God’s Incredible Grace in the Act of Death

My grandmother died on Friday, August 12, 2016. I’ve thought about whether to write about this, how to write about this, and if it was even possible to intro this delicately. No matter how I’ve approached the topic it’s always this blunt fact staring me in the face. Not allowing me tact or suave. It’s raw and real and maybe it’s supposed to be that way.

Most would say it was cancer that caused this. It’s true, she did have cancer. She fought several rounds with cancer and by God’s grace beat most of them, even the one when we almost lost her a few years ago due to the removal surgery alone.
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A Life Worth Living

Parenting has been simultaneously one of the hardest things in my life and one of the most joy-filled, and joy-producing, things as well. It’s so hard to be woken up at 8:00 in the morning on the weekend, or in the morning at all on the weekend, but nothing compares to seeing that little man smile as he pulls himself up on me after he drinks his bottle and starts to play with us. He’s so happy and playful and it lights up the room.
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Still Waters

I wasn’t ever a huge fan of the Psalms growing up. It’s not like I hated them or thought them worthless or anything like that, because they’re just as inspired as the rest of Scripture, but I just didn’t understand them. Partly because it’s poetry and poetry just isn’t as straightforward as other forms of literature. But mostly because it seemed like every popular verse from Psalms seemed like it was pulled from la la land and put on some coffee cup to make people feel better.
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Down the Mountain

This weekend my wife and I were incredibly blessed by being able to attend this year’s Linger Conference. Shane and Shane, Bethany Dillon, and several other talented lead worshipers stirred our affections for Christ through music and spoken word. Matt Chandler, JR Vassar, and several other pastors and phenomenal communicators preached the gospel from the Psalms lighting a fire that had all but diminished in my life over the past couple years of whirlwind changes, albeit very good changes.
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Constant Vigilance

A couple weeks ago I wrote about Pursuing Joy and my need for repentance in this area. After a week of thinking about the best way to go about finding time to study and still be faithful to my family in other areas, I began studying Philippians this past weekend. As I read the ESV Study Bible introduction to the letter, something they said in their analysis not only stirred my affections for Christ, but also showed me how I came to the point of not pursuing Joy the way I should.

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