Sovereignty and Responsibility

A couple of weeks ago, Jonathan’s status on Facebook was “contemplating God's sovereignty, man's responsibility, and excusing one for the other.”  This is something that has been weighing heavily on my mind as I have recently heard people say “I know I did (insert unkind action here), but God is sovereign and he will work through that for good.”  While I believe that to be a true statement, I feel like, at times, it has been used as an excuse.  I know that my small brain is not capable of understanding everything about our enormous God.  I’m pretty sure that I won’t ever fully understand how God’s sovereignty lines up with our responsibility.  I do know though that He is sovereign, but we are also held responsible and accountable for our actions. 

Each night we read out of “The Mighty Acts of God” a family Bible story book by Starr Meade.  I absolutely LOVE this book.  It may be a little over Kadynce’s head for a while, but we really have enjoyed reading a story from it each night as a family.  Kadynce holds her own little bible and looks at pictures while we read.  It’s so sweet.  Anyways, last night we read about how Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, but God used it for good and for His purpose.  If you aren’t familiar with the story, Joseph ended up becoming a great ruler and helped provide food to the people of Egypt during a time of famine.  At the end of the story in this book Starr Meade sums it up this way “The Bible makes it clear that when people intend evil, as Joseph’s brothers did, it is wrong and God will hold them accountable for it.  At the same time, though, the Bible tells us that God is always at work in everything that happens to accomplish His purposes.” 

Do I completely understand exactly how everything fits together?  No.  Do I believe God is sovereign?  Yes.  Do I believe we will be held accountable for our actions?  Absolutely.  Most importantly I believe that God is good and He does good.     

Pumpkin Muffins

Last weekend I decided to try my hand at some pumpkin muffins.  The recipe I used is here.

You should definitely give them a try.  They were delicious and oh so easy.  

*Pictures compliments of my sweet husband :) 

Seeds

My wonderful sister in law, Susan bought Kadynce a set of these CDs for her birthday.  Let me just tell you, they are AWESOME!  It is just pure scripture set to fun and contemporary music.    

Not only does Kadynce love them, but Mommy and Daddy do too.  It is just such a great way to hide God's word in your heart.  Another really cool thing about them is that each CD comes with an extra copy to give to a friend.  So very neat if you ask me.  You can go here to check them out for yourself.

Bandwagon

With all of the sporting events going on these days we are seeing many people that are known as “bandwagon” fans.  These are people that are big fans of a team when they are doing well and winning and then the minute they start losing they decide they are no longer fans.  I think that this term can be used to refer to other things than just sports.  For example, you may be a huge supporter of a politician when they are making decisions that benefit you and make you happy, but the minute they make one mistake you pull your support.  The other example I can think of and the one I would like to talk about is the “Radical Bandwagon.”  I know many churches have challenged their congregation to read the book “Radical” by David Platt.  I have read the book and have even referred to it on my blog before.  Please don’t get me wrong.  I think it is a wonderful book that speaks truth and puts things in perspective, but I have to wonder how many of us are just bandwagon fans of the book?  I mean we preach “sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice,” but are we really willing to practice it? 

We have some good friends that are a great example of this.  Without going into a lot a detail I can definitely say that they have sacrificed for what God has called them to do.  They even gave up their house so he could continue to minister at the church that he was at.  He could have easily found another job, they would have been able to continue living where they were, and would have been able to stay comfortable without any changes.  This is not what they chose to do though because they knew God’s plan is bigger than their own.  They made the decisions that they did very humbly.  They did not flaunt that they were sacrificing.  They just did it because they knew it was right. 

On his way to submit his letter of resignation Jonathan got a phone call from a pastor at a church about 3 hours away.  He said they were in need of a worship pastor and would love for him to come interview and lead worship one Sunday.  Both mine and Jonathan’s immediate reactions were “thanks, but no thanks.”  I mean we like being close to family and we just bought our house a year ago.  We like where we are.  We are comfortable and not interested in changing that.  The pastor said ok, but he would still like for us to come visit if for nothing else, but the experience and the start of a friendship.  Jonathan told him that sounded good and that we would be looking forward to it.  After that God quickly began to work on our hearts.  We realized that this church may be where God wants us and we may have to make a few sacrifices, but that is what he has called us to do.  Here I had been leading our life group through a book about sacrifice, but was I willing to actually take that step of faith?  I want to practice what I preach.    

This is just something that has been on my mind lately as I know many of us have been enthusiastic about making big changes in our lives and fully living for the Lord.  Are we just jumping on the bandwagon or are we in it for the long haul?  Are we willing to stick with it through the thick and thin?  Please be in prayer for our family as we try to follow where the Lord is leading us.