The Hole in our Holiness

I finally finished reading The Hole in our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung and enjoyed every bit of it. I have been reading this book for awhile now due to 3 little ones that make it challenging to have any leisure time :) There were so many wonderfully convicting things in this book and I am still going over much of it in my head.

Some highlights:
-In Christ every believer has a once-for-all positional holiness, and from this new identity every Christian is commanded to grow in the ongoing-for-your-whole-life process of holiness (Phil 2:12-13).
-The world's holiness is not found in being true to God; it's found in being true to yourself... The world stands for everything that opposes the will of God. In it's simplest form, this means "the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions" (1John 2:16). Or to put it another way, worldliness is whatever makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange.
-The Bible is full of commands. They aren't meant to stifle a relationship with God, but to protect it, seal it, and define it. First God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, then he game them the law. God's people were not redeemed by observing the law, but they were redeemed so they might obey the law.
-So, there is no abiding in Christ's love apart from keeping Christ's commandments (John 15:10). Which means there is no fullness of joy apart from the pursuit of holiness (v 11).
-Preachers must preach the law without embarrassment. Parents must insist on obedience without shame. The law can, and should, be urged upon true believers-not to condemn, but to correct and to promote Christlikeness.
-When we sin, our union with Christ is not in jeopardy. But our communion is.
-One of the main motivations for obedience is the pleasure of God....If we are his true children we will also love to please him. It will be our delight to delight in him and know that he is delighting in us.
-God doesn't ask us to get familiar with sexual immorality on the big screen, TV screen, or smart phone screen so that we can engage the culture. He commands us to get away.
-First, the main goal in all relationships is to glorify God, not to get as close to sinning as possible. (regarding sexual sin)
- Sexual sin is terribly serious because it is a sin against your own body and a sin against the body of Christ of which you are a member. If you can't picture Christ with a prostitute or Christ in front of porn or Christ sleeping around, then you shouldn't picture yourself in those circumstances either. Your belong to Christ. More than that, you are joined to Christ. If his body is pure, yours should be too.

I really like this quote from his book:
Second, the gospel aids our pursuit of holiness by telling us the truth about who we are. Certain sins become more difficult when we understand our new position in Christ. If we are heirs to the whole world, why should we envy? If we are God's treasured possession, why be jealous? If God is our Father, why be afraid? If we are dead to sin, why live in it? If we've been raised with Christ, why continue in our old sinful ways? If we are seated in the heavenly places, why act like the devil of hell? If we are loved with an everlasting love, why are we trying to prove our worth to the world? If Christ is all in all, why am I so preoccupied with myself?


Finally, DeYoung lays out 4 practices for oneness with Christ or for better communion with Christ. Communion or fellowship with Christ is essential for holiness and even though Christ is the one who draws us closer to himself we still have a role to play. The four practices are:
1. We pursue communion with Christ through prayer
2. We pursue communion with Christ through the word of truth
3. We pursue communion with Christ through fellowship with other Christians
4. We pursue communion with Christ through partaking of the Lord's Supper.

The summer is flying by

Our summer is just flying by and I can't believe we are almost at the end of August. Here are a few pictures from our summer.

Snow cones with Uncle Mikey and Aunt Jules

A day out with Daddy

Happy Gracie after eating her first s'more

Finger painting outside

Hannie wearing one of my baby dresses

Face painting and balloon animals at the mall

Painting with Papi

Ice-cream social at the mall

The Aquarium

My parents took all of us to the Aquarium in Grapevine, Texas today and the girls had a great time. It was our first time going since we moved to Texas. Claire and Grace loved looking at all the fish and Hannie fought through her nap so she could stay awake the whole time and take it all in. Auntie Julia came along and spent most of the trip holding either Claire or Grace through the whole aquarium. My childhood friend Kristin was also able to join us with her two little ones, Andi and Beau. Claire kept referring to the sting rays as Mr. Ray because that is the name of the sting ray in Finding Nemo. So here are some pics from our trip.

My dad and Jules with all the girls (Grace, Hannie, Andi, Claire)

Claire and Andi looking at all the fish

looking at sharks

Claire and Andi loved playing with the water

Hannie and Beau hanging out together

The girls were so good about posing for us

Auntie Julia and the girls

Claire's favorite part was watching the sting rays

Jump Park

A new trampoline jump park opened in Fort Worth this summer so my parents decided to take the girls last week. We had been once before with our playgroup and the girls LOVED it. It is a huge gym of trampolines and they have a big pit of foam squares that you can jump into. This time Gracie got the hang of it and was able to jump a lot with out falling. Claire was trying to do tricks in the air and was getting pretty good at the end of it. Even baby Hannie enjoyed getting into the foam pit and bouncing with her Papi (grandpa). After an hour of jumping my parents treated the girls and I to frozen yogurt and they let the girls pick whatever toppings they wanted. It was a great way to get out of the heat and have a fun time.

Gracie getting some air

Claire enjoying herself

Hannie, Papi, and Claire in the foam pit

Doing tricks

It was hard to get pics that weren't blurry from all the jumping

Sisters in the foam pit

Claire loved jumping into the foam squares

My sweet Hannie

Frozen yogurt treats

Always posing for the camera

She really loaded hers with toppings

I love having GIRLS!

I live in a girl world and love it. Claire and Grace are always wanting to dress up, put on jewelry, walk in high heels, put on their lip gloss, play make-believe, and twirl. Every time they are in my room they want to use my lotion and be 'spritzed' with my body spray. They love to have their nails painted and serve tea. Both girls love to sing and dance and put on performances in our living room. I am just enjoying these special moments and feeling very blessed to be a mommy to 3 little princesses.

On her way to a princess birthday party. She picked out all her accessories and requested her hair be in a bun.

Playing with my Grandma's costume jewelry.

Posing with her boa

Daddy, Claire and Hannie

Another Daddy's girl in the making

Gracie in her horse drawn carriage

Taco Bowls

I decided to make taco bowls for the family the other night and it was a big success. I usually fry tacos, which takes forever and of course they are not the healthiest thing we could eat. So I looked up taco bowls and loved what I found. You just spray a softened tortilla on both sides with vegetable oil and then place in an upside down cupcake pan. Bake them at 375 for 10-12 minutes and you have healthy taco bowls. I put out lots of fun toppings for the meat and the girls really enjoyed it. 

Taco bowls

Fun!

Ready to eat

Biting it

Tasting it

Enjoying it!

Your Family--God's Way

I forgot to post about Jason teaching Sunday school at our church.  He was asked to teach a 3 week series on family and has really been enjoying the opportunity to teach. You can listen to his first week on our church's website if you are interested. If you go to the website, click on sermons, then click on launch sermon player and a list will come up. Just click on 'Your Family-God's Way--Week 1 by Jason Kruis and you can listen to his teaching.

Our church's website is: http://cbcfortworth.org/