For those of you didn't receive the "annual letter" by mail and are interested in reading it:

Loved ones ~

            2013 has been a fairly predictable year for our family.  I almost didn’t write this letter, but I so enjoy reading yours that here goes…

            We’re finding that Colorado weather, while generally pleasant, is punctuated with extremes.  Winter came late this year, but the heavy snows that fell in April and May ended the concerns about drought!  More rain fell this summer than in our entire first year in Colorado, freeing us from sprinkler-switching every now and then.  In September extensive rains resulted in destructive floods in our area. 

The week of the flooding our cat, Twinkle, died while I was chauffeuring him to the vet.  (I know, I know!  I still roll my eyes about it, too.)  Our finch, Atticus, still thrives and sings – waay too much and waay too loudly – and the six red hens in the backyard just started laying and enjoying hanging out by the patio door and pooping on the step, much to Eli’s delight.

The day that Twink died I promised the kids that we’d visit the humane society and get another cat as soon as school dismisses next summer.  Shortly thereafter we became aware that, the Lord willing, Baby number six will be joining us in May.  (I’m hoping the kids forget what I said about a cat.) 

            Our children continue to shoot up and branch out.  When she’s not talking, singing, or piano-playing, Leah, 9, usually has her nose in book.  She even attempts walking this way, though not with much success.  She grows more mature and responsible each day, and is generally sweet to classmates, siblings, and parents alike, even when we are least deserving.

            Will’s 1^st grade teacher requires her students to read 10 minutes a day.  I’m thankful for this, because there are times when I really need him to sit and be still for a bit, and the reading requirement comes in handy.  I use practicing his piano lessons to same end.  As an added bonus he’s becoming a fine reader and a budding pianist.  The other day he checked out all the George and Martha books from the public library and read them aloud as we ran errands.  Egads!  I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face.

            Now that Marie is five, she’s intent on attesting to her own maturity.  “Now that I’m five, Mom, I don’t stick my fingers in the butter to snitch big globs anymore!  I mean, I don’t even like butter anymore!”  Her princess fascination has morphed into a fairy fascination.  How or why, I’m not sure.  Regardless, she still insists on wearing a skirt – usually the same skirt – every day.  She writes her name well, cuts and colors beautifully, and eagerly anticipates starting school next August.

            Lately the youngest three and I have been singing Psalter #360 (Psalm 128) as part of our lunch devotions.  We end with verse three, “Olive plants in strength and beauty, full of hope and promise sweet.”   Without fail, Nathan turns to me at the end and says, “Eli it tweet.”  And I reply, “He is sweet, and so are you.”  And Nate insists, “No, I’m GWEAT!”  And he is great.  He’s got the greatest smile, the greatest inflections in his delightful voice, and the shrillest, grate-est wail you’ve ever heard when he’s upset.

            Dental hygienist Aunties Erin and Sherry would be proud to witness Eli’s unrelenting fascination with oral hygiene.  After supper, while we’re loading the dishwasher, he shuffles stiff-legged to the bathroom (which door is usually left open in spite of the present rule: THIS DOOR MUST BE SHUT AT ALL TIMES!) and samples the toothbrushes of every member of the family, one after another (much to B.J.’s chagrin).  If the toothbrushes are not in their usual spot, the toilet paper or toilet bowl (which lid is usually left open in spite of the present rule: THIS LID MUST BE SHUT AT ALL TIMES!) suffice as sources of amusement.

           

            B.J. continues to throw himself at his work with his whole heart.  This year his classes include U.S. history, biology, life science, algebra II, physical science, and physics.  He also helps keep the school’s technology ticking and is in the garage building new upper cabinets for our kitchen as I write.  Woo-hoo!

            The first weeks of this pregnancy were difficult for me.  I work hard manning this ship, and the very thought of taking on another mate – plus the nausea, fatigue, and financial concerns that another little one entails – almost did me in.  But I have my husband, who sagely reminds me that our sinking or sailing depends on One far greater than me, and ladies’ Bible study and church choir, both highlights in my week, to encourage me.  “The mighty One has done great things for me – Holy is His name.  And when I think of how He blesses me, it moves my heart to say, “Praise the Lord!”

