Every mundane task, every job and even every thought...they all matter!

Those who know me know that I could go on about faith, doctrine and theology all day. I actually get a little giddy about it. Growing up, I was grounded in the biblical truth that all of life is impacted by Christ and that the physical world in all its brokenness is still good and still reflects Truth because it reflects our Creator. The physical parallels the spiritual, and not only parallels but they penetrate one another. In the perfect world--the world prior to sin and the world redeemed--there was no notion of that dualistic idea of division between spiritual and physical. Shalom reigned. God dwelt among man and talked to man.  Then sin enters and shatters the beautiful peace and harmony. Now creation frustrates man, work becomes laborious, thorns and thistles bite back, the lion devours the lamb...Shalom is broken. A few years back I read Cornelius Plantinga’s book, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin in which he examines this breaking of Shalom and this thing called sin. Just when you think the author might ease up a little he cuts you off at the knees and you realize just how bound to sin we are. Throughout the book you feel parched to the point of craving even the smallest drop of hope to quench the despair. But it is in that parched state that the beauty of the Gospel shines. Jesus in not a small drop of Hope. Jesus came to right this world. He came to bring back Shalom. He came to pluck us out of our sin and despair and redeem us fully. 

Sadly, most American Christianity has a perverted and truncated viewed of salvation. Many times it is seen as an insurance policy to get us out of hell and get us into heaven. However, the reality is that redemption is so much more than a ticket out of hell and into heaven. In fact, to even write of it that way gives me distressing chills. Christ came into this world to redeem His people and restore Shalom. I’m sure I’ve said it in another post but that line of Joy to the World gets me every time....”He comes to make his blessings known far as the curse is found!” If it is true that Christ has come to reverse that curse put on creation by sinful man, then redemption impacts everything. It isn’t a Jesus-and-me religion. It isn’t just about me and my relationship to Christ or you and your relationship to Christ (as important as that is); it is about Truth permeating all of life--truth in biology, truth in art, truth in business, truth in government, truth in parenting, truth in education, truth in engineering, truth, truth, truth truth! 

The sad reality is that in American culture the very thing under the greatest attack is truth. Postmodernism has tried to redefine truth to be what one wants it to be. The problem is that truth really does have a meaning...it actually means something factual. It is not relative. It is not determined by you, me or any other sinful human. It is determined by the Creator of this world. It is reflected in all of creation. This is indeed part of how God’s glory is declared throughout the heavens and earth. Truth has its root and being in God alone. All truth is God’s truth. And it is God who decides to whom He will reveal His truth. There are times I look at a clear night sky and wonder, “How does anyone think there is no God?” And then the reminder of sinful depraved hearts slaps me in the face. Left to ourselves we flee from truth. We deny truth. We hate truth. The only way to see it and to understand it is for God to reveal it. I think it was R. C. Sproul who illustrated the Gospel by saying it isn’t that we are in a sea of violent waters trying to swim when someone throws us a life safer (the Gospel). It is that we are dead corpses on the bottom of the ocean floor, and Christ comes down to us, breathes into us and makes us new creatures. It is so true. We want to take too much credit for our salvation when in reality it was completely a work of God. However, we also want to take too much credit with every other piece of knowledge and truth we understand. The fact that I can sit here and type English words is because God revealed language to me. It isn’t because some teacher taught it (not to degrade teaching or teachers!). God uses teachers and teaching, but the knowledge, the ability, the revelation--all of it comes from Him. He is sovereign over every aspect of my being, every aspect of your being, and every aspect of His creation. 

His sovereignty, however, does not mean we are passive. He gives us the privilege to participate. He uses teachers. He uses engineers. He uses biologists. And He brings glory to Himself doing it. He brings glory to Himself even through evil doers. Those who use all their power to mock Him and smite Him, He turns it around for His glory. The Old Testament has beautiful examples of God using evil doers to bring about His will and bring glory to Himself. The Gospel itself is a perfect picture of this: Mankind spat in the face of Christ. He was stricken, smitten and afflicted. And before we throw stones at the evil people who did this to Him we must remember, we are the ones who put Him on that Cross. He bore our sin and our shame. 

