MamaArcher's Blog

Why do we do the things we do?  So often our outward actions are judged but the motives of the heart are ignored.  They are easier to hide from people.  As believers there is an ever constant battle. Our hearts must be forever dwelling on the glory of God.  Our motives must always be pure.  I am thankful that I serve a forgiving God because that is one tall order and one that I cannot fulfill on my own.  It is an area of constant repentance!

You see, as believers it is not enough that we “do”; we must “do” out of pure and right motives.  The Lord God judges not only our actions but also our hearts.

I have been working my way through Romans as of late.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

(Romans 2:6-10 ESV)

Paul teaches us that our salvation is by grace.  You will never hear me say anything different.  I  believe Sola Gratia!  Paul also teaches that judgment is according to works.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

(2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV)

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

(1 Corinthians 4:5 ESV)

This judgment will include disclosure and evaluation of the motives of our hearts.
Nothing can be hidden from the Lord. We must repent of all our sin, even the sin that is so often unseen. What arrogance (another sin btw) to even think that we can hide anything from the God of this universe!

If indeed God can see and will openly reveal the intentions and innermost thoughts of our hearts shouldn’t that make us all the more diligent to have those intentions and thoughts be pure??  Even the motives behind desiring a clean heart must pure, not merely because we must appear before the judgment seat but for the glory of God ALONE!

May this be our daily cry and may God be glorified!!

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
(Psalm 51:10 ESV)

Make this Psalm a part of your daily requests to the Lord and you will be amazed at how the Lord will cleanse your heart! It is refreshing and renewing!

A full month before Resurrection Sunday our church had a special focus in our Sunday School classes.  That focus was on devotional times.  The big kick was to get all of our church members to spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day in a time of devotion.  Now, on one hand, I find this saddening that a church would even have a need to address this.  You would hope that those who profess faith in Christ Jesus would be spending that time in communion with him each day.  On the other hand,  I think it was a good thing because if we are completely honest many believers do not spend that time.  We need to be encouraging one another to spend time in the Word.

There were several people who shared with us how they structure their time with the Lord.  Different tools were shared and opportunities were given for individual quiet moments with God.  Some ideas were good and some were actually dangerous practices in my opinion.  I pray that God would help all in those classes to able to discern and glean the best from the ideas shared.  The goal was all the same though; we need to be spending time in the word and with our Lord each and every day.

There were several ladies there that had some of the same struggles as myself.  The ladies teaching our class kept saying, “Find yourself a quiet place alone without distractions.”  I will just say it right now for all of you mothers with little ones, “I can’t even manage to go to the bathroom alone and you want me to find a quiet place ALONE??”  That being said there are ways you can still spend quality time with the Lord and his Word even if you can’t (pardon my language) pee alone!

This is really an important thing for me.  If you read my last post about being distracted and needing to focus you will understand more fully why this is so important to me.  We just recently bought a camper and it is still parked in our driveway.  Who knows how long the HOA will allow that but it has been a God send this week.  I have been able to have my older children watch the youngers and go to the camper for some uninterrupted time with my Savior!  I am aware of how rich a blessing that is!  I am sure though that the camper will not always be in my driveway.

I thought that I might share with you some ways that you can manage, amidst your little ones or any distractions in your busy life to be able to carve out 15 minutes a day or more to spend with the Lord.

• If you have time to read this blog post…..
• If you have time to check facebook……
• If you have time for pinterest…….   OK you see where I am going with this….right…
• Start your homeschool day with scripture reading. Give each child a turn to read.
• Read a childrens’ Bible with your little ones
• Study some catechism questions and scripture proofs with your little ones
• Place several small devotionals around the house, when you find 5 minutes pick one up and read
• You can pray, pray, pray throughout your day
• You can sing praise through out the day
• Do scripture copywork.  Have your children color.  OR make this your school work while the children are working their math problems.
• Place scripture you want to memorize on index cards and place them in prime places around the house where you are sure to see them often.
• Read scripture on your iphone throughout the day.  Even if you only pick a short section of scripture and go over it several times a day. Short bursts several times a day will help root that scripture in your mind and heart.

These are just a few ideas.  Please share some of your own…

Part of the reason for this long blogging break has been that I have really had nothing I felt of worth to offer.  I am still wondering if that is the case.  But I know that if the Lord is teaching me then there is something of worth there even if I am the only one learning the lessons.

