Classic Repost: I'm Engaged

When I was doing some blog maintenance over the holidays, I found this post from two years ago. It is really cool to go back and read this post and realize where the path of engaging culture has directed me over the past two years. Hope you enjoy the repost.

Quietly Making Noise,
Fletch 

Comments

[Luma]

Thanks for the re-post. I'm learning how to come out of hiding, especially when I see how that way of living made life almost unbearable for my oldest who had to go back and forth between a household which was like a bomb-shelter and a household where pop culture was held up as an idol. :-( But the Lord will redeem. Faith in Jesus, my only savior, that's what keeps me going. There is no salvation in hiding out. There is no salvation in running from the world. There is no salvation in turning to "clean" idols. There is NO salvation outside of Jesus and everything that should flow from that belief.

[Fletch]

Luma - can you explain more what you meant by a "household which was like a bomb-shelter and a household where pop culture was held up as an idol."

[Luma]

Hey Fletch, sorry about the absence. Geoff was in New York and since he came back we've been busy launching the new website. You can take a look here: http://www.gospelgrace.net/ There is still so much to do on it.

The best way I can say it on a blog would be to say that one home (our home) was filled with fear of the outside world and how the world could "infect" us, while the other home (her dad's) was a home that was in love with celebs, the mall, etc. Where I spent the majority of my energy on finding ways to "hide out" and "shelter" the kids from the outside world, they spent most of their time exposing her as much as possible to the outside world (unfortunately without hedges, age-appropriateness, discernment etc.). The rest will have to wait until we can talk over dinner at Bouchon sometime, if we can find a way to get ourselves up there.

We're not a bomb-shelter home anymore, but loving our Lord and desiring to live for him we are not licentious either. We don't hate the world anymore, just like Jesus doesn't hate the world, only the things of the world: pride, desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes (1 John 2:16). (I talk about that in Gospel Amnesia Part 9 which I'm trying to turn into a book) We want the kids to be full of grace and mercy toward others, not afraid or puffed up with self-righteousness and "knowledge." We don't want them to be so wrapped up in themselves and their little world that they never cross that Jericho road to help the needy, the broken and the wounded

I'll check back a lot sooner next time. :-)

[Fletch]

Okay, brain fart here at theMT. I had forgotten about the two houses thing. I was reading it originally as though it was two cultures under one roof. Makes total sense, but still want to do Bouchon... :)

[Luma]

So, I was thinking this morning about what understanding grace and the cross more deeply has done for our household. (Our oldest no longer lives with us, so this only pertains to the children we have at home.) First, our children are visibly more joyful (can be attested to by all those around us). Yes, we still correct and discipline but with temperance, discernment, love, grace and longsuffering. We try to say "yes" to many good things for them. I can keep going... Suffice it to say that we haven't "taken grace too far" if anything we are more like Jesus as parents and we see the fruit in our personal walk with Christ and our children's lives. (There is no pride in those words, it's not us, it's Christ doing the "work".) I'm NOT saying we've achieved some other type of holiness now, not at all. We're just TOTALLY humbled by Christ, that's all. We do suffer and we are suffering the consequences of the way we thought and lived, it's totally heartbreaking, but in Christ we are more than conquerors.

Geoff had a long talk with me last week about how for too long I believed the Proverbs were actual promises, (quid pro quo). This morning I read a post on Desiring God saying very similar things to what my husband was gently trying to help me see. I highly recommend reading the post, it's titled, "Parents, Beware: Proverbs Are Not Promises"http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/parents-beware-proverbs-are-not-promises?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DGBlog+%28DG+Blog%29

Anyway.... thought I would clarify some more... :-)

[Luma]

So, I was thinking this morning about what understanding grace and the cross more deeply has done for our household. (Our oldest no longer lives with us, so this only pertains to the children we have at home.) First, our children are visibly more joyful (can be attested to by all those around us). Yes, we still correct and discipline but with temperance, discernment, love, grace and longsuffering. We try to say "yes" to many good things for them. I can keep going... Suffice it to say that we haven't "taken grace too far" if anything we are more like Jesus as parents and we see the fruit in our personal walk with Christ and our children's lives. (There is no pride in those words, it's not us, it's Christ doing the "work".) I'm NOT saying we've achieved some other type of holiness now, not at all. We're just TOTALLY humbled by Christ, that's all. We do suffer and we are suffering the consequences of the way we thought and lived, it's totally heartbreaking, but in Christ we are more than conquerors.

Geoff had a long talk with me last week about how for too long I believed the Proverbs were actual promises, (quid pro quo). This morning I read a post on Desiring God saying very similar things to what my husband was gently trying to help me see. I highly recommend reading the post, it's titled, "Parents, Beware: Proverbs Are Not Promises"http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/parents-beware-proverbs-are-not-promises?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DGBlog+%28DG+Blog%29

Anyway.... thought I would clarify some more... :-)