He did not bear our sin and shame just to get us out of hell and into heaven. The redemption might begin with us but that curse he bore was also the curse of creation. His good creation was put in chains and goes about groaning and moaning for the day it can break free. It longs for the day when Shalom returns when His blessings 'flow far as the curse is found'. The Prince of Peace came to bring peace...or Shalom. When we look at the unrest in nations of this world, we are reminded once again just how broken Shalom is. The answer to sin and brokenness is Christ. He is Truth. He is life. And he is the only way. We live in a country who at its conception understood the value of truth. How often do we pray that God would reveal His Truth to us? And when he does reveal Truth how do we respond? A Bible study leader once reminded those of us in the study that we may not like everything in the Bible, but it is still God’s Word and God calls us to obedience and will hold us accountable for how we respond to His Word. How often do we study books of the Bible that might not be our ‘favorite’ sections? 

Really the question is how much do we really yearn for Truth? We can talk all day about wanting to know Jesus, but the Jesus of the Bible is Truth, and sometimes I think we go about creating our own Jesus by looking at Scripture as a buffet where we pick and choose sections to pay attention to. That Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible; any Jesus constructed by bits and pieces of Bible passages is an idol. We can't take bits and pieces of God's Word, we must understand it as a whole.  John Calvin once said that our hearts are idol factories. It is so painfully true. All of us want to embrace those biblical concepts we like while tossing the more difficult to swallow passages out the window. When we do that we have essentially denied truth and created a god that we like, rather than embracing the true God. We love to look at the Israelites and gasp at their golden calves and idolatry, yet we do the exact same thing over and over and over...whether it is chopping us Scripture to make it palatable for us or whether we rely on the material blessings God has given us. We are those Israelites. Our hearts are just like theirs...full of our ready made idols. 

Just as God loved the Israelites, and plucked them out of slavery, He does the same with us. He plucks us out of slavery, adopts us, redeems us, and sanctifies us. We desperately need Truth to squelch the idol factories of our minds. Part of the problem is that not only have we divided this world into spiritual and physical, we have divided our Bibles too. The Old Testament, which points entirely to Christ as our Savior has been pushed to the side in most churches. We have forgotten that all Scripture is God-breathed. You cannot divide God’s Word against God’s Word. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not contradict Himself. He is not an inconsistent or conflicted God and hence, His Word is not. 

The first mention of the Messiah wasn’t in the New Testament or in Isaiah...the first mention was immediately following the fall of man in Genesis 3, one of my all time favorite passages. It is the most beautiful picture of the Gospel. Man plunges into sin (He destroys Shalom and sinks to the bottom of the ocean). God seeks after man (descending into the depth of the sea to breathe new life into mean). Man is found trying to wear his own covering just like we today try to make our salvation and Christianity about deeds, works or our importance--what we do and say and wear, etc. That clothing did not work--our righteousness is as filthy rags. God had to prepare the clothing for them. He clothed Adam and Eve because their clothing could not cover them. In the same way, Jesus Christ follows the Law without any flaw, He is slaughtered. He is clothed in our filthy rags, our sin, our shame. He is clothed in us. And vice versa His righteousness, His perfect following of the Law is given to us as a covering. We are clothed in Him. It is a doctrine referred to as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. As a result God looks at us and sees the Law perfectly obeyed and kept in every way, because He sees Jesus’ obedience as ours. Christ became us first...so that we, united to Him, can be seen as just and righteous before God. But God does not stop with justification (His declaring us just). He also sanctifies us. In the sanctification process we actually become more and more just. We are able to obey God’s Law and become more and more like the Savior we love. And we can only do this because Christ has already obeyed and as we are united to Him we become more like Him--holy and obedient. We become who we already are in Him...obedient servants of God. 

