Week of Prayer

Happy New Year (well, almost). This is our annual Week of Prayer for the Church so we’ll be devoting the blog this week to the topic of prayer. I’ve included the schedule for the prayer meetings below. You can also obtain this information on the CFC web site.

Let’s not just remember prayer this week, let’s remember to pray. And let’s not get prayer ‘out of the way’. Let’s have it be an intention of our hearts and minds and time. The following are some thoughts to inspire us that the privilege to pray and the power to pray have come to us as a result of the Gospel.

John 14:13-14 (ESV) Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Graeme Goldsworthy: “In Christ we cannot be condemned as inadequate or ‘failed’ pray-ers. I should not think, because I don’t pray as I ought, that God is less inclined to listen to me than he is to listen to some great prayer warrior” (Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, 50)

January 2-5 Week of Prayer Please join us as we dedicate a week to prayer, January 2-5, 2008. We will be reserving the Upstairs Conference Room for personal prayer and intercession from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. each day. Please consider fasting for a day or more during this important week in the life of our church. We will begin the Week of Prayer with a prayer meeting on Wednesday, January 2 from 7:00 a.m.–8:00 a.m. in the Upstairs Conference Room. There will also be prayer meetings on Thursday and Friday mornings from 7:00-8:00 a.m. The week will culminate in a all-night prayer meeting from Friday, January 4 to Saturday, January 5. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. with worship in the Auditorium.

Week of Prayer Schedule Wednesday, January 2 Prayer Meeting 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m., Upstairs Conference Room Personal Prayer 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., Upstairs Conference Room Thursday, January 3 Prayer Meeting 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m., Upstairs Conference Room Personal Prayer 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., Upstairs Conference Room Friday, January 4 Prayer Meeting 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m., Upstairs Conference Room Personal Prayer 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., Upstairs Conference Room All Night Prayer Meeting 7:30 p.m., Auditorium & Upstairs Conference Room Saturday, January 5 Prayer Meeting Ends at 12:00 p.m.

Merry Christmas!

"And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16)

What more fitting words can describe our year as families at Covenant Fellowship Church. It is in the fullness of the Son ‘born that man no more may die’ that we want to dedicate this week’s family blog to you, the husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, and children and youth of this church. Thank you for loving the Savior and serving Him with us. We love you and are inspired by the examples you set. May the Lord Jesus continue to pour out grace upon grace to all of you in the coming year.

Merry Christmas! Have a great holiday celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Mark Prater, on behalf of the Family Life Team.

Christmas Socks

“The hopeful children each hung an old stocking from the rough sawn oak mantle. ‘Pick the biggest sock you can find,’ one of the older boys encouraged a younger sister. ‘Remember, the bigger it is the more stuff you’ll get,’ he added. Then, as the last sock hung in place, the children stepped back to take in the full picture. The worn socks told a story. They were play socks, well worn, not the leggings of a wealthy family. They spoke of good times together, a carefree life, and the absence of shoes. One might have pitied their owners as poor if the message they spoke was not so warm. The parents, aware of the time, ushered their children off to bed. ‘The faster we get to sleep, the faster morning will come,’ a little boy shouted as he ran, and the others followed.

Then in the morning, the most wonderful surprise greeted the children. Instead of the worn hand-me-down socks they had tacked to the mantle the night before, they found the most beautiful embroidered Christmas stockings and each was filled with presents and chocolates.”

As I finished the story, my children’s eyes lit up with wonder as they hung their own worn socks on our fireplace mantle. They too had picked the largest socks they owned and now wondered just how many things Lois and I would be able to cram inside their footwear. “Off to bed” I ordered and my six children ran, eager to awake the next morning.

After all threat of their reappearing had past, Lois and I took down their worn socks and replaced them with beautifully embroidered and monogrammed stockings purchased for each one by their grandmother. We stuffed them full with presents and chocolates and then head off to bed ourselves, hoping to fall asleep fast that we might speed the arrival of morning ourselves. Little did our children suspect the entire story was a setup foreshadowing the merry surprise to come.

The Christmas morning shock, amazement, and surprise lives on as one of our fondest Christmas memories. Since that Christmas, grandma has since gone to be with the Lord, but those embroidered stockings get hung every year and greet each of our children filled with small gifts and goodies on Christmas morning.

Good News From Bad News

This past Sunday Dave Harvey did an outstanding message on Genesis 3:14-19. Genesis 3 doesn’t seem like an obvious Advent passage, but as Dave helped us all see, there is amazingly good news embedded in even the worst news of the Bible – a Savior born of a woman who would overcome the works of sin and Satan that have come to us in the Fall of Man. I was particularly affected by how much this passage speaks to us as Christians – those whose sin is forgiven and atoned for in the cross.

Dave made an important distinction between the reign and curse and guilt of sin that has been overcome by the cross, and the continuing battle with remaining (or indwelling) sin that occurs in us as redeemed children of God. If you haven’t heard Dave’s message please check it out. But here are some reflections as I’ve thought about what Dave said.

So often my understanding of grace isn’t wrong, but it is deficient. While I love basking in the grace of my acceptance in Christ, it is an ongoing, thoughtful awareness of my indwelling sin that gives grace weight in my daily life.

Dave gave us Jerry Bridges’ take on how we can wring good news from bad news, “The gospel is meaningful for us only to the extent that we realize and acknowledge that we are still sinful. Although we are new creations in Christ, we still sin every day in thought, word, and deed, and perhaps even more importantly, in motives. To benefit from the gospel every day, then, we must acknowledge we are still sinners.”

