Merry Christmas!

           

My sister Valen took this photo of our family when she and her husband Kurt visited at Thanksgiving.  Here’s what you can expect if you come to visit!

            Want to hold our little ray of sunshine?  Sean Edward was born on May 19 as the morning sun streamed through the window.  He loves three things best: bath time, the first two fingers on his right hand, and sleeping smack dab in the middle of his two old people.

            It’s hard to get a word in edgewise at our supper table.  Leah and Willem like to lay out every detail of the overwhelmingly original plot of the latest Hardy Boys mystery they’ve shared.  Willem will probably point out the tree house he’s building in the backyard.  Leah’s liable to relate her recent horseback riding lesson.

            Devotions commence when Miss Meticulous finally clears her plate.  Maries enjoys kindergarten so much she can’t think of a favorite thing at the end of the school day: “Every part of it was my favorite, Mom!” 

            Can’t find Nathan?  Look downstairs.  He hibernates down there for hours at time, perfectly content with LEGOs and the latest audio book.  Eli’s acquired Nath’s former fascination with all things train.  Would you please read to him The Little Engine That Could?  B.J. and I are pretty burned out with that book.  (BJ: Dear, I cannot read this book again.  I cannot, I cannot, I cannot…  Sarah: Oh, I think you can, I think you can, I think you can…  ;-)

            BJ continues to alternate between two jobs he loves: teaching and concrete.  He also started a small computer repair business this year – another endeavor that he enjoys.  I’m pretty much the same, just a year older and (I hope) a year wiser.  My days are full of opportunities to exercise faithfulness in the mundane yet infinitely inestimable moments that motherhood brings.

            How the light shone when our Savior was born!  May the light of his glorious gospel shine in your heart throughout the coming year.

Singspirations and Sentimentality

                One of my favorite childhood Christmas traditions was our annual trek to small town Edgerton, Minnesota.

                I suppose every church or denomination of churches has instances of its own customs or quirky lingo.  In the PRC, one of those customs is the recurring, celebratory, inter-church sing-alongs that we call “singspirations.”  I can still hear some of my high school friends say, “You’re going to a what?  A sing-sper-what?”

                Among the PR churches in the Midwest, singspirations are organized by the young people of each congregation, and each congregation has its own holiday singspiration to host.  The Christmas singspiration has been held in the little white clapboard church building in Edgerton for as long as I can remember.  And nothing short of all-out blizzard kept my parents from making the hour-long trip north.

                When I was growing up, my parents drove a full-size, rust-colored 1972 Chevy van.  The van seated twelve, though there were functioning seatbelts for maybe five or six.  The bench seats were mismatched, and cream-colored curtains hung in the windows.  The carpet was green shag, and the gas cap had been procured from a VW somewhere along the way.  If you sat on the second bench seat, all the way in, you had a footrest: the box heater that was capable of scorching the legs of those directly next to it and in front of it while the rest of the van remained just above freezing.

                When we drove to the singspiration on those December Sunday evenings, we’d be dressed in our church clothes.  Christmas dresses, if we had them, tights, and bulky coats with enormous fur-lined hoods.  We’d fight over the warm seats as we piled in and snuggled under the afghans that Mom stowed in the van every winter.  I can remember bucking snowdrifts already on our own gravel road, Dad muttering about the wisdom in going at all, yet still we went.  And all the way we’d read with flashlights, look out the frosty windows at the stars, point out the places whose farmers had braved the cold to string Christmas lights, and sing carols. 

                When we got to the little white church in Edgerton, we’d pile out of the van and clatter our way downstairs to use the toilet before clacking our way back upstairs and filing into one of the wooden bench seats.  The singspiration itself was always a joy, the pews packed, the Christmas carols, hymns and psalms accompanied by the lusty pipe organ.  Afterwards we’d click our way back downstairs for cookies before braving the wintry night once more for the drowsy drive home.

                This year, if the Lord wills, I might make it to Edgerton this coming Sunday evening for the singspiration again.  If we make it, my husband and I will transport our own flashlight-reading, carol-singing crew in our own Chevy van, with its able heater.  Maybe.  We have miles to go and children that may need sleep before that will happen.  But maybe.

