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Month in Pictures, Week 1

May 9, 2019 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

Well, my grandma has inspired me once again. Last month, she decided to do a photo-a-day challenge, and I had such fun seeing pictures of her normal life! I’ve done something similar before, but it’s been a few years. Somehow, I always got caught up taking flower or landscape pictures because I couldn’t find anything else worthy of photography (or so I thought). After seeing Grandma’s lineup, and especially enjoying the pictures she shared of parts of the family I don’t see very often, I thought it would be fun to try the challenge again.

So, without further ado, here goes:

May 1:

The strip canoe project my brothers have been working on for nearly a year now—ready for more epoxy coating! They brought it out in the sunshine one afternoon so the epoxy would harden faster.

Heroes of the Faith

May 6, 2019 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading A Company of Heroes by Tim Keesee this last week. What a book! I can’t say I fully recommend it yet, but I have really appreciated the first three chapters, anyway. So many good quotes and things to chew over, and so much truth! Here are three of the quotes that I have found particularly inspiring, all from chapter one.

(This book was released mid last month, I believe, by Crossway. They graciously gave me a review copy, so I’m looking forward to reviewing it here sometime in the next few weeks—watch for that! Get your own copy here. #AffiliateLink)

“He who religiously obeys Mahomet [Mohammed] may yet be doing grievous moral wrong; but it is never so with the disciple of Jesus: obedience to Jesus is holiness.” —Charles Spurgeon

Blessings This Week

April 26, 2019 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

I have so many thoughts that I could jot down and share with you. Today, I thought I’d give you a random collection, and perhaps something will inspire you where you are to keep going on for the Lord more!

1) We’ve just come through the Easter season, and oh, what a refreshing reset that has been for me personally! We’ve been attending an Easter conference the last five years as a family (hosted by a church group we’ve grown to love quite dearly), and this year we were blessed to go down there and worship with them again. It’s so good to remember what the Lord has done for us. To have rich fellowship. To laugh and sing and share together. What a blessing!

2) I’ve been listening to a lot of songs from past years of A Cappella Gospel Sing lately, and it’s struck me over and over again how much we have to thank the Lord for! It’s amazing how songs can lift our spirits and refocus us on what matters most! If you need a bit of encouragement, I’d recommend reading chapters from the Psalms or picking up a hymnal and studying the words to the old hymns. There’s so much depth there.

Asking The Way to Zion

April 15, 2019 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

I just finished reading the book of Jeremiah today, and was very blessed by a couple verses from chapter 50. I pray you will be, too!

“They shall ask the way to Zion…saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” (Jeremiah 50:5, emphasis mine)

Am I asking about the way to Zion today? And wow…we have been given that everlasting, perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten now! We now possess what the Jews back in Jeremiah’s day had to look forward to! Praise the Lord!

“Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land…” (Jeremiah 50:34)

Our Redeemer IS strong. And I am so, so thankful!

Book Review of the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible

April 10, 2019 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

Well, I’ve broken a reviewing record now. One thing I have never done before is request a review copy of a Bible. But, when the chance came up recently, I was intrigued by the idea: A study Bible with its sole focus on the gospel, and how all of scripture proclaims the gospel? Being the central focus of our faith, I was more than a little excited when I found out I had been accepted as a reviewer!

This was definitely one of the harder reviews I’ve ever written! How do you contain the power of the Bible in a few paragraphs?—impossible! And even something written about the Bible is difficult!

For years, as I’ve read through the Bible, I’ve tried to correlate the Old Testament with the New. Finding the foreshadowing and types and figures, and then seeing how the Lord Jesus fulfilled each one. And while I know Jesus is spoken of often in the Old Testament when it comes to prophecy, how can things like the Book of Esther show elements of the Gospel? And what about the New Testament? Obviously, without the gospel of the Lord Jesus itself, there would be no New Testament! But how can we apply some of the things spoken of in 1 Corinthians, for example, or James? How do they share the gospel, and how do the words there reflect and reinforce gospel principles?

It’s All From Jesus: A Bible Verse Study

April 5, 2019 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

Last Sunday, I started reading through Ephesians, and one thing I noticed in the preface to the book in my study Bible was the mention of the words “in Him” or “in Christ” in the book. And, since I absolutely love discovering (or rediscovering!) patterns in the Bible, I though it would be fun to copy all the instances out. They were a great encouragement to me to meditate on this week, and perhaps they will be to you, too.

Due to the amount of verses (I just counted up, and there are 33 references!), I’ve limited the quotations to just the ones dealing specifically with our relationship with Christ.

There’s still a lot, though. 🙂

“…blessed us with all spiritual blessings…in Christ…” (Eph. 1:3)