Thursday, February 2, 2012

Lil' Washer Platt turns "1"

It's hard to believe that it was a year ago today that another sweet baby entered our family. Little Washer Platt came early, came fierce, and was born straight into tradesman's arms during a major snow storm.

That was the beginning of the little surprises lil' washer had in store for us. It's been a difficult year but a bless-ed year, a busy year, but a reflective year.

I thought I would put up some of our favorite photos of the little guy over the last 12 mnths and share why tradesman and I named him what we did...

























Not sure what to say about this picture above other than doesn't he remind you of the old man from the movie "UP"

What a precious little blessing Washer Platt has been. When we found out we were expecting a boy, and started to consider names, tradesman shared that he wanted our sons name to represent something. He wanted his name to really matter and to say something about our family.

Many men will name their sons after fathers, uncles, brothers, grandfathers, friends, all people that are special and significant in their life. (we have).
This time tradesman wanted to name our son after 2 men that have played a very significant, and life changing role in our family's life, and in tradesman's life specifically.

God has used the teachings of two godly preachers to shape, mold, and revive our faith in a way that has changed us both forever. To our Heavenly Father, we will always be grateful for this.

Raising a godly family has been a passion of ours, and yet complacent, cultural Christianity is all around us. Raising children who were dedicated to living out their faith passionately, pursuing holiness rather than worldliness and choosing to live set apart for the purpose to which God had called them too was and is our desire.

The first time we heard Paul Washer speak, we knew we had found a brother. He was saying things that we had never heard anyone preach before. There were many amens resonating in our hearts.

You can listen to the first sermon that we ever listened to of his right here. Be warned, this isn't for the faint of heart. Some will not like him because he preaches straight up from the word of God with conviction and passion.

For us, his preaching is so refreshing, affirming, challenging and invigorating as many pastors today proclaim that they are preaching from the word of God but they still preach with an obscure, fleshy agenda.
Paul Washer's preaching drives us to the word of God and edifies our faith.
If you want to download his sermons, you can find them here.

There are so many great ones. Some favorites would be his sermons on Biblical Missions, Biblical manhood and womanhood, Be a man, The true Gospel, Examine yourself, 10 indictments against the modern church, Biblical courtship...honestly, I could go on and on, so I won't. You'll have to check him out for yourself.

Tradesman listens to him daily, he can't get enough. If you only have a moment, here is just a snippet right now to give you an idea. Right here. (an oldy, but goody)

Tradesman and I attended the "Desiring God" conference in Minneapolis back in September and unbeknown to us Paul Washer and his ministry, Heart Cry had a table in the conference hall.
We "bumped" into him in the hallway and got to have a little chat with him and when he was holding lil'washer I snapped a quick pix of the two of them.
He took the time to pray with us and over lil'Washer..what a blessing.

The other preacher that we named our little guy after is David Platt. A couple years ago tradesman and I came across the sermon series he had preached in his church. It was named the Radical series.

These 8 sermons shook us, challenged us, and brought us on our faces before God in a new way. God used them to change much about how we think, and life-changing was the impact.

You can find all 8 sermons here. And you can find all of David Platts sermon series (all excellent) for free here at Disciple making International.

Since then David Platt has written a book called Radical and Radical together, both of which I highly recommend.
Watch out though, you and your family will never be the same!

Well, that was a lot of links, and such an inadequate description of what the Holy Spirit has done and continues to do in our lives through these two anointed men of God and their obedience to the proclamation of the Word of God.

If you and your family choose to pursue these teachings, God will use them to break you apart in pieces, undo you completely, and bring you to a point where He can use you for His glory.

Woe is us, a people of unclean lips...may His grace be upon us.




p.s. If you would like to know why our family is passionate about listening to sermons regularly and why we believe it is necessary to continue to be in the Word of God daily and pursue diligently to hear from those gifted by God to teach, you can read my post here.
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