In case you haven’t been around the last couple of weeks there are two announcements that I wanted to make sure you don’t miss.

First, Sunday the 22nd is our membership Sunday.  We will be recognizing new members who are eager to express their love for and commitment to ASGF.  I know there are quite a few of you who have a desire to do this (and have just been procrastinating) so here is the link to the membership application.  You will need to fill out the application and meet with an elder in the next week and half in order to be ready for the 22nd.

If you want to be reminded of what membership is all about, here is the letter from the elders that we gave out a couple of months ago.  Also, I have done some posts on membership in the past if you want to read up on it- here, and here.

Second, Friday the 20th we are putting on an event called “Dinners for 8.”  This is an opportunity to get together with other people in the church for a meal and fellowship.  If you want to get to know people in our body you might not know or normally interact with this is a great way to do it.  This Sunday is the last day to sign up for it, so check your schedule and sign up with Julie Vincent on Sunday.

The following is a post from Abraham Piper on his blog- Twenty-Two Words. It’s a little frightening but I think we need to hear it.

Post title- “Struggle: Christianese for ‘Giving in to sin, but then feeling guilty.”

We’re not porn-addicts; we “struggle with lust.”

We’re not arrogant; we “struggle with pride.”

With a simple cliché our sins become palatable.

The following quote from Sam Storms was posted by Justin Buzzard on his blog. Where am I finding my identity right now?

“The prideful person is obsessed with comparisons, always measuring himself/herself against others. The proud person finds his identity in relation to someone he thinks of as a lesser (which encompasses just about everyone). The humble person finds his identity in relation to someone he knows is greater: Jesus!”                                  -Sam Storms

C.J. Mahaney has recently written a series of blog posts on fathers leading their families on family vacations.  I found this a helpful call to give thought to something I normally just do without thinking.

The full text is available here in a pdf document. Below are a couple of highlights.

Here’s what I’ve learned. The difference between forgettable vacations and unforgettable vacations is not the location or attractions. Nope. The difference between forgettable and unforgettable vacations is the father’s attitude and leadership. This makes all the difference.

And you will know you are serving and leading effectively on your vacation when you fall into bed at night more exhausted than at the end of the most grueling day of work. The father must enter family vacations committed to serve, lead, plan, initiate, and work, and do all this with joy. This isn’t your time to rest. Only your wife deserves to rest on vacation (because no one works harder than she does the rest of the year).
But for the husband, vacations are a unique opportunity to serve and lead and work harder in some ways than he does during the normal work week. But this kind of work is a pure joy like no other work.

Vacations provide unhurried periods of time where in the shadow of the cross a husband/father realizes afresh that he is doing much better than he deserves. Instead of wrath and hell God has been merciful and kind, pouring out his wrath on his Son so that sinners like you and me could experience forgiveness, justification, redemption, reconciliation, and adoption.

And because of the cross, evidences of grace abound in our lives, beginning in our families. We should be specifically grateful to God for each member of our family and express this gratefulness to them. Vacations are opportunities to discern and celebrate these unique gifts from God that we don’t deserve.

No one should be happier on vacation than you are. During our vacation our children should repeatedly observe us smiling and laughing, and throughout the vacation they should be the objects of our affection and appreciation.

Your attitude on family vacation will be changed when you perceive the graciousness of God that surrounds you in the form of your family.

It’s about being together as a family. What a family does together is much more important than where a family goes together. It’s possible to invest some serious coin in a family vacation and not experience the deepening of relationships as a family. And it’s possible to have a low-budget vacation that is truly wealthy in what matters, developing close relationships as a family, and creating memories that make a difference, all for the glory of God.

Vacations are a gift from God. I want my family to perceive God’s kindness and generosity each day, and I want them to express their gratefulness to God each day. But in order for this to take place we need discerning hearts and eyes. So at the outset of a vacation I equip my family with theologically informed discernment, because it’s possible for us to be blessed by God but not perceptive of God or grateful to God. Fathers, it is our privilege and responsibility to model gratefulness to God for our family during vacations.

The following is a post written by Stephen Altrogge over at The Blazing Center blog.  As we serve Christ each day in our jobs, in our families, in our community, and in our church may we have a heart to promote God’s glory.