Dave shared that the pastoral challenge will always be to help Christians exult in the solution without ever losing sight of the problem. That’s my personal challenge as well. I’d just as soon lose sight of the problem, but that doesn’t make the problem go away. I see this in my life when my actions and attitudes don’t match my convictions. I see it when I’m surprised that anyone would raise questions about my motives when I do something that seems to me to be perfectly reasonable. I see it when I realize that I’m the last person to see an ungodly pattern in my life that seems obvious to everybody around me. In these times, which are not that infrequent, to say ‘I’m a sinner’ is the most obvious and accurate description of myself. It places me squarely before the cross and fully under God’s word. Grace provides forgiveness, power and wisdom for honest worship and true change.

And that’s good news from bad news.

Seeing Sin, Speaking Grace

Here’s a very helpful marriage communication reminder from Brian Chesmore, one of the Family Life Pastors at Covenant Life Church (and a WCU alum) from his post on their Family Room Blog

APPLYING GRACE TO YOUR MARRIAGE

My mind is like a sieve. Info in and info out. That’s okay with sports stats and local news. But often what is delivered to our minds is too priceless to simply let drift away. No example of this is truer than the transfer of truth from the pulpit to our souls weekly, on Sundays.

God’s word is filled with exhortations to be good hearers and good appliers of His truth. And so we want to take a few posts to apply CJ’s outstanding message from Sunday. We want to remind you of a few points, a few quotes, a few books, and some ways we can apply it: in our homes and in the church. Here’s the first quote:

Only by seeing our sin do we come to see the need and wonder of grace. But exposing sin is not the same thing as unveiling and applying grace. We must be familiar with grace and exponents of its multifaceted power, and know how to apply it to a variety of spiritual conditions. Truth to tell, exposing sin is easier than applying grace; for, alas, we are more intimate with the former than we sometimes are with the latter. Therein lies our weakness. (Sinclair Ferguson)

Here’s one way to grow in applying grace to your marriage. Ask yourself what sin your spouse is currently battling. Then consider this question: “What carefully spoken words could I share that would unveil and apply grace to my spouse’s soul?”

Let’s not be satisfied with exposing sin. Let’s take our spouse to Calvary with our words and prayers.

Devotional Plans A and B

With the arrival of Lily (our third child) on October 30^th, life has been full around the Mellinger home! I have pretty much been operating in survival mode the past few weeks…making sure everyone is fed and clothed and the sick are tended to. Not much is getting done beyond that. My regular routine of getting up early so that I can have extended time with God went out the window the day we returned from the hospital. But just because I’m in a busier season where I can’t have a consistently long quiet time first thing in the morning, doesn’t mean that I need lose the discipline altogether.

One of the things I learned from Carolyn Mahaney when Jared and I were at the Pastors College is the idea of having a Plan A and a Plan B for my quiet times. This has helped me a lot, especially with young kids. Rather than having no quiet time when life gets crazy, Plan B provides a simple backup plan.

For example: Maybe Plan A is 30 minutes of Bible reading, devotional-type reading, and prayer. Plan B might be only 10 minutes long – enough time to read a chapter of the Bible (or read a meditation on the Bible from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening) and take a few minutes to pray.

Plan B is simpler and shorter, but it’s still taking time to feed my soul and acknowledge my need for God’s help. The value of having a plan B is that it can help avoid the temptation to completely scrap our quiet times just because we don’t have as much time as we would like.

Can a Plan B ever become a Plan A? Could there be a temptation to settle for Plan B because its more convenient than Plan A? Sure. That’s where the oversight of our husbands and the accountability of ladies in our fellowship group can help us work against letting busyness overtake spiritual disciplines. But I find that one of the benefits of a Plan B is that it tends to keep my heart longing for more time with the Lord in the morning, not less.

So although you may not have new baby in your house, having a back-up plan for your quiet times may be helpful when the unexpected comes your way (as it inevitably does) and you find yourself in a time crunch.

The Word Became Flesh?

Wisdom For the Week focuses this week on the Incarnation. In John 1:14, we are told that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. David Mathis from Desiring God (from a post on December 7) unpacks the incarnation in a very helpful way for us.

What Is the Incarnation?

The incarnation refers literally to the in-fleshing of the eternal Son of God—Jesus becoming a human being. The doctrine of the incarnation says that the eternal second person of the Trinity took on humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. A helpful way to remember the key aspects of the incarnation is John 1:14: “The Word became flesh.”

The Word...

The Word refers to the eternal Son of God who was “in the beginning with God” and who himself is God (John 1:1). From eternity past until he took on humanity, the Son of God existed in perfect love, joy, and harmony in the fellowship of the Trinity. Like the Father and the Spirit, he was spirit and had no material substance. But at the incarnation the eternal Word entered into creation as a human being. He became a first-century Jew.

...became...

Became does not mean that he ceased to be God. In becoming man, he did not forsake his divine nature. It means that he became a man by taking on human nature in addition to his divine nature. It is essential to the incarnation—and very helpful throughout all theology—to recognize that divinity and humanity are not mutually exclusive. The Son of God didn't have to pick between being God and being man. He could be both at the same time. The eternal Word became a man.

...flesh.

Flesh isn't merely a reference to the human body but the entirety of what makes up a human being—body, mind, emotions, and will. Hebrews 2:17 and 4:15 teach that to save human beings Jesus had to be made like us “in every respect” except our sin. In the incarnation, everything proper to humanity was united to the Son of God. The Son of God didn't only become like man; he actually became a true man.

The Word Became Flesh

So the eternal Son of God, without ceasing to be God, took on a fully human nature. This is the incarnation.

And what a magnificent doctrine and fuel for worship this is! Jesus didn't just become man because he could. He became a man “for us and for our salvation” (in the words of Athanasius). The Word became flesh to save us from our sin and to free us to marvel at and enjoy the unique union of divinity and humanity in his one spectacular person.

The incarnation is not only the way in which Jesus became Immanuel—God with us—but it's an eternal testimony that he and his Father are unswervingly for us.

Check out this blog and others in David Mathis’ Advent Series here.

