Why I Do These "Don't Waste Your Summer" Posts

This quote from Nancy Wilson's book The Fruit of Her Hands explains it well:

Christian wives tend to leave the "fat books" and theology to their husbands. While this may look "submissive" to some, it is actually disobedience. It is not enough that we know Proverbs 31, Ephesian 5, 1 Peter 3 and 1 Corinthians 1 and 14. We have to know more than how to be a good a wife. After all, our first calling is to be good Christians; and if we are good Christians, we will be good wives and mothers, as I
mentioned earlier. We musn't be afraid to study topics other than those which directly deal with being a wife and mother. We see in scripture that women became
disciples along with men. What is a disciple? It is not a mindless follower. A disciple is a student--someone enrolled in the class.

It is clear from the rest of the book that Nancy does not frown down upon older women teaching the younger women how to love their husbands and children as well as homemaking skill--in fact that is what she spends the rest of the book doing. But she does want to make the point that a woman should not limit herself to only learning those things--with a few Christian romance novels swirled in the mix.

Don't Waste Your Summer Part 3

This week I want to take a break from the biographies and turn your attention to this excellent interview by Pastor and professor Russell Moore on adoption. Russell Moore is the dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY and one of Chris and I's favorite speakers and preachers. He recently wrote a book called Adopted For Life and Justin Taylor (no relation of ours) interviews him about his book.

I think you will find this interview both informational and moving, whether or not you are adopted, have adopted children or even considered it. Many of our close friends from church as well as extended family members on Chris' side have adopted so this issue is important to us.

Teaser:
In the beginning of the interview, Dr. Moore describes walking into the orphanage in Russia which was lined with cribs filled with children and hearing total silence. The children had learned that no one ever came when they cried, so they no longer tried any longer. He and his wife were able to spend an hour each day with their two one-year-old boys for about a week before they were able to take them home. On the very last day before the boys would become theirs, Dr. Moore laid his hands on the boys and blessed them. He told them that he would not leave them as orphans, but that he would come back for them and bring them home soon. As he started to leave, one of the boys cried out to him. This was an exceptionally moving moment for Dr. Moore and his wife as they understood this to mean that his boy's crying to him meant that he had identified with him as a father figure--someone who he could cry to. Dr. Moore's says it was at that moment that he understand the scripture that says:
"You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" (Rom　8:15)

This is just one example of how he uses illustrations from adoption to explain spiritual realities. Hearing the interview will make you want to read the book.

Along those lines, Moore just wrote a post called Orphan Care and the Great Commission Resurgence about how the Southern Baptist Convention has adopted Moore's resolution to encourage churches and families to take care of the orphan.

Naomi's Second Birthday--Messsssy

Still clean while waiting for the fun to begin:

Let the slop games begin:

All cleaned up and ready for cake:

Happy 2nd Birthday Naomi

Plans for the party:

--Finger painting with chocolate and vanilla pudding, apple sauce and tomato sauce (I bought giant containers from Sam's.)

--Watermelon eating contest

--Sliding down slide into slime

--While blind-folded, sticking hands in gooey stuff and guessing what it is

--Silly string contests

--Carrying pudding in hands to fill up a bucket, first team to fill there's wins

There's a theme to this party: get as messy on the front lawn as possible. They will be in their bathing suits and then we'll just hose them off at the the end.

This is Naomi's dream party! If there's one thing she loves, it is getting into anything gooey: yogurt, lotion, hand soap, you name it. She's going to have the time of her life.

A little secret: the older kids are just as excited as she is; maybe more. I guess almost-12-yo also like getting messy.

Stay tuned for messy pictures and videos!

Don't Waste Your Summer Part 2: The Life of George Mueller

The life of George Mueller is one you don't want to miss. Chris and I listened to this together on Saturday while driving to Denver.

One of the reasons why I like listening to Piper's biographies is because he's done the hard work for us. Instead of me having to read several books, he's taken the most interesting aspects of a saint's life and formed it into an interesting, spiritually-challenging lecture.

