Rebecca Writes

I've Packed Up

2007-03-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

and moved. Come see me at my new place.

Redemption: From What Are Sinners Delivered?

2007-03-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

In the last post in this series, redemption was defined as release or deliverance by the payment of a price. New Testament redemption, of course, is the deliverance that comes through the work of Christ, with Christ acting the redeemer and his death being the price paid. Redemption is a way of looking at what Christ accomplished on the cross that brings into focus one aspect of the condition of sinners—they are in bondage. The bondage of sinners can be viewed in at least three ways: they are in bondage to the power of sin; they are in bondage to Satan; and they are in bondage to the legal ramifications of their sin.

Bondage to the Power of Sin
Jesus tells us in John 8 that "everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin." There is something about sin that keeps sinners in it's grip. Sin has it's source our constitution (or our make up) and we are powerless to change this. It's the redemption that comes in Christ Jesus that releases us from our captivity to our natural born sinfulness.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) (Romans 6:5-7 NET)

In the "old man"–our natural born state—we are dominated or enslaved by sin, but union with Christ in his death frees us from that domination. Christ's death is redemption from the power of sin.

Redemption, when seen as freedom from bondage to sin, has an "already, not yet" aspect to it. There is a sense in which believers have already been freed from the captivity of sin, and yet another sense in which this redemption from sin is not completed until our glorification, which Paul calls "the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23)." Full and final redemption from everything that came to us as a result of having been born in slavery to sin comes only at the final resurrection.

Bondage to Satan
This is very similar to the idea directly above—that sinners are enslaved by sin. Ephesians 2:2 tells us that a spirit ruled by Satan "is now energizing the sons of disobedience. . . . (NET)" In 2 Timothy 2, Paul says that people are held captive to do Satan's will.

God, on the basis of redemption in Christ, transfers people from Satan's dominion to Christ's own kingdom.

He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13,14 NET)

Then, in Hebrews 2, Christ's death is said to

destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.

The destruction of the devil by Christ releases those held in slavery, so it's through Satan's destruction that sinners are redeemed from their bondage to him.

It isn’t, then, because of a payment to Satan that we are redeemed from bondage, and that’s a point to keep in mind when thinking about redemption as release from bondage to Satan. There is already a precedent for this, for when God redeemed his people from their slavery in Egypt, he didn’t make a ransom payment to Pharoah. What Pharoah received was crushing judgment at the hand of God, and that judgment brought about the release of the Israelites. Christ’s redemption of sinners from the power of Satan is set against this backdrop, and we should think of it as something similar. Christ redeems sinners by his triumphant victory over Satan. If, after reading that we are redeemed from bondage to the devil, you have a picture in your mind of God and Satan side by side making a deal for the release of captive sinners, you should erase that picture immediately and replace it with one of Christ crushing Satan.

Bondage to the Legal Ramifications of Sin
Sinners are condemned to death because of their sin, and Christ's death redeems them from this death sentence. The background for the practice of redeeming someone condemned to death is found in the Old Testament law:

But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, and he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death. If a ransom is set for him, then he must pay the redemption for his life according to whatever amount was set for him. (Exodus 21:30 NET)

In this case, the man who owned the habitually goring ox is under a sentence of death for his negligence, but a ransom could be paid instead and he could go free.

The thought of ransom from a legal condemnation is found most noticeably in Galatians 3:13, where it says that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law”; and Colossians 2:14, where we read that “Christ canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us.” However, anywhere that redemption is set in the context of forgiveness of sin or justification, it is redemption from the legal results of sin that is the focus. In addition, when we look at redemption as deliverance from the legal condemnation of our sin, the ransoming work is directed toward God, since it’s his justice, after all, that has condemned us. So in a passage like 1 Timothy 2:6, which connects Christ’s work as ransom payment with his mediatorial work representing human beings to God, there, too, it is probably redemption of the life of someone sentenced to death that is presented.¹

Summary
When we look at the condition of sinners in the light of Christ’s work as redemption, our attention should be directed to their slavery to sin and Satan, and their legal sentence of death.

¹Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, page 194.

Sources
Paul: An Outline of His Theology, Herman Ridderbos.
The Atonement: It's Meaning and Significance, Leon Morris.
The Atonement, John Murray.

Purposes of Christ's Death: Hebrews 2:14-15

2007-03-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

This is another reposting of a piece from the Purposes of Christ's Death series that I began shortly after I started blogging. You can find the other reposts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ's death label at the end of this post.

Today's purpose statement comes from Hebrews 2:14-15:

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. (NET)

The purpose statement in this verse is actually a purpose statement for Christ's incarnation, but the purpose of the incarnation as given is so that Christ could accomplish something through his death. Christ became human just like we are "so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death." Christ had to be just like us and live our sort of life in order to represent us as our high priest and offer himself to God in our place (See verse 17.).

The purpose of this representative death is to defeat the devil. The text describes the devil as "the one who holds the power of death". It was Satan's influence that introduced death into creation, and he continues to work within the sphere of death, bringing about as much death as God allows. Christ's death nullifies Satan's deathly power, so that those who belong to Christ are freed from their subjection to Satan. They no longer are forced to live their lives in fear of death because, through Christ and his work, they have freedom from Satan's power and the hope of eternal life.

Another purpose of Christ's death is to take the power of death away from the devil and, in this way, set people free from their fear of death.

How do we come to be made partakers of the benefits which Christ hath procured?

2007-03-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

We are made partakers of the benefits which Christ hath procured,[1] by the application of them unto us, which is the work especially of God the Holy Ghost.[2]

John 1:11-12
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God . . . .
Titus 3:5-6
. . . he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior . . . .

Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 58

Redemption: What Does It Mean?

2007-03-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

What do you think of when you hear the word redemption? Mostly, I'd say, we think of it as a religious word, although sometimes someone might speak of redeeming a coupon or a bond, but even that is no longer such a common way to speak. My mother may have redeemed her coupons and bonds; I use my coupons and cash in my bonds. Used in the religious sense, my dictionary gives redemption as a synonym for salvation; yet while those words may be general synonyms, used biblically, they're not exact synonyms. Redemption is salvation, for sure, but it's salvation—or deliverance—in a particular way.

Christians who lived when the New Testament was written would have understood the more precise meaning of the redemption words, since for them, these were not necessarily religious words, but words that were part of their everyday language and experience. For the Greeks, the redemption words were used, first of all, for the buying back of prisoners of war by paying a ransom for them, but they were also used for other ways of freeing people. When a slave was set free, for instance, the redemption words could be used even when no money was exchanged.

The early Christian writers, with their Jewish backgrounds, would have been acquainted with the way the idea of redemption was used in the Old Testament, so it's probably a safe bet to say that the Old Testament usage of the words coloured the meaning they gave to the word more than the specific Greek cultural usage. When they read the Septuagint, they would find the Greek redemption words used to translate certain Hebrew words whenever the idea of releasing something by the payment of a price was present.

This idea of payment might not be obvious every time the redemption words are used in the Old Testament, because sometimes the words are used metaphorically. For instance, God is said to have redeemed the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. Now I've read the story, and nowhere do I see that Pharoah received money or any other benefit from God in exchange for the Israelites' freedom. It wasn't really a business transaction, was it?

Yet, as Leon Morris points out, there are some intriguing phrases that often accompany the idea of God's redemption of the Israelites that shows that while this might not be a redemption exchange, it still carried the idea of payment. God is said to redeem his people "with an outstretched arm" (Exodus 6:6) and "with your arm" (Psalm 77:15). It is God's might or power that's in mind here, and God exerts his power on behalf of his people.

. . .[B]ecause he loves his people he puts forth his power. He saves them at cost. It is this that gives the use of the redemption terminology its point. . . . The term may be used metaphorically but the metaphor retains its point. The idea of price-paying is not out of mind.¹

You might say that God expended his power to free the Israelites from slavery, just as long as you don't understand this to mean that God had less power after their redemption than before.

Against the backdrop of the Old Testament, early Christian writers and readers would have understood that redemption and all the associated words had to do with being released by the payment of a price. It wasn't simply deliverance in general, but deliverance that came about at cost to the one redeeming.

Now that we've done a little defining of the biblical term redemption in this post, the plan is to move on in the next to consider from what it is that redemption delivers, and how it is that people are redeemed.
¹The Atonement: It's Meaning and Significance, Leon Morris, page 114.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: A Blessing

2007-03-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

Ellen of The Happy Wonderer has posted an Irish blessing for a new home. Here are a couple of definitions to help you as you read the blessing:

kith: friends and acquaintances
kin: relatives, either by blood or marriage

There are only a few days of March left, so if you have an idea for an Irish themed post, it's now or never. Once you've posted your bit o' Irish, send me the link and I'll link to your post before the end of the month.

Sunday's Hymn: Irish Hymn Writers

2007-03-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I posted a hymn translated by Cecil Alexander, so this week I've decided to post one she wrote herself. Since it's not long until Easter, I chose one that's an Easter hymn.

He is Risen
Said the angel, “He is risen!”
Tell it out with joyful voice:
He has burst His three days’ prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice:
Death is conquered, we are free,
Christ has won the victory.

Come, ye sad and fearful hearted,
With glad smile and radiant brow!
Death’s long shadows have departed;
All our woes are over now,
Due to passion that He bore—
Sin and pain can vex no more.

Come, with high and holy hymning,
Chant our Lord’s triumphant day;
Not one darksome cloud is dimming
Yonder glorious morning ray,
Breaking over the purple east:
Brighter far our Easter feast.

He is risen, He is risen!
He has opened Heaven’s gate:
We are free from sin’s dark prison,
Risen to a holier state;
And a brighter Easter beam
On our longing eyes shall stream.

The tune by Joachim Neander might be familiar to you. You can hear it here.

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

We Sing the Praise of Him Who Died at Magic Statistics. This is another hymn from Irish hymn writer Thomas Kelly, whose biographical sketch you'll find if you follow the hymn link. It was also, Scott tells us, the hymn used as the processional at Christ Church Cathedral in Whitehorse this morning.
Bringing in the Sheaves at IMD 2.0.
The Spirit of Jesus, from the Valley of Vision at Thirsty Theologian
It Is Well With My Soul at joythruChrist. (We sang this hymn at church this morning, so this list contains two hymns sung at Whitehorse churches today.)
Pour Out Thy Spirit From On High at John Dekker's Journal
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove at The Happy Wonderer
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God at Seasonings of the Heart

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-03-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

Monday is oldest son's birthday, so shouldn't today's old photo be one of him? This picture was taken sometime in the spring after he turned two.

He'd been crying before this photo was taken. Can you see the glisten of tears in his eyes? He hadn't wanted to sit by himself away from the rest of his family. As long as he was close to his sister or a parent, he was a sedate child who didn't require a lot of attention, but he did not do well off by himself until he was older.

He was a watcher first, and then a doer. No trial and error learning for this boy. He did a lot of sitting and watching older children play—he was not the sort of toddler who required chasing—and then one day he'd get up and do whatever it was he'd been watching the older kids do. When he was eighteen months old, he hopped on his older sister's trike for the first time and pedaled off slowly, which was his normal speed for everything, but without any struggle to coordinate the pedaling.

He was never one to flit from one activity to another. The summer he was four, his goal was to catch a grasshopper. For hours at a time, for days that turned into weeks, he sneaked around the greenbelt behind our home, crouched over Hamburgler style, cupped hands turned downward and outstretched, stalking the elusive locust. ~~He never did catch one, but t~~*The pursuit kept him busy for almost the whole summer.

He turns 28 on Monday. He still can hyperfocus when he decides he wants to accomplish something, but thankfully, his goals have changed over the years.

*Update: I've been corrected by the locust chaser himself, who says, "I'm pretty sure I caught some." If he did, he didn't show them to me.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: A Legend

2007-03-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad other people are contributing to the Irish theme, because, although I still have a few ideas for Irish posts, my mind's been on other things, like spring cleaning, a post on redemption that has taken way more work than I imagined, and the top secret project mentioned earlier.

So let me point you to The Upward Call, where Kim posts the story of the birth of Cú Chulainn. I love legends, but I don't know the Irish ones, so this story is all new to me.

I hope to have the Saturday's Old Photo post up later today; that is, if I can turn my attention to it. I've been sidetracked over the past couple of days by the redemption post, mainly with distilling all the material down to something that has the length and simplicity of a blog post, and juggling posts, jobs, or clovers is not one of my strengths.

Why don't you help me out and post something Irish for the Everything's Coming Up Irish theme? If you leave me your link in the comments or email it to me, I'll link to it, and be forever grateful.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Ulysses is Omnitemporal

2007-03-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

but in a different way, says missmellifluous, who contributes to our Irish theme by posting part of an essay she wrote on aesthetics and the transcendence of time through art.

I love someone who can kill two birds with one stone.

Why don't you contribute something to this month's Everything's Coming Up Irish theme? Post anything Irishish, and send me the link and I'll link back. No blog? No problem. Put your contribution in the comments to this post and I'll post it before the end of the month.

A Question of Time

2007-03-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

[See update below.]

I've been busy on other projects, one to be unveiled soon, so I haven't had much time to blog. I do have a question for you, though.

What does the word omnitemporal mean? How does it differ from eternal? How does it differ from atemporal?

And who made up that word, anyway? It's not in my spell check, so is it a real word?

Here's one explanation for omnitemporal that's been given: It means "in all times at the same time". I thought time was a succession of moments. How can something be in all of a succession at one point in the succession? Isn't that contradictory?

And yes, that's more than one question. If all times can be at one time, then several questions can be one question. Right?

Help!

Update: Brandon explains some views of God's knowledge in a comment, and helps me identify where the so-called omnitemporal view fits. I found Brandon's explanation fascinating. Perhaps you will, too.

What benefits hath Christ procured by his mediation?

2007-03-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

Christ, by his mediation, hath procured redemption,[1] with all other benefits of the covenant of grace.[2]

Heb. 9:12
. . . he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
II Cor. 1:20
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

Question 57, Westminster Larger Catechism

Everything's Coming Up Irish: A Yeats Poem

2007-03-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

The lovely MissM has posted a poem by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats at the new and improved Regaining Paradise.

Would you like to join in the Everything's Coming Up Irish fun? Post anything related to Ireland or Irish things and send me the link (You can email me, or leave your link in the comments to this post.), then look for a link to your post in one of the upcoming ECUI posts. No blog? No problem. Email me your contribution or leave it in the comments and I'll post what you've contributed in one of the Irish posts.

Hypercalvinists

2007-03-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

You thought they were an extinct bird, didn't you? Nope, they may be rare, but they exist, and the Baptist Board seems to have more than their fair share of them. Right now, I'm in a discussion with someone who doesn't believe in duty-faith. In other words, this person doesn't believe that the non-elect have a duty to believe, which is one of the classic hypercalvinistic beliefs.

Because they are rarish birds, the temptation is to ignore them. The problem in this case is that this hypercalvinist claims to be a Calvinist. Spurgeon, says he, is a "weak Calvinist", while he's the real sort. So there his posts stand, confirming all the suspicions about Calvinism that many noncalvinists already have, and it'd be a mistake to leave him unchallenged.

You don't know what hypercalvinists are? They come in different breeds, but here are two common signs of a true hypercalvinist:

The denial that people have a duty to believe before they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and enabled to believe. This comes from the idea that God can't hold people responsible to do what they are unable to do. In this case, the argument is that the gospel calls people to believe that Christ died specifically for their sins, and since Christ only died for the elect, if people in general have a duty to believe the gospel, they are being held responsible to believe something that is a lie. Therefore, God cannot hold people responsible for not believing the gospel, since the gospel isn't true for them anyway.
Based on the previous point, hypercalvinists deny that there is a universal call or offer in the gospel.