Christmas Songs That Count

One of the downsides of having every other radio station on the dial playing Christmas music is that by around mid-December, say today, we’ve had just about enough of Wonderful Christmastime, not to mention Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. I’m on a hunt for Christmas song download ideas. I want songs that both remind me of the season and draw me to the Savior.

If you’re like me in this, maybe we can all serve one another. The following is my own personal list of ten favorite versions of ‘true’ Christmas carols. All are available as downloads. It’s important to let you know these are personal favorites – my kids and Jill would give you a much different list. But here is mine with some comments. You’ll notice some standards are missing – no “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” for example. That’s because I haven’t found a recorded version that rises to favorite status.

What I’d like is to hear from you on your favorite versions of carols. If we get a good list we’ll post it next week so we can all go into Christmas week with fresh opportunities to worship. The only conditions are:

· We’re not looking for secular holiday songs, but for Christmas carols

· Songs need to be obtainable – preferably downloadable.

· No criticism of my list is allowed. Remember ‘good will toward men’ and all that.

Ten Songs for My Season (in no particular order)

The First Noel - BeBe and CeCe Winans (Love this version)

O Holy Night, Steve Green (Josh Groban is who you hear, but Steve Green’s older version gives me chills)

In the First Light, Glad (A great Bob Kauflin Song. I’m not a big fan of Glad, but I like what they do here. Todd Agnew has recently done it as well.)

One Quiet Moment, Glad (See above, minus Todd Agnew)

Christ the Lord Is Born Today, Sovereign Grace Music (My favorite song on a great album)

Little Town, Amy Grant (From her first album, sounds dated, but a nice idea. We did this as a Christmas special back in the Gauntlett Center, and it was a joy from first rehearsal to Christmas Eve)

Joy to the World, BeBe and CeCe Winans (I really like this version but would love a more traditional version suggestion)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Phillips, Craig and Dean (I love the way this builds, and the harmonies – joy in a minor key)

O Come All Ye Faithful, Steven Curtis Chapman (We did this as a Christmas special a few years ago as well – a very nice arrangement, though some unnamed worship team members would beg to disagree.)

The Little Drummer Boy, Harry Simone Chorale (I always thought this was an odd song, but one of my great memories as a kid was singing this arrangement in a combined children/adult choir at our church at the candlelight service. Takes me back).

So there you go. And please give me a “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” recommendation.

Answers to Tough Christmas Problems

Here are two problems that can sneak up on us every Christmas season:

· What kind of gifts will be really meaningful beyond the tearing of the wrapping paper?

· What are we going to do with all these people at our house?

The Family Life Blog comes to the rescue on both counts. If you’re looking for really meaningful gifts, we’ve got some great new resources in our Book Shoppe for folks of all ages. To make your shopping easy, take a look at the featured books and CD’s we have available this Christmas season in our holiday brochure, which you can access here.

Are you having a party or family gathering this Christmas season? If so, you’ll be wondering how to make it fun for everyone. One game we’ve used in parties over the years is a version of the old “Claymation” game, adapted for holiday themes. It is fast paced, doesn’t require any skill, and gets everybody involved. We’ve used it with family, with teens, and in an adult parties of up to thirty people.

Here are all the instructions… Christmas Claymation Game

Merry Christmas!

When Sinners Say, “You’re wearing what?”

(Blogger’s apology: The following post may contain comments that could be construed as male/female stereotyping. If you don’t believe the post below represents your experience, keep reading this blog. We’ll get to you eventually)

One of the problems that comes with winter is that it’s dark outside in the morning. That means it’s also dark inside in the morning. Which isn’t that big a deal, unless you’re trying to get dressed with the lights off because you’re leaving early in the morning and you’d like to let your wife sleep in after a very full week. And unless the clothes you wear require approval by a committee of fashion-conscious women in your house who don’t want you to look as old as you really are. And unless the designated colors in your closet all seem to be olive greens and earthy browns. And unless you happen to be colorblind in such a way that makes those particular shades look exactly alike.

So, I woke up the other day and put on what I thought were green pants and a gray shirt. That seems to work – I see football teams wear that combination all the time. Apparently it doesn’t work off the gridiron. Jill was just getting up as I was leaving and caught a glimpse of my ensemble in a ray of light coming through the window.

“That doesn’t go.”

“Yes it does. It’s going to work right now.”

“No, that gray doesn’t go with that green.”

“I thought grays go with greens.”

“No, that gray has brown in it, and that green has blue in it.”

“And blue and brown go together, right? So my gray and my green work and my blue and my brown work.”

“But not all together.”

On the way to work (after changing), I reflected on what has been a regular source of heat in our lives – my wife’s role in my appearance. Here are some things God showed me from that pondering:

· My wife is concerned about my appearance to others because she wants people to respect me like she respects me. She wants people to see me at my best.

· My wife cares about her role as my helper. When I dress in ways that demonstrate a lack of concern for my appearance, it tells others that she is not playing a role that God has fit her for in making her my helpmate.

· For my wife to shop for clothes for me is an expression of her love. Every moment she shops for me says, “I love you and am making you the focus of my attention.” She knows how busy I am and how much I hate to shop for clothes. Guys, if your wife shops for your clothes, it is the suburban equivalent of taking a bullet for you. Be grateful your life has been spared.

Ladies, if you shop for your husbands, here are a some things from guy world that might help you:

· Most guys don’t think in terms of shades or combinations, they think in terms of worlds - the world of black, white and gray, and the world of everything that isn't black, white or gray. And the world of blue. Everything works in the world of blue.

· When it comes to clothes, most guys don’t think in terms of fashion, they think in terms of function. The question isn’t, ‘will this look good?’, they ask, ‘will this be comfortable if I’m having to bend down a lot today?’.

· The more you think like a man when you shop for a man, the fewer things you’ll take back, and the less surprises you’ll have when he comes home after a whole day and you discover what he wrapped himself in for all to see.