Here are some teasers:

1) Besides being a pastor, Mueller cared for over 10,000 orphans in the course of his life. When he died:

“Tens of thousands of people reverently stood along the route of the simple procession; men left their workshops and offices, women left their elegant homes or humble kitchens, all seeking to pay a last token of respect.” A thousand children gathered for a service at the Orphan House No. 3. They had now “for a second time lost a ‘father'.”

2) George Mueller cared for these orphans without ever once asking for money or going into the slightest bit of debt. Instead, Mueller prayed that the Lord would move in the heart of the wealthy to cause them to give, and neither Mueller nor one of his orphans ever went to bed hungry.

Piper is quick to point out that we should not gather from his life that it is wrong for people such as missionaries to ask for money--Paul asked for money on behalf of other suffering Christians. But Mueller lived his life this way as a testimony of the faithfulness of God to provide for his children. Mueller's goal in life was to increase the faith of fellow believers by the way he handled his finances and cared for orphans, and by his dependence on God.

3) Mueller's view of the gift of faith: Mueller stressed to those around him that he did not have a special gift of faith, as in the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12.

All believers are called to show hospitality, but there are some who have a special gift of hospitality. All must be generous givers, but some have a special gift of giving above and beyond. So it is with faith, Mueller believed. All believers exercise their faith in the promises that God has made in the Bible. But the special gift of faith that is mentioned in 1 Co. 12 is a gift that God gives at times to have the faith to believe something not promised in the Bible. For example, the Bible does not promise us that if we are obedient, we will not suffer from sickness. But there are times when someone with the extraordinary gift of faith may pray for another's healing and suddenly know that God will grant it.

The faith that Mueller believed he had was the ordinary faith that are all called to practice. God has promised us that he will supply the basics of life for us, food and clothing, if we seek first his kingdom. Mueller did not want others to imagine that he was able to live the way he did, on constant reliance on God, because he was in a special category and had a special gift of faith that not all have. Instead, he wanted to send the message that every believer can trust God to supply all their needs. Whether we have one or two children, ten children, or 2,000 at a time like Mueller did, we can trust that they will be provided for.

This is not the same as the health and wealth gospel (think Joel Osteen), which claims God will supply not all your needs, but all your wants if you have faith. Big difference. Mueller did not live a life of luxury.

To listen, download, or for text of the lecture, as well as footnotes go here.

Two Points of Interest From the Wilberforce Biography

First: Wilberforce believed that ethics should never be divorced from their doctrinal foundation.

Piper says: "He [Wilberforce] wrote his book, A Practical View of Christianity, to show that the "Bulk" of Christians in England were merely nominal because they had abandoned these doctrines in favor of a system of ethics and had thus lost the power of ethical life and the political welfare. He wrote:

The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and nutriment.

He pled with nominally Christian England not to turn "their eyes from the grand peculiarities of Christianity, [but] to keep these ever in view, as the pregnant principles whence all the rest must derive their origin, and receive their best support."

An open question: Is there any of that going on today??

Second: Those Who Seek to Live a Godly Life in Christ Jesus Will be Persecuted

It's difficult for us living in 2009 to understand what the arguments were against abolishing the slave trade in nineteeth century England. If I was given a blank sheet of paper and told I had to write down the most convincing ones, I'd be hardpressed to come up with anything. And yet, history shows that Wilberforces opponents were at no loss of words and arguments that sounded very convincing to many.

A wealthy slave holder by the name of William Cobett tried to misalign Wilberforce because Wilberforce had chosen as his life work the abolishing of the slave trade instead of abolishing many other of the injustices that were occurring in England at that time. Cobett said to Wilberforce:

You seem to have a great affection for the fat and lazy and laughing and singing and dancing Negroes. . . . [But] Never have you done one single act in favor of the laborers of this country [a statement Cobett knew to be false]. . . . You make your appeal in Picadilly, London, amongst those who are wallowing in luxuries, proceeding from the labor of the people. You should have gone to the gravel-pits, and made your appeal to the wretched creatures with bits of sacks around their shoulders, and with hay-bands round their legs; you should have gone to the roadside, and made your appeal to the emaciated, half-dead things who are there cracking stones to make the roads as level as a die for the tax eaters to ride on. What an insult it is, and what an unfeeling, what a cold-blooded hypocrite must he be that can send it forth; what an insult to call upon people under the name of free British laborers; to appeal to them in behalf of Black slaves, when these free British laborers; these poor, mocked, degraded wretches, would be happy to lick the dishes and bowls, out of which the Black slaves have breakfasted, dined, or supped.

