As I was reading the book of Jude this morning, a portion of the very first verse grabbed my attention: “To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.” Notice the descriptors: called, loved and kept. What a wonderful reminder that our assurance is rooted in the fact that we have been called by God, we are loved by God and we are being kept by Jesus Christ!

I don’t know about you, but I need to be reminded of that great truth. . . often.

Along those lines, I really appreciated JD Greear’s excellent post yesterday on praying the Gospel. He explained...

Praying this helps me center myself on the Gospel, fight against my propensity to works-righteousness, idolatry, self-centeredness and unbelief.

“Father, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more.”

“Father, You are all I need for everlasting joy.”

“Father, as You have been to me, so I will be to others.”

“Father, I will ask according to Your generosity and power revealed in the Gospel.”

Amen!

Laurie and I have been having a blast! We spent a day in Washington DC checking out several of the museums in the Smithsonian Institution. It was incredible. We spent the entire morning on just one floor of just ONE of the buildings! You’d need a week or more to see them all. After that we headed up to Niagara Falls. We stayed on the Canadian side. The falls were spectacular. On Saturday we drove up to Toronto and had a great time just walking around the city. Yesterday we drove down to New Jersey to spend a few days visiting with family. I’ve heard that Tim knocked it out of the park yesterday. I can’t wait to listen to the message!



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Check out Advance 09’s Photostream on flickr for some nice shots taken during the conference.

I’m home from the Advance conference. It was truly outstanding. I hope to eventually blog about some of the nuggets I picked up, but tonight I’m too tired, plus, I’m still processing a lot of it. It was like trying to drink out of a fire hose. All the speakers did a fantastic job. It was especially good to get to share the experience with Tim Bredamus and Jason Dove. The conversation on the car ride home was almost as good as the conference itself.

While the primary theme of the conference was devoted to the resurgence of the local church to the glory of God, it seemed as if each of the speakers felt led to focus on the importance of repentance. In fact, at the closing Q&A, the moderator mentioned how interesting it was that humility and repentance ended up being such a recurring theme in almost all of the messages even though none of the speakers were specifically asked to tackle that subject.

God obviously wanted it emphasized. It was and it was powerful.

While catching up on some of the blogs I follow, I ran across this quote by Spurgeon. What a terrific way to close out an equally terrific conference:

Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance. We can no more repent perfectly than we can live perfectly. However pure our tears, there will always be some dirt in them; there will be something to tbe repented of even in our best repentance. But listen! To repent is to change our mind about sin, and Christ, and all the great things of God. There is sorrow implied in this; but the main point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this turning, you have the essence of true repentance, even though no alarm and no despair should ever cast their shadow upon your mind.
C. H. Spurgeon, All of Grace, page 70
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Laurie and I began homeschooling in 1999. Our primary motivation was greater flexibility in our schedule. We wanted to be able to spend more time connecting with my Mom who was battling terminal cancer at the time. Our kids have some very special memories of their Grandma that will always be treasured.

Looking back, we initially figured that homeschooling would be a temporary option, but it ended up working out so well for our family that we kept at it. Almost all of the credit goes to my exceptionally capable wife who is a truly gifted teacher. Our kids have benefited much because of her dedication.

We realize that homeschooling isn’t necessarily the best option for every family, but in our case, it has brought many rewards and blessings. We continue to be extremely grateful for the freedom to pursue it.

Al Mohler has an interesting blog post today indicating that it’s still on the rise: A Major Force in Education - Homeschooling in America
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