So that's where I was for a while this afternoon. There are some discussions I can take part in without much thought, because I know the various arguments inside, outside, upside down. This isn't one of those. I've never done this before and I've already made a couple of mistakes, but you are welcome to check things out anyway. I figure it'll be a learning experience.

In a related note, someone else in another Baptist Board conversation is arguing that God is the author of sin, and this time it isn't just a terminology thing. This man believes that God causes people to sin in exactly the same way that he causes people to do good: God is ". . . the Agent, or Actor of Sin, or the Doer of a wicked thing", to quote Jonathan Edwards. I'd comment in that one, too, but I can only handle one thread at a time.

Related post: The Authoring of Sin

Purposes of Christ's Death: Titus 2:14 and Ephesians 5: 25-27

2007-03-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

This is another reposting of a piece from the Purposes of Christ's Death series that I began shortly after I started blogging. You can find the other reposts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ's death label at the end of this post.

This post looks at two portions of scripture at once, because the purpose statements in each of these texts are similar.

He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good. (Titus 2:14 NET)

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious--not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27 NET)

The purpose statement in the first verse is "to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good"; and in the second text it is "to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious--not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless."

Since I'm concluding these two purpose statements are similar, you can see that I'm making the assumption that the church and a people who are truly his are roughly equivalent in meaning. Each statement, then, says that a purpose of Christ's death is have a group of people who are pure or spotless. In the first verse, these people are called "a people who are truly his." The idea is ownership. These are people who belong to Christ; they are his treasured possession. In the second text, the group of people are called "the church", and you can see the idea of treasured possession here, as well, because the church is likened to Christ's bride—something He loved in the same way that husbands are encouraged to love their wives, and something that He was willing to give himself to obtain.

In Titus 2:14 it is said that Christ's death was "to set us free." This literally means "to release when a ransom is paid". Christ's death, or his giving himself for us, is intended as a ransom payment whereby His people are released from sin, and also as the basis upon which they are purified. I would take this purification to be that of the sanctifying process, although some might argue that. These purified people who belong to him are then identified by their zealousness for good works. To obtain for himself a purified people, then, is the purpose of Christ's death given to us in this verse.

In the second statement, Christ is also described as having given Himself. He gives Himself on behalf of the church, in order to sanctify her; and then, when she is completely sanctified, He presents her to Himself in all of the glorious purity that has been worked in her based on His own death for her. According to these verses, possessing a purified church is a purpose of Christ's death.

One purpose for Christ's death, then, is for Him to possess a purified people.

Sunday's Hymn: Irish Hymn Writers

2007-03-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

What other hymn could I choose for the Sunday after St. Patrick's Day? These words are translated from the Gaelic poem by the Irish hymn writer Cecil Alexander.

St. Patrick's Breastplate (or St. Patrick's Lorica)

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

---(Listen.)

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-03-17T21:33:00.002-07:00

This is a photo of my father at his home in Tribune, Kansas, when he was a baby. My mother's notes on the back say he was eight months old and the year was 1927. Yes, that's a dress he has on. Back then, in the days of cloth diapers and no plastic pants, little boys wore dresses until they were potty trained.

I have a white baby dress worn by my father hanging up in my bedroom. I don't think it's this dress, because the sleeves seem different on this one.

That looks like a little mission style (or arts and crafts) rocker he's sitting in. If you know about old furniture, you're welcome to correct me. And someone else will have to tell us about the car in the background, too. Furniture and automobile experts are welcome to click on the photo for closer inspection.

I love that my dad is more interested in whatever it is he is holding in his hand than he is in the person holding the camera. Do you suppose they were trying to get him to look up and he was ignoring them?

Within a few months of this photo, my dad's father died after his appendix ruptured, leaving my grandmother a very young widow with two sons, aged 3 and 1. There's more to that story, but I'll save that for another day with another photo.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: St. Patrick's Day Round Up

2007-03-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

On the life and faith of St. Patrick

Irish hymn, blessings and poems

Irish recipes

Corned Beef and Cabbage, with bonus information of St. Patrick's life, at The Happy Wonderer.

Miscellaneous things Irish

Feelin' a Bit Irish Are Ya? at Shook Foil

I'll continue to update throughout the day, so give me your links to St. Patrick's Day posts, please.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Preparing for the Big Day

2007-03-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. Are you ready?

The Galway Piper

Every person in the nation
Or of great or humble station
Holds in highest estimation
Piping Tim of Galway
Loudly he can play or low
He can move you fast or slow
Touch your hearts or stir your toe
Piping Tim of Galway

When the wedding bells are ringing
His the breath to lead the singing
Then in jigs the folks go swinging
What a splendid piper
He will blow from eve to mourn
Counting sleep a thing of scorn
Old is he but not outworn
Know you such a piper?

When he walks the highways pealing
Round his head the birds come wheeling
Tim has carols worth the stealing
Piping Tim of Galway
Thrush and Linnet, finch and lark
To each other twitter "Hark"
Soon they sing from light to dark
Pipings learnt in Galway

---John Renfro Davis

Kim from Hiraeth goes all out for St. Patrick's Day. Here's her St. Patrick's Day menu. She has also posted recipes for many of her menu items, like this one for Oatmeal Currant Scones, or this one for Corned Beef Hash. Check out her blog for many more Irish goodies.

Check your knowledge of things Irish with these quizzes: Irish English or general Irish knowledge.

Doing Our Job

2007-03-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started a fight. I didn't intend to, but I did. For a second or two, I thought it might be the sort of fight that comes to blows, but thankfully, it didn't reach that point. Perhaps you're thinking that this is going to be a story about a couple of young boys—we all know how quickly they can start tussling with each other—but you would be wrong. Nope, this is a story about two grown men, one a hothead and one a gentleman, at the supermarket checkout.

The biggest local supermarket has been short staffed for a long time. That means there are never enough cashiers for the number of shoppers waiting to check out, and this makes for long lines and long waits to buy food. It's predictable by now, but that only makes it more frustrating rather than less, because shoppers arrive at the store expecting things to go badly.

So yesterday I did a little grocery shopping. The line I waited in was surprisingly short. There was only one grocery cart ahead of me—the one of the man who would prove to be a hothead. He checked through without a hitch, paid for his groceries, and began to bag them.

I was next. However, both sides of the checkout stand were full of groceries—the hothead's groceries on my side, and the gentleman's on the other. Since I had just a few items, and by now there was a long line of carts waiting behind me, I told the young cashier that I'd bag my groceries and put them directly into my cart as he checked them through.

Unfortunately, I missed a loaf of bread, and it went scooting on down the line and touched one of the hothead's grocery items. Instead of being angry with me, he became angry at the checkout boy, and he was just a boy. Hothead began yelling at the cashier, and they were vile things he said--the sorts of words intended to be personally hurtful and threatening, not just words expressing frustration or forming a complaint.

The checkout boy said nothing. I don't think he knew how to respond. I was standing right next to the hothead, and it scared me, and I'll admit that I didn't know how to respond. But the gentleman did respond.

He said something like this: "We're all frustrated. We want to get our groceries and get out of here, just like you. There's no need to take it out on this young man. He's just doing his job. Go ahead and complain to the store manager that there aren't enough check-outs open and so you were rushed through. But it's not his fault, so don't yell at him. And there's no need to use the sort of offensive language you are using."

This is the point where things almost came to blows. This hothead didn't like it much that someone had stood up to him. He actually began to move toward the gentleman, but retreated, grabbed his groceries and stormed out of the store.

The incident stayed with me all of yesterday afternoon. It was upsetting. But it was a whole lot less upsetting because someone had acted to stop the threats and mitigate some of the damage they might cause. The gentleman did a good thing.

There's a purpose for telling you this story. Things like this, some less shocking and some way more so, happen all the time. There's an ugly thread weaving through the tapestry of life in this world, a flawed thread that spoils the beauty of whole cloth. Something's quite wrong with things, and we're constantly reminded of it.

The only complete answer is re-creation of the whole cloth—re-creation of flawed human beings and re-creation of a cursed universe—and re-creation isn't something within our power. But the God who cursed, and who will eventually re-create, is also merciful in the here and now. The God who judged creation with perpetual thorns and thistles and will someday redeem the whole of it with a glorious new creation, also graces it presently with sun and rain. The God who intentionally allows each generation to come into the world as natural born wrongdoers and who will, in the end, create a whole new humanity unmarred by sinfulness, also graciously institutes governments right now for the purpose of restraining wrongdoers and encouraging good conduct. God has judged, but at the same time, he is merciful.

And here's where we come in. We are to be merciful as he is merciful. As we work to alleviate the hurt caused by the curse of sin in the world, we are agents of God's mercy toward a world that's turned against him. As sons and daughters of a merciful Father, it's our job to do what we can to mitigate the damage the ugly thread of sin causes in the tapestry of creation, too.

Yes, it may seem futile, since our effort is never completely successful and sometimes it appears as if it does nothing at all. It's easy to grow discouraged. The hug to the mother who lost her 11 month old son after he endured ten surgeries in ten months is entirely inadequate when compared to the depth of her suffering. Yet, in a way that only those who have been through something like it can understand, that hug can a significant light in the darkness. It's not enough, but it's not nothing, either. And it's our job.

Just as it was Adam's job to till the thorns and thistles in order to eat plants grown in the cursed soil, to sweat in order to eat bread, it's our job to work, sweat, and suffer to restrain as much evil and bring as much good into this fallen world as we can. Of top priority, of course, is the gospel, which is a fuller answer to the cursedness than standing up to bullies or hugging a grieving mother. But the God who sent his Son and commissioned us to make disciples also told us to be merciful as he is merciful, and that includes mitigating the effects of wrongdoing and injustice, and alleviating the suffering caused by the curse of sin.

How is Christ to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world?

2007-03-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

Christ is to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world, in that he, who was unjustly judged and condemned by wicked men,[1] shall come again at the last day in great power,[2] and in the full manifestation of his own glory, and of his Father's, with all his holy angels,[3] with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God,[4] to judge the world in righteousness.[5]

Acts 3:14-15
But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
Matt. 24:30
Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Luke 9:26
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Matt. 25:31
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
I Thess. 4:16
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Acts 17:31
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Question 56, Westminster Larger Catechism

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Names and Greetings

2007-03-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Jen of joythruChrist posts her Irish name and tells us the movie that this name brings to mind. Have you found your Irish name? You may want to see if you can find your name on this chart of Irish name meanings, although it does seems to be missing some of the most common Irish names.
Don't forget to send your St. Patrick's Day greetings soon.

Purposes of Christ's Death: 1 Peter 3:18

2007-03-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

This is a repost of another of the old posts looking at the purpose statements for Christ's death given to us in scripture. This time, the purpose statement is found in 1 Peter 3:18:

Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh. (NET)

There are lots of not-so-clear things in the verses after this one, but this particular verse is pretty straight forward. The purpose statement given here for Christ's being put to death—or Christ's suffering for sins—is "to bring you to God." This, of course, is pointing to the reconciliation that Christ's death brings.

Reconciliation goes two ways: God is reconciled to human beings, and human beings are reconciled to God. Christ, the just one, suffers in place of the unjust ones (that would be sinners like you and me), and on the basis of what is accomplished by his vicarious suffering, the sin that stands between God and sinners is taken out of the way. Because of Christ death, God can reach out to cause sinners to be reconciled to himself. Sinners can be brought to God because Christ died.

Another purpose for Christ's death is to bring people to God.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: An Irish Name and a Little More History

2007-03-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

Carla points her readers to a place where we can get our own Irish Names. Here's mine:

Your Irish Name Is...

Sorcha O'Donnell
What's your Irish Name?

I think I'll stick with the name I've got, thank you.
Candy of Shook Foil posts a few facts about the history of Celtic Christianity.

Bookmark this Meme

2007-03-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Kim of Hiraeth has a new business venture, selling custom, handmade bookmarks featuring her beautiful calligraphy. She's introducing her new site with a meme—a book meme, of course.

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
I like hardback best (who doesn't?), but I read a lot of paperback. They cost less, and they're easier to get.
Online purchase or brick and mortar?
Mostly online. The chance that the bookstore here in town is going to have the book I want in stock is pretty slim.
Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Neither. If I shop in a store, it's at the used book store or Mac's Fireweed Books.
Bookmark or dog-ear?
I use one of these.

Mark or not mark?
I mark them up and doodle in them.
Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?
I put them on the shelves by subject or type of book (mostly), but I do make allowance for size, and when I have several books by one author I try to keep them together. In other words, I have my own weird system that I understand, but confuses everyone else.
Keep, throw away, or sell?
I never throw away. If I know I'll never look at it again, I donate it or sell it at a garage sale. The rest, I keep.
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Read it with the dustjacket.
Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?
I don't read short stories enough to have an opinion on this.
Lord of the Rings or Narnia
Once again, I'm going to avoid answering. I like them both. They're different sorts of books, and they serve different purposes.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I stop reading whenever a crisis arises that requires my attention.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
"Once upon a time."
Buy or Borrow?
Buy. If I borrowed it, I'd have to give it back.
New or used?
Used, but in good condition, if I can find it.
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse?
All of the above.
Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Tidy ending. I hate cliffhangers and feel cheated if there is one.
Morning reading, afternoon reading or night time reading?
Mostly night time, but also whenever I can sneak in a few minutes throughout the day. I love reading in the car while I wait to pick someone up, or reading while I wait for an appointment.
Standalone or series?
Mostly standalone.
Favorite series?
I really haven't read books in series since I was young. The Narnia books or the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, maybe.
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
I usually read classics, so at least some people have heard of them. They may not have read them, but they've heard of them.
Favorite books read last year?
I read Knowing God again, and that's always a favorite.
Favorite book of all time?
Nothing else compares to the Bible.

Sunday's Hymn: Irish Hymn Writers

2007-03-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Beneath the Cross

Beneath the cross of Jesus
I find a place to stand,
And wonder at such mercy
That calls me as I am;
For hands that should discard me
Hold wounds which tell me, "Come."
Beneath the cross of Jesus
My unworthy soul is won.

Beneath the cross of Jesus
His family is my own—
Once strangers chasing selfish dreams,
Now one through grace alone.
How could I now dishonor
The ones that You have loved?
Beneath the cross of Jesus
See the children called by God.

Beneath the cross of Jesus—
The path before the crown—
We follow in His footsteps
Where promised hope is found.
How great the joy before us
To be His perfect bride;
Beneath the cross of Jesus
We will gladly live our lives.

---Keith and Kristyn Getty

From Kristyn Getty:

A friend from Westminster Seminary inspired us in the thought of how the cross is not just something in our past providing a way for our salvation, nor is it only providing a secure hope for the future in Heaven, but actually it should impact everything we do today. When we come to the cross, we don't just stand there by ourselves—we stand with thousands of people from every tribe and tongue under the same Savior and same grace. Considering how unworthy I am coming to the cross, and finding I am forgiven, how can I then turn and look at others and dishonor them or somehow think I am better than they are?

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah at IMD 2.0.
A Hymn from Isaac Watts and more at Thirsty Theologian
Take Up Thy Cross at Magic Statistics
Update: Thou Art the Way at Fish and Cans

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-03-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

I was going to use another photo, thinking there'd been enough of them featuring me, me, me. But hey! Tomorrow's my birthday, and the word's already out, so if ever there was an appropriate time for one more photo of me as a child, this was it.

I'm guessing I'm four in this photo and that would make the year 1959. The house in the background is the ranch hand's home on my uncle's ranch, the P Lazy P, in Gannet, Idaho. We lived there while my dad helped my uncle with the ranch work and my mother cooked for the crew in the big kitchen of the beautiful log ranch house my uncle built by himself.