All of salvation, all of redemption, all of truth and freedom is initiated by God. And it all begins in Genesis 3. We cannot fully understand Christ without understanding the Old Testament. Without the OT all of our understanding is warped, and Christ becomes a piece of our life rather than life, in much the same way that redemption becomes a part of Scripture rather than the whole point of Scripture.  The OT stories are not just about men being swallowed by whales, wars erupting between countries, people wandering in wilderness...Those stories all point to how God works His plan of redemption. He works through Pharaohs and governments; He works through sea creatures; He works through wars; He works through natural disasters; He works through all of it. All of it brings about His plan of redemption. All of it glorifies Him and shows His sovereignty and power. He uses His people to speak up to the leaders and Pharaohs of this world. He uses us-- stubborn Jonahs and stiff necked Israelites--to spread His Gospel. He uses the Daniels and Josephs of the world to be influential in their arenas and speak Truth. He uses the Jubals to play their musical instruments to show God’s glory. The whole OT recounts God’s relationship with His people and His beautiful unfolding story of redemption which climaxes when we get to Jesus. It all points to Him. We can’t understand the climax without the back story of the OT.  Spreading Truth becomes about influencing every area: jobs, education, science, government, economy, art, music, warfare, medicine, industry, because God uses all of life to glorify Himself and reveal Himself.  It’s not just about church and ministry. Jesus is Lord of all creation and therefore His Word has truth and principles that impact all of it. Nothing is outside of the reach of Truth. And Truth makes every area of life better because it reflects God. I pray that God would reveal Truth to me. I pray that He would not just reveal it, but that He would impress it upon my heart and make my heart receptive so that I will embrace Truth and live by it. I pray that He would also reveal how Truth applies to every area of life, so that I would be very conscience of that fact that there is no such thing as an unreligious decision. Truth impacts every decision and every thought. We are to take every thought captive. When I think about how many thoughts pass through my mind in a given hour, it is terrifying to think God requires that I take every thought captive. And yet, how exciting and freeing to think that when I finally reach that day when redemption is complete, when I am glorified and sinfulness will no longer tug my mind and heart, on that day my every single thought will be God glorifying. Every thought will be sinless. Every thought will have purpose. I mean have you ever thought about what it will be like to have sinless thoughts? God’s redemption is so great. It is so much bigger than an insurance policy. I pray God would make His Truth known to me, to you, to His Church, to our nation and ultimately to the world. 

Friendships Old and New

I have always found it fascinating to ponder how friendships develop. When I was in college I worked as a camp counselor in the summers. I can remember 4 weeks into the summer thinking, "How did I get to be such good friends with this person I just met 4 weeks ago? What initially made us have these long, drawn out interesting conversations? How come he/she never bores me? I could sit out under this night sky in silence with this person and it doesn't get awkward!" However, every time I tried to trace back to what the initial interest was, I could never figure it out. Since then I have attempted to be more aware of developing friendships and take notice of experiences and/or events that somehow determine the growth or deterioration of my relationship with friends.  It's very rare that I meet someone and think, "kindred spirit!"  I only know of 3 friends that qualify for that standard (excluding my husband). One friend has known me since we were 7 years old; the other two I have known for 11 years. Time and distance do not seem to effect the closeness I have with these friends. It's as though we can be apart for years, and upon meeting again not only can they read my thoughts, but they seem to know every nuance to my thinking. Earlier this month my path intersected with a fascinating woman, and I found myself instantaneously wanting to know more about her. We were sitting next to one another in a chorus rehearsal. Common interest #1: Classical music. While the men were working on parts I pulled out a book to read--The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. She noticed the book and wah-lah we find common interest #2: C.S. Lewis. We conversed a little about nothing in particular, but something struck me about her. We seemed to have similar thinking. Before long chorus was over and off we went our separate ways.  Two weeks later, we find ourselves sitting next to each other again. During break we get to talking. She finds out my husband is in the Navy. Her husband served 20 years and retired. Common interest #3: Navy wives. She starts talking about her children. They are elementary age and she home schools them both. Common interest #4: Home schooling (something I do not do since I do not have children, but something that has always interested me none the less). Furthermore, not only does she home school, but me oh my, she is involved with Classical Christian education and has actually heard of things Classical Conversations, Veritas, Doug Wilson etc.etc. etc. Weirdness! How's it possible I've been sitting in rehearsals with this woman for a year and just now we are discovering how many common interests we have! She is Russian and moved to the states 14 years ago. Her children are bilingual. From birth she has daily read to her children from a Russian Bible. Her husband has read to them from an English Bible. She and her husband are devout Christians! Common (and most binding) Interest #5:  Christianity. She launched into her testimony as we sat excited and stunned at our shared hobbies and beliefs.   She accompanies another choral group in town. Common Interest #6: She's a pianist! Friendship is born. Before the night was over we had already invited one another out and over to each other's homes. In her beautiful Russian accent she exclaims, "You must come. Come to my home. Meet my family!" I could have talked with her for hours. In most friends we find a few common passions, but rarely do we find someone where all our dearest interests align. I left that evening with these two C.S Lewis  quotes wafting through my mind: 