                Christmas is a season that lends itself to sentimentality, isn’t it?  And some of my musing about the Christmas singspiration is sentimental.  Some of it, though, is my own way of recalling the years of the Most High, of communing with my own heart and exclaiming, “Lord, how good you are!  How kind, and how faithful you have been to me in my life!  Indeed, all of your promises in Jesus Christ are Yes! and Amen!”

The Christian faith is not backward-reaching: it’s future-seeking.  It’s a faith that doesn’t dwell in the past but presses forward to our glorious expected end.  It’s my prayer that as you look backward this Christmas season to the birth of our Savior, you’ll do so longing for his second Advent, that great, final coming when he will make all things new.  Blessed Christmas to you, friends.

Two Mothers, One Promise

The Christmas story is a tale of two mothers.  Two mothers, and one promise.

The tale begins with our first mother, Eve.  Eve was created perfect.  She lived in the first Paradise with her husband, whose helper God had created her to be.  With Adam she experienced perfect fellowship with God. But all that changed when Eve was deceived by the servant, usurped Adam’s authority with her executive action, and disobeyed God.  Eve wasn’t content with the way God had made her, nor with the position in which he had placed her.  She wanted to be as God, “knowing good and evil.”  Adam followed her into transgression, and so they and the entire human race were enslaved to sin.  They, who had been the friends of God, were now His enemies.  Man’s will was no longer free, but bound to sin.

The disobedience of the “the mother of all living” brought death to all her children.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, promised that he would send a Savior to rescue Adam and Eve and their posterity.  That Savior would crush the head of Satan, their adversary and the adversary of their children.  He would save them from the death that would now mark every moment of their earthly existence.

That Savior was born of another mother.  The mother of the Savior did not live in Paradise, but in Roman-occupied Palestine.  She had no husband, though she was betrothed to be married.  This young woman hoped in the same promise that had been Eve’s comfort.  But Mary showed herself submissive to God’s perfect will.  When the angel Gabriel appeared, hailed her as one “highly favored,” and revealed to her that God had chosen her to be the mother of His Son, this was Mary’s humble reaction to the angel’s astonishing message:  “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

And so, through the obedience of the virgin mother, God brought life to as many as believe on his name.

There are some who worship that virgin mother rather than the blessed Savior whom she brought forth.  Like the woman in Luke 11:27, they cry, “Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked!”  They disregard Jesus’ response, “‘Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.’”

All these things happened unto Eve and Mary for our example: “and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor. 10:11).  The promise to which those women clung is still the promise that is the basis of all our hope: our Lord is coming!  Still today God comes to us in his Word, salutes us in Jesus Christ as those who are highly favored, and calls us to obey his commands.

The disobedience of our first mother brought death.  The Spirit-worked obedience of the mother of our Lord brought life.   Do you walk the way of the first mother or the second?

Blessed are all they who hear the word of God and do it.           

Hallelujah!

Do you remember the Hallelujah Chorus food court flash mob?  Our kids do, and they request to watch this video every year around this time.  :-)

Sean E. - 6 months

Sean E. - can it be?!  Six months already!

And big brother for good measure.  "My turn, Mom!"  :-)

Re-post: "Mothering in the Internet Age"

This valuable post deserves a re-post.

It's brief - make the time to read it, young moms.  :-)

And the next time you or I have a mothering question,

maybe we'd be better off if we lay off the research and instead reach for the phone?

If we turn to Grandma rather than to Google?

The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living

               The locusts in the back lawn - always the last to lose their leaves - are bare.  We've had our first snow, which means we need extra time in the morning to don hats and gloves as we rush out the door to school.  The giant, inflatable witch’s cauldron that hovered in Home Depot has been replaced by Santa and a smiling elf atop a whirling helicopter.  All signs that my favorite holiday – Thanksgiving – is almost here.

                For most of my life Thanksgiving included a few glimpses of Macy’s Parade and a sumptuous dinner at Grandma’s, our large extended family seated at a massive, provisional table constructed out of ping-pong tables and saw horses, with football, Dominos, and Mom’s matchless banana cream pie following.  For a time it included a second family celebration at night, complete with leftover turkey on buns and Bingo with prizes.  Now that we live far away from family members, Thanksgiving entails hosting whatever generous relatives decided to make the trip to join us and some members of our church family at a much smaller table.  (Aunt Lynne’s deviled eggs still make their appearance.) 

                But I’m blessed to say that for all of my life, Thanksgiving has always been more than a day of feasting and football.  It’s been a day that begins in worship, in a giving of thanks that continues – both outwardly and inwardly – throughout the day.

