Ainsley Poulos on Colossians

"Hi" to those of you who came up and said "hi" at the Belgrave Heights Women's Convention. It was lovely to see some of you in the flesh!

It was a great day. I've been asked to share what we heard with you. I thought I'd start with Ainsley Poulos' talks on Colossians.

Ainsley reminded us that we live simultaneously in two ages: this age, and the age to come. When Jesus rose from the dead, he ushered in the new age. We've been raised with Christ, united to him, made complete in him. Yet we wait for his return, when the age to come will be all that there is (C0l. 3:1-4).

So we don't feel at home here, or experience heaven yet: we live in the now and the not yet.

We are united to Christ, in whom is all the fullness of God, and all wisdom and knowledge. Who is supreme over creation, and who holds it all together. Who has triumphed over every power, visible and invisible. Who has reconciled us to God through his death on the cross (Col. 1:13-20; 2:1-12).

We live in an age besotted with the spirit-world. Jesus is head over the spirit-world. To go to a clairvoyant, or read our horoscope, or boast of spiritual experiences, is to exchange priceless jewels for junk (Col. 2:18-19).

We are already united to Christ. Nothing can get us closer to Christ than we are now: no spiritual disciplines, no fasting, no worship. We don't need to call God down: he is here with us.

If it matters who you're united to in marriage, how much more does it matter who we're united to spiritually! Like Princess Mary of Denmark, whose marriage changed everything about her - her speech, her walk, her life - so union with Christ changes everything.

But we don't often feel like this. Why is it so hard? Why is life such a struggle? If I'm united to Christ, why don't I act like it? Why don't I look like a woman of the resurrection?

Because we live in the "now and the not yet". Because there's a difference between fact and feeling. Because "even a dead dog can swim with the current" - but we swim against it. Because the heavy hand of God rests on this world. Because God never promises a smooth journey: but he does promise a safe landing.

Don't believe the lie, "It's not the destination, but the journey." It's the destination which gives the journey meaning.

In the meantime, we "labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works" in us (1 Cor. 1:28-2:1). We refuse to be deceived by "fine-sounding arguments" (Col. 2:3, 8) which tell us complete victory over sin is available now. We put sin to death, clothe ourselves with love, live in peace with another, and set our hearts and minds on things above (Col. 3:1-17).

We think of sins like lust as male failings, but what about women (Col. 3:5)? Many women read books, go to movies, or watch TV shows, and move into fantasy land, dreaming about a man who would love, hold and protect us, but who is not our husband. We are to put this kind of thinking to death.

Who is in your grandstand? Whose cheers and boos do you listen to? There should be only one person in your grandstand - only one person whose opinion matters to you - and that is God.

Christ is at work with all his power to safely take us home, and no power, human or supernatural, can stop him. We have been raised with Christ. We can't be closer to him than we are right now. Now is the time to become who we are.

If you'd like to hear Ainsley's talks on Colossians, contact Belgrave Heights Convention.

Tomorrow, I'd like to share with you what Heather Reid taught about motherhood in the seminar we led together; the next day, I'll share what I said about motherhood.

online meanderings: missional motherhood

If you've ever wondered how motherhood and ministry fit together, have a look at this wonderful series by Nicole about missional motherhood. It's an oldy (last year is old in the bloggy world!), but a goody.

Should we focus on ministry inside or outside the home? Nicole asks the question:

When it comes to the question of how to be a disciple of Jesus and a mother of young children, something I've been noticing lately is the tendency to go in one of two directions with this.

1. The first is to (rightly) say that our families are our closest human relationships and our highest ministry responsibilities, and therefore to focus completely on that task, and in the process shelter our children away from the world and not think too much about sharing the gospel and our lives with others, or teaching our children to do the same.

2. The second is to (rightly) say that Jesus left his disciples with a commission to make disciples of all nations, and that the gospel has a momentum toward the end of the earth, and therefore to place a low value on anything (like raising children) that isn't "out there" in the world, doing mission among the unchurched (or - failing that - pursuing a ministry career among the churched!).

