Reflections of the Times - Archive: July 2006

July 31, 2006

Because I'm a book junkie

Well... it's just not going to happen. Finishing my book by the summer's end, that is. I just have too many projects to complete and I think I bit off more than I can chew. I'm a bit disappointed in that, but I am glad that I do have another book (almost) done that will be out soon.

This one is Guarding the Trust and some of my regulars may remember I blogged on this last fall. It's a 35 day devotional on putting and keeping a high view of Scripture, into your life. There were numerous reasons I decided to write on that subject (and later turn it into book form), but one of those reasons was the fact that we seem to be living in a time where a lot of lip service is given to the Bible, while first hand knowledge of what it actually says, is sorely lacking.

I suppose if I wanted to take the time to examine this a bit closer, I could say "the reason for this is XYZ". But I think that's too simplistic and somewhat unrealistic. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who would be at "fault" for your or my lack of Biblical knowledge. The real question would be "why didn't I read my Bible today?". Yes friends, each and every believer has a duty and a responsibility to not only know what his or her Bible says, but to dig in, and dig deep.

I don't pretend to be a Bible scholar, by any stretch of the imagination. I'm still learning and I confess I have a lot to learn, about my Bible. I know when I wrote this book last fall, I can say without a doubt it was one of the best things I've ever done. Now others reading may not think it's so hot, but for me, it was invaluable because it compelled me each morning to not just read my Bible, but read a specific passage, then cross reference, pray, dig into the Greek or Hebrew, and really meditate over the message. It was a daily devotional for me, that blessed me so much and taught me so much about the Scriptures, that it occured to me it just might have the same impact on others. I sincerely hope it does.

The book is in the final publishing stages now and should be available soon. I'll post a link here when that happens.

Yesterday it seemed to me...

This past weekend while driving to gma & gpa's place, Kev and I took the "old paths" so to speak, and instead of going the fastest way, we went the more scenic way. Here in Ontario there is almost always a "back way" to get where you're going, and avoid the busy traffic of the freeways. Kev and I learned that back in the days we used to go driving around & scouting out good places for birdwatching.

The roads we took would be considered by most here, as going through Mennonite country. It's very common to see the horses & buggies on their roads, and to drive past farm after farm that have no electric poles or wires anywhere near them. Maybe it's just the "romantic" in me, but we drove past farm after farm where the simple life was so obvious. A few brief glimpses into what I saw:

• two little boys running barefoot down their driveway
• an older woman sweeping her back porch
• 15-20 men gathered together in one yard, sitting in lawn chairs under a large shade tree
• a young woman walking from her barn to her house with a basket full of something (eggs, I think)
• an older man in his buggy, driving toward the house with the men who looked like they were having a meeting
• two younger men standing at their parked horse & buggy outside of a country store, eating an ice cream cone

I enjoy going through little towns like these. While I'm no great fan of Mennonite doctrine, I must say I am one huge fan, and have monumental admiration for their lifestyles. They work hard, and they live simple. They also make the best maple syrup & pastries I've ever had in my life, and they often have their roadside stands set up, to sell these things - plus sausage, eggs, produce, craft items and more. Their prices are better (and the products they sell are far better) than anything you will ever find in a local grocery store.

To me, the way they live is the right idea.

It often makes me think that we have way too many electronic sideshows that just bombard our minds with distractions. A commenter at Campi's blog said it well when responding to an Octavius Winslow quote Steve shared, he wrote:

"Why does it seem like the 19th century writers could see things so clearly? I think maybe our lives are too cluttered up with modern stuff."

I couldn't agree more - and here I am utilizing one of the very things that tends to clutter up lives. The internet, and blogs/blogging specifically, can be a major time-eater, if we let it. In many cases however, there are some really great things online that will serve to exhort us to a better way, and that's a really great thing. I'm grateful there are tools like bloglines that allow me to filter through these things, and save me a ton of time in reading!

Over the last few weeks I've been in hyper-task mode, and attending to many things around the house that I just can't get to during the school year. Those larger projects that sometimes take several days to complete, and are best left for better weather. For me, this means less time online and more time involved in hard work. Hard work always gives me time to think, and to think about the important things, in particular. The work can be mundane, or simply exhausting, but at the end of the day there is a sense of satisfaction that something important was accomplished - with the added bonus of having quiet time to think. Those are some of my very best days.

Today will be no exception. I still have several of these summer-time tasks to get to, and even though it's supposed to be nearly 95 degrees, I'll be working. Hopefully near a fan. While I sure admire the Mennonite lifestyle, you better believe I'm quite accustomed to my fan in the summer time.

Have a great Monday!

July 30, 2006

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Well, we had another GREAT day at the beach!

When we got there (literally, as we pulled into gma & gpa's driveway) the lightning & thunder started, then it poured down rain so hard Kev & gpa headed to the woodshed to build an ark. Okay they didn't really do that but it was a serious downpour that lasted for quite some time.

So, Saturday afternoon & evening were a wash-out (hardy har) for fun at the beach. Instead, we had movie night & popcorn in gma & gpa's living room, after all the kids had bubble baths. There's something far more exciting about having a bubble bath at gma's house, than having one at home. I'm not sure why it's like this, but it is. Ask any kid.

Sunday we got up early and hit the beach right after breakfast. Perfect weather, perfect spot at the beach, it was just the best! Pics are here (just ignore the weirdo in the Pyro tank, we have no idea who she is, she just showed up at our picnic spot! Some people have all the noive!).

It was really nice though. There were people dancing, people laughing, even a man selling ice cream, singing Italian songs.

Now, as to all you super-cool folks who not only read the blog on Saturday, but commented too...

I had no idea you all lived in China! Amazing...

:o)

July 29, 2006

Saturday, in the blog, I think it was the 29th of July...

Since it's a known fact that no one reads this blog on Saturday (except my mom, my friend Darlene and that guy in China that hit the "next" button on the blogger ad thingie), I figured this would be a good time to introduce a line at the store that has been requested for quite a while now.

I finally got around to it, and here it is. I appreciate YOUR support, encouragement, and dedication to standing up for truth even when you know speaking out publicly is going to put you in the firing line.

And with that... I'm off to the beach.

Have a great weekend!

July 28, 2006

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Ecclesiastes 3:

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

tick...tock...tick...tock... It has occured to me so many times over the years, how we measure almost everything, by time. I guess we're just wired this way, but have you really ever considered just how much we really do this?

Dividing time in the course of just 1 day:

The alarm goes off - time to get up
breakfast time
shower time
time to read/watch the news
time to read your Bible
time to leave/prepare for work/school or get the house work started
commute time
time for class
Even on the washer, dryer, microwave, coffee pot & stove clock, we're assured that the time will be monitored for us
lunch time
break time
quittin' time
dinner time
devotion time
bathtime
bedtime

Measuring time in casual conversation:

hold on a minute
just a minute
give me a minute
one sec
by the end of the day
first thing in the morning

The measure of a life:

birthdays
anniversaries
retirement age

Then there's measuring time by the passing of seasons and organizing/enjoying your life around that:

ordering firewood
winterizing the family vehicle
packing away the summer clothes/toys
Christmas shopping/decorating
the smell of woodsmoke
the scene of falling leaves
raking said leaves
watching the first snowfall
shovelling the drive
the first buds in the spring
the first thunderstorm of the year
planning summer vacations
end of school year

So we don't lose track of time:

calendars
date stamps
expiry dates

I'm sure if I spent more time on this, I could come up with a HUGE list! I just think it's interesting how we all shape our lives around time.

In all of that, it bears repeating that if we are wise, we will take the time, to stop and smell the roses. Literally.

Time gets away from us, and before we know it, our time is over, and it's a new time. It's time for someone else to shine, and time for us to step aside.

Then we wonder where the time went, because we were so busy trying so hard to stay ahead of time, or at least on time.

Interesting how all that works out, no?

Blogspotting - because Phil doesn't have time to do it as much as he used to...

(The role of Carla will now be played by Carla pretending to be Phil Johnson [minus the beard and astounding mastery of creating very cool graphics], and blogspotting those things she found interesting of late):

• I was reading Faith and Practice this morning (a really good blog by the way, if you've not visited before) and found the post today a very interesting topic.

Interesting in that it's a very timely topic, and also because it just came up in conversation a few days ago for me. I know there are a lot (read: oodles) of people that won't agree with the whole "secondary seperation" idea, but I think it's worth a closer look to understand it a bit better. I appreciate the way Nathan Busenitz explained it, because the way I've heard it explained before (and recently) sort of made it sound like those who do agree with it, are somehow practicing a spiritual arrogance of sorts. I don't see that at all, in Nathan's post. I see Bible.

• Over at Slice, Ingrid takes on the topic of juvenile pastors. I do wonder how much the "not a novice" verse in 1Tim. 3:6 applies here, but a commenter left a thought that I'm not sure I can agree with, even though I do understand the point: "Any true believer putting himself under a younger elder goes against nature and scripture." - posted by Mike.

• If you were considering seeing Lady in the Water, Ian at Ruminations by the Lake (connections? hmmm) has a review on it.

• Yesterday at Pulpit Live, Past John MacArthur, writing on how to handle persecution, quoted JC Ryle and it just made me do a double/triple take.

"At the height of His agony, at the very moment when most victims of crucifixion might scream out in fury with a curse, He prayed for forgiveness for His tormenters: "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). Bishop J. C. Ryle wrote, "These words were probably spoken while our Lord was being nailed to the cross, or as soon as the cross was reared up on end. It is worthy of remark that as soon as the blood of the Great Sacrifice began to flow, the Great High Priest began to intercede."

I'm actually a little surprised that more people don't comment at Pulpit Live. This is good stuff.

• Kim at The Upward Call posted some really nice pictures of her and Buggy's trip up north to visit their daughter at camp. Maybe it's just me, but there's a pic of Buggy in the canoe, that seems to be just screaming "push me out". Meanwhile, over at Buggy's blog, you'll find a most hilarious mission log of their trip where he actually admits to pushing people out of moving vehicles. To which, Kim responds here.

The confusing thing is, when I visited Buggy's version of the trip log, I wondered why Dan "Booyah" Phillips from was scuba diving in Northern Ontario. I was sure it was him, but the mouse over says different. I think I need to speak to my husband about his whereabouts last week. You'll have to see Buggy's post to "get" that one.

• Speaking of brother Booyah... he's recently categorized commenters of blogs. I read it nodding my head thinking "yup, yup!" and with actual names coming to mind as I read through the categories. I think you'll probably do the same thing as you read it.

More importantly however, is that brother Booyah has caused great coveting with Kev and myself, by posting pics of this kitty! I actually went on a search for local breeders because we NEED one of these. In fact, we probably need 2 or 3. I LOVE this cat!

July 27, 2006

A desire of my heart

oh yes, the winner will be announced shortly!

I wonder...

if there were a contest, with some great big, fantastical, monumental, uber-coveted prize...

and all you had to do to be in the running for winning this prize, would be to have the most encouraging, edifying conversations in one day...

How many people would enter? How many would enter just to win the prize? How many would enter just because it sounded like fun, and didn't care about the prize? How many would poo-poo the contest in favor of garumphing about contests?

Folks are funny that way, aren't they?

Yesterday, I had so many good conversations that it sort of stunned me that in place of discouraging junk (and let's face it, there's a ton of that attached to the evangelical church) - the main topics of conversation I was involved in yesterday - centered around things that build up, bless, edify and encourage.

I think it stood out to me this way because that's not a normal day for me. Over the last few weeks I have come to the point of being so tired of it, and so worn down by it, I've made several changes in my reading habits online. Certain places I just don't visit anymore, certain topics I'm not touching with a 92,452 foot pole, comments at ENo have been shut down.

BOOM, ~~closing~~ slamming the door shut, on the discouraging junk.

In an effort to proactively sidestep discouraging junk, I've even put in a writing 'grid' or filter, if you will, for myself. Key points to ask myself before I begin to write, as I'm writing, and before I hit "publish". I know it's not always going to work but it's my prayer that it WILL reduce it, to some degree. Like mom always said (and prolly still does) "you can't control what anyone else says, or does". It's certainly true.

In any event...

I had an opportunity yesterday to be a part of a conversation with 2 friends, on the topic of discouragement, and encouragement. Every great point in the world was brought up between the three of us (don't you love it when you have conversations like that - where nothing was left unsaid and everyone walks away more blessed than when they arrived?)

One of the things that stood out to me in that particular conversation was that being encouraging is actually a discipline that we have a tendency to let slide. It shouldn't be this way, but it easily becomes one of those things that we overlook, for some reason.

It is SO easy to be discouraged, rather than to be encouraged. It is equally just as easy to be discouraging (focusing on the negative), rather than be encouraging (focusing on the goodness of God in so many areas).

While there certainly isn't any shortage of discouraging, negative things currently happening among the evangelical church, and while there is much to be said for being sure you are aware of such things & make them a matter of prayer - there is a danger in getting drawn into such a negative mindset and forgetting that our cup is half full, rather than half empty.

We serve a most mighty God. I know that's an obvious, but it sure is good to hear again and again. He can and He will, handle whatever it is we're dealing with, struggling with, grieving over, confused about, or discouraged by. This is not to say that we should take a careless attitude about those things in our world (and our church) that are clearly wrong & against what the Bible teaches, but it is to say that we need to remember balance. We need to remember who is in control of these things.

We need to remember that, and we need to spend time being encouraged through the word, in prayer and in conversation. Further, we need to be about the business of being an encouragement as well.

In my conversation several things came up (namely Galatians 6:2, one of my favorite verses) in regards to practical, hands on ways, we can be about the business of being encouraging, and I want to share a couple of those with my readers:

1. Prayer - making a point of daily prayers for those you know who may be going through a difficult time. For some of us it's easier to write it down (lest we forget) and take a look at the prayer list from time to time. It's also a very good thing to contact the people you're praying for and ask specifically if their needs in that area have changed. Ask how things are going and/or if they need anything. I guarantee you it will bless their hearts to know that they're being prayed for.

2. Cards & Letters. When was the last time you sent a handwritten card or a longhand letter? Sadly, it's becoming a lost art, and I'm just as guilty of this as anyone else. Most folks love to get cards in the mail! My friend Denise is part of an encouragement ministry in her church and she's surprised me a couple of times by sending me a handwritten card (real postal mail, real stamp!) to let me know she's praying for me. The funny thing is, I talk to Denise almost every day, but getting that card in the mail just touched me in such a way. To know she took the time to sit down and pray for me, then write out an encouraging verse to share with me, was just such a blessing.

A few weeks ago, I read something (in a magazine I think, but I can't be sure) about this very thing, and I was so motivated to do this, I went and found my dusty ole address book. It's been forever and a day since I even cracked that book open, and that's really a shame. I used to be really good about letter writing, but I've slacked off so badly over the years it's actually become a conviction of mine to be more punctual about returning letters.

The added bonus about being an encouragement to others, is that it will change your own attitude, if the current one happens to be in the negative.

The funny thing is, as I started to write all this out today, the kids were driving me absolutely bonkers. I was "this close" to losing patience with them and I had to laugh. How in the world can I write about being an encouragement to people when I'm resembling a rabid drill sargent with my own kids? No, you wouldn't have known, but I would have. I had to stop, take a break & get my own attitude in check before I came back to this. The good part about that is that it's been a constant on my mind all day! It really does change your own attitude, when your heart's desire is to be uplifting.

