Colson Video

check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alKEkOD_-nA

This is for the grandparents.

As if One is Not Enough

The idea was all his own.

Quotable Scout

She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl. -Chapter 12

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived. -Chapter 11

"It's not time to worry yet"

It took reading the first pharagraph to know that I would love this book.

Here's a sound-bite sample:

"First of all," he said, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.--"
"Sir?"
"--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

ok, i'm obsessed!

From collegiate athletics to bird-watching

A Great Blue Heron's like this shows up for my viewing pleasure almost daily. We have a wonderful view of open wetland habitat and I've found myself being quite taken with the birds... especially now that the snow has come and the colors of the birds against the white has made it a very enjoyable experience. The Blue Heron is very graceful, slow in movement, strong in the chest, and very stately. At the local feed store, mixed grain for the pheasants and wild game is distributed for free once the snow flies. This has brought an abundance of pheasants into view as they are constantly eating up the scratch. Their color is stricking, and I find myself having to pull away from the window in order to get household chores complete. Thanks to my dad for encouraging me to get them some winter snacks. It has become highly entertaining to me.
For those that don't know, bird watching is considered a sport.

P.S. There are other birds that have attached themselves to the feed as well. I'll keep you posted when I can figure out what they are, but take my word for it: they are very cute.

The Snow Has Come!

Colson enjoying the snow. He can't get enough of it. 12 degrees or not, he wants out of the house and into the snow!

Thanksgiving

Ok, Ok, we've been horrible bloggers. There are no excuses.

Now that that's out of the way, we had a wonderful thanksgiving here in Moscow. The food was fantastic, the fellowship was heart-warming, and snow was sticking to the ground when we departed.

In fact, more snow is expected, 1-2 inches this evening. I am so excited. Does my excitement still make me an Oregonian?

Cheers!

comfort

Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, was seeking to encourage the Corinthians in Christ, so that they would be ready and willing to give the gift they had previously promised to the church at Jerusalem.

How did Paul do this? He begins by proclaiming that the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is the “God of all comfort”, and he comforts us in “all” our afflictions. Often we think of comfort as having peace and rest, having everything taken care of so we don’t have to do anything - we can simply sit back and enjoy the ride, and as soon as we break from this pristine state our comfort is gone. But Paul tells us, that God comforts us in our afflictions, not for us to simply sit around and enjoy ourselves, but for the purpose of making us affective for the kingdom. Paul was seeking to encourage the saints in Corinth to give abundantly to the other churches that the kingdom may be built up.

God is not only the God of all comfort but of all afflictions as well. By being joined to Christ Paul teaches that the sufferings of Christ overflow abundantly to us by the grace of God. God afflicts us by allowing us to go through various trials and tribulations for the comfort and salvation of the world. Many of you may wonder from time to time why you have to suffer, and whether or not God is in control of those circumstances, and how they can possibly work out for the good. The fruit of sanctification though, is being able to see everything in light of God’s sovereign grace and believing that He is working everything out for the good. We need to be like Paul, who when utterly burdened beyond strength and felt the sentence of death upon him, knew that this was to teach him not to rely upon himself, but upon the God who raises the dead. Paul also knew that he would be faced with similar trials and that God would raise him again and again. This kind of attitude and behavior is impossible outside of a saving faith in the risen Lord. When man is afflicted with various trials and tribulations his capacity for life is taken from him, he wastes away not only outwardly day by day, but also inwardly. But for those who are in Christ and who are experiencing His death, their capacity for life increases. Like Paul we are wasting away outwardly but we are being renewed inwardly daily. Paul was teaching the Corinthians that those who sow bountifully will reap bountifully, that death precedes resurrection.

