Psalm 111:4

He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. (Ps 111)


Not only has He done wonderful works.

But He also makes sure that we (we who are weak, we who cannot remember, we who cannot by our own reason or strength believe) know of His wonderful works.

Sometimes I worry that I cannot possibly remain in the faith for the rest of my life.  But hey, I'm not the one who keeps me believing anyhow.  He makes His wonderful works to be remembered!

New Dishes

The old dishes were annoying us.  Quite a few had broken.  The bowls didn't stack, and thus hogged too much space in cupboards.  The plates were so flat that, when carried to the sink after a meal, silverware and salad dressing and meat juice would slide off the plate and fall on the floor.  But even cheap dishes ($3 per place setting) seem too pricey when we already have dishes.

So every trip to Goodwill included a scan of the dishes-section.
#1 --  "Do the bowls stack nicely?" 
#2 --  "Are there enough place settings?"
#3 --  "Is there some sort of raised edge on the plates?"
#4 --  "Ugly, tolerable, nice, or pretty?"

Last month I finally found bowls that stacked, plates that weren't too flat, with plenty of pieces for four people.  On top of that, there were several serving pieces in the set.  My only problem was that the dishes are SO pretty.  Could I buy them?  Would the men in the house be bothered by the flowers? 

Less than $20 for 26 pieces.  And the guys are okay with new set.  Woo hoo!  And not once has a knife slid off a plate as we clear the table after a meal. 

And I'm tickled -- they're SO pretty!!!  Sometimes it's the little things that make you smile!  As a friend said recently, "Never underestimate the power of a coffee mug that makes you happy."

Where IS That Tree of Life Anyhow?

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, 
clear as crystal, 
proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 
In the middle of its street, 
and on either side of the river, 
was the tree of life, 
which bore twelve fruits, 
each tree yielding its fruit every month. (Rev 22:1-2)


Okay, okay.  I know that what John saw can't be described very easily, and that we're often told it's in "apocalyptic language" and all that jazz.  But still, there's this tree that's in the middle of the street (or is it in the midst of the river?) and it's on either side of the river. And I always thought, "I am just not getting the layout of this picture here.  What's where?"  But then I noticed something in church.


First, we know that the tree of life is connected to Jesus' cross (a tree!) and that the fruits of this tree are for our healing.  Second, we know that blood and water came from that tree, from Jesus' side, and that we are saved via baptism (water) and the Lord's Supper (blood).  (And if you don't believe me on that, take a peek at 1 John 5.)



So here's what I'm pondering about this whole "location thing" of this tree:
 
When you look at the altar on Sunday morning, the chalice and the paten are in the "middle of the street," kinda.  Y'know, they're in the center.  If you're walking up the center aisle of church, they're smack-dab in front of you.  But then, what happens during the distribution?  The pastor is taking of that "tree," that fruit, to the communicants kneeling along the altar rail, "on either side of the river."  So it's in the middle and it's on either side.  I think that's cool.



Maybe this is silly.  But it takes what seems to me to be an unwieldy picture and makes it a little more understandable.  And it dovetails with what we know about the worship life of the Church and so much of the imagery used throughout Scriptures.

Counterfeit Money

I have seen counterfeit money at work that is fresh off the presses, crisp, new, and fake.  Counterfeits are more likely to be "distressed" though -- crumpled and a bit dirty.  The counterfeiters know that a fresh bill is more likely to catch attention.  (And fresh ones do.  Even the real money that is bright and crisp gets my attention, and I examine it a bit more than normal.)

But the fakes I've encountered over the last couple of months have been in horrible shape.  They've been so faded they're barely legible.  Thing is, that can happen to real money too.  Some of the counterfeits have been torn in two and taped together (one with masking tape instead of clear tape).  But we see that too in real money.  Some of the counterfeits have a humongous black mark on it, from Sharpie or dirt.  That too can happen with real bills.  It seems that the thieves are hiding their counterfeits by making the money look so bad that people assume the badness of the money is from how crumpled & torn & marked & faded instead of noticing that the badness is from its being FAKE. 

Moral of the story: go ahead and be suspicious of really cruddy bills. 

Come Unto Me, and I Will Give You Rest

And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again and arms are strong.
Alleluia!

Ah, how hungers all my spirit
for the love I do not merit!
Oft have I with sighs fast thronging
thought upon this food with longing,
in the battle well-nigh worsted
for this cup of life have thirsted,
for the Friend who here invites us
and to God Himself unites us.

Weary am I and heavy-laden.
With sin my soul is sore oppressed.
Receive me graciously and gladden my heart
which here is now Thy guest.
Lord, may Thy body and Thy blood
be for my soul the highest good.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Look at that!  All three of those hymns say the exact same thing! 

Anthropomorphizing God?