Our younger boys are learning Psalm 27 lately.  It’s a familiar psalm, ideal for little men in love with the idea that they are Christian soldiers: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (vs. 1).  Psalm 27 was my Grandma’s favorite Psalm, and her funeral text.  It was my husband’s high school graduation text: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life” (vs 4).  It was the Psalm our pastor read on the night we learned that B.J.’s father had filed for divorce: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up” (vs. 10).  It’s the Psalm that comes to me now, as I muse over the year gone by, it’s trials and joys, and all the struggles with my own sins and sinful nature:  “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living (vs. 13).”

                And I have seen – and I do see – his goodness.  Do you, dear friend?  Here and now, in this life, in the land of the living?  There are the joys of health, family and friends, sunshine and rain, and food…in abundance.  There are the blessings of faithful preaching and the communion of the saints.  Sometimes it’s in the way of trial and pain that we experience his goodness.  Perhaps your year included illness or injury; maybe it’s been marked by death or depression.  It’s my prayer that you see the goodness of the Lord to you in sending those trials.  Even if you don’t understand his way right now, I pray that you find peace in believing that he works all things for the good of those he’s called.  It’s my prayer that that knowledge spurs you on the path of obedience, for its when we walk in that way that we have peace which passes all understanding.

              Hear and now, in this life.  In the land of the living.  

Obedience and Seven Deadly Symptoms

Well, my poetry well is running a bit dry.  For some reason or another, Leah came home the other day determined to write several acrostic poems for each month of the year.  She inspired me!  Below is an acrostic for chapter eight of OST, in which Owen maintains that the believer's obedience must be universal: that is, if you determine to mortify one besetting sin while neglecting other Christian duties, your attempts will fail.  Here's a notable quote:

"There are no less sins and evils than that under which you groan.  Jesus Christ bled for them also…If you hate sin as sin, every evil way, you would be no less watchful against everything that grieves and disquiets the Spirit of God, than against that which grieves and disquiets your own soul…Do you think He will ease you of that which perplexes you, that you may be at liberty to that which no less grieves Him?  No.  God says, ‘Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost.'"

Striking to me was the realization that God sometimes allows us to struggle with particular sins in order to chasten or curb other sins.  For example, Peter’s denial of Jesus chastened his self-confidence; likewise, the "messenger of Satan" that buffeted Paul prevented his pride (2 Cor. 12:7).

O – Occasioned by trouble and fear, and 

B – Bothered by its consequences, a man

E –Exercises himself against a sin.  His attempts are

D - Driven by self-love.  True mortification –

I  - Infused with a hatred of sin as sin –

E – Entertains no thought of a hierarchy of sins, nor is it

N – Negligent to watch against anything that grieves the Spirit of God, to

C – Cleanse the self from all filthiness of flesh and spirit to

E – Engage in an obedience that is universal, deep and wide.

- Sarah Mowery

Owen diverts a bit in chapter nine to address sins that are so deeply-rooted they threaten the very life of one who calls himself a believer.  Sadly, I think each of us has probably experienced some - if not all - of the seven deadly symptoms below.

Seven Deadly Symptoms

Consider the symptoms of your favorite sin

to know if you’re losing the battle that rages within.

Is your sin habitual and deeply-rooted?

     Your sensitivity to God’s chastening is woefully diluted.

Do you claim God’s approval while loving your lust?

     He cures not welcome diseases; they bring him disgust.

Do you apply grace and mercy to a sin never treated?

     Such wounds will soon stink; your judgment be meted.

Does this sin often seduce your inward desires?

     Your immunity’s weak; your condition is dire. 

Do you fight this sin out of fear of pain that may come?
                 What the gospel can’t cure won’t to the law’s treatment succumb.

Does your sickness spawn further disease or affliction?

     God’s allowed further ills so you know your condition.

Do you fail to heed warnings from the Great Physician?

     Only one near to death will not heed admonition.

If these things are true regarding the sin you’ve contracted,

no ordinary prescription will make it be extracted.

- Sarah Mowery

Refiner's Fire

Below is my verse summary of chapter 7 of OST, in which Owen maintains that unbelievers are incapable of mortification because they do not have the Spirit of Christ.  Challies summarized the chapter with this title: "Do Not Expect Unbelievers to Act Like Believers!"  Do you long for the salvation of a family member, friend, or neighbor?  Their conversion must precede the mortification of their sinful deeds.