           

            We plan to remain here for the holidays, which means we will miss many of you whom we dearly love.  You will be in our thoughts and prayers, in the memories we share, and in our hope for Heaven, where there will be no more death, sorrow, or pain.  The Place where righteousness will dwell.  The Place made possible because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Praise Him!

This is the monkey...

This is the monkey that Aunt Amy sent.

And this is the mom with a camera near

Who follows a boy that she holds dear –

A little boy with a button nose

Who tows his “fuzzy” wherever he goes.

The fuzzy that’s been all over the map –

A must for the boy when it’s time for his nap,

Along with his paci and monkey George, too,

And then you will find that he’s coming for you!

Coming to you for a big snuggle tight

‘Cause he knows that it’s time to go “nighty-night.”

This busy boy with the button nose

Who drags that ol’ fuzzy wherever he goes…

This sweet lil’ boy – to bed he now went –

Who loves the stuffed monkey that Aunt Amy sent.

Delivered

                When I discovered that I was pregnant with our sixth child a couple of months ago, I spent two days in tears.  My husband knew that I was exhausted, nauseous, and overly-emotional, but he was still somewhat baffled by my response. 

                “You’re a great mom,” he encouraged me, “and you’ve always handled being pregnant pretty well, not to mention labor and delivery.  God’s always provided for us.  He will this time, too.”

                “But I just don’t feel ready to go through this all again,” I wailed.  “I’m already unable to keep up with everything I have to do, and now there are pregnancy aches and pains on top of it!  And I don’t care if I’ve gone through labor and delivery five times before – the thought of going through it again still scares me!”

                Now that I’m through the first trimester, those emotions have waned somewhat.  Yet I think that any woman who’s borne a child can relate to what I was feeling.  Some of those thoughts are driven by sinful selfishness and discontent, no doubt.  But some of those emotions are driven by fear, for a woman sacrifices much when she carries and brings a child into the world.

                When I was young, I was perplexed by the word “deliver” as it is used in reference to a baby being born.  Who, I wondered, was the one delivered?  Was it the long-awaited newborn, just placed in the arms of his parents?  Or was it the mother, now relieved of the burden she had carried and free from labor pains?

                It is the mother, Christ’s mother, Mary, who is delivered in Luke 2:6: “And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.”  Mary’s delivery was not only the bringing forth of her firstborn son: Jesus’ birth signaled that the days had been accomplished that she – and all of God’s people – would be delivered from their sins.  The long-expected Messiah had been delivered.

        The inspired writer of the book of Hebrews commentates on this miraculous delivery:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.  For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.  (Hebrews 2:15-17).

                Jesus came to deliver us.  In his first public sermon Jesus declared: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to…preach deliverance to the captives” (Luke 4:18).  The verses above and additional Scripture passages teach that Jesus has delivered (and continues to deliver) us from:

-          The devil (see above)

-          Death (2 Cor. 1:9-10)

-          The fear of death (see above)

-          The judgment due us for our sins, i.e. the wrath to come (I Thes. 1:10)

-          The law, the law of sin, the body of this death (Rom. 7)

-          Temptations (2 Pet. 2:9)

               

Jesus also came to be delivered for us.  He was “delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).  “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Rom. 8:31-32)

                What should be our response for this great deliverance?  A thankful walk.  Ezra puts it rhetorically in Ezra 9:13-14a: “And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations?” Paul puts it positively in I Cor. 15: 57-58:  “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

                Praise God – we’ve been delivered! 

Two Brief Christmas Videos

Click on the titles to enjoy!

Christmas in Dark Places

The Christmas Scale

in which Eli eats his first powdered-sugar doughnut and enjoys every bite

(Excuse the double egg on his forehead.  Two face plants in two days...  Not unassisted face plants, of course - there are two rough-housing older brothers in the house.)

You thought so, too, huh?  He is getting SO BIG!  :-)

Turkeys

There were 10 of them underfoot last weekend - 5 of the De Jong variety, and 5 of the Mowery.  We so thoroughly enjoyed each other's company that I almost entirely forgot about my camera.  

With their dads at the Greeley Freight Station Museum.

We're not going back to Iowa for Christmas this year.  Our kids are probably most disappointed that they're going to miss out on the annual gingerbread house decorating with their cousins.  So we made turkeys together while the cousins were here!