It was a malicious accusation from a wealthy man who had never done anything to help the poor. Wilberforce had decided to take up the greatest injustice he could think of--the slave trade. This did not mean he did not care for poor English citizens. One thing at a time.

I sometimes hear this sort of argument in relation to the abortion issue. We've all heard it said: "You pro-lifers say you care so much about babies, but you don't care about women, or do anything to help unwanted babies." However, nothing could be farther from the truth. The pro-lifers who I know are traveling to Africa and adopting sibling groups from orphanages. Within our church there are children from adopted Ethiopia, Haiti, China, and domestic adoptions as well. I know of women who go to Planned Parenthood regularly and offer to women walking up to the clinic to adopt their babies, to pay for their medical bills, to provide them with a place to live (a boyfriend may not take them back unless they take care of their "problem.") They offer them diapers and formula and clothes and equipment if they want to keep the baby. The accusation may have been slightly true a few decades ago, but not anymore. Often, those making the accusation have done none of those things themselves.

Don't Waste Your Summer Part 1

This is summer, we are going to spend our cleaning time, our exercise time, our kids naptime, even our grocery shopping and errand running time listening to some awesome, mind-stretching, faith-growing biographies.

Who's we white girl???

"We" is women everywhere who don't want to waste our summer and want to get our houses clean, get in shape, and tackle that yard work all at the same time all while renewing our minds.

What we're listening to for the week of June 8 Peculiar Doctrines, Public Morals, and the Political Welfare: Reflections on the Life and Labor of William Wilberforce

Here's an excerpt:

What made Wilberforce tick was a profound Biblical allegiance to what he called the "peculiar doctrines" of Christianity. These, he said, give rise, in turn, to true affections - what we might call "passion" or "emotions" - for spiritual things, which, in turn, break the power of pride and greed and fear, and then lead to transformed morals which, in turn, lead to the political welfare of the nation. He said, "If . . . a principle of true Religion [i.e., true Christianity] should . . . gain ground, there is no estimating the effects on public morals, and the consequent influence on our political welfare.

Please leave a comment if you are joining me in my summer listening challenge. Also, leave comments about what you learned from the weekly biography. We're going to do one biography a week. If you want to look ahead, here is the list I'm picking from. If you see one you'd particularly like to do next, drop me a line. We may not get to all of them this summer.

Directions: I'm sort of iPod incompetent, so if someone knows a better way to get something online onto your iPod, by all means leave me a comment. Here's how I do it: Go to this link. Click download and save to desktop. On desktop, right click and select open with iTunes. Last, sync iPod with iTunes.

Update:
I just listened to the first half. In case you're thinking: "I've already seen the movie Amazing Grace," the lecture has a lot of information that the movie leaves out. For instance, Piper begins by telling us that the first two things that happened to Wilberforce after becoming a Christian were that he loathed his wealth and he despised the idleness which had characterized his life thus far. He became impassioned with a love for the poor. I don't remember that from the movie. A movie is a difficult medium for communicating conversions and there's a lot in this biography that will supplement the movie well. BTW I loved the movie, not meaning to knock it. But you can only learn so much from it.

George Tiller’s Death: Is It Wrong to Feel Conflicted?

[Please Note: Open to Other Viewpoints]

Dr. George Tiller is the only abortion doctor's name I know. I had been following his recent court case with great interest and so when I heard that he'd been shot Sunday, it wasn't just another name to me.