So there you go. Sort of a new(ish?) direction for me. My friend Denise reminded me last night that there was an elderly lady in her church that was like this all the time - always serving - until the time she was called home. It made me remember an elder lady in a church I used to belong to, that was the same way. Denise said "I wanted to be just like her!". I remembered once saying the same thing about the elder lady in my own church. She was a beautiful example of a servent, and she was the Titus 2 lady, in my church. I still want to be just like her, when I grow up.

No better time than the present, to start practicing.

Oh - about that contest...

It's not a contest, it's a challenge. There is a winner however, and the person who takes this to heart and submits to the Lord to move them into a more encouraging direction - that's the winner. Maybe it'll be you?

What a difference a T makes

this t-shirt will make you happy, why look now, here's a happy person in this t!

I have become convinced, that what you wear, dictates your mood. Oh yes, it's true.

See, yesterday I had this shirt on. See my happy mug there? Right after this picture was taken, I was so happy I did the funky chicken right there in the kitchen. Okay that part isn't true, but it sounded good didn't it?

I was in a good mood, had great conversations all day! (more on that later, Lord willing), and all in all it was just a really good day for me.

I even managed to wear it without getting any kid-smudges on it, the entire day. It was a victorious day for any self-respecting white-t-shirt.

So, yesterday + Peace T = good day. With me so far? Good, because here's where things get ugly.

Today, I decided to wear a T that my friend sent me. I wanted to wear it yesterday, but the Peace T won out at the last moment.

So today I wore my other new T. It started out pretty good, until I had to get in the van and drive my daughter to her doctor's appointment. The van temp said 91 degrees. We don't have a humidity gauge in the van but if we did, it would have read 18 billion percent, at least. It all went downhill from there. Oh wait, let's back up about 2 hours prior to that, to when I grabbed my early morning coffee as the sun was coming up & birds were chirping - only to discover blogger hates me and doesn't want to see a post from me today. That's where it all started.

You know of Murphy's Law? Well, this is sort of like that, but different. Actually, it's nothing like that at all, now that I think of it, but that's not the point. What is the point? I'm glad you asked, because there is one and I'm getting to it. I think?

I think the point is this: my shirts make you happy & generate great conversations - while Frank's shirts cause you to spontaneously combust, on a hot summer day. It's true I tell ya! I am so hot and miserable I could just... just... stick my head in the freezer and close the door. In fact, if there was room, I'd crawl all the way in.

Now before you get all snarky on me, consider this:

Spontaneous combustion has gotten a bad rap. It's not ALL bad. If you happen to be walking past hot dogs or marshmallows at the grocery store - BLAMMO - instant camp fire treats. See if you can get the grocery boy to bring over the Hershey bars and Honey Grahams. Make a day of it.

So you see, it all depends on your perspective. All I know is, I smell smoke, and I don't think anyone's got a wood fire going in the fireplace nearby.

I'll be back after the fire department leaves.

July 26, 2006

Language Matters pt.2

In the post I put up yesterday called Language Matters, I used a few Scripture references without expounding on why I was using them. My mistake was that assuming people would automatically understand why I used them.

James 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

This one specifically appears to have caused some confusion.

When I was a teenager, I had a friend with a pretty cruel step-mom. She would berate & insult, scream and yell at my friend. She might be doing this and suddenly the phone would ring. If it was one of her friends, her tone would immediately change and she'd be the nicest person you'd ever want to hear. Friendly, polite, jovial, etc.

The first time I read that passage in James after I got saved, I thought of this woman. She had the capacity to rip someone apart with her speech (with much malice and intention to hurt), then 10 seconds later switch into sweet-mode. "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?"

The reason I used that passage, and not just the verse about "cursing" (which is not the same as cussing, as I am well aware), is because it asks the very same questions I ask, as it pertains to Christians who cuss and use vulgar or obscene words to express themselves.

These are the rhetorical questions I have asked myself. I would think these would be the same questions any believer would be asking themselves. Essentially, do these kinds of words have any place in the mouths of believers? Scripture says no.

I used Ephesians 4:29 as well and a commenter suggested that the words "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth" in this verse are referring to

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice" in verse 31. I couldn't agree more. I would even go a step further and include the first 4 verses of Ephesians 5 that speaks to the very issue I'm referring to:

1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4 Neither filthiness (obscenity), nor foolish talking (disgraceful, impious conversation), nor jesting (vulgar or lewd humor), which are not convenient (not fitting): but rather giving of thanks.

Ephesians 5:4 says it as clear as anything: this kind of language is not fitting for a follower of God.

As I said yesterday in my post, and will repeat again today:

There's a better way...

July 25, 2006

Storm Warning

this is what it looks like when we go to the basement Our weather forecast:

Woodstock - Tillsonburg - Oxford County12:51 PM EDT Tuesday 25 July 2006

Tornado warning for Woodstock - Tillsonburg - Oxford County continued

An area of severe thunderstorms with possible tornadoes is moving eastward at 60 km/h through or toward the above warnings. Trained spotter has reported rotation and lowering in a storm near London. As a result tornadoes are now a threat over the above regions.

This storm just blew in out of nowhere - and now it's suddenly very STILL outside.

Supplies are in the basement & that's where we're headed.

UPDATE:

1:27 PM EDT Tuesday 25 July 2006

Severe thunderstorm warning for Woodstock - Tillsonburg - Oxford County downgraded from tornado warning

Persons in or near this area should be on the lookout for adverse weather conditions and take necessary safety precautions. Watch for updated statements.

WHEW

Language matters

This is a crosspost from ENo. If you're sick and tired of the topic of Christians and cussing, you will not want to read this. I'd suggest you do, anyway:

My husband and I visited a new church this past Sunday, and with all new church visits, you're never really sure what you're going to hear. You hope it will be edifying and Biblical, and you hope to have a good report after your visit.

Thankfully, that was the case with the church we visited. I found it rather timely that during the sermon the pastor touched on the dangers of hardening our hearts, and becoming desensitized to sin. Specifically, he mentioned cussing. Using the language of the world. The hard, harsh, obscene, profane, vulgar speech that the unsaved used to express themselves. This is all too common in the days we're living in, and the evidence of this is with Christians who not only have no issue at all with cussing and using profane language, but go so far as to defend it. I would suggest that their hearts have become hard (obstinate, stubborn) toward these things, and in that they have closed themselves off from any kind of correction, or teachability. This is always a dangerous place to find ourselves.

In Hebrews 3:8-12 the practice of hardening one's heart to the things of God is shown to be a most grievous thing for those who do it. Bearing in mind this isn't written to unbelievers, it's written to "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling" (v.1), and this is a warning that we too, can harden our own hearts to sinful things, and become obstinate about them.

I know this topic has been covered repeatedly in the last few months, but I believe it warrants coverage again, and again, and again. As long as there are people out there professing Christ out of one side of their mouths, and using this kind of language out of the other, this is a topic that will always be timely.

A couple of months ago, Phil Johnson at TeamPyro posted on this very subject and in linking to yet another post on the same topic at Daniel's blog, said this:

"I heartily affirm everything Daniel at Doulogos said about this issue. The comments in reply to that simple post show how volatile the issue is, and how recalcitrant some Christians these days can be in defending their indefensible use of bad language. " (original post)

That word he used there, recalcitrant, is exactly what "hardened" in Hebrews 3:8-13 refers to. Stubborn, closed off, obstinate, hard.

It has been rightly pointed out that the real core of the matter on this matter, is the condition of the heart. In other words, if a man or woman is using a word or the kind of language we consider "cussing" just for the sake of being vulgar, or because they're just using a word for stronger impact. I would suggest that with the former, it's a genuine heart issue. With the latter, it might be just an ill-thought-out form of pragmatic approach. It's easy to get the attention of people when you use profane language, but it takes much more work (and more thought) to say the same thing, using strong words that are not considered cussing.

I wanted to address this today after a friend recently shared with me a link to a local, southern Ontario publication produced by what he called "our own version of emerging church folks". The publication is called The Hive, and you can read it for yourself, here. I will warn you, there is hard language at that site that will likely offend the more sensitive believer. I will say this also, it should offend, the believer. If it doesn't bother you, you should be asking yourself why bad language has no impact on your heart. The most ironic thing about this is, this page was written by professing Christians themselves.

I would like to offer this piece of encouragement to the ECM folks (and others?) that use this kind of language and think nothing of it.

Drop the language, please.

It's offensive, it doesn't impress our Lord, it grieves Him and it flies in the face of what the Scriptures exhort us to. In addition, even if you do have something profound and encouraging to share, it's incredibly difficult (if not impossible) for others to hear or read your message, when it's peppered with language so offensive that potential readers or listeners just give up, because they can't stand the vulgar or crass terms you're using.

There's a better way...

Look at this:

James 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

And this:

Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

And this:

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

In closing, I want to share with you a couple more quotes from the above mentioned post at

TeamPyro:

"Dirty language and casual cussing seems to be a besetting sin in the "Emerging Church" movement. I don't know if it's a generational thing, a cultural thing, one of the ramifications of the blithe worldliness that pervades the philosophy behind the "Emerging Church," or all of the above. But I listened to the first few podcasts from Emergent, and I was floored by how freely vulgar language and "mild" profanity flows in the so-called "Emerging Conversation."

Also:

"we ought to aim at matching our words to our profession of faith"

Please know this - Christians that are offended by this language aren't "out to get" anyone or needlessly critiquing others for the sake of critique. We are genuinely offended and literally cringe when we hear this. It grieves us, and believe it brings shame to the name of Christ to use the very kinds of language His word speaks against - all the while professing faith in Him.

I would strongly encourage those reading to pray about this. Rather than be stubborn and defend the use of such language, be receptive to what so many in the body are saying and see if there is any truth to the criticisms on this topic.

July 24, 2006

Desks?

Do you see this rather innocently looking, simplistic little desk? Well, when our oldest turned 16, we bought her a desk like this. Hers was white. Then a few years ago we bought another one for Jessica. Hers is this color shown here.

When Caryn moved out, she left her desk here, so we thought it'd be a really good idea to buy two more of these (with Caryn's and two more we'd have enough for Jordan, Rachel and Samuel) and use desks for the kids this year, instead of having them all sit at the table. We reasoned, if they had their space, and their own storage areas for their books and supplies, it might lend itself to better work habits & all that good stuff.

Well, it doesn't look like we're going to find out if that will work or not, since everywhere I've gone in the last 2 weeks DOESN'T carry these desks anymore. I've been to WalMart & Canadian Tire (where we bought the last two) and neither of them have them.

If you're a southern Ontarian reading this, and have a lead on where we can find these, please leave me a note?

Blogger Get together post updated

I wanted to note a few folks who have said they'd be there, and/or would be interested in a GTA blogger get together:

Tim Challies
Kim Shay
James Vellenga and his wife Annette
Ian Clary
Paul Martin (who has offered to locate a local meeting place for us)
Dr. Michael Haykin
Darrin Brooker

This is also updated at the link at the top of the blog. Please let us know if you'll be attending by leaving a quick comment in the comments either here, or at the link at the top of the blog.

Another new week...

Our twice a month newsletter at the store has been updated - you can go here to read it, or your can drop your email addy in the little box in the side bar and subscribe to have it delivered to your inbox. I was a little surprised this past weekend to see that we have 60 subscribers. I don't know who you all are (email addies are kept confidential from even the shop owners!) but I sure appreciate the interest in our little store.

One thing I forgot to add to this edition of the newsletter, is the new shipping rates for US customers. No, the price did not go UP, it went DOWN. $5.00 flat rate shipping for up to 5 items in your order. Pretty decent deal, I'd say.

good morning I didn't mean to wake up so early, but after seeing this out my window, I was sure glad I did. I woke up with a headache today, but that didn't stop me from grabbing my tripod & heading out the back door (after clicking on the coffee pot, that is) for a better view. It's not as clear in the picture but the low lying foggy/mist over the corn made it look very "fairy tale" looking out there.

You can see it full size here. I know at least one person who will really enjoy seeing the sunrise over the silos. :o) Oh, and leave me a comment over there! No one leaves comments, it's like a comment-wasteland. The noive!

It's going to be another day of uber-busy for me. Lots of things to do on the "this-must-get-done-before-school-starts" list. I did manage to get all the books ordered for the kids, and I even got 1/2 of the toybox/toy-closet project done, on Friday. So I'm glad THAT is crossed off the list.

Well, I did have some thoughts about the importance of being connected with the saints via face to face fellowship in a local church, but time is getting away from me already this morning, so that will have to wait for another time. Suffice it to say, it was sure good to be back in that fellowship yesterday, it made me realize that I missed it even more than I realized. It hasn't even really been that long since we were without that, but as far as I'm concerned, it's been too long.

If you haven't done so yet, head over to TeamPyro now and read the double dose of Spurgeon. I can't think of a better way to start your Monday.

Have a great Monday!

July 23, 2006

Church visiting

As most of my regular readers know, our family has been on the "new church" search for several months now. It's not a particularly fun place to be, for numerous reasons, but it's the way things have worked out for us.

Recently, Dr. Michael Haykin (who blogs here, digs a bit deeper here, teaches here and here, regularly lectures from Montreal to Florida & back, and I would have to assume takes at least a few minutes a day to breathe, and possibly eat), was kind enough to make time to correspond with me by email in our search for a solid church in our area. He gave us three recommendations, and today we were able to visit one of them.

I must say, it was a joy & a blessing visting this church today. The preaching was solid, and expository. Something Kev and I both hoped and prayed for. The points made were right on target, and convicting. The people were friendly, the atmosphere was welcoming, the worship was a blend of older hymns & contemporary praise - and that started out with O For A Thousand Tongues. One of mine and Kev's favorite hymns.

I had so much more to say about all this but it will have to wait. We're under sever T-storm watch and I just heard a pretty loud boom of thunder.

More later!

---------------

Okay, now that this part of the storm has passed, I can finish my thoughts on this (which don't really amount to much, but here they are all the same).

Visiting a church for the first time is something that is often awkward for a lot of people, Kev and I included. It reminds me of the feeling of being the new kid in the class and being made to stand up and say hello. In any case, the folks at this church were friendly, but not overly friendly, and that was good.

Finding a new church home to serve in, is an important endeavour and in our times, a sometimes difficult one. Some people are blessed to live in locations where solid churches are in abundance. Other people (like us) live in places where solid churches are so rare, you're susprised when you locate one.

Kev and I were both pleasantly surprised today. We're looking forward to going back, to Kev's meeting with the pastor later this week to learn more about the church, and to (hoping!) having a church we can call home, again.

Funny thing is, almost immediately after we sat down, I recognized a family from our old church. Even more coincidentally, today the parents of that family gave their public testimony as a part of the process of joining this church. We were blessed to see them and hear them testify of the grace of God in their lives (and that of their kids too).

So in conclusion, it was all good, and quite literally an answer to prayer for both Kev and myself.

With much gratitude to Dr. Haykin for his recommendation, it was a really GOOD day to not sit on the couch in your underwear and read blogs.

July 22, 2006

Customized Baby Gifts

This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

I finally found a bit of time recently to create a design I was happy with (that passed the "approval rating" of several small girls and one small boy) and went for it.

Technology being used the way that it is these days, with new mommies often knowing ahead of time the baby's gender and name long before the actual arrival, these would make perfect baby shower gifts!

I will be adding to the names as time permits, but will also be taking custom orders at any time as well.

While it is a novelty item for new babies, it's also practical & affordable (I can't have novelty if it isn't functional too!)

With the birth of my first granddaughter just a few weeks away, my thoughts lately have turned to "what kind of gma am I really going to be?" For one thing, I'm already sold on the idea that I will dote over her as much as humanly possible! She will definitely have one of these personalized items (if not all three!).

