the Main Thing: Jesus

So long I have been searching for "the key" to my life; that thing which, if I but grasp hold of, will make me live like I'm supposed to, be the Christian I should be. Some verse, some doctrine, some phrase, which if I keep remembering it, will keep me from that depressed, joyless, critical spirit that I keep falling into.

They have all been good things: remembering that I am accepted by God; that Christ's record is applied to my account; that I don't have to be perfect for God to love me - etc. Anything that deals with my ongoing "sin problem" as a Christian.

But God is showing me that the "key" is Jesus. Himself. He is the cause of my acceptance, my forgiveness, etc. I knew that, but still somehow felt of the gospel, "Yes, I know, Jesus died for me; now let's get on with being the Christian I'm supposed to be."

The longing within, when seeing Christians who were so "real", of "how can I be like them?" - but now I see: I don't need primarily to be like them - but to have Jesus! He is the key to my attitude, my life, my joy, my righteousness. If I cling to Him - then it will be enough.

The gospel: that Jesus became man and died for my sins to take away God's wrath toward me - this is all I need.

And any doctrine has to lead back to Jesus to avoid being off-balanced.

Any focus of my life, if it does not have Jesus as its main thing, will make something else my idol. I can't have the passion of my life be homeschooling, or saving money, or adoption by God, or eating in a healthy way - if it does not bring the focus back to Jesus. I can homeschool for Jesus, but if I forget Him in my homeschooling, it consumes me. I can save money in order to spend it for Jesus' cause, but not for its own sake, or money becomes my idol. I can eat healthy for Jesus, but not for its own sake, or health becomes my idol. I can think about being a child of God, but if I do it divorced from the Savior who redeemed me, I fall into the same traps as before, basing my relationship with God on my perception of how I have been doing as a Christian lately.

Jesus is the Main Thing. If you have anything else, fine - but you must have Jesus. If you teach your children anything else, that's great - but you must teach them Jesus. In everything. All the time. Every day.

If you have only one life doctrine, one belief you live by: it must be, the gospel. Jesus, who died to take away my sins.

Jesus must be everything to me - or I will have nothing.

kids update - October 2009

Boy, I hadn't realized it had been so long since I posted anything!

Jeff is finally walking! And giving up crawling. He just started several weeks ago, and has taken off. He looks so much taller standing up.



Emily is reading. She got through the whole "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" book, and we try to practice some reading at least a few days a week.



Katherine is kindergarten age. We are homeschooling (at least, trying to!). We have the help of our "Enrichment" classes, which is a sort of homeschool co-op with people from our church. Enrichment meets one morning a week, and Katherine gets to have a literature/history/crafts class, along with a science class. I get to teach her science (and thereby avoid paying for her classes!). So Grandma takes the younger two kids while I teach 9 kindergartners about the Human Body (and get groceries if there is time before class).



We usually get some math and some reading done 3-4 days a week with both girls. History right now consists of Katherine's literature class (which focuses on the colonial period in America) and our reading of the Little House on the Prairie books, which she loves.

I'm starting to learn that the key to my life, my attitude, my joy, my "success" in a day - is Jesus. That I need to be "looking to Jesus" in everything... would that I did it all the time!

And I am starting to learn that life does not have to be perfect

David's job is up in the air, since his current boss can't keep him past the end of the year. We are praying that one of the other departments in his company can take him on instead.

We had a lovely week at the beach in October. The Lord gave us some nice weather, and time with friends and family.

ferry ride on the way to the beach

petting area at NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher

big tortoises at "Alligator Adventure" in Myrtle Beach

alligator sculpture - fun to play on

as always, pictures on the dock near our favorite seafood restaurant in Calabash, NC ("Dockside")

feeding seagulls

kids update - July 2009

This won't be long, but at least I'll put a few recent pictures of the kids.

Jeff making his sisters laugh

One of my favorite pictures of Jeff

Jeff with a face full of... plum, I think. He loves fruit!

Emily "cooking" (?) with sunflower seed hulls out on the deck
(She is finally growing some hair!)


Emily and Katherine picking blueberries

Katherine doing what she loves to do - reading!

servants and sons

I was praying to ask God to help us sing a Messiah concert last night, and was about to pray (as I often had in high school), "send angels to help us sing". It occurred to me that the angels can't sing the Messiah, at least, not some of the parts we were singing - "All we like sheep have gone astray", "and with His stripes we are healed" etc. Jesus is not their Redeemer. These are things that "angels long to look into".

The angels will forever be God's servants. But for all eternity, we get the privilege of being His children!

faith obeys

It really is faith and love that produces obedience. I found commands that I balked at obeying. But the Lord reminded me that I really would be happier if I obeyed. Faith believes that, and loves her Master, and it makes one willing to submit. If HE says I will be happier doing what He says, then though my flesh rebels, I believe it and am glad to obey.

broken cisterns

I am the idol of my heart

why do we insist upon
clinging to our own broken cisterns,
turning away from God who is
the Fountain of living water?

He casts all our sins
into the depths of the sea

full of Jesus

I want to lose my life rather than waste it. Missionaries do it all the time. But here? How do I get past the materialism of my culture, the focus on what I can see?

In the book Don't Waste Your Life, ch.5, John Piper says
...it is right to risk for the cause of Christ. It is right to engage the enemy and say, "May the LORD do what seems good to him." It is right to serve the people of God, and say, "If I perish, I perish!" It is right to stand before the fiery furnace of affliction and refuse to bow down to the gods of this world. This is the road that leads to fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. At the end of every other road-secure and risk-free-we will put our face in our hands and say, "I've wasted it!"

1Peter 1:17-19 tells us that God had to pay blood to redeem us from the futile way of life we used to have. This should make us sober and live our lives in reverent fear, for Him.

I want to "bleed Jesus" - so that wherever you poke me, He comes out. We have missionary friends like that, Ken & Kath Ashcroft. No matter what the situation, they start speaking of Jesus. No matter what the conversation, you are sure to hear a genuine "praise the Lord!" or "isn't God good!" I want to be like that.

But how?
To be full of Jesus. To indeed, make much of Him. Wherever I am. Wherever He has put me. Surely He puts people in America, not to rot in materialism, but to be so full of Him that they want to tell others around them who He is, and how He is more precious than life.