The reactions from the pro-life community have ranged from a clear condemnation of the murder to some calling the murderer a hero. The rational of the latter goes something like this: If you knew that a man was premeditating to kill several toddlers in the coming week and you had no lawful way to stop him, would it be wrong for you to kill him for the sake of the children? I feel conflicted. But first, here are some points that both views within the pro-life community can agree on.

First: George Tiller was deserving of death.
This statement does not condone the man that took the law into his own hands and shot Dr. Tiller. It is only a statement of justice. When Genesis 9:6 states that, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” It is stating a principle for all societies for all times.

Many are quick to dismiss statements from the Old Testament with a blanket rule that the old has passed away. However, it is the law of Moses that Christ fulfilled, with regulations such as no eating shellfish, which the New Testament clearly revoked (for instance, Peter was told in a vision to kill and eat unclean animals.) However, this statement was written long before Moses and is grounded in the fact that man is made in God’s own image.

One principle that is helpful in understanding what things from the Old Testament carry over and what still apply, is to study the grounding behind the statement. The ceremonial law, with its regulations on washing and sacrificing animals, had the express purpose of pointing us to Christ and his substitutionary death. Now that the death of Christ has taken place, the ceremonial law is no longer necessary.

But the grounding for a man forfeiting his life by taking another man’s life is the image of God. As long as man continues to be created in God’s image, the principle will hold. A just society should have enough respect for the destroying of the image of God that this principle would be written into its law code. Dr. Tiller would have been stopped long before he was allowed to destroy over 60,000** people created in the image of God (**see endnote). However, if the laws were such, it is likely he and others would have never gone into the abortion business in the first place. But God’s laws remain whether or not the laws of this country line up.

Second: Relief

I think we can all agree that it is okay to feel relieved that this man will no longer shed blood. If you had Jews hiding in your attic and you heard that a plot to assassinate Hitler had finally been successful, there would be a certain degree of relief, maybe even rejoicing, going on in your house. This would be true even if you staunchly opposed to the assassination plan, felt that it was unbiblical and unethical. You would still be thankful that the oppression of the Jewish people had come to an end.

I feel relieved for the babies that were supposed to die yesterday and today and the rest of this week. Some of those women may not be able to get another appointment (Tiller’s clinic is one of only three clinics in the U.S. that perform abortions after 21 weeks). They may have to give birth to their babies. Perhaps a couple that has been waiting for years to adopt a baby, will finally get their wish. Many of the babies Tiller killed had Down’s Syndrome or some other defect that was not detected until late in the pregnancy. There is a national registry of families desiring to adopt such children. If some of these children will now live as the result of his murder, I am thankful that they will have life.

Third: This is a moral dilemma that we should do our utmost to remove.

No man should have to make a choice between spending the rest of his life in prison or perhaps receiving the death penalty on the one hand, or else, allowing a planned killer to continue with his work day in and day out. We have a unique privilege in this country that few in the history of the world have ever had: to have a say in the laws of our land. But with every privilege comes a responsibility, and we need to take seriously our responsibility to see that our laws are just. We must soundly reject the idea that the best way to save babies may not be through overturning Roe. This argument is popular and advocates other methods such as increasing welfare and free birth control to reduce abortion instead. Abortion will still continue even if illegal, the argument asserts. This logic is applied to no other societal ills, (i.e. let’s not make homicide illegal, because it will continue anyway.) But more than this, it does not promote justice and give the protection of the law to the weak and innocent.

Conclusion:

With all that said, I believe that the man who shot Dr. Tiller was acting contrary to God’s law and has forfeit his own life. Paul commanded the early Christians to obey Nero (Rom. 13:1), not assassinate him, although he murdered many Christians and fed them to the lions as sport. This verse has to be read carefully, for Paul himself did not stop preaching the gospel after commanded to by the governing authorities to stop (Acts 5:40). We obey government except where government conflicts with God’s clear commands, and then we obey God. Because our government does not allow us to kill abortion doctors, only a clear command from scripture to kill murderers who the government wrongly refuses to bring to justice would justifies taking the law into our own hands as Tiller's assassin did. I can think of no scripture in his support.

