Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

God has used this book to radically change the way we view the Lord's calling on our lives. It is evident in the Scriptures that faith in Christ produces a radical love and devotion for him and others. Our hope is that this book may be used of God to bring a deeper understanding of this life of radical abandonment to Jesus Christ to your lives as well.

Grace & Peace, Ryan and Emma

Below is a video from the author, David Platt:

http://vimeo.com/10281195

Fighting the feminist's lie with the truth of the gospel

I love this picture- Not just because it was one of the most joyful moments of my life( it was certainly that), but because of what happened in this moment. On June 20, 2009 I became Ryan Cole's wife. My role changed in a magnificent way. I was now a helper to my husband; designed to complement, graciously submit, and affirm his leadership- A model of Christ's Church.

Somewhere along the way, we've lost sight of not only the responsibility we have to model the Church, but the responsibility we have as women to uphold what it means to be a women. We buy into the lie that being a man is somehow of greater value than being a woman, so we emasculate our husbands by taking over his God-given role, exercise authority in the church, pick up the feminist torch, and hold our heads high - all the while missing the beauty in being a woman.

My intention is not to start a blog war over egalitarian and complementarian views, nor is it to indict women pastors/women elders (that may come later). My intention is to plead with the women who claim Christ to repent from narcissistic ambition and turn to a loving God who created you to be daughters not sons, submissive to your husbands not disrespectful & rude, feminine not masculine.

Titus 2 paints a picture of the older women teaching the younger women to love their husbands and children; to be homeward focused and graciously submissive. This is how disciple-making looks among women who claim Christ. This is one of the means by which the Lord chooses to teach women about womanhood. I need women like this in my life. I want to speak with as much candor as I possibly can. I need godly women willing to come along side me and teach me how to love my husband and children. We all need women like that in our lives. We're all called to make disciples- this is just one way we, as women can do this effectively. Let's fight the feminist's lie with the truth of the gospel.

Titus Tips

Over the last six months God has given me a deeper love for my husband than ever before. Through the Scriptures, He has shown me love is more than a word and my role as a wife is not to be taken lightly. Daily i'm faced with the reality that marriage was designed to depict the relationship between Christ and His church, and daily i'm faced with the reality that I do such a poor job modeling this in my own marriage, but by God's grace He continues to be patient with me; correcting me and leading me to repentance. What a loving God we serve.

To understand how to be the wives we are called to be, we must first understand that we cannot do this on our own. No Barnes & Noble self help book will be able to remove the sin that stands between us and God. We must look to the cross; to Jesus. Ephesians 2: 12 states, " Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." We were once alienated but now reconciled.

We must understand that we have nothing to bring to the table; there is no good in us. No matter what we do we cannot please an infinitely holy God. But Jesus did. Jesus lived the perfect life we were suppose live, but didn't. By dying on the cross, he took the punishment for our sin, at the same time crediting his perfect life to our account; by putting our faith in Jesus, we will have eternal life and will no longer be enslaved to sin.

The gospel must be our foundation; not only in being a Christ- honoring wife, but in every aspect of our life. Over the next several weeks (and hopefully months) I will be posting what I call, "Titus Tips" to encourage women toward godliness in their daily lives. I have by no means perfected this nor will I in this lifetime. My hope is that this will be edifying for all of us and above all, glorify our Father.

Washing her with the water of the word

I just wanted to give a huge "Thank You" to my wonderful husband. I have had a cold since Monday & Ryan has been by my side, reading Scripture and praying for me. I am so thankful to have a husband who is so compassionate and faithful. He is truly a gift from the Lord. I love you Ryan Russel

Jesus Wants The Losers

The moments i'm shown just how depraved I am are filled with anguish; but the thought of how good God's grace is toward me fills me with great hope. I remember the night of my conversion; the feeling of my total depravity weighed my soul down to the depths.

I spent most of my life believing I was a good person. After all, I never killed anyone or went to jail for a crime. But I had used the Lord's name in vain. I have loved myself more than anyone in this world, I have engaged in promiscuous heterosexual and homosexual acts, and I have ruined several friendships with my prideful attitude and anger that pervaded my heart. Some, if not all of these things may not look too bad. All of them in fact seem to be condoned in society today. I thought I was a pretty ok person when comparing my actions to the rest of the world's. My problem was that I was holding my actions in front of the wrong background.

When defining our own morality, anything goes so-to-speak. If we are our own authority, there are no true moral decisions; truth goes out the window and what we're left with is personal anarchy. I fell for the lie that I was the only one who mattered. I bought into the notion that my life was mine to live and that the goal in life was to be happy and whatever I had to do to accomplish that goal I was going to do it with no shame. I was wrong.

My life is not my own. It belongs to Christ Jesus. I was bought with a pretty steep price. I deserve hell for disobeying God; for deviating from the path he so clearly lined out for me. Instead of giving me what I deserved and what I wanted, which was hell, he gave me grace. That's the beauty and purity of the gospel.

I am so thankful God continues to remind me of my depravity; because repentance is not something that just happens the moment one becomes a Christian. Repentance is daily. The good news is just as Christ is sovereign in salvation, he is sovereign in sanctification as well.

"Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God." 1Corinthians 6:9-11

This has to be one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I love it so much because this truth trumps behavior modification. We did not wash ourselves so God would save us. He washed us. He chose us, washed us, and justified us. There is only hope in the Savior.

"Death is not Dying"

I recently listened to a speech by a 37 year old woman dying of cancer. My Dad had sent me a link to the speech and knowing my father, I knew this had to be a good one; to my surprise this was not just good, it was great! The video was entitled, "Death is not Dying."

As I listened to her speak, tears filled my eyes. She announced she had only a few months to live, and instead of talking about her disease, she chose to talk about her relationship with Jesus Christ. She spoke of her purpose; and that it was not primarily to be a wife, mother, or friend, but to be a servant of Jesus. She went on to explain how she may be a "good" person in the eyes of people, but when measured against God's holy standards, she was filthy...A sinner.. Just like all of us.. She was a sinner by nature and by choice. The best part about her speech in front of 600 women, was that she spoke of hope in Jesus.

She talked about God's redeeming work through his son, Jesus;and how he lived the perfect life that we were suppose to live, but didn't. She explained true Christianity & that on the cross he took her punishment and our punishment for sin; and that salvation comes only through trusting in Jesus Christ. It took full days of rest and numerous medications for her just to be able to stand for an hour; but it was worth it to her to be able to share Gospel with the lost.

I was deeply encouraged by Rachel Barkey's testimony. I am so thankful my father sent this link to me. I'm thankful God had used this godly women to challenge me in my walk with Jesus, and I hope he does the same with you. http://deathisnotdying.com/ Rachel Barkey went home to her Lord July 2, 2009

~The Move

~ I'm not sure I would call this a blog -maybe a "mini-blog" or just simply, a prayer request.

Over the last several months Ryan and I have been praying about moving to North Vernon in order to be closer to our church family. We have shared the same conviction of wanting to serve more at Bethel & our desire continues to increase. We are currently in the process of selling our home and ask that you would be in prayer for us as we take a step of faith. Please pray we would be obedient servants of the Lord and that above all, Christ would be glorified.