Content at Home

Fall has been peaking its head in off and on over the last month but we're hoping it's finally here to stay! I absolutely LOVE the fall season! It brings on cool weather, beautiful foliage, yummy baking, fall flavored coffee, and the excitement of the upcoming holidays!

I wanted to capture some of the trees before they lost their color so the other day, as I drove around town, I snapped pictures. Here are a few...

 Can I live on this street? Ah... simply gorgeous!

It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day events of life that we sometimes loose focus of just spending time quietly together as a couple. Of course, we have some quiet evenings around the house, but there are still always things asking to be done. Dishes after dinner, picking up, laundry that just came out of the dryer, or even the temptation to just veg in front of a movie, etc...

This past week, Kyle worked a number of late nights at work and was exhausted. I decided to text him during his last long day and ask him what he desired to do that night, giving a few ideas that came to mind. I was thrilled when he picked the option of going to the Ohio waterfront for a picnic dinner. I was so excited and spent the afternoon making pasta salad, cutting a fresh watermelon, making homemade cookies, etc... to take on our picnic. We found some swings that overlooked the water and bridges and just enjoyed sitting, swinging, eating, and chatting. It was a perfect date night and way to relax!

So we made it through the three days of excellent teaching from the T4G guys! We had a WONDERFUL time and are so very grateful for being able to attend. We were blessed in so many ways this week! There is so much we learned and are still trying to digest, plus we are seeking to learn how to implement it in our lives. Since Kyle is not an "official pastor" and I am not an "official pastor's wife" we are talking of ways that we can take what we learned and apply it in our own ministry context. It should not be hard because the Gospel applies to all contexts! :-)


As we ate lunch yesterday after the conference at a great sub place, Jimmy John's, with our friends from Texas, one friend asked each of us what one thing from the conference were we planning on putting into action in our lives when we returned home. As I listened to the other guys talk and reflected on the various messages that I really enjoyed, I realized that I really had two things, that in some way wrap up into one.


Thabiti Anyabwile preached an excellent session on "How Wrongly 'Engaging the Culture' Adjusts the Gospel." He pointed out that so many pastors and churches are now seeking to "engage the culture" and draw people in by becoming more like them. Yet he reminded us that we are not to be taken captive by the world but are to be captivated by Jesus Christ. In our day and age, everyone is defined by the culture they live in. Each country, state, community, etc... has their own "culture" that everyone knows them by. One excellent question he asked was: "If we are all defined by our culture, then what does it mean for us to be apart of God's people?" How does being apart of God's people define us before the world? Then he said this: "Christianity is multi-ethnic but it is not multi-cultural!" Wow! I was really captured by this comment! As the people of God, He has called us from every tribe and nation, so we are multi-ethnic. Yet, He calls us to all conform to the image of His Son... this produces a Christian culture in that we are all to be apart of. Thabiti pointed out that in the NT Paul writes to the church, not the culture. He sought to transform people by the cross and for them to become like Christ. It was through this gospel transformation that people could then make cultural judgments based on truth. In our churches, many people do not realize that they are captivated by the world and not Christ. They say they are living for Christ but really their lives show something completely different! 


So the first half of my application from this week is to be careful how I walk. I want to be completely captivated by Christ and not allow all of the worldly goods to distract me from my purpose here on earth.


This brings me to the second half.  We had the privilege of hearing Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, Texas come and speak about what God has been doing in his life. On Thanksgiving day, just a few months ago, he suddenly had a seizure right in front of his children. Rushing him to the hospital,  his family found out that he had a tumor on his brain. They got him in for surgery that next week to remove part of his frontal lobe. He has been undergoing chemo treatments since. He was told that a person his age could live for about 2-3 years depending on everything. (Now, I don't know about ya'll, but if I was just told that I possibly had 2-3 years left to live, I would be doing some drastic rethinking of how I spend my time and energy!) Yet, through God's grace, Matt has continued to trust the Lord and continued to preach and teach and literally live before a nation of people who are watching him online as he lives out his faith and trust in God! After Matt talked for a few minutes he ended in praying. As he prayed, he lifted up each of his young children before the Lord asking that God would draw their hearts to Him and that if he died that his children's hearts would not be hardened towards God because of that. He also prayed for his wife. (I lost it! I was totally crying during this prayer, hurting for his wife, who was there listening to all of this.) He said that his wife had so much faith and trust in God that she was even encouraging him to continue his ministry and not holding him back or trying to keep him home while sick. 