The churches at Macedonia were a perfect example of this. Paul explains that it’s God’s grace that has brought about a severe test of affliction upon these churches. For they were poor in comparison to the church at Corinth, but seeing that there was a need they rejoiced abundantly. Why would a poor, needy people, rejoice for the opportunity to give of themselves when clearly they are the ones in need? So often we sit back thinking that we have nothing to offer forgetting about the treasure which resides within jars of clay. But the impoverished churches in Macedonia begged Paul for the opportunity and honor to give their lives away for the relief of the saints. It brought them comfort knowing that they could give up their comfort for the sake of the kingdom.
What is brining you comfort today? Is it your job, house, is it your bank account, is it your health, your health plan, your education? Or is it the honor of knowing that you have been called this day to give your life away to God and knowing that it is pleasing to him because of Jesus Christ?

Thoughts on the Church

Calvin - "The Communion of saints" is added...This clause though generally omitted by the ancients, ought not to be overlooked, for it very well expresses what the church is. It is as if one said that the saints are gathered into the society of Christ on the principle that whatever benefits God confers upon them, they in turn should share with one another...a community is affirmed, in which the heart and soul of the multitude of believers are one...if truly convinced that God is the common Father of all and Christ the common Head, being united in brotherly love, they cannot but share their benefits with one another.

Dr. Leithart - Christ's body and His Spirit are "public goods", the "common property" of every member. This basic level of koinonia in the Son and Spirit takes various visible forms in the life of the Church. Having a "share" in the Spirit, each member is obligated to "share" whatever gifts he receives for the good of the body. What the Spirit gives is, as Augustine would say, only rightly possessed insofar as it is given away. Every gift is a seed, which produces a harvest only if sown.

Fall. Half-naked trees emerging forth from pools of orange and red. Scarves. Candle flames aiding the aromas of cinnamon apples and wild currant. Jack-o-Lanterns. Hot spiced cider.
Rich, frothy maple lattes. Feelings of something new. Something exciting. Birthdays, laughter. Scarves, tights and hats. Warm hearts and homes. Gatherings around a table. Spiced tea and pumpkin flavored pastries. Chilled noses, dry lips and hands. Squash soups. Socks. Layers.
The anticipation of celebration. The anticipation of white.

Liturgy teaches us who we are.

Paul, in Romans, makes it very clear that we are no longer slaves to unrighteousness and sin, which leads to death. Rather, he teaches us that in our Baptism, and by faith, we have been joined to Christ by the Spirit, this means we have died with Christ, but also that we have been raised with Him and now live to God in Christ Jesus. Paul goes on to teach that since this is the case we are to no longer allow sin to reign in us, but rather we are to offer up ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. He goes on to say that this leads to eternal life!
So much of what Paul is talking about throughout Romans has to do with our identity in Christ. He wants us to understand the change that has taken place through our baptism in Christ. We need to understand who we are as the called out ones of God. We are called to be saints, in other words, holy. This is what your baptism says to you.
Many of you may be thinking that you have failed at this miserably. Many of you may be saying to yourselves, “I haven’t turned from sin and temptation the way that I ought, am I truly saved?” And to that, I say to you trust in God and not in yourselves! You have been baptized, you no longer live, but Christ lives in you by His Spirit, “but”, no “buts”!, You are here today amongst God’s people, in Christ, presenting yourselves to Him as instruments of righteousness, as living sacrifices, this is our calling, this is our duty before God, this is life!
For there is no Condemnation In Christ, death no longer affects him, for he has already died and if you are in him then you have died to sin as well! Put to death the deeds of the flesh, do not walk in them any longer, set your mind on things above, set your mind on the things of the Spirit that you may live!
For many of us our minds are far too often set upon ourselves. And what I mean by this is our old selves, who we are outside of Christ. This is a very difficult challenge that we face, for us to discover who we truly are we need to refrain from looking inside and look outside to our baptism, to the cross, to Christ who sits at the right hand of God the Father. He is our Brother who has passed through the heavens in our flesh and has entered into the holy of holies.
So then, if you have been buried with Christ in baptism, you have also been raised with Him. So do not subject yourselves any longer to the spirits of this world, for your life is in the Spirit of Christ. And you have come this day in that Spirit to the things that are above, where our life is in Christ who is seated at the right hand of God, where every spiritual blessing is ours.
Throughout this morning, like every Lords Day, we are reminded of these things. This is what the liturgy teaches us. It teaches us who we are. We begin with a call to worship. We are the called out ones, God has called you out of this world to come into his presence to worship Him. For this we praise Him. Yet, we are quickly reminded that we are sinners, throughout the week we have not perfectly obeyed God, we don’t deserve to be in the presence of the Holy. So, we confess our sins believing in the promise of God that when we do confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us. And as a minister of Christ I remind you of who you are in Christ, because of His death for you, you have been forgiven. So we praise Him. One of the greatest blessings of being saints, righteous ones, is that God hears our prayers. We stand before God in Christ, therefore in the right, and so with boldness we speak to Him, praising him, petitioning him, and asking him to change us through this time of meeting with Him. The means by which he seeks to change us with is his word, the whole word, we hear parts of the grand narrative, particularly the promise and then the fulfillment. The word is applied to us through the preaching and we are through that once again reminded of who we are.
And now we have been led to this place and because you have been washed and because the Spirit of God lives in you, our God and Savior Jesus Christ says, come take and eat do this in remembrance of me.

