Something to Behold

As if I need more reasons to love my wife, I have found another that I feel is worth sharing with the world. I will probably get in trouble for this but what she did was and is so inspiring to me that it will be worth it. Not only has she inspired me by her actions but also by the report she returned from her action. I feel that this is worth sharing.

This is a story that begins with disappointment. Last Sunday night, after returning home from church, our home soon began to have the glorious odor of something from the goodie genre cooking in the oven. Upon my investigation, I found that my wife was cooking bread, banana-nut bread to be exact, and it smelt glorious. I knew that she had been speaking of possibly making a Thanksgiving basket to give to the elderly widows who reside around us but I did not know she intended to do it this soon. Disheartened when told that none was for our family, I told her what a great woman she was and how proud I was to be her husband.


She literally spent hours baking these loaves of bread and my heart went back to my childhood and memories of my mother working away to make and deliver her now famous pound cakes to the sick, bereaved, or just her friends. I thought about how fortunate I was to have such a wife and how useless it would be for me to offer her any help. I am mean with the grill but baking is not my forte. Needless to say, I was happy when she was finished and we could settle in and watch the recorded episode of Amazing Race, her favorite show, from that night.


The next day, for some reason that I don't know, I decided to come home and get my lunch. As I pulled into our driveway I was met by Joy and our infant son Kip. They were leaving to go make their deliveries. At first I wanted to ask if that was not something that all of us should do as a family but I quickly realized that this was her mission and that doing this on her timeline and

to her pleasure would be best. So that she would feel no obligation to stay with me while I ate I told her I would just get something to eat elsewhere, told her I loved her, and returned to my office. I couldn't help but smile as I saw her in my rearview mirror with her baskets pushing the stroller on her way to do her good deed.

As the day progressed I thought several times about how it went for her. I wondered if the women were home, if they were warm and welcoming, and if the baby had behaved. I knew in my heart though that all would go well because I knew the driving force behind her action. I knew that the sole purpose of her action was to glorify God and in her own small (easy for me to say) way let his love shine out of her. What a great woman and what an amazing fruit of the spirit that Christ provides.



As I got home though and asked her how it went, I was not met with a message of happiness but rather one of stark realization. While Joy did report that all of the eight widows she visited were happy for the company and that they enjoyed holding and playing with the baby, she was most overwhelmed by the loneliness and quiet that these ladies live in. None of these ladies live in what we would consider desolate situations. They all have large homes but Joy was shocked by the fact that they only use part of their homes. The rest remains shut off and rarely used. They have these homes but live in apartments they build into their homes. What was most shocking ot her though was the quiet they live in. While so many of us reside in homes that always has the television, the radio, the computer, or some other noisy distraction going, these ladies all lived in utter quiet. Joy commented on how she could hear the clocks all ticking and the appliances shutting on and off in an intrusive fashion. Yet, that is the life these ladies, none of whom live more than a few hundred yards from us, live. Desolate, shut off, and quiet is their lifestyle.

That leads to the reason that I write this. How easily are we caught up in our own lives, forgetting about the ones who need our time the most around us? Some of these ladies are the ones who you shake hands with or hug at church on Sunday, never once thinking about what it is they will be returning home to. How happy they must be to have company and someone to spend time with talking to. I can think of widows I personally know who their own children do not even visit them. However, I cannot judge them because the only time I tend to think about visiting them is if they are sick. What a difference we can make in someone's life though by the most simple of good deeds. While I am sure the bread was an added treat, just our time spent with them would be a gift they must cherish. This is not to be done to make our lives or relationship with God better, but rather to glorify God by making someone else's life better.

I struggled over the weekend to think of scripture that would put the light I see my wife in at this time into words. What I came up with was the following:

Psalm 119:124-128

124Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love, and teach me your statutes. 125I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies! 126It is time for the LORD to act, for your law has been broken. 127Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. 128Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.

That is my wife - how lucky am I

Pilgrim's Map of the Day

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Here's your map of what is catching my eye and heart today.

* First up, sometimes you see something that makes you realize how much detail and work God put into the creation. This video about worms, sea stars, and dead seals did that for me. Just watch and think about this creation that we rarely even see, much less think about. God is amazing. Here's the link (embedding was disabled).

* This makes me sad but no more so when I see other people using Christ and

Christianity in marketing ploys. The picture here is of a body spray (think Axe or Bath & Body Works) that somehow uses the scent of Christ to attract the opposite sex. How sad, but at least you get 20% more Jesus free in each can. I wonder what God must think when he sees such things. Just so you know what the "world" thinks of this, this image was found in "comedy" section of the Huffington Post.