After Matt finished, C.J. Mahaney got up and taught on suffering and how pastors should prepare their congregations for suffering before it happens! He gave a list of book recommendations to read and have as resources for people. Then after C.J. finished, all of the T4G guys (Mohler, Dever, MacArthur, Piper, Duncan, Anyabwile, Mahaney) stood up with Chandler on stage and John Piper prayed for him, asking God to heal him, if that is His will, and to give Matt grace and peace. I was still crying and there were many grown men wiping their eyes at the end of the prayer. Afterwards, all 7,000 men and women stood up and sang "It Is Well." You should have heard the humility and gusto that this song was sung with. This verse in particular caused me to weep for Chandler and his family:


"Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,And hath shed His own blood for my soul." 


As C.J. Mahaney stated about a dear friend of his who is dying, he has joy in his trial because he knows that his greatest need was already met on the cross through Jesus Christ. No earthly need will ever equal that of forgiveness and saving grace bestowed from God, our Father. 


After hearing this message and being reminded that our lives here on earth are not guaranteed, I was quickly convicted about how I spend my time, thoughts, and energy throughout the day. So for my goal in applying what I have learned this week, first off I desire to release worldly expectations and desires for myself and be focused solely on Christ and the gospel. Secondly, I plan to use my time more wisely, making the most of my brief stay here on earth as I seek to live out the gospel in my marriage, home, church, and community. Now I understand this is a tall order and that I cannot do this alone in my flesh. However, I seek to be obedient to the gospel call that God has placed on my life in calling me as His child. 


My first plan of action is to begin cultivating my time with God even more. Not only in the scripture I study but in the books that I read, my goal is to understand the doctrine of the cross and my need of grace more fully. One of the free books I got this week was "Dug Down Deep: Unearthing What I believe and Why It Matters" by Joshua Harris. I have started with this book and plan to read "Big Truth for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God" by Bruce Ware. This is a book focused on teaching children about the big truths of God. I bought it to help us teach our Baby Roland about God, but know that it will benefit me as well! There will be many other things that I will be seeking to do as I seek to "declutter" my life from worldly priorities and seek to focus on God, but I am encouraged that I can take these things step by step. 


Here are the videos from the two sessions I have just talked about. Take time to listen to these sessions. They are so good! Be patient and give them time to buffer or else it'll be choppy. Click play and after it begins, click pause to let it buffer. 


T4G 2010 -- Session 4 -- Thabiti Anyabwile from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.


T4G 2010 -- Special Session -- Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

We just got home from our first day of the Together for the Gospel conference. It's been fabulous! I'm not going to write much now because it's 11:00pm and I need sleep. But I did want to leave you with a couple pictures!

Here's my stack of free books from just tonight. Kyle has an identical stack! We've been so blessed so far!

Titles include:
The Holiness of God - R.C. Sproul
The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation - Michael Reeves
It is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement - Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence
The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline - Jonathan Leeman
He Is Not Silent - Al Mohler
Proclaiming A Cross-Centered Theology - T4G Guys
The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything - Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
ESV Study Bible

Our first conference as "The Roland Family" and residence of Kentucky! :-)

This week, Kyle and I have the wonderful privilege of attending the Together for the Gospel conference here in Louisville, Kentucky. Our apartment is just a few miles from the convention center and we are so excited about being able to attend and hear these great leaders and theologians who are coming to bring the Word of God to us!

The main speakers are Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C.J. Mahaney, and Al Mohler, along with Thabiti Anyabwile, John MacArthur, John Piper, and R.C. Sproul. We have the special honor of hearing Matt Chandler as well, pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, Texas.

Breakout sessions will be held one afternoon with various speakers. Kyle and I will be attending Josh Harris' session: Dug Down Deep: Helping Others Build Their Lives on Christ-Centered Doctrine.

Check out this video about Josh Harris' new book: Dug Down Deep.

We are super excited that we have friends coming in town for this conference as well from Kyle's church in Georgia and my church in Texas. We can't wait to see them and hopefully get a chance to hang out with them some!

I'm hoping to update throughout the week on here, but we'll see how busy we stay. Please pray that my nausea stays at bay during these sessions. As I drove to work nauseous this morning I began to pray that God  would keep the nausea away at least through this week!

Check out this site for some fun T4G videos.

Lastly, here is a video of some T4G participants from a couple years ago:

Here are some videos of our fun Snow Day yesterday! We enjoyed rolling down the hill behind our apartment and then we went up to the Seminary to go sledding.

Michelle Rolling Down the Hill from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.

Kyle Rolling Down the Hill from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.


Michelle Sledding from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.


Kyle Sledding from Michelle Roland on Vimeo.

Click here to see our pictures from our snow day.

On this past Thursday my office threw on of my co-workers a Baby Shower. We all brought food in for lunch and enjoyed eating together.

