Glodjo Tweets

I did it.  I finally joined Twitter.  Check out the cool widget on the side of this blog and follow me @tglodjo if you’d like.

Hipster Points Count

Joining Twitter: 1

Asking you to follow me on Twitter: -1

Keeping points to become a Hipster: -1

Total Hipster Points: -1

~ t

Bloodlines

We apologize that it’s been a while since we’ve updated this blog.  We’re aware that life is crazy for pretty much everyone, but here’s a glimpse of that past few months for our family: Tyler’s grandmother passed away and this was his first loss of a close family member, we bought our first house and spent almost a month bathing elsewhere while we updated the bathroom, and Tyler completely changed careers and is now teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in Jackson public schools.  We’ll try really hard to give a more in depth update on these transitions soon, but we wanted to pass along this video because of how important it is for us to hear and talk about how the gospel celebrates racial diversity.

About a month ago we went to see the film The Help.  It’s probably one of the best films to come out in Jackson in a while because of it’s dire relevance to this city.  It’s extremely sad that racial divisions are so prominently displayed and practiced daily in our city.  Yet, most people don’t speak of the issue because if we don’t talk about it or acknowledge it, then it doesn’t exist, right?  The Help started a conversation in Jackson that is very much needed, and this short documentary from pastor John Piper adds to it.  Please watch the video below.  (You can click the link below to watch the film in fullscreen on Vimeo.)  You should also get Piper’s new book, Bloodlines, and join this eternally significant conversation.

Bloodlines Documentary with John Piper from Crossway on Vimeo.

~ t & d

Between Pearls & Righteousness: A Mother’s Day I’ll Never Forget

I do not blog often because I hate the way I sound in written form. But this weekend I have experienced something that is bigger than myself and therefore worth sharing, even if it requires a little humility. This weekend I experienced the gospel. We talk about sharing the gospel, living out the gospel, and preaching the gospel to ourselves daily, but so often it is hard to see the gospel in the everyday busyness of life. Well, I not only saw it this weekend, but it pierced me, cleansed me, and renewed my joy in Christ.

Here’s how it happened. I am a stay at home mom and I love it! I love being with my little boy every day and getting to see him grow and change and learn new things. I know that before long he will grow up and I will be standing there wondering where the time went. Thus, I am all about taking in every minute of every day of my son’s smiles and cuddles. The other part of my job as a stay at home mom is to take care of the house. This part I dread everyday. I don’t like doing dishes; I don’t like doing laundry; I don’t like sweeping. The only thing I don’t mind doing is straightening up in order to make everything appear clean.

This becomes an issue when my husband, whom I love dearly, greatly appreciates coming home to a clean house. Recently, this problem just keeps coming up. Now that John Elliot is sleeping through the night (and thankfully, so am I) and taking two 2-hour naps during the day, I have yet to take advantage of all the extra time in a way that is productive and pleasing to my husband and my Lord. As Tyler and I have discussed this issue over and over again, I always know he is right. I needed to submit to his leadership and make better use of my time. He doesn’t have these expectations in an overbearing way, but in a logical “we both need to make good use of our time” kind of way.

So I would try anything and everything to motivate myself. I seriously listened to Sara Grove’s song, “Setting Up the Pins” on repeat while doing my chores.  I listened to podcasts, read the “Girl Talk” blog, and even made a chore checklist that I put on a cute bulletin board. None of these things, however, seemed to make a difference. Well, yesterday we had one more conversation about it. It was calm and not heated one bit. Tyler gently shared where I had gone wrong, and I knew he was right. Being a woman though, I got emotional and saw myself as this big failure. I even told him I didn’t want to celebrate Mother’s Day because I didn’t feel worthy. I didn’t want to go to church where everyone was going to read about the “Proverbs 31 woman” because I knew that I had definitely been slacking in so many of those areas recently. And being the godly husband that he is, Tyler did not kiss me and tell me everything was going to be fine right away; instead, he agreed with me. He told me, and I am paraphrasing, “You do mess up. You’re not worthy to be honored as you are. But Christ is the perfect housewife on your behalf.  He has covered your imperfections. We ARE going to celebrate you as a mother and wife tomorrow because of God’s grace in our lives.”

