A Few of My Favorite Things

Three little souls I can't get enough of:

Richard Phinehas Condit


Sarah Heloise Condit

Owen Pierce Aberle

November's Reading List

As you can see, I picked up just a *few* books from the library to prepare for the trip to Rome. ;) I'm excited to delve into these.

Next is a book I just finished, The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. 'The true story of a trek to freedom.' It's just that: an autobiography about 7 men's journey towards freedom, their struggle for survival, and the pain and sorrow they encounter on the way. It'll grip your soul. A must read.

Then there's the book my uncle has lent me, Jeff Shaaara's Rise to Rebellion. 'A Novel of the American revolution.' I've read Michael Shaara's (Jeff's father) Killer Angels and Jeff's God's and Generals, and both being very well written, I look forward to starting this one.

And lastly, My Life for Yours by Douglas Wilson. 'A Walk Through the Christian Home.' A quick, light read, but very helpful nonetheless.

Also, I am listening to The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens. It must not be a very famous one, seeing as I had never heard of it before - haha - but I'm finding it very interesting. I'm curious to see how it ends, seeing as Dickens died before it was finished.

Well, that's my current reading list.

As the French would have it, Au Revoir!

This morning we got up early to say goodbye to these amazing people

Mr. Matt, Mrs. Elise, Anna-Kate, Helen and Thomas Peed


Here's a few pictures from last week's going-away party
The roast pig


Anna-Kate and Darcie-Anne

The Pastor and his wife


Helen and Rachel

The girls


Patrick and Thomas



I know God sent the Peeds here to be a part of the family at Bethel and to serve a special purpose. Now it's time for them to move on - to bless those they meet up in Missouri. I know God has a perfect plan for them and I know they will do well where ever He plants them. But boy, it's so hard to let go of sweet friends.

The Peeds have been a part of our lives for only 3 years, but it feels like we've known them forever. Their friendship is one we will carry with us always.


"If you tell me goodbye tell me tomorrow
'cause my heart can't take that kind of news today
And am I a fool for believing
that tomorrow everything will be okay?"

Party Pooper

True story:

Lizabee: "Why is it called a 'party pooper'?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, I know! Because a man was at a party and he was like, "I hate parties. I know! I'll go sit on the pot."


What a crazy child

Speaking Words of Wisdom

When we go through trials in our lives we often wonder why these things happen, and why us.

"Why me, O Lord, why me?"

We can search the Bible, we can turn to God in prayer, we can talk to our pastor or close friends. We can ask, "What purpose does this hardship serve?" But sometimes, we aren't told what we want to hear.

"This hardship will, in a way that we cannot understand, ultimately bring glory to God."

Well yes, I know that, but it brings up other questions: "How does it bring glory to God? Couldn't he have chosen some other way?"

Yes, he could have. And why he didn't, we will never know. In this life at least.

This is God's will. It may take days, weeks, months, or even years to accept it, but it is still His perfect and holy will.

And then one evening you're in the kitchen cleaning the supper dishes with pandora playing in the background. When the next song starts up you stop scrubbing the pot and stare out the window. You can't believe what you've just heard. A song you've listened to countless times suddenly takes on new meaning.

"When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be."

(But I'm a good old Protestant so I humbly suggest we insert 'The Holy Ghost' in place of 'Mother Mary')

"For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be."

There will be answers in Heaven. And let me tell ya, I've got a lot of questions. But because I know that there will be answers later, I can trust God's plan for my life right now. I can let go of everything I've been carrying with me for so long and just let it be. It's the most encouraging piece of news I've heard in a long, long time.

I don't know, maybe the Beatles had an entirely different interpretation of this song. But for me, it means I can listen to the whispered words of wisdom, and let it be.

Let us take heed that we pray for others also. Let us beware of selfish prayers – the prayers which are wholly taken up with our own affairs, and in which there is no place for other souls beside our own. Let us name all whom we love before God continually. Let us pray for all – the worst, the hardest, and the most unbelieving. Let us continue praying for them year after year, in spite of their continued unbelief. God’s time of mercy may be a distant one. Our eyes may not see an answer to our intercession. The answer may not come for ten, fifteen, or twenty years. It may not come until we have exchanged prayer for praise, and are far away from this world. But while we live, let us pray for others. The greatest kindness we can do to anyone is to speak for them to our Lord Jesus Christ. The day of judgment will show that one of the greatest links in drawing some souls to God, has been the intercessory prayer of friends.

~ J.C. Ryle

This afternoon I made mom some more laundry detergent. Makes me feel all self-sufficeint and smart and clean. haha. But really. It might be a lot easier and faster to pick up some laundry detergent at the store, but that's not all that fun, now is it? And besides, home made LD is good to use if you have reactions to other laundry detergents.

The ingredients, minus water.


Grating the soap






And melting

Haiku

I've been writing some haiku lately. I'm not that good at it, and I don't always follow the correct form, but sometimes haiku is the best way for me to illustrate things. Here's one I wrote this morning.


heart-stopping news
tears for a friend
prayers to our God

or it could just be,

news
tears
prayers


For as Matsuo Bashō puts it, "The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of."

