Rejoicing Over the Gospel

Hubby and I were talking last night and we came to a conclusion.

Only those who realize that they can do nothing to earn their salvation, can truly rejoice over the Gospel.

There are some who believe that you must work to earn salvation. But we are told in the Scriptures that all our works are as filthy rags. If our salvation is such that a couple of filthy rags can earn it, then what a pitiful salvation it is. It is not worth rejoicing over.

But if our salvation is too pure, too perfect to be tainted by our human efforts, then rejoice! Because it is this kind of salvation that truly saves. Only faith in Christ's perfect untainted efforts can obtain this kind of salvation. This is the Gospel.

There are also some on Reformed circles who so stress the idea of staying in the covenant that there is no longer any room for the promises of God. There needs to be a balance. But again, our works are as filthy rags, so, how can they truly keep us in the covenant? I do understand the importance of obedience and striving to produce the good works we were created in Christ Jesus to do. But I think this is more for our temporal benefit. When we are obedient, we can have the assurance that accompanies an obedient life. In the eternal perspective, our obedience is as a filthy rag. It is inevitable, but it is counted as less than nothing.

At the risk of sounding antinomian, at this point in my life, at this point in my sanctification, I get more assurance from God's promise to preserve me, than from my obedience. My obedience, being more miss than hit lately, is inadequate to do anything more than remind me that I need God's grace and mercy. When I focus on my "staying in the covenant", I get utterly depressed. When I focus on my great God's preserving mercy upon me, I can truly rejoice over the Gospel. Because it is God who works in me to believe that I don't have to depend upon my works, only Christ's works are pure enough to accomplish anything.

Green Thumb Anyone?

We had our house-warming party two days ago. It was so much fun! Many people showed up and we had a great time of fellowship. Several guests brought us some gifts. Included among them were some violas (the flower, not the musical instrument :), two rose bushes, three grape plants, and another potted plant (I can't remember the name of it)

I absolutley love the thought of having these plants in our yard. In fact, as soon as we decided on which house to buy, I was already thinking about putting plants of some kind in the yard. The problem is...I tend to kill plants.

Josh bought me two potted plants early in our marriage. I didn't water them enough, they died. Then when we moved to Georgia, he bought me another potted plant. This time I was determined not to kill it. So, I watered it about 2-3 times a week. Guess I wasn't supposed to do that either, it died.

So, while I am so grateful to the guests who brought us these plants, and while I am so happy to have them and try to grow them...I am afraid I will be labeled the "serial plant killer" by the end of a month or two at the most.

Who knows, maybe these ones will survive me. I can just picture a beautiful yard with roses and a flourishing grape vine (maybe I can learn how to make wine?), and a house lined with beautiful little violas. I think the other potted plant would look nice just outside the front doorway.

So, does anyone know how to do this??? I looked online this morning, but if anyone can walk me step-by-step through it, they might just be saving the life of a poor defenseless little grape.

Family Update

Hi all. My sweet hubby asked me yesterday, "When are you going to blog again?" That's when I realized it had really been a while. So, for all of you who have undoubtedly missed my blogs so much, here's an update on what's been going on in our family since I posted last.

We lost internet connection a handful of months ago, and while hubby was able to blog and check e-mail, etc, through his internet access at work, I was home every day. So, I was kinda cut off from the outside world for a while. We do now have internet connection, in our new house.

We are now in our new house. We had been waiting for quite a while, since about June of last year, but we're finally here! God be praised. It is such a blessing to have elbow room. Don't get me wrong, our old house was a huge blessing too, being rent-free. But it's nice to finally be settled in a place of our own. Feels good to be a homeowner. Something I never thought we'd be calling ourselves in southern California. We are having our house-warming party tomorrow from 4pm-9pm for all of you who are interested.

About a month ago, the day we were supposed to move into our new house, Gabriel had a siezure (Josh said he may have also had one the night before, but wasn't sure if that's what he was seeing). It was during his sleep, and since he didn't have a fever at the time of the siezure (which would have made it a febral siezure, easy to diagnose and not a huge thing to worry about), the docs wanted to do some tests. So, March 7th Gabe goes into Children's Hospital to get an EEG. He hasn't had any siezures since then.

About threee weeks ago I heard rattling in Emmie's chest. She was also very cranky and lethargic. I took her to the ER where they said she had "very bad" pneumonia in both of her lungs. The docs were undecided on whether to admit her into the hospital or let me take her home. After a while, they decided to let me take her home provided I took her to the pediatrician for a follow up on the next monday (it was then saturday). Monday came, I took her in, the pediatrician was not worried when she looked at Emmie. We went home, Emmie recovered nicely, but at Emmie's visit, I asked the pediatrician to also look at the boys since they were taking so long to recover from their colds. She said they both had ear infections. I took them back on friday to be looked at again and Gabe's had gone away without meds, meaning that his infection was only viral. But Aaron still had his, so he got put on meds. The pediatrician told me at that time that she had gotten the final report from Emmie's hospital x-rays and that the docs at the ER wanted to do another x-ray because it looked like she had congenital emphazema. So, we were able to get another x-ray about a week or so later, and it came back negative. I cried tears of relief when we found out our little girl was healthy.

I am 3 & 1/2 weeks away from my due date with Owen. Which really means I can have him anytime after Sunday, being full term at 37 weeks.. And every day I feel bigger and bigger. I am very ready to be done being pregnant. While I love how I feel psycologically when I am carrying a little life in me, I do not like all the aches, pains and discomforts it bring to my body. Last night I was sure I would go into labor at any minute. I have no idea how any woman gets through pregnancy without God's grace. You'd think that by the time you are getting ready to deliver your 4th child, you be ready and calm. I'm not. Something about the impending excruciating pain just really unnerves me. I am looking forward to having Owen in my arms, but not the process it takes to ge there. I would appreciate any prayers the church body can offer on my behalf in this area.

That's it for now. I need to go be a mommy now.