Communion Meditation

Adam’s first full day was with God in the garden on the Sabbath. The climax of creation was not only man, but man enjoying God’s rest and worshipping Him, this is what he was created to do. His life was to flow to God and from God out into the garden, to Eden, and the rest of the world where he would reflect God in all that he did. His whole life from beginning to end was to be shaped by the Sabbath, this is where creation led him.

When God was reestablishing his garden in the midst of Israel; by establishing His presence with them in the tabernacle, and later in the temple, He was showing us what it truly meant to be human, worshipers of Yahweh. This is where the Exodus led them.

In the book of Leviticus one would be tempted to divide the laws into two categories, ones having to do with the tabernacle and others having to do with life outside the tabernacle. But, if you were to do this without understanding that these laws are inseparable you would be making a grave mistake. Everything that went on inside the tabernacle had to do with the lives of the saints outside of it, and all that they did outside needed to be governed by the daunting presence of the tabernacle set up in the center of the camp. For, the Holy of Holies is where the law was leading them.

“When Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” And by doing the will of His father Jesus our Lord laid down his life, and sanctified us through the offering of His Body once and for all. This is where His incarnation led him.

When God called us to worship Him this day we praised Him for it. We confessed our sins and were forgiven, and we praised him for it. We confessed our faith together, and we praised him for it. We were taught His word and exhorted by it, and we praised him for it. We heard his word in faith, we have sung his word in faith, we confessed our faith, and now we have come to his table to commune with Christ, and with each other, by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. This is true food, and apart from eating it there is no life in us. This is where the Spirit has led us in truth, to the holy of holies that we may be renewed in Christ this day.

Ok, the child is a little rediculous sporting his too-big shoes as well as his first tie this last Lord's Day.

Gospel Liturgy

Many of you know Matthew, Mark, and Luke have a lot in common. This is why the three are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they generally follow the same literary outline. But, even the Gospel of John, very different as it stands in comparison to the other three, places John the Baptist’s ministry at the beginning as fundamental to the whole glorious story of Jesus the Messiah coming to save his people. We cannot possibly begin to understand Jesus Christ and His mission for the world, and what He has accomplished for the world through His life, death, and resurrection until we begin to wrap our minds around John and what he was doing out in the desert next to the Jordan.

John the Baptist no doubt was a radical in first century Judea, and his ministry was challenging all the different strands of Judaism of his day. Without any authorization from the authorities of his day, other than God the one who proclaimed that one would go before Him to prepare the way for His coming, John was beginning a New Exodus by leading the way for many to pass through water so that they may be forgiven of their sins and prepared for the one who would come after him.

All four gospels begin with John, and all four gospels end with Jesus. All four end with the Resurrected Lord of the universe surrounded by His disciples adoring him. We have come this day to surround the Lord’s Table and feast on Him that we may receive His life and be changed. But, we cannot possibly understand that meal and receive its blessing unless we begin at the beginning with the message John brought forth. Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand! The one who was to come after me has come and died and he lives forever more. Turn from your wicked ways, confess your sins, and receive the Holy Spirit!

