A while back I pulled out our thermos to take some coffee along on a trip. It looked clean and I just about poured some fresh coffee in it when I decided to give it a rinse first. Boy was I glad I did that! I guess it hadn't been used in a while because all these gross little brown bits came floating out, along with a sludge that was growing mold.
I was amazed at the response my Happy Moms post got. It seemed to have resonated with many but in my list of ways to cultivate joy in our task as mothers I failed to center on the gospel. I fear that because the gospel was missing, any practical suggestions I have made will only serve to condemn rather than lighten the load. If we are to be joyful, we must be centered on the gospel.
In the battle for joy, the difference between Micah’s gutsy guilt and “cheap grace” is that Micah takes sin so seriously. There was a reprehensible fall. There is real and terrible indignation from God. There is a time in awful darkness. There is brokenness, contrition, and remorse as we bear patiently the chastisement of our God. But in the ashes of our regret, the flame of boldness never goes out. It may flicker. But when self or Satan taunts us that we are finished, we lay hold on Micah’s faith—indeed we lay hold on Christ and his righteousness—and say, “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. . . . He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light."
Hearing the word of the cross, and preaching it to ourselves, is the central strategy for sinners in the fight for joy. Nothing works without this. Here is where we start. And here is where we stay. We never outgrow the gospel. Here we see the glory of Christ more clearly than anywhere else...And here in the cross is where every enemy of joy is overcome: divine wrath, as he becomes a curse for us; real guilt, as he becomes forgiveness for us; lawbreaking, as he becomes righteousness for us; estrangement from God, as he becomes reconciliation for us; slavery to Satan, as he becomes redemption for us; bondage to sin, as he becomes liberation for us; pangs of conscience, as he becomes cleansing for us; death, as he becomes the resurrection for us; hell, as he becomes eternal life for us.
OK. Not quite. But this blog's reading level is appearantly at a High School level (whatever the determing criteria may be). Just right in my mind, not too difficult, but not for the youngsters either.
HT: 168 Hours, Rebecca Writes
I have to admit that although I LOVED art and creative pursuits in school, my tendency as a homeschooler is to focus on Language Arts and Mathematics with my children. If we do nothing else, I reason with myself, we are doing "what is important". In the 20 minute talk Sir Ken Robinson gives, he challenges all that and has caused me to re-evaluate my educational priorities for my children. After all, as Robinson points out, we are not all raising university professors, who essentially "live inside their heads".
HT: thatmom
