The Psychological Manipulation of the "Invitation" (Washer)

Hymn For The Month Of November

I recently purchased a CD by the Galkin Evangelistic Team entitled, Christ Only, Always. I LOVE this CD. There is one song called, Complete in Thee. After listening to this song several times I asked my husband to listen to it. He liked it too. So we decided that this would be our song to learn for the month of November.


Here are the words:

COMPLETE IN THEE

Complete in Thee, no work of mine could take dear Lord the place of Thine.
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and I shall stand complete in thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought! And sanctified salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I, too, shall be.

Complete in Thee, each want supplied, and no good thing to me denied,
since Thou my portion, Lord, will be, I ask no more, complete in Thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought! And sanctified salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I , too, shall be.

Complete in Thee, no more shall sin Thy grace has conquered reign within;
Thy blood shall bid the tempter flee, and I shall stand, complete in thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought! And sanctified salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I, too, shall be.

Dear Savior, when, before Thy bar, all tribes and tongues assembled are,
among the chosen I shall be, at Thy right hand, complete in thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought! And sanctified salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I, too, shall be.

Pumpkins With Smiley Faces

Let me start by saying that I LOVE fall!!! I love the changing colors and the crispness in the air. For me, it's always been the start of my new year. Maybe it's because that is when school always started.

When I had my first child, I took him to the pumpkin farm, got him a pumpkin, came home and thought "now what?" I didn't want to introduce the wickedness of Halloween to my son so I gave him the pumpkin, a hand full of markers and let him color the pumpkin. Over the years, my children became aware of the pumpkins with the "smiley faces". As I was talking to my mom one day, the subject of the pumpkins with the smiley faces came up. She suggested that I do the following:

When we are at the pumpkin patch choosing a pumpkin, remind the children that God chose us.

After we get home, we wash all the dirt from the pumpkins and we cut a hole in the top to scoop out the yucky insides. I then remind the children that the Lord has washed our sins away and replaced the yuckiness with the Holy Spirit. We then cut a smiley face on our pumpkin and I tell the children that the Lord has given us Joy and it puts a smile on our face. Then, we put a candle in the pumpkin and light it. This reminds us that we should be a light in the world and show Christ in our lives to others.

So that is what we have done for several years now. A couple of years ago, my mother gave me a book called: The Pumpkin Patch Parable.




This book is what I have been telling my children. It has wonderful illustrations and scripture passages for every step.

A Tribute to a Godly Woman

After recently being diagnosed with leukemia and while attempting to fight it, my great-aunt Mary went home to be with the Lord on Sunday, September 12th. I have many fond memories of her and my Uncle Lloyd. I remember being in church with them. I remember going on several camping / fishing trips with them, walking around the lake by their home, and playing ball in the field across the street from their home.

My Aunt Mary was born in 1934 with some significant physical challenges. The doctors, at the time, did not give her parents much hope for her future. I believe that the Lord used her in a mighty way to confuse and dumbfound the doctors. She repeatedly overcame obstacles and refused to use her physical challenges as a crutch or as an excuse to feel sorry about herself. Aunt Mary and Uncle Lloyd married in 1979. They deeply cared for children and longed to be a blessing to them. They became foster parents and after falling in love with the children determined that, as the Lord saw fit over the next several years, they would adopt some of them and raise them up in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord." As the years progressed and her health began to fail, her challenges increased. I am thankful for the Lord’s grace and mercy that she is no longer suffering.

As I thought about what I most remember about her, I thought of 1 Timothy 6:12 which encourages us to “Fight the good fight of the faith”.

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
(1Ti 6:11b-12 ESV)

I remember my Aunt as a godly woman and a prayer warrior. There are several verses in Proverbs 31 which, I believe, could easily be applied to her. She has now taken hold of eternal life and her faith has now become sight. Praise the Lord! She is with the Lord Jesus now and forevermore!

God and Myself - The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Purtian Prayers and Devotions

Thy understanding is unsearchable and infinite,
Thy arm cannot be stayed,
Thy agency extends through limitless space,
All works hang on thy care,
With thee time is a present now.

Holy is thy wisdom, power, mercy, ways, works.

How can I stand before thee with my numberless and aggravated offenses?