The math books we're using this year are marvelous.   They cover all sorts of non-math stuff too!  So last week we were reading about anthropomorphizing* pets.  Or a chair.  Or a clock.  Or the sun.  The author also mentioned that some people anthropomorphize God.

Think about that.

Can somebody anthropomorphize YOU in a story?  Can a news article anthropomorphize a rock star or a politician? 

It's nonsensical. 

So how can GOD be anthropomorphized?

Sure, you can do it if you're Muslim or Jewish or Hindu.  You might even think it's possible to anthropomorphize God if you believe what too many Christians believe: that Jesus quit being a man and went back to being "just God" when He ascended to the Father's right hand. 

But we trust in a God who was incarnate.  Our God is a man.  So how can we even talk about "anthropomorphizing" somebody who's human?



* footnote: ascribing human characteristics 
to a non-human creature or object

Christmas Lights

We came home on Tuesday night to find a massive amount of Christmas lights decorating a tree in our yard.

We didn't put them there.  The neighbor did. 

Gary said the wife asked (after she saw what the husband did) if it would be okay or if they should take the light-strands down.  So it appears she has some understanding of our yard as differentiated from their yard.

But there's still something uncomfortable about seeing that display.

A Terminal Illness

(At risk of offending Jenny and sending her running away, with her fingers in her ears, singing "La la la la la la la....  I can't hear yooooooouu....")

There is a certain amount of mourning to go through upon receiving the diagnosis of a terminal illness.  It shocks.  It saddens.  It often forces one into involuntary fasting.  It drives us to prayer.

But then life goes on.  For a while.  Maybe longer than the doctor expected.  Maybe shorter.  But the life that goes on, goes on with a changed perspective.  (Remember that country song, "I hope you get a chance to live like you were dying"?)



There are certain economic realities.  Believing that these economic principles are just somebody's "beliefs" or somebody's opinion Does Not Change the fact that these economic principles are incontrovertible truths.  When these economic laws are transgressed, there will be consequences.  (It's no different from my believing that I can fly will result in my smashing onto the ground when I "fly" off the roof of the house.)



Tuesday's vote totals were not due to voter fraud.  Tuesday's decision was a revelation of the will of the American people. Tuesday was a turning point in American history.  (Or maybe election day of 2008 was, but this Tuesday showed that November 2008 wasn't a fluke.)

So now we mourn the diagnosis.  No, we don't know when the end will come.  But we live with two realities: the days are numbered, and God still blesses.  We pray "Give us this day our daily bread" with a greater understanding of the "dailiness" and less reliance on our own strength to provide for ourselves.  We live with uncertainty about the future of our temporal existence, with nothing to rely on but the Lord's gracious promises.  We cannot count on a future of prosperity and a retirement laced with world travel, so we will be content to take each day as it comes, thankful for whatever joys of life and family and creature-comforts we happen to have at the moment.

And that's not necessarily a bad place to be.
We don't like having our idols taken away.  But when we do, there is only One who remains true and faithful and inflinchingly for us.  

"This is the victory that overcomes the world -- even our Faith."

To the Polls

One 5-quart crockpot full of African peanut soup.  Bowls, spoons, ladle.
Hummus, sliced cucumbers, and pita chips.
Fresh salsa, guacamole, and tortilla chips.
Hot pot, tea bags, stevia, and mugs.
Water bottles full of good water from home (in hopes of avoiding the city water for at least part of the day).
Teriyaki beef jerkey, cashews, and trail mix.
Apples, pineapple chunks, cherry tomatoes, and tangerines.

It's going to be a LONG day at the polls.  The township provides donuts for breakfast, and sends along some white-bread buns & bagels to help with the pollworkers' lunch.  I do not need to start a long and stressful day on a sugar-&-white-bread fix.  So I'm taking along MY version of yummy comfort foods.

The prospect of out-of-state poll watchers scares me.  I guess part of the point is that they want to be intimidating, huh?

So how exhausted will I be, come evening?  Fall-into-bed tired?  Or so curious as to need to watch some election results?

Gary's Back

Three weeks ago Gary hurt his back by committing the wild and crazy act of [gasp!] setting a coffee cup on his desk.  After several doctor visits, four days of working from home, lots of drugs, and six days of being [self-]banned from driving, he began to improve. 

God answered our prayers and decreased Gary's pain, increased his mobility, and provided the above torture device equipment via Craigslist.  (Torture device:  look how red his face is!)  The doctor suggested borrowing an inversion table from somebody to see if it might help.  Finding nothing to borrow, we were thankful to find one on Craigslist the very next day for a great price and only a half-hour away.

The inversion table has helped tremendously.  Gary even mowed the lawn today!

