Spring distaff monday night single spread

The Distaff Layout Editor: Yamel de Cardoza, wife of TMS student Angel de Cardoza

Send contributions or questions to: [email protected]

The Distaff Copy Editor: Karitza Gladden, wife of TMS student Doron GladdenAngel ---- , wife of TMS student ----- -----

The Distaff Coordinator: Barbara Barrick, wife of TMS Faculty Assoc. Dr. Bill Barrick

Am I a stone, and not a sheep, That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross, To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon-- I, only I.

Yet give not o’er, But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock.

by Christina Georgina Rossetti(1830-1894)

Good Friday Or Beneath Thy Cross

Always concerned about what people thought of me—would sum up my life before God gra-

ciously allowed me to see my sin and understand the truth about Him and His Word. Growing up my parents taught us to go to church, to have good man-ners, good morals, and always put others first. No matter how hard I tried I always had a void that I tried to fill with school, sports, friends, family, and boys— never being successful. I started going to church more diligently once I received my driver’s license. I was searching for something. Even in the midst of my big family and our crazy life I felt so alone. I was liv-ing a confused life while thinking I was one of God’s children because I had “asked Him into my heart.” I even tried my best to speak in tongues, but I never received that “special” feeling others said you were supposed to have. I had given up. I didn’t care, nothing seemed to work, so I devoted my life, af-

ter high school to working out (in an attempt to look perfect by the world’s standards), working full time and going to college full time—literally just going through the motions. One evening I ran into my now husband, Bryan, at my broth-er’s basketball game. Both of our brothers were on the same team. We talked the whole game and then he asked me on a date. Lit-tle did I know this date was going to change my life forever. We were sitting in his car in front of a store and he told me he wanted to ask me some-thing. I thought he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend, but no, he asked me, “Candice, if you were to die today do you know for sure if you would go to heaven?” What? I wanted to cry, I wanted to hug him, and I wanted to run away, I had so many reactions rushing through me. After gathering my-self, I of course, looked at him and said, “YES!” but then continuing said, “Well, maybe.” He then began to tell me that there was nothing I could do in my own strength to gain salvation, not even praying in tongues or feeling a certain way as I had thought. He recited Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace you have been

saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His work-manship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”The Lord graciously granted me understanding of His Word that night, understanding like I had never known. I had read that

portion of Scripture often but it never made much

sense until then. That night when I re-turned home I read God’s Word for a few hours, understand-

ing things I had never realized. Now I found

“peace that surpassed all understanding” and a new view

on life, realizing that my purpose was to live for Christ and not my-self. Christ paid the ultimate sacri-fice of death to cover my sins so I can spend eternity with Him. That night my heart and mind were changed and I no longer wanted to live my life of sin, but rather a life that honors God. My life since that day, December 18, 2006, has not been perfect or easy but God has given me joy as he continues to make me more like Christ. After we married in De-cember of 2007, we moved from place to place, had relationship

By Candice Ragsdale

Testimony

“He told me he wanted to ask me something... I thought he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend... but no... he asked me, “Candice, if you were to die today do you know for sure if you would go to heaven?”..

struggles, marriage struggles, and financial difficulties, but God never abandoned us and always provided for our needs. God never ceases to be gracious to my husband and me, blessing us with living in three dif-ferent states, moving seven times, adopting our son through foster care, and finally getting pregnant with our daughter after almost four years of trying and so much more. God’s timing and plan is always better than mine. Even though I have continued to see Him provide for us I become discontent, grum-ble, and complain like the Israelites in the wilderness. It was not easy for me to pick up two months after

our daughter was born, say good-bye to our life in Wyoming—our other two foster children, our min-istry, our church family or even our six hour commute to see my family—and willingly follow my husband to seminary in Califor-nia. That was one of the hardest things, but the best thing, because the Lord graciously brought us to a church and seminary with so many God fearing men and women that encourage and challenge us and where we have such sweet fellow-ship and so many opportunities to learn and grow. Christ changed my attitude towards California, it may not have been my first choice,

but I am so thankful God is sover-eign over all! Knowing God knows and already has planned my future gives me great comfort. Now, thankful that the Lord pulled me from a life headed away from Him, He continues to give me strength to be a loving wife and a desire to raise my children in instruction and fear of the Lord. Philippians 2:12-13 says, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure .”