I amused myself outdoors while my mother worked indoors. There were always animals around--dogs, kittens, chickens--and people working. Sometimes I helped collect eggs, and sometimes I hung on the outside of the corral and watched the horse training or the calf branding. Another thing that fascinated me was the artesian well right outside the fenced-in yard, which gushed water from a 4 inch pipe and made a little stream that ran out into the field.

My family continued to go to the ranch in the summer whenever we could. My dad had been a cowboy, so he loved being there during round up, and my mother loved visiting all her relatives who lived nearby. The ranch was only twenty miles from the Sun Valley ski area, and eventually the area became a place for the rich and famous to have a vacation home. It became more and more difficult to keep cattle on the open range, so my uncle sold the ranch to someone with Hollywood connections and he moved further west to the Wallowa area of Oregon.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Irish Articles of Religion

2007-03-09T18:53:00.000-08:00

The Irish Articles of Religion are an important piece in the history of Protestantism in Ireland, and, as we will see, in the history of Protestantism as a whole. These 104 articles were put together by James Ussher, and adopted, as it's introduction says,

by the Archbishops and Bishops
and the rest of the clergy of Ireland.
In the Convocation held at Dublin in the year of our Lord God 1615,
for the avoiding of Diversities of Opinions,
and the establishing of consent touching true Religion.

This document was a rule of public doctrine, and all Irish Protestent ministers were expected to teach in conformity to it. It served this purpose for twenty years, until public opinion turned against its strict Calvinism during the rein of Charles I. In 1635, the Irish Convocation adopted The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, and although it was agreed at the time that both The Thirty-Nine Articles and The Irish Articles would be used, that was the beginning of the end of the use of The Irish Articles as a rule of doctrine.

But that wasn't the end of this historic document's influence. It's generally agreed that The Irish Articles served as the framework for The Westminster Confession of Faith, with the WCF using the general order of The Irish Articles, and retaining some of its language while expanding upon its ideas.

See for yourself. Here's Article 11 of The Irish Articles of Religion:

11. God from all eternity did by his unchangeable counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass: yet so, as thereby no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable creatures, and neither the liberty nor the contingency of the second causes is taken away, but established rather.

If you've spent much time reading The Westminster Confession of Faith, that paragraph probably sounds familiar to you. Chapter 3, Article 1 of the WCF says this:

1. God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

Let's move on to the next section in The Irish Articles and compare that with Chapter 3, articles 3 and 4 of the WCF.

From The Irish Articles:
12. By the same eternal counsel God hath predestinated some unto life, and reprobated some unto death: of both which there is a certain number, known only to God, which can neither be increased nor diminished.
From The Westminster Confession of Faith:
3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death.
4. These angels and men, thus predestinated and fore-ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it can not be either increased or diminished.

And you thought those Westminster Divines drew up the WCF all on their own, didn't you?

Unfortunately for James Ussher, he might be remembered more for being the man who dated the creation of the world to 4004 BC than for his role in creating The Irish Articles, or for contributing, through them, to The Westminster Confession of Faith.

Would you like to this month's Everything's Coming Up Irish theme? Post anything related to Ireland or Irish things and send me the link (You can email me, or leave your link in the comments to this post.), then look for a link to your post in one of the upcoming ECUI posts. No blog? No problem. Email me your contribution or leave it in the comments and I'll post what you've contributed in one of the Irish posts.

Purposes of Christ's Death: Romans 3:24-25

2007-03-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about reposting a series of posts I did way back in 2004 when I first started blogging. It's a series that looks at the scriptural purpose statements given for Christ's death—you know, any statements about Christ's atoning work that include the words "so that" or "for this reason" or "to this end" or something similar.

Since I'm sick today, I thought this might be a good day to start recycling. I'll edit each one up a bit as I repost it.

First up—Romans 3:24 and 25:

....whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (ESV)

You'll find the purpose statement in this text stated twice, but a little differently:

This was to show God's righteousness . . .

and

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

One of the purposes of Christ's death, according to these verses, was to demonstrate God's righteousness. The word translated just in the second statement could be translated righteous, as well; so the last half of this statement is explaining in more detail the way it is that Christ's propitiatory death shows God to be righteous: It is a way for him remain righteous and, at the same time, count sinners as righteous.

The problem, as the verse lays it out, is that God's passing over previously committed sins could raise doubts about his righteousness. The former sins referred to are the sins that God left unjudged in the time before Christ's death, and it would be unrighteous (or unjust) for God, in his role as judge, to simply shove these wrongdoings under the rug. We usually think of injustice in terms of finding someone guilty for crimes not committed, but it is also unjust to ignore crimes someone has committed. Therefore, there needs to be a right or just way for these sins to be overlooked.

And that's what Christ's death accomplishes; that's one of its purposes. It is the historical event that makes God's forbearance in previous times right. That Christ died means that sin was never simply ignored, but there was a righteous way for it to be passed over, and this righteous way was the means of propitiation that would come through Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. It is because of Christ's propitiatory death that God can withhold his righteous wrath against sinners and count them righteous instead; yet still be completely just in everything he does. Christ's death absorbs the retributive wrath of God that is made necessary by human sin, and in this way his death demonstrates to all people that God is righteous even when he mercifully forgives sin and justifies sinners.

Demonstrating that God passed over sin in a way that is righteous or just is one of the purposes of Christ's death.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: A Song, A Quote, and A Quiz

2007-03-08T15:20:00.000-08:00

I'm a little sick—just a cold, but a very annoying cold. I'm in no condition for thoughtful blogging, so I'm grateful to these bloggers who've contributed something Irish for me to link to.

Kim of The Upward Call posts a song that I'll call an Irish lament.
Missmellifluous, who knows much more about Irish literature than I do, contributes a post called "in which I succumb to the ineluctable attraction of irish literature." How's that for a title?
Island Sparrow has taken a quiz to find out how Irish she is. Why don't you find out how Irish you are? Me? I scored 25% Irish, and I exaggerated to get a higher score.

Round the Sphere Again

2007-03-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

A collection of links to things I've found interesting recently.

Theology

God's holiness considered at Historia Ecclesiastica
The Crusty Curmudgeon has a pop theology quiz involving a Jack Chick tract. See if you can answer the question without peeking at the comments first.
Carla writes about Sola Scriptura.

Unity

At Pyromaniacs: Unity Across Denominational Lines. This is the last in a series of four posts on the subject of unity. You'll find links to the first three in the linked post, and they're all recommended reads.

Blogging

A hat tip to Jollyblogger for pointing me to this list from ProBlogger of 34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubscibe From Your Blog. I don't often remove a subscription to a blog on my blogroll because I read a blog for a while to make sure that I enjoy the content before I put it on the list of blogs I read. The most frequent reason that I take a blog off my blogroll is that the blog is dead: there's never anything new there anymore. Another reason that I might unsubscribe is that there is too much carping, whining, or ranting. I don't mind people speaking out against things, but if the tone gets consistently shrill, I'll stop reading.

How doth Christ make intercession?

2007-03-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Christ maketh intercession, by his appearing in our nature continually before the Father in heaven,[1] in the merit of his obedience and sacrifice on earth,[2] declaring his will to have it applied to all believers;[3] answering all accusations against them,[4] and procuring for them quiet of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings,[5] access with boldness to the throne of grace,[6] and acceptance of their persons [7] and services.[8]

Heb. 9:12, 24
. . . he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Heb. 1:3
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high . . . .
John 3:16
For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 17:9, 20, 24
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word . . .

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Rom. 8:33-34
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Rom. 5:1-2
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

I John 2:1-2
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Heb. 4:16
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Eph. 1:6
. . .to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
I Peter 2:5
. . . you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Question 55, Westminster Larger Catechism

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Art, History, and a Little Cream in My Coffee

2007-03-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

Candy of Shook Foil has a whole collection of Irish images and a video of her favorite Irish worship leader.
Ellen B. has a bit of Irish history regarding the Isle of Ilona.
Last night, my home Bible study group had a bit of a communal birthday party. Five of the less than a dozen people who attend have birthdays during the eight day period from last Sunday to this coming Sunday, and that five includes me. Because it's Irish month on my blog, I got a little bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, which I will be using occasionally to spice up my coffee during this month.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Poetry and History

2007-03-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

I've gone with orange for the border on this post, because included in it is a poem contributed by Kevin—a poem written by his mother, who grew up in the Methodist church in Northern Ireland. I'll let Kevin tell you the story behind it.

My mother wrote this about a year before she passed away. At the time she was attending a class at a day home for seniors. She thought the people in her class did not have a good understanding of St. Patrick, so she wrote a poem.

Here's May Greenshield's poem, written in May of 2003. She passed away, Kevin says, in January of 2004:

When St. Patrick came to Ireland
To set the people free
He used the little Shamrock
To teach them of the love of God
Who was the "One in Three"

Next up, Kim of The Upward Call has posted a little more Irish poetry, along with a little history of the Easter Rebellion.

I just posted a hymn by Thomas Kelly, an Irish hymn writer. I suppose that's Irish poetry, too.

Sunday's Hymn: Irish Hymn Writers

2007-03-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

Since the theme for the month is everything Irish, I thought I'd feature hymns by Irish hymn writers. This one's written by Thomas Kelly, an Irish Anglican priest who became one of the Irish dissenters. It was one of my mother's favorite hymns.

Praise The Savior, Ye Who Know Him!
Praise the Savior, ye who know Him!
Who can tell how much we owe Him?
Gladly let us render to Him
All we are and have.

Jesus is the Name that charms us,
He for conflict fits and arms us;
Nothing moves and nothing harms us
While we trust in Him.

Trust in Him, ye saints, forever,
He is faithful, changing never;
Neither force nor guile can sever
Those He loves from Him.

Keep us, Lord, O keep us cleaving
To Thyself, and still believing,
Till the hour of our receiving
Promised joys with Thee.

Then we shall be where we would be,
Then we shall be what we should be,
Things that are not now, nor could be,
Soon shall be our own.

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

Near the Cross at Seasonings of the Heart
Arise, My Soul, Arise at IMD 2.0.
God the Spirit from The Valley of Vision at Thirsty Theologian
The Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent at Magic Statistics
Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven at Jam and Books
Update: Great is Thy Faithfulness at Aim to Please Him

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-03-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

It's cold out, so this picture seemed appropriate for today's old photo. My sister and I are showing off our brand new parkas in this family picture. We'd just moved to Minnesota that fall, and the coats we'd used back in Illinois weren't appropriate for the colder northern winters, so we'd gone with my mother to J. C. Penney's to buy us each a parka.

These are what we picked out. If I were writing this unprompted by my mother's notes on the back of the photo, I'd tell you that the coats were a lovely shade of blue, and then I'd pat myself on the back for my accurate, detailed memory of my childhood. However, my mother's notes say they were red, and you can trust her on that. That is, I guess, a little warning to us all that while I'm always certain that what I write in these little pieces is factual, I can get my facts wrong.

I remember loving the fuzzy feel of these parkas. I wore mine for a couple of years before I outgrew it, and then my poor sister got my hand-me-down, so she wore the same parka, just different sizes, for four years.

When we moved to Minnesota, we lived in the parsonage at Northern Bible Chapel. The pastor of the church owned his own home, so my dad and mom cleaned the church in exchange for a deal on renting the parsonage. On our first Christmas there, which would have come a month or so after this picture was taken, Mr. Klein, an elderly man from the church who didn't get out much because he couldn't leave his sick wife for long, knocked on the door and delivered a package for each of us girls. He'd bought us little white zippered Bibles—the very first Bibles we owned.

Everything's Coming Up Irish

2007-03-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

Have you been wondering what March's theme would be here at Rebecca Writes? I've been so busy with other things that I forgot to introduce it. So here you go!

March on this blog is a celebration of everything Irish: Irish songs, Irish poems, videos of Irish jigs, or anything else with an Irish connection. As always, I need your participation. If you post anything Irish on your blog this month, send me the link and I'll link back to you in one of the Everything's Coming Up Irish posts.

The painting on the right is Mrs Lavery sketching, an oil on canvas by Irish artist Sir John Lavery. John Lavery's wife served as his model on many of his paintings, including the Irish colleen designed by John Lavery for the Series A banknotes printed from 1928 to 1976.

Still Winter After All These Months

2007-03-02T00:36:00.001-08:00

Now It Comes Out

2007-02-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

In the comments of Monday's post on the Baptist Board discussion I was participating in, I mentioned that

[w]hat really bothers me about the system being put forward in that thread is that it makes God unjust. People don't go to hell because God has just grounds for sending them there. After all, according to this theory, justice has been satisfied on behalf of every person

After I wrote that, I felt a little bit guilty, because although I could see that logically, this is where the so-called system was leading, it hadn't actually been said yet. Well, now it has. From the proponent the view under discussion:

Justice can condemn, but one can be condemned apart from any concept of justice as well. God has satisfied justice through His own sacrifice on our behalf. However, that is not the only way someone can be condemned, as the Bible clearly shows.

Well, yes, one can be condemned apart from any concept of justice, if the judge is an unjust judge.

By the way, this isn't typical universal atonement (You know, the unlimited side of the unlimited vs. limited atonement discussion!), which has God's justice satisfied potentially on behalf of every person, but only actually satisfied on condition of faith. Here's a short summary of the usual version of universal atonement, taken from this comparison chart.

Christ's redeeming work made it possible for everyone to be saved but did not actually secure the salvation of anyone. Although Christ died for all men and for every man, only those who believe on Him are saved. His death enabled God to pardon sinners on the condition that they believe, but it did not actually put away anyone's sins. Christ's redemption becomes effective only if man chooses to accept it.

Notice that universal atonement does not "actually put away anyone's sins", except as a person comes to faith. In that way, universal atonement does not have God condemning people who have no crimes counted against them. Neither does limited atonement, which has Christ's redeeming work putting away only the sins of his people. Limited vs. unlimited atonement is not the real issue here.

Update, March 1: No blogging today because I'm still working hard at this BB discussion. Leslie (see comments) took the time to read through the whole thing. As she says, there's some convoluted thinking there.

One example: In response to my statement that God can't condemn someone without just cause, we have this:

I’m sorry, but God can do what He wants.

I know a lot of people question the value of these sorts of discussions. I think that if you have the stomach for this sort of thing, and a rather thick skin, you can learn a lot from participating. At the very least, you'll solidify what you already know. When someone comes up with some rather novel idea, as in the case in this discussion, all the better, because you can't rely entirely on the apologetic work that others have done. When you have to develop the arguments yourself, you know what you know.

However, it's not for everyone, and it can be time consuming, which is why I began blogging and mostly gave up discussion boards. Blogging takes so much less time!

Children's Poetry: Wrapping Up With Emily

2007-02-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

The last two contributions to Children's Poetry Month are poems by Emily Dickinson, so I'll join in and contribute one from this hauntingly mysterious poet, too.

Jen of joythruChrist has The Daisy Follows Soft the Sun.
Kim from Hireath posts one she learned along with her son a few years ago.
And here's one of my favorites.:
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

I'll entertain guesses as to what March's theme will be. Except from Pam, who already knows.

How is Christ exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God?

2007-02-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God, in that as God-man he is advanced to the highest favor with God the Father,[1] with all fulness of joy,[2] glory,[3] and power over all things in heaven and earth;[4] and doth gather and defend his church, and subdue their enemies; furnisheth his ministers and people with gifts and graces,[5] and maketh intercession for them.[6]

Phil. 2:9
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name . . .
Acts 2:28
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.
Psa. 16:11
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
John 17:5
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Eph. 1:22
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church . . . .
I Peter 3:22
. . . who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
Eph. 4:10-12
He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ . . . .
Psa. 110:1
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Rom. 8:34
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Question 54, Westminster Larger Catechism

Children's Poetry: Swinging and Sailing

2007-02-26T12:36:00.000-08:00

Recent contributions on the theme of Children's Poetry:

Rosemary posts a children's classic from Robert Louis Stevenson.
Billy the Blogging Poet has written a whole blog of kid's poems. Try this one: The Great Gravy Boat.