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” 

“People who bore one another should meet seldom; people who interest one another, often.” 

Thankful that God blesses me with friendships old and new. 

February Flew!

February has come and gone and here are all the things that I failed to put in my blog:

1. Cape Canaveral NOTU Ribbon cutting

The tiny rental car:

The Ribbon Cutting Reception at NOTU 

(Naval Ordinance Test Unit)

Senator Nelson is in the middle. 

In case you did not know, Sen Nelson actually spent six days orbiting Earth back in the 1980s. 

What they work on at NOTU:

(sub missiles)

very sweet! 

2. Kennedy Space Station

My husband is concerned that this excursion may have increased my "moon worship."  It's true; I really  LOVE the moon and could stare at it non-stop.  

The Rocket Garden:

The amazing Rocket Boosters on Saturn 5:

3. Disney's Hollywood Studios

For some reason I did not take many pics. 

The Indiana Jones stunt show and set:

The Rockin' Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror were incredible rides. The two stunt shows kept our interest, but in all honesty, I like Epcot better. I got to spend a  relaxing and enjoyable day with my husband, so I'm not complaining. This is one of the few times we've been to Disney just the two of us, and it was a great day. 

4. Back to Cape Canaveral!

The PAO offered us VIP seats to Discovery's final launch when we were at the NOTU ceremony, and we just couldn't pass up that opportunity. We were showered with all kinds of paraphernalia--badges, stickers, photographs etc. etc. etc. all put together in a handy folder for us on the day of the launch. The day concluded with a BBQ and we enjoyed eating with the skipper and his wife as they told us some great stories of his many years in the Navy.  It was such a great day with beautiful Florida weather, clear skies, and excitement! The launch was incredible. To feel the ground shake, hear and feel the rumbling and see Discovery blast off was an awe-filled moment. I can't imagine how exhilarating it is for those astronauts or how emotional it is for their spouses. Navy spouses think it's rough when our sailors end up on the other side of the world, but what in the world must it be like to know your spouse is no longer on planet Earth. It must be an eerie feeling. 

Wow that was fast...blast off Discovery!

Bye bye!

That was February in a jiffy! I'll try to be a more diligent blogger in March!

Glorious Grace!

A few years ago, I received the Book of Common Prayer from a good friend of mine. Although I no longer attend a church that uses the Book of Common Prayer, I still reference my copy often. Yesterday was the First Sunday after Epiphany and the collect reads:

O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people who call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What a great prayer. “Grant that (I) may both perceive and know what things (I) ought to do.” Before reading this prayer, I read Psalm 119 and was struck once again by the delight the psalmist takes in the Law of God. Doug Wilson in the documentary Collison: Is Christianity Good for the World? mentions at one point that the Law of God is an expression of who God is. We often hear or think of God’s Law as a heavy condemning judgmental “rule,” but when we consider the Law as an expression of who God is, what joy it becomes for the child of God to know the Law, to delight in it, to love it, and to meditate on it. By knowing, delighting, loving and meditating on it, I learn to know, delight, love and meditate upon who God is, and that Law that once hung over my head condemning my sin, now becomes like sweet honey not because it justifies me, but because it shows me who my Father is. As the psalmist says in Psalm 119:102-103, “I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” What better way is there to “perceive and know things (we) ought to do” than to know the Law of God? I love that the prayer does not end in just perceiving or knowing, but it asks God to grant that I also “have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What a glorious thing that not only does my justification come through Jesus Christ, but He also grants me grace and power for sanctification. Left to my own abilities I fail, but through the grace and power of Christ, I am sanctified. However, even though it is completely of His grace, He does not put me in a position of passivity.  He gives His Word, prayer, and the sacraments as means of grace. As I know and commune with Him through these means of grace, I become more like Him, and His reflection permeates my life.  What glorious grace!

