Summer Fun
Here’s my entry for the 5 Minutes for Mom Summer Fun Photo Contest:
Worthy Lessons… Sixth Device and Remedies
Device (6) – By persuading the soul that the work of repentance is an easy work, and that therefore the soul need not make such a matter of sin. Why! Suppose you do sin, saith Satan, it is no such difficult thing to return, and confess, and be sorrowful, and beg pardon, and cry, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me!’ and if you do but this, God will cut the score, and pardon your sins, and save your souls.
By this device Satan draws many a soul to sin, and makes many millions of souls servants or rather slaves to sin.
Remedy (1) – The first remedy is, seriously to consider, That repentance is a mighty work, a difficult work, a work that is above our power. There is no power below that power that raised Christ from the dead, and that made the world, that can break the heart of a sinner or turn the heart of a sinner.
Repentance is a gift that comes down from above. Men are not born with repentance in their hearts, as they are born with tongues in their mouths: (Acts 5:31).
Remedy (2) – Solemnly consider the nature of true repentance. Repentance hath in it three things:
- The formal act of repentance is changing and converting.
- The subject changed and converted is the whole man; it is both the sinner’s heart and life: first his heart, then his life; first his person, then his practice and conversation.
- The terms of this change and conversion, from which and to which both heart and life must be changed; from sin to God. The heart must be changed from the state and power of sin, the life from the acts of sin, but both unto God; the heart to be under his power in a state of grace, the life to be under his rule in all new obedience; as the apostle speaks, ‘To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God’ (Acts 26:18).
Thus much of the nature of evangelical repentance. Now, souls, tell me whether it be such an easy thing to repent, as Satan doth suggest. Beside what hath been spoken, I desire that you will take notice, that repentance doth include turning from the most darling sin… a sensibleness of sin’s sinfulness…a sensibleness of sin’s mischievousness, how it cast angels out of heaven, and Adam out of paradise…
Further, true repentance doth include sorrow for sin, contrition of heart. It breaks the heart with sighs, and sobs, and groans, for that a loving God and Father is by sin offended, a blessed Savior afresh crucified, and the sweet Comforter, the Spirit, grieved and vexed.
Again, repentance doth include, not only a loathing of sin, but also a loathing of ourselves for sin… [and] not only [to] loathe himself for his sins, but it makes him ashamed of his sin also. ‘What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?’ saith the apostle (Rom. 6:21).
When a penitent soul sees his sins pardoned, the anger of God pacified, the divine justice satisfied, then he sits down and blushes, as the Hebrew hath it, as one ashamed. Yea, true repentance doth work a man to cross his sinful self, and to walk contrary to sinful self, to take a holy revenge upon sin, as you may see in Paul, the jailor, Mary Magdalene, and Manasseh…
Now souls, sum up all these things together and tell me whether it would be such an easy thing to repent as Satan would make the soul to believe, and I am confident that your heart will answer that it is as hard a thing to repent as it is to make a world, or raise the dead.
– Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (pp. 55-60)
Those are many wonderful, sobering words, and I only typed out half of the ones I have underlined! In fact, that is only the first two of six Remedies for this Device of Satan. It is such a long post that I will continue and conclude this chapter in the next post. 
I think something really important that I glean from this chapter is that it is normal and expected for our souls to be heavy and eyes full of tears over our sins. In this present day and culture we are deceived often into thinking that something is “wrong” with us if we are sorrowful. We have to be happy all the time, and if we aren’t, we have pills and books and all kinds of stuff to wipe away our discomfort and sadness. No, this is not what Scripture teaches, nor is it what Brooks lays out for us here. We should have times in which we groan and cry over our heart’s condition to the point of tears. This should be a regular exercise of the believer, one that drives us in humble desperation to the cross of Christ, our hope. If this is not part of our lives, then we should step back and carefully question where we are in the great battle between God and self.
Welcome Shepherd
We have our early memories of Shepherd’s arrival now in a video slideshow! You can watch by clicking the slideshow image below, which will take you over to YouTube where the movie is located.
Note: the slideshow begins in low / standard quality by default. To see a clearer version click on “view in high quality” below the slideshow.
We hope you enjoy these precious memories with us…
Shepherd!
O, Praise the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together! Our baby Shepherd is finally here!
Yes, it’s me in person with an update! Emily and her husband think I’m a computer addict for some reason and said they wanted to see the photos of me in the birthing pool with my laptop… Am I that bad??? haha!