There are only a few more days in February, so if you've planned to play along with the Children's Poetry theme, you'd better get on it right away. If you've posted a poem for kids, send me the link. Don't have a blog? Don't let that stop you! Post your poem in the comments of this post, and I'll use it.

I've Been Amusing Myself

2007-02-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

by participating in a discussion on the Baptist Board. This one's called atonement/justice and forgiveness, and the atonement theory put forward seems to be exactly the same one I posted about in the olden days when I first started blogging. So, of course, I couldn't pass the discussion by. (I go by russell55 on that board. At the time I signed up there, my first choices for name were taken, so that's my maiden name plus my birth year.)

In addition to being centered around an atonement theory I've already studied up on, this discussion is a rich source of the same kind of statements discussed in the series I posted recently called Thinking About Faith Alone and Christ Alone. (You can access all those posts from that link.) Here are some I could have added to the collection discussed there:

Man's sin is paid for in advance but, the condition [for salvation] isn't only having our sins paid for. You see that condition has been paid but, if there is no repentance and confession. The rest of the entire condition [for salvation] has not been met.

Can you see how this statement is a denial of Solus Christus, which affirms that what Christ did is sufficient for our salvation?

How about this?

Yet there is ONE sin that is UNPARDONABLE - Rejection of the Son - UNBELIEF

Yep, another denial of Solus Christus by the denial of the sufficiency of Christ's work. Christ's work was not sufficient grounds upon which the sin of unbelief could be pardoned.

Want more? The brackets in this one are original.

The atonement was done for all time for all in Christ Jesus. . . .

But since we did not sacrifice ourselves, thereby personally asking forgiveness, forgiveness became a different thing -- a personal thing. If not, then John would have never needed to say that if we confess our sins [then] He is faithful to forgive them. That is indeed an if/then proposition and not an accomplished fact on the Cross.

Christ's atonement, if this statement is true, is not sufficient grounds for forgiveness. We must add our confession to his work, thereby providing some of the grounds by which we are pardoned.

I could go on, but I won't. I have a life. At least I think I do.

Sunday's Hymn: Romans 8: 31-39

2007-02-25T17:07:00.000-08:00

One last hymn in the series of hymns that paraphrase or allude to Romans 8:31-39.

The Savior Died, But Rose Again
The Savior died, but rose again
Triumphant from the grave;
And pleads our cause at God’s right hand,
Omnipotent to save.

Who, then, can e’er divide us more
From Jesus and His love;
Or break the sacred chain that binds
The earth to Heav’n above?

Let troubles rise, and terrors frown,
And days of darkness fall;
Through Him all dangers we’ll defy,
And more than conquer all.

Nor death, nor life, nor earth nor hell,
Nor time’s destroying sway,
Can e’er efface us from His heart,
Or make His love decay.

---Scottish Paraphrases

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

In Christ Alone at Seasonings of the Heart
I Know Thee Who Thou Art at IMD 2.0.
Holy Three in One, and more, at Thirsty Theologian
Jesus, Lover of My Soul at Magic Statistics
Holy, Holy, Holy, twice, at John Dekker's Journal
There is a Fountain at Jam and Books
How Deep the Father's Love for Us at Hiraeth

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-02-24T22:06:00.000-08:00

When oldest son was in grade 8, he flew with his dad to Togiak, Alaska, a fly-in village in southwest Alaska, to see his dad's best friend from his school days back in Crosby, Minnesota. Steve, the friend, lived near Togiak with his family for a few years, teaching in a couple of schools around that area.

Togiak has excellent fishing, and here they are with a couple of salmon. When it came to catching halibut, dad was the king, but that's a story for another day. You can see who caught the biggest salmon!

Oldest son was in the process of growing his hair long. He grew it until it reached the middle of his back and wore it that way for a few years. At this stage, however, it was just long enough to curl up underneath his cap, and it was, as you can see, quite blond.

On the flight to Togiak, oldest son and his dad were the only passengers on the plane. On the way there, the plane made it's regular supply stop in a tiny village. Every time the plane came, it was customary for most of the people in the village to come out to meet it. It was, I'm told, the big event of the week. Not only was it exciting to get the stuff the plane dropped off, but the pilot had a light complexion, and the villagers, being used to darker people, found him particularly interesting.

But this time, instead of just a little giggling, they were laughing out loud and pointing at the plane. All of them. The pilot turned around and looked at oldest son. "Buddy," he said, "they've never seen anything like you!"

Sort of related church history note: The church Steve and his family attended in Togiak was Moravian. The Moravians, who were descendents of Jon Hus, a pre-reformation reformer and martyr, were early missionaries in these remote regions of Alaska. In many of the villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Alaska, the only church is a Moravian one.

Children's Poetry: Nash and More in the Morning

2007-02-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

Morning Prayer

Now another day is breaking,
Sleep was sweet and so is waking.
Dear Lord, I promised you last night
Never again to sulk or fight.
Such vows are easier to keep
When a child is sound asleep.
Today, O Lord, for your dear sake,
I'll try to keep them when awake.

---Ogden Nash

Other contributions of children's poetry:

Much more Ogden Nash at The Upward Call
Winter Walk at A Sparrow's Home
Why Computers Sometimes Crash at Hiraeth
Update: And Lydia has contributed a few more poems: Another riddle, a poem about the lion that gets it just a little bit wrong, and part of The Farmer's Round.

And it's so much more fun when everyone contributes to the monthly theme here on the blog, so if you've posted a poem for kids, send me the link. Don't have a blog? Don't let that stop you! Post your poem in the comments of this post, and I'll use it.

Propitiation: What It Means, and Simpler Translation Possibilities

2007-02-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post that brought up the subject of propitiation, but at that time, I didn't write anything about the meaning of the word propitiation because it wasn't necessary to do so in order to make the point of that particular post. Propitiation is a good word, but it's not one that's used in everyday language, is it? I'd be willing to bet that if you did street interviews asking random people to define propitiation, you'd go a long time before you found someone who could define it properly.

So what does it mean? It's a word that's used in some versions of the Bible in the translation of a family of Greek words: hilasmos and other words related to it. It may be that you use a translation that doesn't used the word propitiation at all, since many versions make other translational choices. Still, it's a good thing to understand what it means, at the very least in order to understand this facet of what Christ's death accomplished for us. Propitiation and the Greek words it translates have to do with turning away or appeasing anger. It has everything to do with dealing with anger or wrath, and in the New Testament, it's God's wrath that is being turned away or propitiated.

Propitiation is a personal word. Let me quote Leon Morris:

. . . [I]f we speak of propitiation we are thinking of a personal process. We are saying that God is angry when people sin and that, if they are to be forgiven, something must be done about that anger. We are further saying that the death of Christ is the means of removing the divine wrath from sinners.*

Despite the fact that it's a five syllable uncommon word, it's not really a difficult concept, is it?

There are scholars, as you might expect, who disagree that the words translated by propitiation must carry with them the idea of divine wrath, at least as far as the wrath of God refers to anything more than impersonal natural consequences of sin. I've read some of the arguments and I didn't find them very convincing. It seems the whole case rests, first of all, on the assumption that the wrath of God is not something personal, but rather an impersonal process of cause (in this case, sin) and effect (disasters and other things deemed to be sin's natural consequences). Then, given that assumption, examples are collected, from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) and other sources, where hilaskomai and other related words wouldn't necessarily have to carry the idea of wrath. All in all, without the assumption that God doesn't have personal wrath, it seems a rather weak argument. After all, just because a word might not need to carry an idea in a certain context doesn't mean that it doesn't carry that idea. You don't define words by what they might not mean in certain places.

If you take scripture seriously, it's hard to take seriously the assumption that God doesn't have personal wrath. Even in the New Testament, we find significant mention of God's wrath, and it certainly seems to be something more than just the natural or impersonal consequence of sin. Rather, God's wrath is frequently used–or so it would seem to me–in relation to God's personal action in response to sin. God is said, for instance, to give people over to the results of their sin, and the wrath of God is said to be revealed from heaven against unrighteousness (See Romans 1).

If you allow from the get-go that God has personal wrath against sin and sinners, then we need something that turns his wrath away from us. We need all those hilasmos related words to be propitiation, and nothing less than that. We don't need to use the exact word propitiation, but we need something that means it.

And I'm of the opinion that since propitiation isn't an English word that's commonly used, it's a good idea to have a few translations that use more common words to express the same idea. It's easy enough to say that everyone should just learn and remember what the word means, but not everyone will; and, for various reasons, not everyone does well with big uncommon words.

If we were to replace propitiation with something else in order to make things simpler to understand, what would be a good substitute? The word expiation isn't the best replacement for two reasons. First of all, I doubt that expiation is much clearer in meaning for most people than propitiation. Secondly, expiation doesn't mean exactly the same thing as propitiation, since it doesn't specifically have to do with turning away personal wrath. In fact, this particular substitute comes out of the argument that God's wrath is simply the impersonal natural consequences of sin.

In some translations, means of propitiation or propitiation in Romans 3:25 is replaced by mercy seat or sacrifice of atonement. Neither of these necessarily carry with them in the common understanding the idea of averting God's personal wrath, although technically, they probably do. But what they mean technically doesn't help when our goal is to have things stated in commonly understood language. Translations that talk about Christ taking away sin or being a sacrifice for sin aren't good replacements for propitiation in this verse, either, since they don't necessarily carry the whole meaning of propitiation, and understanding the whole deal is especially important when the context of the word is an argument for every single person being an object of God's wrath. My own favorite replacement for the difficult term means of propitiation in this verse is found in the footnotes of the NIV: the one who would turn aside his [God's] wrath.

Some wording similar to this would probably work in every place–there are only four of them–where propitiation is used in the New Testament. In Hebrews 2:17, where Christ, as priest, is said to make propitiation, we might say that he "turns away God's wrath." In 1 John 2:2, "he is the propitiation" could be "he is the one who turns away God's wrath." Same thing in 1 John 4:11: "the propitiation" becomes "the one who would turn away God's wrath."

I suppose, if you were a translator, you'd be hoping for a phrase with less words than this, but I can't think of a simpler way to do it without losing some of the meaning of the original language. What do you think? What word or words would you suggest to communicate the whole meaning of the original, which includes the idea of God's personal wrath against sin, without using the word propitiation? Or perhaps you'd prefer to always keep the word propitiation. If so, why not explain why you think that's the best option?

*Leon Morris, The Atonement: It's Meaning and Significance, page 152.

The Amazing Grace Movie and Canada Games

2007-02-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

~~If I read things right, t~~*Tomorrow is the ~~Whitehorse~~ opening of Amazing Grace, a movie about British abolitionist William Wilberforce. Carolyn McCulley gives it a thumbs up, but suggests John Piper's little book–you know, the one I reviewed here–as a supplement to the movie.

Tomorrow is also the opening of the 2007 Canada Games, which are being held right here in Whitehorse this time round. Youngest daughter works a little at the Hougen's ticket office, and she says that tickets are still available to most events. Men's hockey (finals and semifinals) and the opening ceremonies are sold out, but there is room for you in almost everything else. Her recommendation is for the boxing, which organizers say is usually sold out right away, but so far, there hasn't been much interest here.

And remember, purchasing a day or week pass gets you into preliminary events as long as there is room for you. (Ticket details here.) Since there won't be parking for you at most of the venues, have someone drop you off or take the bus.

*I read things wrong, and apparently it is not coming here, at least not now. Those of you who live in the civilized part of the world will be able to see it. Thanks to Scott Gilbreath for sniffing out the truth.

Children's Poetry: Reader's Edition

2007-02-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

In the comments, Judy contributes two poems by Eleanor Farjeon from her kindergarten teaching days.

What lovely names for girls there are!
There's Stella like the Evening Star,
And Sylvia like a rustling tree,
And Lola like a melody,
And Flora like a flowery morn,
And Sheila like a field of corn,
And Melusina like the moan
Of water. And there's Joan, like Joan.

What splendid names for boys there are!
There's Carol like a rolling car,
And Martin like a flying bird,
And Adam like the Lord's first word,
And Raymond like the Harvest Moon,
And Peter like a piper's tune,
And Alan like the flowing on
Of water. And there's John, like John

Jen of joythruChrist posts yet another cat poem by T. S. Eliot. In this house, we use simpler names for our cats, by the way.

Violet posts another one of her magnificent originals: My Place.

William Meisheid composed a poem with the boy-girl theme for us and put it in the comments:

Girls are soft, with rounded edges
Boys are hard, and burst through hedges

Girls will cry, and it ruins their day
Boys will sniffle, and be on their way

Girls all giggle, but mostly hold it in
Boys all guffah, with a sidesplitting grin

Girls be girls, and who can define?
Boys be boys, and mellow like wine

Isn't that fun?

Children's Poetry: Four for Boys

2007-02-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

I'm nothing, if not evenhanded. First, we answer the constitutional question. (Well, at least we attempt to answer it. There are several recipes for boys, it seems.)

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

And then we have a misbehaving male child, although this wild boy's parents seem positively wimpy compared to our horrid girl's emphatic mother.

The Story of Fidgety Philip

"Let me see if Philip can
Be a little gentleman;
Let me see if he is able
To sit still for once at table:"
Thus Papa bade Phil behave;
And Mamma looked very grave.
But fidgety Phil,
He won't sit still;
He wriggles,
And giggles,
And then, I declare,
Swings backwards and forwards,
And tilts up his chair,
Just like any rocking-horse-
"Philip! I am getting cross!"

See the naughty, restless child
Growing still more rude and wild,
Till his chair falls over quite.
Philip screams with all his might,
Catches at the cloth, but then
That makes matters worse again.
Down upon the ground they fall,
Glasses, plates, knives, forks, and all.
How Mamma did fret and frown,
When she saw them tumbling down!
And Papa made such a face!
Philip is in sad disgrace.

Where is Philip, where is he?
Fairly covered up you see!
Cloth and all are lying on him;
He has pulled down all upon him.
What a terrible to-do!
Dishes, glasses, snapped in two!
Here a knife, and there a fork!
Philip, this is cruel work.
Table all so bare, and ah!
Poor Papa, and poor Mamma
Look quire cross, and wonder how
They shall have their dinner now.

---Heinrich Hoffman

And from Robert Louis Stevenson:

Looking Forward

When I am grown to man's estate
I shall be very proud and great,
And tell the other girls and boy
Not to meddle with my toys.

Here's a classic that seems to have special appeal to young men. My husband liked it from the time he learned it in elementary school.

O Captain! My Captain!

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

---Walt Whitman

Also Related:

Tulip Girl: Poetry for Boys

Here's how you can join in the children's poetry fun: Post a children's poem on your blog, let me know of it, and I'll link to you. Those who remain blogless, but still wish to participate, may post a poem in the comments of this post.

Sunday's Hymn: Romans 8: 31-39

2007-02-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

Yet another hymn centered around Romans 8: 31-39, this one from Isaac Watts. (You'll find two other hymns centered on this text here and here.)

Who Shall the Lord's Elect Condemn
Who shall the Lord’s elect condemn?
’Tis God that justifies their souls;
And mercy, like a mighty stream,
O’er all their sins divinely rolls.

Who shall adjudge the saints to hell?
’Tis Christ that suffered in their stead;
And, the salvation to fulfill,
Behold Him rising from the dead!

