This is a non-exhaustive recap of 2019 with photos, words, and many quotes that were important to me during the year.
January: 1st home purchase for Andrew and Katie, milestone birthday for Josh, Family trip to Arizona.
Journal entries to remember:
From sermons in Joshua: Wilkening
Bread of Life: The Bible has everything we need for daily nutrition of our souls.
February: Introduction to snowshoeing, Dinners, Testimonies to Deacons.
Journal Entries:
MacArthur: Christian love operates within the parameters of Biblical knowledge and spiritual discernment.
No matter how loving an act or a word might seem, if it violates knowledge and discernment it is not Christian love.
Dorothy Sayers: It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.
March: Birthday on the Coast, Addy’s Bubble Birthday and another Milestone Birthday
Journal Entries:
Sermon from the book of Joshua: You can choose your sin, but not your consequences.
Keep growing, don’t stagnate.
Robert Bolton: He that endeavors not to be better, will by little and little grow worse.
A faith that is not changing you has not saved you.
April: Jaymison Joshua’s birth, Andrew’s Throwing Axes party, NICU in Spokane, Vera’s first visit here.
Journal Entries:
Piper: Coasting is not discipleship. Drifting in self-contentment is not like basking in the pool of security, but like floating, fast asleep, toward the falls. “We must pay much attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” Hebrews 2:1
MacArthur (The Gospel According to Jesus): And any “salvation” that does not alter a lifestyle of sin and transform the heart of a sinner is not the salvation God’s Word speaks of.
May: Mother’s Day, Jaymison home again and thriving, photo shoots.
Journal Entries:
MacArthur: (TGATJ) Obedience is the inevitable manifestation of true faith.
The state of mind that refuses obedience is pure and simple unbelief.
Spurgeon: One man with God is a majority though there be a thousand on the other side.
June: Father’s Day, Anniversaries, Canada MGCC Lovella’s Birthday Brunch, Highlander.
Journal Entries:
Begg: The work of the evil one is to try to re-calibrate our thinking to the culture of the world.
From Pray Big: So Paul teaches you to ask God to open your heart-eyes to see much further and see much better, to the riches of your eternity.
July: Family Visits, Swimming Lessons, Dan’s 30 day assignment, Summer Social.
Journal Entries:
Dwight L. Moody posed a question to a room full of children in Edinburgh, Scotland: What is prayer? He thought he would be answering that question himself but several hands went up all over the hall. He called on one young boy and this young lad with clear and confident tones said, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.” Moody’s amazed response was, “Thank God, my boy, that you were born in Scotland!”
In those days in Scotland’s parents still believed it was their solemn duty to teach their children Biblical truth in the form of catechism.
August x 2: Eye surgery, Laura here for a week, Steve and Lana’s Visit, MGCC camp Weekend, Dan home
Journal Entries:
Spurgeon (A Passion for Holiness in a Believer’s Life) This is the reality of holiness: “If we believe God’s Word, we are orthodox; if we practice, we are holy.”
The Bible is the great umpire as to conduct, and not the changing moral sentiment of passing generations.
Pray to God to order your life according to His Word. To this Word we must be conformed. This is our copy to write by; this is the image to which we must be modeled.
September: Kids to the Coast, Junk Drunk, Auger.
Journal Entries:
Piper: (Life As A Vapor):
…Don’t be duped by the gurus of the age.
…One enslaving fad follows another.
…The wisdom of this age is folly in view of eternity.
…Don’t follow a defeated foe. Follow Christ. It is costly. You will be an exile in this age. But you will be free.
October: Cousin Jim’s visit, Marcus Apple Ciderfest, Annual Family Hunting Trip, Family Baking, Pumpkin Patch, Sufficiency of Scripture Conference
Journal Entries:
Psalm 19: 7-9:
The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether:
November x 2: Vera’s 2nd Visit, Piroshky Baking day, Trip to the Coast, Sounders MLS Champions, Thanksgiving and Trusses! Hit a deer. Dan begins another 30 day assignment away from home.
Journal Entries:
An old Puritan said; “Prayer is a cannon set at the gate of heaven to burst open the gates.”
Spurgeon: You must take the city by storm if you would have it. You will not ride to heaven on a featherbed; You must go on a pilgrimage. There is no going to the land of glory while you are sound asleep; dreamy sluggards will have to wake up in hell.
MacArthur: Fight the good fight-we are in war our whole Christian life to fight for the truth and to defend the truth.
December x2: Laura’s Birthday, Our Anniversary and Trip to the Coast, Canada for MGCC Christmas Party, Christmas, JJ’s First Christmas, Katie’s Birthday Party! Dan returns home.
Journal Entries:
Beware of bestsellers in the supposed “Christian” genre. Ask yourself why? Beware.
MacArthur: Mission of the Messiah (Luke 4:16-21)
Theme of the Bible is Salvation; The just payment of sin to satisfy God’s justice. God must have a substitute to die in the place of sinners. The Son of God is that substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament speaks about the one who is coming. Jesus is symbolized in all the sacrifices.
Voddie Baucham:
I choose to believe the Bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in the fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that their writings are divine, rather than human, in origin.
2 Peter 1:16-21
“For we do not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when we received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard the voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain.”
And for my last quote of the year:
Justin Peters: “If you want to hear from God, read the Bible. If you want to hear God speak, read the Bible out loud!
Beware of people who say they have heard God tell them something apart from what is already written in the Word of God.
Again this recap is for the benefit of my brain to be able to remember what happened when and what I was reading and studying that was important enough for me to write down.
And that in a nutshell was 2019.