Free Audio Bibles

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Rosalie

Wow! Right now, you can download free MP3 recordings of the Bible in a variety of versions. Check out the Free Audio Bibles from Faith Comes By Hearing and choose the version you most enjoy. These recordings are dramatized, which means different voices for different characters. You may or may not enjoy that, but I encourage you to give it a try, especially if you enjoy books on tape.

Also, if you’ve been watching The Bible on the History Channel, I encourage you to download the real thing. You might be surprised to learn some of the details left out of the film version! Here are links to the Old and New Testament in the ESV, my favorite word-for-word translation.

Nuggets from “The Church Planting Wife”

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Rosalie

The following are nuggets from The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart. It’s the lines I would have highlighted if I’d had a hard copy.

I recommend this book for any woman whose husband is considering full-time ministry, but it is also for any woman who wants to take ministry to the next level by being more others-oriented, more bold in sharing the Gospel and making a difference in her community.

“Your experience in church planting will inevitably be determined by the condition of your heart. Thankfully, if you surrender to our good and loving Go, He will do the primary work of guarding and cultivating your heart.” (pg 25)
“So often, we incorrectly believer that we are responsible for ministry outcomes: changed hearts, transformed lives, and the movement of God.” (36)
“Through the discouragement of the first year, God continually revealed the pride behind my believe that I could produce spiritual fruit apart from Him.” (37)
“Without dependence, we start going through the motions and playing the role.” (41)
“If I trust that God has called my husband to church plant, and value my husband’s ministry to the church and our family, I am more likely to offer him my help and support. But when I fail to acknowledge the responsibility God has given my husband or put undue pressure on him, thinking only of how it affects me, I am more likely to hinder his work.” (53)
The idea that friendships will not come easily and I must work to find heart friends and remember that good friends are gifts of grace from God (paraphrased from 73-74)
“If you submit to be broken and as you cultivate a humble heart, church planting will become a joy and a blessing. In order to experience the joy and blessing, we must eradicate pride. Every day.” (95)
“A servant says, ‘I’m here to serve my Master and to learn to grow in the process.’ Perhaps our growth is the very reason we are where we are, doing what we’re doing.” (95)
I want to create snapshots of when God moved in my life to bring me to this place, so that I can remember them when the excitement, passion and certainty of the call is fuzzy.
“The only thing that will enable us to be effective and joyful church planting wives on a long-term basis is being with Him, hearing and receiving from Him, and following His leadership.” (147)
“God likes anticipation and it seems He has a purpose in making His children wait… There is a mysterious value from heaven’s point of view to being in the darkness of life and still choosing to believe in a God who seems to have forgotten us. Darkness is part of the school for the soul, to delve into what really matters.” (181)
Your marriage will be challenged and your husband will need you and your full support. (200)
“Most people don’t get such a front-row seat to the action,but you and I do, and that’s something to be thankful for.” (201)

Book Review: Where Is God?

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Rosalie

Occasionally, I have the opportunity to read a book in exchange for a review here on Seasoned With Salt. Recently, I got to read Where is God by Dr. John Townsend, author of the famous Boundaries. I admit, I had a difficult time getting through the book at first. At the time I received the book, I wasn’t searching for God – I was smack dab in the middle of an adventure with Him, as we had just been appointed as church planters in Spain. After we had Susanna, though, and my life became consumed with newborn care, body changes, and a new schedule that limited my time alone, I felt very distant from God. I remembered some of the nuggets from Townsend’s book: seek community so you are not alone in your crisis, I am not alone, and God is at work through this trial.

While the stories were powerful and the book was well-organized, it wasn’t new information for me. I would recommend this book to new Christians and even searching people. In addition to answering the question “Why does God allow suffering,” and “How is God at work when I suffer,” Townsend offers practical solutions for seeking and finding the Lord when He seems distant.

The bottom line was to seek God in the scriptures, which, while sometimes difficult during a crisis, is excellent advice no Christian can be reminded of too often.

Ministry Photo Book

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Rosalie

Our only kid is a cat, so when photo websites give coupons for free photo books, I’m always trying to come up with creative ways to get my money’s freebie’s worth.

Recently, I did it by creating a Ministry Photo Book for us to take with us to churches and small groups when we’re speaking about our ministry in Spain.

It’s a little 8″x8″ book with us posing at ABWE headquarters on the cover.

Inside is a (cutoff) version of our prayer card and Colossians 4:6, our theme verse.

What follows are pages describing our ministry in Spain…

Our calling and graduation from missionary school… (sorry this photo is terrible, but I didn’t notice until now!) The long section of text is the Missionary Covenant.

Our coworkers in Spain…

Information about Spain…

Ways to contact us…

And our heart for ministry.

I hope you enjoyed this tour through our Ministry Photo Book!

Don’t Miss This Freebie!

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Rosalie

One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read is John Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad. It’s a powerful read for anyone who wants to understand God’s heart for missions. I’ve posted some sort of negative thoughts (uptakes) on Piper’s stance on the importance of reaching the unreached, but this book helped me understand just how Biblical it is to be focused on the unreached. There are many arguments, but the main one is that God has been, from the beginning. It doesn’t invalidate our call to Spain, which is loud and clear, but it does demonstrate just how dire the situation is that God would be calling us there, a place that has already been reached.

Piper doesn’t address this in his book, but I am struck by just how merciful our God is. Because the church has so failed in some of the places it has already preached the Gospel, God is allowing us to go back. It is His will that none should perish, and He’s essentially set aside His original plan, which was that one by one, the nations would come to know Him. Well, one by one they know Him, and one by one they rebel against Him.

And yet He restores. And yet He restores.

Read this book. I implore you.

Happily for you, the audio version of Let the Nations Be Glad is available for free through www.christianaudio.com until the end of the year. Here’s a description of the book from Desiring God’s website.

“This book is not just for missionaries.

It is for pastors who want to connect their fragile, momentary local labors to God’s invincible, eternal, global purposes.

It’s for lay people who want a bigger motivation for being world Christians than they get from statistics.

It’s for college and seminary classes on the theology of missions that really want to be theological as well as anthropological, methodological, and technological.

And it’s for leaders who need the flickering wick of their vocation fanned into flame again with a focus on the supremacy of God in all things.”

To receive the free copy of the audio book:

Visit www.christianaudio.com and create an account if you don’t already have one.
Locate Let the Nations Be Glad
Select the download format
Use the coupon code GLAD10 during the checkout process