As the psalmist, may we also delight in God's Law!

"For I find my delight in your commandments, which I love." Psalm 119:47

"At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules." Psalm 119:62

"The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces." Psalm 119:72

"Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight." Psalm 119:77

"If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction." Psal 119:92

"Oh how I love your law! It is my mediation all the day." Psalm 119:97

"Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold." Psalm 119:127

"Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight." Psalm 119:143

"Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble." Psalm 119:166

"I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight." Psalm 119:174

The Little Things Do Matter

Ever gotten a kind note out of the blue from a good friend? Has someone ever gone out of the way to do something for you without expecting anything in return? Has your spouse ever surprised you with some thoughtful gift or act of kindness? Little things often matter. They can truly encourage, or they can destroy. It does work both ways. Over Christmas, we got a jillion cards and family updates from people. We love hearing from old friends, but this past Christmas we also received two unexpected items. First, was an envelope with a cut out newspaper article and a small note written on a little torn piece of paper. The newspaper article had quoted my husband, and the sender thought we would like a copy of it, so she cut it out and sent it to us along with a little note letting us know she had prayed for us. I do know this lady a little, but by no means do I know her well. She is more of an acquaintance which is why the gesture was so unexpected to me. Her kindness took me off guard. The second piece of mail was a regular Christmas card addressed to my husband. Inside was a sweet note from a woman thanking him for praying for her and her family during a hospital emergency back in January 2010. My husband kept looking at the card trying to recall the situation, but he could not remember anything about the woman or even the emergency. Once again the little things matter greatly! He had helped a family in need and although to him it was hardly memorable, to them it meant a great deal. 

As I was thinking about how little things can impact us, I started thinking about words and expressions. Words are little things, but they carry meaning (much to the chagrin of our postmodern world). A few years ago I used to have frequent conversations about various doctrinal subjects with a friend that was an ordained minister. One day in conversation, I used the phrase, “It’s human nature...” He immediately stopped me, and I remember him looking at me as if I had just said something outrageously heretical. In a unwavering tone with overly enunciated consonants and slightly stretched out syllables he then said, “It is not human nature; it is sinful nature.”  Of course, I meant human nature--as in that fallen nature that we all have, but he was right, human nature is the wrong term. I have never forgotten the quickness and intensity with which he corrected me. To this day when I hear someone say "human nature" in place of sinful nature little hairs go up on my neck. The error now drives me crazy! Human nature and sinful nature are two different things. After all Christ took on  human flesh, yet He was perfectly obedient in his humanity. There was not an inkling of sin in Him.  It is interesting though how little wrong uses of terms/phrases like that over time can impact thinking and theology. After a while, humanness becomes the problem, instead of sinfulness.  Richard Mouw in his book, Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport adapted a phrase from a Lutheran scholar to make it apply to his situation. Mouw’s phrase came out like this, 

"First and foremost I am a human being. But I find being a Christian to be the best way for me to be a human being. And I find being Protestant the best way for me to be a Christian. And I find being Reformed the best way for me to be Protestant. And I find being a Calvinist to be the best way of being Reformed." 

The reason I love this quote so much is that it all goes back to being what we were created to be--human beings created in the image of God to commune with God and to glorify God. 