While I originally designed these graphics for the "Just 4 Babies" line, my girls 3, 7 and 8 have already asked when they get theirs! So, as with all custom orders, any graphic in the store can be applied to any product, any size (with the very few, very extreme exceptions).

Just drop me an email here with your requirements and we'd be happy to work with you on a custom order, at no additional charge.

To see a larger view of either design, just click on the picture & select "view larger" at the store's page.

Product line info:

Bibs: sizes: newborns to 36 months - 100% jersey cotton - measures 9" x 15" top to bottom and 9" x 10" bottom to collar

Infant Creeper ("Onesies"): sizes: 6mo., 12mo., 18mo., 24mo.(2T) - 5.5 oz. 100% cotton - Three bottom snaps - Standard T-shirt neck

Infant/Toddler T: sizes 6mo., 12mo., 18mo., 2T, 3T, 4T - 5.5 oz. 100% cotton - Standard fit

A call to pray

1996... Washington...

I don't remember what time of the year it was, but it was a nice day and I had the front door open. I was doing housework, and it was 1:50 pm.

In case you were wondering if this might be another one of my wild dreams, no, this really happened. Just wanted to clear that up, up front.

As I was vaccuuming the hallway, minding my own domestic chore-business, thinking of probably nothing important, suddenly an absolutely overwhelming feeling of despair came over me. I say overwhelming because it physically gripped me in such a way I dropped to my knees. I say despair, because I knew that feeling quite well, just a year prior when Ben died.

It was very confusing, as I wasn't despairing over anything, and wasn't even really thinking about anything in particular. The feeling was so strong, but somehow (don't ask me how, I couldn't tell you) I knew it wasn't mine. Now I know how strange that sounds, but just hear me out. Out of nowhere I just wanted to cry. It felt very much like it feels when someone calls you on the phone and delivers the bad news that someone just suddenly died. Someone who wasn't sick, but a sudden, unexpected death.

So there I was on the hallway floor, and the compulsion swept over me to pray for Susan. I didn't know why, as far as I knew my friend Susan was just fine. I had talked to her the day before, and things were okay with her. But I was incredibly impressed to pray for her, so I did. I'm not sure how long I knelt there and prayed for her, but it was a good while.

Later, I called her. I said "this is going to sound rather unusual, but let me tell you what happened at 1:50 my time today" (Susan was 3 hours ahead of me east coast time). So I told her, and the silence on the other end of the phone was deafening. When she did start to speak, she was crying, and she confided in me that she'd been considering suicide all day, and at 4:50 her time she looked at the clock one last time and reached for a bottle of pills to overdose with. She said as she reached for the pills she was compelled to get on her knees and pray, just one more time.

Then, the silence on my end. I was completely and utterly stunned. I had no idea that she was dealing with things that had been causing her so much despair and hopelessness, but more than that, I was blown away by the events of the afternoon. I don't pretend to understand what happened anymore than to say it (without question) had to be the Holy Spirit in both our hearts, at the same moment.

I am happy to report Susan's life drastically changed after that, and the last I heard from her she was very happy & faithfully serving the Lord. Nothing like that had ever happened before, or since, to her or to me.

Yesterday however, came pretty close.

I read something online that just messed me up. Without going into detail, that something compelled me to pray for a dear pastor I know. I couldn't do anything for several hours without thinking about him, his church, his family, and the pain and stress he's under for his position on the doctrines of grace, and other issues. This is one of the more solid pastors I've ever known, and he's under a great amount of fire from several directions. He's such a humble man, that often when he speaks of the glory of God, he can't speak without being moved to grateful tears. As with all of us, he has his faults & weaknesses, and he'd be the first one to admit them. At the same time, he's one of the best examples of a true servant that I've ever known in my Christian life.

As my heart was burdened for him yesterday, I remembered Susan. Then this verse came to mind:

Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

It really made me take a closer look at my own prayer life, and also to ignore my own issues for the afternoon. I was glad to be burdened to pray for this pastor, and grateful that I could take him and his family before the Lord this way.

Prayer is something that is very personal, and I don't see a lot written about it. I think that might be partially due to fellow believers not wanting to come across as boastful, by sharing a bit about their own prayer life. Perfectly understandable, I feel the same way.

About a week ago I was (without any obvious reason) led to pray for someone else, with a rather urgent sense to it (although not like with Susan) and I wanted to get ahold of that person and tell them. I struggled with that for a couple of days, wondering if I did tell them, would that sound arrogant somehow? Would they be glad to know they were being prayed for? Were they supposed to know they were being prayed for? I wasn't sure, so I didn't say anything. I just kept it between myself and the Lord. A few days passed and in conversation the subject of prayer came up, and I did tell them I had been led to pray for them about certain things. They were VERY glad to hear it, and appreciated it.

My husband Kevin doesn't write much, but when he does, it's a long process of study, prayer, and constant proof-reading to make sure he's covered every point the way he wanted to. A couple of years ago he wrote A Discourse on Prayer, after having spent what he calls a 'dry time' as it pertains to this subject. His own prayer life wasn't something he was at peace with, and he struggled through it for a long time. I'm sharing that with my readers here, in hopes that they might be blessed and encourged by what Kevin had to say on this topic.

It is now, pancake time. Then... yard sales.

Have a great Saturday.

July 21, 2006

Refuting False Accusation

In a comment left at Frank’s place , Tony Byrne (aka "ynottony") accused me of being a hyper-calvinist. Again.

It’s not the first time he’s left that little nugget on someone else’s blog. It is however, rather annoying. I would much prefer it if Tony would just address me directly.

He didn’t name me by name, but he knows who he was talking about and so do I. He referenced the name of my chat room on PalTalk and said that those who run the room are HC that reject common grace & the well meant offer, then went on to lament that he was removed from the room for advocating duty-faith.

I have to assume this goes back to the many conversations in the public room (over the course of several years, mind you, to be specific, from the fall of 2003 until now). I have to also assume part of this comes from my own words in this article from last summer.

I cringe just a bit to bring attention to it, because I’m not at all satisfied with the way I worded it. It looks (to me anyway) that I’m picking on Phil Johnson, and that was never the intent of the post at all. I have a barge-load of respect for Phil, and admire his insights on these issues particularly. My husband Kevin and I have been reading his material for many, many years, and have been more blessed by the Lord’s use of him, than probably anyone else in the modern evangelical world. (I know Phil knows this, so I’m okay with that part – I just wanted you all to know this too).

If I could pull that piece and re-write it, I would. But that would be dishonest so I will just leave it as is, and do my best to explain where I am now. That was “this is where I was right then” and this is “this is where I am right now”. Make of that what you will, lol. You can even blame Frank if you want to, he started it. :o)

The thing is, regardless of what I wrote out last summer, I have had the opportunity to expound (and quite a bit) on this topic and explain in great detail that while I may appear dogmatic on some of this stuff, I’m really not. Some of it doesn’t sit well with me, but that doesn’t mean much. It could very well be that I just don’t “get it”. In some cases the fact is simply that I don’t agree with the wording of some of these teachings – not that I don’t agree with the foundation of the teachings themselves. I have also explained this in great detail in my chat room on PT as well. Anyone who reads this blog that also chats there, knows this to be true of me.

Tony Byrne, to the best of my understanding (he can correct me if I’m in error on this) bases his determination on whether or not someone is a dangerous hyper-Calvinist on Phil Johnson’s list of 5, from A Primer on Hyper-Calvinism.

The article begins:

“Hyper-Calvinism, simply stated, is a doctrine that emphasizes divine sovereignty to the exclusion of human responsibility.”

If we were to go with the simple definition, it would be so easy to refute the accusation that I’m a HC, that it wouldn’t even be funny (not that false accusation is ever funny anyway). In no way, shape or form, have I ever advocated the exclusion of human responsibility as it pertains to the Christian faith. Just the opposite is true.

In a more analytic approach however, Phil goes on to fairly and accurately point out that there are different levels, or types of HC’s.

“The definition I am proposing outlines five varieties of hyper-Calvinism, listed here in a declining order, from the worst kind to a less extreme variety (which some might prefer to class as "ultra-high Calvinism")”

Last summer I wrote out what I understand about the five varieties (from Phil's article):

A hyper-Calvinist is someone who either:
1. Denies that the gospel call applies to all who hear, OR
2. Denies that faith is the duty of every sinner, OR
3. Denies that the gospel makes any "offer" of Christ, salvation, or mercy to the non-elect (or denies that the offer of divine mercy is free and universal), OR
4. Denies that there is such a thing as "common grace," OR
5. Denies that God has any sort of love for the non-elect.

The following is what I wrote a year ago, followed (in bold) by further explaination as to how I understand these points – or don’t understand them. In other words, it’s what I wish I would have said a year ago:

1. I believe the gospel call does in fact apply to all who hear. Nothing to add here.

2. I don't deny that faith is the duty of every sinner - however - unbelievers cannot exercise a faith that isn't there. "Duty faith" doesn't even make sense to me, in the light of John 6.

To clarify – it is entirely possible that I’m simply misunderstanding what duty-faith really is. I have heard it described in such strange ways, that for me, it simply does not line up with what the Scriptures teach. If someone feels compelled to explain what it means, I’d be quite pleased to look at this teaching again to understand it better. I love what Phil wrote here in his aricle:

“In other words, the sinner's inability to obey God does not nullify his duty to do so. This is a crucial point—perhaps the most crucial point of all—because it is the very point that ultimately distinguishes true Calvinism from both Arminianism and hyper-Calvinism. Both Arminians and hyper-Calvinists will protest that it is illogical or unjust to teach that God demands what sin renders us incapable of doing.”

I have a friend who has said the very same thing when he preaches to free will believers on PalTalk, and it’s such a pivotal point! I need to find the time to read Arthur Pink’s Duty Faith that Phil linked to in this piece.

3. I do deny that the gospel is an "offer" - the gospel contains within it a command to repent, and the non-elect (whoever they are) will mock this gospel message until the day they draw their last breath. This statement says that God offers the blood of His son, to those He is not going to draw to Him. How does that make sense?

This is quite likely more of an issue with wording, than anything else. It is also quite possible that I simply don’t understand the “gospel offer” teaching. I have never been dogmatic on this one, but I have honestly admitted that it simply doesn’t make sense for me. As with duty-faith, if someone would like to respond to this, I’d like to read more.

4. I do deny the teaching of common grace. All cliche's aside, calling God's providential care for His creation, grace, cheapens the salvific grace of God in a way that has opened the door in religious circles to all kinds of heresies about God's attributes.

When I wrote that a year ago, my understanding of common grace was based on David Engelsma’s definition of it, here . I don’t recall which came first or how it was all put together, but there was a book that I read based on all this, and a videotape debate that I watched as well. It left me stunned to know that common grace was defined this way. However, I believe that what most people mean when they say common grace is nothing more than common providence for all human beings. So if that is the case, then no I do not deny common grace, I just have issues with the way it’s worded, and with what Mouw defines as common grace, in the above linked article. It’s been a few years since I watched this debate and read this book, so if I were to go back and take a look at it again, I might have a better response – I can’t say for sure.

5. God loves the non-elect? I'm undecided on this - much more study is needed.

Yes, much more study is needed, but at the same time I can say that I do understand that there is some kind of non-salvific love for all His creation. I don’t completely understand it, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s there.

I also wrote this in the same article a year ago:

“In fact, much more study is needed in all areas, because all 5 points are important to understand. I am not dogmatic about these issues, because I'm not 100% certain, but that isn't even what's important either. The end result of this, my position on these 5 points, and others who do not wholeheartedly agree, are branded Scripture twisters and those who would undermine evanglism, and the ever popular (often said with malice and contempt) "hyper-Calvinist".”

When I wrote that, I was not referring to Phil Johnson, although it was his article that used those adjectives. I was referring to those (like Tony Byrne) who take Phil’s article and with some kind of holier than thou attitude, mock, belittle and with a condescending attitude treat those that do not either agree with it 100%, or understand it all. It's happened numerous times that I've watched a debate unfold online, and someone whips out Phil's article and uses it to act like a complete buffoon towards anyone who disagree's with it. I seriously doubt Phil ever had that in mind as the goal, when he wrote it.

Unfinished Summer

It occured to me yesterday that our summer is half over! Sigh...

I still have so much left to do, and I'm not sure I'm going to get it all done before we head back to the books and begin another school year. I'm not entirely happy with this prospect of having an unfinished list, so I hope to really stay busy and get all my "stuff" done. These are things that I can't get to between September and June, and just get put on the back burner for summer vacation. It's not really a vacation for me, but a time of cleaning, sorting, getting rid of things, mending, re-organizing, etc.

Just some of the things that HAVE to get done before school starts:

1. assessing where each kid is, in each subject, and ordering new workbooks/textbooks where needed.

I've got a pretty good mental picture of where each kid is, but I haven't actually sat down with their books and made the official "order" list yet. I know it's going to take several hours so I've sort of been putting it off. MY BAD! I have to do that this weekend and get the order in so the books arrive in time for the first day of school.

2. Go through the giant, overflowing toybox and toy closet and get rid of enough "stuff" that the toys in the box actually fit INTO the closet. Gotta do that, it's driving me nuts. Ever trip over a Oversized Tonka Frontloader in your barefeet? I assure you, it's no picnic. Yes, I have scars from toys left on the floor because they wont fit into the toybox.

Both of these projects will take hours to complete. If I can get both done by the end of tomorrow, I'll be laughing. Getting the major projects crossed off your list feels pretty good.

Then I can concentrate on other things.

Like explaining to Tony Byrne again, why I am not a hyper-Calvinist. I revisit this topic from time to time more for myself than anything else, to see where I stand on these issues. I'm happy to report that with each passing year I think I understand them a little better, and in several areas my perspective has allowed me to become less dogmatic in some cases, and more sure in others. I think this is part of the ongoing maturity in Christ, and I'm very encouraged to see it happen in my own life. Part of the problem though, in being public and being honest about your thoughts on these things, is that it will get you tagged by some people as this or that, without ever giving you the benefit of the doubt that it's POSSIBLE that you're not entirely certain about some of these things. You're just written off as someone who's a wingnut or something, and that's the end of that. Well... no, that is not the end of that.

And finishing this new line at my store. Then, work on the Christmas Shop, which I have at least 92 billion ideas for. Being creative can sometimes be a real pain in the neck.

Then finishing a book I started over a year ago and getting it off to the publisher. Then going back to another book I started even longer ago, and getting that one off to the publisher as well. (I'd hoped to have both done before summer's end but it's pretty clear that's not going to happen.)

I could sit here and list at least 50 more things that I need to be doing. The irony of that is, the time I'd take to list them, is time I'd be taking away from actually doing them. So, that's where this post ends.

It's going to be another very busy day for me.

July 20, 2006

I like these kinds of surprises

My son Samuel and I got a neat surprise in the postal mail yesterday. While Samuel is quite partial to his Batman T he got from his gpa (how do you beat a T from gpa?) he's very much looking forward to wearing this new T.

When I held it up to show him, he read it, smiled and said "hey, that's COOL!".

In other news, my This is where I am right now T has been knocked off with Frank's This is where I am right now T.

It's the battle of the T's! I do like his new design though. Go check it out.

July 19, 2006

Hearts Desires pt.3

When I introduced this subject I said that there were some important points I wanted to cover.

• what I was taught this means
• how I was taught to employ that in my faith
• the real fruit it produced
• why this can be dangerous
• the real meaning of this passage

In part 2 I covered the first three points.