Refiner’s Fire

Through trial of faith the vessels of grace are by God purified –

and when the dross that dwells within is daily mortified.

This – the task of every saint the Lord has justified.

So do not expect that vessels made of iron, brass, or tin

will want to cease from evil deeds or purge the filth within –

they have not the Spirit of Christ – such work will be in vain.

It is their calling first of all to convert their wicked way:
if they do not, they’ll be consumed on the great judgment day.

The sovereign Smith must make them new before sin will melt away.

For only vessels made of silver and vessels made of gold

will emerge from fiery trial more lovely to behold,

for He who walked the furnace hot will still His saints uphold.  

-Sarah Mowery

Seven excuses and two poems

Well, I've fallen behind on my goal of posting a poem here every week.  This old blog is cold more often than not, but just when I thought I'd decided to take it down, my sister said I shouldn't, if only for the sake of past posts.  (Bless your heart, Val.  :-)

I have seven excuses for my inconsistency - and photographs to prove them.  They are below, in no particular order or number of appearances.  ;-)

"When I wear my striped cap, I'm the engineer..."
(Quoted from I'm Taking a Trip on My Train, one of Eli's favorite books of late.)

This one of several photos we took for cousin Ariana's Flat Stanley project.

Here is my response to John Owen's 5th chapter of Overcoming Sin and Temptation: "What Mortification is Not."  I hope you are able to figure the five things it isn't from the verse below.

Master of Disguise

First, he’d have you believe his Demise is actually a probability

 –which it isn’t, though at times you chose to believe it, scraping

by as you are on your own self-righteousness and quasi-strength.

If playing dead doesn’t work, there’s Dissimulation –slander

masquerades as concern, pride plays as prudence.  You’re convinced

your heart is cleaner, too: in reality, it’s only more cunning.

Then there’s his intent to maintain an appearance of Dignity-

to persuade you that as long as you present a sedate

exterior, wickedness within is of no consequence.

If you rally on one front, he will attack another; you celebrate

at the northern border, only to be conquered from the west,

sin’s servant still – your master has merely Diverted.

At your periodic disgust or pain-fueled determination, he may

withdraw under pretense of defeat; but Discontinuous will strike

as soon as your alert abates, in full strength to seek your death.

-Sarah Mowery

And here is my response to the 6th chapter, in which Owen asserts that mortification consists in a habitual weakening of sin at the root.  This is a very rich chapter.  When it comes to summarizing the depth of the ideas contained therein, my poem lacks.  But here it is, regardless.  (Just a note: the title is a word-play.  "Barabbas" means "son of the father.")

Son of the Father

The old man is crucified – in principle, that is,

which leaves you the task of daily crucifixion.

Oh, your desire will struggle at the first!

He will cry out at the pounding of the nails.

The weight and the writhing when the cross is lifted up

may be more than you think you can bear.

But you must!  Listen, listen -

his cries grow hoarse, he gasps for breath.

Yet his dying pangs may be fierce: be strong!

This, your assignment every day,

lest Barabbas return, to murder in your streets.

-Sarah Mowery

Liar, Liar

It is a conversation that I dread:

                “Do not lie to me.”

                “I’m not lying, Mom!”

                “But I think you are lying.”

                “No, Mom, I’m not!  I promise I’m not!”

                Last spring our Ladies’ Bible discussion group tackled the topic of lying.  I went looking for advice from other moms regarding how they discipline their children when they suspect them of lying.  What does one do when she suspects that her child is lying, but the son or daughter insists that he or she is not?  We discussed that briefly that morning, but most of our time was spent discussing lying in a broader sense.  I left Bible study convicted of the lies that I tell myself, lies that I believe.

                Our pastor pointed out that at the root of every sin is pride.  That pride comes to expression in the form of a lie.  At the very heart, that lie is the lie that Satan believed of himself: “I will be like the Most High” (Is. 14:14b).  It is the lie with which He tempted Eve, and through Eve, Adam: “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5b).  It is the lie the Old Testament Israelites believed when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  It is the lie that we believe every time we sin.  For every time we break one of the Ten Commandments, we demonstrate that we have a god whom we worship before the one, true God.  The name of our god?  Self.  At the root of every sin is our belief that we have the right to be God and determine for ourselves what we may or may not do, what is good and what is evil.