Our beautiful son Shepherd arrived early this morning at 3:44 am safely in the water with his mom and dad there to hold and cuddle him. It was a reasonably normal labor but very painful as his head came out and his shoulders waited several minutes afterwards to come (ouch)! He has some bruising on his face that hopefully will clear up in the next few days.
He is 10 pounds and 4 ounces and 24 inches long. Wow!
Eric is currently on his way to take Shepherd to the doctor to get checked out, and our midwife has just left our house. She was fabulous and actually was forced to bounce back and forth between our house and another client’s home because she was in labor at exactly the same time – stressful! She stayed with me after midnight to deliver and has been back again later this morning to check on us. It is a beautiful day, and we praise the Lord that He gave us this blessing and wonderful baby to love. It is also our Nanny’s birthday, so this is an extra special day and will be for years to come.
I’m settling in now for some sleep, and I can’t wait to share some early day blessings with you on my blog in the future. Have a wonderful weekend! I know I will!
Great Answer
I begged and pleaded with God this morning. In my sighs and tears I meditated on the great promises and prayers of the saints in His Word, and I do believe He has answered my prayer with a “yes.”
I sent out a huge email a little while ago to many people I know, but of course it got blocked in several accounts for spam since I don’t normally send out messages to that many recipients. Anyway, after a few hours of regular contractions (while Eric and I were enjoying a special celebration dinner with our daughter Lydia for graduating to “not sucking her thumb anymore”), we came home to settle in for a questionable night. Would this be it?
My water broke as I was fixing the slipcovers on my couches of all things. (I know, I know. People who know me well aren’t a bit surprised!)
Well, that was a few hours ago, and I am definitely in labor. It’s some fierce pain, but I’m obviously not to the point of not being able to talk or type yet! I am extremely excited and cannot wait to meet Shepherd! He is coming quickly. The blessing of home birth is I am going to go upstairs, settle into my bed for the night, pray with my husband, and try to get a few more hours of sleep while my midwife makes her way over to spend the night with us (she is actually catching another baby across town as I write this). Only God knows if I will sleep tonight or be awakened before morning ushering in our newest family member! Thank you for praying. I hope and pray to share joyful memories and photos with you all soon!
Kristi
God is so good!
Here for a Visit, Here for a Birth?
My mom and sister (with husband and my nephew) came down today to help us for the rest of the week, and secretly I know they are doing their own share of begging God that He would bring Shepherd here quickly! Can you believe it? He still isn’t here! I share the same surprise that everyone who knows me does at this point because honestly I just look (and feel) like I’m about to pop!
I have scattered thoughts, deep and extremely profound I’m sure (ha!), concerning these circumstances and how God is using this waiting time to sanctify me, but right now I am too busy doing other stuff around the house, compiling old photos and purging — things I didn’t anticipate having time to do this week (Grammy, I found your “white picture”)! I am kind of a basket-case of emotions, hormones, fears, excitement, and peace, which come and go at various points of the day. I am tired of everyone I know asking me, “Do you think he’ll come today?” because it reminds me of the fact that I’m waiting and it almost puts a dent in my patience. But I know people love our family when they ask, and they are just checking on us and loving us.
This time is a precious time in my walk with God, a time of claiming faith in the unseen and faithfulness of my Father, a time to trust and obey and to do it with a willing and joyful heart. It’s not easy, but He never said it would be easy.
It would be so easy for me to try to move things along, to schedule a c-section or induction, and I’m not saying I think families who decide to do that are wrong or inferior. But in my heart I believe God has a plan for Shepherd and his delivery, and it is best that I avoid interfering with it as much as possible. He seems to be healthy, and I seem to be healthy. I honestly can’t believe that I feel so strange for being full-term with my baby in womb, but in these days I guess it’s really not normal anymore to reach 40 weeks with a baby! Anyway, the challenge now is to wait and trust that God knows best and He will start it all when it’s supposed to start.
Well, I wasn’t going to start going into all of my thoughts; I guess they just spilled out and on to the page. I am thankful my sweet mother is here to help right now in this time of need. My sister Jennifer and her husband Blair are visiting, too, and it has been so good to spend time with them and my adorable nephew Noah (he is so big now)! I am going to sit back, take it in for a few days, and just be thankful for these memories God is giving us… And you can be assured that I’ll keep you posted about Shepherd if he comes in the next few days.
If you would like to pray for us, please pray that these would be illuminated in our hearts and minds over the next several days:
- for strength and patience (1 Peter 4:11)
- for contentment (1 Timothy 6:6)
- for safety (Psalm 91)
- for confidence in God that destroys Satan’s attempts to weaken our trust (James 4:7)
- for joy as we glory in all that Christ is (Galatians 6:14)
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