The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree

It is amazing how you can see yourself reflected in your own child.  Michael and I both have a bad habit of going and going until we can’t anymore and then being tired or sick as a result.  Today I saw that reflected in my little girl.  Usually if there is some kind of noise than we know Abby is fine.  Today Michael went to investigate when he realized that the house was too quiet.  We found Abby asleep in the middle of the floor in her room.  She literally played herself to sleep.  Michael snapped this picture of her under her favorite blanket.  I don’t think the apple falls very far from the tree with me either.  My dad will go all day doing something and when he finally sits down in his chair in the evening he’ll pass out.  He’s been known to wake up in the living room at 2am because he fell asleep.

Something I am hoping to do is being a reflection of my Heavenly Father.  I know that I am nowhere near there yet, but I am growing.  Because of what Jesus did for me by taking the punishment I deserved and giving me grace unending, I am free to obey out of love and not out of duty.  I feel that I am also free to grow and learn, and to change in a way that I wouldn’t be able to without the gospel.  I am still learning about how much the gospel has an effect on my everyday life, my ability to change, and my lens through how I see the world.  But what I do know is, by seeking God I am going to become more like him.  And that is thrilling to me!

I am reading the book NOTE TO SELF by Joe Thorn.  It is about preaching the gospel to yourself and it gives you concrete ways to do it.  It is written as a note to yourself.  Each short chapter starts with “Dear Self,” here is an example that I read this week and loved:  “Dear Self, …It is unfortunate that you forget your need to seek God, for though you are right that God is enough, you forget that he is only found to be enough by those who seek him.  Seeking God means that in all you do, you keep his honor in your mind, his Word in your heart, and his glory as your goal – so you are seeking to actually know him and make him known.”

Topless Woman Clothed in Fine Linen

I have been reading some advice on how to write a blog.  And even though I am not really interested in reading writings about writing itself, I suppose it is good advice.  The one piece that I am going to try first is writing something every day.  I may not post something everyday, but I am going to try to write something every day.

So here are some of my thoughts
Recently there was a woman who decided to walk around topless in New York City, in Union Square.  True story! It was published on MSN's front page.  She did it in order to prove in New York City that it wasn't illegal.  Couldn't she have just stood in the street and held up a sign?   The only thing that woman proved was she has no shame!  She did get rewarded with attention, and that was probably what she was after.  If she walked around topless in my town, I hope she would be arrested.  I probably sound like a judgmental church lady.  This isn't a woman who is being exploited as a sex slave, or not seeing any way out using her God given body and sexuality to make money. She is doing this of her own volition to prove that it's not "illegal".
Like the sinner that I was and still am without the imputed righteousness of Christ: I hope she hears the truth about Jesus, feels the weight of her sin, sees her desperate condition, runs to Jesus in repentance and faith and is saved from hell.  Then I hope she puts a shirt on. Better yet, I hope that Jesus gives her fine linen.

Revelation 19

Celebration in Heaven

    ¹ After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying:
   Hallelujah!
Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,
² because His judgments are true and righteous,
because He has judged the notorious prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality;
and He has avenged the blood of His slaves
that was on her hands.
   ³ A second time they said:
   Hallelujah!
Her smoke ascends forever and ever!
   ⁴ Then the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who is seated on the throne, saying:
   Amen! Hallelujah!
   ⁵ A voice came from the throne, saying:
   Praise our God,
all His slaves, who fear Him,
both small and great!

Marriage of the Lamb Announced

    ⁶ Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying:
   Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty,
has begun to reign!
⁷ Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory,
because the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and His wife has prepared herself.
⁸ She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.
   For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.

You can read the story here: http://now.msn.com/living/0520-nyc-topless.aspx

Billy Graham's Early Years from LIFE Magazine

Please go over to LIFE magazine and check out this set of pictures of Billy Graham.  I love the pictures of him at home with his family and on mission trips to Africa.

Letters from Mom

You can't make this stuff up.

This morning I was getting ready for work and for some reason my mom's journal caught my eye.  I had glanced at it before but never really read it.  I don't know if it was just too hard, like I wasn't ready or something, but today on a whim I picked it up.

This is what I read:

"10/25 1 Sam 25; Samuel died, last of the judges.  Nabal means "fool"  Abigail means "My father is joy."  he was evil, she intelligent a beauty, Abigail chose to obey God, rather than her evil husband, as a wife may sometimes need to do.  She went David begging him not to wipe out Nabal and his men, so David listened to her and did not.  But God struck Nabal 10 days later and killed him.  David asked Abigail to be his wife, and she did marry him, becoming his third wife.

Prayer. Oh Lord, I pray that I would be a godly woman like Abigail, beautiful and intelligent, but mostly putting You first in my life, even before my husband.  I pray that I would know You so well that I would follow You to the letter, not ever fearing what man may do to me.

action: Don't be afraid To go against my husband on something I know is against God's will or His ways."

Mama would be home with the Lord in less than a year later.  What great faith she had.  I know that even if she had the opportunity she wouldn't come back here.  Even to meet her little granddaughter, Abigail Linda.  When I named Abby I had no idea my mom had wrote this.  I think she would have loved her name.