In the limited time that I have been a mum, I would say that I have been at both extremes at various points in time!

What I'm trying to think through is how I, as a mother, can have the right priorities of putting my husband and children as number one on my list of ministry responsibilities, while at the same time, making the most of the mission opportunities open to us as mothers.

She goes on to show how the 2 fit together, with lots of stories of real mothers and their ministry. Here they are:

missional motherhood month
the story of Agnes
ideas for missional motherhood
scripture teaching

mother's groups
making meals
Disciplines of a Godly Family
missional motherhood within the home
the story of Fran
the story of Cathy's friend
the story of Sophie
the story of Lara
mission to school mums
the story of Rachael
missional motherhood month: what I've learnt

image is from stock.xchng

coming home

I went to a wonderful conference yesterday: Belgrave Heights Women's Convention. Ainsley Poulos gave some great talks on Colossians, and I had the privilege of helping Heather Reid with a seminar on motherhood (more about that another time).

But it's the coming home I want to tell you about today.

My wonderful husband excells in looking after our 4 children on his own cheerfully and competently. So I left them in his hands without worrying.

I came home to find dinner started, the house pretty tidy, the children bathed and in their pyjamas ready for bed. Oh prince among men!*

But I was amused to find how many little tasks were left around the house, signs of a busy day:

- bottles of bubble mixture on the front verandah;
- rows of toys along the edge of the bath;
- a huge pile of dirty clothes on the floor near the laundry;
- bathers scattered around the house from Lizzy's dress-up game (don't ask me!);
- puzzles and games on the table;
- cups and plates next to the sink;
- shoes and socks in odd places;
- the remains of a one-child picnic in the hall.

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to show for my day. What have I been doing all day, at home with my 4 children?

But there they were, the signs of all the little tasks I do, without even noticing, as I care for our home. Clearing the table for dinner. Washing the clothes. Picking up some toys as I pass them in the hall. Tasks which make our family and our home a happy and welcoming place to be.

Are you a mum at home? Take a moment to reflect on all the tasks you do every day. Not to pat yourself on the back, but to remember what a valuable thing it is to be a mother serving your family.

* Please don't compare your husband to mine at this point - unless it's a positive comparison, of course! Like yours, there are tasks my husband does, and others I would like him to do; strengths he has, and weaknesses too. See loving my husband.

image is from stock.xchng

C.S.Lewis on heaven

There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. … It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all. … All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.

Quote is from C.S.Lewis, The Problem of Pain; image is from stock.xchng.

enjoying God (7) how can I know my joy is real?

Surely you can fake joy! How can I know the joy I feel is real?

Here's a few safeguards:

1. True joy is joy in the gospel.
If we trust in Jesus' death, and live for him, we can be 100% certain of living joyfully with God for all eternity (see 2W2L). Now there's good reason for joy!

Lots of religions promise joy in God. But Jesus doesn't give us the option of looking elsewhere. He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6).

2. True joy is joy in God's truth in the Bible.
In my experience, there's nothing to compare with the joy of getting to know God in his Word. "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Ps. 119:103).

We don't find God by emptying our minds and meeting God in the silence. Yes, God is beyond our understanding, and there will be times when this may leave us wordless. But joy in God begins with God's revealed truth about himself.

3. True joy is joy in God and his glory.
When I was a teenager, my Christian friend and I used to compare our "experiences" of God when we prayed. Until one day I realised it wasn't an experience of joy I was seeking: it was God himself.

In one sense, we don't seek joy at all. We seek Jesus, and in him we find our highest joy, for he is the desire and delight of all believers. We gladly become nothing, that he may be all in all.

4. True joy is joy in sacrificial obedience.
Jesus calls us to give up all we value to follow him. This is a sacrifice we delight to make, for in Jesus we have found a treasure beyond compare (Phil. 3:8).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, "Seek for happiness and you will never find it, seek righteousness and you will discover you are happy – it will be there without your knowing it, without your seeking it" (Matt. 5:6).

