Jerry Bridges in Town!

For all of you who followed the Coffee Tea and Thee Summer Book Club online when we read Jerry Bridges' Respectable Sins, do I have great news for you! Jerry Bridges will be in our town speaking the weekend of May 13-15. Mark it down!

Here's what I know so far:

* The host is Christ Presbyterian Church, meeting in Hampton Cove Middle School http://www.christpreshamptoncove.org

* Jerry will be speaking Friday night around 7 pm, Saturday 9-11 am, and twice Sunday - 9:15 am & again at 10:30 am for church. As I find out exact times, I will post them.

* His topic ( and I know all you BSF'ers studying Isaiah will be thrilled!):
The Foundation of Holiness from Isa. 6:1-8.
Messages will cover: God- His Holiness; Guilt- the seriousness of sin; The Gospel- the remedy for sin (II Cor. 5:21); and Gratitude- motivation of the Gospel (Lu. 7).

I'm pumped! Needless to say, this man, his inspired writings and the Holy Spirit's conviction changed my heart for the Gospel. Stay tuned and I'll see you there!

Lent: Sowing Ephesians

Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. Hosea 10: 12

I want to share with you something I learned at last weekend's women's retreat and something I am starting this Wednesday as Lent begins. I love Lent. I love going underground in my heart and walking through a season of penitence to prepare for the glory of Easter. You may want to try this same precious exercise.

At retreat the above verse was our theme. While we discussed sowing righteousness, we talked about planting a garden in the field of our minds. It can be any kind of garden - vegetable, flower, English, wildflower, and in my mind's eye, my garden resembles the one from The Secret Garden, my favorite childhood classic.

Our garden becomes a Seeking Garden, the place we meet with God. We spend time there everyday. All Master Gardeners go into the garden almost every single day to survey and make plans, pull a few weeds or just walk around. Or work. Or sit. So, in our Seeking Gardens, we also plan, clean out, prepare the soil and begin to plant. And here's the cool part - we plant the book of Ephesians. We plant 5 seeds each day - which means 5 verses a day. The way it works out is that we make our way through the entire book of Ephesians during the 40 days of Lent. Sowing Ephesians. I love it!

I've got my garden all mapped out. I've thrown out some rubbish that littered up my landscape and taken a good hard look at the condition of my soil. I'm planning to plant my 5 seeds each day and pray and meditate over God's Word and sow it deep. I'm not naive enough to think this will be an easy task. Gardening is back breaking. I know I've got some rocks that need moving and some unplowed hard ground. I know there will be be days where I'll pull weeds and days where I'll get a cup of coffee and just sit with God. My heart is ready. I'm anticipating reaping His unfailing love.