Truly God has commissioned us to: "Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. 12 If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?" (Proverbs 24:11-12)

But we must seek to obey both God and the government when we can. We must seek to rescue the weak in all ways that do not kill. We cannot condemn killing through more killing. We must seek to change our laws and not become a law unto ourselves.

We pray for abortion to end and for God to bless our efforts knowing that He will not help this movement so long as we use as our methods the very thing we seek to uproot: death.




**Down in Wichita, Kansas, there is a physician by the name of George Tiller. On his website he boasts that he has already performed 60,000 abortions, mostly late-term, and week after week he is killing 100 more unborn babies.
Dr. Tiller does not think of these fetuses as clusters of cancerous cells. He knows they are human because he baptizes some of them before he incinerates them in his own crematorium. You don’t baptize non-humans. Dr. Tiller knows that. He is a practicing Lutheran. His former congregation, Holy Cross of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, excommunicated him as an unrepentant sinner. But the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, which belongs to the ELCA, communes him. Did I mention that he kills 100 human beings every week and has already done away with 60.000? Sixty thousand! In Nuremberg they hanged some fiends for murdering less than 60 -- zero point one percent of Tiller’s toll.
Perhaps this little tale will give even non-believers pause if they have not discarded their conscience, known to Christians as the law God has written upon every man’s heart. One day, of this I am certain, this will indeed result in collective shame – and God knows what other horrible consequences."
From Remembering Collective Shame

Reflections on the Book of James

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

I used to have a limited understanding of this text. In my mind, what James meant by asking for wisdom, was that whenever you had a decision to make and you couldn’t clearly figure out on your own what to do, you should ask God for direction. I believed wisdom here was synonymous with making good choices. Where should I send my kids to school, should we move, what house should we buy, what activities should I get involved in this fall? “Well, ask God for wisdom,” I believed James was saying.

But recently, I’ve come to understand a bigger meaning. In chapter 3, James tells us clearly what Biblical wisdom looks like:

James 3:17-18 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

It’s not that making wise decisions is excluded, it’s that something more fundamental is being spoken of. James is pleading with us to ask more of God than we naturally would. We may be comfortable asking of God a small thing like a subtle sign or nudge in the right direction when we are at a crossroads. But James is encouraging us to ask for much more from God than that. He wants us to ask for heart change.

Each time our conscience is pained at the realization that we are being contentious, James is saying, “Ask God for the wisdom that makes you peaceable.” When we are harsh with those under us, we are encouraged, “Plead to God for gentleness.” When we see a tendency in ourselves to be entirely unreasonable, the Holy Spirit is saying through James, “Ask God to change your heart that you may be open to reason.” When we show favoritism, or are insincere, or struggle to show mercy to those we dislike, the Word of the Lord to us is: “Ask God for the wisdom that will make you full of mercy, good fruits, impartial and sincere.”

Why does James have to tell us to ask for wisdom from God? The end of verse 5 gives us a clue, where James tells us that God gives without reproach. Because we are constantly aware of our sin, we are hesitant to ask for help from God because we are afraid of reproach from Him. “YOU!? How dare YOU ask for anything from me? You who keep committing the same sins over and over?”

And yet James tells us that God is not that sort of Father, who reproaches those who ask for help. He is a generous Father who delights to give us wisdom, but he wants us to ask.

But when we ask for help, we must ask with trust that God is a good father who loves to give good gifts to his children. Otherwise, verse 8 tells us we are double-minded. To be double-minded is to ask for something good from God while saying to ourselves, “I know he’s not going to help me with my anger problem. He never helps me. The only way I’m ever going to get better is if I do this myself. I don’t even know why I’m praying this, it’s not going to work.” James doesn’t know why we would even bother praying that way either: James 1:7-8 “For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” It would be similar to my saying to my husband, “Could you take out the garbage for me—Never mind (before he has a chance to answer), I’ll just do it myself, you never help with anything anyway.” That woman should not expect to receive any help from her husband.