So today I woke up and Tyler fixed me breakfast and gave me pearl earrings with a card. We went to church where I stood with the other women as Proverbs 31 was being read aloud, and I received a red rose from the children in the church. When we sang “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name,” I felt God’s grace pouring over me in a way I have never experienced before. I didn’t feel worthy of anything. I felt what I believe the younger brother must have felt when he returned home and received such a warm and loving welcome from his father. I had felt so undeserving of being honored as a mother, yet just as the younger brother was dressed in the father’s robe and rings, I have been clothed in beautiful pearls, and more importantly, the grace and forgiveness of Christ’s cleansing love. The following verse sums it up perfectly:

“When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.”

~ d

Sermon: From Ordinary To Extraordinary: The Church In Antioch (Acts 11:19-26)

This past Sunday I had the privilege of visiting Parish Park Baptist Church in Marion, IL again and preaching from the book of Acts.  They’ve been going through the birth of the early church in Acts for some time now and I was asked to speak on Acts 11:19-26, the beginning of the church in Antioch and where believers were first called “Christians”.  It was a blessing to my soul to dwell on and study this passage for the past week, and I pray that this sermon is just as much a blessing to those who listen(ed) to it.  To update you on the church, though there are still many struggles, it was a joy to see brothers and sisters excited about their faith, their church, and their obedience to the calling of making disciples of all nations.  They are now debt free, and though the future is still uncertain, they are stable and looking forward to what the Spirit of God wants to do in their midst.

Since I don’t have a whole lot of preaching experience, I would love any feedback you as a reader/listener can give.

Listen to the sermon here or download it by clicking the arrow on the far right of the embedded player:

~ t

Traveling M.E.

Dear friends who read our musings and fairly irregular updates,

If you have not already heard, I (Tyler) am going to be traveling to the Middle East in just over a week.  I will be gone for a week and a half visiting some close friends of ours, encouraging them and bearing gifts from our church .  I’ll also be strategizing our church partnership in this area and praying about the possibility of my family working in the region.  Though this support letter is a couple of months old (e.g. John Elliot is now 6 months old, not 4!), I wanted to post it and ask for your prayers.  Pray especially for Danielle as she becomes a single mom for a week and a half.  And if you happen to have some spare change lying around, feel free to send it along because we can still use the financial support!

ME Support Letter (Glodjo Update)

~ t

Little John Gets Talkative

I wonder what his first words are going to be…

~ t

Little John’s Happy Dance

We discovered this week that Little John enjoys dancing just as much as his parents.  He may not be able to walk yet, but he still likes to move.  The following is a video I put together to give you a glimpse of his mad dancing skills.  He may not be making it to the club anytime soon, but at least he’s happy!

~ t

Common Prayer

Why am I uncomfortable praying with my wife?  I don’t think I’m alone in saying that family worship, especially between just a man and wife, can be uncomfortable at times.  Actually, for Danielle and me, we’ve never gotten out of that uncomfortable stage to the point of even having consistent prayer and scripture reading together.  Each attempt usually lasts one or two days.

I know this is a struggle for many married couples.  When men in my church talk about their time in the bible with their wives I hold on to every word they say hoping that maybe they have the secret formula for successful family worship.  However, the formulas never work because of two things: 1) there is no formula, and 2) sin.  For us, starting family worship was always uncomfortable because of our sin.  It’s hard for me to put on my “spiritual leader” hat to pray with Danielle when she knows how sinful and spiritually lazy I really am.  I take courage from my brothers at City Fellowship who show me that this thing called family worship can work, and indeed, become ordinary, normal, regular, common.  With the birth of our son John Elliot, I want to make sure that Danielle and I are prepared to raise him in a spiritually rich home, with a family that is quick to repent of sin together, pray together, and praise Christ together, and I cannot let my own sin and pride prevent that from happening.  So from now on the Glodjos have reinstated family worship, presently consisting of Danielle and myself (while John sleeps), no matter how uncomfortable it may feel at times.  But praying together cold turkey can be quite difficult, so we’ve had some help, and it is for that reason I am writing this post.