L-R: Shawna (expectant mother... just in case you couldn't tell), Me, Cathy, Janice

All of us eating lunch together...
Cathy, Jamie, Shawna
Janice and I
Matthew, Dr. Brett, and Dr. David

We all had a great time and concluded that we should eat together more often! :-)

I want to highlight what we were up to this weekend, so here's a quick overview for ya'll.

Friday night we went to Southern's Sesquicentennial Celebration. They had BMX bikers (stunt bikes), free food and drinks, a mechanical bull, fun rides for kids, face painting, fireworks, etc... It was so much fun! Southern has a wonderful 150 year legacy of boldly teaching truth and raising up leaders for the next generation. Kyle and I count it a privilege to be apart of such a wonderful, Christ-centered, school!

Saturday morning I worked, then came home, made my grocery list for the week, and went shopping. I made chili and cranberry-pecan corn muffins (recipe to come). It was very yummy! We sat and took time to relax and watch a movie during dinner. It was really nice because we hardly ever watch movies anymore!


Sunday we had a great morning at church, worshiping with fellow brothers and sisters. We love our Community Group and enjoy our rich discussions each week. Our community group is made up of a variety of ages and life stages, which we really like! After church we went out to eat with friends from our Group at Qudoba.

Sunday afternoon we went to my co-worker's son's memorial service. That was a very sad time. Jeremy was thirty when he died this past Friday. We still do not know the cause. He was found in bed. Please be praying for his parents, Bill and Cathy, as they are grieving his loss. Also, please pray that his passing will open the door for the Gospel to be proclaimed to unbelievers.

After leaving the funeral home, Kyle spent some time studying and I worked on our calendar for the upcoming few weeks, planning out when we have free time to show hospitality to people through our home. That was a lot of fun!

From there we went to our pastor's house for a Newcomer's Ice Cream Social. There were a good many people at their house and it was fun to get to know some of the elders and leaders better, as well as other new people who are attending Crossing. Here are some pics...

Some of the girls...

Jim and Kyle. Jim's wife, Robin, is so sweet! I have enjoyed getting to know her. They adopted a sweet little girl last year and have invited us to come to an event this Friday night about adoption where they are speaking. We are looking forward to joining them!

Dustin, our pastor, brought out his guitar and was playing with Kyle. I thought this moment was adorable! Here are two of Dustin's kiddos... they had hopped up into the guitar case and were listening to Kyle play. Too cute!!!

Dustin singing with his kids...

Dustin preached a great sermon about the role of elders in our churches yesterday. Listen to it here.

So, as you can see, we've had a packed weekend! It's been great though and we have loved the time spent with friends and "family."

This last Friday night Kyle and I went to the Frankfort Avenue Trolley Hop. It's really fun because they have a free trolley that runs up and down Frankfort Avenue, stopping every block or so to let people off to shop and eat. It's the last Friday night of every month throughout the year. All the stores stay open a little bit later to participate. Some stores will even have food out to try!
In front of Quest, an outdoors store, they had a booth offering fresh hand squeezed lemonade for 25 cents.

Here's the Trolley.
Me at a Trolley stop.
Kyle at the Trolley stop.

This morning Kyle and I went to get my new Kentucky Driver's License. Unlike Texas, you get the actual license before you walk out the door. I thought that was pretty cool... no waiting for it to come in the mail. Woo hoo!

It's really cool! Of course, I'm sure a girl and like the pretty colors on it. Here's what a sample license looks like... and mine is horizontal... not vertical like this picture. But it gives you an idea.

Everything in Kentucky has to do with horses... which I love!

It's kinda weird, yet exciting, to see my new name on all of our legal documents now. This was the last step in making Michelle Roland legal. haha... :-)

Now we're off to Starbucks to read and write thank you notes...

Hey Everyone!

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth... sorry for the long lapse in blogging. We've been enjoying the last two weeks here in Kentucky in our new apartment. There have been so many things that I wanted to blog about, including the honeymoon, however there doesn't seem to be enough time to do it all. So, I've decided to just pick the highlights that have happened over the last few days.

On Tuesday, Kyle and I were both off and decided to take time to drive over to 4th Street Live and downtown Louisville. Walking through downtown we saw this cute little bug and were like: "Look!!! It's Herbie!"

Once we got to 4th Street Live we grabbed some lunch at the food court and then walked around taking in the sites.


I love this picture of the street! Kyle did a great job being our photographer! We enjoyed walking into Boarders... looking around and just chillin'
How do you say: "Louisville"??? (Now how many of ya'll actually just tried to say it each way?)




We were really impressed with the intricate design on this particular house.

My amazing Honey and I enjoying peace and quite at a little park.
We found a cute little squirrel that was pretty friendly to us.
Super cute.