The other night when we lost power, I spent some time reading Romans by candlelight at my kitchen table. Something in Romans chapter 5 really lept off the page for me:

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

As it pertains to being taught that getting the desires of your heart is a direct result of your faith, I find the wording here very interesting. For so long I believed what I was told, and remained confused as to why seemingly so many people I knew who were strong in faith, were sick or struggling through so many different kinds of trials and stressful situations. This contradicted the teaching and it was hard to reconcile it or make any sense of it.

I had met a sister in Christ in the reformed faith, and shared with her some of what my church's teachings were. Understandably, she was very concerned.

Over the next several months, she encouraged me almost daily, to look up key verses that were going to open my eyes, she said, to some deeper understanding about the Christian life. Her one constand message was "context!" Her advice was to never just read one verse, or a part of a verse, but take in the entire context. Go to the beginning of the chapter and see who it was written to. What was happening? Who was speaking? What was the subject? Were there recorded objections, and if so, how were those objections handled? These were questions that she suggested I ask myself as I was reading Scripture. This was brand new to me, I had never so much as heard of this way of approaching the Bible.

It was when I began to do this, that I really did have my eyes opened. It was nothing short of amazing to me the things I began to learn in the Bible simply by studying it, praying about the things that I didn't understand, and going back day after day to re-read those verses.

Back to Romans 5:3-5.

Verse 3 says "And not only so, but we glory (rejoice) in tribulations (pressure, afflictions, distress) also: knowing that tribulation worketh (brings about) patience"

This is not to say that when we suddenly find ourselves in a trying situation we bust out laughing and say "right on!, this is GREAT!" No, I don't know anyone that does that. It does however speak to the correct attitude we're to have about such things. We are to rejoice that such times of trials will bring about patience in our lives. The trying times are not what we rejoice in, it's what's coming that we are to rejoice in.

Verse 4: "And patience, experience; and experience, hope"

Consider for a moment, if you were converted to Christ, and never once had any pressure in your life. Not 1 illness, not 1 stress filled moment.

Clearly according to this passage (and others) these things in our lives bring about much good fruit. The events themselves may indeed be painful and heartbreaking - but it's what comes AFTER these events, and knowing how we're to approach them in our conduct & attitude, that is important here.

I don't recall the setting, but once my late husband made a comment in mixed company (believers and unbelievers) that shocked almost everyone. The comment was "I'm so glad God brought about this cancer into my life". He was as serious as he could have been, but the reaction was quite extreme. Some folks looked at him like he just said he ate their kitten.

What he meant by that, and what he explained, was quite simple. After the diagnosis of cancer, the gospel of Christ began to mean something to him. Thoughts of eternity, heaven, hell, faith, life - they all meant something when they didn't really mean much before. Once he was converted to Christ, then baptised 3 months later, along with myself and 3 of our older children who also professed faith, everything in his life had changed. He had ample opportunity to speak about Christ to his black-leather-clad head-banger friends (yeah, I used to be a metal head... spooky, eh?). He began to study his Bible like a thirsty man takes to water. He began to pray for great lengths of time. He was like a kid in a candy store sometimes, he just couldn't get enough. When I look back at verses three and four together, I very much see Ben's life (and how the cancer in it) played out there.

That's what he meant when he said he was glad for it. He wasn't glad for the cancer itself, it was brutal and destructive and extremely painful. He was rejoicing in what had come as a result, and what was still to come.

Verse 5: "And hope maketh not ashamed (does not disappoint); because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

When I read that verse, for some reason I picture in my mind what it looks like when you fill a glass full of water. Filling it all the way to the very top. This is how I understand what this verse is saying. We are not disappointed in this hope we have because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Isn't that simply incredible? Our hearts are filled with love, assurance, and hope, by the Holy Spirit.

If I only had 1 verse in all of Scripture to show that the desires of your heart (and lack of illness, stress, trials, etc.) come strictly to those who are strong in faith and never once waver in their Christian walk, this one would do just fine. Look at who Paul is writing to by going back to verse 1 of chapter 5: Those justified by faith, who have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is writing to US, reminding us that there are things that will come along in our Christian life that we need to approach with the right attitude.

DANGER - FALSE TEACHING AHEAD

One of the reasons I said this teaching I was once under is dangerous, is because it will derail the believer off the tracks of true Biblical teaching, and a proper, reverent perspective of just who God the Father is - and put you under a bondage to your works, like you'd never believe possible.

Before you know it, you're actually focused on yourself, instead of Christ. Your words, your thoughts, your service, your relationships. You're striving to measure up to what you think is the standard of the uber-faithful, and you will be disappointed every single time. Why? Because measuring ourselves to the standards of other men is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

While there are certainly those in our respective fellowships & the larger evangelical world that we might see as mentors or great teachers (we all have those that speak to our hearts and teach us SO much), the better part of wisdom is to make sure we never elevate them to a place they shouldn't be. A friend said to me today "the best of men are still men at best". Unfortunately, when we're using these people as the standard to check our faith by, we forget this.

While consistant self-examination before God in prayer is indeed something we must be doing, it's critical to understand where our wisdom, guidance, strength, peace and mercy comes from. It comes from Him, not from within. This false teaching I was once under often suggested that a stronger, more robust faith was something we could somehow achieve by being a more dedicated believer. The focus was always on YOU, and what YOU could do, to improve your life as a Christian.

When we lose Christ as the focus, as the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2), we're on extremely dangerous ground.

WHAT IT REALLY MEANS

Coming back to the passage that started all of this reflection to begin with:

Psalms 37: 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

Verse 4 is the key here. Actually, the first part of verse 4 is the key.

Delight thyself also in the LORD. Verse 3 says trust Him, and do good. Verse 4 says delight yourself in Him. Verse 5 says commit your ways unto Him, and again trust Him.

Such a glaring contrast between focusing on your own works to attain some sort of stronger faith, and trusting Him, committng to Him, and delighting yourself in Him.

One is man centered, the other entirely God centered.

Charles Spurgeon's sermon Sunshine in the Heart on what it means to delight in Him:

"The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than "holiness" and "delight." But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving him from custom, they would follow him though all the world cast out his name as evil. "

(You can listen to this sermon right here at sermon audio - and I really suggest that you do that)

Further, from The Treasury of David:

"There is an ascent in this third precept. He who was first bidden not to fret, was then commanded actively to trust, and now is told with holy desire to delight in God. Delight thyself also in the Lord. Make Jehovah the joy and rejoicing of thy spirit. Bad men delight in carnal objects; do not envy them if they are allowed to take their fill in such vain idols; look thou to thy better delight, and fill thyself to the full with thy more sublime portion. In a certain sense imitate the wicked; they delight in their portion—take care to delight in yours, and so far from envying you will pity them. There is no room for fretting if we remember that God is ours, but there is every incentive to sacred enjoyment of the most elevated and ecstatic kind. Every name, attribute, word, or deed of Jehovah, should be delightful to us, and in meditating thereon our soul should be as glad as is the epicure who feeds delicately with a profound relish for his dainties. And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. A pleasant duty is here rewarded with another pleasure. Men who delight in God desire or ask for nothing but what will please God; hence it is safe to give them carte blanche. Their will is subdued to God's will, and now they may have what they will. Our innermost desires are here meant,not our casual wishes; there are many things which nature might desire which grace would never permit us to ask for; these deep, prayerful, asking desires are those to which the promise is made." (Emphasis mine)

I've quoted Spurgeon here only because he said it far better than I ever could. When we delight in the LORD, we're not doing that to GET the carnal desires or frivolous whims we sometimes have, we're doing it because we delight in conforming our will to His will, and desire those things for our lives that please Him.

In summary...

It's very clear that Psalm 37:4 has absolutely nothing to do with "getting" or "having" things. Whether those things be a better job, good health, cars, trips, or any other temporal item. To delight in the LORD we take delight in our position in Christ, as we humbly serve Him and live according to grace.

I hope this has blessed someone and given you a better insight into this topic.

The "fed up" post has been removed for a couple of reasons:

1. I don't want that to be the last post before I continue my thoughts on "desires of the heart".

2. While I still mean every word I wrote, and genuinely hope there is repentance, forgiveness & reconciliation, I'm not entirely comfortable with the way I worded it. I'm not the most graciously eloquent person in the world and often my zeal or passion just comes across as just being mean. I don't like it when that happens (who would?) so the post has been removed.

Playing catch-up

my dog ate my email?

I've been trying hard to play catch up on my emails today.

If you've sent me an email in the last few days and I haven't answered it yet, please know I'm not ignoring you, I'm just an airhead and get sidetracked very easily.

I will do my best to get back to you by the end of the day.

If you don't hear back from me, please email me again, since sometimes I delete things unintentionally, and sometimes emails just don't go through at all.

If on the other hand, it really wasn't that important anyway, just send chocolates to let me know you're thinking of me. Belgian, preferrably.

:o)

July 18, 2006

Sportin' a Grin

Some singer/blogger person sent me these today and they all looked like they were having so much fun, I couldn't figure out which one to use for the sidebar! So until I decide, enjoy:

Not a clue who this guy is, but he sure looks happy to be a Biblical Evangelical, doesn't he?

There he is again, heading for the barbeque!

Not to be outdone by dad, here's Mary & her friend Sam

Not to be outdone by the kids, Mr. Murphy LabriDoodle sports his own barbeque gear.

Neighbor Kellie making sure everyone is staying in line!

A small break from technology

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. Matthew 7:25

Okay well it wasn't that dramatic, but we did have a storm last night that knocked the power out for the next 10 hours. It didn't even rain much at all, but the winds were strong enough to wipe out electricity.

The funny thing about that is how it gives me an opportunity to really test myself to see if I'm the slave to technology that I often assume I am. My routine is so predictable, that when it's interrupted it leaves me wondering "okay, now what do I do?". I seem to do okay finding something else, something productive to do when we lose power and I can't use the internet, wash clothes or even make coffee. I did have my digital camera on hand though, so I wasn't completely cut off from the world of high-tech. :o)

I also had candles & my kerosene lamp. I have this thing about candles. Especially scented ones. If I had it my way, every room in my house would be filled with scented candles. Cinnamon or vanilla (or maybe hazlenut coffee?) for the kitchen, lemon or melon for the bathrooms, lilac or rose for the bedrooms, and... well, suffice it to say I love scented candles. Ironically, I don't have a single one in the house. All the candles I do have, are boring ole dollar store candles for times just like this. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure scented lamp oil would be pretty amazing too. Alas... I digress.

I actually enjoy it when the power goes out. I don't enjoy losing heating or cooling abilities, nor do I enjoy the fact that our water goes off as well when there is a power outage. We're on a well and the pump is electric.

The part I do enjoy, is how quiet it becomes. You can hear things you never hear in the course of a day, or night. The stillness lends quite well to a good old fashioned "burning the midnight oil" at the kitchen table with your Bible. This is what I tend to do when the power goes out in the evening hours. In fact, I can't think of a better way to spend your very quiet evening, than listening to the wind outside, and seeing the pages of Scripture gently lit by candle or lamp light. It's almost like the perfect set up, for a good study. Almost as if... it was ordained to happen that way.

I didn't specifically have anything in mind to study, so I turned to Romans. We started a new Scripture memory verse last night (Romans 1:16), so Romans was on my mind. As I read, I began to notice certain verses that pertained to my mini-series treatment on the desires of our hearts. I got my binder & pen and started to take some notes. I would have stayed there longer, but as my eyes were having hard time adjusting to the light (I really should do that more often, on purpose, just to get accustomed to it!) that was just about when a I saw a mouse run from behind the microwave stand across the kitchen floor. It's funny how, in candle light those mice look an awful lot like the size of a small dog.

I thought that would be a pretty good time to snuff the candles & take the lamp with me up the stairs, calling it a night.

We need a cat.

July 17, 2006

Any further questions?

I'm a poet... no really!

life as we know it... fridge magnet poetry, or something like that

I didn't know how to save this the way others have, so I just saved it as a screen shot. This was fun.

I got the idea from Rebecca & Kim, and just copycatted my way to the fridge.

Oh, this is called Life as we know it.

:o)

All things for good

"Why didn't the Lord simply rebuke the devil and save the believers in Smyrna from persecution? Because contrary to what many teach today, the Lord does not promise health, wealth, and prosperity. Though He assures us of ultimate victory, He does not guarantee that Satan will never attack. Although we do not always know why He allows Satan to test or persecute us, we can rest in the assurance that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28)." John MacArthur

Very much in keeping with the same issue I wrote about last night. You really should go read this.

One thing I really appreciate about Pastor MacArthur is that while he delivers a message that is accurate and doctrinally sound, he does it in a way that it's easily understood. In other words, he doesn't use Christianese type language that complicates the message and leaves the reader (or listener) frustrated with the point of the message to begin with.

July 16, 2006

Heart's Desires pt.2

Psalms 37: 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

I posted yesterday about something that prompted me to think of this passage. If you'd like to read that, it's here.

WHAT THEY SAID IT MEANT

When a new believer begins to study their Bible for the first time, there are so many things that just don’t make a lot of sense. Some things are clear right away, other things seem to fall into place after a short time, and then there are those things that you grapple with for a long time. It certainly doesn’t help if you’re in a church that takes great liberties with Scripture and gives verses & passages a whole new meaning. I want to be fair and say that while not all AoG churches would hold to this method or interpretation, the one I was in certainly did.

This passage of Scripture, and others similar to it (John 15:7, 1 John 5:14-15) were used over and over again, to remind us that if we do this, God will do that. In other words, God's blessings on His people are determined by their level of faith. It was expressed in my old church more than a few times, that God's "hands are tied" if we are a people who's faith is weak.

Let me give a real example:

In 1992 I was in a head-on auto crash. I sustained significant neck injuries and as it turns out my insurance had lapsed for 48 hours (we'd moved and the insurance company didn't get our payment on time). That 48 hour window included the day of the crash so there was to be no medical coverage for my accident. From that point on, any medical attention I've been able to give to my neck injury, has been out of pocket. My pockets have always been on a tight budget so in other words, I've learned (sort of, I don't think anyone ever gets used to it) how to live with chronic pain.

In 1996, I attended a sister-church of my own, where a visiting evangelist was holding a "healing revival". The praise and worship was wonderful, there was a message given (it was forgettable, obviously, since I forgot what it was), and then afterward was a time of healing. I know for many that sounds rather odd, but this was common. Very much Benny Hinn Crusade style, if you had a medical need you came forward for prayer, were prayed over and with the gentle push on the head, you went down & flopped around or cried or whatever.

Well, I wasn't about to do any flopping around, and I knew if the evangelist pushed on my head it would hurt so bad I might pass out, but I went up for prayer all the same. When it was my turn to be prayed for, this was how the conversation went:

Evangelist: Carla, do you believe you can be healed?

Me: oh yes, I believe God can heal me if that's His will! (I was so excited, but had no idea the "His will" part was going to get me into trouble!)

Evangelist: Well, what do you mean? Do you think it's God's will that His children be in pain or sick?

Me: um... no? Maybe? I'm not sure

Evangelist: oh dear child, it is never God's will that His people suffer illness and pain, I hope you know this in your heart! You need to step out in faith and just believe that God WILL heal you tonight and take this pain away forever!

Me: I do have faith that He will heal me if He wants to, I just don't know if he wants to

Evangelist (giving me a weird look): of course He wants to, it's your lack of faith that stops Him from showing His power in your life!