The way James is encouraging us to ask is with a belief that God wants to give his children the best gifts in life that there are. The wisdom from above is a gift that no circumstance, tragedy or relationship can ever take away. What good is wealth, family, friends, health, if it is littered with strife, impurity, unreasonableness, partiality, insincerity, mercilessness, and rotten fruit? But with purity, sincerity in our hearts, gentleness, good fruits, not even poverty, sickness, or loss of friends and family can take away our peace.

God does not always answer our prayers for worldly requests in the way we hope. This is because he is a good father who will not give a snake or a scorpion to his children, as Jesus explains:

Luke 11:11-13 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Some things we ask for may turn to poison to us, lead our hearts astray. God will not gives us those things. However, it always possible that our sinful hearts will demand them anyway. In that case, we can not say that God gave it to us.

But what God always does answer is the prayer for wisdom: the moment by moment plea for help from a soul that feels his own helplessness and rests on the goodness of God.

“But wait!” one could object. I prayed that prayer for help back in 2002. I asked God to help me with my irritablity problem, but I still struggle with it. Why wasn’t I cured for life? I believed God would heal me; where’s this generous gift of wisdom?

In the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus was exceedingly generous as the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of leftover bread and fish. And yet, those people had to eat again the next morning. Could Jesus have fed them special food on that hillside, where, once they ate it, they would never have had to eat again in there lives? Of course he could have but he didn’t.

Could God have ordered the world in such a way that one day we are reading James chapter 1, we identify every place where we lack wisdom, we ask Him for it, and BAM! we never struggle with those sins again? Later we realize we missed a few, and then we ask for wisdom in those areas as well? Eventually, though, we cover everything and continue on in our life full of wisdom forevermore? Of course he could have ordered the world that way, but he didn’t.

The 5,000 who were fed that day, they still had to look to God for sustenance everyday for the rest of their lives. And still, it is accurate to say that Jesus was very generous to them that day on the hill. He gave them more than they could eat; they were stuffed. For many of them, the day on the hillside may have served as a morale booster whenever they didn’t know where their next meal would come from, and they asked for their daily bread with a newfound confidence.

We will need to continue to ask for wisdom everyday for the rest of our lives. But James wants us to understand that each time we ask in faith, we will find him generous.

The Word of God places our feet firmly on the ground by instructing us of the goodness of God towards us. Without a constant reliance on God’s goodness, we are tossed about endlessly, as James says:

James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

When doubting God, we start moving towards shore on the wave of Joel Osteen’s Become a Better You. Next we find ourselves being carried out to sea on the Oprah wave. Not long after that, we find ourselves riding the social gospel version 8.0 (and now, new and improved and more subtle in its undermining of the real gospel than ever before) and next find pop psychology giving us a bumpy ride.

But when in faith we put our feet down and stand on the promises of a good God, we find that the bottom was there all along. Then we can stand unmoved, while the self-help, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps fads come and go, swirling around our ankles, and leading nowhere.

And so, in encouragement to ask for good gifts from God, the best of which is wisdom from the Holy Spirit, Jesus tells us:

Luke 11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

My Beautiful Garden

I truly believe that anyone can garden.



I made this one when I was 8 months pregnant with Abigail. We had just moved into our first non-rental and I had the garden itch bad. Chris was working every spare minute to get projects done inside before Naomi came and I knew I wouldn't have the chance after she was born.

So there I was, 8 months pregnant, raking up 6 inches of gravel before planting each bush. Now I am enjoying the fruit of my labor, with only one plant that didn't survive. I just read that tea roses, the kind of rose you get when you buy a dozen roses, doesn't do well in Colorado. But other than that, my garden is flourishing despite blazing daytime temperatures, cold nights, late spring frosts, hail (although none yet this spring), soil that is pure sand, and nearly no rain (I do water though). If I can make a garden in Colorado, having never taken a class or read much about it, believe me, anyone can garden.

My favorite part is a fresh bouquet for the table.