There have been several struggles in my life during this break.  We moved from a place that is truly home (at least earth wise).  I have been dealing with health issues.  There have been other things also.  I have allowed these things to be stumbling blocks at times rather than the time of growth that they should always have been.  I am not saying there has been no benefit but rather that I have fought against it.   Why?????  I know that the Lord’s plans are always better than mine but I still found myself trying to convince him that maybe he was mistaken (never really believing that though).  I had lost my focus. I allowed distractions to be front and center in my mind.  I didn’t want the struggles to begin with but in wrestling with the Lord over it rather than resting in the Lord through it I managed to struggle more.  The Lord even uses that to teach and train his children.  Thanks be to God!!

Now, there are legitimate obstacles that have been placed in my life but I have maybe made them more than just obstacles.  As an example:  health issues, there truly is only so much one can do when you only have a limited amount of clear functioning time during the day before your body says no more.  When the obstacle became a stumbling block is when I found myself saying that if I only had three good hours then what was the point.  Instead I should have been making the most of those three good hours. This is just one example but the same kind of reasoning can be seen in the other challenges of the past several months.

I had allowed my circumstances to distract me from my focus, my calling, the goal.  It is a very easy thing to do.  It is easy to lose focus without even realizing that you have done so.  You seem to wake up one morning and wonder how you landed here.

The solution is as simple as the cause.  I had allowed myself to become distracted I simply needed to place those distractions aside and turn to the Lord who should always be my focus!  I needed to renew my devotion!

We have an example of this in scripture in the person of Martha found in Luke chapter 10.

    But Martha was distracted …….
(Luke 10:40a ESV)

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. ”
(Luke 10:41-42a ESV)

Sadly, this is something I often struggle with; being distracted.  Being distracted doesn’t have to be blatantly obvious, in fact, it is often subtle.  Maybe this is why one of my favorites of my husband’s sermons is on Martha and Mary.  It is entitled, “Devoted or Distracted”.  He shares in this sermon that a heart of distraction is a loss of devotion.  OUCH!  What a call to repentance!

I was reading last night and the Lord used the words of R.C. Sproul Jr. to remind me of this.  This quote was in the context of homeschooling but its application reaches much further.  He says:

Once more, let’s come back to the goal.  This, friends, is the key of staying strong on this issue.  The devil’s tactic is always simple distraction.

So, are you like me?? Are you easily distracted? Are you subtly drawn away from your focus? Maybe it is just me and I am confessing way to much here! But maybe, just maybe, there is one other person out there who struggles as I do.  Let me encourage you.  Pull out your Bible, repent, plead with the Lord to draw you closer, and remember to keep the one necessary thing!  Do not let the devil entice you with simple distraction but let the Lord continue to fill you with devotion!

It has been almost ten months since I have blogged.  There has been a lot going on in life that has just made blogging, well, something I didn’t even think about.  Recently, however, the thought of reviving my blog has been swirling around in my mind.  It doesn’t help that blogging is now becoming a trend of the past.  Facebook seems to have taken over internet life.  I began to wonder though if it was really worth even paying for the hosting and the domain if I never even ventured here myself.

After much pondering, I think that I will begin blogging again.  This time things will be a little different.  As you may have noticed, there are not any of my old posts showing.  I have set them all to private.  I wanted to start fresh.  I may from time to time re-post something from the past.  If you have a favorite please let me know and I will consider re-posting.

I just need a little more focus.  I cannot blog about anything and everything.  I just don’t have the time and to be honest facebook is a better avenue for the everyday, share with those closest to me kind of posts.  I want this to become a place where I can record the things the Lord is teaching my heart.  I want it to be a place to encourage.  Hopefully, a place where others can comment and encourage me as well.

The following verse has hit me hard in the last weeks.

    For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
(Romans 1:11-12 ESV)

How often is the thought of being an encouragement forefront in our minds?  Sadly, when I gather with others I am often not thinking, “How can I encourage them?”  Not that I don’t want to encourage them but it is not the first thing that comes to mind.  My thoughts are often on how fun a gathering will be or how we can enjoy one another’s company.  I don’t think of fellowshiping with a mission.  This is the challenge before me.  I am fully aware though that anything of worth here comes only from the Lord.  I wish for fellow believers to be encouraged by my journey and my life in what ever way the Lord might use them.  I long for the Lord to use you to be an encouragement to me also.

So, for the fellow Christians who stumble upon this blog, may we mutually encourage one another in our faith.  And may the Lord use our testimonies to stir the hearts of non-believers, who may happen upon this site, to saving faith.