The Big Move Arrived!

So I’ve practically been counting down the days for the past year for my family and I to move to Louisville, Kentucky.  Well the big move finally arrived!  Last week my beautiful wife Brittany graduated with honors from BCF with a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education.  I’m so proud of her and what she’s accomplished!

The very next day after Britt graduated we left bright and early Saturday morning for the big move.  5 a.m. to be exact!  Here’s a few pictures of the move and the area we live in.  We won’t be showing any of the inside yet because we’re still trying to unpack…but they will come!

The Beautiful Graduate!

Our family!

Elijah was wore out!

Elijah saying goodbye to the lion in his room!

Saying goodbye to our first house of 2 1/2 years!

The 4 Musketeers!

Elijah loved watching the Semi-Trucks

Our entry way into the apartment

A little different than our first home!

View from the porch

An Update On My Brother

So many of you know that my little brother Zachary has leukemia.  It’s been a while since I’ve talked about him so I wanted to give you all an update on what’s going on.  This Thursday Zachary is going into the maintenance period for the next three years.  These past few months have been pretty rough at times with steroids, different chemo treatments, mood swings, low blood counts, etc. etc., but he’s done very well.  God has blessed Zachary with two of the greatest and strongest believeing Christians on the face of the earth!  My dad and step-mom Rhonda have handled this situation so well!  They have taken any opportunity they can to glorify God through the entire experience.  It’s sad to think such a sweet little boy has to go through something so bad, but God has a plan for it (it’s just sometimes hard to swallow).  I was able to spend a lot of time with him this past week and I have a few pictures to show you how he’s been. Thankfully his beautiful hair will be growing back any day now, but I think he looks pretty cool even without it!  My dad has been going through a Catechism for children and has been asking him questions about God.  It’s so funny to hear Zachary say man’s chief end is to glorify God!  He’s even been talking to Him in his bed when he goes to sleep at night.  My dad and Rhonda listen to him talking through the baby monitor.  One of the things that cracked us up was when he said, “God I have 5 questions…but I’m really tired so I’ll ask you tomorrow.”

He got to wear the helicopter helmet!

Hanging out with the guys

Zachary with Papa

Zachary with his mommy

Zachary with Nanny

It’s Been A While…

So as you can see I’ve been out of the blogging world for a little while! This past month has been one of the craziest months of my life.  This very instant as I’m typing these words I’m sitting in a room with boxes everywhere!  My wife, son, and I are getting ready for the big move Saturday for Louisville, Kentucky!  I’ll give you 10 things that’s been going on with us:

1.  I finished working at the Olive Garden, but hope to transfer to the one up there.  The reason is I don’t want to shut my self off from the real world like I basically did for 4 years at Baptist College of Florida.  I want to be rubbing elbows with people who do not know Jesus.

2.  My wife passed her exams to be certified in both Florida and Kentucky!  Not much needs to be said here other than my wife is so smart!  She’s graduating with honors in Elementary Education.

3.  Brittany and I drove back up to Louisville to find an apartment off-campus that is much cheaper.  We found one only two miles from the seminary!  It’s also about a mile from Starbucks!  I’m going to have to budget in Starbucks every week for sure!

4.  We went home for a week and visited my side of the family.  It’s really going to be hard leaving some of the closest people in my life other than my wife and son.

5.  Brittany’s mom and dad have been helping us move and they have been a huge help!!!  Brittany’s mom Sheila loves packing (which is very odd!)  They’ll be moving us up to Louisville this week.

6.  My step-dad David and I built some sweet Book shelves for all of my books.  He’s the master at carpentry!  He’s also going to be helping us move.

7.  My little boy Elijah had to get tubes put in his ears.  This was very intense but he’s doing sooo much better.  He was basically going to the doctor for a new prescription for ear infections every other week!  Now with the tubes…no infections!!

8.  I got to spend alot of time with my little brother Zachary!  He’s doing so good and will be going into the maintenance period of his chemo treatment the end of this week!

9.  I got to spend some time with my mom, step-dad, and sister and had a great time with them!  Elijah loves his Aunt Erica.  My sister will be graduating in June from High School.  She’s a really awesome girl!  I’m definitely going to miss all three of them.

10.  I get to preach at FBC of Chipley this Wednesday for the last time.  I’m really going to miss Bro. Mike and the Chipley family.  He really taught me there are some pastors out there who have a true love for the church.

Elijah is a born dancer!

I’ll go ahead and let you know, we’ve never danced around Elijah nor would we ever dance period! Elijah just has rhythm by birth!  He’s dancing to the christian rapper Trip Lee and if you haven’t heard him I would definitely recommend it if you like rap but can never listen to it because of how nasty it is.  Hope you enjoy the clip!

Hiliarious Video!

The other night my sister and I watched some of the Top 40 internet superstars (not bad ones) on VH1 and I died laughing at this little guy!  I had to post it.

Watch around the 20 second mark when he’s dancing in slow motion.  It’s tooo funny!

What a week!

This past week has been absolutely awesome!  No other words can describe it.  On Wednesday I drove to Orlando to stay at my mom’s house for the Ligonier Conference.  I was so excited about it that I could hardly sleep!  Thursday-Saturday I had the opportunity to listen to some of the greatest theologians in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  Ligon Duncan, Sinclair Ferguson, Steven Lawson, R.C. Sproul, Thabiti Aba (something), R.C. Sproul Jr., D.A. Carson, Derek Thomas, Allistar Begg, and Albert Mohler were the speakers.  I mean it just doesn’t get any better than that!  I found that two of my favorite speakers were Steven Lawson and D.A. Carson.  I found myself not even taking notes during their lectures. 

