Greetings to our CBC family! We are halfway through our sabbatical and would like to give you an update. It has been nearly two weeks since we last checked in with you all.
We were able to visit with many of you yesterday at the worship service and picnic at Wells Park. It was good to visit with you all and worship with our faith family. We will be with you again this Sunday as we are able to host Emmanuel Jonah from Liberia. I am very eager for him to get to know all of us! Sabbatical work: I have been able to do some profitable work while on Sabbatical. I was able to give a good amount of time to the church website (let me know if you think it can be improved in any way!); I have made significant progress in building and organizing a home office (and going through 10 years of accumulated “stuff”) and have worked on a few other projects in the parsonage. This week I have worked on getting Titus from Liberia to Wallace (visa work is tedious, thorough, confusing, and frustrating!). Pray that he will be able to visit us this fall! A good portion of my work time I spend reading (this could be another blog entry!). I’ve finished this biography and am working through this one and hope to get to this one; this book is very helpful in understanding God in the Old Testament; this, this, and this are helping me evaluate my life and better order my life and priorities; this has been very helpful in my parenting; Bobbi and I are reading through this; and I am very eager to begin reading this (and about a dozen other books). The very best reading so far (and I am not exaggerating or being overly pious) has been this. I am working through a helpful workbook entitled Gospel Transformation. It's a bit too early in working through it (36 weekly lessons at 370 plus pages), but thus far, God is using it to better understand the ongoing glories of the gospel in my life. There are a few other books I’ve toyed with, but have not read any significant portions. I’ve enjoyed reading articles and some blogs online, as well. My hope is that as I grow spiritually through study, that it will bring great blessing to CBC for many years to come. Sabbatical rest: This sabbatical has provided for us a different rhythm of living. I have really been able to enjoy and invest in family. Surprisingly, I’ve slept better and have even been rising earlier than normal and yet feel more rested. I do believe now more than ever in the importance of exercise for restful living (although, I still need to exercise my muscles much more than I do now!). By God’s grace, I will return from our sabbatical with a better mindset on priorities and personal, ongoing soul care (and, Lord willing, be very useful in helping many out who struggle with imbalance in the chaos of life). This week, we will be home and I have planned a full week of sabbatical work. Next week we leave for Pennsylvania. I pray for all of you, that you find our King to be Lord and Father who loves you and does eagerly invade your life with goodness and mercy. Lord willing, we’ll see you all Sunday!
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Bobbi and I have been away from you all for three weeks (the kids were at CBC this Sunday). And those three weeks have been very full and have gone by quickly. Here’s a brief list of what’s been going on during this sabbatical: three kids have been to Bible camp; we’ve been gone, then back home, then gone again; I’ve coached soccer; Bobbi and I celebrated 15 years of marriage; I’ve enjoyed steady reading, thinking, writing and praying; we’ve worked on home projects and more home projects.
We’ve attended three different churches (two in Green Bay and one in Kingsford, MI) and have enjoyed sitting together as a family under the proclamation of God’s authoritative Word. We do miss you all and pray for you regularly. I’ve been able to give time to two things that are of highest priority and importance, but can easily be neglected: abiding with Christ and family life. I must say that both of these have such a great reward when time, thought, and energy are given to them. Conversely, when they are neglected, those relationships stop thriving and can become distant. I’ve also really been thinking about and strategizing over efficiency in my time and resources. What I mean is that I have not been very good at organizing my life and often find myself overwhelmed. It has been profitable to evaluate and see where I must make changes. Pray with me that one result of my sabbatical is better ordered and more efficient life. We’ll be leaving town again this evening and won’t be back until Sunday or Monday. I trust you are continually experiencing and delighting in our God of all grace and love. You are loved! I am very grateful to Country Bible for giving me a sabbatical. Thank you! I do pray that God uses it in my life and the life of our church in ways that are lasting.
Last week, Micah and Luke were at Lake Lundgren Bible camp while the rest of us were in Breitung, Michigan. We were able to stay at Gary and Tammy Dunseath’s house (they’re in Florida). It was a great start to the sabbatical and I was able to get a good amount of sabbatical work done. The family had a wonderful time relaxing and playing. We were able to worship with our brothers and sisters at Immanuel Baptist Church in Kingsford on Sunday. It was good to sit with my family and enjoy being fed God’s Word. I earnestly prayed for CBC on Sunday as you all gathered to worship. I trust you were blessed to be together and sing, pray, and listen to God’s Word. This week has been a flurry of busyness with family activities and sabbatical work. This week I am focusing hard on organization. I hope to finish the office in the basement of the parsonage and get it all set up. I have chosen the book of Romans as the Scripture I will work through over the summer – what a glorious book! My hope for all of us this summer is that Christ would be our passion and pursuit. I love you all and am praying for you. To begin with, I must express appreciation to Kristi Raboin for getting our website going. She spent a good amount of time getting it set up. I believe that a website for a church is a very helpful tool. It serves the people of the church in many ways, and it allows people outside the church to check us out before they really visit. Over the past two weeks I have invested a good amount of time on our website. I believe that it is a worthy investment and trust that God might use it to advance His kingdom. Yet I do firmly believe that God does not intend to build His church through a website. That job God has given to real life people. Churches may build websites, make signs, send out mailings, and do other such “marketing”. But the best commercial for a church is its people. A church website might be snazzy and user friendly, but if the church doesn’t treasure Christ and live out of His life, the website may be false advertising. I pray that our website is a useful tool to our church and community. But a far deeper burden in my heart is that all of us at Country Bible Church are being changed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). Then, if people visit us because of the website, they will see a group of believers that are imperfect, yet are running to a God who is running to us in love, grace, and mercy (Luke 15:11-32), and is forming us into a people who radiate “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). I'm in the process of moving our blog over here. Right now, I haven't figured out how to move the comments or date of the blog posts over. So, if you're curious of the date or if there were any comments, go visit our old blog here: http://countrybible.wordpress.com/ New blog posts will only be posted on this website. Jesus is precious. He has done eternally sweet things in us. He will continue to powerfully work in and through us. This illustrates these truths well: Jonathan Edwards:
I have loved the doctrines of the gospel; they have been to my soul like green pastures. The gospel has seemed to me the richest treasure; the treasure that I have most desired, and longed that it might dwell richly in me. The way of salvation by Christ has appeared, in a general way, glorious and excellent, most pleasant and most beautiful. It has often seemed to me, that it would in a great measure spoil heaven, to receive it in any other way. That text has often been affecting and delightful to me, Isa. 32:2, A man shall be an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, etc. This man knew the joys of meditating on Scripture with a regenerate heart. Today is Monday in Passion Week. Here’s what Jesus did when He knew he would die on Friday:
- Speak honestly about what angers you (Matthew 23:1-36). - Provide perspective to those around you (Matthew 24). - Reflect on what really matters (Matthew 25). - Have dinner with friends (Matthew 26:26-30). - Let those around know how much you love them (John 13:1-20). - Comfort your friends with hope (John 14). - Pray (Matthew 26:36-46). HT: Michael Kelley This video stirred me deeply. It humbled me. It made me grateful. It’s a ten minute investment of your time that is well worth it! |
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