A Plug for Blog and Mablog

Recently I have been on a Doug Wilson kick. I have known about Doug Wilson for years through reading a book by him,  hearing his name tossed around in conversations about the Auburn Avenue Controversy, listening to classical school teachers rave about incredible educational conferences with him-- and OH! I do remember reading through some Credenda Agenda magazines years ago and laughing my head off! However I have never read enough of Wilson to really appreciate his writing (apart from those few magazines!).  My current Wilson "phase" started a couple weeks ago when I purchased the film, Collision: Is Christianity Good for the World?  This documentary follows Doug Wilson, a devout Christian, and Christopher Hitchens, an articulate atheist, around the United States as they debate their two opposing positions. It’s a fascinating film if you ever get to the chance to see it. Both men share a respect for one another (not to mention an appreciation for P.G. Wodehouse). In the end, depending on which set of presuppositions you carry into the debate will probably determine who you think does the best job in the debate. Anyhow, after seeing the film I started reading Wilson’s blog, and I have just thoroughly enjoyed it. It never ceases to challenge, humor and provoke me. I absolutely LOVE it. Check it out! One thing is for sure, you will either love or hate Wilson, but you will not remain neutral! 

Reasons I like Blog and Mablog:

Diverse Topics

Thoughtful

Logical

Biblical

Edifying

Witty

Sarcastic

Straight forward

Insightful

Clever

Welcome 2011!

It's a new year, and I had a great New Years Eve/Day! It may be strange to some, but in this house some of our favorite moments are really the non-moments. Those times of just hanging out and talking. This past weekend my husband and I did a lot of hanging out, and that took the form of board games (well, one game in particular), and we literally played into the middle of the night and all day the next day and all day yesterday. Samurai Swords, a war strategy game that takes 3-5 hours to play was the focus of our weekend. We played a total of five times and I lost a total of five times...not a great record. My husband thinks I’m crazy for continually coming back for more humiliating defeat. I guess I am a glutton for punishment, but I really do not care.  As we approach this year, I know that my husband’s job will take him away for many months, and I want to relish every moment with him while he is able to be home even if that time is spent losing miserably in Samurai Swords! 

One of our many Samurai Sword games!

So what about resolutions, you ask? Well, if “resolution” holds the idea of lots of determination then well, these aren’t resolutions, but for the fun of it I’ll call them resolutions.

I guess I should qualify--these first few are most definitely resolutions, not just some random things I’d like to do, but things I will do, if they kill me. 

1. Survive the time that my other half and I will be apart during this year. Just thinking about not being able to talk to my husband whenever I want to is stressful for me. I do not remember very many days since our wedding when we haven’t at least been able to talk, so the idea of him being gone and unavailable is frightening.

2. Enjoy the time that my dearest and I will be together. We have had a good start with all of our Samurai Sword competitions. Honestly, it is difficult for me to not be overjoyed when spending time with him. After 11 years of marriage, his company truly makes me more and more happy everyday.  

3. Grow in contentment and joy in Christ throughout my husband’s absence. It’s often when our earthly supports are removed that we are driven to our knees and learn more complete reliance on the Savior. I want to smile not just thinking about my husband’s return, but thinking about my confidence in Jesus Christ and basking in the joy of being His Child.  

As for the others:

4. It would be nice to read more. I suppose if I blogged less I would be able to read more, but in all honesty it is not blogging that keeps me from the books, it is my own laziness. I am currently almost through my first two books for the new year! I will confess, however, that they are quite short. 

5. Paint a room. A good number of rooms in my home need painting, and really my main problem is that I cannot decide exactly which color to paint them, and I do not want to start the project if I am only going to have to turn around and redo it. I’d rather just not start. 

6. Be intentional and diligent about praying for our church leaders, our military, and our government leaders. I suppose this should be in the first few resolutions. 

7. I am told by my doctor that my blood sugar is running a little high, so I guess I should include on the list of goals to decrease my sugar and carb intake, and increase my exercise. 

8. Pick a couple mercy ministries and involve myself! I was approached a few weeks about becoming an ombudsman for area nursing homes, and I am still tossing that idea around, but I would also love to volunteer for an organization that supports our troops (USO or other) or maybe volunteer to help with Special Olympics. I worked a lot with Special Olympics in college and very much enjoyed it. 


9. It should not take much effort, but surely I can have more than 15 blog entries this year! 

I think that about sums it up, I could think of more, but these few are a good start. What are your plans for the new year?