bless your heart

Finding Rest in Christ: 9 Practical Ways to Abide in God’s Promised Rest

September 9, 2014 by amanda 6 Comments

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Walking down the beach just after sunrise, I see a young woman meditating. She’s in a yoga position (lotus) near to where the waves lap the shore. She looks peaceful, and I pass by quietly.

She feels “it.”

That’s how I feel, too, when the salty ocean breeze cools my face and my little boy is laughing and splashing and none of my loved ones are sick and I’ve paid all the bills (for now). It’s how I feel when I’ve not blown it on the third slice of chocolate cake, when my toddler didn’t wake up before I was ready, and when nobody has offended me or misunderstood me in a few weeks.

Then, I feel “it,” too.…

Finding Rest in Christ: Producing the Fruit of an Abiding Life

August 28, 2014 by amanda 7 Comments

Unless you have been born from above, you cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit. Your unsaved children cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit; your unsaved family members and coworkers cannot bear the Spirit’s fruit; and we cannot bear the Spirit’s fruit either unless God has made us His own and given us the Spirit in our hearts. Only then will God’s Spirit work in us to change us …. but it has to be from the inside-out….

Finding Rest in Christ: Abide in Him

August 20, 2014 by amanda 4 Comments

In my most recent post in this series on Finding Rest in Christ, my words and prayer were to present to you a clear explanation and biblical understanding of the salvation offered by God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Today, I want to share those gospel truths again, for we who have trusted in Christ and are sealed and saved by God continue to need the Savior and his gospel every moment for the rest of our lives.

I have heard teachers and fellow Christians preach to the lost soul a true gospel, but to the Christian brother or sister teach a distorted one (Galatians 1:6-7)….and I have preached a faulty gospel to other Christians and myself, as well….

Finding Rest in Christ: The Gospel

August 15, 2014 by amanda 6 Comments

For the rest of this month on the blog I want to present some encouragement to you in a multi-part series on resting and abiding in Christ. The blessed rest and joy of abiding in Christ is a theme that is so great and so life changing, that I want to wade more deeply into God’s truths about the dependent, gospel-charged Christian life. If God will grant to reveal His Person to you more fully and lavishly in this regard, YOU WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN.

What a bold claim I make, but I testify from my own experience of God’s Spirit applying His words to pierce as far as the division of Amanda’s soul and spirit, changing my heart to know the true rest that comes from knowing Christ….

Infertility, Miscarriage, and the Gospel

June 11, 2014 by amanda 57 Comments

Last summer I was pregnant with our 3rd child. We had miscarried our first (baby Samuel), we had a healthy little boy running around our home, and God had blessed us with another child. At my 12 week checkup with this third pregnancy, however, there was no heartbeat. Due to various reasons, we had to have a D & C, and it of course took me a couple of days to recover.

The next week it seemed that I “woke up” and realized what had just happened. We had lost our little baby (baby Joy), and I had to face God all over again with my pain and heartache. I pulled out a book by C. S. Lewis that my brother had given me (the book had, Providentially, been a Christmas gift the week before we miscarried our first child), as the message therein had been a source of great comfort to me after our first miscarriage. I preached to myself again the gospel and the words that had comforted me 2 1/2 years earlier after our first loss. I began to recount to myself what God had done and where God had brought me. The words I wrote then are recorded below.. &hearts;…

Trusting God when He Breaks Your Heart

June 11, 2014 by amanda 38 Comments

{As I write these words to you on Trusting God when He Breaks Your Heart, I tread very cautiously, as I understand the great responsibility of speaking rightly and truthfully to you on the character of God. With much prayer and after months of working to write this article so that it speaks nothing more and nothing less than God declares in His word, I ask God to show you glorious truths about Himself and to reveal the knowledge of God to you in a deeper and more intimate way.}…

bless your heart

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