Take some time on a date and talk about what clothing means to you and how you can understand each other better in this day to day reality of marriage. Love and care is worked out in the small details of life together.

When Not to Spread Your Wings

“PLANNING” –doesn’t the word just make you shudder sometimes? Even though I am a person who loves order and organizing things (you have to be, if you’re married to an AdministratorJ), I still don’t like the process of getting there. Did you ever notice that when you sit down to plan how much you wonder what you could be getting done if you weren’t planning? Nonetheless, by His grace, I bought in hook, line, and sinker to the wisdom and very helpful principles in the Girl Talker’s new book, Shopping for Time. I’m part of an early morning club where a friend calls to help me get up in the morning, and then I call a friend to help get her up. It has been such a huge blessing—especially for getting in regular quiet times! I set aside time once a week to plan the week and a few minutes each morning to plan the day.

But somehow in the last month or two, I neglected the weekly and daily schedules and would just “wing it.” You know what ‘winging it’ looks like – just getting busy, focusing on whatever is right in front of you, doing whatever task comes to mind, responding to whatever wheel squeaks the loudest. Winging it seems to work for a time, but it’s hard to run a house and family that way. The days become chaotic, priorities get lost, projects don’t get done, and I always seem to be running to catch up. Well, I realized that this would probably not serve my family as we headed into this busy Christmas season, so I jotted down a schedule the other morning and tried again. Time is a gift from God, and He wants us to steward it well.

Proverbs 31: 27 describes the godly woman as one who manages her home well, and that takes planning! Planning doesn’t mean that I get everything done. After all, God loves to interrupt even our good plans with his better plans. But prayerful planning does allow me to make choices, not just react as I go through my day. For example, at the end of my planned day, I realized that I had found time to stop by a friend’s house and go through some hand-me-downs for Rosie, saving another resource from God, our income. I was able to review my son’s upcoming schoolwork – an often neglected responsibility in recent weeks. I even fit in a short and very enjoyable trip to the library with Rosie, which is good for our mother/daughter relationship. I don’t think I would have followed through with any of these without being intentional – which comes from the mental clarity that prayerful planning provides. I’m learning that taking the time to plan keeps my ‘winging it’ wings safely tucked away, and that’s a good thing in any season, especially during the holidays. Ladies, let’s seek to make the only wings we see over the next few weeks the ones on the angels in our Christmas decorations.

The True Christian’s Love For the Unseen Christ

One of the most common things I hear when I meet with people who are facing trial or personal failure is that they aren’t aware of God’s love. Is God that distant from me? Is He that disappointed in me? Why don’t I love him like I should? It doesn’t help us in these times that our confidence in God’s love so often comes from what we feel. We cherish the feeling of God’s love, and we want it back when we lose it. And when we don’t feel loved, its hard to love, isn’t it?

Puritan Pastor Thomas Vincent wrote a book to help Christians who struggled with loving God because their experience didn’t seem to be coming from a loving God. He wrote the book, The True Christian’s Love for the Unseen Christ to comfort the souls of believers in the midst of the Black Plague (he had left a safe country church to go into London specifically to pastor Christians in plague-ravaged areas). These were godly people tempted to believe God had abandoned them. And they were battling the fear that they might abandon God. Vincent wrote to assure them that their love for Christ was based in, and therefore secured in, the love of Christ. As the Apostle John wrote, “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

If you have lost awareness of the love of Christ, or wonder where your love is for him, allow Vincent’s wonderful catalogue of the love of Christ to recast your vision.

“True Christians love Christ because of His love, His love which He bears to them. He loves them with a first love and with a free love. He loves them with a tender and compassionate love, with an active or doing love, with a passive or suffering love. His love is infinite, without bounds of limits; it is superlative, without comparison; transcendent, beyond comprehension; everlasting, without change; and will have no end or conclusion. He loved them when they were polluted in their sins, and washed them with His own blood; He loved them when they were naked in their souls, and clothed them with robes of His righteousness. He loves them in their sickness and sorrows, and is their Comforter; He loves them in their wants and straits, and is their Benefactor. He loves them in life, and is the life of their souls; He loves them at death, and is the stay of their hearts; and He loves them after death, and will be there portion forever.” (The True Christian’s Love for the Unseen Christ, page 16)

Holiday Lights

It’s the time of year to get the family in the car and do a Christmas light tour. You see the fireworks on the 4^th, do leaf watching in October why not do a Christmas light tour followed by a stop for hot chocolate at a convenience store or coffee shop?

If you don’t want to travel far, here is an idea to try. Do a drive of your surrounding neighborhoods and rate the houses you see on a scale from 1 to 10. In the end pick what you think is the best house (do a family vote – and talk about why you like it). At the end of your drive leave a note in the winner’s door (or even knock on the door and meet them) saying that you award them the best Christmas decorations of the _____ (Insert your family’s name) Annual Christmas Light Tour. Thank them for the great decorations and then add an invitation to our church’s Christmas concert.

If you see a house or a street that you think others on a tour would like to see, let us know the street and approximate location. If we get enough we’ll put together a tour you can take any night during the holidays.

If you’re looking for the big displays, here are a few places to go, some have admission but some are free.

Rose Tree Park just north of Media: Every year, during December through early January, the park is decorated for The Festival of Lights. The display features multicolored lights on our beautiful live trees along with familiar Christmas displays.

Directions: Off Route 1 (Media Bypass) to Route 252 (Providence Road) and Rose Tree Road.

Cost: Free

Herrs Potato Chip Factory Christmas Light display: Herrs holiday lights extravaganza has 180,000 lights in this year’s display and is open from 5pm until 7am. Check out their web site for more information at www.herrs.com/WhatsNew/SpecialEvents.html

Directions: Take 1-95 South to Route 322 West to Route 1 South. Exit Route 272 (Nottingham) and turn left. Travel for 50 yards, turn right onto Herr Drive and follow signs to the Herr's^® Snack Factory Tour™.