                When we dishonor those who are in authority over us – government officials, office bearers in the church, parents, teachers, husbands – we believe this lie:  They don’t deserve my respect.  After all, I could fill their position more ably than they do.  We deny that he who resists the powers that be resists the ordinance of God (Rom. 13:2).

When we steal – possessions from our neighbor, time from our employer, wages from our employees – we believe this lie:  Those possessions, time, and wages are rightfully mine!  I have more need of this thing or that money than they do!  We deny that we will appear before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for everything that we have done (2 Cor. 5:10).

When we gossip or slander, we believe this lie:  My chit-chat is harmless.  We deny the truth that the tongue is a little flame that is capable of igniting a great fire (James 3:2-13).  We deny that we will give account for every idle word that we have spoken (Matt. 12:36). 

 When we covet – another’s house, another’s spouse, another’s looks, or another’s life – we believe this lie:  As long as I’m not doing anything outward, it’s not sin.  I can’t be condemned for my thoughts.  We deny that while men look on the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).  We reject the truth that each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).  We deny God the right to providentially direct every detail of our lives.

                When we allow ourselves to wallow in self-pity or discontent, we believe the lie that we have not been given self-control and its accompanying fruits: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, and meekness (Gal. 5:22).

                Our pastor consented that it is difficult to discipline our children when we suspect them of lying, but he encouraged us to discipline them for lying as if it is most the serious sin they could ever commit.  Why?  Because at the root of every sin, there is a lie.  The Lord hates the lying tongue (Prov. 6:16-19), and all liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone (Rev. 21:8).  We must guard our own hearts and the hearts of our children from the lie by nurturing them with the truth.  Read the Bible daily, and be constant in prayer.  Ask the Lord to set a watch before the door of your mouth and the door of your heart (Psalm 141:3).  For there is no hope for the one who believes the lies that he tells himself. 

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

1 John 1:5 – 2:5

recommended read

A friend recommended that I read Too Late the Phalarope this past summer, as I praised Paton's better-known novel, Cry, The Beloved Country, which I had just finished.  Too Late the Phalarope is no less lovely.  Both books are set in South Africa around 1950; both treat the black and white of the human soul.  As I see it, Cry focuses a bit more on the tragedies of the historical apartheid, Too Late on the tragedies of apartheid within one's heart. It is a novel that might touch married persons most, but it speaks to anyone who experiences the great battle between the old man and the new, who knows of pride and penance, fear and forgiveness.  Paton's prose is among the most beautiful that I have ever read.  One of my top books - and authors - of all time.

two poems

Well, last week's summary-in-verse may have been a bit of a flop...my husband opened the post and (before reading it) said, "Neat!  A seal?"  So while I might go back sometime and try to make my dove look a little less seal-ish, today I'm going to post my summary of chapter four of Overcoming Sin and Temptation: The Life, Vigor, and Comfort of Our Spiritual Life Depend Much on Our Mortification of Sin.  (Whew!  Don't let the length of the titles deceive you - the chapters in this book are short, comparatively speaking.)  And as for the seal, what's a spouse for but to keep one humble?  ;-)

Two images in this chapter caught my fancy, both are common in Scripture: that of a garden, and that of adoption.  And here is another quote for good measure:  “Thoughts are the great purveyors of the soul to bring in provision to satisfy its affections; and if sin remain unmortified in the heart, they must ever and anon be making provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. They must glaze, adorn, and dress the objects of the flesh, and bring them home to give satisfaction; and this they are able to do, in the service of a defiled imagination, beyond all expression.”

God’s Garden

God bought a garden with His son’s blood,

prepared the soil, and then He sowed

the seeds of His own graces good –

faith, love, and zeal that plot now dress.

And yet within this earth still sprung

weeds that would those plants undone,

lusts soon left the shoots begun

lacking life and vigorousness.

But God does not leave His claim ignored,

Gardener’s tools He does afford:

prayer and fasting, the watered Word,

and weeds pulled out by sin confessed.

So tend the garden of your heart,

be swift to cast the those lusts apart,

make mortification your own art

if you would thrive in holiness.

- Sarah Mowery 

House of Two Fathers

The birth father?

Fathers lusts

and lies,

schemes

and deceives,

beats his own children

without reprieve.