These turkeys were regular turkey-making fiends.  (Whose goofy kid is that in the center, anyway?)

Even the dolls had to say good-bye...of course they promised to write each other soon!

We're so thankful that you made the trip out here to join us for Thanksgiving, Paul and Erin!

What precious memories!

We love you!

New snow...

 Nothing tastes quite like it!  ;-)

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors

              Just the other day I finished reading to our children a biography of Corrie Ten Boom.  You likely are familiar with Corrie's story – with her arrest by the Gestapo during World War II and the horrors through which she lived at Vught and Ravensbruck concentration camps.  The book noted the Bible studies that Corrie and her sister Betsie led in those camps, meetings in which they encouraged their fellow prisoners to pray for the Germans.  It describes the last years of Corrie’s life, which she dedicated to sharing the gospel through writing and speaking.  Corrie’s travels took her even to Munich, where she was given the grace to forgive in person one of the former guards from Ravensbruck.

                Like Corrie, our readiness to forgive those who sin against us is evidence that we know the forgiveness of our Father in heaven.  Are you ready to forgive your spouse, your parents, your children, your friends, your church members, your neighbors, your coworkers the debts that they owe you?  “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14-15).

                Using the KJV, Matthew 6 renders this petition “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”  In Luke 11 we read, “And forgives us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.”  Some pray the prayer using the metaphor for “sin” quoted above: “trespasses.”  All three words, “sin,” “debt,” and “trespass,” acknowledge the realities that daily we miss the mark of God’s holiness and that we do not pay Him or our neighbor the debt of love that is their due.

                When our pastor preached on this petition earlier this year, he noted that this petition is joined to the plea for daily bread by the little conjunction “and.”  In praying the two petitions together we confess that without the assurance of the forgiveness of God, our material needs are no blessing.  “Without pardon for his crime, the meal of the man about to be executed is mockery to him.”  How mindful we are of our earthly needs – we finish one meal only to wonder what we’ll eat at the next!  Underlying the prayer for the forgiveness of sins is the plea that our Father make us similarly conscious of our desperate need for forgiveness.

                But wait!  Haven’t our sins already been forgiven?  “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…” (I Pet.3:18).  Our prayer for forgiveness is a prayer not that our debt be paid by Christ – that work is finished!  Rather, ours is the request that His atonement be applied to our consciousness, to our hearts.  It is the prayer that we might experience each day the favor of God in His Son Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we use this petition as a cap on our prayers, like children chanting at the dinner table: “Forgive our sins for Jesus’ sake Amen.”  True repentance requires that we come before God – and before one another – pleading that we be forgiven for specific sins.  Do you acknowledge your transgressions, and is your sin ever before you? (Psalm 51:3)  We must make the humble prayer of Job in Job 13:23 ours: “How many are mine iniquities and sins?  Make me to know my transgression and my sin.” 

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

                A couple of weeks ago BJ was gone for a few days.  Things here went well in his absence, though one evening I was tired and unsure what to whip up for supper.  I was taking stock of the pantry when there was a knock on the front door.  There stood Cora and Enja, two of our neighbor girls.  Enja had a bowl of noodles in her hand, and Cora had pulled a cooler around the block.  It contained a pot of chili and a pan of cornbread.  “Mom made extra and was thinking about you,” Cora explained.  “It’s hot and ready to eat.”  And so it was.  We dined sumptuously that night, even though “Daddy” wasn’t home.  That day God used our neighbor to give us our daily bread.  

                Our Lord teaches us to begin our prayers with petitions that are God-focused.  That we might hallow – that is, rightly know and praise – His name.  That His kingdom come – in our hearts and in history.  That we might do His will as cheerfully as the angels execute the duties that they’ve been given.

    Next, He instructs us to pray “give us this day our daily bread.”

                Surprisingly, this petition precedes the requests for the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from temptation.  Our Lord, when He assumed our human nature, experienced firsthand our physical needs.  He desired that we recognize that all things necessary for not only our souls, but also for our bodies, come from our heavenly Father.  He looks at us as He looked at the multitudes to whom He preached, and whom He fed and healed: with compassion.  (Mark 6:30ff, 8:1ff and Matt. 14:13ff).