Keep the Chips and Dip Coming

I just had to post this forward someone sent me. So hilarious. Enjoy.

(written by kids)

1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHOM TO MARRY?

You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
-- Alan, age 10

-No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with.
-- Kristen, age 10


2. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
-- Camille, age 10


3. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8


4. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8


5. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

-Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
-- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)

-On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
-- Martin, age 10


6. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

-When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7

-The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
- - Curt, age 7

-The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
- - Howard, age 8


7. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
-- Anita, age 9 (bless you child )


8. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?

There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
-- Kelvin, age 8


And the #1 Favorite is .......


9. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck.
-- Ricky, age 10

Rats in the Cellar

Another excellent excerpt from Mere Christianity. Mr Lewis is definitely talking about me.

"We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult so I will try to make it clear from my own case. when I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate of premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are mostly likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light."
C. S. Lewis

Wild Rumours

Excerpt from C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity

What man, in his natural condition, has not go, is Spiritual life - the higher and different sort of life that exists in God. We use the same word life for both: but if you thought that both must therefore be the same sort of thing, that would be like thinking that the 'greatness' of space and the 'greatness' of God were the same sort of greatness. In reality, the difference between Biological life and Spiritual life is so important that I am going to give them two distinct names. The Biological sort which comes to us through Nature, and which (like everything else in Nature) is always tending to run down and decay so that it can only be kept up by incessant subsidies from Nature in the form of air, water, food, etc., is Bios. The Spiritual life which is in God from all eternity, and which made the whole natural universe, is Zoe. Bios has, to be sure, a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to Zoe: but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place, or a statue and a man. A man who changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved stone to being a real man.
And that is precisely what Christianity is about. This world is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues and there is a rumour going around the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.


I love Mr Lewis

A bite of June (yes, bite not bit)

We were excited to see POTC4


Phin was less interested...


Also,

Ella has recently learned how to suck her two middle fingers.



And besides that, she's just cute

Postmodernism and Worship

A paper I wrote in my last days of highschool. Keep in mind that after reading this paper a year later from writing it, I realize there was so much more I could have said and things I might change, but knowledge and wisdom come with experience and time, so bear with me.




Many people today believe that we should make worship services fit the times in order to bring people to Christ. Why? Because the traditional form of worship doesn’t seem to be “working.” Individuals want results in their churches, and they want it now. It’s as if everyone is racing to see who can “convert” the most people in the least amount of time. While we can’t just crawl into a hole, cross our fingers, and hope everything turns out alright in the end, we aren’t going to get very far by changing the gospel so that it fits different individuals’ needs.

At this time I will present two arguments on why I believe that Christians should not have “contemporary” worship services in order to “reach” postmodernists.

My first argument for not having contemporary worship services in order to reach postmodernists has to do with worship: the purpose of worship, the focus of worship, and the blessings of proper worship.

So what is the purpose of worship? The purpose of worship is to glorify God. It is for believers to come together to worship God corporately. In his book Postmodern Times, Gene Edward Veith says, “…as those who worshiped in traditional churches were always reminded, it [worship] is a matter of being gathered into His cross.”1 Psalm 100 calls us to worship the Lord. “Come into his presence with singing . . .enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!” (v. 2b, 4a) The purpose of worship is to enter into the Lord’s presence and praise Him.

Knowing the purpose of worship should make it plain as to whom we should focus on when we worship. If our purpose is to come into God’s presence, then when we meet together we should be focusing on God. Sadly, in contemporary services the focus tends to be on man. The focus is placed on how the service makes you feel, what you come away with, or how much your desire is gratified. It’s all about man not God. Because people believe worship should be focused on them, they look for entertainment in worship.

“Our tendency in the postmodern age is to evaluate everything in terms of its entertainment value. Judging a worship service according to how entertaining it is misses the point…worship is not entertainment, but coming into the presence of a holy God. A relationship with Christ is not contingent upon how good we feel.”

One of the ways in which postmodernists entertain in worship is with church praise bands, or worship bands. Music is a powerful tool in engaging our emotions. Praise bands perform contemporary music and therefore it appeals to the crowds because they can relate to it. This idea seems intriguing when Robert Godfrey explains that people believe that making church services entertaining will bring unbelievers into Christianity. It seems to be a very effective mode of evangelism. Godfrey goes on to say, however, that while there certainly is nothing wrong with evangelism, church services on Sunday mornings are not the place for this.

“Faithful worship where the primary purpose is the meeting of God with his people through His word, may well have the secondary result that unbelievers will come to faith. But worship must not be constructed for the unbeliever. Rather, it is for God and the church.”

When we come to worship we are in the presence of a holy God and our emphasis should be on Him. God promises us that if we remember what we have come to do, then He will bless us.
Through proper worship come the blessings of joy in the Lord and strength to go forth in His grace. The Holy Spirit imparts the blessings to believers as they receive the Word of God and partake of the sacraments.