He lives! He lives and sits above,
For ever interceding there:
Who shall divide us from His love?
Or what should tempt us to despair?

Shall persecution, or distress,
Famine, or sword, or nakedness?
He that hath loved us bears us through,
And makes us more than conquerors too.

Faith hath an overcoming power;
It triumphs in the dying hour:
Christ is our life, our joy, our hope,
Nor can we sink with such a prop.

Not all that men on earth can do,
Nor powers on high, nor powers below,
Shall cause His mercy to remove,
Or wean our hearts from Christ our love.

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

And Can It Be That I Should Gain at Seasonings of the Heart
Jehovah Reigns in Majesty at IMD 2.0.
Alas And Did My Saviour Bleed, and more, at Thirsty Theologian
The Collect for Quinquagesima at Magic Statistics
Jesus Lover of My Soul, twice, at John Dekker's Journal

Updated to add:

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-02-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

This is my mother and father on their wedding day in June of 1954. They met doing summer mission work among the Navajo of Utah, and were married in my mother's sister's backyard in Salt Lake City. At the left of the photo are my dad's parents, Robert and Mary Vogt; and on the right is my mother's mother, Rosa Deckard. I'm not sure why my mother's father is not there. Perhaps he didn't attend the wedding. The most unusual thing about my parents was that my mother was 32 when she married, and six years older than my dad, which is not the way it usually went.

In Which We Tie Up a Few Loose Ends

2007-02-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

. . . and chase a rabbit trail.

The loose ends:

John Piper explains what his book, Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce (which I reviewed this week), has to do with the movie Amazing Grace, coming out February 23. I haven't seen the movie, and don't know if I'll even be able to, but I suspect the book would be an excellent companion to the movie.

This week I also posted the poem Epitaph to a Hare by William Cowper, who, along with Wilberforce's mentor, John Newton, composed the Olney Hymns. Cowper supported the abolition of slavery, and--See how this is all coming together?--wrote a sonnet to William Wilberforce.

Thy country, Wilberforce, with just disdain,
Hears thee, by cruel men and impious, call'd
Fanatic, for thy zeal to loose th' enthrall'd
From exile, public sale, and slav'ry's chain.
Friend of the poor, the wrong'd, the fetter-gall'd,
Fear not lest labour such as thine be vain!
Thou hast achiev'd a part; hast gain'd the ear
Of Britain's senate to thy glorious cause;
Hope smiles, joy springs, and tho' cold caution pause
And weave delay, the better hour is near,
That shall remunerate thy toils severe
By peace for Afric, fenc'd with British laws.
Enjoy what thou hast won, esteem and love
From all the just on earth, and all the blest above!

And now for the rabbit trail:

If William Cowper were alive today, we'd probably say he suffered from depression. He'd attempted suicide, and as a result was sure his own sin was worse than Judas's betrayal of Christ, and that his guilt was more than God could ever forgive; that is, until "by faith" he saw the "fountain filled with blood" where sinners lose their "guilty stains." Those are phrases, of course, from the hymn for which Cowper is best known, There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood.

However, he continued to suffer bouts of mental illness, and was in a mental institution at least three times during his life, and continued, on and off, to be suicidal. He's proof, I'd say, that God uses people with all sorts of weaknesses to accomplish his purposes.

Here's a poem Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote about Cowper. Notice the mentions of his mental illness and his wild hares. My favorite line is "O Christians, at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging!" That hopeless hand, of course, was Cowper's, still clinging to the cross through his anguish.

COWPER’S GRAVE
It is a place where poets crowned may feel the heart’s decaying;
It is a place where happy saints may weep amid their praying;
Yet let the grief and humbleness as low as silence can languish:
Earth surely now may give her calm to whom she gave her anguish.

O poets from a maniac’s tongue was poured the deathless singing!
O Christians, at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging!
O men, this man in brotherhood your weary paths beguiling,
Groaned inly while he taught you peace, and died while ye were smiling!

And now, what time ye all may read through dimming tears his story,
How discord on the music fell and darkness on the glory,
And how when, one by one, sweet sounds and wandering lights departed,
He wore no less a loving face because so broken-hearted.

With quiet sadness and no gloom, I learn to think upon him,
With meekness that is gratefulness to God whose Heaven hath won him,
Who suffered once the madness-cloud to His own love to blind him,
But gently led the blind along where breath and bird could find him;

And wrought within his shattered brain such quick poetic senses
As hills have language for, and stars, harmonious influences:
The pulse of dew upon the grass kept his within its number,
And silent shadows from the trees refreshed him like a slumber.

Wild timid hares were drawn from woods to share his home-caresses,
Uplooking to his human eyes with sylvan tendernesses,
The very world, by God’s constraining, from falsehood’s ways removing,
Its women and its men became, beside him, true and loving.

And though, in blindness, he remained unconscious of that guiding,
And things provided came without the sweet sense of providing,
He testified this solemn truth, while phrensy desolated,—
Nor man nor nature satisfied whom only God created.

Learn more:

Audio of historical lectures from Michael Haykin

Text and audio of biographical messages from John Piper

Children's Poetry: Four for Girls

2007-02-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

Very important (and rather politically incorrect) update below!

When I was a little girl, I thought girls got a raw deal in this nursery rhyme. I preferred the stuff boys were made of, except for the puppy dog tails, of course. What sort of person would cut the tail off a puppy?

What are Little Girls Made Of?

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice,
And everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of.

This next poem got my approval, partly because this little girl wasn't always sugar and spice, but mostly because I had a curl of my own in the middle of my forehead. I still do. It requires pinning or spraying so as not to hang in a spiral down the middle of my face.

There Was a Little Girl

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of the forehead.
When she was good
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

[Update: Thirsty David gives us stanzas 2 and 3 of this verse in the comments of this post. Can you see why they might be frequently forgotten when this poem is quoted?

I love them, although, if you ask me, the person who cuts off puppy dog tails and the mother who spanks most emphatic for hooraying with one's heels on one's little trundle-bed are two of a kind.]

One day she went upstairs,
When her parents, unawares,
In the kitchen were occupied with meals
And she stood upon her head
In her little trundle-bed,
And then began hooraying with her heels.

Her mother heard the noise,
And she thought it was the boys
A-playing at a combat in the attic;
But when she climbed the stair,
And found Jemima there,
She took and she did spank her most emphatic.

---Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(Admit it. You thought this was just a generic nursery rhyme, too, didn't you?)

As you can probably guess, I rebelled against this one, too. Although eating lots of strawberries sounded tempting, why would anyone want to miss out on feeding the swine?

Curly Locks

Curly Locks, Curly Locks,
Will you be mine?
You shall not wash dishes,
Nor feed the swine,
But sit on a cushion
And sew a fine seam,
And sup upon strawberries,
Sugar, and cream.

And, for good measure, one more poem with a good little girl in it.

Good Night and Good Morning

A fair little girl sat under a tree,
Sewing as long as her eyes could see;
Then smoothed her work, and folded it right,
And said, "Dear work, good night! good night!"

Such a number of rooks came over her head,
Crying, "Caw! Caw!" on their way to bed;
She said, as she watched their curious flight,
"Little black things, good night! good night!"

The horses neighed, and the oxen lowed,
The sheep's "Bleat! bleat!" came over the road;
All seeming to say, with a quiet delight,
"Good little girl, good night! good night!"

She did not say to the sun, "Good night!"
Though she saw him there like a ball of light,
For she knew he had God's time to keep
All over the world, and never could sleep.

The tall pink foxglove bowed his head,
The violets curtsied and went to bed;
And good little Lucy tied up her hair,
And said on her knees her favourite prayer.

And while on her pillow she softly lay,
She knew nothing more till again it was day;
And all things said to the beautiful sun,
"Good morning! good morning! our work is begun!

---Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton

Sort of related: William Meisheid post a Valentine's Day poem for his wife, who once was a little girl.

Here's how you can join in the fun: Post a children's poem on your blog, let me know of it, and I'll link to you. Those who remain blogless, but still wish to participate, may post a poem in the comments of this post.

Waffling Comments

2007-02-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

Haloscan commenting is not working consistently. It may be there for you, and then again, maybe not. It may let you post your comment, or maybe not.

If this page is loading ever so slowly, the hold up is Haloscan.

How was Christ exalted in his ascension?

2007-02-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

Christ was exalted in his ascension, in that having after his resurrection often appeared unto and conversed with his apostles, speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,[1] and giving them commission to preach the gospel to all nations,[2] forty days after his resurrection, he, in our nature, and as our head,[3] triumphing over enemies,[4] visibly went up into the highest heavens, there to receive gifts for men,[5] to raise up our affections thither,[6] and to prepare a place for us,[7] where himself is, and shall continue till his second coming at the end of the world.[8]

Acts 1:2-3
. . . until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Matt. 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Heb. 6:20
. . .where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Eph. 4:8
Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
Acts 1:9-11
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Eph. 4:10
He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

Psa. 68:18
You ascended on high,
leading a host of captives in your train
and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.
Col. 3:1-2
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
John 14:3
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Acts 3:21
whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Question 53, Westminster Larger Catechism.

Children's Poetry: Sometimes That Old Gray Goose Is Just Dead

2007-02-14T18:09:00.000-08:00

The title to this post is a quote from Julana. I'm posting this child's song just for her.

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody
The old gray goose is dead.

The one she's been saving,
The one she's been saving,
The one she's been saving
To make a feather bed.

The goslings are mourning,
The goslings are mourning,
The goslings are mourning,
Because their mother's dead.

The old gander's weeping,
The old gander's weeping,
The old gander's weeping,
Because his wife is dead.

She died in the mill pond,
She died in the mill pond,
She died in the mill pond
From standing on her head.

Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody,
Go tell Aunt Rhody
The old gray goose is dead.

Here's what Julana has to say about this:

Everyone at my son's school is supposed to couch everything in positive terms all the time. If a child throws trash on the floor, say: "We need to take care of the school. Is throwing litter on the floor taking care of the school?" No negatives allowed.

Sometimes, that old gray goose is just dead--and the goslings cry and gander weeps.

Yep, and sometimes the hare dies, too.

Epitaph on a Hare

Here lies, whom hound did ne'er pursue,
Nor swifter greyhound follow,
Whose footprints ne'er tainted morning dew,
Nor ear heard huntsman's "Hallo,"
Old Tiney, surliest of his kind,
Who, nursed with tender care,
And to domestic bounds confined,
Was still a wild jack-hare.
Though duly from my hand he took
His pittance every night,
He did it with a jealous look,
And, when he could, would bite.
His diet was of wheaten bread,
And milk, and oats, and straw,
Thistles, or lettuces instead,
With sand to scour his maw.
On twigs of hawthorn he regaled,
On pippins' russet peel;
And, when his juicy salads failed,
Sliced carrot pleased him well.
A Turkey carpet was his lawn,
Whereon he loved to bound,
To skip and gambol like a fawn,
And swing his rump around.
His frisking was at evening hours,
For then he lost his fear;
But most before approaching showers,
Or when a storm drew near.
Eight years and five round-rolling moons
He thus saw steal away,
Dozing out his idle noons,
And every night at play.
I kept him for his humor's sake,
For he would oft beguile
My heart of thoughts that made it ache,
And force me to a smile.
But now, beneath this walnut-shade
He finds his long, last home,
And waits in snug concealment laid,
Till gentler Puss shall come.
He, still more aged, feels the shocks
From which no care can save,
And, partner once of Tiney's box,
Must soon partake his grave.

---William Cowper, better known as a hymn writer (There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood, God Moves in a Mysterious Way) than a writer of poems about dead rabbits. Puss and Tiney, by the way, were Cowper's pet hares. Tiney lived to the ripe old age of eight, and Puss lived on for four more years until he was twelve.

More children's poetry

You can thank Jen of joythruChrist that this post is not completely depressing. She posts a poem about a pet that's still alive. At least for now.

Have you posted a poem for children? A poem that your children like? A poem that you liked as a child? Or maybe you are a child, and you've posted a poem that you like! Please send me the link by email or in the comments of this post and I'll link to you in the next Children's Poetry post.

Book Review: Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce

2007-02-13T14:42:00.000-08:00

by John Piper

William Wilberforce, for those of you who are as clueless as I was when I started reading this book, was the British parliamentarian who spearheaded the campaign to abolish the slave trade, and then slavery itself, in the British Empire. This book is the story of this man who fought persistently, even when he suffered defeat after defeat, for a cause he knew was right.

But this little book (76 pages) isn't so much about the historical facts of Wilberforce's life, although it includes many of them, as it is about the faith (or the religious affections, to use Wilberforce's own quaint language) that made him the force that he was. What changed him from the lackadaisical parliamentarian that he was as a young man first elected to parliament at twenty-one? How did Wilberforce's faith influence the causes he chose to pursue? How did it help him persevere in despite defeat? How did it make him a man about whom it was said, "His joy was quite penetrating?" What was the content of his faith? What set him apart from the Religionists (another of Wilberforce's own words) of his day? These are the questions John Piper is seeking to answer in this book.

When I first saw the size of the book, I was disappointed that it wasn't thicker, since I really love reading a thorough biography; but after finishing, I've decided that it's better as a short book with a narrow focus. For one thing, that makes it accessible to those who don't have the time or inclination to tackle a longer biography. For another, its focus sets it apart from the other biographies of Wilberforce, and there are many. In addition, in a longer and more detailed biography, the lesson of this book—that sound doctrine is necessary in order to persist in fighting for social justice, because good fruit over the long haul comes from a healthy root—might have been lost.

As you can probably guess by now, Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce is a book I recommend. I enjoyed it; I learned from it. What more could I ask from a book? It prodded me to consider some things I hadn't considered previously, and I'm still thinking about the lessons of this book. I kept it tucked in my bag, by the way, to read in those moments waiting for my son during his drum lessons, or waiting for an appointment, or waiting in the long checkout line at Superstore, and it worked really well for making productive use of those moments that might otherwise have been wasted reading a gossip magazine.

Also related to William Wilberforce: February 2007 is the 200 year anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. To mark that event, February 18th has been declared Amazing Grace Sunday in North America.* You can read the details here, and register your church if it is participating.

Two hundred years ago, British politician William Wilberforce and his band of loyal friends took on the most powerful forces of their day to end the slave trade. His mentor was John Newton, the slave-trader-turned-song-writer, who wrote the world’s most popular hymn, Amazing Grace. . . .
Join churches around the globe in singing Amazing Grace and in praying for the end of slavery once and for all.

*Amazing Grace Sunday is not until March 25 in the United Kingdom.

If My Name Were Kim,

2007-02-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

I would organize the first annual Blog Showcase of the Kims, a collection of posts from bloggers named Kim. Just saying.

Children's Poetry: One More for the Stairs and Two More

2007-02-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

In the comments on yesterday's kid's poetry selection, Anthony gives us a version of The Man Who Wasn't There that he learned from a friend when he was in high school. How's this for a poem to amuse your kids?
Yesterday upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
He must be from the CIA!
Kim from The Upward Call posts The Highwayman, a poem she first learned of in grade 7.
Kim of Hireath posts one from McGuffey's Primer, a lesson in verse for everyone.

Children's Poetry: Two For the Stairs

2007-02-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

A Man Who Wasn't There

Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
Oh how I wish he'd go away.

---William Hughes Mearns, in Antigonish. There are several versions of this poem, but this is how it was originally penned by Professor Hearns.

Halfway Down

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair
where i sit.
there isn't any
other stair
quite like
it.
i'm not at the bottom,
i'm not at the top;
so this is the stair
where
I always
stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up
And it isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head.
It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!

