I've recently been spending some time reading 1 Timothy. I've been using John MacArthur's commentary to aid me when my own interpretation is lacking. Which is often.
This morning, the text was Paul giving his testimony and basically praising God's grace toward him, the "foremost of sinners."
I always appreciate a good discussion on the grace of God (nod to the title of the blog) and MacArthur did not disappoint. He broke down the text into six elements of grace: the source of grace, the need for grace, the power of grace, the extent of grace, the purpose of grace, and the response to grace.
My favorite was this, "Through God's grace, Paul was strengthened. God not only graciously elected him to salvation but also graciously gave him the strength he did not have or deserve, but needed to live out that salvation."
It reminded me of the great truth that all that God asks of us, he provides the grace for us to do it.
What a great and gracious God.
Monday, July 26, 2010
a tour.
I would like to dedicate this post to my dear friends Kate & Erica, along with my sister Kelly. For they have not seen the house and have requested these photos.
Well, here she is. In my effort to sqeeze Jeepy out of the picture, I did not capture the rest of the garage door. I hope you'll be ok without it.
Ok, upon entrance, this is what you see. Allow me to brag on my handy husband for a moment. Those built-in bookshelves? Yup, Ben made them. Mostly because when we moved in, there were holes that had been punched in the wall from the previous owner. I sure do like them, though. Up the stairs is the portion of our house we do not yet frequent very often. (When we fill this house with children, it will be a different story.) It includes such rooms as the "book storage room," which could be called an office if either of us ever did any work up there. Also located upstairs is the guest room, which you shall see in a moment. And don't forget the bonus room, which has a pair of couches and a bookcase filled with DVDs. Yet no television. So we don't go in there too often either. None of those rooms are very pretty, so I skipped them. Call me vain.
Guest Room: The original picture didn't turn out and I was too lazy to take another. So in this one you can see the bed in the mirror. Pretty artistic, eh? I just painted that room green for the arrival of Megan when she came to visit in June.
On my way back downstairs, I thought I'd snap this one from the upstairs landing to show you how the living room/eating area mesh. Hope you don't have vertigo. (kate, vertigo!)
And here is where most of the living happens. It's a conglomeration of my old furniture, Ben's bachelor pad furniture, wedding presents, and some sweet Goodwill finds. I'm constantly trying to warm up the gray walls with sunny colors.
To the left of the living area is where we eat all our meals. I'm realizing my ONE flower looks so lonely. But I did cut it from my own garden, which is fun. The other flowers are like, marigolds and stuff, so you can't put those in a vase. Alas, the cheese stands alone.
Two kitchen pics for you. This is obviously before I begin making a mess of things, er.. cooking.
And lastly, I will leave you with the backyard. Before it got insanely hot, we enjoyed pleasant evenings out there. I pray that time will come again.
Some of you may now wonder where the owners of this home rest their heads at night. Well, have some respect for our privacy! Just kidding. Really, the bedroom is quite nice but not 100% finished. So I'm holding off 'til then.
I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed your tour. Now, come visit and see it for yourself! Guests always welcome.
Well, here she is. In my effort to sqeeze Jeepy out of the picture, I did not capture the rest of the garage door. I hope you'll be ok without it.
Ok, upon entrance, this is what you see. Allow me to brag on my handy husband for a moment. Those built-in bookshelves? Yup, Ben made them. Mostly because when we moved in, there were holes that had been punched in the wall from the previous owner. I sure do like them, though. Up the stairs is the portion of our house we do not yet frequent very often. (When we fill this house with children, it will be a different story.) It includes such rooms as the "book storage room," which could be called an office if either of us ever did any work up there. Also located upstairs is the guest room, which you shall see in a moment. And don't forget the bonus room, which has a pair of couches and a bookcase filled with DVDs. Yet no television. So we don't go in there too often either. None of those rooms are very pretty, so I skipped them. Call me vain.
Guest Room: The original picture didn't turn out and I was too lazy to take another. So in this one you can see the bed in the mirror. Pretty artistic, eh? I just painted that room green for the arrival of Megan when she came to visit in June.
On my way back downstairs, I thought I'd snap this one from the upstairs landing to show you how the living room/eating area mesh. Hope you don't have vertigo. (kate, vertigo!)
And here is where most of the living happens. It's a conglomeration of my old furniture, Ben's bachelor pad furniture, wedding presents, and some sweet Goodwill finds. I'm constantly trying to warm up the gray walls with sunny colors.
To the left of the living area is where we eat all our meals. I'm realizing my ONE flower looks so lonely. But I did cut it from my own garden, which is fun. The other flowers are like, marigolds and stuff, so you can't put those in a vase. Alas, the cheese stands alone.
Two kitchen pics for you. This is obviously before I begin making a mess of things, er.. cooking.
And lastly, I will leave you with the backyard. Before it got insanely hot, we enjoyed pleasant evenings out there. I pray that time will come again.Some of you may now wonder where the owners of this home rest their heads at night. Well, have some respect for our privacy! Just kidding. Really, the bedroom is quite nice but not 100% finished. So I'm holding off 'til then.
I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed your tour. Now, come visit and see it for yourself! Guests always welcome.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
my theory.
i have this theory about making yourself do things you don't like but feel like you should like them.
ben thinks it's ridiculous, but i still try to convince him that he really might like onions, peppers, and board games if he keeps eating and playing them.
i'm just saying, i used to only eat iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing as my "salad."
it can be done.
that's a little bit of how i feel with regard to blogging.
i think that i should have a blog. i even want to have a blog. but it seems hard.
that quote "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step" comes to mind.
i went through a phase where i read a lot of quotation books.
so this is my step. it's official. i'm starting a blog.
when i told my friend erica, she immediately texted me, "what?! are you pregnant??"
which i find funny, because in my mind i might have been waiting to have a child before creating this blog.
but hey, my life is interesting as is.
and so this journey begins. we'll see how it goes.
ben thinks it's ridiculous, but i still try to convince him that he really might like onions, peppers, and board games if he keeps eating and playing them.
i'm just saying, i used to only eat iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing as my "salad."
it can be done.
that's a little bit of how i feel with regard to blogging.
i think that i should have a blog. i even want to have a blog. but it seems hard.
that quote "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step" comes to mind.
i went through a phase where i read a lot of quotation books.
so this is my step. it's official. i'm starting a blog.
when i told my friend erica, she immediately texted me, "what?! are you pregnant??"
which i find funny, because in my mind i might have been waiting to have a child before creating this blog.
but hey, my life is interesting as is.
and so this journey begins. we'll see how it goes.
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