Cost: Free

Longwood Gardens - This year, Longwood is transformed into a winter wonderland filled with sparkling lights, fragrant flowers, joyous music and a dazzling ice skating extravaganza. Dancing fountains are synchronized to holiday music in the Open Air Theatre, and festive organ sing-alongs fill the Ballroom with the sounds of the season. Check out their website for show times at www.longwoodgardens.org. The light display is open from dusk to 9pm.

Directions: Longwood Gardens is located on US Route 1, about 3 miles northeast of Kennett Square, PA. Longwood is an easy drive and offers free parking!

Cost: Adults $16 and students $6 Children under 4 free.

Shady Brook Farms - Experience millions of lights illuminating acres of farmland. Whimsical Holiday displays and familiar characters. Drive through in the comfort of your own car or watch the show on a moonlit hayride. Take a look at their web site at www.shadybrookfarm.com for more details. They are open from Dusk to 10pm

Directions: Take I-95 to Exit 49 (Newtown/Yardley, formerly Exit 30) Follow Route 332 West ¼ mile to traffic light. Turn left onto Stoney Hill Rd. The entrance is ¼ mile down the road on the right.

Cost is $20 per car load.

O Christmas Tree; O Christmas Tree???!

We’re at the height of Christmas Tree Season, so our Family Life Amateur Arborists are here to weigh in with advice on getting your tree.

If you’re buying a cut tree:

Check for moisture content by picking the tree up by the trunk and forcefully hitting the bottom trunk against the ground. If a lot of needles fall off, the tree is already dried out. If the tree passes this test, break off the tip of a small branch. If the inside looks green and doesn’t snap when broken, the tree is probably fresh enough to last the season.

When picking out a tree be sure to look at the base of the tree as well as the shape. If the tree trunk is too large in diameter to fit into your stand, pass it up.

If you are cutting your own tree:

Cut it as close to the ground as possible. That leaves you with more trunk to work with when you get home.

Call your tree farm in advance and ask about insect infestation in their trees. Small Aphids, some mites and spiders lay eggs on evergreens and can hatch out in your home once the tree gets warm. Ask you tree farm if they have experienced any problems with insects and if they will refund your money if your tree turns out to be infested. If they say they will not refund your money look elsewhere.

Setting up your tree:

Cut at least an inch off the stump before putting it into your stand. Cut it off just before you put it in the stand and then add water immediately. A popular recipe for the water to help your tree live longer is, 2 gallons of HOT WATER: 2 cups of Karo syrup, 2 oz. of liquid bleach plus 2 pinches of Epsom salt, 1/2 teaspoon of Boraxo (You can get this at the supermarket), and 1 teaspoon of chelated iron (you can get this at garden centers). Some recipes call for bleach. If you use one with bleach make sure to mix it away from your living room rug.

Before setting up your tree, purchase a large tree removal bag and set the tree up on the bag. Once you remove the tree at the end of the season from the stand you can pull the bag up over the tree and avoid dropping needles all through your house.

To avoid a fire hazard, keep water in your tree at all times, inspect your wiring for missing bulbs and frayed wires, Don’t plug more strings of lights together than the package recommends as the thin cords can heat up if too many lights are on one line. Always turn your tree lights off when you go to bed and don’t keep the lights on all day. Don’t use candles close to a tree. Double check that the batteries in your smoke detectors are fresh and keep a fire large fire extinguisher nearby. Dry Christmas trees are fire hazards.

Finally, here’s a suggestion from one of the guys, who has apparently learned some wisdom from the experience. Feel free to guess who it is.

If it’s 14 or more feet tall, anchor it to the wall so that it doesn’t topple over three times before Christmas – not that that would ever happen.

Marriage is More Than Me

This past Sunday Dave Harvey preached a wonderful message in our series, “In the Beginning” from Genesis 2:18-25, entitled “Marriage is More Than Me”.

Genesis 2:18-25 ⁸ Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." ¹⁹ So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Dave made a number of points that Jill and I found helpful. But there are three quotes I thought you’d like to ponder for your marriage this week.

The first is from Dave himself: “Even in Eden, Adam alone with God was not enough”.

For Jill and me, there are times that life seems so full, and so busy, that we forget God’s good purposes for marriage and one of those wonderful purposes is that we were created for one another. And not just to do the “business of life” together, but to see our relationship as a context where we can encourage and exhort one another toward the Savior and living the glorious truths of the gospel. This week, think about one way that you can encourage your spouse toward deepening their intimacy with Jesus Christ

The second is simply penetrating perspective from Puritan commentator Matthew Henry that husbands need to commit to memory, or at least to heart:

“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him and near his heart to be beloved (by him).”

Husbands, how we view our wives says a lot about how we view God and His glorious purpose for marriage. Take one day this week and honor your wife by communicating your appreciation for how she helps you, as your most trusted partner and friend, with her wisdom, gifts, creativity, and endless service.

And then from contemporary commentator George Knight….,

“Unbeknownst to the people of Moses' day (it was a ‘mystery’), marriage was designed by God from the beginning to be a picture or parable of the relationship between Christ and the church. Back when God was planning what marriage would be like, He planned it for this great purpose: it would give a beautiful earthly picture of the relationship that would someday come about between Christ and His church. This was not known to people for many generations, and that is why Paul can call it a ‘mystery.’ But now in the New Testament age Paul reveals this mystery, and it is amazing.”

This means that when Paul wanted to tell the Ephesians about marriage, he did not just hunt around for a helpful analogy and suddenly think that "Christ and the church" might be a good teaching illustration. No, it was much more fundamental than that: Paul saw that when God designed the original marriage He already had Christ and the church in mind. This is one of God's great purposes in marriage: to picture the relations between Christ and His redeemed people forever!”

Marriage is not about us, its about something far grander. Can you believe we get to participate in such a glorious cause through marriage?!!