I have often loved darkness,
observed lying vanities,
forsaken thy given mercies,
trampled underfoot thy beloved Son,
mocked thy providence's,
flattered thee with my lips,
broken thy covenant.

It is of thy compassion that I am not consumed.

Lead me to repentance, and save me from despair;

Let me come to thee renouncing, condemning, loathing myself,
but hoping in the grace that flows
even to the chief of sinners.

At the cross may I contemplate the evil of sin,
and abhor it,
look on him whom I pierced,
as one slain for me, and by me.

May I never despise his death by fearing it's efficacy for my salvation.

And whatever cross I am required to bear, let me see him carrying a heavier.

Teach me in health to think of sickness,
in the brightest hours to be ready for darkness,
in life prepare me for death.

Thus may my soul rest in thee, O immortal and transcendent one,
revealed as thou art in the Person and work of thy Son,
the Friend of sinners.

How can I serve you today?

I, by no means, have this figured out. Trust me. I struggle with this to some degree every day. Some days, I struggle with it a lot more than I know that I should. However, I have too often witnessed, and been guilty of, the disconnect between how poorly Christian men treat their wives and the example which Christ so perfectly gave us. Many of these men demand continuous servitude and submission to their will while sitting on their lazy-boy throne, passing judgments and making decrees from on-high. If, as Christians, we are to be Christ-like we should be servants. Ephesians 5 provides to us our charge.

(Eph 5:25 ESV) Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
(Eph 5:26 ESV) that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
(Eph 5:27 ESV) so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
(Eph 5:28 ESV) In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
(Eph 5:29 ESV) For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
(Eph 5:30 ESV) because we are members of his body.

The word “gave” in verse 25 has the meaning of “to surrender, to yield up”. Men, how often do we give up or yield ourselves to our wives? How often do we make sacrifices for our wives? How often do we, when our wives are exhausted or not feeling well, view them as the “weaker vessel” (1 Peter 3:7) and step in and help them? How often are we hyper-critical of our wives? How often do we humble ourselves to perform “women’s work”? Do we provide a good example to our sons on how to treat their future wife? Or do we teach them that it’s ok to berate, belittle or even abuse their future wife? Do we show our daughters what type of man to look for in a husband? Or do we give our daughters a daily example of the type of man which she will refuse to marry? Will your daughter refuse to be treated the way you treated her mother?

A couple of years ago, I heard of a pastor who would on a regular basis, if not daily, ask his wife “how may I serve you today?” I know of several older Christian men who scoffed at this and thought that the man was crazy. One of the comments, which I heard, was “he’ll learn, he’s still a newlywed”. Excuse me? Was this seasoned Christian man implying that the newlywed pastor would learn to be more self-centered over time. And that would be ok? The more I have thought about this man and compared his servant’s heart with Scripture, the more I believe that his attitude is correct. As sinful men, we are selfish by nature. We expect dinner to be ready when we walk in the door. We expect our wives to wait on us. We expect our wives to do this or that. We make to-do lists for them and expect the items to be completed in a timely manner. We don’t allow our wives to do something if it inconveniences us. We expect our wives to act a certain way, to say certain things. We, too often, do not look at our own heart and see the wickedness of our sinful selfishness. If, by chance, we happen to see our sinfulness we will often try to excuse our sin by saying “But God, she doesn’t (insert selfish excuse here) , so that’s why I don’t (insert what I should be doing)”. This pass the buck mentality sounds very similar to what Adam tried to use when God confronted him with his sin.

My wife has had a long history of health challenges over the years. Those of you who know my family are aware of this. At times throughout our marriage, I have had to pick up the slack where extended family and/or friends were not able to. We have had much help from those whom we love and from those who love us. To my shame, I have, at times of sinful carnality and wicked selfishness, gotten angry and/or frustrated with her or the situation and have thought, said or acted in ways that were not honoring to Christ or to her.

Husbands, we are commanded to LOVE our wives as Christ loved the church and GAVE himself for it. How our wife acts (or how we think she acts/thinks/etc….) is irrelevant to how we are commanded to act. There is no escape clause. There is no wife’s disrespect clause which gets you or I out of our requirement.

It is only by God’s grace that we can ever hope to love our wives in a way that somehow mimics the way that Christ loved, and still loves, the church. We need to ask daily that God will give us the grace and power to show the love of Christ to our wives by our affections, words and deeds.