I’m a pretty big fan of myself. If a Stephen Altrogge fan club existed, I would be the first to join. And the truth is, I want others to be big fans as well. I want people to associate my name with great songs, great preaching, great blogs, and great books. When people hear me preach I want them to come away saying, “Never since the days of Charles Spurgeon have we heard someone preach with such authority!” I want my name to be mixed in with words like “incredible”, “life-changing”, and “steals your breath away”. Why? Because I’m really proud and want people to worship me instead of God.

Can you relate? Maybe it’s not books or blogs, but computers or basketball. You don’t want people to think you’re a great preacher, but you would love for them to think you’re an incredible project manager. Or mom. Or intelligent college student. Or great elementary school teacher. You get the point.

When I see my pride it makes me sick. I want to have the attitude of Charles Spurgeon. Listen to these words from his autobiography:

“While I was on the lower ground, riding in a hansom cab, I saw a light before me, and when I came near the hill, I marked that light gradually go up the hill, leaving a train of stars behind it. This line of new-born stars remained in the form of one lamp, and then another, and another. It reached from the foot of the hill to its summit. I did not see the lamplighter. I do not know his name, nor his age, nor his residence; but I saw the lights which he had kindled, and these remained when he himself had gone his way. As I rode along, I thought to myself, ‘How earnestly do I wish that my life may be spent in lighting one soul after another with the sacred flame of eternal life! I would myself be as much as possible unseen while at my work, and would vanish into eternal brilliance above when my work is done’”

O let that be my attitude! That I might seek to serve God without any thought of personal glory. That I might set people aflame with love for God without ever being seen myself. That the glory of God would be my one, consuming obsession. I’m not there yet, but I want to be.

At 10:16 pm on Wednesday, June 4th the Gaede’s welcomed a new baby girl into their family, Kaelyn Grace Gaede.  Kaelyn was 6 lbs 11oz,19 inches long.  Congrats to the Gaedes!

They should be coming home today.  If you want to get on the list to help provide meals over the next couple of weeks talk to Shannon Bell on Sunday.

God is a giver of good gifts!

I have recently started reading a blog entitled “Of First Importance.”  Every day they post a quote about the gospel.  It is good stuff.  Here are two recent ones I particularly enjoyed.

“Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is here, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.”

- John Stott, The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1968), 179.

Joe Carter, who writes at a blog called The Evangelical Outpost, recently posted on the issue of gluttony.  While we may joke about how much we can eat or how much we love good food if we stop and think about it I think we might be appropriately convicted.

Far from spoiling your dinner working through this issue in light of the gospel should free us up to enjoy food as it was intended- for God’s glory and with thanks to Him.  Knowing our own motives and finding the right balance may not be easy but it is worth thinking about.

Gluttony was once listed among the seven deadly sins. But now it’s considered, when it’s thought about at all, as a private health matter. We may realize that overeating has led to weight gain, a change in appearance, or diminished health. But we never recognize it as a spiritual problem.

Oddly enough, with the exception of those related to sex, American Christians tend to take an antinomian view of “physical sins.” We act as if corrupting our bodies will have no impact on our souls. Such an un-Biblical view, however, must be rejected by anyone who acknowledges that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Lest we start to feel superior to the obese neighbors, we should remember that not all gluttons are overweight. I’m 5′10′, 180 lbs and though I no longer have to endure the rigors of Marine Corps martial arts, I’m still in relatively decent shape (pear-shaped, perhaps, but still…). But while my waistline may not completely expose my shame, I’m prone to overindulging in food. I eat several snacks between meals. I eat when I’m in my car. I eat when I’m bored. I eat when I’m restless, when I’m frustrated, when I’m watching TV, when I’m on the computer–I eat constantly for no other reason than that I can.

In stuffing my face, I neglect my spiritual life. I turn to the refrigerator instead of turning to prayer. I pause at the vending machine instead of pausing in meditation. I seek out a piece of bread instead of seeking the Bread of Life. I fill my life with food in order to avoid filling it with God.

“Their end is destruction,” the Apostle Paul warned, for those for whom “their god is the belly.” We worship a false idol when we succumb to the sin of gluttony. We replace the focus on the Lord with a focus on our own indulgences. We make a god of our belly and allow our souls to turn softer than the creme filling in our Twinkies.