Parking Lot Devotions

Hi Ladies, Mark here. We’ve asked some of the ladies in the church outside the pastor’s wives to contribute to our Tuesdays at Fivebucks. Here’s something from Deb Demi that help us all during the holiday shopping season.

“Today I experienced the most frustrating parking experience of my life. With ‘Black Friday’ door busters crying out to me, I made my way to the mall thinking that by noon surely I would miss the crowds. And, I reasoned, this is Altoona. How many people could possibly shop in Altoona? As I headed into the mall parking lot, I figured that I would need to park far away. As a driver of a 15 passenger van who likes the open spaces away from the building, I wasn't bothered by this prospect. However, it didn't take me long to realize there were no parking spots anywhere in the mall parking lot - even in the overflow areas. I drove around and around and around... Occasionally I'd patiently wait as I saw someone walk to their car, but inevitably a cute little compact car would pull out and I knew that there was no way that I could squeeze "the beast" into the microscopic space. I was beginning to become exasperated - frustrated that there was so much traffic, frustrated that I had to drive a 15 passenger van. Suddenly the Lord arrested my heart. Was there complaining in there? Was this really a big deal? It was at this time that I realized that I had a choice with what I did with my thoughts. I could continue to dwell on my difficulties and inconveniences or I could begin to recount more significant reasons to be grateful. As I drove around (and around) I began to thank that Lord that I had so many kids that I needed a 15 passenger van. I thanked God that I had a van and that I had money for shopping. I thanked Him for the Holy Spirit who was currently convicting me. I began to ask the Holy Spirit to help me show kindness to others who were frustrated in the parking lot by letting them go first. I purposed to show the love of God to people in the mall by smiling at them instead of being another frustrated shopper.

After 30 minutes of aimlessly driving around, trying to avoid accidents and watching little compacts grab the vacating spots, a space in the far reaches of the parking lot cleared. I carefully eased my monster into the spot, trying not to think of how I would get out. But I was not struggling, I was at peace. God had once again used my inconvenience to draw me to Himself, to see things from a grander perspective. How many little things in life can steal our joy? Life provides us with many inconveniences and annoying circumstances, however, we have grace to choose how we are going to respond. May God be glorified in all circumstances of our lives - even in big vans in crowded parking lots during this holiday season.

‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.’

1 Cor. 10:31 “

He Who Sits By the Furnace

One of the things I look forward to in Wisdom For the Week is to introduce you to some of my heroes. It is a good thing to have spiritual heroes – people whose words and lives draw us upward and onward in the adventure of faith. A spiritual hero is someone you get to know through reading what they wrote, and learning about how they lived out their lives. We should know enough about our spiritual heroes to know their failings and weaknesses. A true spiritual hero doesn’t intimidate us, he or she is a life example of a big God working in and through ordinary people.

My greatest spiritual hero is John Newton, writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace”. If you’ve seen the move “Amazing Grace” about William Wilberforce, Newton is portrayed as an almost monk-like spiritual mentor to Wilberforce. Although he did play a significant role in Wilberforce’s life, and in the abolition of the slave trade, Newton wasn’t a monk. During the time of the movie he was the most prominent pastor in London – a man of international reputation. He was also a very warm and insightful pastor. He was equally adept at ministering to the poor as the powerful. And he had a real sense of humor about his life. But most of all, you see a man who in his life and labors loved the Savior. He had done some of the worst things imaginable, but had seen the mercy of God in a way that marked his life. When I read his letters, I see a man who glories in Christ and wants nothing more than to impart a passion for the Lord to every person in every condition of life. Here is a quote from a letter to a distressed woman in his congregation. If you are experiencing trial or pressure this week, read slowly through these words and let them bathe you in grace.

“In a way inconceivable to us, but consistent with His supreme dignity and perfection of happiness and glory, (Our Great High Priest) still feels for His people….With the eye, and the ear, and the heart of a friend, He attends to their sorrows; He counts their sighs; puts their tears in His bottle; and when our spirits are overwhelmed within us, He knows our path, and adjusts the time, the measure of our trials, and everything that is necessary for our present support and seasonable deliverance, with the same unerring wisdom and accuracy as He weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance, and meted out the heavens with a span…He will put his silver into the fire to purify it; but He sits by the furnace as a refiner, to direct the process and to secure the end He has in view, that we may neither suffer too much or suffer in vain.

(Taken from “The Sympathy of Christ”, dated November 29, 1776, from the collection of letters The Voice of the Heart, p. 127)

Everyday Talk

“How much time do you spend talking to your children each day?”. That is only one of the questions that provoked me as I read John Younts’ book Everyday Talk. Since I have six children I’ve got to divide my available time six ways! Unless I am talking to all of them at once, I can only rack up so much time with each of them. I have about 1 hour in the morning and two hours including dinner on most nights. Though a part of that time is conversing with my wife let’s just say I have one half hour per child to work with. That is not a lot of time to lead and influence them for the kingdom of God. Throw in a few meetings and long days, and it can be hard staying connected with my children This is a great question to keep me from drifting away from the daily reality of shepherding my children’s hearts.

Here is another question from the book. “What do your children hear from you about God in the few minutes that you have each day to speak to them?” Now I’m really convicted, and with a title like Everyday Talk, you might think that if you miss a day you blew it. But that is not the way the book is written. For instance, I think I have spent more time talking about the Eagles losing, my latest EBay purchase, and the weather, than I have talked about God with my children outside of our family devotions. If I could only redeem some of the time I already spend in conversation, I actually have a lot of time to lead my children spiritually day to day. John Younts puts it this way, “Your interaction with God in everyday, ordinary, non-church life is the most powerful tool of influence that you have with your children.” That is good reminder for all of us.