At which point, he prayed some sort of "healing prayer" and a prayer for my weak faith, and started to push me on the head. Had he done that, and caused any downward pressure on my neck, the amount of pain would have been unthinkable, so I just backed up real quick and said amen.

From that point forward my weak faith was an issue in the church. It didn't help that I questioned absolutely everything, every Sunday after church. Especially when the pastor would preach a sermon and use part of a verse completely and utterly out of context. I knew next to nothing but I knew enough to understand out of context, especially when I was reading the verses in my own Bible while he was preaching them.

Not long after that healing revival, I had a talk with my pastor about it. The "desires of my heart" came up, and he asked me if it was a desire of my heart to be out of pain. Obviously it was, and he pointed out to me that the Bible says if we're living a good Christian life and serving the Lord, He WILL give us the desires of our heart. No questions asked, that's just the way it is. I left that conversation feeling like a prime failure as a Christian.

BAD TEACHING = BAD FRUIT

After that day, I became partially convinced that I was broke all the time, in pain, had bouts of anger, had kids that sometimes sassed back, and every other bad thing that was going on in my life, had everything to do with my weak faith and being a rotten Christian. More than just about anything I wanted the pain in my neck to go away, but clearly I wasn't going to get that because I lacked faith & wasn't living a "good Christian life" as my pastor suggested.

I examined my heart, big time. I loved the Lord, loved to study His word, and desired nothing more than to be exactly who He called me to be. Suddenly though, I became plagued with waves of anxiety like I was walking on spiritual eggshells 24 hours a day. I had no peace, I had more doubts than assurance, and I became far more miserable than anything else. I began to ask myself those questions that we never dare admit to anyone:

Maybe I really don't have faith at all?

Maybe I don't love the Lord like I thought I did?

Maybe I'm not a real Christian at all?

Maybe I don't believe the way I say I do?

Would Ben have died if he had stronger faith?

Maybe Ben wasn't really saved either?

The implication of that last question, is what sent me into such tears. If he didn't have enough faith to believe he could be healed (which was the desire of his heart), then maybe he wasn't even a real Christian? If that were the case, he was not in Heaven. I couldn't bear that thought, since I remembered waking up quite often at 3 am seeing him either quietly praying or reading his Bible in the living room. I remembered the thoughts he had about Scripture, the questions he asked, and the peace that he was in AFTER he confessed Christ as Lord of his life. I knew he was saved, as much as anyone could know about anyone else's salvation. Yet, there was that nagging question all the time,

"why didn't he get the desires of his heart???"

The teaching that my church held to, never made sense to me. It logically followed that the only people that get the desires of their hearts, were good Christians that had powerhouse faith. These would be the people that never got sick, had good jobs, nice homes & cars, good kids, etc. Those things were the evidence of their faith. But... the part that made no sense was the fact that I knew truly devout men & women in my church that were terminally ill and below the poverty line. Some were living in government subsidized retirement homes. And then there were the people in church that seemed to "have" it all. Beautiful homes, good jobs, fancy clothes & all that sort of thing. One of those women like that was the worst gossip I've ever known in my whole life. Not only was she a gossip, she was malicious about it and often used "prayer needs" as a means to get info then yap about it with other people. She was brutal. And if the 'evidence' of strong faith & good Christian living was getting the desires of your heart, she certainly did NOT fit the pattern. Neither did those sickly older people.

Needless to say, I was very confused. Now I had doubt and anxiety to add to my neck pain, where before I only had neck pain. None of it made any sense and as much as I tried to study my Bible for myself to see what I was missing, I couldn't even trust my own understanding since it was clear to my pastor my faith was pitifully weak. I felt lost, and there was simply no peace about this.

I was in this condition for several months before a reformed sister came along and made me feel at ease enough to tell her what sort of teaching I was under.

I'll post more about that, why this name-it-and-claim-it teaching is such a dangerous path of bondage & distress, and what I came to understand those verses really mean, in the next installment.

Warren Treesby

Warren Treesby
Originally uploaded by carla_rolfe.

Taken this morning 07.16.06

If you look closely, you can see that he's smiling. He's so happy to finally have a name!

:o)

Good barbeque/pool weather

This is our forecast for today & tomorrow. I hope this FOREVER puts an end to questions such as:

"does it ever get hot there?"...

"it must be really cold all the time there, right?"...

and the ever popular "so do you guys have snow like, all year?"

Yes, these are serious questions some Americans ask (usually Amercians in the southern states), about Canadian living. The first time someone asked me one of those questions, I thought they were joking.

They weren't. They really thought it was cold in Canada all the time.

I just have to say, I'm really thankful to the person who invented the electric fan. We have lots of those, and it's a great way to stay cool. I suspect there will be much pool usage as well, over the next 2 days.

Wherever you are, unless you have snow year round, stay cool!

July 15, 2006

And the winner is.............. !

In our "Name that Yard Rodent Contest"...

• Our third place winner was Swiper (voted on by Samuel) and submitted by Denise

• Our second place winner was Tarzan (voted on by Jordan & Rachel) and submitted by Emily

And our GRAND PRIZE WINNER (for his choice of any value T in the joint):

Warren Treesby (voted on by Kev, Carla & Jessica) and submitted by Frank.

Thank you to all of you that submitted your ideas! This was a lot of fun. Frank, email me with your selection and we'll get your fantastic prize off to you!

:o)

Georgia & Psalms in Mind

The internet is really a strange place. You can buy groceries online, you can rent dvds, find a house to rent, a car to buy, and sell your used stuff at the ebay garage sale. You can take college courses, homeschooling families can utilize free/and/or printable lessons. You can access law libraries, medical terminology, chat in real time with people all around the globe, or right down the street and even find yourself a husband or a wife.

For an information junkie like myself, the internet has proven to be the greatest resource there is for practical & immediate resources & information. It's like having the world's largest library right in your own house. Why, at any given time of day, I can type in a few ingredients and find a recipe for absolutely anything. How cool is that? :o)

It's literally changed the lives of countless people, in some pretty astounding ways. From good to bad, and everything inbetween, it's proven to be a monumental influence in the lives of just about everyone. In my own immediate family, the internet played a significant role in three very happy, very contented marriages (some of them weren't even looking, it just turned out that way). Through the internet you can stay in touch with long distance family members & friends, and meet new friends that in many cases become friends for life.

I tried to place a number on the amount of people I've met through this medium (and also met offline), but I can't. I've been on the 'net since 1993 and in those 13 years I've met so many people (online and off) that it's difficult to count. One example is how blogging can lead you to likeminded folks, right in your own backyard. Nearly two years ago I followed a link from a link (you know how that works!) and landed at The Upward Call. After reading the first post I thought "who is this woman and why is she writing the very same things I would like to address?" The more I read Kim's blog, the more I knew this was someone I could really get along with. Or so I assumed, based on her writing.

So last summer we agreed to meet offline (we live about an hour apart) and a meeting we'd scheduled for a coffee in a local coffee shop turned into 3+ hours of talking over just about anything, and completely losing track of time. From serious to funny, theoligical to academic, there wasn't a subject that didn't come up that we didn't have common interest in and were willing to discuss. Since then, we've had the blessing of having them over to our house a few times, and gotten to know Neil (aka Bugblaster) and their two boys as well. Our kids have even given their boys (Carrot & Track-a-Pip) their own nicknames. This is just one example of how you can meet someone online, and realize you'll likely be friends for life.

In another situation, a young lady (young to me anyway, now I'm feeling old!) that I first met online maybe 3 years ago, recently announced her wedding date. Her fiance is a man she also first met via the internet, and then met offline, a couple of years ago. I was rather happy to hear about the upcoming wedding, and so was my husband. When I shared the news with him he said "oh that's so good to hear, I always really liked her, she's so nice". Kev used to chat online too, but he's been out of the chat scene for about a year now. He lives vicariously in chat, through me. :o) I keep him updated on how everyone's doing, and while online in chat, if I tell him who's on he'll often say "oh, tell them I said hi!" so then messages from Kev & whoever I'm chatting with are exchanged through me. I guess maybe technically, he's not really out of the chat scene after all. He just has me do his typing for him!

So back to the wedding.

The wedding date is at the end of October, and I have been invited. Weddings aren't something I normally attend. I'm not sure why, it's just the way it works out. Other than my own, obviously, I've been to three weddings in my life. In each case, the bride looked like a princess, everyone was very happy, and they were truly joyous occaisions. All good, all very lovely. Maybe weddings just strike me as sappy? I don't know, there's just something about them that makes me feel awkward.

This wedding however, is one I really want to attend. I mean really want to attend. I want to meet this younger sister in Christ face to face, and see her walk down the aisle. I want to celebrate with her and congratulate her in person. I've already seen pics of her wedding dress, and she will truly look like a princess.

The ironic thing is, the location of the wedding. It's in a place that I've always wanted to visit, and have never had the opportunity. It's in Georgia. Now for those of you in GA, you might wonder "why would you want to visit here?". I don't know really, I think it has somethng to do with seeing so many love story type movies when I was young, about the south, and admiring "southern hospitality" and all that romantic-mushy-sappy-girl-stuff. Maybe it has to do with the pictures I've seen of the old mansions with the willowy trees than line the property. It could also be that I've always associated Georgia with good ole fashioned GOOD cooking, and peach cobbler. It might be the conversations I've had with people who live there and hearing them talk about what it's like to live in GA. Maybe it's just all of the above? In any event, of all the places in the world I'd like to visit, Georgia has always been at the top of my list. It might sound odd, but that's the way it is.

So when my friend invited me to her wedding, something that made me very happy for her, and then she told me where it was going to be, I was really excited to hear the news. I discussed it with Kevin, and he was excited too, except the part where I said "but I'd be gone for 4-5 days". He wasn't excited about that part. He didn't put his foot down and say no, but the thing is, we've never been apart for longer than his 12 hour shifts at work. I must admit, it would be odd to be away from him and the kids for that long, since the longest I've ever been away is however long it takes me to do banking, get gas, groceries and maybe a stopover at the dollar store! Not an event to force one to deal with seperation issues. So we discussed it some more, and the end result was YES, I should go.

The only problem is, our budget doesn't allow for such a trip. I'd have to cross the border to NY (just a 2 hour drive) and catch a flight to GA that way. Fares are about half the cost doing it that way, but they're still a lot higher than our budget. So Kev and I decided that we'd just have to put a "wait and see" answer to this, and really just wait and see. I told my friend who is getting married "if I win a prize or something, I'll be there!".

I explained all of that because that's what got me to thinking about these verses and what I understand about them:

Psalms 37: 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

It's been a really long time since I've looked at this specific passage, and part of that was intentional, I think.

Having spent nearly four years in the charismatic (which was also very heavily word of faith/prosperity teaching) movement some years ago, I've often said that I think I'm still unlearning some of the more damaging (theologically) teachings I was under there. This is one of them. In fact, this is one of the biggies.

I'm going to revisit this issue and share some things here, over the next few days, Lord willing.

Points I hope to adequately cover:

• what I was taught this means

• how I was taught to employ that in my faith

• the real fruit it produced

• why this can be dangerous

• the real meaning of this passage

I hope this not only blesses others reading, but I would encourage your insights on this as well, if you are so inclined to contribute. Being under false teaching is one of the reasons I'm so passionate about solid Biblical doctrine. There are a lot of people out there literally in bondage to either legalistic teachings, or this twisted sprititual blackmail type of issue, whereby their works determine God's blessings - or not. While it is true that our obedience does bring about blessing, that's not what I'm referring to and I hope to cover that as well.

This one is a biggie for me, so I hope to cover it well.

NOW...

for those of you just itchin' to know who won the Name That Yard Rodent contest, you're just going to have to wait a little longer. It's pancake day, and it's yard sale day for me. I expect to be back sometime this afternoon, to hold the conference with my panel of esteemed judges (aka Kev and the kids) and then I will post the name of the winner, along with the new name for our cute little yard rodent.

:o)

July 14, 2006

Because being controversial can cause stress, ulcers, angry thoughts & make you walk funny!

A friend and I were joking last night about my proclivity toward controversy, without even trying too hard, and how being boring wouldn't work for me. Well, I consider that a challenge and I heartily accept! I don't know if it'll classify as boring, per se, but I'm going to share a little bit about "where I am right now" :o) If the following actually offends someone, they were looking to be offended and should really get offline for a while. Maybe eat an ear of corn and have a camp out in the back yard to gain a better pespective. Take your DEEP WOODS OFF with you, or you'll be sorry.

SUPER EASY & FRUITY SUMMER DINNER

Night before last, I had a brainstorm. I know I know, it does sound frightening. In any case, I decided we needed a new summer menu that included lots of fruit & less meat. Light (but filling) dinners to enjoy while it's 5,000 degrees outside. So, last night's dinner consisted of the following:

• Baked beans (I cheated & used 2 cans of pork & beans with a bit of dark molasses, cooked on the stove top to avoid turning on the oven)
• Fruit & cheese tray (sliced strawberries, green seedless grapes, monterey jack & sharp chedder slices)
• Garlic dills
• Fresh 50% whole wheat bread from the breadmaker
• Lemonade

It was a huge hit, everyone had seconds (and thirds even), I never had to turn on the oven, and there was even plenty left over (except the bread, there's never any of that left over). Cost-wise, it didn't cost any more than a dinner with meat, and the fact that I never had to use the oven was a bonus. Our dinners next week will consist of many cold dishes with fruit sides and/or salad sides. For example, the roast I'm cooking Sunday morning will be used for cold roast beef sandwiches & coleslaw Sunday night, then shredded beef burritos (deep fried - the deep fryer doesn't generate heat the same way the oven does!) on Monday with a side of sliced apples tossed with cinnamon. Oh yes, I must not forget the peach cobbler this Sunday for dessert. That will be made Saturday night after the house cools off a little, then served cold with vanilla ice cream. If any of these dishes sound yummy to you and you want recipes, just let me know. Please remember I rarely measure anything, so your results will vary.

_____________________________

FIREFLIES & BATS

this is what they look like in the daytime - sort of like a sunflower seed with a red spot on the head Growing up and living most of my adult life in Western Washington, I had never seen a firefly until I moved to Ontario. I must say, sitting on the deck just after sundown and watching them come out and light up the yard (while dodging low flying bats) is one of the coolest things in the whole world.

Last night after the kids went to bed, I hung a load of laundry on the line then Kev and I sat on the deck and watched the show. A couple of years ago we caught a few and put them in a jar, just like little kids!

We're funny that way.

_____________________________

Bats & more bats!

Big Bubba Brown v Lunar Lenny Mothra - guess who won this little kerfuffle? We have these guys here, and lots of them.

Most of the time they fly around in the middle part of the yard looking for snackage. Once in a while though, they come right over the deck, just above our heads.

Kev is convinced it's a conspiracy theory and they're trying to kill him, but no matter how many times I tell him it's a MYTH that bats actually fly into people's hair (not that Kev has any) on a regular basis, he remains unconvinced and is stockpiling beans & canned soup in the garage. Oh wait, that's a different issue. Nevermind.

_____________________________

Philippians 4:8

Five years ago this week, I was in Washington, at my mom's house. Kev and I, with a vanload of six kids (baby Ruth the Butterfinger wasn't born yet) took a 3 week road trip across the US, down to Oregon, back to WA, then home through the Canadian prairie provinces. It was absolutely the very best vacation I've ever had in my life. My mom & step dad Jasper tolerated us invading her house for the 10 days we stayed there, and she even fed us & everything!