---A. A. Milne. The Muppet Show version, sung by Robin, was popular at my house when the children were very young. I couldn't find an mp3 file for you, but you can hear it behind this video at YouTube.

And there's more:

At joythruChrist, we have a poem about a cat from T. S. Eliot.
Candyinsierras remembers liking this one:
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
and cast a wishful eye
to Canaan's fair and happy land,
where my possessions lie.

Refrain:
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
oh, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.
"I sang this song in sixth grade. . ." she says. "It is amazing that so many years later I remember the words to the first verse and the chorus. I loved our hour long music lessons."
Violet post another one of her wonderful children's poems: Mrs. Beasley Packed Her Purse. Now don't tell me that one shouldn't be published! I see it as a whole picture book.

Boy, did I mess up the formatting on this one first time round! Copied and pasted way too much, and then ran off for the rest of the day.

If you're not afraid of my formatting mistakes, go ahead and participate in this month's children's poetry fun. Post a poem for kids on your blog and send me the link, and if you haven't a blog, just post your poem in the comments here. The more, the merrier, as always.

Sunday's Hymn: Romans 8: 31-39

2007-02-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is the second in a series of hymns that are paraphrases of this passage or make allusion to it. This one is by Susan H. Peterson, and is sung to O Store Gud, which you would recognize as the tune to How Great Thou Art.

What Shall We Say

What shall we say? If God indeed is for us,
Who then can ever come against our souls?
God did not spare His only Son, our Savior,
But gave Him up that we might be made whole.
How will He not, along with Christ our Lord,
Give us all things by His free grace?
God will indeed, along with Christ our Lord,
Give us all things by His free grace.

Now who will bring a charge against God’s chosen?
God is the One Who justifies each man.
Who can condemn? Christ Jesus died for sinners,
Was raised to life, and sits at God’s right hand.
From there He always intercedes for us;
None can condemn—we’re justified.
He intercedes and brings our case to God;
None can condemn—we’re justified.

Who then shall cleave us from the love of Jesus?
We who face death like sheep within their pen.
Shall trouble, hardship, persecution, hunger?
Shall nakedness or danger or armed men?
No, in all things we’re more than conquerors
Through Him Who loved us to the death.
In all these things, we’re more than conquerors
Through Him Who loved us to the death.

I am convinced there’s naught in all creation
Can come between us and God’s love so vast.
Not death nor life, angels nor demon powers,
Things present now, nor what is yet to pass.
Nothing can separate us from God’s love
That comes to us through Christ our Lord!
Nothing can separate us from God’s love
That comes to us through Christ our Lord!

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross at Seasonings of the Heart
The Man is Ever Bless'd at IMD 2.0.
Spiritus Sanctus from The Valley of Vision, and more, at Thirsty Theologian
The Collect for Sexagesima at Magic Statistics

A Sov'reign Protector I Have, from Augustus Toplady, at John Dekker's Journal
Grace Unmeasured at Jam and Books

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-02-10T18:49:00.000-08:00

With Valentine's Day coming, I'm posting this picture of my husband and me, taken about four months after we started dating. I'm sure by this time I knew that we'd get married, but I wouldn't have admitted it to you. I was only 18, after all, and just starting my first year of Bible school.

He was 23 and ready to settle down. Besides, he'd asked God to send him someone, and the next day I'd started work at the truck stop where he was working. He thought I was cute, then he found out I was a pastor's daughter, and that was all the confirmation he needed. He was wise not to tell me these things until much later because I'd have sent him packing.

As it turns out, I married him because he was a worthy Scrabble opponent. When you meet your match at Scrabble, it would be foolish to let him go.

We played blood Scrabble, no mercy. His talent was using all seven of his letters in one turn on a triple word score. He once did that 3 times in a row and robbed me of a game that was rightfully mine. My strongest suit was making up words, then convincing him they were real words by making up bogus yet plausible sounding definitions.

That last winter we played 22 games and each won 11. That is the winter I learned that sometimes you must let your perfect Scrabble match go.

Our God Who Solves Riddles

2007-02-09T10:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's riddle, to be precise.

"The LORD, the LORD. . . forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. . . . " (Exodus 34:5-7 NIV)

Kim of Hiraeth gives the answer to the riddle in the comments there, and I'm going to copy her answer into this post, along with some comments of mine. Here's how Kim explains the problem in the riddle:

It is a question of how it is that God can forgive wickedness, rebellion and sin and at the same time punish the guilty. This is an apparent contradiction, or antinomy.

Exactly! The passage in Exodus says God pardons or forgives sin, and we know, just from our own legal systems, that if a crime is pardoned, from that point on there is no punishment for it. You might say that a pardon makes it as if the crime never existed, as far as the legal system is concerned. So when it says God pardons or forgives sin, wickedness or rebellion, we must understand that he is not punishing that sinner, that evildoer, or that rebel. They are guilty, but they are not punished.

But wait! The very next bit of text in the riddle contradicts that, doesn't it? It says that "God does not leave the guilty unpunished." How can these statements both be true?

There are hints at the answer throughout the Old Testament, but not the whole answer. Right there in Exodus, where we find the text of our riddle, we have God's instructions for the Passover meal. The Passover lamb—the lamb killed in place of the first born of each family—must not have its legs broken:

It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. (Exodus 12: 46 ESV)

That's a hint. It'd be easy to miss, but if you lived in Old Testament times, and you immersed yourself in the Old Testament scripture, don't you think you'd wonder a bit about why is was that you were not to break any of the bones in your Passover lamb? It's not quite a riddle all on it's own, but it's certainly an enigma. Don't you think you'd wonder what was up with that?

We need to read into the New Testament before we get to what it is that this bit of instruction was hinting at, so those of us who have the whole Bible have a leg up on those who had only the Old Testament scripture. Read John's account of the crucifixion:

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. (John 19: 31 ESV)

This breaking of the crucified person's legs was intended to speed things up. They would die sooner and their body could be removed before the Sabbath.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. (John 19: 33)

The Apostle John, of course, was an eyewitness to these things. He comments on this event:

He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”

John is referring back, in part, to the Passover instructions. John knew that Christ was the one whom the Passover lamb, with unbroken bones, was foreshadowing. "Christ," the Apostle Paul tells us, "is our Passover lamb." This gives us more, but it remains a little puzzling.*

But thankfully, the Apostle Paul spells the answer out for us so it can't be missed. He spells out the riddle itself, too, in slightly different language, and then gives us the answer, straight up. From Romans 3:

. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Well, there's the problem, and its the same as in Exodus. Everyone's guilty, and God, according to our riddle, does not leave the guilty unpunished.

But they [guilty sinners] are justified . . .

Maybe you don't speak Paul's language, so the word justified is a bit of a mystery to you. For our purposes here, it's enough to say that it involves being forgiven. And there you have it, the riddle of the Old Testament restated:

God, who doesn't leave the guilty unpunished, forgives (or doesn't punish) the guilty.

Doesn't it make you want to say "Whoa there!"? The answer to the riddle, Paul says, is

. . . the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith.

The guilty are justified (forgiven) through faith because of Christ—because of something he did. The translation I'm using in these quotes (the NIV) calls what Christ did redemption, and being a mercy seat. Others use the words atoning sacrifice or propitiation. Whatever it is that those words say that he did, it solves the puzzle.

Christ, and what he did, is the solution to the riddle.

Continuing from Paul:

This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed.

God had passed over previously committed sins. He had, to use the words in our riddle, "left the guilty unpunished." But somehow, Christ's work demonstrated that even though God had "passed over the sins previously committed", he is still righteous; or, using riddle words, he still always punishes the guilty. Same riddle, stated in yet another way, and the solution, as Paul says right before this, is Christ and work.

Continuing on, again:

. . . so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.

Same riddle, same answer. God is just—one who always punished sin—and the justifier—one who forgives sin—because of what Jesus did. Restated in the words of the riddle, we've got this much:

God always punishes sin and yet also forgives sin, because of what Christ did.

But it's still a little foggy, isn't it? Just how does that solve anything? How does it work? If we were to do a close examination of the words Paul uses to describe Christ's work—redemption, propitiation—it would help us out a little. But we can skip right over the word study for now because Paul has given the answer to us in smaller words and explained it more clearly elsewhere. And here's where Kim's answer from the comments on yesterday's post comes in. She not only gives us the solution, she tells us how this answer solves the problem—how both sides of our paradox can be true, in Christ:

The answer to the riddle is that God, in His infinite wisdom made Him Who knew no sin to be made sin for us . . . .

Yep. From the scripture Kim quoted (2 Cointhians 5):

. . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against
them . . . .

Or, you might say, in Christ, God was not punishing the guilty. Continuing on:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Or, you might say, in Christ, the sinless One who was made to be sin for our sake, God was punishing the guilty.

There you have it: The key to the puzzle. Christ being made sin, or having our sin counted as his, and being punished for it. Our trespasses are not counted against us, but against him. God punishes the guilty in Christ, so that in Christ, God doesn't punish the guilty.

In Christ, the paradox of the riddle is reconciled in a perfect package. In Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, our riddle—the riddle of the Old Testament—is solved:

"The LORD, the LORD. . . forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. . . . "

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. . . "

Can I tell you a secret? This is why theology makes my heart sing.

*I must give credit to Mark Dever, in The Message of the Old Testament, for this example of the Passover lamb, as well as originally pointing out the riddle itself.

Children's Poetry: The Children's Hour

2007-02-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

Here's one I memorized in fifth grade. I no longer know anything but the first verse by heart. I really liked it way back then, but I find it more than a little sappy now. And what's with all the exclamation points?

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:
Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret
O'er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me;
They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,
And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away!

---Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Other children's poetry posted recently:

Daddy Fell Into The Pond at The Upward Call
Benjamin shares a poem about work at Lux Venit

You can join in this month's fun, too. Just post a poem for children on your blog and send me the link by email or in the comments. Haven't a blog? You can still participate by posting a poem in the comments of this post.

A Riddle

2007-02-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

The riddle, really. Mark Dever calls it "the riddle of the Old Testament."

"The LORD, the LORD. . . forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. . . . " (Exodus 34:5-7 NIV)

Children's Poetry: Classic Canadian and More

2007-02-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

From Canadian poet Dennis Lee's collection of children's poems, we have Alligator Pie, from Alligator Pie.

Alligator pie, alligator pie,
If I don't get some I think I'm gonna die.
Give away the green grass, give away the sky,
But don't give away my alligator pie.

Alligator stew, alligator stew,
If I don't get some I don't know what I'll do.
Give away my furry hat, give away my shoe,
But don't give away my alligator stew.

Alligator soup, alligator soup,
If I don't get some I think I'm gonna droop.
Give away my hockey stick, give away my hoop,
But don't give away my alligator soup.

Dennis Lee poems posted previously:

More children's poetry posted today:

William Wilberforce and one of Hannah's favorites all rolled into one post at Lux Venit.
Cindy of Notes in the Key of Life posts poems from The Golden Treasury of Poetry.
Kim of Hireath has another one from Tolkien: The Bath Song.

Children's Poetry: Two Keys, a Frog and a Turtle

2007-02-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

Today at Lux Venit there's a poem that Benjamin memorized.
Pam of a rustling of leaves..... shares a poem from her grandmother's composition book.
Diane has the Lock and Key Poem, and it'll make you laugh.

Finally Featuring Louis Slobodkin

2007-02-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

Ian McKenzie guessed correctly that last week's mystery artist was Louis Slobodkin, illustrator of one of my favorite children's books, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. Before Louis was an illustrator of children's books, he was a sculptor, and you saw a couple of his sculptures in the two mystery artist posts. The one of young Abe Lincoln was done for the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, but it was never exhibited there.

. . . when the Slobodkins arrived at the Fair on opening day to inspect the installation, they were informed by a doorman: "'Taint here any more." The shocking word quickly went round that workmen had demolished the statue on order of Theodore Hayes, Executive Assistant to the Federal Commissioner for the World's Fair, Edward Flynn. Five days later, Slobodkin told The New York Times that, according to a source in Washington, his sculpture had indeed been set upon with sledgehammers, reportedly because a lady who "lunched with Flynn" had not found it to be in "good taste."

It's hard for me to imagine, looking back from my vantage point close to 70 years later, what it was about Slobodkin's young Abe that the woman found not in "good taste". What could it be? That it was a little exaggerated, and not entirely realistic? I feel a little better knowing that the destruction of the Rail Joiner caused plenty of controversy, even drawing Eleanor Roosevelt, who was disheartened by what happened to the statue, into the fray.

Not long after this incident, Louis Slobodkin met Eleanor Estes, who was able to persuade him to illustrate her children's book The Moffats, and he went on to illustrate two more books on the Moffat family. Don't the pictures in the Moffat books (example on the left) look as if they were done by a sculptor?

Another book illustrated by Louis--the one for which he was awarded a Caldecott Medal, and a favorite of many--is James Thurber's Many Moons, the story of the little princess who wants the moon.

However, Louis Slobodkin didn't just illustrate other people's books; he illustrated 50 that he wrote himself. One of my favorites of those he wrote is Hustle and Bustle, the story of two hippos in the zoo.

They were very good friends—
VERY, VERY, VERY GOOD FRIENDS!

Until the day it became obvious to everyone that the friendship ended.

When I did the series of mystery artist posts last year, I wanted to feature Louis Slobodkin, but couldn't find much about him on the internet. I knew he'd been a sculptor, but there just weren't any photos of his work. So imagine how happy I was to recieve an email from Carol Reid, pointing me to her new website featuring Louis Slobodkin. Just about everything there is to know about Louis is there all in one place, including all the information and the quotes in this post. You'll find the sculptures, the children's books, The New Yorker cartoons, and much more.

This is one of Louis Slobodkin's cartoons in The New Yorker. Can't read the caption? Put your cursor over the cartoon or click for the larger version. What do you think? I'd say it might be a good thing he concentrated most on his children's books.

Children's Poetry: Mature Subject Matter?

2007-02-05T20:13:00.000-08:00

I've already posted one poem from Christina Rossetti's collection of nursery rhymes, Sing-Song. Many of Christina's nursery rhymes are hauntingly profound (like this one), and a few of her rhymes contained subject matter that was later considered inappropriate for young children, so these pieces were edited out of more recent editions.

What is the taboo subject? Why death, of course!

Perhaps it's right for us to shield our children from this difficult reality. In Christina's time, however, many children would have experienced the death of members of their own family. Protecting children from it was not an option. So Christina wrote rhymes for children about babies dying--and mothers dying, too--and mothers and fathers and aunts and grandmas read or recited them to the little ones.

A Baby's Cradle
A baby's cradle with no baby in it,
A baby's grave where autumn leaves drop sere;
The sweet soul gathered home to Paradise,
The body waiting here.

Why Did Baby Die?
Why did baby die,
Making Father sigh,
Mother cry?

Flowers, that bloom to die,
Make no reply
Of "why?"
But bow and die.

Motherless Baby
Motherless baby and babyless mother,
Bring them together to love one another.

Notice the suggestions of hope for eternity and purpose in death. I suspect the children exposed to these rhymes, mature subject matter and all, were richer for it.

What do you think? Are these sorts of nursery rhymes appropriate for children?

February's theme here is children's poetry, and you are invited to join in.

Children's Poetry: Lots of Links

2007-02-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

I love it when so many people participate!

Lydia Mae has another poem for us. This one is a riddle, and she provides the answer here.

At Lux Venit, Leslie's children are posting their favorite poems to her blog this week, and first up is Hannah with Boa Constrictor.

Annette of Fish and Cans give us two nursery rhymes.

Ian McKenzie posts one from the master: Too Many Daves.

Violet charms us with one of her own poem creations. How much fun for a child to say all those ocean creature names!

Rosemary has a little Valentine's Day verse she composed as a little girl.