By the way, all the flowers are perennial. I don't want to waste time or money on annuals in this stage of my life. I want to recommend creaping phlox (the first plant in the video, hot pink, which is also white and purple in other places in the garden)especially for rocky mountain gardening. The plants were tiny when I first planted them and truly have creaped, even in gravel. My other personal favorites: peonies, hydrangea, lilacs and of course roses (rocky mountain variety from now on.)

Speaking Loving Truth to Power

A Providential Adoption Story

We have a relative named Joseph who comes from a long lines of Josephs. Joseph and Heidi have wanted a child for many years, and yesterday they became legal parents of their first child, a son. They leave in a couple of weeks to go pick him up from Ethiopia. His name in Ethiopia: Mumush Yosef. That’s right, the middle name that his birth mom gave him, in God’s providence, is Yosef.

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is his reward.

Congratulations Joseph and Heidi and little Joseph VII!

I have heard adoptive moms of foreign babies say many times that they thank the Lord that the birth mothers of their babies didn’t have the option of getting an abortion.

An Old Book Worth Collecting

There is an old book, first published in 1882, that has the wisdom and eloquence only a book written a hundred years ago could have. Originally published under the title Homemaking, the book is now called The Family by J. R. Miller.

Had I never read it and you had read me a section out of it, I would have known immediately that it was not from our time. I recommend it as an antidote to the modern water we fish swim in all day.

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it."

This book is full of the ancient paths, calling us back from modern pitfalls.

Here are some excerpts:

A true wife makes a man's life nobler, stronger, grander, by the omnipotence of her love 'turning all the forces of manhood upward and heavenward.' While she clings to him in holy confidence and loving dependence she brings out in him whatever is nobles and richest in his being. She inspires him with her courage and earnestness. She beautifies his life. She softens whatever is rude and harsh in his habits or his spirit. She clothes him with the gentler graces of refined and cultured manhood. While she yields to him and never disregards his lightest wish, she is really his queen, ruling his whole life and leading him onward and upward in every proper path.

Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is place in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it's soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her."

Oh, Mothers of young children, I bow before you in reverence. Your work is most holy. You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls. The powers folded up in the little ones that you hushed to sleep in your bosoms last night, are powers that shall exist forever. You are preparing them for their immortal destiny and influence. Be faithful. Take up your sacred burden reverently. Be sure that your life is sweet and clean.

PCA – BCO: Introductory Thoughts

It’s been a while since I’ve been in the habit of posting on this blog. What was once my blog has essentially become my wife’s blog as she is the only one who has been consistently posting here lately. I basically gave up blogging over a year ago after attempting to bite off more than I could chew, namely, prove that the Apostles’ teaching on men and women was the direct result of the gospel as taught by Jesus in the Gospels. While I am still inclined to think that way, I have not been able to substantially establish the connection to my own satisfaction, nor do I really have the time to work through the issue.

However, I do want to get back to posting regularly, so I’m going to start a series of posts on what I’m studying right now: the Presbyterian Church of America’s (PCA) Book of Church Order (BCO). I’m working through the BCO with a group of men at church as a part of the church’s officer training class. While the BCO is not the most exciting thing to study, I intend to post on things that are off particular interest to me, and thereby, hope to keep these post free of the kind of materials that make me feel the way I generally tend to feel while reading the BCO.

Amendable:

The first thing that stands out as particularly interesting to me is the fact that the BCO is not only amendable, but that it has been amended so much in the PCA’s short history. From the title page, a reader will note that the PCA’s current BCO is in it’s sixth edition, even though the denomination has only been around for thirty-six years. That basically means that a new edition is created about every six years.