Let us confess our sins together.

Lord of the flies

At work we have two large doors, like garage doors. We slide them open to let sunlight and fresh air in. It’s another thing to be thankful for.

Burning silicone smells like dead fish, and the stench that can be generated by seven men working in one place is enough reason to be thankful for the fresh air. And there’s something about the sun illuminating the path before you, and a cool breeze on your back, to make you feel like a kid again: carelessly enjoying the play God has created you for.

Moments later I look over at one of my co-workers spinning around like my son discovering the wonder of dizzy. This is not because he is enjoying his time. Rather, little specks of darkness have floated in with the light, sunny breeze. I would laugh at my round, fuzzy, frustrated friend, but all the while I am smacking my wrist, swinging at the air in front of me, and attempting a 180-degree elbow-punch hoping to send one of twenty different flies to its grave.

As I go back to my work with one eye on the fly to my right and my heal kicking back into the air hoping it will somehow let the flies on my calf know that, “This is your last warning, damn it!” I begin to wonder why God has created flies. They annoy everyone. But they don’t annoy God. He created them and called them good. I imagine from God’s perspective, watching us bat at the air with unheard of karate moves is paralleled with the humor of watching Napoleon Dynamite’s Kip learn Rex-Kwon-Do.

I am reminded that God is hilarious. He has the greatest sense of humor. It must make him laugh watching the pinnacle of His creation get in touch with the lower parts and become more like Him.

After a long week of work (and according to my calculations) the most fly kills at MEI (that’s where I work), I am ready for the Sabbath. As I sit, stand, stand and sit to hear the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, and eat the Word, I am ushered into the presence of the living God with His angels and saints before Him doing what we have been created and redeemed to do: worship the Triune God. While I am basking in the glory of it all, my one-year-old son sleeps across my lap, but his sleep is haunted by the presence of nothing else but a plump, juicy fly who’s decided to use my son’s forehead as a launching pad. My arms are pinned by all 22 pounds of my son, but with my fingers I do my best to swipe them away. Soon after I notice one come back with two others to puke upon my head and pant leg! At this point I had to free one of my arms out from under my son’s little head. “It’s on, you bastards!” I start swinging, with my one free hand while mindful of the reverent worshipers behind me and my sleeping son upon me. While I was swatting the flies away from me I began to notice the young lady to my left and I were playing ping-pong with 3 or 4 flies. I stopped and put my arm-like pillow back under my son’s head figuring the flies are there because of my aroma and not the women’s.

As I begin to feel better because of the self-sacrificial act I committed I noticed that two flies had conjugated on the top of my knee so close that the four little feelers before them were swapping spit as I was attempting to sing the 34th Psalm.

Instead of thinking about the application of imprecatory prayers (believe me that would come later) I was asking myself, “Why is God making me go through this right now?” As I stand in His presence in the Holy of Holies I’m swatting flies, and missing.

Then I was reminded that a table was set before me and a meal was about to be served. Flies love our food and this day was no exception. The meal I was about to eat with all the other saints around the world had flies wanting to get a piece of the action as well. This meal is like no other meal. As long as we eat it we confess the Lord’s death until he comes.

I was also reminded that flies love sweat and blood. Christ could have killed all the flies that landed upon him while on the cross but that means he would’ve had to come down. With that in mind I thanked God for the Great High Priest before Him, who is able to sympathize with all my trials and temptations, even flies.

Fun at the Fair

Effeminate Fall '06

No need to spend $500 dollars on these outfits. Prance into fall by ransacking your 12 yr. old sister's jean drawer! Any top will do...heck, while your in your sister's closet, find something there.

Prov.4:18

"The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter
until full day."

What a beautiful picture of the path Christ has set His disciples on. He has sent forth His Spirit into our lives joning us to Himself, giving us all his righteousness, and continually making that righteousness a reality in our everyday lives until the day there will be no sun, but only the light of the glory of God filling the new heavens and new earth.