I've tried coming back here to blog a few times in the last year or so instead of posting on my facebook wall, and I've failed every time. So going to try this again, because I know the more I do it the easier it will get.

I know my posts over there are a hit and miss with some, so it would be much better to write it all out together so nothing is missed or misinterpreted and then share my blog over there.

What I've been learning the last few months... 

For bible study we have all been meeting together, men and women, to go through Timothy Keller's book, Gospel in Life Grace Changes Everything. 

You can watch the videos that go with it on youtube, 

here's one of them:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5XRYVWehkU 

It is taking us into a deeper understanding of what the Gospel is and so far taken us deeper into our lives so as to find our core idol/sin that controls our lives. Most of the time we don't even realize it. Which I didn't. It took a lot of digging and prodding to get to it. 

We always look at our surface sins, the coping sins, but we don't realize that nothing will change unless we repent of the foundation of our sin. Which is what we idolize most even without realizing it.

There are four core sins/idols:

Power

Approval

Comfort

Control

 

Mine is control, which spider webs into my surface/coping sins: worry, anger, fear, irritability, debilitation, comfort and so on and so on. 

So what do I do with it?

Confess, repent and rejoice in Christ.

Does it change everything in a blink of an eye?

No, it is something that will continue to try and take control of me. Yes, in wanting control I give up my control to control. Stupid circle. 

But I know where to go and that is to my gracious savior.

Failure will always be there because we live in a broken world. But by the grace of God I will continue to grow in Him despite my failures.

I've been following Paul Tripp and Timothy Keller on facebook and usually share what they post. It's encouraging to me and at times convicting. I highly recommend following them. ^__^

Also read Lamentations 3 today. After I had posted something I was struggling with over on facebook, the worship song that comes from this passage started running through my head.

Lamentations 3:17-41

 

 My soul is bereft of peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness is; 

 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the Lord.”

 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall! 

 My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me. 

 But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end; 

 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. 

 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him. 

 It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord. 

 It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

 Let him sit alone in silence
    when it is laid on him; 

let him put his mouth in the dust—
    there may yet be hope; 

 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
    and let him be filled with insults.

 For the Lord will not
    cast off forever, 

 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 

 for he does not afflict from his heart
    or grieve the children of men.

 To crush underfoot
    all the prisoners of the earth, 

 to deny a man justice
    in the presence of the Most High, 

 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
    the Lord does not approve.

 Who has spoken and it came to pass,
    unless the Lord has commanded it? 

 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come? 

 Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins?

 Let us test and examine our ways,
    and return to the Lord! 

 Let us lift up our hearts and hands
    to God in heaven: 

^{There Will always be struggle but my God is so much greater than anything in this broken world and for this I'm thankful.}

^{His grace is sufficient for me.}