The adoptive Father?

Gives each child

a name that’s new,

a heavenly home

and eternal view.

He lovingly chastens

and bestows

in full measure

the inheritance

to each of His treasures.

And – wonder of wonders! –

His takes every one

and makes them look like Him,

Jehovah-Shalom.

- Sarah Mowery

(Credit: the last two gifts mentioned in this poem were so memorably put by our pastor in a sermon several months ago.)

How do I mortify indwelling sin?

My response to Chapter 3 of Overcoming Sin and Temptation, which is entitled "The Holy Spirit is the Great Sovereign Cause of the Mortification of Indwelling Sin."  One of my favorite quotations from this chapter is this one:  "In a word, they [Roman Catholics - or any of us, by nature!] have sundry means to mortify the natural man, as to the natural life here we lead; none to mortify lust or corruption.  Search their ways and principles to the bottom, and you will find that it had no other root but this mistake, namely, that attempting rigid mortification, they fell upon the natural man instead of the corrupt old man—upon the body wherein we live instead of the body of death."

The Match

My response to Chapter 2 of Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen.  I have always appreciated the metaphors that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, a text to which Owen refers in this chapter.  I was moved by Owen's assertion that sin, like the grave, is never satisfied:  “Sin aims always at the utmost, every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind.  Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression, every thought of unbelief would be atheism, might it grow to its head.”

The Match

The horseleech has two daughters that are never satisfied:

Like them, the sin within your heart will no way be denied.

Every idle word you say would be a blazing fire,

Every envious glance you cast would murder to acquire.

Every lustful thought you think would crawl into one’s bed,

The hate you hide within your heart would have your neighbor dead.

The clenching of your stubborn jaw would be a bloody coup,

Your thoughtless use of God’s own name would pierce the Savior through.

Your fixation – with this or that – wants you before it prone.

Every “little” sin, at heart, puts you on Yahweh’s throne.

And until your body breathes its last, sin will seek your death.

So you must jab this challenger with every single breath.

Do not beat at empty air if you desire to live –

Aim each blow right at your foe, who’s crying, “Give, give, give!”

- Sarah Mowery

At War

I'm taking author/blogger Tim Challies up on his invitation to "read a Christian classic together." That's a commitment to read one chapter of John Owen's Overcoming Sin and Temptation per week for the next fourteen weeks.  I'm going to try to summarize my notes/reflections from each week in verse.  Here's my response to Chapter 1, which we read last week.

At War

Within each one of God’s elect

A fearsome war doth rage.

There is a side who seeks for God:

The other would that love assuage.

The man who drives this earthly side

Is bloodied, ugly, dead.

For he was crucified with Christ –

Yet he rears his mangled head.

The mightiest weapon this man yields

Is called complacency.

For he conspires to make his foe

Leave off intensity.

The other man is clothed in white –

The garments aren’t his own.

They were bought with the shed blood

Of Him who for sin atoned.

The sword that this man bears

Is a sword that dwells within.

It is the Holy Spirit of God

Who can only conquer sin.

He empowers this new man

To fight his mortal foe;

A brief cessation from the fight

Brings only bitter woe. 

I know the sorrow of this war –

It rages within me.

For fighting to possess my soul

Are Friend and Enemy.

I do not fear the battle’s end:

The outcome is secure.

Yet I know the peace of heavenly life

Only when I endure.

The sin that lives within my heart

I must mortify.

For only as I combat self

Do I God glorify.

- Sarah Mowery

six kids and a chair

Well, I've hardly looked at any of my photos from this past summer, but nonetheless, the kids started school last week and Sean E. turned 3 months.  Time for The Fifteen Most Dreaded Minutes of the Entire Year (a.k.a. The Annual Photo Shoot).  Just kidding - it's really not that bad.  Especially since this time B.J.was around to help hang my old backdrop on our patio and make the little men smile.  So here are a couple of each of our children with two extra of Sean E. for good measure (since he's so scrumptious right now).

Eli sat fabulously for a few shots, then climbed off the chair and said, "Dere.  All done." And he was. Somehow those few photos all turned out slightly blurry, and, though I'm not sure why, it's Eli...so I'm not surprised.  ;-)

Nath for fake...

...and Nath for real.

Ahh, now here is one who actually enjoys having her picture taken...

...in fact, she'll hardly stop giggling long enough for me to get a natural smile!