By Brittany BrattonTestimony

When I was about 8 years old, I remem-ber praying to ask Jesus into my heart,

but then I struggled with assur-ance of salvation, thinking I needed to ask Jesus into my heart continually to stay saved. As I grew up I came to understand that I didn’t need to keep pray-ing to ask Jesus to save me. Though I knew that I needed to place my faith in Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection, I still didn’t fully understand what I would be saved from. I knew I wanted to go to heaven someday

though I had not really considered that I was separated from God because of my sin. I continued to live in my sin and discontentment

without confessing my sin. Through the faithful

teaching of God’s Word I came to understand that I needed to repent, turn away from

sin, and place my faith in Jesus’ death

on the cross as the only sufficient payment for sin. I am thankful for the Holy Spirit’s work in my life. He continues to show me areas of sin that I need to re-

pent of. Though I don’t know the exact time I was saved I do know that God, by His grace, chose me and saved me and I am so thankful for that. I look forward to the day when I will be totally free from sin and in the presence of my Savior.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as

a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in

Christ Jesus”.Romans 3:23-24

Where do you fit the reading and mem-orization of Scrip-tures in your busy

day? Everyone seems to have dif-ferent times of the day and meth-ods to do so. For instance, I have a friend who memorized while doing the dishes, with a big white board over her kitchen sink. I’ve heard about others who do the in-dex card system or just memorize straight from their Bibles. None of these methods worked out for me. Index cards kept getting lost, or I kept forgetting to write down the verses or where I left the cards!

If you are like me, you feel really confortable around technology. I use technology throughout my day for almost everything. I have and app for writing my grocery list, one for reading the Bible, one for tak-ing notes, another one for reading books, the Starbucks app, the Ralphs app, tracking expenses app, storing recipes app… I thought, what about and app for memorizing Scripture? I searched and found there are a cou-ple of decent options out there.I read the description and features of a great number of the Scripture memorization apps available. They go from free to up to $5.99. The most interesting one that I found, bought,

and couldn’t recommend more is the Fighter Verses App, developed by Desiring God. It’s simply a great app. They have great useful features that I just love. It’s available for An-droid and iPhone for only $2.99. They have hundreds of Bible verses arranged by different categories in different translations, or you can just choose the verses you want to learn. I like memorizing my verses in Span-ish, since Spanish is my first lan-guage. Fighter Verses provides the option of uploading the verses from any of the Bible translations avail-able in Biblegateway.com, which has virtually almost every Bible transla-tion there is!

The app has great features; here are some of my favorites:

Quizzes: You get different quizzes with incremental levels of difficulty. Recording: If you memorize better by listening, you get to record the verse and play it back.Image feature: The software generates an image with your current verse, which you can use as wallpaper or lock screen. This is great for me, because every time I hold my phone the verse is right there on my screen. Accountability: If you are not accessing the app daily it sends notifications to your phone.

On the other hand if you are not technological or don’t own a smart phone, they have all these awe-some features for you on their website for free!

-ESV verse cards: With this tool you can enter up to 100 references at a time, and customize your preferences. The program creates a PDF, which you can save and print.-Song Verses: They have a team of artist creating new songs every week with verses and entire passages, with diverse rhythms. You can download them in MP3.-Bookmarks in Spanish and English: They also provide the verses ar-ranged in bookmark sizes, that you can print in cardboard or laminate, and use. -Blog: In this blog you can find tips for your own Bible study and memo-rization.