5. True joy is joy in suffering.
The health and wealth gospel promises joy, but it can't cope with sorrow. Only a joy robust enough to respond to suffering will last a lifetime. We follow Jesus, who "for the joy set before him endured the cross" (Heb. 12:2).

John Piper, the great teacher on joy, says his aim is not to soften cushions, but to sustain sacrifice: "The joy I write to awaken is the sustaining strength of mercy, missions, and martyrdom". Amen.

Quote is from John Piper's When I Don't Desire God p.19; images are from stock.xchng.

dust if you must

Yesterday, I was chatting to another pre-school mum about housework. I commented that there's less time for housework now I have children.

"Yes, I know!" she said. "I used to vacuum and sweep the floor 2 or 3 times a week. Now I only do it once a week. And these days, I only do half the dusting each week. One week I dust upstairs, the other downstairs."

I'm not sure we're on the same wavelength. Isn't dusting something you do when the shelves are nice and fuzzy?

My favourite quote about housework: "A house becomes a home when you can write 'I love you' on the furniture."

If you need more reasons not to dust, check out dust if you must. Image is from morguefile.

6 random facts about me

I've been tagged by Nicole to do this meme. Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who ‘tagged’ you!
2. Post the rules on your blog!
3. List 6 random facts about yourself!
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post!
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by commenting on their blog!
6. Let the tagger know the entry is posted on your blog!

Here are 6 random facts about me:

1. The first album I owned was Arrival by ABBA. When I was about 9, my friend and I used to play it loudly outside the house, and perform roller-skating routines (yes, 4-wheel not in-line skates) on my parents' steep driveway. Very Xanadu.

2. My worst haircut was a bowl haircut I never quite forgave my mother for when I was in grade 4. On the plane to Canada, where we lived for 6 months, the air stewardess mistook me for a boy. As you can see, I have never forgotten. But a Canadian boy called Ken got a crush on me despite the haircut, and showed his affection by pushing me regularly into snow drifts.

3. My husband and I love watching TV series on DVD. When we were younger, it was Star Trek. Since then, we've worked our way through, or are still working our way through, Babylon 5, Buffy, West Wing, Seinfeld, NCIS, House, Lost, 24, Alias, Stargate, and the new Doctor Who. Like reading a favourite book (especially The Lord of the Rings) I have been known to cry when they ended.

4. I convinced my footy-loving husband to read the novels of Jane Austen when he was in his early 20's. He loved them so much, he was going to name all our daughters after his favourite characters. We have only one daughter. Her name is Elizabeth, "Lizzy" for short, after the best Jane Austen character of all: Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. My husband has watched the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice so many times, he's worn out our DVD - not to mention all the other Jane Austen film adaptations from the 90's.

5. While we're on the topic of names, all our kids labour under the burden of 2 middle names. Each of our boys has one middle name after a grandparent, and one after a favourite theologian. Since our 3 boys only have 2 grandfathers, it's a good thing one of their grandmothers was mis-named "Francis", the male version of "Frances", on her birth certificate. Any daughters we had were also going to have one middle name after a grandmother, and one a fruit of the Spirit - Grace, Joy, Hope, Faith - but with 1 daughter, we didn't get far down the list.

6. I like to write journal entries, blog entries, and notes from talks and books, in those cheap spiral-bound hardcover notebooks you can buy from the supermarket. I'm sure this disappoints many of my stationary-loving friends, who could spend hours drooling in top-end stationary stores. Sorry, Ruth and Jenny.

And there you have it! Some random facts from the life of Jean.

Here's my nominations for this meme: Belinda, Pilgrim Penguin, Sue, and Sandra. Yes, you counted right, that's less than 6, I broke the rules. But I don't know many bloggers! Unless Gordo wants to have a go, but I guess most men are above these trivialities!

preaching hell to teenagers

How should we present the gospel to teenagers?

My husband was once asked to give some evangelistic talks to teenagers at a youth group camp. He was criticised for mentioning hell and God's judgement.

So I was interested to see that Tedd Tripp, in his excellent book Shepherding a Child's Heart, argues that the main part of the Bible teenagers need to hear is the major and minor prophets. This is so they will learn that God is "a consuming fire". As they learn the fear of God, their fear of man - of their peers - will lessen (pp. 187-9).