                The prayer for daily bread is a prayer for things that are necessary.  Ours is the prayer of Agur in Prov. 30:8-9: “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”

                The prayer for daily bread is a corporate prayer.  Give “us” “our” bread.  It’s a prayer that recognizes that sometimes the Lord provides the need for daily bread through one another.

 In 2 Cor. 8 Paul draws a parallel between the Old and New Testament with regard to God’s provision of daily bread.  He references Exodus 16, in which God rains manna for the first time and commands each Israelite to gather only enough manna for his family for that day – their daily bread.  “He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating,” writes Moses.

How do we apply this principle today?  “At this time,” Paul writes to the Corinthians, “your abundance may be a supply for their [the saints in Jerusalem] want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality: as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.”  So we give liberally, cheerfully, to the deacons in our church.  So we look for ways to share our abundance – not only our abundance of money, but also our abundance of time, perhaps, or talents – with those who lack.  God uses us to answer others’ prayers for their daily needs when we bring them a meal, help them repair their home, fix their car, or watch their children.

The prayer for daily bread is the prayer of one who works.  We do not trust in our care and industry to provide for us, but, mindful of the many warnings to sluggards in the book of Proverbs, and 2 Thess. 3:10, “that if any would not work, neither should he eat,” we work.  “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed” (Psalm 37:3).

This principle opposes our human nature and the culture in which we live.  Everyone seems waiting for a handout.  Even we frantically register for every raffle we can.  After all, we might get something for FREE!  ^“ Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished,” says God through wise Solomon in Prov. 13:11, “but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.”

The prayer for daily bread is a prayer for contentment .  Do you give people reason to ask you about the hope that is within you?  In our greedy world, contentment is a compelling testimony.  The contented heart recognizes and demonstrates the reality that no material thing profits without the blessing of the God by whom it is given.  “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart” (Psalm 73:1).

Let’s pray this petition today mindful of the material needs of others and desiring the blessing of the sovereign God, the Giver of every good and perfect gift.  Father, give us this day our daily bread.

One Dozen

In Running...and In Marriage

Early last spring, B.J. and I started running together.  Three mornings a week, we slip out of the house and make our way down 33^rd and through the Benson Sculpture Garden before heading home.  By the time we return, a few of our children are usually snuggled on the sofa, greeting us with puffy eyes and sleepy smiles.

Thanks to these early morning runs, we just might be in the best combined physical shape we’ve been in since we married 10 years ago, even though we’re older and getting gray hairs (shhh!  ;-).  The same could be said for our marriage, I think.  We’re in better shape than we were 10 years ago.  Together we’ve exercised what it means to serve and submit.

There are other things I’ve observed during these early morning workouts.  Things that are true in running…and in marriage. 

1)      It’s never too late to change your stride.

I can still remember the exact place I was in the balcony of our high school gym when I fell down.  We were training for track long before the snow outside melted, and day after day of pounding on the concrete floor wrecked my shins weeks before my first high school track meet.  I continued running for the next four years, getting through countless practices and meets by popping Ibuprofen pills like candy.  I quit running once I graduated.  B.J. and I used to jog a couple of blocks to Dordt’s rec center in the wee hours of the morning, but that was my limit.  The pain that would shoot through my shins with every step for days following a jog was simply not worth it.

During my pregnancy with Eli, Dr. J. asked me if I was exercising.  “Not much,” I replied, “other than chasing the kids around.”  I told him about my shins.  “Even if I just walk a mile or two at a time, my legs start aching all over again,” I told him.  Dr. J. snorted, “Must be your stride!” and referred me to the physical therapist upstairs.  The PT was not in, and I had three hungry kids with me.  I left shaking my head.  Tell a 29-year old woman to change the way she’s walked and run all her life?  Yeah, right!

Well, when we decided to try jogging again, I knew I was going to have to try something different.  And so I worked hard to change my stride.  I leaned forward. I focused on lifting my legs with my core muscles.  And most importantly, I taught myself to land mid-foot, instead of on the ball of my foot.  The result?  No shin pain.  None.  Nada.  Not even a hint in 7 months time.

What about in marriage?  It’s easy to excuse ourselves.  “That’s just the way I am!”  “We’ve been doing it this way for 10 years!  Too late to change now!”  Really?  And what if “the way you are” or that 10-year-old habit is causing yourself or your spouse pain?  What if it’s limiting an area of your marriage to a walk when you could be running together?  It’s never too late to change your stride!