The balance of his book is a chapter by chapter encouragement on how to talk to your children about God in everyday life. John helps parents talk about the Lord and the gospel and gives practical tips to help us talk to our children about everything from relationships to music to sex. He also reminds us as parents that our conversations with each other, in the presence of our children, shape their view of marriage. So, to start to put it into practice, have a conversation with one of your children when you get home. Then, call your wife into the room, give her a big hug and a kiss and let your whole family know just how much you love her. Not a bad alternative to recapping the Eagles last game for the third time in the week.

If you’d like to inject a little more fresh vision into your conversations with your kids, pick up a copy of Everyday Talk at the Book Shoppe.

Surviving Christmas With Your Budget and Sanity Intact (Version 1.0)

We’re all heading into the Christmas shopping season. There are two types of people with whom I can’t really relate. One is the type who has already done all their shopping before the holidays and can still resist the temptation to buy more. The other is the type of person who has the skill and industry to make their own Christmas gifts and can still resist the temptation to buy more. Obviously I’m neither. I love to give gifts but I hate to bargain-hunt. I’ll pay for convenience and one stop shopping. The closer I get to Christmas, the more loose I get with my money. I am the guy retailers drool over during Christmas.

Over the years I’ve needed to build some disciplines into my gullible tendencies. Here are seven things I’ve learned to do to keep a reign on holiday spending.

1. Set limits for total Christmas spending, not just on gifts.

At times I’ve done well on spending for gifts, but during the break we’ve gone out and done a lot of family stuff. My bills in January tell me that Christmas spending is not just gifts, but on all the stuff we do that costs extra money during the holidays.

2. Idea shop before you really shop

I’m in trouble if I go shopping without a plan. Well before I go to spend, I go to look (the internet really helps as well in this). My goal is to know what is a good price for something, so that when I see it I can get it. I’d love the best deal, but I’m after a good deal.

3. When thinking about a gift for someone, ask: Is this something they would appreciate any time of year?

A good gift is something somebody would want for themselves enough to buy it, not something I just think they should have because its Christmas and I’m running out of time.

4. Don’t panic over sales you missed.

See #2. There are always sales. Pride makes me want to say I got something at the best deal possible. Pride will also make me drive $50 of gas out of my car trying to save $20.

5. Give experiences for the family, not just stuff for people.

I want my gifts to generally benefit the whole family, not send them into their own little worlds for the next three months. The last couple of years my big gift for the family was tickets to a show – something we did later in the year that we anticipated for months ahead of time. The gift that keeps on giving.

6. Don’t buy what’s hot this Christmas till after Christmas

This is where the pressure to overspend is really strong. Deny it.

7. Pray before you shop – ask God to direct your steps, guard your heart, and protect your wallet.

If you’ve got any ideas for wise Christmas shopping, let us know. We’ll pick from the best and put them out there for folks.

The Romance Exchange

One of the ways we want to use this blog is to allow great thoughts or ideas from our folks to get around so we can all benefit. For example, how many couples have said something like, “I wish we could come up with some creative ideas for our date nights.”?

Well, let’s make it happen here. If you send us a date idea, or creative romantic idea that we post, and if someone else actually uses that idea and responds to the post with a recommendation, we’ll give a gift certificate for a local restaurant to both the couple with the original idea, and the first couple to respond to the post AFTER they have tried the idea.

For example. Suppose John and Julie Jones find a great getaway (or a clever way to celebrate an anniversary) and they send their idea to us. And we post it on a Wedded Wednesday. Then suppose Steve and Sally Smith say, “Wow, what a great idea! Let’s try it”. And they do, and it actually works for them as well. Then they can reply to the Smith idea post at Family Life Blog. Once somebody tries the idea and replies to us about it, the Jones will receive a gift certificate for their idea. And if Steve and Sally were the first to get back to us with their experience – they will also receive a gift certificate.

So how do you send an idea? Here are some important questions to answer in your submission.

· Your names

· A description of what you did (as much detail as will be helpful to give another couple not only directions about what you did, but vision for why it might work for them)

· The amount of time it took and what day(s) and times might be best for it

· The total cost (can be ‘under $25’, under $75, etc. we don’t need an exact cost)

· A link or address or phone number for somebody to check it out on their own.

To send an idea, simply hit comment on any Wedded Wednesday post and we’ll get it. So get out there and make some romance happen! Good things await us all.

Small things

I happen to be sitting in front of a crackling fire as I write this—it is a rare but wonderful occurrence that is helping me forget the four loads of unfolded laundry behind me. I’ll just be veeeery careful not to turn my head.

The boys, and Jim, are playing with a stomp rocket INSIDE (this is serious submission for me) so every couple of seconds, a Styrofoam rocket whizzes by my head and bangs into an unsuspecting target in the kitchen. I’m kind of hoping it breaks another one of my ugly blue Eighties vintage dinner plates. I’m trying to knock them off one by one.

Life in my home is probably a lot like yours. There are wonderful parts, crazy parts, difficult parts, and most of all a lot of noise.

After a challenging day yesterday, Jim asked me as he was heading to Alpha whether I was planning on doing worship with the kids, which is what I usually shoot for on Wednesday nights. I looked at him with the best non-committal face I could manage and kissed him good-bye.

But as 7:30 rolled around, I figured I might as well do it—it was a small thing and it would be a nice way to end the day. So all five of us flopped on my bed, and I grabbed my guitar and a pick that Adam had extracted from the pirate’s den (his room).

As we sang a couple of worship songs, I looked around--one of my kids had dragged three of her blankets onto the bed and one of the boys was playing air guitar violently – but quietly - to the slow-paced song we were singing. But it was going well.

I opened the Bible and read a Psalm about God’s steadfast love, and as I listened to my own voice I felt the familiar lump in my throat as the truth of God’s faithfulness hit my tired soul. I started playing, “Oh no, you never let go”, and everyone was singing—even the air guitarist. And I felt the presence of God. God was with us in my messy bedroom, and in our messy hearts.