Fighter VersesScripture Memorization App

-Home page for this app: Go to the Store to purchase the app.

- Review sheets for use with this app.

-The Verse Card Maker (VCM): Is a quick and easy way to create cards for scripture memorization.

-The Verses Project: Musical and vi-sual art to help people memorize and meditate on scripture.

Reviewed by Yamel Romero de Cardoza wife of Angel Cardoza, TMS 3rd Year

It is a pleasure to read the book One with a Shep-herd written by Mary Somerville. The book gives encouragement to women who are married to a pastor and have to deal with the many issues that a

pastor’s wife has to face such as loneliness, hospitality, discipling, counseling, or being an example to others.The author wants to give a better understanding of the challenges awaiting the woman married to a pastor. She starts by defining what the role of a women in general is and then goes on more specifically to speak about the role of a pastor’s wife. The pastor’s wife must be an example and a supporter to her husband. There are many topics discussed in the book, but the three major areas of discussion are:- How to face ministry from an emo-tional prospective: loneliness, pride issues, being one with our spouse.- How to face ministry practically: being an example in marriage and as a mom, being hospitable, managing the money.- Ministry in relation to others: dis-cipling and counseling.Mrs. Somerville concludes the book by reminding us that being a pas-tor’s wife is a place of honor. Even if there are many challenges, the outcome is to see peo-ple’s lives changed to the glory of God. It is an honor to support a man in this great task and it is an honor

to walk in the path that the Lord has assigned for us, bringing Him glory.This book greatly encouraged me to hold on to God even in the midst of many challenges. It was good to be reminded how much this role is a place of honor even if at times, when among difficulties, it may not seem so. A practical lesson was the one of making dis-ciples and training them in doing some of the things I could do as pastor’s wife, that way ministry is not as overwhelming as it could be. I was also challenged

on the matter of loneliness and to not be afraid to go out and make friends. One other encouragement was about raising children and the challenges that come as they grow. The lesson learned was not to get discouraged but keep the Word of God at the cen-ter of our lives. I really liked this book. Mrs. Somerville did a great job in present-ing all the themes without being bor-ing, but talking from her heart and personal experience. I would certainly recommend this book to every wom-an married to a man who is involved in some kind of ministry because it is a great encouragement of how to live

life when God calls our husbands to a position that is in the public’s eye.

Reviewed by Carmela wife of Joshua Dougerau, TMS 3rd Year

One with a Shepherd by Mary Summerville

Summerville, Mary. One with a Shepherd, the Tears and Triumphs of a Ministry Marriage : Kress Christian Publications, 2006.

Recipes & Crafts

Crafty Jars

Personalize

Paint on a label with chalkboard paint /brush or spray or Check Amazon or Etsy to buy chalkboard labels.

What Can you Do with an Empty Mason jar?

Her is a fun idea to recycle your used jars, especially for Spring or Summer gatherings.

Use for drinks, fruit parfait (as pictured,), pantry jars for staples, paint the lids and label, storage of all

sorts.

Google: mason jar with chalkboard label orSearch on Pinterest for : mason jar with chalkboard label

1 tsp baking soda3/4 tsp salt2 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp instant vanilla bean espresso powder*3/4 cup brown sugar1/2 cup white sugar3/4 cup browned butter2 tsp vanilla extract1 egg + 1 egg yolk1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks [*May be found in the coffee section of a grocery.]

Sarah’s chocolate chip cookies

Preheat oven to 375. Combine wet ingredients in one bowl, dry ingredi-ents in another. Brown 1/2 cup but-ter in a skillet over medium heat stir-ring constantly until butter is brown and has a nutty/toffee smell. Take off heat and let additional 1/4 cup butter melt into the hot butter and

cool slightly. Combine butter with wet ingredients then add wet and dry together then. Mix in chocolate chunks. Roll in small balls and bake approximately 9 minutes, rotating pan half-way through cooking time. Cool on wire rack.

Spring distaff monday night single spread

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