2)      I am the weaker vessel.

When we started running this spring, we first started running separately.  From the get-go, I ran farther.  And I probably ran faster.  Then B.J. decided we should run together.  At first, I set the pace.  This made sense to me.  I was the “runner,” after all.  B.J. had never cared for running - he’d rather lift weights.  But as time went on, B.J. became the pace-setter (much to my chagrin).  And now, he always finishes first, sometimes way ahead of me, and when his lead is not that great, I can usually tell that he’s holding back.  And so I learned that I am the weaker vessel.  My body is not as strong as his is, not capable of maintaining the speed that he does.

And what about in marriage?  I knew 1 Peter 3:7 when we first married.  Yet, in all honesty, I did not consider myself the weaker vessel.  Who got the higher grades?  Who had the more disciplined habits?  I was sure I did, hands down.  I considered myself more spiritually-minded, too.  More mature.  And all that arrogance on my part made for a rough start.

But ask me now, Who is the weaker vessel, Sarah?  And I will tell you this: I am.  I am quicker to doubt God’s good providence.  I am quicker to fear the future.  For all my devotional-writing and knowledge of God’s Word, I falter in the silliest and most mundane of circumstances.  My husband, on the other hand, encourages me.  He assures me that God’s way is always good, even when I refuse to see anything beyond myself.  When I shut up, he talks me through.  And every night, when I leap into bed, teeth chattering and bone-weary, he pauses at the foot.  Gets down on his knees.  And prays.  For me, I know.  And for all the other people and pressures that ride on his strong shoulders.

3)      It’s still work.

B.J. said it just the other morning as we walked back down 33^rd.  “It’s still work.  I’d thought we’d get to a point where I’d feel like I could just keep on going without any effort, but the same distance we’ve been running for months is still a work out!”  And it’s true.  I feel like quitting a fourth of the way in every time we run.  And I’m always breathless when we’re done.  Neither of us suffer from sore muscles like we did when we started, but it’s still work.

So, too, a healthy marriage requires work.  I think all of us who are married need to remind ourselves of that.  You never reach a point in married life where you can just coast, no effort required.  Not in year one, not in year 10, not in year 55.  Conscious, strenuous effort to build your marriage strengthens it like conscious, strenuous effort strengthens your body. 

4)      We are on the same team.

I admit it: when B.J. started consistently finishing first, I was a little bitter.  But it’s hard to stay bitter when I come gasping to the finish and he’s there waiting for me, squeezing me way too tight when I’ve hardly slowed my pace and am already winded, and wheezing in my ear, “Good job, dear!  Good run!”  Then I remember: this is no competition.  We are on the same team.

I have to remind myself of this when I consider our married life, too.  In this season of our life, my husband has more opportunities for adult conversation than I do.  He gets out of the house every day and has contact with a multitude of people.  I don’t try to be a recluse, but the very nature of my work means that sometimes I’m home for days on end with sick children.  Or lots of laundry.  A house to maintain.  Food to prepare for seven hungry people.  Plus the multitude of time it takes to care for and teach our children, to discipline them, read to them, and help them with their catechism, school work, piano lessons...  Being faithful in my calling doesn’t leave me a lot of time for socializing or for hobbies. Or, to treat another aspect of our married life, physically, the past 10 years for me have been a roller-coaster ride. Just pregnant and nauseous, medium pregnant, very pregnant and lumbering about, enduring labor and delivery, nursing, weaning, hormonal, and then, whee! off for another round.  ;-)  I know that some of you reading can relate to this exactly.  And our husbands merely see it all through a glass, darkly.

Sometimes I can be bitter about these things.  I can be jealous of my husband.  I find myself thinking that his calling is nobler than mine, more desirable, more intellectually stimulating.  That it makes more of an impact.  I’ve resented the fact that physically he simply maintains status quo.

What I forget when I fall into this kind of sinful thinking is this: we are on the same team.    We have the same goal.  And at the same time, I minimize the very serious struggles he faces in his calling, while rendering myself useless to help him since I’m wallowing in my own self-pity.  The Master has given us different positions, yes.  Though very different, both positions are not only honorable, they are necessary in order for us to accomplish our goal.