We haven’t declared any new resolutions for the year 2011, but we have begun a rather consistent time reading scripture and praying together with a helpful resource: Common Prayer.  By celebrating the Advent season with our church family at City Fellowship we have begun to really enjoy and appreciate a more liturgical form of worship that is shared with brothers and sisters in Christ across the globe.  I love how the family of God does not just celebrate holidays, but models the calendar around the gospel of Christ each season!  I initially purchased this book for the same reason I buy many books, namely, because my interest was peaked and I could.  However, I was afraid that it would just be cast aside all the other devotionals collecting dust on the bookshelf.  But this book is different.  Why, you ask?  Well not necessarily because it’s new or different, but because Danielle opened it before I did, was encouraged just by glancing at the pages, and demanded that we restart family worship using this resource.  So yeah, I can’t really take the credit for the Glodjos’ restarting family worship in 2011, but I’m glad to say that we’ve prayed together, shared together, read scripture together, and even sung together (!) for more than just one or two nights.

With Common Prayer, Danielle and I are able to enter into a sacred time together by praying prayers with our brothers and sisters around the world.  It’s not as awkward when we know that the songs we sing, scriptures we read, and words we pray are shared with others.  This act of worship then allows the Spirit to soften our hearts as we move on to confess our own sin, repent, and pray for one another.  I look forward to giving John a bath at night and putting him to bed so that Danielle and I can sit together and enjoy Christ and his gospel.  I can’t express how grateful I am for this book in only the short amount of time we’ve owned it, and we highly recommend it to others!

~ t

Note: This is not the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.  Though similar at points, it’s a compilation of prayers, songs, and devotions by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro.  I love that it’s subtitled “A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals” because just as the radical ideas and demands of Christ should be ordinary for Christians, so too should family worship!  Danielle and I have constantly struggled to pray together because it’s not normal for us.  We live in a culture where worship is relegated to Sundays and (sometimes) Wednesdays, and worshiping every night is a foreign concept.  I pray that John Elliot grows up with family prayer and worship being common!

Sermon: Thank God For The Gospel

This Thanksgiving weekend I had the privilege of preaching at my family’s church in Marion, IL.  Parish Park Baptist Church has been struggling for a few months now.  There have been multiple splits, the budget is almost nonexistent now, and the pastor bailed; yet, this body is still a beacon for the lost in their community.  It was a blessing to join them in worship and open the word of God to discuss the gospel.  I figured that people expect to hear a Thanksgiving sermon on Thanksgiving weekend, so what better is there to be thankful for than the gospel?!  Not to mention that in Romans 1:21, Paul shows us that one of the reasons God’s wrath is revealed from heaven is  “although they [mankind] knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Getting a lot of insight from Greg Gilbert’s What Is The Gospel?, I used Romans 1-4 to outline the basic tenets of the gospel message for those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.  My goal was to lead the people into a time of thankfulness for the cross of Christ and his victory over sin.  I’m definitely not an experienced preacher, nor am I a scholar, but hopefully putting this sermon out there will edify fellow brothers and sisters, as well as point the lost to Jesus the Christ.

Please keep Parish Park Baptist Church in your prayers.  My step-dad is the youth minister and he’s the one who’s been tasked with leading the congregation through this time of transition and renewal.  It’s been difficult, but so goes pastoral ministry.

Listen to the sermon here:

Or download it at Soundcloud here:

Thank God For The Gospel

~ t

Little John’s First Giggles

Parenting gets better each and every day.  I can’t believe how much I am getting to know my son, and even more, how I love him above almost everything in this world.  Each day it seems that John Elliot gives us a new glimpse of the boy he’s going to become, and though most of these moments don’t get caught on video, I sure am glad that we got this one.  God has indeed blessed our family with little John!  Hope you like the video.

~ t