by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Today I’d like to introduce a new series, Sunday Snippets.
Summit Church has an amazing team of pastors including Jason Malone, Kyle Estepp, and the Mauldin Campus Pastor, Brooke Taylor. One cannot help but want to take notes—and share them—so every Sunday afternoon, I plan to post pithy points jotted down during the morning service.
Most are not written down verbatim. Please visit Summit’s site to listen to the sermon in its entirety, if you wish.
Kyle continued in Galatians 3:25 – 4:7, focusing on our adoption in Christ.
Three ways becoming a child of God changes us:
1. Our adoption secures us. It’s a love that cannot be earned or achieved, but simply received.
2. Our adoption embraces us. It says you are My child. It’s a love that gives us unlimited access to our Father at all times—a love that can never be taken from us. Never!
3. Our adoption motivates us. In biblical times, the oldest son carried on the family business. As children of God, we too are to carry on – to display – the Father’s work through our lives.
Because of our access to the Father, our position in Christ, and our empowerment through the Holy Spirit, why do we so often choose to live as orphans and hired servants instead of children of the King?
Let us choose to live in the freedom of our adoption!
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:14-17
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Favorite quotes included in Writing Tides, a recent read by Kent Ira Groff :
Writing is a way of paying attention to things twice, savoring their layers, their essence. -Groff
The world is charged with the grandeur of God…And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things. -Gerald Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. -Robert Frost
Worriers have active imaginations. So use your creative gift to create optional endings to the same predicament. That’s the stuff novels are made of. That’s why they’re called novels—they give you a novel slant on the peculiar dynamics of life. -Groff
Many of the best insights come unbidden in a moment of not thinking directly about a subject. -Groff
There are years of our lives that ask questions and years that answer. -Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Swimming lessons are better than a lifeline to the shore. -C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Healthy disciplines embody oscillating tides of solitude and solidarity, contemplation and communication, resting and risking, silence and speech. -Groff
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Obsessing over: Hydrangeas. Bountiful blooms scattered throughout the garden greeted us upon our arrival Saturday afternoon. The Nikko blue hydrangeas were snipped from a plant I dug up in my grandmother’s yard prior to her move to assisted living, making them extra special to me.
Working on: A writing schedule. I’ve allowed a multitude of distractions to disrupt the schedule I began in January but today is a new day! I returned from the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Conference with a fresh sense of purpose, including a renewed desire to step up my devotional writing. While at the beach last week, I learned that
Upper Room decided to accept my meditation. The publish date is May/June 2013. Talk about revving up a writing engine!
Thinking about: How much I’d enjoy a screened-in porch right now. (Perhaps, I should instead be thinking about the pitfalls of envy)
Anticipating: The arrival of our second grandchild — a little boy from Uganda. We’re not sure when his arrival will take place but we are certain that God has His hand upon him and is preparing him to become part of a family that already loves him very much.
Listening to: Bumblers smack the window panes as if they’re doing somersaults off a spanking new Springfree™ trampoline. It doesn’t get much more exciting than this, friends.
Eating: Healthier. Steven James, when speaking on The Four Secrets to Success, told of how we need to keep tuning our instrument (minds), which included eating healthy foods and exercising.
Wishing: I’d had more options yesterday when I had to put our cat to sleep. She’d been gone for about a week and returned home injured quite badly. She was, by far, the sweetest outdoor cat that’s ever happened upon my back porch. Lucy will be missed.
Despite the last entry, composing this post was a lot of fun. Want to give it a try on your blog? Check out the post that inspired this one, thanks to
Allison Martin, first-place winner for the blog category. Visit her site,
The Budget Maven, and you’ll see why.
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Only hours before the awards ceremony at Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writer’s Conference, I crossed paths with Julie at the Cloud Cafe. Although I’d received a positive critique from Dr. Donn Taylor the day prior, I had low expectations of placing in this year’s poetry contest and I was disappointed — not in the assumed outcome, but by the fact that I was…well, disappointed. Why did the award mean so much? Did it mean too much? Would a loss deter me from the path of poetry?
God, through Julie, helped me to see how I was on the cusp of believing the lie that a piece of paper could validate my writing—to myself and to others. God alone stirs this heart to communicate and takes the work to places of His making. I simply need to be obedient (is there anything simple about obedience?)
Tears flowed. Hope arose. God’s Validation Gratefully Received. Win or Lose.
Later than evening, as Eva Marie Everson announced the winners for the poetry category, peace sheltered my heart from any possible disappointment. And then I heard these unexpected words: In first place, the winner is…“The One” by Cathy Baker.
Can I be honest? Hearing your name called, while thunderous applause erupts from those you most respect, is an unforgettable experience. And yet, while making my way to the stage I recalled a quote written in my journal many years ago:
“It matters not if the world has heard or approves or understands…the only applause we’re meant to seek is that of nail-scarred hands.” ― B.J. Hoff
To God be the glory.
Not What My Hands Have Done
Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.
These guilty hands are raised, filthy rags are all I bring
And I have come to hide beneath your wings
These holy hands are raised, Washed in the fountain of your grace
And now I wear your righteousness
Thy work alone oh Christ can ease this weight of sin
Thy blood alone, oh Lamb of God, can give me peace within
Thy Love to me, oh God, not mine oh Lord to Thee
Can rid me of this dark unrest and set my Spirit free
Thy grace alone oh God to me can pardon speak
Thy power alone oh Lamb of God can this sore bondage break
No other work save thine, no other blood will do
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through
I praise the God of grace; I trust his truth and might
He calls me his, I call him mine, My God, my Joy, my Light
My Lord has saved my life and freely pardon gives;
I love because he first loved me, I live because he lives.
– Aaron Keyes
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Care to guess who quickly became the center of attention
this week at the beach?
And rightfully so.
Zach and Piper
Sarah and Piper
Brandon and Piper
Megan and Piper
Dad and Piper
Piper’s first swimmie time
Last year we knew a baby girl would be joining us for this year’s family beach trip—and now, Lord willing, we look forward to introducing Brandon and Megan’s little boy to the yearly family beach trips next summer.
All good gifts truly are from the Lord above. (James 1:17)