What is that goal?  It’s a multi-faceted gem, friends.  The main goal is to show forth God's praise.  The facets?  To do so by growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as we walk the path of life.  By bringing up the children that He has so graciously given us in the fear of His name.  By painting that picture of Christ and His Bride as beautifully as we are able.  By finishing the race to hear those gracious words, “Well done.”

And whether B.J. finishes first or I, I’m looking forward to the hug when we both reach the end.

 “Good job, dear!  Good run!”

Leah Faith - 9!

One week ago today, our Leah turned 9.  Sometimes, when I actually stop to consider things, I’m startled that we have a daughter who stands shoulder high and asks the questions that she does.  One-on-one she converses less and less like a child.  Are we old enough for this girl to be ours?  Yikes!

Leah won passes for our family to go to Denver’s Butterfly Garden as part of Loveland library’s summer reading program.  So we spent part of her birthday there, and for dessert that night we enjoyed the birthday cake that she decorated herself – her first ever.  She and Cousin Evan, whose birthday is the following day, opened their gifts from Grandpa and Grandma over Skype.

Nine Notable Things About Leah

1)  She talks.  And talks.  Andtalksandtalksandtalksandtalksand-Leah!  talks.

2)  She reads.  And reads.  Andreadsandreadsandreadsandreadsand-Leah! reads.  (“Just one more chapter/page/paragraph/sentence, Mom?”)

3)  She’s crafty.  When she’s not talking or reading, she’s digging through my stashes for some project she’s making.

4)  She’s kind.  For all that talking, we’ve never heard her say a negative word about anything or anyone at school.  Everyone in her classroom is “darling/hilarious/funny/adorable...”

5)  In contrast to Lady Marie, Leah’s a blue-jeans, plain-tee, and I’ll-do-my-own-ponytail kind of a girl.  There are books to read, after all.

6)  She started playing the piano one year ago, and I already have trouble demonstrating some of her lesson without trouble.  Now, I’m not very good, but she’s doing great.

7)  She's a perfectionist.  B.J. and I can't send her downstairs to tidy the basement without periodically checking that she's just tidying, not meticulously organizing everything.

8)  She's assuming more and more responsibility on her own.  What a great help!

9)  She's a smart and sweet and very special to us.  We're humbled that our Father has entrusted her to our care.

Happy Birthday, Leah!

Praying That Our Father's Will Be Done

                It was at one of our oldest daughter’s well-baby check-ups that our family doctor commented, “I don’t see how anyone with a young child can not believe in original sin.”   I couldn’t help but chuckle at the truth of his remark.  Although she was only nine months old, our little Leah was already asserting her own will – a will that, very apparently, was bound by sin.

                There is not one among us – male or female, young or old – who desires that our will be subject to the will of another.  And yet, our Lord teaches us to pray to our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

                The writers of the Heidelberg Catechism and believers for centuries have understood this petition in the following way:

               

“Grant that we and all men may renounce our own will, and without murmuring obey Thy will, which is only good; that so everyone may attend to and perform the duties of his station and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven.”

                What is the will of God?

                This question can be answered in two ways.  We can understand God’s will to be His eternal counsel, or decree.   Is. 46: 9-10 reads, “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”  No man can thwart the unfolding of our Father’s will.  Nor does any man know exactly how God’s counsel will unfold in the coming year, not to mention the remainder of this day.  The child of God rests in this knowledge, however, “That all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

But there is a sense in which we do know the will of our Father.  In Matt. 7:21 Jesus declares, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” The inspired apostle Paul wrote, I Thess. 4:3, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.”  God’s will is that you and I live holy lives.  Our rule for that life of holiness is found in the Ten Commandments, which Jesus summarized in Matt. 22:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The end of praying this petition is that you and I might attend to the duties of our station and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven.  Some weeks ago, when we considered the Christian’s calling to work, we defined one’s calling or vocation this way:  “The place one occupies in the present.”  When you pray today that our Father’s will be done, you are asking that His Holy Spirit equip you to run the machine, drive the truck, change the diapers, clean the house, teach the students, finish the homework…willingly, cheerfully, “heartily” – that is, with all your heart – “as to the Lord, and not men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ (Col. 3:23-24).

