Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World Study

I was offered the wonderful chance to review this study by the publisher. I am very glad that I was able to. My little Monday night class at the church was deeply encouraged by Joanna and her personal journey to our intimate God. It was with refreshing tenderness that she spoke about our Jesus, y'all. It made you yearn for more of him. 

I truly appreciated the angle that she took in telling the stories of Scripture's famous sisters. All of the focus is placed squarely on Christ. I wish I could divulge every detail to you. I want you to see how each person in the story preaches the gospel to us. I want you to see the tenderness that Jesus calls us to himself with. He does this even when our hearts are distracted. Mostly, I just want you to know that this study is worth doing. The dvd is excellent.

Check out this study.

This study was graciously provided for review by Waterbrook Multnomah.

The Deeper Life by Daniel Henderson

I wavered between wanting to love this book and having to prop my eyelids open to be quite honest. I read the awesome reviews by Joni Eareckson Tada and Jim Cymbala. I thought the bought would grab me right away. On the other hand, I thought the title sounded like a Southern Baptist sermon series. 

Of course, we all want a deeper life with Jesus. We want to know hime more intimately. I thought I would give Mr. Henderson a shot at speaking to my heart as I read his book. The man had good things to say. He had beautiful scripture to quote and core theology to outline. His book was right on point. For some reason, I had a hard time reading it however. Perhaps it read more like a collection of sermons or a text book. In that vein, it was well put together. If your mind works that way or you are looking for a place to plunge into some core knowledge, this would be great for you. 

I may or may not be inclined to lend it to a friend. It's not something you run over to your bests house with proclaiming that she must read it.

Come Sit a Spell, Gomer.

Hello dear friends of Gomer,

The last week I have been cleaning house. I mopped eight times and it still isn't clean. Let's just be clear, drywall dust is a real bear. It keeps getting tracked all over my finished floors. It makes a girl want to lay out on the floor and go Mr. Miagi on them. Wax on. Wax off. Alas, I will just keep mopping and I'll persevere. There is also tape falling off the wall still because I just couldn't get to it. I'm sure it will all work out. I think I can reuse it even if it's been on the ground.

I realized that 7 out of 10 rooms are completely drywalled downstairs so my drywall dust dilemma will soon come to an end. The only rooms left are the living room, part of the parlor, and the small butler pantry. No more dark and dreary, y'all.

We did get to purchase Gomer some spring plants and started doing yard work. Denbigh rented a self-propelled lawn aerator. He fed and reseeded the St. Augustine. Then on the most glorious of Saturdays, we had company. It was lovely. My man made a huge brunch for our dear friends. There were pancakes a la mode and bacon by the bucket. You can come by our house almost any Saturday and we will make you brunch. 

Five minutes after our first guests left for the day, the second shift arrived from Dallas. They came to pick up a giant wooden sign that they had custom ordered. I had prayed for one of their children as they pursued adoption from Russia a few years ago. This was the first time I had met her in person. It was such an amazing gift to me. I was also able to meet her other children and see her belly growing number four. It has truly been an amazing journey to see how this blog, my art, and our house have brought people from all over. It is truly a work of the Holy Spirit. Thanks to the sale of that sign, we'll be getting a gorgeous new faucet for our claw foot tub. 

We just love opening up our house to enjoy company. Please come dine with us. Come sit a spell. 

Who are you being hospitable to?

Give to Gomer's House.

Glory be. It's a Room, Gomer.

Well, y'all, we did it. We hosted a great group of folks here on a mission trip last week. It gets pretty challenging while managing three small children. The clean up can be really tricky. There are screws and dust and drywall all over the place. That has to all be cleaned up before my girls can go downstairs. As of this writing, I have one room to go. Hopefully, I can get that done tonight. 

You know, I asked Jesus to multiply their work and I believe He answered me. There was so much done. We haven't had light or electrical on the third floor and now we do. It's pretty amazing to be able to see up there. The drywall up there was old and sketchy. Some of it would crumble to pieces if you looked at it the wrong way. They tore all of that down. Did you know that they used to use the third floor as a ballroom? Perhaps that should be the name of the guest suite. The Ballroom.

On the first floor, they house wrapped, insulated with foam and drywalled the room where our baby grand piano is. It's gorgeous. It always looked like a cave in there. Now, it looks like a room. They were able to foam some of the living room as well. In the bathroom where the shower is, they were able to drywall and do some mudding in there. One night, they decided to finish the drywall in the dining room at 10 p.m. 

On a funny note, there was some zealous taping going on with all of the drywall seams. I know they were hoping to mud the whole house so they taped every seem. Since they didn't get to that, tape is coming off everywhere. I am hoping to get a little mud on each piece of tape to hold it in place in the next day or so. Say a little prayer that I can accomplish that with my three girls running around.

It was a sweet and precious time here. I love that we get to partner with the beloved in Christ and mutually benefit one another. Memories are made here as were serve together and worship on the porch at night. It truly is a beautiful thing that we are fortunate to be a part of. The group was just amazing. They were kind and genuine. They worked hard and were able to accomplish huge things. We are very grateful for their coming. Their gentle spirits ministered to us and to our girls.

Come on over and see what they did. 

PS: The slide on our playscape was accidentally broken last year by a group and my girls couldn't use it. I had been looking for one online and reconciled to buy one Monday. On Sunday, we had dinner with friends and they had taken one down because their kids were too big for it. Guess what came home in our car! These lovely people shared their slide with us. Denbigh hacksawed the old old bolts and a few hours later had it attached to our playscape. Thank you, Jesus, for saving us a few hundred dollars. Anyone want to give away a trampoline, swimming pool, or spa? It doesn't hurt to ask. Glory be.

Love y'all.

Give to Gomer's House.

Joseph and the Gospel of Many Colors by Voddie Baucham

Voddie is one of my favorite writers. He explains the Bible with such clarity and tenderness towards Jesus. I enjoyed The Ever-Loving Truth and Family Driven Faith immensely. This telling of the life of Joseph was no different. Someone explaining that the story of Joseph was not some moral tale for us to emulate was like life to dry bones. The story wasn't about Joseph at all. It's a beautiful tale of redemption and the far reaching lengths that God goes to in order to rescue us. He sent Joseph on a horrible journey to ensure that the life of a scoundrel could be saved and redeemed. He did that so that we might have the Promised seed of Christ. 

This is a must read.

One thing that stood out to me was how Voddie points out that the most beautiful work of God here is the fact that Joseph is not bitter. He never corrects his brothers. He only points back to trusting in God's sovereignty. That is a work of grace.

Get Voddie's book. I started praying through Family Shepherds for Denbigh. Stay tuned.