* Along the same thought as the above picture comes this picture found in the Museum of Idolatry. I don't think any words I could use could better sum this up than the words used at the Museum of Idolatry.

"Sassy, Savvy, Saved is the slogan for the website for ChurchGurl's 'christian products' for women. We think they forgot one "S" word.....Slutty."

* This made me laugh because there is so much truth tucked within this satirical video. Sadly, this is what so many want despite the Biblical truths that it will never happen. Nice touch with the "Do right or I might smite" plaque in the house. Trey Morgan offered up a nice reminder also that we Christians are to be in the world, just not of it.

The Purpose Driven Death

Paul's letter to the Galatians is possibly my favorite of all the epistles. Not only does this letter show us that the gospel was now available for both Jew and Gentile it also reveals to us the curse that was the law (see chapter 3) of God and that living a life in which we strive to justify ourselves by law keeping, or following the curse, is foolishness. Why though? Why is Paul so adamant in this letter regarding the fact that the people in this church he had helped to plant are now, for lack of a better phrase, legalistic slaves. I find Paul's answer to this question in the 21st verse of chapter 2 of Galatians where he writes:

"I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness
were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

This statement comes after Paul reminded the Galatian church that his life he lives now, although he remains in the flesh, he lives through his faith that Christ Jesus' blood shed on the cross is enough to cover his sins, past and present. Paul, the man who recognized himself as the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), is telling this church and us today that although you find yourself unable to satisfy the burden that is the law of God, have hope. His suggestion is not "try harder." His advise as guided by the Holy Spirit to deliver is not, "do better." No, Paul's advise is to remember that there is ZERO righteousness that comes from working the law. Paul's advise is to remember that we Christians are saved by grace that was poured out on the cross at Calvary.


Paul condemns the Christians of Galatia with, to me, the most disheartening words any lover of Christ could hear. He tells them that because they are seeking to please God through their works of human minds and hands, that Christ's bloody and violent death was for nothing. "...Christ died for no purpose." If it were possible for us to save ourselves, or others for that matter, through being good or even being "Christ-like" (I deplore that term, for who of us can be spotless) then there was no purpose for Christ to have suffered as He did. Paul, in the most resounding and condemning of ways reminds these people that God in human flesh came not to save a people who are just choosing not to listen and act or who have some evil agenda, but rather to save a people who are lost, hopeless, and hell-bound without Him.

As we find ourselves today dwelling in a culture of "purpose driven lives" that are powerlessly staggering to find righteousness and their mission here on Earth let us remember the one and only life that has walked on this soil with any truly righteous purpose. As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, are we thankful for the works of our hands or the works of the nail-driven hands? Are we choosing sides based on our own works and wants or are we allowing ourselves to be rinsed of our own helplessness by the blood flowing from Christ's pierced side? Are we seeing our lives as good enough and pointing others to how great we are or are we reminding ourselves and others of our SHARED wretchedness and need for Christ's redemption?

If we are finding ourselves as being like the Galatians or having a life cached with good works we think we can present to God in our own justification, the call to all of us is to repent. To become dependent on our own works, actions, and ideals, or to strive to make others see how to become more loved or pleasing in the eyes of God is idolatry in it's purest form. We need to repent of this and cast all of our hope and care on Christ. The fruits of this will naturally follow. Let us be Christians who don't condemn one another or even the world but rather Christians who help one another in their sinful and lives. Christ died for a purpose. That purpose was to save us, even in our present state today and because no matter how hard we try, we will sin tomorrow. Christ's purpose was to save you and I from sending ourselves to Hell. To think and teach otherwise, as Paul put it, makes Christ's death pointless and with no purpose.

A Beautiful Surprise

Below is the sight I walked in on as I came home from work yesterday. I snuck this picture but I cannot think of a more beautiful sight then that of your seven-year-old son taking time to read and study the inerrant word of God. My heart leaps for joy to see him doing this on his own.

I love you Luke.

Pilgrim's Map of the Day

Welcome to all today. Here is what's catching my eye today and helping me to grow. I hope it does the same for you.

* Apprising Ministries provides a great post on the growing homosexual agenda in today's "evangelicalism." This is a detaile post that I suggest you explore the links embedded in it.

* Chris over at Extreme Theology has some pretty poignant observations regarding organizations that boycott businesses for not saying Christmas but that overlook so much worse sins. GOOD STUFF!!

* Deckchair.com offers up an interesting look at some of the world's most unique golf courses/holes.

* FUNNY!!!

* Finally, Adam Faughn has a great post on the problem with apathy. Very insightful.