My mom (and Jasper) has always had a lovely garden - flowers & fruits/veggies, and someday when I grow up I'm going to have one too. In any case, she had a rosebush with the prettiest pink rose on it that I took a picture of. This pink rose is now available in Simply Flora in the Lovely Rose department on 23 different products.

Shown here on the ceramic, 2"x3" ornament, when I saw this rose it struck me as so simplistically beautiful, and I thought of the verse in Philippians that exhorts us to think on things which are lovely.

So there ya have it. I tried to remain non-controversial. How did I do?

OH, and before I forget, if you haven't entered the Name That Yard Rodent contest yet, you only have until tomorrow to do that! You know you want to enter, there's free stuff included and it's a chance to make us laugh. Now click that link & enter.

Have a great Friday! :o)

July 13, 2006

Just briefly...

I took this picture of the moon the other night, as I stood outside near the strawberry patch. Subjecting myself to being a midnight snack for the mosquitos, I must say there is something to be said for being where it is quiet, surrounded by nothing but the Lord's creation in nature.

Birds, animals, trees, the moon & stars... all evidence of our Creator. All governed by His hand. Spoke into existance for His good pleasure.

The more you think about that, the more astounding it becomes. Meditating on the goodness of God is simply a good thing.

July 12, 2006

Reflecting...

consider, mull, ponder, reflect, review, ruminate...

I did a lot of this today. I had a lot of things to do this with, today.

I received some disturbing news that my sister was taken to the ER last night in extreme abdominal pain. After an exam, they admitted her and scheduled her for surgery today. It appears it's gall bladder related, with a secondary discovery of a 10 inch cyst in the area of her kidney. She went into surgery at 4pm pacific time, and at 6pm she was in recovery. The doctor reported that it was a clean surgery, and everything went well. Needless to say, being 2500 miles away and getting this news first thing this morning, my mind has been preoccupied with this matter all day. I'm just very thankful that the procedure went well and that she's no longer in pain.

The other issue I had great reason to mull over today, was the post I put up about GBA yesterday - and the subsequent replies & discussion (here, email and other blogs). I want to make a couple of clarifications about some of what I said, and some of what I neglected to say adequately.

DISCLAIMERS

While it would be rather silly to offer a disclaimer on every single thing you ever quote, read, listen to or discuss, there is a very real responsibility that you have if you're an influential person, to be highly selective about who/what you choose to quote or endorse in any fashion.

I'll use myself as an example in this, as a teacher to my children. While Kev and I both homeschool, he leaves it with me to be the textbook selection committee. I'm the one that does the research into these things and he trusts my judgement to locate and select the kinds of books that we both believe are the best for the kids.

We use a specific curriculum supplier for our core curriculum, but to suppliment in key areas like time-telling, or specific math facts such as single digit subtraction, we often buy such things as non-Christian centered workbooks. You might be surprised to learn just how subtle the teaching of humanism is, in seemingly innocent places. When I do use supplimental materials, I try to be careful to explain certain things to the kids about what's in those books. While I want them to be able to benefit from the material, I also want to make sure I explain to them that I don't agree with certain things found in those books, and then I tell them why. I am responsible for teaching them, and I don't ever want to simply assume they are mature enough (at least until they show that they are) to understand these things on their own. I'm the one in the role of influence, it's my duty and obligation to make sure they're learning the right things.

On a larger scale, I believe (and this is certainly just my opinion, yours may vary) that this should be the same kind of approach that responsible evangelical leaders should be using, at least in some context. Disclaimers every day, or on every issue? No, but at least be aware that there are folks out there that are easily persuaded and when a name or piece of literature is introduced, that IS connected to controversial or flat out heretical teachings, the better part of wisdom suggests that it should be pointed out for those that may not realize it.

PERILOUS MISADVENTURES IN MISSING THE POINT

I have, for the better part of 41 years, often struggled with making my point, and making it clearly, without room for misunderstanding. It's a strange sort of thing, because there are some folks who understand me perfectly the first time I make a point, and then there are others that misunderstand so badly that it genuinely leaves me shaking my head at times wondering if they even read what it was I said. I say this not to point fingers at anyone else's lack of ability to "get" what I've said, I say it because it is a fault of mine, that I know I need to work on. I've known this about me for several years, and while at first it was really hard to accept (can we say pride?), once I did, it gave me the opportunity to try even harder to think out my position long and hard, before I state it either verbally or in written form. I don't always utilize that opportunity like I should, and when that happens, misunderstandings come about. Almost always. So yes, the fault is with me on that one.

I wont candy coat it, I will just say that some of the criticism I read about myself yesterday, was nothing short of malicious and hurtful. Yes, it did hurt, and that's what it was intended to do. However, I read it, and took it for what it said, and hopefully I can use that to refine my position, reconsider the way I word things, and mature a bit.

I did actually have more to say about this but as I was writing it I received the good news that my sister came through her surgery just fine, and I'm now distracted by just being so glad about that.

I hope this helps to explain at least a little better, where I'm coming from on these things.

If not, enter the Name That Yard Rodent contest, and let's just all have a little fun. M'kay?

:o)

Name that... yard rodent?

Folks that know us, and know how many feeders we have in the yard, have often assumed we have a huge problem with squirrels raiding the feeders. I've told them no, we've never had a problem. In fact, in the four years we've lived here, we've only had a (a = single) squirrel in the yard 3 times.

Until now.

For the last month or two, this little guy has been getting a little bolder each day. This morning he decided to show off for me! I hadn't had a coffee yet so the focus is a bit off, but there he is all the same. Personally, I think he's kinda cute. The only reason he's even there, is because Dougal is still layed up inside. If Dougal were outside, this little guy would be long gone, as she'd see to it.

So, for no other reason than it sounds like fun, I'm having a contest.

NAME THAT SQUIRREL!

We name all the critters that show up around here, like the time we found a dead weasel in the garage. Don't ask how he got there, we don't know. However, we named him Peasel. He was cute too, even though he was dead. I know, we're sick.

In any event, here's the contest:

The person that comes up with THE MOST original/funny/cute/whatever name, for our little black squirrel, gets a free Value T-shirt from my store (winner's choice of design). If you win and don't want a T, you can donate it to the one person you know that bears an uncanny resemblance to Frank. (For reference, that's Frank over yonder in the sidebar sporting our lovely TR design in his value T, and having the best sleep in years, as a result!) Or wash your car with it or fly it as a flag off your back porch... entirely your choice.

Contest starts NOW, and I'll hold a special conference with Kev & the kids sometime on Saturday & announce the winner. So, engage the imaginative brain cells and give our little buddy a name!

Is it just me?

I read something this morning that I've read and heard many many times recently. The item I read this morning says the very same thing I've been hearing over the last couple of years about all kinds of different Christian groups. There appears to me to be an inconsistant message here but I'll let you see it for yourself:

(Not an actual quote but the general message I keep hearing)

"They are orthodox in much of their theology. The deity of Christ, the Trinity, the inspiration of Scripture, salvation by grace through faith alone. Essential doctrines are taught. Therefore they are not our enemies, but brothers and sisters in Christ. We're in agreement with them in most of what they believe. However, there is deep concern that some of their teachings are leading many astray."

Now, I just wonder if it's me, or if you can see the disconnect in this kind of statement?

Maybe a better question would be to ask, how does a genuine brother or sister in Christ, who holds to all the essential doctrines and distinctives of Biblical Christianity, lead many astray? And, if they're leading people astray, astray from what, to what?

I'd really like to understand this statement, so your input is welcome.

July 11, 2006

Sort of speechless?

Wow... okay.

Lots of really interesting & thought provoking responses to my post from earlier. Certainly much to think about & much to pray about.

I appreciate the thoughts, and I will be mulling them over. I appreciate also those that have relayed to me that they are keeping me and this situation in prayer. The ultimate goal being that God be glorified in all of this, that's the most important thing to me.

More on GBA & ENo

Sometimes, someone makes a comment or a statement that is just so profound to me, it literally and instantly changes the way I see things. I really like it when that happens, even if it means some pretty intense self-examination and repentance. It's a good thing to be refined.

I've written on this before, but for the sake of the point of this point I'll briefly explain again how I view personal critique. This came as a result of a pastor friend of mine sharing his view of personal critique, and it instantly became my own view as well.

It's simple really. Receive the critique, and make it a matter of prayer. If there is any truth, any accuracy in it, change the way you're doing/saying things, and be glad for the constructive criticism - even if the motive behind the critique wasn't intended for your benefit. As for the rest of the critique, if it's simply unfounded accusation - just ignore it and get on with your day.

So yesterday after seeing a friend accused of accusing others of GBA (guilt by association), and knowing I've been accused of it as well, I really had to take a closer look at the accusation to see if there was any truth in it. Instead of being defensive, I want to be receptive, and if needed, change the way I do things. Just to be clear, this all stems from what we do at ENo. This has been the reaction by a few bloggers due to what we post there.

One of the commeters here (*high fives RobZ) left this yesterday and I think it bears repeating before I go any further:

All I'll say on this is that the person who chooses to call out someone needs to:
1. Have his facts straight
2. Be certain that what he is calling the person out for is sin (as opposed to, say, knowing someone - we get into the polity of secondary separation here)
3. Have as his goal the glory of God via the edification of the body. Guardians of truth need to be wary of becoming self-absorbed hunters, even as they properly protect people from wiles and snares.Over the course of the fundamentalist movement, the emphasis with many churches and speakers moved from fighting for the vital doctrines of the faith to making oneself look good by making others look bad. As we contend against the very real threats of today, we must avoid falling into the same errant pattern.

I appreciate Rob's insight on this, and wanted to make sure you all saw it as well.

Yesterday I wrote that GBA is "the person is being unfairly accused of likemindedness with the people they associate with, or are associated with, whether they personally associate with them or not." But it's actually much more than that. It's actually bearing false witness against someone, either knowingly or not. If a person has been unfairly painted guilty by association, their character and their reputation has been put into question. Further, to accuse someone of accusing others of GBA, if it's in fact untrue, is just another example of bearing false witness against someone.

So it can get rather complicated, can't it?

For the purposes of this topic I'm going to give general specifics. General in the sense that naming names is not required (since this is something that can apply to anyone), but specific in the sense that real examples will be used. Still with me? Good, let's look a little closer at the current state of evangelicism...

The accusation against me specifically, is that I am guilty of accusing brothers and sisters in the faith, of GBA. If for example Pastor Bob Doctrine appears to be solid in his faith, but routinely quotes from Dr. Bad Theology & Mr. Joe Mystic, and I have pointed that out for the benefit of those who are under the teaching of Pastor Bob, some take that to mean I'm bearing false witness against Pastor Bob, and writing him off as guilty by association.

Now first of all, bearing false witness would have to mean I am lying about ole Bob. Bearing false witness would require that I knowingly put information out there that is untrue and non-factual for the purpose of maligning Bob's character. Like a friend said last night as we discussed this, "it is what it is".

If Bob is in fact routinely quoting from and promoting certain questionable teachers or theologians, then this is who has influenced him - and my commenting on that fact is not in any way bearing false witness against him. Just as if I were to say Phil Johnson routinely quotes from and is influenced by the teachings of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This would in fact be true, and accurately commenting on who he is influenced by.

To me, this is where the fine line between GBA and guilt due to association, comes in. I'm not even sure I want to use the word "guilt" here because it implies sinfulness in a way, even if there isn't any genuine sin going on there, but maybe just a difference of opinion or difference in preference on certain things. Maybe "accurately reported" due to association, would be better?

I know Phil won't care if I pick on him for this example so I'll go ahead and use that to make my point further:

If I wrote that Phil is influenced by Spurgeon, and then expressed some kind of negative and/or judgemental opinion about Spurgeon's doctrine, insinuating that Spurgeon was some kind of heretic, then by implication I'm not only maligning Spurgeon but I'm maligning Phil as well, by association. Further, if what I said wasn't even true, then I'm bearing false witness against them both, and guilty as charged.

However, if what I did say was true, and Spurgeon did hold to some wacky doctrine somewhere and I pointed that out, while it certainly might rub some people the wrong way, it would not in any way be bearing false witness. Further, if I pointed out that Phil agreed with said wacky doctrine and taught it as well, it wouldn't be GBA, it would be accurately reporting on who/what Phil is influenced by - for the benefit of those under Phil's teaching.

I hope all that made sense, I just re-read it and I'm not even sure it's coming out right. Like I said, for me this is the fine line between GBA and accurate commentary on who's who and who's being influenced by who/what. For the record, I do not think Spurgeon was wacky in any doctrine, and Phil is as solid as solid gets. If anyone takes my words out of context, please feel free to direct them to this paragraph. In the modern state of evangelicism, I do think it's very important to know these things. I only used Phil & Spurgeon since you all know them, and they were good examples of a modern teacher influenced by someone who has gone home to the Lord.

Do you know who's books are in your church's library? Do you know who your pastor is reading, or your youth workers, or Bible study leader? Who are they learning from? What doctrines are they exposing themselves to, and what are they trying to teach those under their leadership?

We're all under the influence of someone, and it's the "someone's" influence that we need to be very circumspect about.

It was brought to my attention yesterday that there is a certain blogger who has expressed a desire to have me and EmergentNo specifically, "repudiated" by fellow reformed bloggers. The reasoning behind this has been stated as character assassination of some of the more prominent evangelical leaders/pastors in our day. Further, we have been accused of unfair and untrue "labelling" of these men.

I don't pretend to understand the minds of those who want to silence dissenting opinion, so I wont even try. The truth is however, there are many people out there that just don't like it that certain people express their opinion to begin with. Especially if it flies in the face of what they hold dear. I think we're all like that in some ways. If someone slammed me for my stand on the doctrines of grace, I'd just as soon that they hush up.

I've gone back and read (and re-read, again and again) some of the posts that have been taken at ENo as "GBA" and I can say without question, that was never the goal, nor the intention, nor true. The goal there is to simply show who and what is influencing those that promote the ECM. Interestingly enough, the very same influences that are shaping the ECM, have now spilled over into more conservative types of churches that would never even consider themselves part of the whole emerging conversation. Or rather, that many might be surprised to learn are becoming more open to the influences?

Here's the part where I will name names and not just in hypothetical examples:

When Dallas Willard is hailed by Brian McLaren as one of the "key mentors" of the ECM (according to this article), then John Piper favorably quotes Willard on the topic of spiritual formation, it does raise more than a few eyebrows.

Is this GBA? No, it's a fact, and you can read the facts for yourself on this example right here. False accusation, false witness or character assassination that Piper has favorably quoted Willard? Not at all, it's a factual reporting of truth. Does this mean however that Piper himself is part of the ECM? Not at all, but as my friend said last night about these things "it is what it is". Piper favorably quotes one of the men that McLaren himself has said is one of the key mentors of the emerging church.

Just the facts. You do with them what you're led to do, but these are the facts.

This is the kind of thing that bothers a few people. They don't want us (at ENo) telling anyone this stuff. They want us to be quiet and go away, and leave things be. They don't like it that we are reformed Baptist women, and use that to attempt to shut us up and divert attention away from what we're actually saying. It's that we're saying it to begin with, that really bothers them. So out come the charges of character assassination, bearing false witness, rebellion in the area of submission, hypocrisy in the area of women leaders/teachers, etc. It's a strange thing to see this happen, when oddly enough, us "women" at ENo are saying the exact same thing so many others are saying, and they're not attacked the way we are. I wonder why that is?

In any event, I'd like to hear your thoughts about this charge of GBA. I'd like to hear your thoughts also on whether reporting the facts is the same as slandering or maligning someone's character.

I'd also like to hear your honest opinion to this question:

If Phil Johnson (or any other modern, conservative, well-respected leader in the evangelical church) favorably quoted an author, without any kind of disclaimer that he or she was/is in error in this doctrine or that doctrine, would you be inclined to buy the book or read that author, based on Phil's favorable mention?

How you answer that, is part of why we do what we do at ENo, and why we're accused of such things as GBA, and why such things like a call for "repudiation" have come about.

July 10, 2006

What do you think?

Guilt by association. I thought a lot about this today, for no other reason than I've been accused of accusing others of it. Today it was brought to my attention that a friend of mine has also been accused of it - so - I thought about it and what it really means.

When that label is placed on someone it means that the person is being unfairly accused of likemindedness with the people they associate with, or are associated with, whether they personally associate with them or not.

A good example:

People who call themselves "Calvinists" are labelled guilty by association, and are assumed to believe everything Calvin did, up to and including infant baptism and burning heretics. Oh wait... Calvin didn't burn any heretics, that's an ignorant rumor that people just keep repeating. In any case, you get the point.

Another good example:

The SBC. That one can go all sorts of directions, so just take your pick.

The charge of GBA is a pretty serious one, though. The underlying implication is that you're unfair, you purposely misrepresent others, and throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The more I thought about this, the more I really began to wonder if anyone really cares what the difference is between GBA, and guilt evidenced by association, or even the less serious issue (but still serious) of simply being influenced & impressed by bad influences, and things of that nature?

I mean, this could go all over the place, and I just wonder if anyone even cares for the lengthy explanation, or if they'd just prefer nice & neat little packages of labels & terms?

I'll mull it over, and see what you think before I get into it. I do think it's important to understand what the differences are, especially in light of what's going on in our day in the apparent lack of discernment department.

But the timing...

UPDATE BELOW

MONDAY UPDATE BELOW

MONDAY UPDATE II BELOW

I've never been a dog person. Everyone who knows me, knows I'm not a dog person. Growing up I had a dog named Jack, and as far as I was concerned, Jack was the only "cool" and "good" dog ever. EVER.

Jack of Diamonds... taken not too long before we said goodbye

I guess I was just a little baby when mom brought Jack home, and Jack was a puppy as well. I grew up with Jack, and often jokingly told stories about my really good brother Jack.

As is common with family pets, Jack grew old and weak. I think I was about 13 when mom finally had to take poor ole partially blind, partially deaf, arthritic Jack to the vet, for one last time. It was rough saying goodbye to Jack, and even now so many years later, I get sort of misty eyed & lumpy throated remembering that day. I vividly recall thinking "there will never be another dog like Jack". And there never has been.

But the timing...

Last night Phil posted at Pyro about his & Darlene's daughter-in-law Anne, who was hit by a car. Thankfully, the Lord spared her any serious injuries but still, quite an unsettling experience to say the least. I shared the news with Kev and he said the same thing, "thank the Lord it wasn't worse!". We talked a little bit about what it's like to be hit by a car (he never has been, I have, twice) and how it could have been so much worse for Anne.

So what does that have to do with Jack? Nothing, actually.

Dougal MacCree But at 9:23 this morning as I was brushing my teeth, I heard Kev shout "oh no, OH NO!" then run out the deck door. Auto-pilot kicked in and the brain said "it's bad - stay cool". I didn't even know where I was going or what the "oh no" was about, until I got outside. The only sound you could hear was a heartbreaking, high-pitched wailing. I was sure it was one of the kids and my heart sunk. Over in the side yard was Kev, all the kids, and the barn worker Andy - all sort of huddled around in a circle. I wasn't sure all the kids were accounted for at first, but then I heard the sound again and knew it was Dougal.

Dougal had been doing what she always does, racing Andy down the driveway, periodically darting in front of his truck. She does this with everyone. Trucks, tractors, the kids on their bikes. It doesn't matter, if someone is going down the driveway, she figures it's a game and always joins in.

This time, she didn't get out of the way fast enough, and Andy couldn't stop soon enough. We still don't know for sure, and Andy couldn't see what happened next, but Dougal ended up in the grass to the side of the driveway.

By the time we all got out there, she was laying on her side, just wailing this horrible wail. There was no blood, but something was clearly very wrong with her. She got up and tried to walk but she screamed again and fell over at first. I just knelt down beside her, held her very tight, and began to pray. Then I started to cry (much like I am doing right now).

I am not a dog person!

I prayed the Lord might simply comfort His creature. Take her pain away, or heal her completely if that be His will. I've never prayed for a dog before, and in a rational moment it actually seems sort of trivial & strange. At that moment however, it didn't seem strange at all. Dougal is His creature and she was in massive pain. Only He can step in, in a situation like that.

Dougal was screaming (ever heard a dog scream?) the kids were crying, Kevin was wringing his hands and Andy just stood there with a pained look on his face. Samuel looked at Andy and said "Andy, you ran over Dougal" I quickly shushed Samuel and told him it was an accident, and it was no one's fault. Poor Andy.

The rest of the morning was sort of a blurr, but somehow we got Dougal inside (I picked her up at one point and MAN is that dog heavy!) and quickly got on the phone to the vet. Knowing a Sunday emergency visit was going to cost $200+ just to examine her, he walked me through how to check for broken bones & internal damage, by just a physical exam. Kev held her while I examined her. It was rough going, but according to the vet's instructions, nothing seemed to be broken. She was alert, drinking, trying to walk (but only on three legs) and moving around.

He told us how to medicate her to take the pain away, and suggested it was likely nothing more than soft tissue trauma. We're monitering her and watching for the signs he said to watch for, in case we need to take her in.

Kev, Jessica and I sat on the living room floor with her after I examined her, and Kev prayed for her again. It seems odd typing that (me of all people, since I am so not a dog person), but it wasn't odd at the moment. Nor was it odd when her heavy panting stopped as soon as Kev opened in prayer "Dear Heavenly Father..."

I hope she gets better, and her injury is just soft tissue trauma like the vet said. I hope we don't have to take her into the vet. I think I'm going to have to reconsider this whole "I'm not a dog person" thing.

Today I am.

___________________________

UPDATE:

Not really much to update, but I sure appreciate all the well wishes - email and in the comments. Dougal hasn't eaten all day (not uncommon) but she has gotten up and moved from room to room then layed down again. She's currently outside sleeping in the grass near the front porch. She's still favoring her hind leg, and hasn't put any weight on it at all. She does however, lay on it when she lays down - which seems odd. We're supposed to have t-storms tonight and she always goes upstairs under Rachel's bed when we have those. She can't go up the stairs so I'll have to figure something out for her. She hates thunder!

If she can put her leg down in the morning and at least put a little weight on it, she wont need to go to the vet. If not, she will need to be seen. A vet bill is not something that is in our budget, so I'm really hoping she begins to improve by morning.

I'll post an update on her condition tomorrow. Thanks again for all the kind words & warm thoughts. My readers are the coolest.

__________________________

MONDAY UPDATE:

Well, she had a hard time last night not being able to hide under Rachel's bed during the t-storm, but she did manage to hide under the futon in the downstairs spare bedroom.

She got up this morning and went to the door to go out, and did try to put a little weight on her leg. Not when she was walking, but when she'd stop to rest she'd put her foot down to the floor. Something she was not doing yesterday at all. So that's some sort of improvement anyway. She's also moving a bit quicker than yesterday, but she still wont eat the canned food I bought her yesterday. I'll dump that & give her the dry stuff and see if she eats.

I don't think I'm going to take her in to the vet this morning, I'll see how she does through the day & decide later if she needs to be seen.

Thank you all for your care & concern, and a very special thank you also to Wrigley.

He knows who he is.

:o)

___________________

MONDAY UPDATE II

Just as I was about to dump the canned food and give Dougal some dry food, she gobbled up the entire bowl of it, then she drank some water. Right after that, she went UPSTAIRS to hide under Jordan's bed since we had more t-storms coming today. When she starts hiding, you know there are t-storms coming within the next 2-3 hours and sure enough, about 3 hours later we had a good one that lasted about 45 minutes.

So, she's upstairs still, she did eat and she's trying to put weight on the leg. Not sure how well she's going to manuever those stairs on the way down, but we'll see how that goes.

Do you suffer from this syndrome?

do you know pastors that remind you of these guys?

Alarmed, apprehensive, discouraged, disheartened, dismayed, distressed, disturbed, perplexed, perturbed...

I'm one of those, but I can't figure out which one, just yet.

Over the last couple of years, I've noticed an increasing trend among evangelicals that I'm going to call The B&B Syndrome.

The trend is such that some up and coming hip & trendy pastor or author says the most irreverent, shocking or juvenile thing and men & women slap their knees in uproarious laughter, snickering and back-patting their fellow hip & trendy evangelicals saying:

"he said (___insert juvenile/irreverent comment here____), ha ha ha, did you hear him!?"

The end result is that more and more people seem to think these guys are funny, or culturally relevant, or some such nonsense.

I know a lot of people my age watched that stupid show, at least a few times, trying to figure out why it was funny. Or why it was supposed to be funny. And why it appealed to anyone over the age of 11 and beyond the age group of people that still giggled over bodily function noises.

The thing is, it did appeal to people over the age of 11, and I've never understood why. Even as an unregenerate young person in her 20's, that show wasn't funny, it was just plain stupid. Those guys weren't funny, they were morons. Yes I know they weren't real, but animated morons, but they were morons all the same. Maybe that's why they were supposed to be funny? I'm not sure.

See, I knew people like that in junior high. Guys who thought they were cool, and thought saying shocking things would make them even cooler. They weren't, and it didn't, and the only "following" that they ever had, was usually other guys who weren't cool (and a few girls who didn't know any better) but thought that if they acted like these guys, they'd eventually be cool too.

I've gone to my 10th highschool reunion (I was delivering baby #7 at the time of my 25th reunion, so I missed that one), and I can assure you, these guys never made it into "coolhood". In fact, I'm pleased to say some of them became "normal" law abiding citizens, that could carry on an intelligent conversation without saying anything shocking or ridiculous just to get attention. So maybe they did make it into coolhood, afterall?

What disturbs me about this, is that now this same exact "trend" is in the evangelical world. We've got the equivalent of Beavis and his pal running around the countryside promoting their books, their movements & their culturally relevant ministries, and people think they're cool, funny, trendy & whatnot.

What some people think of as humor, I see as flippant disrespect for the office & high calling of pastor.

What some people think of as "culturally relevant" I'm seeing as nothing more than making excuses to act just like the culture, under the guise of "redeeming" the culture.

The thing is, it's not as if I'm some sort of prude with no sense of humor. I have a pretty healthy sense of humor. I enjoy wit, and being around sharp-minded people that can deliver a timely retort. It's not as if I'm some sort of Victorian-era fuddy-duddy. It's just that these men aren't funny. They aren't clever, they're boring and actually quite predictable. They aren't trendy, they're simply following after the things of the world and pretending to be "cutting edge for Jesus". Give me a large break.

More than anything however, what really leaves me with more questions than anything else, is the fact that some intelligent, doctrinally sound men and women are beginning to find these men amusing and entertaining. That's the part I truly fail to understand.

Maybe I'm living in a cave. Maybe I really am a prude and can't appreciate humor the way I thought I did.

Or maybe... just maybe, being trendy, relevant, pragmatic & obnoxious, is more alluring than previously suspected?

July 08, 2006

Just a really good day

A long time ago in a blogosphere far far away, Marla Swoffer (boy do I miss her!) suggested I set up a flickr account for my bazillions of pics. I did, but I never really explored there.

In any case, I have uploaded some pics there from today's festivities. If I did it right, you can click on the badge thing in the sidebar to see them, or just go here. Just to be clear, I really do smile, Kev just doesn't get it on film!

I haven't fine tuned the photo album there but the pics are up, all the same.

A Saturday to Celebrate

It's Saturday...

No one ever reads (or comments) on my blog on Saturday, so I can pretty much write whatever I want here and it's passable.

I could write that I gained 900 pounds and I'm now typing this with my feet, laying on a stretcher. No one would care! Or, I could write that I heard Dan "Booyah" Philips from Pyro fame was seen at the Topeka WalMart in pink chiffon. No one would even notice. Not even Dan.

I could write that yesterday for the first time in 11 years I colored my hair with a sort of butterscotchy/caramel highlighting kit... and it really wouldn't matter much. It turned out neat though, I like the color. Something a little different.

In any event, we're having Baby Ruth the Butterfinger's birthday today, even though her real birthday is tomorrow.

It's a common thing for me to reflect back on the day they were born, with each of my kids on their birthdays. Ruth's is sort of bittersweet for me, so here's the reflection:

When Kev and I learned we were expecting her, we were both overcome with anxiety. With six kids already, and the massive amount of pain I went through carrying and delivering Samuel, the news that another one was coming wasn't news we were happy about, at first. I cannot even express how guilty we both felt, that we even had those thoughts at all.

Shortly after I learned I was pregnant, I had a very frightening accident. Our oldest daughter was still living at home at the time and working the midnight shift at the local coffee shop. She had to be at work by 11 so around 10:30 every night, Kev would drive her into town. This particular night I had gone upstairs right after they left, to check on the kids. As I was coming down the back stairs in my sock feet, I lost my footing on the hardwood stairs, and fell. I fell all the way down the last 6-8 stairs, whacking my elbow off one of them, and within seconds I could feel it begin to swell. More than that, was the pain. The extreme pain shooting through my arm, leaving me incapable of even moving for a few minutes.

Jen and Jessica both heard my groaning and came running. My thoughts quickly turned to the baby (that no one knew about yet) and I began to cry, and silently pray "please Lord don't let me lose this baby!". Suddenly the anxiety I felt over the potential pain of carrying and delivering another baby - simply dissolved into "please Lord let me have this baby".

It took me a while to recover from that fall, but I did recover. At about 6 months along I began to rapidly gain weight. My doctor was alarmed at how fast I was gaining, and how much, but it wasn't anything I was "doing" to gain it. I was eating the same things I always eat, and not any more of it. It was just the "way it was" and by the time I delivered her, I had gained about 75 pounds. I looked (and felt) like a water balloon with feet. It was hard to walk, hard to sleep, hard to sit, hard to stand. There wasn't a position at all that was comfortable, and it just kept getting worse. One picture was taken of me at that time, and it's unreal to look at it and know that this was me. Three years later and I've lost all but about 20 pounds of that. It's rough to get rid of that, and at almost 42 years old, I don't bounce back like I did at 20.

Two days before Ruth was born, I called my grandma. Kev and I learned the baby was a girl, and we decided to name her Ruth, after my great grandma, and her middle name Emma, after my great aunt. My grandma's mother, and sister. My grandma half-jokingly said to me "well, since you're going to name that baby after Mama, you might as well have her on Mama's birthday, the day after tomorrow". I didn't know my great grandma's birthday was on July 9th.

Two days later at 6am, I went into labor. By 10 am I was at the hospital, and two hours later, weighing in at just under 9 pounds, Ruth was born on her namesake's birthday.

The delivery was almost a nightmare. Choosing an epidural, the anesthesiologist arrived to administer that, and all went well until he miscalculated the injection. The needle nicked my spinal cord and the pain that resulted from that is honestly indescribable. Kev later said he has never seen anyone with such an expression on their face, and hopes never to again. The technician quickly administered the epidural properly, and within seconds all the pain was gone.

The rest of the day went simply awesome. The people in the hospital were fantastic, Ruth was perfect, and Kev and the kids came up at dinner time and brought me a Wendy's Big Bacon Classic with fries and a frosty! :o)

We came home the next day, and Kev let me sleep through the night while he took care of Ruth. The funniest thing is, he stayed up all night to feed & tend to her, but she slept through the night too.

Baby Ruth today Today, we celebrate her third birthday, and we're also having our annual Scripture Memory Verse Award Ceremony. It's a beautiful day, highs expected in the mid 80's, and this will definitely be a deck/pool party!

Hot dogs & chips, cake & ice cream... you're all welcome to attend, just bring your own fork.

July 07, 2006

My name is Carla and I am a musical genre snob

Reading my bloglines this morning I came across this:

"Interview: Justin Taylor has posted an interview he conducted with Voice, a Reformed Christian rap artist connected to Sovereign Grace Ministries." Tim

It was the strangest thing - over and over again my eyes kept focusing on these words:

"Reformed Christian rap artist"

Now, as much as I absolutely and without question detest "rap" and always have, I thought "okay, what exactly is a reformed Christian rap artist?" So I read Justin Taylor's interview with Curtis Allen. It's a nice interview, he seems like a nice person, he says nice things.

And yet, I still absolutely and without question detest rap music. For me, it smacks of a culture and a mindset of angry, violent, self-centered, obnoxious, disrespectful, rebellious youth, that have something to say to "authority" and decided to say it in the most vulgar way possible. So, it's a bit tricky to get my mind around how someone can take that genre, and put a "Reformed Christian" spin on it.

I just don't get it. I probably never will - I'm out of touch with culture. I'm likely forever stuck in the appreciation of 60's & 70's classic rock - to which someone will come along and say "but they were an angry, self-centered, rebellious culture". But at least they had real talent. For me, rap is a lot like storming into your bedroom & slamming the door because mom said you couldn't go out tonight, then you let loose a stream of angry words under your breath at her. That's not talen, any unregenerate can do that.

Yep, I'm culturally irrelevant. Give me an old Kansas song any day... now THAT, was talent.

July 06, 2006

A sure fire sleep aid!

a sure fire way to get that elusive rested feeling...

• Are you having trouble sleeping at night?
• Do your jammies bunch up and leave you irritable?
• Does your pillow feel like a brick?

Well my friends there is GOOD news!

With one simple click of a mouse button, you too can be just like Frank "centuri0n" Turk, and sleep like a baby!

If you're looking for that "happy place" so you can drift off in pure comfort, the way to go is the TR shirt from Reflections Giftware & Apparel.

Sleep will never be the same again!

(And yes kids, that really is Frank in one of my TR shirts, doesn't he look serene? Oh yes, a TR shirt can tame the most wild of beasts! Why, just look at Frank there for proof. (Photo touched up only to remove the wrinkles from Frank's napping in it!).

A Prayer Request

For those of you that know who Michael Spencer is, aka "the iMonk", I'd like to ask you to pray for him and his family today.

Yesterday his mother suffered a massive and fatal stroke, and she passed just after 2 am this morning.

Even if you don't know who he is, please take some time today and pray for him and his family as they make arraingments and begin the journey of grief.

It's a painful journey, to be sure.

July 05, 2006

Creepy Crawlies!!

We had an interesting day here today...

Early this morning, as I sat here reading news, blogs & mail, I heard a very strange sound coming from the next room. It was a combination of bird chirps, dog growls and the voice of a child frantically saying "no! no!"

Before I even had a chance to get up and see what the commotion was, Jordan called out to me and said "mom, Dougal is trying to eat two baby birds!". (Dougal is the dog, in case you weren't aware of that)

I'm not sure how the birds got into the house, since their nests are actually in the garage. I'm not even sure why there are nests in the garage, but that's where they are. To my knowledge, there are at least three nests, maybe more. At least one of them is a starling nest, and the others are house sparrows. In any case...

Two of the starling babies got inside, and Dougal thought it was game time. She seems to think she's a cat. So there was Jordan in her pajamas, tyring to wrestle the dog (who probably weighs as much as Jordan does) away from the birds, while trying to "herd" the birds back into the garage. I went down there and let Dougal outside so Jordan could aim the birdies back through the garage door. Mission accomplished, we saved two teeny little lives and we both felt pretty good about that.

I sent Jordan up to wash up & get dressed, and I sat back down here at the desk.

Not more than five minutes later, I hear Jordan's voice again. This time it was that tone of voice crying out to "mom!?" that sends chills down every mother's spine. It's the tone that says as clear as a bell that something is DREADFULLY wrong, and the child needs your attention right now.

I stood up and Jordan came through the door. She said "mom, what ARE these all over my face!?" She was in a panic, and Jordan doesn't panic. She's the kid that plays with spiders and catches bees just to pet them.

The closer Jordan came toward me, the more I almost began to panic. Her face was darker, splotchy looking, and it looked like it was moving, almost like waves in the water. It was absolutely surreal, and remaining calm was not easy. I had her stand in the light of the window so I could see her more clearly, and what I saw was something I've never seen in 41 years.

Microscopic dark bugs, crawling all over her face, neck, chest, back, arms & hands. There were so many of them, I am now convinced this is where the saying "it made my skin crawl" came from. Her skin DID look like it was crawling, which gave me monumental creepies. I rushed her up to the shower and scrubbed her like she's never had a scrubbing before, or likely ever will again. Over the next hour or so, Jordan became the cleanest kid in all of North America. It might be months before she'll need another bath.

Every inch of her (no joke) was carefully examined, and after another hour or so, she was bug-free again.

I have absolutely no idea what those things were, but have to assume they were on the birds. I did manage to save one (and it was not easy, just one of them is the size of one of those slivers you get that you can never find, but you know it's there) and we stuck the little bugger under the microscope. I zoomed in 1200x and we were all sufficiently grossed out by the look of this miniscule monster. At first I thought they were lice, but they were way too small and under the microscope they didn't look like lice at all (I checked google images!). Then I thought ticks (and panicked thinking of Lyme's disease) but they were wayyyy too small to be ticks.

I don't know what they were, but they were creepy, and my skin has been crawling all day, since then.

Now I'll prolly have an icky dream where monster bugs take over the universe.

Just another day on the farm...

July 04, 2006

Let Freedom Ring

I'm feeling rather homesick lately and today being the 4th of July, didn't make it any better. In Canada, today is just a Tuesday. It's a strange feeling, and even though I've been here for 8 years, I don't think I'll ever get used to it.

American Freedom

So tonight after devotion, we sang America. It's this song that inspired me to create the graphic for the American Freedom shop at my store. Growing up in a free country with an emphasis on why and how we're free, is something that was never lost on me.

I was impressed that Kevin (a Canadian) knew this song (not just the tune, but the words too), and we will be teaching it to the kids. The older kids are all American citizens, and the younger ones are all 'American citizens born abroad' (even though I still haven't filed their paperwork to prove it for them).

Take a look at these lyrics (sing along if you know it!). This is sung to the tune of God Save the Queen:

My country tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim's pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love.
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture fills
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song.
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our father's God to, Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!

July 03, 2006

Happy Belated BlogDay To Reflections

I've been so busy with other things, I completely missed my own blog birthday. Two years ago on June 25, Reflections of the Times came on the scene after many many years of using/moderating forums. I like blogging much better. So, happy birthday to Reflections.

I've considered going back and highlighting some of my better posts her in the last 2 years (I haven't done that in a long time) but to be honest, it sort of feels rather odd to pat myself on the back. I have lots of posts that blessed ME the most to write, but that doesn't mean they blessed anyone else nearly as much. Besides, on dialup it takes forever to go through the archives and I'm just too busy lately to spend that much time to do it. Maybe I will someday soon when I don't have 97 trillion other things happening at the same time.

It's funny, when I first started writing here, no one read this blog for a long time. Once in a blue moon I'd get a comment, and more often than not, it was along the lines of "great blog, we thought you might be interested in "____fill in the blank____". I could tell they really enjoyed the blog content. Such nice folks, those spammers.

Anyhoo... there ya go. Two years of blogging. I hope something here has blessed you and caused you to open your Bible, or laugh, or think, or re-consider something, or pray.

I appreciate you reading what it is I have to say.

July 01, 2006

Does this suit come with a cape?

Sometimes, I wish we all acted like children. No, I don't mean fighting over the crayons or getting ketchup on our foreheads when we eat fries - but in a more innocent, imaginative way. Kids have this tendency to simply say what they're thinking, without taking any thought to how it will be perceived. Because they're children, you have to really hear what they're asking or saying, rather than jump to conclusions about why they said it. Kids (most of them anyway) don't have any kind of ulterior motives or hidden agendas for asking things, they honestly ask them for one simple reason: they want to know the answers.

For example, one of the things I think all of my kids (except Ruth) have asked me in one way or another is this question:

"If you could wake up tomorrow and be anyone you wanted to be, who would you be?"

Isn't that a fun question? Oh the conversations we could have with this question! One day I might want to be my cat, to find out where he went when he disappeared on June 6th (yes, I know the day he left, and I miss him). Another day I might want to be Lydia, in the Scriptures. what was life like for her? What was a regular day like, in Lydia's life?

One my kids might answer and say they want to be Spiderman, or Atomic Betty, or Sponge Bob. It's a great way to foster imagination in kids, plus you get to find out how their little brains really work, when you ask them this question. Try it, and see what I mean. But you have to play fair, you have to let them ask you too! (And you have to answer).

The reason this came to mind is due to something Steve Camp (aka Campi) wrote on his blog yesterday.

"My Favorite Blogs This Week:"Emergent NO" by Carla Rolfe. This is one bold woman--the Ann Coulter of Christian blogging. Here inexorable dedication to the truth of Scripture and to fearlessly confronting the pabulum and abhorrent teachings coming from all aspects of the EC ecumenical movement is to be applauded; and more than that, appreciated. If you've never visited her blog, click here and be ready to get shaken up out of the status quo, “Ozzie and Harriet”, “Peter Pan”, nonsensical, postmodern influences that plagues much of evangelicalism today."

My reaction when I read that (and no, I had no idea he was going to do that) was rather mixed. It's okay if I talk about Steve's comments here, he doesn't read this blog anyway, so shhhh, it'll be our little secret.

First, do I want to be thought of as the Ann Coulter of Christian blogging? I don't know. If I could wake up tomorrow and be her, I'd enjoy the hair for sure. I'm not sure I'd enjoy the criticism she gets though. I know I'm not enjoying the criticism I get, and to be honest it's taken a toll on me that I didn't expect. I'm sure it's taken a toll on her as well. And yet, she still has great hair.

You have to admit though, this was good "inexorable dedication to the truth of Scripture and to fearlessly confronting the pabulum and abhorrent teachings". I love the way Steve writes, he makes it sound like I actually know what I'm doing! Campi rocks, that's all there is to it. And in all seriousness, yes, there is inexorable dedication to the truth of Scripture, even if I did have to look up the word inexorable. It's not a word I hear or use every day. It means relentless and/or incapable of being persuaded by entreaty. This part is true of me to be sure. Some hate this about me, others appreciate it. It's weird but it's who I am.

Campi says if you visit ENo you'll be "shaken up out of the status quo, “Ozzie and Harriet”, “Peter Pan”, nonsensical, postmodern influences that plagues much of evangelicalism today."

Hmmm. Well, yeah. The thing is, I'm not posting anything any other solid, Bible believing Christian doesn't think, talk about, or write about. Am I? It's strange, but it seems like we're living in a time when you actually have to say "no Mister Believer, it's not okay to slug your wife in the face, rob a bank, live with your girlfriend or verbally abuse your kids". Then, once you tell them that, they want to argue with you and tell you that So and So Mr. Philosphical Theologian Pants (no relation to Sponge Bob) says you're wrong, and it is okay to do that stuff and be uber-authentic Mister Believer.

So then, you point them to the Scripture and say "see, it's not my word, it's not my opinion or my painfully Colonialistic Victorian Era Moralist Truly Reformed mindset blinding me to cultural realities, the Bible actually says right here and here and here and over there, that this conduct is unbecoming a follower of Christ". Then they argue some more, quote Dr. Theologian Pants, tell you your adherence to Sola Scriptura actually makes you a retard, and that Calvin was a murderer anyway so you are excused as inauthentic and irrelevent.

So what would Harriet Nelson do? Well, in her lovely housedress and apron, in true 1950's Betty Crocker fashion, she'd give "the look" (the look that says "you've just crossed the line, and there will be wrath to come, son") and say "just wait till your father gets home".

And at the end of the day, there's really nothing more to say, is there? When you've got folks that refuse to pay attention to what the Scripture actually says, in favor of some culturally relevent "practioner" that looks like Dobey Gillis' on a bad day (did he have good days?), all anyone can do is point back to the Scripture and say "wait till your Father gets home". At the end of the day it's not about what I write, or what you write, or what Dr. Theologian Pants writes. It's not about whether I'm going to shake up what's being accepted by some of the more wacked out liberal nutbars out there today, or whether my blog can beat up your blog.

At the end of the proverbial day, it really is between them, and Him. You can stand on the street corner all day long and proclaim the word, but you're never going to make anyone believe what you're saying. You can blog till your fingers fall off but you're never going to convince anyone that what you're writing is truth, and from your heart. You can give lectures, preach till you go hoarse, write books, teach Sunday school, sing songs and even do charades (if one were so inclined).

The truth of the matter is, until or unless the Holy Spirit removes the blinders, opens the understanding and convicts the heart, there is not 1 person that will be convinced that what you say is truth.

I know there are a lot of brothers AND sisters out there in BlogLand that are shaking up the pomo-istic influences that have latched on to evangelicism like a bad skin rash. I'm grateful for them, and I appreciate the heart behind what they do. Truth does matter, doctrine does matter, and declaring it from the rooftops (or blogtops, as it were) isn't something we do to get noticed, it's something we do because we can't not do it.

I appreciate Campi's words of encouragement, and his support for truth being declared. I appreciate my fellow contributors at ENo, Denise (Surph) and Nina (even though Nina doesn't post often, she's a big contributor behind the scenes) because these are sisters that also care enough about the truth to declare it and make no apologies for it. This isn't common in our day, and it certainly isn't common among the sisterhood of believers. To be certain, there are theological SOLID sisters out there, and you probably read them just like I do, but you know exactly what I mean when I say they are few and far between.

Instead, compromise and wishy-washy waffling goes on and some ludicrous attempt to be Earl-Clyde the Theological Fence Ridin' Mystical-Ecumenical Rodeo Champ is actually the order of the day. To that I say "pffft, get a position and stand on it!". It's one thing to honestly not be sure of something and refuse to be dogmatic on it, but it's entirely another matter to purposely sit on the fence and fake some sort of pious uncertainty, embracing mystery, engaging in the experiential journey and all that other annoying, flowery lingo.

So with that said, I think I would like to wake up tomorrow and be a combination of Ann Coulter, Harriet Nelson, Betty Crocker, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Sponge Bob. Oh, and I want to sing like Campi. And write like John Gill.

Leaping tall buildings in a single bound, will be optional.

My kids are so brilliant!

Actual conversation overheard this morning:

Samuel (5): Rachel, today is Canada day... do you know that this is Canada's birthday?

Rachel (7): yes I knew that

Samuel: Rachel, do you know how old Canada is today?

Rachel: ummm.... nine?

Samuel: NOPE, Canada is sixteen... thousand years old, today.

Clearly, there have never been two finer examples of homeschooling. I'm so proud of them.

July 31, 2006

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