I think I am going to blog more of my mom's journal entries.  This is really good stuff!  I hope it ministers to you as much as it has me.

Two Kinds of Busy

Wow... I have been so busy!
Michael preached a 4 day renewal conference at Cash Creek Baptist Church.  You can find his sermons from last week here: What it means to be a disciple. 
If you are a pastor's wife or have been in a pastor's family you might understand how things go when your family member is writing sermons or preparing to preach.  We only have one computer at home and when Michael is writing, there is no blogging for Bethany!
The renewal conference at Cash Creek was great.  Michael's preaching was very helpful.  I am biased because I love my husband's preaching.  That's a good thing, right?  Nick and Callie Clark were our hosts, Nick is the pastor of Cash Creek Baptist.  They rolled out the red carpet for us!  They could not have been any sweeter.  On Saturday, Nick took us to the general store in Niagra, KY.  They have RC in the fountain and moon pies for sale.  It was really neat!  My first general store.
I think there is two kinds of being busy.  There is busy that is in your control and there is busy that is out of your control.  The busy out of your control can be draining, frustrating, and exhausting.  The busy in your control can be refreshing, exhilarating, and fun.  It depends on your perspective.  I can either look at being out of my normal routine due to activity as a burden, or a joy.  I think the Lord gets through to me when I am shook up a little bit.   When I am comfortable, soothed, and in control of things I tend to drown out his voice with other things.  Lately I have been trying to turn to him when I am drained, frustrated, and exhausted. So even being busy and feeling that it is out of your control can be a good thing.  Can you relate to this?

What a reaction!

I read the following about Johnathan Edwards wife, what she said after her husband passed away:

 "What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. . . . The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness, that we had [Jonathan] so long. But my God lives; and He has my heart.”

I want to get to the point where I can react that way.  I am not there yet.  What an example of a woman when faced with probably the biggest tragedy in her life she reacts with praise to God's goodness.  She had given God her whole heart - so what bad thing could happen in this life to break her down?  Yes, I'm sure she was sad and grieving but the Lord had her heart.  And He is unbreakable. and He lives.

Writing

I remember having to write journal entries in high school English class.  I hated it.  I could never come up with anything to say.  I guess it was writers block.  I once wrote a journal entry about writing a journal entry.  My teacher was not thrilled.

I think if I force myself to at least put something into this blog everyday if I can, it will improve my ability to express my thoughts.  But today I can't think of anything really interesting to say.  (I'm sorry if you have gotten to this point in reading and think - why am i wasting my time with this?)

I will tell you one interesting thing I thought of today.  I thought of a line from a hymn "To be happy in Jesus, is to trust and obey."  Trust Jesus. then Obey Jesus. and that equals being happy in Jesus.  I want to be happy in Jesus.  I wonder if that song is based on something from the Bible?  I do remember that Jesus said this:

^{John 14:15 (A)}“If you love me, you will ^(B)keep my commandments. 

How much complicated exegeses does that passage need?  I fully understand that.  So why is it so hard to just do it!?!  That makes me think of this:

^{Romans 7:21} So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For ^(Z)I delight in the law of God, ^(AA)in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members ^(AB)another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ^(AC)this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. 

You know what is next?

^{Romans 8:1} There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^[a] 

I have a "body of death" that has sin dwelling in it.  It is captive to sin and wars against the law of God - the commandments that I want to keep.  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Jesus Christ our Lord!  I think the key to obeying or keeping his commandments is simply loving Him.  When you love someone it doesn't feel like a chore, or something you have to do, but something you want to do.  And, I don't know about you, but after hearing that I have a "body of death" that wars against the law of God - it is nice to hear that there is no condemnation!!

Spring

I have been thinking a lot about spring lately. This is why:

1.  I have been so busy with life that as I am driving I am literally shocked by all the color and sunshine outside. Spring has taken me by surprise this year.

2. I listened to the song "Remembering You" by Steven Curtis Chapman.  That got me thinking about Jesus.  He takes our hearts and makes them new.  He took my frozen, good-as-dead, heart and made it bloom!    I posted the video for you to see! Enjoy!

Narnia: Remembering You - Steven Curtis Chapman

That Bethany

I have really enjoyed checking my pastor's blog,  Borrowed Light , and my sister's blog Miracle Twins , that I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and make my own blog! 

Sorry this may not be an interesting blog but I thought, what the heck! I may have something to say.

I called my blog "That Bethany" because it is what my dad would say if he saw the aftermath of something I had broke, or something funny I had said.  For example, my mother asked me to ask my dad to borrow his truck right before his birthday so she could take the truck to get a bed liner installed.  So on his birthday when the truck was in the driveway and he was walking to the door, he muttered "that Bethany!" when he was coming in the door because all he saw was that the truck bed had turned black and just assumed "that Bethany" had somehow blackened his truck bed!

I am usually saying something really stupid, making some kind of mess. So the best thing I could think of naming my blog was "That Bethany!"