While I was in Orlando my mom gave me 100 dollars to buy food with since they were going to be gone and I actually spent 60 of it on books at the conference!  Here’s what I got:

-“Living the Cross Centered Life” by C.J. Mahaney; “Humility True Greatness” By C.J. Mahaney; “The Expository Genius of John Calvin” By Steven Lawson; “”The Heidelberg Catechism”; “The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life” By John Calvin; “Jesus Dead or Alve?” By John Blanchard; “What is Perseverance of the Saints?” By Michael A. Milton; “Calvin on Prayer from Institutes of the Christian Religion” By John Calvin; “The Letters of Samuel Rutherford”; “John Calvin A Heart for Devotion Doctrine and Doxology” By a lot of authors; “What is a healthy church member” By Thabiti Anyabwile; “Feed My Sheep A Passionate Plea for Preaching” By a lot of authors

Saturday afternoon after the confernce I drove to Hilliard, Florida and visited my dad, my step-mom Rhonda, and my brother Zachary.  It was great to see them and go back to my home church.   As you can see I had a good time!  I also saw the movie “Knowing” this weekend with Nicholas Cage.  I have to say it was a little strange at the end but it was a pretty awesome movie!

I’ll be posting a video (hopefully) soon but I forgot my plug-in for my computer in Orlando.  My mom’s sending it so as soon as I get it, I’ll post it.  Unfortunately it’s just of the first day because I forgot the camera the last two days!

Chapter 5: The Saving Substitute

This chapter spoke of the term many theologians use known as “substitutionary atonement.”  Sproul explained why it was necessary for Jesus to be an unblemished lamb if he was truly going to be the substitute for the wrath we deserved.  While talking about the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, Sproul gave a brief explanation of why it was necessary for the sinless lamb of God to undergo a sacrament which symbolized the cleansing of sin. 

“Before He could go to the cross, before He could fulfill the role of the Lamb of God, before He could make Himself an oblation to satisfy the demands of God’s justice, Jesus had to submit Himself to every detail of ever law God ad given to the nation.  He had to represent His people before the bar of God’s justice in every detail.  Since the law now required that all of the people be baptized, Jesus, too, had to be baptized.  He had to fulfill every single commandment of God if He was to be sinless.  He wasn’t asking John to baptize Him because He needed to be cleansed; He wanted to be baptized so that He could be obedient to His Father in every detail.” -Page 74

I really am curious to know your thoughts about this quote.  I always understood the baptism of Jesus to be the approval of John the Baptist in relation to God.  Some of you may have understood this already and I’ll go ahead and say what you’re thinking (shame on me, the guy with a Bachelors degree in Biblical Studies).  I really enjoyed this chapter.  If you haven’t heard me say it yet, you need to read this book!

I HATE BLOGSPOT

So while I said a few months back that I was creating a new site for my family, I just didn’t like it.  I have to stay true to wordpress.com because there’s so much more you can do with your site.  I also love being able to view activity on the site as well.  I definitely have to think Boyd Bettis at boydbettis.com for telling me about wordpress.  It’s so much better.  So sorry to all you blogspot users out there, but you don’t know what you’re missing over at wordpress!

Chapter 4: Ransomed From Above

This chapter discussed the subject of Christ being a ransom for many.  While some hold to a view that I believe is unbiblical (a theory which teaches that Jesus was the ransom held by none other than Satan himself), the true ransom was paid not to Satan, but instead to God the Father. 

“…The ransom was paid not to Satan but to God, because God was the One Who had to be satisfied.  When the Bible speaks of ransom, it speaks of that ransom being paid not to a criminal but to the One Who is owed the price for redemption, the One Who is the offended party in the whole complext of sin, the Father.  Jesus didn’t negotiate with Satan for our salvation.  Instead, He offered Himself in payment to the Father for us.  By so offering Himself, He made redemption for His people, redeeming them from captivity.” -Page 57

Does it not blow your mind while reading some of these quotes that a Holy God would do such an incredible thing?  While some believe Christians are obedient to God out of fear of hell, I would say WRONG!!!  First off, the reason we even have the ability to be obedient to Christ is because we have been crucified with Him.  Our old life has been put to death and as a result his righteousness covers us.  He lives through us.  We are obedient to Him not out of fear, but instead out of love.  Although we mess up (and trust me I mess up more than ever) we strive for obedience and even perfection because of His great love.  It’s not an obligation or out of fear.  In the words of John Piper, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

Chapter 3: Debtors, Enemies, and Criminals

Often times when we speak of the love of God we speak of the second person of the trinity, the Son.  Unfortunately we tend to forget that the Father has just as much love for us as His Son.  Yet Sproul makes note in chapter 3 of “The Truth of the Cross” that people often attribute the Father as being harsh, angry, and obligated to love us because of the Son.  This is obviously a distortion of the Word and Sproul makes it clear concerning the love that the Father truly has for us.  After all, the cross was the Father’s plan!

“When Jesus offers to make satisfaction for me, in order for that payment to be accepted, God the Father, Who is my Creditor, the party I have violated, and my Judge, must decide and decree that He will accept that payment from another in my behalf.  In other words, if I owe God the death penalty because I sinned against Him, and Jesus says, ‘I will die for him,’ and then lays down His life and dies for me, would the Father be under any obligation whatsoever to accept that payment?  No.  There first must be a judgment by the Governor of the universe that He will in fact accept a substituionary payment for my debt, my enmity, and my crime.” -Page 46

The very fact that the Father accepted His Son to take our place shows the deepest type of love in the entire universe.  We must remember that everything the Son did on earth was not based on himself, but instead solely on the Father.  Praise be to God!