At Hiraeth, it's a a poem from Tolkein.

And it's The Song of Mr. Toad at the Upward Call.

You can play along with this month's theme activities, too. You'll find participation instructions here.

Sunday's Hymn: Romans 8: 31-39

2007-02-04T16:02:00.000-08:00

For the next few Sundays, the featured hymns will either be a paraphrase of, or make an allusion to, this passage.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let Christian Hope and Faith Dispel

Let Christian faith and hope dispel
The fears of guilt and woe;
The Lord Almighty is our Friend,
And who can prove a foe?

The Savior died, but rose again
Triumphant from the grave:
And pleads our cause at God’s right hand,
Omnipotent to save.

Who then can e’er divide us more
From Jesus and His love,
Or break the sacred chain that binds
The earth to Heav’n above?

Let troubles rise, and terrors frown,
And days of darkness fall;
Through Him all dangers we’ll defy,
And more than conquer all.

Nor death, nor life, nor earth, nor hell,
Nor time’s destroying sway
Can e’er efface us from His heart
Or make His love decay.

Each future period that will bless
As it has blessed the past;
He loved us from the first of time,
He loves us to the last.

---Anonymous, from Scottish Paraphrases, 1781 (Listen.)

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

More Love to Thee, O Christ at Seasonings of the Heart
Revive Us Again at IMD 2.0.
Toplady's The Method of Salvation and more at Thirsty Theologian
The Collect for Septu agesima at Magic Statistics
Hymn for Septuagesima at John Dekker's Journal
You'll find a link to a hymn that's a collaborative effort between John Newton and Bob Kauflin at New Lumps.
All Creatures Of Our God And King at Hiraeth

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-02-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

I'm playing dress up in this photo, and I'm six. My family lived in Wheaton, IL when this picture was taken, but this is a different house than the one on Liberty Street featured a couple of weeks ago. This is the house on Union Street, just a couple of blocks west of the Wheaton College campus. If the campus has expanded since then, this house may not be there any more.

This home was the furlough home of John and Eileen Kuhn–a little bungalow, not quite craftsman style, but craftsmanlike. We only lived there for half a year, moving during the summer to the Liberty Street house because Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn, who were missionaries in Singapore, were coming home on furlough.

John Kuhn had a more well-known wife named Isobel, but Isobel died of cancer in 1957, and Eileen was his second wife. Isobel and John had been missionaries, too, first in China and then in Thailand. Isobel wrote several books telling of her experiences, so people in conservative Christian circles knew Isobel. Not long ago I found a paperback biography of Isobel in the Salvation Army Thrift Store here in town, and that makes me think she continues to be a fairly well-known Christian missionary of the past.

Eileen Kuhn and my mother became friends, and in the office upstairs there is a little wooden box with an elephant carved on the lid that Eileen gave my mother. Eileen lived, I think, in the shadow of Isobel, but it didn't seem that she minded.

Only a couple of years after my family left Wheaton, John Kuhn died. As Eileen considered her future as a widow, the story is that she told God "throw me to the lions but don't make me work with youth!" So where did she go? She went to Singapore to spend the next 25 years teaching at the Singapore Bible College, eventually becoming dean. That means, I suppose, that God chose not to throw her to the lions.

Children's Poetry: How Much Wood?

2007-02-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know calling this poetry is stretching things more than a little, but it seemed appropriate for today. (You know it's Groundhog Day, right?)

How much wood
Would a woodchuck chuck,
If a woodchuck
Could chuck wood?

As much wood
As a woodchuck would,
If a woodchuck
Could chuck wood.

Here in Whitehorse, we would be very disappointed, and maybe just a little panicked, if there were not six more weeks of winter.

(Intructions for participating in this month's children's poetry fun.)

Children's Poetry: How Many Seconds?

2007-02-01T18:34:00.000-08:00

How many seconds in a minute?
Sixty, and no more in it.

How many minutes in an hour?
Sixty for sun and shower.

How many hours in a day?
Twenty-four for work and play.

How many days in a week?
Seven both to hear and speak.

How many weeks in a month?
Four, as the swift moon runn'th.

How many months in a year?
Twelve the almanack makes clear.

How many years in an age?
One hundred says the sage.

How many ages in time?
No one knows the rhyme.

---Christina Rossetti, in Sing-Song, A Nursery Rhyme Book

Other children's poems contributed already:

Pam of a rustling of leaves posted a very cute poem she learned from her Grandma Anna.
Jane, who doesn't have a blog, contributed a favorite nursery rhyme in the comments. (This is one of my favorites, too.)
Kim of Hiraeth posts Rebecca, a very funny poem that (oddly enough) I'd never heard before, along with G4 (unfamiliar to me, too). Kim says both of these poems fall into the category of poems "all children everywhere should like if they know what's good for them."
Update: Lydia Mae, whose email got lost amidst all the others this morning (Sorry about that, Lydia!), posts Birthdays. (Find out a little more about Lydia here.)

You, too, can play along with this month's theme activities. You'll find participation instructions here.

It's A New Month

2007-02-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

so I need a new theme.

A couple of years ago, I set aside a blog week and posted a poem for children each day. But the list of children's poems I like can't be exhausted by seven posts of poems, so this time around let's make it a whole month. (Not that I promise to post a poem a day!)

February's theme, then, will be children's poetry, and I invite you to join me in the fun. How can you participate? Post a poem that's written for children, or a poem you liked when you were a child, or a poem one of your children likes, or a poem you think all children everywhere should like if they know what's good for them. [Update: Or if you're a child, post a poem you like.] Send me the link by email (Click on Contact by Email in the sidebar.) or in the comments here and I'll link to you in one of the poetry for children posts.

Ready, set, go!

How was Christ exalted in his resurrection?

2007-02-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

Christ was exalted in his resurrection, in that, not having seen corruption in death (of which it was not possible for him to be held),[1] and having the very same body in which he suffered, with the essential properties thereof [2] (but without mortality, and other common infirmities belonging to this life), really united to his soul,[3] he rose again from the dead the third day by his own power;[4] whereby he declared himself to be the Son of God,[5] to have satisfied divine justice,[6] to have vanquished death, and him that had the power of it,[7] and to be Lord of quick and dead:[8] all which he did as a public person,[9] the head of his church,[10] for their justification,[11] quickening in grace,[12] support against enemies,[13] and to assure them of their resurrection from the dead at the last day.[14]

Acts 2:24, 27
God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.
Luke 24:39
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
Rom. 6:9
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

Rev. 1:18
. . . I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
John 10:18
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
Rom. 1:4
. . . and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord . . . .
Rom. 8:34
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Heb. 2:14
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil . . . .
Rom. 14:9
For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
I Cor. 15:21-22
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Eph. 1:20, 22-23
. . . that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. . . .
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Col. 1:18
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Rom. 4:25
. . . who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Eph. 2:1, 5-6
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins . . .
. . . even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . .

Col. 2:12
. . . having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
I Cor. 15:25-27
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.
I Cor. 15:20
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Question 51, Westminster Larger Catechism.

Another Piece By The Mystery Artist

2007-02-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I posted a photo of a bronze bust done by a classic children's author-illustrator, and challenged you to guess which illustrator created the piece. No one guessed correctly, so I'm adding another piece, another sculpture, this one of the young Abe Lincoln. This reminds me more of this artist's illustrations in children's books, so perhaps you will find it more helpful for identifying the artist.

This sculpture was created for exhibit at the New York World's Fair. There are at least a couple of other clues for you in the photo.

You can also click on the photo for a larger version of it, if you think that will help. And googling is within the rules of the game, although I can't promise you'll find that helpful.

Update: Ian McKenzie has guessed correctly, much to the disappointment of candyinsierras, who succeeded in googling the answer, only to find that Ian beat her to it. You'll have to read the comments to find the answer. Watch for a short post on the life of this illustrator as soon as I can manage it, and a link to a new website featuring his work.

Reprising the Mystery Artist Game

2007-01-31T11:57:00.000-08:00

Do you remember it? We played it last year with three children's book author-illustrators: Wanda Gag, Virginia Lee Burton and William Steig.

It's time to play again. This time, too, our mystery artist has written and illustrated children's books; although with this particular artist, you may be most familiar with books illustrated for other authors.

Here's a bronze bust sculpted by our mystery artist. Can you guess which children's book illustrator created this?

As always, if you can't guess from this piece, there will be more examples of this artist's work posted later to give you a few more clues.

Enter the Lists: Guest List

2007-01-30T12:08:00.000-08:00

This list is one compiled and contributed by Chris, who preached the sermon at our church last Sunday. This list is from his sermon, and it contains miracles of Elisha that point forward to (or foreshadow) Christ's miracles.

Elisha healed Naaman of leprosy.
Elisha transformed water in 2 Kings 2.
Elisha suspends the characteristics of water when the axe head floats.
Elisha raised the Shunammite’s son from the dead.
Elisha multiplied the widow’s oil.
Elisha gave and took away sight.

Enter the Lists: Too Many To List?

2007-01-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

Missmellifluous has a list of Australian slang words, and she wants you to tell her what they mean. Go play the game!
From Colin Maxwell of Cork Free Presbyterian Church we some lists having to do with Protestant history, including a list of classic historical books.
At Founders Ministries Blog, we have a list of "historical, theological and exegetical fallacies" in the sermon Why I Am Not A Reformed Baptist by Jonathan Modene.
Violet of promptings has a list of eleven blogs she likes.
Kim of Hiraeth has a list of responses to her survey, Reading As A Christian Discipline.
Update (See! I did miss one.): Julana makes a list of things she's been doing to get through January.
Yet another update: Pam of a rustling of leaves has a list to help you evaluate how much value you place in your Bible.

If you sent me a link to a list during the last week and you don't see it here, would you remind me? I was busy last week, and not very good at keeping track of things.

Enter the Lists: A Quote from Mark Dever

2007-01-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

. . . about the story of Esther. It includes a list--a list that shows us that sometimes nothing tells the true story like a list.

You may have heard the proverb, "Large doors swing on small hinges." The course of history is often determined by the smallest particulars. This story of Esther is filled with crucial happenings that might have looked like chance to anyone observing the events at the time, and perhaps they looked that way to you. After all, the book explains the Feast of Purim, which comes from the plural Hebrew word for "lots" or "dice." And the roll of the dice gives a random outcome, right? If you think so, then to you this book will be nothing more than a really remarkable story of how all this stuff just seemed to happen. What stuff?
Esther just happens to be Jewish, and she just happens to be beautiful.
Esther just happens to be favored by the king.
Mordecai just happens to hear the plot against the king's life.
A report of this just happens to be written in the king's chronicles.
Haman just happens to notice that Mordecai does not kneel down before him and he just happens to find out that Mordecai is a Jew.
When Haman plots his revenge, the dice just happen to indicate that the date for exacting revenge is put off for almost a year! (What does Proverbs 16:33 say? "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.")
Esther happens to get the king's approval to speak, but then she happens to put off her request for another day.
Her deferral happens to send Haman out by Mordecai one more time,
which just happens to cause him to recount it to his friends.
They, in turn, just happen to encourage him to build a scaffold immediately!
So Haman just happens to be excited to approach the king early the next morning.
It just so happens that the previous night, the mighty king could not command a moments sleep,
and he just happened to have had a book brought to him than recounted Mordecai's deed.
He then happened to ask whether Mordecai had been rewarded, to which his attendants happened to know the answer. Simply consider for a moment the fact that Mordecai happened not to have been rewarded for having saved the king's life. How unusual this must have been! Someone who saved the king's life never rewarded? I wonder if Mordecai ever chafed under that: "Doesn't he realize what I did for him?" Well, it all just happened.
Anyhow, Haman happens to approach the king just when the king is wondering how Mordecai should be honored.
Later on, the king happens to return to the queen just when Haman happens to be pleading with Esther in a way that can be misconstrued.
The gallows Haman built for Mordecai just happens to be ready when King Xerxes want to hang Haman.
I could keep going. Is that how you read the story of Esther—as so many happenstances and lucky coincidences? Apart from believing that God actively and sovereignly rules over our world, the book of Esther becomes a mere celebration of Mordecai's wisdom and Esther's courage, and, most of all, simply chance and luck.

But, friend, if you are a Christian, this is not how you should read this book. I assure you, this is not why it was written. This book was written to show that God himself acts to achieve the total defeat of his foes and the safety of his people.

From The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Kept by Mark Dever, pages 455, 456.

Update, Tuesday, January 30: The Blue Fish Project has several posts on the book of Esther.

Sunday's Hymn: God's Providential Care and Guidance

2007-01-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

Isaac Watts' paraphrase of Psalm 90 reminds us that even when times are difficult, God is preserving his people through his providential workings.

Our God, Our Help In Ages Past

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,
“Return, ye sons of men:”
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by the flood,
And lost in following years.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ‘tis night.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

(Listen.)

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Enter the Lists: I Haven't Forgotten You

2007-01-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

I have a large collection of contributed lists that I haven't had time to post. I'll try to post them this afternoon, but I'm not promising

The Star of Esther

2007-01-27T07:49:00.000-08:00

I spent my blogging time yesterday doing more preparation for a women's Bible study this morning. It's a BUWC thing. Women in many of the churches associated are studying the book of Esther this morning, and I'm helping to lead the study in our church.

Unfortunately, my section of the study required some rewriting and rearranging of the questions. The questions given with the study were not very open ended, and I could see where the intended answers were leading. They were making the star of the story of the book of Esther out to be Esther the Queen--the courageous but oppressed woman who fought for social justice, risking her life to do it. (And by way of application: How can the women of the church call for justice like Esther did? What justice issues should the church be addressing?)

I don't like Esther's situation any more than anyone else; I'll admit she had courage; and there are certainly social justice issues Christian women should be addressing. (What about social justice for the unborn, for instance?) But that's not the main point of the book of Esther!

And shouldn't the main point of a study of a book of the Bible be the main point of the book of the Bible? So I've rewritten (or reordered) some of the questions in hopes of focusing most on the providence of God, so that the application is more about how the knowledge of God's providential workings in every situation gives boldness to act in difficult circumstances. I'm not sure I was supposed to do that, but I did.

(Interestingly, in the questions as listed in the original study, which is supposed to take a couple of hours to go through, the providential God who is the real Star of Esther--the Star who never takes the stage--has two small mentions.)

Well, I'm off to get ready to go to the gallows. No time to proof read, so either ignore the mistakes or point them out to me in the comments so I can correct them when I get back. I prefer the second option.

Update: The study went very well. What a wonderful bunch of thinking Christian ladies! Every single one was well prepared, and there were more attending than I'd expected. It made me very happy that we had an outspoken objection or two to the premises behind the questions before we even got to the section I was leading, so I didn't have to take the group anywhere they weren't already going. I'll respond to the comments later, but now I've got the rest of a busy Saturday to finish.

Artwork: Esther and Mordecai, by Aert de Gelder.

Enter the Lists: For Rabbie Burns Day

2007-01-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

Prepare the haggis! Today is Robert Burns' birthday. In celebration, here's a list of all the poems of Robert Burns posted here during January of 2005.

Update: Brandon has posted his favorite Burns poem.

For Rena

2007-01-24T20:52:00.000-08:00

Could you resend your email to me and check the return address on it? My response to you came back undeliverable.

A Freebie For You

2007-01-24T14:11:00.000-08:00

My latest project has been reworking and compiling all the posts on the attributes of God from a couple of years ago. A while ago I got a phone call from a man in Texas who wanted permission to put all those posts together and use them for a Sunday School class for young marrieds or college students or something like that, and that gave me the idea to make my own pdf of them all. You'll find the final result available for downloading here at my Squarespace place, along with the pdf files of the transcripts of the Learner's Exchange lessons by J. I. Packer.

