Month: April 2015

Sovereignty of God, Trust

Blog Swap ~ I Haven’t Been Trusting the Lord

Michelle Lesley

blog swap

It’s time for another awesome blog swap! Blog swaps give me the opportunity to share other talented bloggers with you, plus offer you fresh content that’s a great supplement to our regular fare here. If you’d like to do a swap, click on the link above for more information.

I’m happy to be introducing another new blog to you today: Highly Sensitive Christian. Highly Sensitive Christian is a blog about one woman’s journey as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), a condition not many are familiar with. (You can find out more about HSP here.) Highly Sensitive Christian has some great articles on coping with HSP, how to relate to people with HSP, living as a single Christian woman in your thirties, and other fantastic Christian Living articles.

It’s one of these Christian Living articles I wanted to share with you today. Recently, God made me aware of the fact that when I pray, I often “micromanage” Him, spelling out exactly how, when, and what I want Him to do to answer my prayers. I realized this demonstrates a lack of trust in His wisdom and sovereignty. “Coincidentally” Highly Sensitive Christian has a great article on this topic that – while written from the perspective of a single woman desiring to be married – I found helpful. I hope you will, too.

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Do I trust the Lord to know and be concerned about the desires of my heart? Yes. Do I know that he wants what is the very best for my sanctification and growth?  Of course. Do I believe that He will give me a fulfilling life, whether single or married?  Definitely.

But…

Do I believe that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy Lord of all creation will remember that I desire to be married, if I don’t worry about it constantly and remind Him about it every 30 minutes or so? Well, no. I haven’t been believing that. So, I’ve been reminding him fairly regularly.

Head on over to Highly Sensitive Christian and check out this awesome article, I Haven’t Been Trusting the Lord.

How can your prayers demonstrate more trust in God’s sovereignty?

Blog Swap Disclaimer: Christian bloggers who participate in Blog Swaps have submitted an acceptable statement of faith to me. Although I do my best to thoroughly vet the theology of the bloggers I swap with, it is always possible for things to slip through the cracks. Please make sure any blogger you follow, including me, rightly and faithfully handles God’s word and holds to sound biblical doctrine.
Bible Study, Book Reviews

Blog Swap ~ “Women of the Word”- A Book Review

Michelle Lesley

blog swap

It’s time for another awesome blog swap! Blog swaps give me the opportunity to share other talented bloggers with you, plus offer you fresh content that’s a great supplement to our regular fare here. If you’d like to do a swap, click on the link above for more information.

Today, I’m excited to be swapping with a new blogger, Michele, of Living Our Days. Michele is a wife, mom, and grandmother. When she’s not home schooling or working in her garden, she is reading tons – and I mean tons – of books, which she writes helpful reviews of. Living Our Days also includes a great variety of Michele’s poetry, Christian Living articles, and helpful material for her ladies’ Sunday School class, which is currently studying the book of Nehemiah.

I was so glad to read Michele’s insightful review of Jen Wilkins’ excellent book, Women of the Word. I have recommended it many times to women who long to rightly divide God’s word but aren’t quite sure how to do so.

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“I can’t recall the last time I devoured a book in one evening, but that’s what happened with Women of the Word. I’m sure the reason is Jen Wilkin’s laser focus on the topics that (after my family) are most important to me — knowing the Bible and teaching the Bible. I found the book to be immediately relevant and useful, not only in my teaching ministry, but also in my personal study.”

Want to learn how to be a better student of God’s word? Hop on over to Living Our Days and check out Michele’s article, Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin: A Book Review, and then head over to Amazon and get yourself a copy!

Have you read Women of the Word?
What did you think of it?

Blog Swap Disclaimer: Christian bloggers who participate in Blog Swaps have submitted an acceptable statement of faith to me. Although I do my best to thoroughly vet the theology of the bloggers I swap with, it is always possible for things to slip through the cracks. Please make sure any blogger you follow, including me, rightly and faithfully handles God’s word and holds to sound biblical doctrine.
Uncategorized

Spring Break Blogging Schedule

Michelle Lesley

spring break

 

I’m on spring break this week, so I’m modifying my regular blogging schedule. Hope you’ll enjoy the articles that will be coming your way!

Easter, Top 10

Top 10 Best Easter Songs

Michelle Lesley

There are so many great Easter hymns and worship songs out there. After all, how can a songwriter go wrong proclaiming the glorious truth of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection? It was hard to narrow it down to my ten favorites, but I gave it a shot.

(Please note- I am not familiar with all of these musicians. Their presence here is not an endorsement of any unbiblical theology any of them may hold to. Please thoroughly vet the doctrine of any Christian musician you choose to follow and make sure it matches up with Scripture.)

1. Jesus Paid it All– Nominated by my 11 year old son, who said in the car on the way home from church, “They need to do ‘Jesus Paid it All’ next week, because it is a very appropriate Easter song.”

 

2. Arise My Love– The grave could not hold the King!

 

3. Low in the Grave He Lay– You’re not really a Southern Baptist unless your church does this one every Easter. Bonus- I’ve never heard this song in Korean(?), but this choir does a lovely job.

 

4. The Old Rugged Cross– What a precious song this is and what a beautiful job this sweet couple does on it.

 

5. Sunday’s On the Way– The resurrection is not an allegory for your personal problems coming to an end. Other than that, this is pure 80’s “in your face, Devil!” CCM awesomeness.

 

6. Easter Song– By popular demand, another oldie but goodie!

 

7. Man of Sorrows, What a Name– Hallelujah, what a Savior!

 

8. He’s Alive– The resurrection through the eyes of Peter. Oh how sweet it must have been for him to see Jesus alive again.

 

9. I’ve Just Seen Jesus– I love singing this one with my husband.

 

10. Christ the Lord is Risen Today– He is not dead. He is alive. We have this hope in Jesus Christ! This arrangement is such a nice blend of the traditional and the contemporary.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter

Throwback Thursday ~ The Daily Wonder of Easter

Michelle Lesley

Yesterday was my one year anniversary of being a contributing writer at Satisfaction Through Christ. This article was originally published at STC on April 1, 2014.

“What should I preach about on Easter Sunday? Help me out, here.”

That’s the gist of a tweet I saw recently from a pastor. It caught me quite off guard, and it must have had the same effect on many others who punctuated their excellent advice –“preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for our sins”- with lots of “duh’s” and other indications that this should be a no-brainer for a Christian pastor.

Traditionally, the prevailing line of thought about Easter (and Christmas) services has always been, “This is one of the two times a year that a lot of lost people go to church. It might be our only chance to reach some of them. Let’s make sure we give them the gospel.” Maybe after so many years of that, some pastors feel that their church members have heard it all before and they need to move on to something else in order to keep people’s attention. Sometimes, as a pastor, it’s tough to know just what to do to best reach people for Christ.

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But, see, the thing is, Christians never move past our need for hearing the gospel again and again. Young or old. Newly saved or seasoned saint.

We need the gospel.

We need it because we forget. We forget that we are great sinners in need of a great Savior. We forget to slow down and pour out our gratitude and worship for the sacrifice of our beautiful Savior. We forget to bask in our wonder, our amazement, at His glorious and triumphant resurrection.

As Christians, every day our sin sick souls need to bow at the cross and be washed afresh in the precious, atoning blood of Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing –nothing– but the blood of Jesus. Daily, we must approach the tomb, see the massive stone rolled away and shout with joy over its emptiness. Hallelujah! Death has lost its victory and the grave has been denied! The very reason we worship on Sunday instead of Saturday is the celebration of an empty tomb. Every Sunday is Easter Sunday.

Remember, and rejoice!