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob…” Isaiah 58:13, 14

My Second reason for not having contemporary worship services in order to reach postmodernists has to do with sin. In contemporary worship services people are told that they can be saved and all their sins will be forgiven if they just accept Christ. Individuals are called to step forward and invite Christ into their hearts. This is a false teaching. It causes people to believe that salvation is something they can obtain; all you have to do is make a choice. But Paul tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
These same people are led to believe that after they have “accepted” Christ, they never have to do anything else in their Christian walk. They falsely believe that because they have accepted Christ they are saved forever, that they can continue on in their wicked ways and never go to church again. This is all a false view of sin and salvation. In his book Holiness, J. C. Ryle says there is more to Christianity than realizing our sinfulness. Once we have convinced someone of their sin, we need to also shine the light on their Savior.

“When. . .our conscience is really awake and alive, I find it hard to believe that a sensuous ceremonial Christianity will thoroughly satisfy us . . . Music, and flowers, and candles, and incense, and banners, and processions, and beautiful vestments and confessionals and man-made ceremonies of a semi-Romish character, may do well enough for him under certain conditions. But once let him “awake and rise from the dead,” and he will not rest content with these things. . .once let him see his sin, and he must see his Saviour. . .he hungers and thirsts, and he must have nothing less than the bread of life.”

In order to come to Christ, people must be made aware of their sin, but once they are aware of it, they must all learn of Jesus’ work on the cross, and they must continue to grow in sanctification and grace. Christians grow in grace through the reading of the word of God, and hearing it preached among other means. That being said, it is easy to see that worship services are not to persuade us of our sin over and over again, but to help us to grow in the salvation we have already been given.

In 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, Paul warns against changing worship in order to entertain unbelievers. He says an unbeliever is more likely to be convicted of sin and to come and worship God if our worship is righteous and according to God’s word.

“If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”

It is not through bringing in worship teams and entertaining that we draw people to Christ. It is through the revealing of sin and our need for Christ, the proclaiming of God’s wonderful salvation through Christ’s death on the cross, and the gathering of believers in corporate worship.

To Him be the Glory Forever

Read this:

Romans 11 (New International Version)

The Remnant of Israel

1 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
7 What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, 8 as it is written:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that could not see
and ears that could not hear,
to this very day.”

9 And David says:

“May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
10 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.”

Ingrafted Branches

11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!
13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

All Israel Will Be Saved

25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”

28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Doxology

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.



Now read it again, this time soaking it up, drinking it in and stopping every few verses to consider what you've just read. Are you in awe yet of God's foreknowledge and power and lovingkindness and faithfulness? Listen to what Paul is saying! '...and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root...' You, my friend, should take heart; you have been shown mercy after mercy and kindness after kindness; YOU have become a branch of the tree of Life! The tree of Life. With this promise given to us, we can truly say, 'to him be the glory forever, amen and amen!'

'cause I love it. That's why.

The Deepwoods: A review of the last chapter and it's similarities to the Redemption Story

So I read Beyond the Deepwoods today. It's the first book in the awesome series The Edge Chronicles. This isn't a book review, only as I was reading, it got me thinking about some things. I'm only going to talk about the very last chapter of the book, so if you haven't read it, I do apologize for spoiling it for you.

In the last chapter of the book Twig, the hero of the story, ends up in what is called the Wastelands. He has traveled far from his home, has never known his parents and never fit in, no matter where he went. Finally he comes to a cliff and meets the Gloamglozer, an evil creature much like Satan who has led Twig on throughout the whole story to this point. Twig has just been abandoned by the sky pirates and the Gloamglozer takes advantage of Twig as he pities himself. First he tells Twig that he is special and that if he just takes his hand, he will show Twig how to be like him. How to change shapes and go where he pleases and be great like the Gloamglozer. The Gloamglozer uses enticing words to get Twig to take that one step over the edge. Finally Twig gives in and only then does he see the Gloamglozer's evil plan. Twig is falling to certain death. As he falls, he hears the Gloamglozer cackle and tell him that he is truly nothing. Nothing at all, and he will never be anything. Twig despairs and wonders if he will just fall forever. But then he realizes that he is something after all. He is Twig, who survived many days on his own through the treacherous woods. He yells at the Gloamglozer that he is someone after all, and as long as he is someone, he has hope. At that very moment Twig is saved by a Caterbird, the equivalent of a guardian angel, and carried to safety.

This whole scene reminded me of Satan, and how he leads us in sin using sweet words of power and riches and fame, and then just as we take his hand and follow his path to sin and death, we are saved by the grace of God and his Son Jesus Christ. Satan led Adam and Eve into sin with enticing words, but his words covered up his evil desire to plunge man into sin. Because of Christ's death and resurrection we are given a new life. There is now hope for the future. Whereas before we were dead and as nothing, now we are made alive and the children of God. Now we can know that no matter who we are, or where we live, or how lonely things seem to get, we *are* somebody in Christ. Satan has no power over us, just as the Gloamglozer ultimately had no power over Twig. Satan will win battles, just as the Gloamglozer tempted Twig over the edge. But ultimately, Christ will win in the end, even as He has already. And because we know that good wins over evil, so we also know that the Gloamglozer will not be able to claim Twig as his own. For time and again, stories in life - fiction and non-fiction - reflect the truth of Christ's redemption of His people.