I recently got around to listening to Piper's sermon entitled "What's the recession for?" Let me just say that it is mind-blowing... 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. [1] 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, [2] of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. God is sovereign, which is why you can speak in terms of His purpose for things like the recession. He causes and/or permits all things by design-- however it comes to pass. This is the foundation that we have when we ask what the purposes of God are in the recession. There are many answers...billions of things that we don't realize. There are things that we can know clearly because they are in the Bible and are clear. These are Piper's Five main reasons for God causing/allowing the recession: 1. He intends (in this recession) to expose hidden sin and to bring us to repentance and cleansing. 2. He intends to wake us (in the West, especially) up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where they ALWAYS have mega recession and nothing else. 3. He intends to recolate the roots of our joy in His grace and not in our goods; in His mercy and not in our money; in His worth and not in our wealth. 4. He intends to advance His saving mission in the world and to spread the Gospel like wildfire and grow His church precisely at a time where they have least resources to do it. 5. He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love so that no one is in need in the church of Jesus Christ. I will be back for more on this topic later. For now, I have to run.

Love!

I love my Favorite (aka: Brian). =) Thank You, Lord, for putting me with him.

The Business of Being Born

The following blog is an informed OPINION and should be read as such. Well, today marks the entrance into month seven of the pregnancy for us (well, I'm the only one with the belly;Brian is just patient and kind in dealing with a pregnant wife). I had a midwife appointment where I learned that I had gained 9 pounds (3 pounds more than I should have)! Totally freaked me out-- seriously. I mean, how? What have I done differently to gain that much weight? Our midwife exclaimed, "Jessica, stop freaking out about it. It's okay. Just be sure to watch your simple carbohydrates. It's not a big deal. You're not in danger. I would tell you." I am so grateful for Jenny Allen and other midwives like her. We really researched how we wanted to approach birth when we discovered that God was forming a baby inside of me. I never really knew what a midwife was until my dear friend, Amanda, started sharing with me the differences between midwives and doctors. The differences are mainly a matter of perspective on a woman's body and birth. A doctor's thinking is (at it's core): Pregnancy is very scarry and should be handled as though something could go wrong at any moment. Doctors are trained to treat illness and high-risk patients. They (generally speaking) believe that medicine/drugs are there to help the mother not feel pain. A midwife's thinking is (at it's core) this: Pregnancy is not an illness and should never be treated as such. If at some point something does go wrong, there are educated doctors who can do surgery/other medical procedures, but those cases are rare. We can trust that your body knows what she's doing. This is a part of life, something you were designed to do; therefore, we don't have to step in and "fix" you...We can enjoy watching your body do what it was made to do. There is pain in childbirth, I'm no fool; however, I do believe that I was created by God-- designed!!-- to conceive, carry, and birth children. My body is equipped to handle the pain that is produced by my own body in order to allow the baby to come out at the appointed time. If I have learned anything from research (and from talking with moms), one intervention will probably lead to the next intervention. These are my opinions and I don't think that natural birthing or midwifery is Gospel; however, I will encourage women that I know to study with two approaches to birth because I think that it can be perspective-blowing. =) I received all of this information from : "The Birth Book" Dr. William and Martha Sears "The Business of Being Born" a film about birth www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com