This petition exposes our prayers for the self-centered ditties they too often are.  Prayer is not a way of changing God’s mind, nor is it a means of getting from God things that we want.  True prayer changes us, forcing us to acknowledge the bondage of our own will in light of the goodness and unchangeableness of the will of our Father in heaven.

Recommended Read

Touched by this post this morning:  How the Ayres Family Buried Their 8 Children.

Thy Kingdom Come

               German theologian Deitreich Bonhoeffer visited the United States in the 1930s.  In one of many letters home he writes, “I often wonder whether it is true that America is the country without a reformation.  If reformation means the God-given knowledge of the failure of all ways of building up a kingdom of God on earth, then it is probably true.” 

                If that was the perceptive Bonhoeffer’s take on the Christian church as it existed in the United States nearly one-hundred years ago, I wonder what his assessment of current American Christianity would be?

                What do we pray when we pray, “Thy kingdom come”?  Do we pray with the God-given knowledge that it is impossible to build the kingdom of God on earth?

                When our Lord began His earthly ministry, He came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15) 

Nearly all of Jesus’ disciples expected Him to establish an earthly kingdom.  They hoped that Jesus would free Israel from Roman rule and bring an end to poverty and disease.  But notice how the kingdom of God is established, according to Christ Himself: by repentance and belief in the gospel.  “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)  “And when He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)  So also Christ instructed His followers not to worry about food or clothing, but to seek “first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.” The apostle Paul added, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Rom. 14:17). 

Jesus also taught that His kingdom, though at hand, was not yet fully realized.  “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” (John 18:36)  The thief on the cross recognized this when he said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into thy Kingdom.”  Jesus responded, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” (Luke 32:42-43) 

In Lord’s Day 48 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the second petition of the model prayer is broken down into four parts. 

Thy kingdom come; that is,

1)    Rule us so by Thy Word and Spirit, that we may submit ourselves more and more to Thee.  “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Cor. 6:9)

2)    Preserve and increase Thy church.

“And when they [Paul and Barnabas] had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:21-22)

3)    Destroy the works of the devil and all violence which would exalt itself against Thee; and also, all wicked counsels devised against Thy holy Word.

“Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (Matt. 4:9-10)

“Till,” the answer concludes, “the full perfection of Thy kingdom take place, wherein Thou shalt be all in all.”

Is that the kingdom for which you pray?

10 Years...Revisited

(Ack!  I didn't mean for the video to pick this gross picture as the place to stop...and I'm too computer illiterate to change it!)

A Marriage Worth Emulating

My Grandma and Grandpa “Top” celebrated their 55^th wedding anniversary last month.  This coming Friday, the Lord willing, B.J. and I will celebrate our 10^th. 

I miss Grandpa and Grandma.  I miss seeing them at church on Sunday.  I miss Sunday evening lunches at their house.  I miss seeing them at chapels and at school.  I miss my kids hollering, “There’s Great Grandpa’s windmill!”

I’ve learned some things about marriage from watching my grandparents, things I hope B.J. and I emulate better and better in the next 45 years.

1)    My grandparents are affectionate with one another.  When we were little and happened to be at Grandpa and Grandma’s when Grandpa was either coming or going, we always witnessed a hearty smack on the lips.  I would guess they still maintain this routine.  Grandpa and Grandma do everything together.  Very rarely does a person see one of them without the other.

2)    My grandparents are generous.  Sunday mornings when I was young, Grandpa would regularly pass an envelope to us kids through the window of our rattletrap orange van in the church parking lot (the van also camefrom him).  “You give that to your dad,” he’d bark.  We all knew what it was.  A check that would help my parents pay our tuition.  They help others in the same way, prioritizing others needs before their own wants.  They drive Brandon to dialysis regularly.  The pass out garden produce to anyone who will take it.  The two times we’ve gone back to Iowa to visit, we’ve been treated to a five-course meat and potatoes meal and gone back to Colorado loaded up with food they’ve prepared for us.  Grandma’s been my most faithful letter writer since we’ve moved, too.  When one of her letters arrives in the mail, I save it until supper and read it aloud for everyone to enjoy.

3)    My grandparents are fruitful, even in their old age.  My grandparents do an unbelieveable amount of good for their age.  Indeed, they display Psalm 92:13-14: Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Their's is a truly a marriage worth emulating.