Katy’s Weblog
Changing the carpet today ushers in a new stage of life for us.
Gone are the stains, left by three dogs who were our companions and security system. No more chewed up carpet corners, reminiscence of our first pet bunny Smokey. Spills and grime of children’s play are no more.
A fresh start, a new era, I vow to keep it clean. We shall see how long that will last. (Having friends over this weekend to break it in.)
Some people look at their past with fond memories and like to relish in those remembrances. But I am not one of those.
While I am generally not a glass-half-empty type of person nor am I a perfectionist, but for some reason, I tend to think of my past with regret. I wish I had yelled at my kids less; I wish I had homeschooled them; I wish I had taught them to clean their rooms; I wish I had maintained a daily devotional time with them…. I wish I had been nicer to my husband early in our marriage; I wish I had been smart enough to popularize my blog 7 years ago; I wish I traveled more with my husband before we had kids; I wish I was more brave…..
As I pack up the house this week in preparation for new carpet to be put in, I am having to look through all the stuff of the past, and I am feeling sad. Those fun days with my kids when they were little are gone. I am old…
I don’t like to look at the past; I am ready for a new challenge.
From “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism–the New American Religion” By R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Christian Post Columnist
…religious beliefs held by American teenagers, they found that the faith held and described by most adolescents came down to something the researchers identified as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” 2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” 3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.” 4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.” 5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.”
I am guilty of representing the gospel in a simplified moralistic therapeutic deism way.
Let’s go back to the true gospel, not an Americanized feel good version.
(More on moralistic therapeutic deism by John Ortberg, one of my favorite authors.)
I was very disappointed with this book. The material in this book could be covered in half the number of pages. Not only was it drawn out, the concepts in the book were not “deep”.
Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald is a story of fictional church implementing a supposedly new and innovative idea of Cultivating…
Read more of “Going Deep – Becoming a Person of Influence by Gordon Mac Donald”
I unexpectedly saw a long time friend at Soupplantation today. We were both waiting for our lunch partners so it was a perfect opportunity to catch up.
To be honest, she is merely an acquaintance, and we barely recognized each other, but our conversation was so encouraging to me.
I told her I wasn’t sure if it was her because she looked younger than when I saw her several years ago. “It’s the joy of the Lord!” She replied.
When I asked her which church she was attending now, she went on to tell me that when she obeyed the Lord by submitting to her husband to attend a small Cantonese church (rather than the large church that she preferred), “blessings have just been pouring in.” Her family life and her children have all been happier. “The Bible is true,” she says. “When you obey God, life is so much better.”
I said that it is often counter-intuitive, against our nature to want to submit to anything or anyone. But when we by faith do what God says, and act according to what the Bible commands, He will take care of the rest.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, then all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33
Thanks for that reminder, CA, just in that brief conversation.
Every time I’m asked to speak, I get very excited about it. I often think I have knowledge about the topic, plus I do more reading and research about it, and I feel confident.
Then as soon as I think I’ve got a handle on the topic, I begin to feel like I know nothing. How can I be so arrogant to think that I know something? Have I lived my life according to the principles I’m teaching? (That’s a rhetorical question.) Am I wasting people’s time, an hour of their life they’ll never get back?
Every time I teach, I am humbled. It drives me to examine myself, and be convicted of my own shortcomings. I am no expert, I’ve made many mistakes, I haven’t lived up to what I’m preaching.
I am once again begging for mercy from God, and turn to totally rely on Him.
Lest anyone thinks teaching is easy for me – because to me standing and talking in front of an audience is the easy part – the inner work of exposing my own weaknesses is the hardest of all in teaching.
Every time I teach, I do it with fear and trembling.
(I am preparing to teach 5 times in the next several weeks. Pray for me.)
This book has all the elements of a murder mystery that I love – all the pieces fit, believable characters, likeable detective who solves the case, and the ending is satisfying.
There is one thing that bothers me about murder mysteries, in any medium – TV, movies, print, is that the killer always commits a second or third crime, and that’s when he/she makes a mistake and gets caught. The first murder baffled the detective and the murderer would’ve gotten away with murder (no pun intended) if he/she would only stop there. I wonder if it’s like that in real life.
Although there are some weird sexual themes (fortunately no explicit descriptions) in the book that I could’ve done without, The Killings at Badger’s Drift is good enough that I would like to read another book by Caroline Graham.
I like the term “First World problem”. Every time I think I have a problem, I say to myself, “Heh, First World problem.”
It helps me to put my problems in perspective. I have [more than] enough to eat, I never hear gunshots outside my house, I don’t fear for my life when I walk out at night, and clean drinkable water comes out of the faucet when I turn it on. I have no complaints.
Here are my First World problems that I am not complaining about, but just sayin’.
*Grieving over our move from our home church of 20 years and adjusting to another church. – Many places do not even have one church, much less having the freedom to choose one church or another.
*Family room remodel has been installed since May, that’s six months of mess. – I won’t bother to go into the obvious fact that many people do not have a roof over their heads much less a family room, and even less be able to remodel it.
*The air conditioning in my van isn’t cool, and it’s a hassle to go to the mechanic, plus, there’s always something to fix in our 10+year-old cars, costing more each time we take it in. – No, I would not rather walk or ride a donkey.
Here are some quotes I want to remember from the book Revolution in World Missions. Very convicting stuff.
* As I studied the Gospels, it became clear to me that Jesus understood well the principle of reaching the poor. He avoided the major cities, the rich, the famous and the powerful, concentrating His ministry on the poor laboring class. If we reached the poor, we have touched the masses of Asia.
In the sermon at church today, I was reminded about the rich young ruler to whom Jesus spoke. Jesus looked at the young man and loved him. He could relate to the challenge that was put forth – to give up his riches and power to follow God. Jesus himself gave up heaven’s riches and the authority he had at the right hand of God. He temporarily set those aside to fulfill God’s will for him and he was asking the rich young ruler to do the same.
Read more of “Would you be willing to give up wealth and power?”