Someday, when I get around to it, I might actually move over to Squarespace, but right now, it's only in the planning stages.

Winterscapes

2007-01-23T15:49:00.000-08:00

(click for larger view)

Those of you who enjoyed yesterday's photo might also like looking through oldest son's new gallery of winter photos. This photo was taking up on the Dempster Highway last November.

Enter the Lists: Grief, The Old Testament, and Old Regular

2007-01-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

David Hayward, aka nakedpastor, has a really good list of 11 ways to be with those who grieve.
Gummby of Still Reforming has posted a list of reasons to study the Old Testament at Neil Shay's blog, Chez Kneel. Reason number one? The Old Testament "testifies about Jesus."
Here's a different sort of list, and one I hope you'll find as interesting as I did. It's a whole blog devoted to listing the order of service, with links to recordings of each item, for the services at Blessed Hope Old Regular Baptist church, Liberty, Kentucky. You'll notice that the hymns are sung without instrumentation in a singing style that may be unfamiliar to you. To get a taste, listen to this recording of the congregational singing of Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list--any list on any topic? Please send me the link, I'll include your post in this month's round up of lists of all sorts.

Wonderland Walk

2007-01-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

Enter the Lists: Fondue and the Puritans

2007-01-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

I pretty sure the Puritans didn't fondue, but Carla isn't letting that stop her. She's collecting fondue recipes, and if you have a good one, go add it to her list.
I'm not sure we're supposed to take our food lessons from the Puritans, anyway; but we may want to consider what they can teach us about evangelism. Here's a place to start: Old Truth.com quotes Joel Beeke in 5 Puritan Evangelism Lessons For Todays Churches.

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Any list on any topic? Please send me the link, I'll include your post in this month's round up of lists of all sorts.

Sunday's Hymn: God's Providential Care and Guidance

2007-01-21T09:01:00.000-08:00

Savior, Like A Shepherd Lead Us

Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need Thy tender care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use Thy folds prepare.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.
We are Thine, Thou dost befriend us, be the guardian of our way;
Keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, seek us when we go astray.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Hear, O hear us when we pray.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Hear, O hear us when we pray.

Thou hast promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be;
Thou hast mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse and power to free.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! We will early turn to Thee.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! We will early turn to Thee.

Early let us seek Thy favor, early let us do Thy will;
Blessèd Lord and only Savior, with Thy love our bosoms fill.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Thou hast loved us, love us still.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Thou hast loved us, love us still.

---Dorothy Thrupp (Listen to the Korean Orphan Choir sing this hymn.)

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

O To Be Like Thee at Seasonings of the Heart
O Thou Who Dwell'st on High at IMD 2.0.
Love for Jesus from The Valley of Vision and more at Thirsty Theologian
Lord, Be Thy Word My Guide at Magic Statistics
Grace, Greater Than All Our Sin at Jam and Books
O God of Earth and Altar at John Dekker's Journal

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I'll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

2007-01-20T21:17:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of winter photos in my old photo collection and January seems a good time for one of those. This photo is of a sliding party we had in the winter of 1962 in the front yard of our home in Liberty Drive in Wheaton, Illinois. We are using old pieces of cardboard instead of toboggans or sleds, and the hill doesn't look very big, does it? I do remember how much fun it was, and that it was my first time sledding. Later on, after we moved to Minnesota, sledding on real sleds down big hills would become part of my regular winter time experience--and I have the barbed wire scars down my back to prove it--but at this time, this tame little hill was exciting enough.

Who are the children? There's my sister and me for certain, and probably the two Mainprize girls. The two other children may be the two Mainprize brothers, and if they're not, I'm out of guesses. The blond head on the right, standing at the top, is probably me.

We lived in that house for about a year while my dad was a student at Wheaton. It was a lovely house, roomy and bright with a big fireplace, but it was scheduled for demolition so the rent was cheap enough for us. Our block was right next to the jail, and the county had purchased the block we lived on with plans for it to be the new jailhouse parking lot. Our house and the one you see next to it were the only houses on the whole block. The rest of the block was divided into plots for the community garden, and during the growing season, there were often women with children there, hoeing or weeding or picking vegies.

I was in first grade when I lived there, and I walked 7 or 8 blocks down the street to school. The wife of another student at Wheaton, a former elementary school teacher, had taken an interest in me, and she offered to take me out to a restaurant for dessert if I read 100 books. Going out to eat was not in my family's budget, so that promise was big incentive for me, and I read the 100 books in short order and collected my reward.

This is also the place where I got my first bike. I did a lot of riding up and down the sidewalk in front of this house. The large back yard was also a good place to catch fireflies.

However, when I think of this house, the first thing I remember are the trains. Our back yard butted right up to the railroad tracks that run through Wheaton. Trains to and from Chicago were coming and going day and night, and twice during the short time we lived there, someone was killed on the tracks behind our home. Once it was a suicide, and the other time it was an old woman whose pull cart with groceries had become stuck on the track while she was crossing.

Enter the Lists: Maturity

2007-01-19T20:39:00.000-08:00

A list from Fideo: How To Be Mature Church Member

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Do you know someone else who has? I'm looking for links to lists. You can email me with the links or leave them in the comments to this post.

The Wily Ones

2007-01-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

For quite some time, I've been carrying around in the back of my mind the notion that I should write a blog post about coyotes. Today, I decided to finally write it, spurred on by a certain post I read this morning. In preparation, I started looking around for info on coyotes. Well, I can sum up all the reference material in one word: Boring!

Coyotes--for those who have had no contact at all with them and might not know this--are one of the most fascinating creatures in all creation, and a collection of coyote facts just doesn't do them justice.* So, I've decided it's phfft! to all the reference material, but forward ho! without it. That's why the subtitle to this post is Everything I Know About Coyotes Without Looking Anything Up.

First, let's talk about what we call these wild dogs. Did you know that they have them in northern Minnesota, where I grew up, but they don't call them coyotes? They call them brush wolves, and old farmers there may even tell you that they don't have coyotes, only timber wolves and brush wolves. But a coyote by any other name, even if it's a little bigger than the coyotes here in the Yukon, is still a coyote. And even when we agree on the word coyote as their proper name, we still may pronounce that name differently. My dad, the Kansas farm kid turned eastern Colorado cowboy calls them ky-oats (first syllable rhymes with sky, second syllable with porridge, accent on first syllable), while in the Yukon and almost everywhere else, they're called ky-oat-tees (sky, porridge, type of shirt, accent on second syllable). Growing up, my dad told me that only silly sissified city folk called them ky-oat-tees, but I've since learned that is not completely accurate.

In the Yukon, this is the time of year when we are most likely to have coyotes right around our homes. Food is scarcer in the bush during the dead of winter, and they come to town to wander the streets looking for tasty garbage or even an available small pet. Several years ago, on a lovely forty below zero day, I walked over to my local elementary school to do some reading with students. As I approached the school, I noticed a coyote digging through the garbage can right up next to the main entrance of the school. He saw me, quickly grabbed a full lunch bag in his mouth and trotted off. Lately we've been seeing a coyote walking the street in front of our house, and I suspect when the garbage can beside the house was overturned and the remains our yummy food garbage spread down the driveway, across the street and on into the bush, it was coyote work.

The small pet thing is the reason we don't let our cat Leroy outside except by mistake. Sure he's sixteen pound of pure muscle and afraid of nothing--some of the local big dogs have lost fights with him--but he's no roadrunner. Neither was our previous dog, an old, friendly, deaf and lame Samoyed, who had his own won't-you-be-my-dinner run-in with coyotes.

Here's the story, but I'll give you fair warning: The dog doesn't die in the end, so this one won't win a Newbery Medal for children's literature. On a January morning several years ago I left the gate open while fetching something from the garage. The dog wandered out, as he often did, and I thought nothing much of it. He would usually walk down the street a bit, greet anyone out and about, and make his way home again. No worry, right? But that day something bothered me about the whole scenario and I went out to fetch him, just in time to see him loping off into the bush after a coyote. Then I saw the second coyote fold in behind from out of nowhere and I knew our old dog was a goner. He was deaf, remember, so calling him back to me was useless. But he turned, glanced back and saw me, and I motioned for him to come. For once in his life, he obeyed on command, and it saved his live.

Part of what makes coyotes so interesting is that they're not particularly frightened of us. That's partly why they've adapted so well--perhaps too well--to the spread of civilization. Every few years, someone here in Whitehorse has a run-in with a coyote. I don't think anyone's actually been bitten, but if I remember right, a woman carrying a bag of groceries had one tug on her clothing with his teeth. I suspect he was more interested in eating her groceries than in eating her, but I'm not volunteering to be the guinea pig to test out my hypothesis.

Not only are coyotes not scared of us, but they can be interested in what we're doing. A few days ago, oldest son was whistling a tune in the house while the friendly neighbourhood coyote was traipsing by. The coyote stopped in front of the house, looked toward the window, cocked his head and listened for 15 seconds or so before he went on his way. I wonder what he was thinking.

Sometimes, if you howl outside at night, the coyotes will howl back to you. Don't be fooled into thinking that you've tricked them and they think you're just another coyote. They know who you are, and we know that because coyote howls responding to humans are less complex than howls responding to other coyotes. They know who you are and they are dumbing things down for you.

One other thing I've noticed about coyotes--and I promise this will be the last--is that, for the most part, they are wild dogs on a mission. When you take your family dog for a walk unleashed, she probably darts here and there, sniffing this and that. Not so with the coyote. Coyotes do not stop to smell the roses, and only pause briefly to hear the whistling. Once or twice, I've seen a pair of coyotes romping around, but most often, they are traveling in a bee-line to wherever it is they are going. They are business travelers only, and workaholics. Do you think that's the key to their success?

Oh, and the post that prompted me to finally post something on coyotes? This one, from Charlie, in which we learn at least one more thing about coyotes. You can probably believe what Charlie tells you, because he consulted coyote researchers.

Serendipitous morsel: Today's final jeopardy answer was, "The middle initial for this 1949 movie critter stands for Ethelbert." Know the question?

And what about you? Do you have a coyote story or tidbit? No reference material allowed!

Update: Don't miss all the additional coyote stories in the comments, and there's yet another one at Seasonings of the Heart.

*Yes, I know. If you have livestock, you may think doing justice to coyotes involves a 30-06.

Enter the Lists: Cool Stuff

2007-01-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a list with links to a few interesting things I've seen recently:

If any group suffered from bad press, it's those poor Puritans. Thankfully, there are those who try to help set the record straight:
Puritanism: The Real Thing at Historia Ecclesiastica

The Salem Witch Trials, the end of the story, at Grantian Florilegium.
Hymn lovers of the world unite! Carla's already designed our group t-shirts.
Kim from Hiraeth has a list of names. Compelling, she calls it. See what you think.
Juanita of Jam and Books has a list of
books about women's issues, most of them written from a non-Christian perspective, that critique what we now see to be the results of the feminist movement.

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Any list on any topic? Please, I beg of you, send me the link!

Thinking About Faith Alone and Christ Alone, Part 5

2007-01-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

I started this series in November, and didn't get it finished before the busy Christmas season. I'm wrapping the series up with this one last post. The point of these posts, if you recall, is to consider the relationship between sole fide and solus Christus. The first post examined what it means that Christ's work is the grounds for our salvation, while faith is the means by which we receive salvation. The second post looked at the unique suitability of faith as the instrument through which the benefits of Christ's work are received. Then the third and fourth posts considered statements I'd heard or read concerning faith's role in the process of salvation that incorrectly (and probably unknowingly or unthinkingly) moved faith out of the realm of means only and over into the realm of grounds for salvation. In this final post, I want to look at the remaining two problematic statements about faith's role in salvation that I've collected.

Up first? Try this one:

I obtained my salvation on the basis of my faith.

Yes, I really did read this one recently. If you see that sentence as a clear example of a statement that makes faith into work, I think you are right.

First of all, there's that word obtain, which is defined as "to succeed in gaining possession of as the result of planning or endeavor; acquire." The word obtain has work (or endeavor) written all over it. Remember that the reason faith alone is the only suitable match, means-wise, for in Christ alone is that saving faith is faith that rests or trusts in Christ's work alone. Saving faith has right within it an understanding that I can't obtain my salvation. Saving faith is receptive; it receives what someone else has obtained.

The one who obtained my salvation is not me by my faith, but Christ by his work.

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here . . . he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9: 11, 12 NASV)

Christ is the one who obtained salvation for the believer, and it was a once-for-all-time, all-wrapped-up, no-loose-strings, sat-down-when-he-was-done work. It is finished. If you think of yourself as obtaining your salvation, you are taking something away--and not something insignificant--from the completeness of what was done for you in Christ.

The other problem word in this statement is the word basis. Basis is a word that refers to grounds, or as my dictionary says, "a foundation upon which something rests." Thinking of faith as the basis for salvation moves our faith over into realm of grounds for our salvation, and that's a role it can't play if our salvation is on the grounds of Christ's work alone. Christ's work is sufficient, and there is and can be no other and no additional basis for salvation.

Let's move on to the final inaccurate statement about faith's role in salvation. This problem with this statement is similar, but more subtle, than the problem with the previous statement.

The reason I am saved is because I believed.

Just as basis is a word that refers to the grounds for something, so too with reason and because. The reason anyone is saved is because the benefits of Christ's death are applied to them.

Faith isn't important for it's own sake, or because of what faith is in itself. It isn't the reason or the basis or the because or the why or the crux, or even the condition--if by that you mean a requirement that we must meet--of our salvation. All those words belong to Christ's work alone. His active and passive obedience--that he lived righteously and died for us--is the reason, the basis, the because, the why, the crux, the requirement met. Faith is important, but it's important because it has an object, and that object is the crucial thing.

What words would rightly describe faith's role in our salvation? Theologians call it the instrumental means of salvation or the vehicle through which salvation is received. Salvation is by faith, or through faith, but even then, it's not merely by faith or through faith. It's by faith or through faith in Christ. Faith is the way salvation is received because faith is an expression of a relationship to the Christ whose work provides the meritorious grounds for salvation to those who are united with him.

Does this seem like a whole lot of nitpicky hairsplitting over picayune details? It might be nitpicky hairsplitting, but the details aren't unimportant. I might even grant that much of the time, these sorts of statements are simply sloppy language; but sloppy language, repeated often enough becomes sloppy thinking, and sloppy thinking, over time, becomes the way we think things really are. If we repeat those sorts of phrases often enough, we really will start to see our faith as the basis for our salvation. We will begin to think of our faith's role in our own salvation as joining with Christ's work in meriting it for us, even though we would never be so bold as to use the word merit to describe it. I can't speak for you, but I've have a hard time coming up with a list of one item more important than preserving, in our language and our thought, the perfection of Christ's sacrifice and the sufficiency of his work in providing the merit by which we are saved.

What was the estate of Christ's exaltation?

2007-01-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

The estate of Christ's exaltation comprehendeth his resurrection,[1] ascension,[2] sitting at the right hand of the Father,[3] and his coming again to judge the world.[4]

I Cor. 15:4
. . . that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. . . .
Mark 16:19
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
Eph. 1:20
. . . that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places . . . .
Acts 1:11
. . . and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Acts 17:31
. . . because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Question 50, Westminster Larger Catechism.

Enter the Lists: Listen Up, Writers and Speakers!

2007-01-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Matt of Still Reforming gives you a list of
links that those who are interested in writing (and I'm gonna go out a limb here and guess that if you're a blogger you fancy yourself as some sort of writer) might enjoy.
Kim of The Upward Call is compiling a list of grammar pet peeves.

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Any list on any topic? I'm looking for links to lists.