I heard the story recently of two men who became Christians as teenagers partly because of the doctrine of hell. Gordon describes his experience in preaching hell to depressed teens. Peter Jensen said of his conversion as a teenager:"The thing that appealed to me first was that God judges."

The fear of God's judgement is written deeply on our hearts, children, teenagers and adults. We can deny it, or we can address it, as Jesus does, with honesty and conviction. As we learn about our desperate situation, we also learn to flee to Christ, and to find grace and hope in the cross.

image is from stock.xchng

online meanderings: the high calling of motherhood

Sometimes the world of motherhood seems so small.

It doesn't help when Christians fail to see motherhood as ministry, or when society devalues motherhood and homemaking, so that stay-at-home mums are told "you're so lucky" as if they were footloose and fancy free.

Carolyn Mahaney reminds us that homemaking is not a holding pattern: "we are not simply circling the skies of life, waiting for God from His control tower to call us to real kingdom work. No, we’re doing that important work today".

(It's not only mothers who feel like they're waiting for real life to come along: the same attitude can affect childless and single women.)

Here's an encouraging quote from G.K.Chesterton, which reminds mothers of the wonder and enormity of our task:

Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. ... [Women are]generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't....How can it be a large career to tell other people's children [arithmetic], and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? ... No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.

Piper also gives a global vision for motherhood in How can eternity influence a mother's daily tasks?, a post I reflected on in motherhood: a big vision. But be warned: raise your children like this, and they might declare their desire to go to Kenya when they grow up!

But how do we go about raising our children? Here's some fantastic posts on the Bible's parenting essentials: teaching children about God throughout the day; God's call to discipline your children; and encouraging and giving a good example to your children. (I'll be giving my own take on the Biblical essentials of parenting soon over at Sola Panel.)

Perhaps you'd like to read some books, or listen to some talks, to inspire you as a homemaker and mother. Here's a list of books on homemaking, and some talks and books on marriage, family life, motherhood, and more.

One helpful book for mothers and homemakers is Carolyn Mahaney's Feminine Appeal. You might want to read along as they discuss it at Equip Books this month. Nicole's thoughtful and challenging first post on this book came out today.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one sometimes bewildered by parenting. This mother of 9 speaks about how she knows less about parenting than 8 years ago. And a mother with many children writes about what not to say to a mother of 12.

While you're at home with your kids, here's 10 ways to enjoy your little ones. Here's an 11th: I can't think of an activity much more fun than making a lava lamp together!

Here's a lovely post about Honoria's mum, which reminds us of the high esteem a faithful mother can have in a daughter's heart.

And here, from her heart to my heart to your heart, is a cry for perfection from a mother: if only I were perfect.

image is from stock.xchng

a 5-year old lives up to his middle name

Thomas' middle name is Luther. Which is very appropriate. For it was Luther who said, "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly." Here's a typical conversation:

Ben (7) - Mum, Thomas hit me!

Thomas (5) - (indignantly) No I didn't, I punched him!

Here's a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago:

Thomas - Mummy, I'm not going to do anything bad today.

Mum - Ok, you try and we'll see how you go with that.

10 minutes and several acts of naughtiness later:

Mum - Thomas, so how's it going? Have you managed not to do anything bad yet?

Thomas - No, Mummy (with a self-deprecating grin).

Mum - Well, honey, I've never gone through a day without doing anything bad either. Which is why we both need Jesus to die for us.

And just to show the lesson sank in, a week later:

Thomas - (gleefully) Mummy, you will be naughty every day!

Mum - (tongue in cheek) Thomas, it's good to see you're developing a robust understanding of your mother's sinfulness.

Moral of the story: never teach a child something you are unwilling for them to teach back to you.

And later that day ...

Mum - Thomas, do you remember the day you said you would do nothing bad?

Thomas - Ye-es.

Mum - Did you manage to do nothing bad?

Thomas - No. That was a lie!