Caris Loving

For those of you who have never met Caris Loving Stubblefield, here she is. If this doesn't make you smile/make your day, you officially have problems. We're all so thankful for this precious new gift from the Lord!

Cool Opportunity to Love on KSU Students

Y'all check this out and join us in praying for the Spirit of God to move in the hearts of students all over KSU!

We'd love for anyone who feels like God is leading them to do so to join us in giving to the students and ministering to them this coming Monday night!

Hope in the Midst of Suffering

Are you going through suffering? Do you ever wonder why you are experiencing the pain or persecution that you have been trying to endure?

Paul sheds an interesting light on this in Romans 8 when he tells his recipients that the whole creation has been subjected to futility in the hope of future redemption (8:18-21). He literally says that the entire creation is enslaved to corruption that has entered the world by sin. It's important to note that, even though believers have been set free from the penalty of sin and have received the promise of the Holy Spirit, even they are subjected to the suffering along with the rest of the world (8:23). The result is that we groan now, in this life, because the suffering produces in us a desperate longing and hope for the glory that is to be revealed to us when we are finally redeemed and glorified with Christ (8:17-18; 23-24).

In addition to producing in us a longing for our true and better home with Christ Jesus, suffering gives us opportunity to magnify the goodness and the grace of God as we exalt Him in the midst of what we're going through. God uses our trials to test us and to grow us into maturity in Christ. It's for this reason that Peter gives us the following instructions:

1 Peter 4:12-16
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;
13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.
14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
15 Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler;
16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

So God ordains persecution and pain in our lives to test us and to give us an opportunity to glorify Him.

How can you glorify Him in the midst of your suffering?

When you exalt Him as good and as sufficient to satisfy your heart in the midst of what you're going through. When He can strip everything else away and leave you with Christ alone and you still have joy because exalting Him is the aim of your life. Suffering provides a platform for us to say with Paul that our expectation and hope is that "Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:20-21).

So how does this help us in the midst of suffering?

It is meant to encourage and strengthen your faith. These truths are to stir you up by way of reminder of the things that you already know so that you might read them and believe them so that you might have victory over our adversary who would have you believe that God is unjust, uncaring, or has somehow lost control. This is what the devil does. Paul sends Timothy to encourage and strengthen the faith of the Thessalonians concerning his and their sufferings for fear that the tempter might have led them to believe that God had not ordained their sufferings and that they had no hope (1 Thess. 3:2-5).

But He has ordained our sufferings and we do have hope! Do not let the devil succeed in tempting you away from believing that God is sovereign and working all things together for your good and His glory (Rom. 8:28). He has a purpose for our suffering! He is working in us perseverance as we run the race of this life with our eyes on Jesus, conforming us to His image along the way and bringing about the hope of glory by revealing His Son in us in the process (Rom. 5:3-5; Col. 1:27c).

So rejoice, my brothers and sisters. The King is coming to make all things new. We go through pain now, but we will have Him for all of eternity. He is more than worth every ounce of suffering. Let's magnify Him and rejoice in His goodness and grace in letting us have the privilege of pointing others to Him!

Happy Birthday Dad and Gavin!

Today we celebrate the birthday buddies - my Dad and our little nephew Gavin! Gavin is 3 today, and Dad is, well ... older.


Gavin loves his Aunt Kayla ... and is very excited in this picture!



I'm so grateful to have this man of God for my dad!

Sharing the Gospel in Power … Like a Nursing Mother

Do you share the gospel? If so, how?

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul tells them that his gospel "did not come to [them] in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction" (1:5).

Upon reading that, it's easy to think that Paul came with a boldness that was primarily characterized by assertive or even abrasive speech. His aim, after all, was to preach the unadulterated gospel and not just what men needed to hear.

This is why he goes on to tell them that he and his friends have "been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so [they] speak, not as pleasing to men, but God who examines [their] hearts" (2:4).

It is essential for us to understand this as we share the gospel – if we are sharing in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be doing so without catering to what our listeners want to hear.

However, does his "full conviction" concerning the truth of the gospel translate into him lording it over people, impatiently pushing them to understand and obey, and holding them in contempt if they don't? Or does his confidence in the gospel result in a confidence in himself as a minister of it?

No!

Paul says that he and his fellow apostles were gentle among the Thessalonians and cared for them like a nursing mother would care for her own children (2:7).

Stop and really think about that.

Not exactly what we normally picture when we think of someone being "manly," is it? Yet here it is being exalted by God as a model for all who would share the gospel, especially those men who proclaim God's Word to His people.

It is the calling of all children of God. While the immediate context implies that we are to have this attitude toward those we are discipling in the faith, we are not to push and press and become arrogant toward those who don't hold to our gospel or toward those who are immature and, like us, have much need to grow in it. Instead, we are called to show loving affection toward all people, nurturing them and caring for them – imparting to them both the gospel and also our very lives, dying to ourselves and to our schedules to see Christ formed in them (2:8).

It is in meekness, which is really just desperate and humble reliance upon the Spirit of God, that the gospel is shared in power and with full conviction. God has given us the treasure of the gospel in our weakness so that the surpassing greatness of its power would be of God and not from ourselves (2 Cor. 4:7).

It must be our prayer and hope that God would work in us this gentle and nurturing affection for all people so that the gospel may sound forth from us in power and so that God might grant others repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 1:25).

Two Loves, One Source

We're giving in to the blog world, not necessarily because we feel like anyone will want to read what we write, but because we both love to write and to document life and all that God teaches us about Himself along the way. We're creating this blog toward the beginning of our marriage in hopes that we'll be able to look back on it to reminisce and praise God for what He's done.

That being said, there is no better way to kick off this blog than for me to write about my two greatest loves: Jesus and Kayla.

I love my wife more than anything. She is the most beautiful person, inside and out, that I've ever known. She is loving and sweet. Discerning and wise. Encouraging and gracious. She is the depiction of a godly woman.

But as wonderful as Kayla is, she will never be able to satisfy my soul. All of the amazing qualities she has are mere reflections of the One her soul loves - Jesus. My ultimate fulfillment and joy are found in Him, not her. He is the desire of my soul and my greatest love. He enables me to enjoy and treasure her, but He does so because of His grace and because He enabled me to love Him first. My pursuit of Him fuels my pursuit of her.

Two amazing, undeserved loves have been given me, and the infinitely greater of the two treasures is also the Source of both. By the strength He supplies, I will passionately pursue them both until my heart can no longer stand the wait to see the King enthroned in all His beauty.