It wasn’t a revival. No one ended up face down on their pillows crying out for mercy. But we were all reminded of God’s amazing love for us. And one of my children came to me later and whispered with excited eyes, “Mom, I really felt like I was… like I really was meaning those songs this time!”

What could be better? I was reminded that our lives, especially as moms, are composed of little things. Little decisions. Little acts of faith. And they’re done in imperfect environments with imperfect people. But one of God’s specialties is turning our little things into his big things. I wonder what tiny little acts of love and faith I can do tomorrow that God is already planning on blessing and multiplying? How 'bout you?

Why In the World Should I Pray?

To be faithful in prayer has been a lifelong challenge for me. Take a large quantity of self-sufficiency, sweeten with a generally good life, add in a few drops of doubt and distraction, and cook continually in my ‘busy-bake’ oven, and you’ve got a great recipe for prayer-deficient Christianity.

One of the things I have done over the past couple of years to battle prayerlessness is to read regularly on prayer. Reading on prayer not only reminds me to pray, but it builds faith when I pray. And it also makes me wrestle with the BIG questions about prayer that can so easily keep my praying stuck somewhere just above wishful thinking.

I’m reading a book by C.S. Lewis right now called Letters to Malcom – Chiefly on Prayer (A word of caution: While he was a Christian, Lewis never claimed to be a theologian, and much about this book I would not recommend – it is simply his personal reflections, not carefully thought out theology. If you’re looking for a great book to stir you with sound doctrine on prayer, consider Charles Spurgeon, collection of sermons, Prayer.)

But Lewis does say something that really hit me the other day:

“The world was made partly that there might be prayer” (p. 56)

As we see in Genesis 1 and 2, God created the world – and us in it – for his glory. But God created man to glorify him in unique ways, none more significant than that we were created to have fellowship with him and be an integral part of his purposes on this earth. In one sense, prayer is a way we carry out that mandate – we relate to God as he has revealed himself in his word, and we ask him to extend his rule and power through us and around us – for his glory.

Do you wrestle with questions about how God can be completely sovereign and yet answer prayer? Do you wonder at times if prayer is just talking to the air? Lewis reminds us that prayer isn’t a ‘peripheral add-on’ to God’s plan for all things, it is hardwired into the way he made things to be.

So as you pray this week, whether that is in your prayer closet on your knees, or in your car offering ‘quick-reference’ petitions to God, look around you at the world. It was made partly that there might be prayer.

What Do You Know?

Last Saturday at our monthly Cross Culture meeting for Teens, Jamie Leach did an outstanding job preaching the second part of a two part series for teens on Nehemiah. In that message he talked about some of the situations in life that taught us to believe wrongly about God. He shared about his own family’s current experience walking through a taunting trial. His daughter who has been suffering unpredictable, and as yet, untamable seizures which have landed her in the hospital several times over the past few months. For a girl with a busy senior year in high school and lots of plans this has been a real test of faith – to which she is responding with an amazing display of grace. For a dad who has to wrestle with his own questions while leading his family, it has been a real trial of faith.

Jamie shared how God met him at a key point in a way that has continued to keep his eyes on the Savior.

As I walked out of the hospital after several unexpected hours in the emergency room, I felt questions rise up in my heart. They were directed toward God. “Lord, why are you allowing this? What’s happening? What are You doing? What is going to happen next?” I didn’t know the answer to those questions. As I brought the car around to the front of the hospital and began to follow the ambulance that was transferring my daughter to Children’s Hospital, my brain was filling with anxious thoughts. “We don’t know what is causing these seizures, we don’t know what going to happen, what if she doesn’t come out of one of the seizures? What if they don’t stop?”. There were so many things I couldn’t know. But before I fear and doubt took hold of my thoughts, a gracious question came into my mind:

“What DO I know?”.

I do know that God is sovereign and that He is good. Nothing will happen to us that He hasn’t planned through His omnipotent hand. And that plan will be for our good - He will cause all things to work together for good. God is greater than my fears – our fears, than our sin, than our limited knowledge, and He cares for us – in this I trust. Further I know that I am not alone, that He is with me and will not leave me, ever. In the face of the unknown, my immediate (and seemingly urgent) response is to search for answers, to find the cause so that I can project or anticipate the future and then control it. But what I find I really need to do first is to trust God. I must first trust in His character, His goodness, His plan. This requires grace beyond me, but as I surrender to His will, I can sense the pouring out of His grace. Truly the best first thing to do is to turn to God. To ask for His guidance and direction, to seek Him for faith and strength, and to remember what I know about Him.

In those moments God’s grace came to me, I sensed His presence, and His reassuring love and care. The unknown may cry out to me: “Fear! Fear what you do not know!” but by God’s grace my response is: “No! I will not fear. Let me tell you what I DO know!”.

What do YOU know?

Whatever Happened to the Mayflower?

Happy Thanksgiving!

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name O Most High

~ Psalm 9:1-2 ~

If you’re sitting around the dinner table today, or sitting in front of a typical Thanksgiving football blowout you may want to get some conversation started. Nothing like a good mystery get everybody engaged. Why don’t you ask the question,

‘Who knows the mystery of the Mayflower?’

Be prepared first to make some connections. The Mayflower is not the latest M. Night Shyamalan mystery. And while it is a moving company, that’s not the reason it is famous. The Mayflower is the ship in which the Pilgrims (Get the Thanksgiving connection?) sailed to America.

Anyway, chances are that most folks in your group won’t know that it is believed that the Mayflower was dismantled and moved to the Buckinghamshire area of England, where it was rebuilt as a barn. And the barn is still there today! The Mayflower Barn is a very popular tourist destination in England – especially for Americans.

Is it the real deal? Or just a tourist trap? Pass the cranberry sauce and let the debate begin!

And let us at the Family Life Blog know if you solve the mystery.