Will Jays.  Pretty straightforward.  Click.  Click.  Done!

M' Leah, looking more and more like my mom all the time.

Hey, it's only been 13 minutes!  Let's go for a group shot...

...or not.  Where's Eli, anyway?

Ah-ha.  There he is.
Naptime for Sean.
Exit Daddy and baby and everybody but Leah, who enjoys this so much she wants to try a few more poses.

Ack!  What's that!  Oh, Eli.  Hello, Eli, my boy with the gray-green eyes.  (Fellow Anne Shirley lovers, did you ever wonder how she could have gray-green eyes?  I sure did.  Figured Lucy Maude must have made that color up, but now I've got a gray-green eyed boy of my own.  Hey, this photo's not blurry.  Too bad he's been snacking in-between time.  Anybody know what Eli's been eating?  Anybody?)

Yikes!  Beware the Eli!  Oh, wait...you're just trying to show me what you've been eating, Honey?  Well, I can't tell.  Looks like The Snack is All Gone.

(Guess he's not all done, after all...

...he'd like to get in on Leah's shots as well.  In Sean E.'s bumbo seat, of course.)

Wait, was that a beep I just heard?  Time's up!
Hope you enjoyed The Annual Photo Shoot.  :-)

Rewarded According to Grace

Ahhh...summer.  Does it really end next week?!  Here's a column I wrote more than a month ago.  Hopefully it's not too dated to be of some benefit.

   

                It was shortly before summer began that my husband and I talked about re-vamping our allowance system.  We had been giving each of our children who were three years old or older $12 at the beginning of every month.  Four of those dollars were for giving, four for saving, and four for spending.  While that system taught them to budget their “income” (and also put an end to a lot of whining at Wal-Mart), B.J. thought that it was important that they also learn that money is earned, not just dispensed.  I was hesitant – I didn’t want them expect 50 cents every time they threw their dirty clothes in the laundry or put away their shoes.  “We’re a family,” I often say.  “That’s why we all pitch in.”  But I gave it some thought and eventually came up with our “Commission Chore Chart.”  The kids are still expected to keep their rooms tidy, pick up the toys they play with, and help clear the table at every meal.  But when they complete a task that’s over and above their daily duties, we mark the chart.  At the end of each week, they are rewarded monetarily for their work.

                Our older children, who are almost ten and eight years of age, do fairly well with this system.  Eager to add marks to the chart, they practically beg to mow the lawn, clean the bathrooms, and vacuum the van.  However, it’s not gone so well with our younger children, who are nearly six and four years old.  They dawdle and whine and get so distracted while doing the simpler tasks that are theirs – emptying the dishwasher or folding and putting away their baby brothers’ cloth diapers – that those chores can sometimes take well over an hour.

I could simply not reward the younger children for their shoddy work.  To be honest, this was my approach at first.  But I want them to learn to stay on task and to know the satisfaction of a reward for a job well done.  And so, I help them along, at least verbally, but sometimes physically as well.  “Let’s start with the silverware.  Here, I’ll stack the plates for you.  Do you remember where that pan belongs?”

                A couple of Saturdays ago, as I gave each child the amount he or she had earned for that week, I couldn’t help but shake my head.  Did the younger two really earn anything?  In reality, none of their chores would have been completed without my constant supervision.  But as they pranced away to divvy their dollars, a thought occurred to me.  Their reward is according to grace, just as mine also is.

                The beautiful, centuries-old Heidelberg Catechism summarizes this truth of Scripture this way:

Q.  But why cannot our good works be the whole or part of our righteousness before God?

A.  Because that the righteousness which can be approved of before the tribunal of God must be absolutely perfect, and in all respects conformable to the divine law; and also, that our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.

Q.  What! Do not our good works merit, which yet God will reward in this and in a future life?

A.  This reward is not of merit, but of grace.

Q.  But doth not this doctrine make men careless and profrane?

A.  By no means; for it is impossible that those who are implanted into Christ by a true faith should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness.

Who among us likes to hear that even our best works are defiled sin?  Not one.  But that’s what the Bible teaches.  You don’t “work for Jesus.”  Neither do I.  Rather, it is the Spirit of Jesus Himself Who works in us and through us.  And it’s His own work for which we will be rewarded when we stand before the tribunal of God.  All praise be to Him for such an undeserved, gracious reward!