help me.

Living in the Sacred… What it means? A Reflection on Psalm 63, A desire to be in the Holy Place.

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>From My Homeschool to Yours -Your Home Aroma-

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My dear friends, as some of you know, I am privileged to teach in the best on line Classical school, Veritas Press Scholars Academy; and I am blessed to count among my friends beautiful ladies such as Julie Etter, who also teaches in this school. She is a great friend of mine, and has agreed to come and be my guest blogger today. 

Thank you, Julie!





This school year is quite a busy one for me. In addition to homeschooling my children, I have picked up teaching 4 classes of a History Survey and Transition class for Veritas Press Scholars Academy. The class is going so well and I am enjoying all of studying that I am getting to do. In the past I have only had 1 class. With the increase in students, I have noticed an alarming pattern. After my friend, Becky, noticed the same pattern in her classes, she asked that I write a post about it. We are seeing the disturbing trend of laziness in the student’s work ethic.  Even more disturbing than that, I am also seeing it in some parents. I think we all know of the stereo-type of homeschoolers being unable to meet a deadline or having a lazy attitude about school work in general. I have always defended this. But, friends, it is something I can no longer ignore. Now, let me say, I have many hard working students. But, I have seen the inability to keep deadlines and complete quality work in enough students to become concerned.
I truly believe that our work ethic is tied to the condition of our hearts. God speaks of laziness many times in His Word. It is never in a positive light.  I believe that training our children that it is acceptable to not meet deadlines, or to turn in substandard work is training them that laziness is acceptable.
I plan to spend some time posting some tips that I have found helpful in helping to train a child who is not quite motivated to get the school work done.  However, in the mean time, please enjoy this blog post which I wrote a while back.
Homeschooling is a way of life. I really believe this is true, because if you try to separate it from every other part of your life, you are going to fail somewhere. It is just not possible to live two separate lives and be perfect at both. Actually, you are not going to be perfect anyway, and you will fail at times. Maybe I should say I believe it is difficult to function and be productive if you try to separate it. When someone spends time with us they will detect a certain aroma. It may be stinky or lovely. It does not take very long for others to decide what this aroma is. The aroma could be anything from chaos to stringency, or productivity to laziness. As believers, first we must produce an aroma which shows that Christ lives within us. This will be very evident to anyone who spends time in your home. Sometimes you can even just step in the door and tell. This aroma really envelops everything you do as a family. 
What does this have to do with homeschooling? 
 
You can not develop this lovely aroma by having family devotions, praying, loving one another, and then being completely lazy about your home-schooling. I am afraid it all comes as a package. Have you ever had this really good smell going in your home and then there is this nasty diaper or something else awful? It does not matter at that point how many candles you have been burning or pies you have been baking all day. It just really stinks now. Now you have to revamp and work a little to eliminate the awful smell. It is the same thing with your schooling. You cannot fool everyone by having this great aroma of Christ in your home, but completely nasty one in your schooling. The bad smell always wins over the good one. And it takes a little work to change things around. We all have different ways to achieve a wonderful smell in our homes. I love to burn candles and am pretty much a candle snob. I have one or two that I love and really do not use any others. There are others who use spray. Others love to just open their windows and air the place out. That does not work here in the midst of all of the farm land. Anyway, there are so many different ways to achieve a good aroma. We may all have different strategies to help us pull off a great homeschooling aroma. The point is, all areas of our lives are intertwined. Do not think you can take this one area and separate from all the others. It just does not work. Your home will have an aroma. Is it pleasant or not?

Julie. 

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Peace Under His Sun

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We are journeying under His sun daily,  fighting a battle against our flesh, against the world, against the devil; we find a corner in our home and sit while everything is revolving around.

Eugène Delacroix: The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1854

Do you feel like you are losing your peace?

Peace, a beautiful word, a great longing of our soul, yet so misunderstood.  Peace, my dear friend, first of all cannot be found elsewhere but in Jesus; true peace is only found when we know that our sins have been washed away by His blood.

I am not talking here about that kind of peace that many “Christians” pursue nowadays; they live in sin, but they say that their soul is not troubled and they are at peace, so it should be ok. O, I have heard this, it breaks my heart to see people deceiving themselves and mocking God. This is not the peace I am talking here.

The perfect peace I am talking about is that which comes from God the Father to his own; is that peace which is a gift from God to those who honor and fear His name.

I am talking about the peace that perseveres and walks hand in hand with our trust in God’s Word.

“You keep him in perfect peace
 whose mind is stayed on you,
 because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
 for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”


Isaiah 26: 3-4

Read again the Bible verse, read the promise…God is not only the one who gives us true peace, but He is the Keeper of our peace. He keeps us in perfect peace. He does that.

He keeps us in perfect peace, he we watch the news, and when our husband job is not going well, He keeps us in perfect peace when we have work to do and we are in that 28 days’ cycle,  we are kept in peace.

God is the one who keeps us in peace, but He asks one thing from us here, perseverance.

He asks us to stay our minds upon Him.

We must persevere in His Word; this the way to live in His perfect peace under His sun.

Let us abide in His word.

Let us read the Word, let us drink from it until our soul finds rest; let us memorize it, meditate upon it. This is the only way to pursue true peace.

We easily “lose our peace”, not because God has left us, but because we have not been persevering on the meditation of His Word.

Listen to the words of your mouth, listen to the thoughts of your mind. Is the Word of God reigning in you? Are you abiding in the Word?

 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15: 7-11 ESV

May your journey today be peaceful, full of Him, full of His Word.

Have you seen the invitation? Would you like to read along a great book about what does it mean to be a godly woman?

Join me, I am giving away one book, just leave a comment and you are ready to participate!

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