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Kevin DeYoung on Two Corners

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DeYoung posted his article from this month’s Tabletalk magazine today entitled A Tale of Two Corners: Knowledge and Maturity. What I loved about this was the pastoral prowess exhibited in recognizing this. In church life, we have those who love theology and want to go DEEP, which is a great thing. However, often those same people have huge maturity issues. And, in the church we have those who are more simpleton’s but demonstrate maturity in innumerable ways. This article highlights this and urges both camps to grow. I found it to be greatly helpful for me as a pastor, not only in shepherding others, but growing myself.

Weekend Recap (2) – God’s Word

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Last night’s sermon, Your Family Needs God’s Word, from James 1:16-25 is now online. In the world we live in, God’s Word or family worship is often pushed by the “tyranny of the urgent” to the side. In last night’s sermon in the Gospel-Centered family series, I tried to give an apologetic from God’s Word as to why it’s so important that we keep pursuing it. I hope this sermon encourages you to this as well.

Weekend Recap – AM on Prayer

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We finished out our series on prayer by looking at Matthew 6:13. The sermon, Model Prayer (5), is now online. The big idea was that just like we need God to help with physical needs and our salvation, we also need His help for sanctification issues of fighting temptation and evil.

I’m hoping God uses these sermons on prayer in our church to draw us closer to Himself and make us a praying people.

Weekend Preview – Lead Us Not/Deliver Us

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Tomorrow, 2/20, we plan to spent some time in Matthew 6:13, wrapping up the Lord’s prayer. The basic idea is that the same God we trust for physical needs (daily bread) and ultimate spiritual needs (forgiveness) needs to be the One we rely on as we face temptation and evil. The sermon will highlight 3 ways that God provides for us in prayer.

As you prepare to come, what is the greatest underdog moment you can imagine? Maybe you think of the greatest upsets in sports history, biggest oversight, or something to that effect? Why did this really take place? What did it show? Might it be the case for us, too, that we fail to recognize our true Helper in facing temptation and evil?

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow…dv.

Update on Lauren & Meg

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As many of you know, we gave birth to our third child on 2/17. About 1PM yesterday (2/18) we were able to come home. Now, a little over 24 hours at home, I thought I would update on some questions I get:

How’s Meg? — She’s doing well. Obviously, post pregnancy is a bit uncomfortable physically but she seems to have a good deal of strength and nursing is going well so far as well.

How’s Lauren? — She’s doing well, too. We had a rough night getting her to sleep (I’d forgotten that first night home with the child isn’t like the peaceful moments we’re used to before). But, eventually she calmed down and we were able to get some sleep. But, seems to be fine physically, getting acquainted to our world.

How’s the boys? — Lauren’s two older brothers seem to be doing well with everything. Obviously, they both want attention, too, so they are learning to be patient, and, having Meg’s mom here is a big help. But they are very gentle and anxious to help when we let them.

Thanks for the concern. Now, somehow, I have to recalibrate my settings to be prepared for a full Lord’s Day teaching SS, preaching AM and PM messages.

The Whiteboard Verse…

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…for Lauren.

Each time we have a child, I use the whiteboard in the room we deliver to record the obvious facts:

LAUREN KAYLEA
2/17/11 @ 2:27AM 7lbs.13oz. 19 inches

But I also write out a verse so that everyone who comes and looks at the board sees what our focus is. It helps people see who we are really thankful for. Here’s Lauren’s verse:

“Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting.”
– Psalm 147:1

Join us in praising and thanking God for His amazing kindness and grace to us, in spite of what we deserve.

What’s in a Name…

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We all know choosing a name for a child can be a difficult task.  In naming Lauren, we were drawn to that for some reason.  The name means crowned with victory or honor.  Lauren’s middle name, Kaylea, is especially meaningful to us, because it pays tribute to our mothers.  My mother’s middle name is Kay. Meg’s mother’s middle name is Lea. Put them together and you get Kaylea.  Thanks moms for the way you have been such a blessing to us. Lauren’s name will always remind us of the blessing you are.

Lauren Kaylea Auxier Is Here!

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That’s right, at the early hour of 2:27AM, Lauren Kaylea was born. She was 19 inches long and weighed 7lbs.,13oz. Mom (Meg) did great through everything. I believe her water broke around 1:30. They checked her and she had gone from being dilated 3 to 9. Things happened pretty quickly after that. Meg pushed about 4-5 sets of pushes and we were done. We’re praising God for His grace and kindness to us.

Progress on Meg and the Baby…

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Continue to pray for progress tonight. In case you didn’t hear, we came to the hospital around 6PM because the contractions seemed to be getting more serious. (Meg had been having contractions most of the day in 30 minute intervals, but in the late afternoon they were increasing in frequency and intensity.) Since she’s been here, things have progressed quite nicely. She is having contractions about every 2 minutes and already has been able to get her epidural (thank God for modern medicine).

Now, we wait. So, ask God to give grace to Meg, the baby, and me as we walk through the next few hours. Hopefully, when you awake, God will have worked to give us a baby girl.

The Word Cloud…

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Sixty-Six Clouds “brings the Bible, design and technology together in a fresh and beautiful way. All 66 books of the Bible have been individually imported into Wordle to create a unique word cloud for each one. Word clouds quickly present viewers with the gist of written materials at a glance. Print quality images are available for purchase and a video version of Sixty-Six Clouds has also been created. Please email hello@66clouds.com if you would like to inquire about posters or if you have any special requests. Thank you.”

We are going to feature some of these in our environment on the book of Hebrews soon. Check them out for more info, or watch this video: