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Showing posts from 2008

Better late than next Advent:

For my friends who don't attend my church, here are a couple of links to the Advent message my dear Paul delivered on the Sunday evening before Christmas. The first is the printed version on his blog. The second is the audio version - so you can hear his wonderful voice. (Okay, I think it's wonderful - you don't have to. But the message is really good.) http://possumbane.livejournal.com/446502.html http://www.sovereignjoycf.org/podcast/Advent/04%20Advent%202008,%20Week%204.mp3

Sometimes I need a little help from my friends

Okay, this is to all my Blogger friends, since the Blogger help function has failed in itsfunction. Can anyone tell me if and how I can put part of my lengthier posts " behind the cut" - or as some might know it "keep reading"? On livejournal I could type in a code that would do it, but I haven't been able to find how to do it here. Anyone?.....Anyone?....

From my collection of comforts

I find great comfort in the sovereignty of God, and early in my Christian life began "collecting" Scriptures pertaining to just that. Some people find the doctrine of God's sovereignty over all things unsettling, or even distasteful. One reason I find comfort instead is that knowing God is in control of whatever happens means that no pain or sorrow I experience is futile or meaningless. I can trust that there is a good purpose in it. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of pain and physical trauma some women are willing to undergo to be beautiful. They will allow themselves to be cut open, peeled apart, suctioned, stuffed, etc. and undergo long and painful recovery just so their dying body will look pretty for a few extra years. Or think about the dentist. If our pain becomes bad enough, we are willing to endure more pain for a promised relief in the end. The pain in life is made immeasurably more bearable when we know there will be a good outcome, that it is not futile

Unexpected tears

I wasn't expecting to have to fight back tears during the interlude music on NPR this morning. In my defense, the song O Holy Night almost invariable makes me tear up - but I certainly did not expect this rendition to do it. Take a listen: click the link then click "Listen now" for a sample. Promise me you'll listen through the chorus before you right me off as crazy. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?saId=98658604

Straightforward thoughts on proselytizing...

from a forthright athiest. This is one of the most deeply challenging things I've seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM (Thanks to Ken at Cross Happenings .)

Why we shut our bedroom door at night:

When I was a kid I wondered why the Flinstones booted their cat out of the house at night. As the owner of three cats, I don't wonder about that anymore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q&eurl=&feature=player_embedded

Filler

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I've been working on a "real post" for a couple of days now, and trying to keep up with the Mere Christianity reading group. My "real post" is taking on a life of it's own and pretty much everything that truly interests me is wrapped up in it. My point is, because of my limited mental capacities, I don't seem to have much left over to write about. I can tell about how today I did laundry and dishes, and about how Ginger peed on my bed 'cause I was ignoring her pleas to be taken out (She'd just been out an hour earlier, for Pete's sake!) Oh, and there's the ants. These have been the bane of the last three days of my existence. And the washer - I stopped one leak only to see three more, lesser leaks, sprout in its stead. The best part of the day was Paul getting home from work unexpectedly early, cookie platter in hand. We spent the afternoon together and then went to the local artsy theater to see Synecdoche, New York. It was a strange exp

A meme from The Narrow Road

I saw this meme on my friend Andy C.'s blog and it looked like fun. Try it. Go through the list and bold the items you have done in your life. 1. Started your own blog (Really?) 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping (more than twenty years ago) 27. Run a Marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run 32. B

The things I can accomplish when I don't blog:

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I can reduce the size of the leak from my washer and purchase epoxy to hopefully eliminate it altogther, saving many hundreds of dollars. I can paint the first wall of my kitchen green. (See preliminary before and after pics. The lighting for the after pic is terrible, so you can't really tell how pretty it is. Oh, and there's the sink full of dishes I was talking about. The lighting in the before pic is so good, you can't really tell how bad it really looked.) I can recover the ottoman the cats turned into a scratching post. I can do every stitch of laundry in the house and put it away. I can make a giant pot of exactly fantastic black bean soup. I can drive a friend to the store and to visit my mother. And even more...but I still have a sink full of dishes! Oh, and this...

A day off

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Paul and I both had the day off from work. I made waffles for breakfast, using my new mixer for the first time. Strangely enough, they tasted markedly better than when I made them with the hand mixer. I'm not sure why this is the case. I think the texture was much improved. Paul commented on it as well, so I know it's not just my imagination. So, after lollygagging around a while longer, we headed out to get a Christmas tree. I decided to get a much smaller tree this year and am very happy with that outcome. Last year's was an 8 ft. bushy monstrosity that we couldn't keep the cats out of, and that took a huge bite out of our already limited floorspace. For this one I didn't even have to rearrange the furniture. Tomorrow we'll set about decorating it. After that adventure we headed off to buy some books to put on-line. Then it was time to take my mom to a doctor appointment. This month is going to be full of those. For some reason all her check-ups and lab tests

A few more pics

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I've been gradually accumulating photos from my husband's blog and saving them to my computer. Here're a few recent ones I thought were fun. The ones in the living room really hightlight the horrible wallpaper that came with the house. We didn't know it was there when we bought it because the tenants who lived here when we viewed the house had stuff piled from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. It was pretty clear that they were hoping to keep the house from getting sold. So, when we took possession we were shocked to find that dizzying eighties southwestern zigzag. Paul, who is by no means picky about such things, vowed that stuff would be the first thing to go. I agreed. It'll be two years on April 1, since the day I moved in. It's still there. But we still plan to get to it, after I've painted the kitchen; after we've redone the floors in the spare bedroom and made a den of it. The picture of me is Paul's new favorite. I like it,too. It's the

Just one more link...

I couldn't resist this one . It's a little commentary on one of the stranger paradoxes of our times: children being treated like grown-ups while grown-ups behave like children. Have a read.

Another one to file under "Just when I thought I'd heard everything"

Here's a story out of the UK .

Early comparisons and contrasts (Edwards & Lewis)

As any dear soul who reads this blog is already aware, I've recently completed reading through Jonathan Edwards' book Religious Affections with a group of bloggers at www.challies.com . Now Tim Challies is leading us through another classic, Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. (I'm very excited to have my husband participating in this reading as well!) It's really amazing to follow a great Calvinistic thinker with a great non-Calvinistic one. (I'm not experienced enough in things-Lewis to be able to classify him more specifally than that.) Because the last reading is so fresh in my mind, and because Edwards has left a deep impression, I find it nearly impossible not to make comparisons. One of the main thrusts of Edwards' Religious Affections was to enable discernment between false and true Christianity in oneself and in others. So as I headed into Lewis, it seemed I was met almost immediately with a contradiction to Edwards' entire premise. Lewis says
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Happy "Black Friday" one and all. I've been short on posting lately partly because of my in-laws being in town, and partly because I've been overwhelmingly exhausted. My sister-in-law's first question, of course, is "Are you pregnant?" To which I can answer with a confident negative at the moment. So I've started taking iron. It may be helping. I did not have the steady headache today that I had yesterday and the day before. This morning I had the day off and somehow managed to sleep until 10:30, which is practically unheard of in my little world. And in spite of that I was still exhausted all day. By way of update: we spent Thanksgiving with Paul's family, at his brother's house eating the traditional fare. Then we took a plate over to my mother and watched her eat it. Later we played Cranium Pop Five with Pat and Andi, and Terry and Dixie. After my in-laws headed back to their hotel, we played a game of the Bible Edition of Outburst, which

Black Friday

It's living up to it's name. So far here in the "Excited States of Hysteria" (a term I first heard today, in an unrelated blog comment from a native Canadian) the shopping death toll stands at three. What can I say? What can anyone say to a nation of people who trade their lives for baubles? "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life ? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.'" Matthew 16:24-27 The only thing worth trading our life for is Christ. Everything else, is baubles.

Speak of the devil

It's Thanksgiving weekend. My in-laws are in town. We're having a great time; but it's not blogging time. That'll have to wait. For now, John Piper takes a pretty good stab at a difficult question: Why doesn't God just eliminate the devil now?

The Twelfth Sign (part 2)

Well, I finally made it, just about two weeks behind the pack, though I’ve no idea where the rest of the pack is. This was our final reading from Jonathan Edwards’ work, Religious Affections, the most recent classic in Reading the Classics Together over at www.challies.com. (Next week we being Lewis'classic, Mere Christianity.) I’ll admit, this last assignment seemed like the longest of all the readings. It took me over two weeks to read, and toward the beginning I really had a hard time slogging through. However, that didn’t last too long; and ultimately I was rewarded for sticking with it. I had another run-in with his system of numbering points, only this time I abandoned trying to make sense of his outline.(Again, I don’t recommend reading Edwards at bedtime. I only do, because that’s often the only time I can spare.) I will summarize his ideas below, mainly with quotes. I apologize for the length, but It's tough to narrow down 80 pages of meat. First, Edwards considers “ C

Clearly I'm not alone.

The enemy prowls around, and it can feel - in my self-centered soul - that I'm the single focus of his evil intentions. I can also feel - in my self-centered soul - that I'm the only one who names the name of Christ who gropes through such dreadfully dark places from time to time. So now I give thanks to God for the encouragement of brothers and sisters in Christ(those dead and those still living) as we walk through our "dark night of the soul". Today Tim Challies posted this prayer from the Valley of Vision: O Lord, Bend my hands and cut them off, for I have often struck thee with a wayward will, when these fingers should embrace thee by faith. I am not yet weaned from all created glory, honour, wisdom, and esteem of others, for I have a secret motive to eye my name in all I do. Let me not only speak the word sin, but see the thing itself. Give me to view a discovered sinfulness, to know that though my sins are crucified they are never wholly mortified. Hatred, mali

Don't be a curmudgeon!

Our little church is on the verge of going confessional*. What that means, to those unfamiliar with the term, is that we are about to adopt a formal confession of faith, in particular the 1689 Baptist Confession of faith. We are in the process of reviewing it individually as members in order to determine if there are any portions with which we are not in full agreement. When we do adopt it, either in full or with modifications, it will become the profession which must be adhered to by anyone desiring the office of elder within the church. (Prospective members will not need to hold to this fuller confession, but to our church's much simpler affirmation of faith statement.) With this in mind, I found an article in the August edition of Tabletalk Magazine called "This We Believe" by Carl R. Trueman extremely helpful. His is an excellent argument on behalf of creeds and confessions, which, I think, we would all do well to read. I've reproduced it below. (All emphasis i

Too tired to come up with any original thoughts -

again, so........ever wonder what the internet is doing to your brain? Me either. But now that there's this fascinating little scientific report available, I can say it's really interesting: http://searchengineland.com/are-our-brains-becoming-googlized-15421.php . Take a look!

The old grey mare,

she aint what she used to be; and she don't want to be what she was. I'm tired, overworked, but otherwise pretty happy. I'd rather be this way, than the hopeless, unsaved wretch I was four years ago. The holidays are coming, and there's not much rest in sight, but God has never failed to give me the grace to do what He's given me to do. Everybody wants a clean house for the holidays, and I'm a gal that makes houses clean - well, except my house. That's all I've got. Told you I was tired.

Ever just feel crummy about yourself?

Well, I do, and apparently John Piper is no stranger to this helpless, pointless emotional state. Here's a really helpful little blog entry to help address this condition: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1499_How_I_Approach_God_When_Feeling_Rotten/

A small ray of hope...

in the right to life struggle. Here's the link to an encouraging, albeit strange, story of the conversion of a Serbian from an abortionist to a pro-life advocate: www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111304.html. I'll leave you to puzzle out the theoligical issues on your own time.

More on the Freedom of Choice Act

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Let us do what we can, while we can, to put a stop to this act. Thanks to Barry for bringing this petition to my attention.

I thought I'd heard everything....

then I saw this: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/14/nebraska.safe.haven/index.html I'm really at a loss for words here.

I got tagged for a book meme.

By David over at http://www.boomerinthepew.com/ . "Here's how it works: I am supposed to pick up the nearest book with at least 123 pages, turn to the 123rd page, find the 5th sentence, and then post the three sentences immediately after that. " So, I'm seated dead even in between a set of Funk & Wagnalls Dictionaries, and Martin Luther's, Bondage of the Will. For the sake of making it potentially interesting, I've chosen the latter. Here are my three sentences: "But even supposing the same works be attributed to God and to man - what do these similitudes prove? Nothing more, than that the creature co-operates with the operating God ! But are we now disputing about co-operation, and not rather concerning the power and operation of 'Free-will,' as of itself!" How do you like them apples? It is now my duty to tag 5 more hapless victims. Let me not be found to be slack in any duty! I tag: Angela Jeri Andi Paul Lynn If anyone else wants to p

Religious Affections, the Twelfth Sign, Part 1

Apparently, and without realizing it, I fell a week behind in our on-line reading group over at http://www.challies.com/ . We are reading through Jonathan Edwards’ work Religious Affections. This last section, because of its length, has been divided into two readings. This is Part One of the final section: The Twelfth Sign. Edwards’ personal genius and orderly mind is becoming overwhelmingly evident, as he begins to gather all the ends from all the previous signs and uses this last sign as a drawstring of sorts to pull up and tie the whole great bundle together. This last sign is connected with and comprises every one previous. All the signs seem to be melding together into a very cohesive whole, the summation of the Christian life. I can think of little to add by way of commentary, so what follows will be mainly a compilation of quotes. For the sake of clarity, I will italicize my own words. "Gracious and holy affections have their exercise and fruit in Christian practice.

Gina's birthday

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Paul and I both had today off, which was out of the ordinary. We had waffles for breakfast then hurried around to get errands finished before our appointment with the washer repairman, sometime between 1-3. He was a pleasant fellow, who informed us that the leak was coming from just where I thought it was (and was really hoping it wasn't). Then he quoted a couple of hour's labor, which I thought sounded about right. Then told me that the gasket did not come as just a gasket, but it came all of one piece with half the drum. So, instead of a rubber seal, I have to purchase a $179 half-drum (plus tax), with it's seal, making the repair, plus the cost of today's visit about $400. He also suggested I may be able to slow the leak, or perhaps stop if for a while by tightening the bolts (which I would have done by now if I actually owned a socket wrench, which I must have left behind when I moved). So, our plan of attack is to borrow my brother-in-law's socket wrench and se

On November 10...

five hundred and twenty-five years ago was born a man who, by the providence of God, changed the world, Martin Luther . On that same date twenty years ago was born my daughter, Gina. What the hand of providence has in store for her remains to be seen, but, ironically enough and in spite of her Italian heritage, she will soon begin studying German, as part of her new major, Linguistics. My hope is that she, too, will leave a beautifully indelible little footprint of her own on the history of humanity.

More treasures from the obscure book pile

This time it's from a pamphlet called Treasures dated March 1955 and distributed by The Hoover-Miner Funeral Home in Wabash, Indiana. Man Wanted! Wanted: A man for hard work and rapid promotion; a man who can find things to be done without the help of a manager and three assistants. A man who gets to work on time in the morning and does not imperil the lives of others in an attempt to be first out of the office at night. A man who listens carefully when he is spoken to and asks only enough questions to ensure the accurate carrying out of instructions. A man who moves quickly and makes as little noise as possible about it. A man who looks you straight in the eye and tells the truth every time. A man who does not pity himself for having to work. A man who is neat in appearance. A man who does not sulk for an hour's overtime in emergencies. A man who is cheerful, courteous to everyone, and determined to make good. This man is wanted

Finding little treasures

Last night I was plugging away at my obscure book stack. This is an odd assortment of books I need to put on-line for sale, but which are not straightforward and require more research than normal. These tend to get set aside to deal with later. Well, it's later and I'm dealing with them; and that's not really the point anyway. The point is, people leave things in books. I've got quite a collection of odd little bits I've found in books, which I don't really have the heart to throw away - a strange little treasure trove. Last night I pulled out a book that I know has been sitting for over a year waiting to be put online. The book once belonged to a Quaker minister, now deceased. That much I know. Inside was a clipping. Here's what it said: WE ARE NOT OUR OWN Rev. C.E. Carlson Missionary, Church of the United Brethren "What attracted me to Christianity," said an African pastor to me, "was seeing one of your missionaries, a person of

A few new pics

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Here's our tertiary form of income - the used book business. Always in need of more shelf space, and more books of course. And a half-way decent picture of what has to be the most unphotogenic dog I've known, little Schubert. We keep saying we should have named him Stimpy, like in the cartoon. (I've only ever seen that cartoon a handful of times, while walking past a TV, but when Paul said it, I knew exactly what he talking about.) You can't tell it from this picture, but he has that desperate, wild-eyed look about him half the time. You can also see in this shot the absolutely dreadful wallpaper that we vowed would be the first thing to go when we moved in over a year ago. We've learned to mostly ignore it. It's now about 4 projects down on the list. And here are all the creatures who look to me for food, except Tony. They're all on the bed, looking very well-fed. Our house teems with life.

Further exhortations to prayer

Before the election I wrote about the importance that we Christians take our role in our government seriously. I trust that on Tuesday we all did just that. Today, now all that is said and done, I'd like to exhort us not to forget Scripture's own exhortation: "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1Tim.2:1-4) Let us (and I do mean me ) make this a priority for our daily prayers "first of all". As encouragement to that end I've provided a link to an excellent post regarding how to pray for our next president. If you have the time, I recommend following his links, which provide excellent insight into the heart of what it is

Something for the stocking perhaps?

Here's a review of what sounds like an absolutely wonderful book, A Faith Worth Sharing, by C. John Miller. This is something for my Christmas list. Check it out. Maybe it will be one for yours as well.
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I had my big job today, then went straight to the polls, just before a line began to form. So that's done and I can rest safe in God's sovereignty - and put some pictures online. Paul's been at it again with the camera. He takes pictures of the oddest things, but sometimes they're kind of wonderful. Can you see the pewter dutch boy & girl salt & pepper shakers peeking out from behind the plant on the windowsill? That's Mango on the bed. We call him the magnifiCat, for obvious reasons. He's like royalty around here. And that's our bed. It's pretty much all there's room for in our tiny bedroom. Well, and my heap-O-books. Lastly, these are pictures from our front porch. That long wall across the street is the back wall of a motel. The part you see on the bottom picture is where we looked out one morning to see the giant grafitti words: "Savage Indian Nation". And here I was all this time thinking I was in America, or maybe the motel is

Another story from Australia

What follows is an example of what can happen when socialism is combined with pragmatism and human value is measured by cost accounting: Embedded video from CNN Video

By the people, for the people…

(In which I remind and encourage myself and my loved ones to take this business seriously. And after which I'm convicted for having not yet read my own voter information guide.) Who governs this country? Who serves this country? You do. I do. We actively govern and serve one another every time we vote. God has given each of us this small unit of authority, this small act of service. He will hold us accountable for how we use it. When we do not vote, we fail to govern; we fail to serve. We neglect our God-given responsibility to govern and to serve. When we vote, but do it carelessly, we’ve carried out our God-given responsibility recklessly. Like any task God gives us to do, we should do it carefully and conscientiously, as worship - for the sake of His glory. As a Christian, I am a part of the body of Christ here on this earth. I am called to represent Him and His values here on earth. While my citizenship is in heaven, I am not there yet. I’ve been left here and given responsibil

Life

Really I need to be going to bed early tonight. I've got some reading to catch up on, and Paul's cold is catching up with me. My prayer was answered, however. I got through my week's jobs before it caught me. So I'm sucking on Cold-Eaze, hoping to minimize it. And finally, the real reason for my post: life . Here's a link to a brief (15 minute or so) speech delivered in Australia by abortion survivor Gianna Jesson . I challenge everyone who reads this to take a few minutes to watch. Actually I'm begging everyone to watch.

Two Reformation Day Links.

First of all, I would be remiss if I did not provide the link to Paul's Reformation Sunday message . Secondly, my friend Nahomi just posted her own excellent article . She does a great job of drawing connections to our times. Same subject matter, yet two very fresh treatments. I never tire of learning about the Protestant Reformation. I have a secret dream of teaching a church history series some day. (Well, I guess it's not a secret any more.)

"Then I saw thrones,...

...and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God , and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life again, and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Rev. 20: 4 "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it ." Mark 8: 34b-35 May God grant those of us who name the name of Christ the grace not only to live, but to die in a manner that so glorifies Him.

Here's my laundry list of a Monday

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Our church had its first annual Reformation Sunday yesterday. It was really quite wonderful. Paul gave a lecture on Martin Luther and his part in the Protestant Reformation. Then Pastor Pat gave his sermon on Justification by Faith Alone. After that we had a lovely pot-luck for which many of the ladies had been busy preparing for a couple of days. Andi (Pat's wife) did a great job making everything look pretty on a shoestring budget. We all ate like kings. In the evening we congregated again, at Pat & Andi's and had more pot-luck and listened to Pat's message, "5 Reasons Why I'm Reformed" , in which he listed 10 reasons to be reformed. It was a great day, except for Paul. The minute he sat down after delivering his lesson he got the flu. Well, we thought it was a cold, but in less than 24 hours it's gone to his chest and he's got a high fever. He went to work today, which probably didn't help matters, but I think he'll be calling in sick to