But that is only a small part of the story, for these major editions are amended each year. The amendments to the sixth edition are referenced on the second page as follows (Note, I don’t really expect anyone to read this section, I’m only posting it to make a point: the BCO is a very fluid document):

1990 – BCO 14-1.14; 19-10; 30-1,3; 34-7,8; 36-4,5; 37-1,2,3,7,8; 42-6; 45-1,4,5; 46-5

1991 – BCO 14-1.11; 14-1.12; 14-2; 15-2

1992 – BCO 10-3; 42-11; 43-3; 43-7

1993 – BCO 14-1.15; 15-4; 24-5

1994 – BCO 15-1; 21-4.d; 24-1; 37-9; RAO 4-3; 4-6; 5-1; 13-1; 13-6; 13-13.c.6; 13-14.d; 14-9.c; Corporate Bylaws Article VI, p. R-39 and Certificate of Incorporation, pp. R-29-31

1995 – BCO 13-10; 14-1.12; 32-18; RAO 15-3 and Corporate Bylaws Article IV,4 and VII,1

1996 – BCO 35-14; 42-5; 42-6; RAO 14 and Corporate Bylaws Article VI,5

1997 – BCO Preface II, 15-1, 15-4, 15-5, 19-1, 19-6, 38-4, 39-3, 46-2, 46-5

1998 – BCO 13-6; 15-5c; 38-3; RAO 14-7; Corporate Bylaws Article VI,5

1999 – BCO 13-5; 13-12; 20-2; 32-6; 33-2; 33-3; 34-4; RAO 4-18 [editorial changes to 15-3 and 16-3]; SJC Manual 6.2d; 8.3b; 19.10c; and 19.11 [editorial changes to 11.9a.2 and 18.7b]

2000 – BCO 13-12; 15-1; 24-1; 38-1; 43-5

2001 – BCO 14-1.12; Appendix B; Appendix H; RAO 4-5, 9-6, 15-2; Corporate Bylaws Article VI,1; VI,4; VI,5

2002 – BCO 12-5.e, 13-1, 14-1.12, 32-3, 32-4, 32-18, 35-7, 43-1, Appendix I; RAO 4-2, 4-3, 4-8, 4-9, 5-1, 6-4, 7-5.c, 13-1; SJC Manual 13.8.c.5, 6, 16, 18, 19-22 renumbered; Corporate Bylaws Article V,E; V,F; V,G; Article VI,1; VI,5

2003 – BCO 14-1.12b.4, 21-4, 21-5.6; RAO 13-1.6, 13-2, 13-5d, 13-6.e, 13-6.f-j renumbered; 14-3.e.5, 14-8; SJC Manual 13.10, 14.7, 15.7, 19.8.j, 19.8.k, 20.12, 21.2.f; Corporate Bylaws Article VI,1

2004 – BCO 58-5; SJC Manual 3.1, 11.7b, 12.3.b

2005 – BCO 24-3; 24-5; 24-6-9 relettered; 24-9 (now 24-10)

2006 – BCO 15-4; 24-1.b; 40-5; RAO 2006 revised edition

2007 – RAO 4-11; 11-1; 14-8.d; 19-2; SJC Manual 21-3

2008 – BCO 12-1, 12-2; RAO 14-6.k; 14-9.e, g; 14-9.f relettered; 15-8.c, e; 15-8.f-g relettered. [Editorial note added RAO 14-6.d and 15-6.i; editorial changes SJC 10.5; 11.6; 16.2; 17.2.(d); 18.1.(a); 21.5; and 22:1]

It seems appropriate to say in response to all these changes, “Rules are made to be modified.” The BCO is certainly not like the Bible.

For this first post, I'll just point out one other aspect, the BCO is made up of five sections, though not all are equally authoritative (more on that in coming weeks):

Preface

Part I – Form of Government

Part II – The Rules of Discipline

Part III – The Directory for the Worship of God

Appendices

Above:

General Zebulon Pike Lock & Dam #11, taken late in the evening last Thanksgiving.

Point of Interest: This dam, one of the closest to my folks home in Illinois, is named after the same man as the mountain we see as we walk out our door each morning: Pikes Peak.

Marriage Helps

Here a two videos briefly introducing the teaching of Paul Tripp on marriage. Paul Tripp is one of my favorite authors; I've mentioned him before in the context of child rearing. He and his brother Tedd Tripp have a video series and book called Shepherding a Child's Heart. I believe this is the best stuff out there.





Here's a preview for The Case for Kids, which is the Shepherding a Child's Heart material turned into the DVD.