We stumbled over the inversion table which sat smack-dab in the middle of the living room for over a week.  But now Gary needs it only once or twice a day (instead of 4+ times daily) and Gary's capable of walking up and down the stairs easily [woo hoo!]. So it was time to relegate the torture device to the dungeon basement.

This involved a massive rearrangement of the basement.  Bookshelves were moved.  (Argh!  That is always SO much work!!)  We dusted and vacuumed.  Hardest of all, I sorted through some stuff to pitch.  Ow, ow, owie!  It hurts to throw away perfectly good homeschooling software just because the programs are too obsolete to run on any computer we've got around here.  It hurts to throw out vcr tapes of movies I love; but who wants videotapes these days?  The garbage stack will be big this week.  The finished part of the basement is opened, neatened, put in order, and cleaned. 

And we can walk through the living room again.

October Confirmations at Church

Alia's Theology

My 3-yr-old-at-the-time granddaughter drew this picture recently.  It was one of many, including making some letters, drawing a chicken, and some plain old scribbling.  But her mother wanted to get a picture of this one before it was erased for whatever-came-next.

The Aftermath of the Election

I just realized today that I haven't been praying too much about the outcome of the election.  Over the last couple of weeks, I've been praying more for how the people respond to the election results. 

Four years ago I remember people talked about how great it is that, in America, unlike some other nations, there was a peaceful transfer of power.  [Assuming the incumbent is not re-elected] will we be saying the same thing next year about this transfer of power?

Today in the prayer of the Church, we asked for "faithful citizens."  That's about Tuesday.  But it's also about the days and weeks following Tuesday.  Lord, have mercy.

Nerds

Paul and Mandy in their Halloween best!

Those Martyrs

Excuse me for a brief ADD moment regarding Romans 5:


For when we were still without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die;
yet perhaps 
for a good man someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, 
Christ died for us.   (Romans 5)



So Jesus told John Mark (aka, the "rich young ruler") that no one was good but God. 

Jesus IS the "good man."

Perhaps for a good man --for the Good Man-- someone would maybe possibly dare even to die.   "Those martyrs stand, a priestly band, God's throne forever near."




Ah, but that's not Paul's point here.  His point is that Christ does what none of us could ever do: He dies for the ungodly, for sinners, for me.

Why It's Hard to Pray

from John Kleinig (not a quote but the gist of what he said) --

You find it hard to pray?  You intend to have family devotions every evening?  You intend to do a better job this time of sticking to your private prayers each day?  But you keep failing!

That's exactly what the devil wants!  Your failure to pray doesn't mean you're a failure at it and therefore should give up.  Your failure to pray is, instead, proof that the devil is out to stop you at all costs.  Your failures are, oddly, evidence of how important your prayers are!

And maybe if you know how important it is to Satan that you don't pray, maybe it will be easier to persevere in your prayers, going to your Father who invites you, who offers you help, who promises to hear.

Country Dancing

Mr Toad's Character

What a difference 100 years can make!

Background:  Maggie and I weren't sure what new book to start after our last read-aloud concluded.  We'd run across a reference to The Wind in the Willows in her math book [yes, I did say math book, odd as that may sound to those of you who don't know Fred] and I realized that Maggie had not heard TWitW last time the family had read it.  [Amazing problem that homeschool mothers have!  Some children have the audacity to not be born yet when you did something that all the kids were supposed to experience for "school."] So anyway, we grabbed a copy from the library and started reading.  I enjoyed the book well enough when we read it 20 years ago, but I'm finding it positively delightful this time!!  Maggie appears to be finding it acceptable. 

In The Wind in the Willows, Mr Toad likes new things.  He likes nice clothes.  He flits from one new curiosity/passion to another.  When he fell in love with boating, he ditched his previous passions.  When he decided to go traveling in a gypsy carriage, he was done-done-done with boating.  When he discovered a motor car, he promptly dropped his interest in traveling in his gypsy carriage. 

My impression is that, when the book was written, this Affinity For The New was seen as a character flaw.  Most of the other animals were more content with their place in life and with the simple pleasures of their surroundings.  Not Mr Toad.  The other critters bore with Mr Toad's idiosyncrasies.  He was curious about new things and always wanted to find out more about whatever-was-novel-today.

Today, in our society, in our economy, it's all flip-flopped.  Contentment is not considered good.  It's often considered hokey.  It's often considered unpatriotic (as contentment won't boost consumerism).  And it's definitely considered "dull."  Desire-for-the-new is held up as a cherished characteristic. 

We even run political campaigns with the promise of CHANGE.

My, how values have ... uh ... changed.

I have gobs of pictures to download off my camera. But in the meantime I will steal borrow some other people's snapshots.

Alia raking leaves.

Our friend Rachel caught a lovely picture of Maggie!

Olivia and Andrew.

Olivia and Maggie.

Mandy and Paul.

Zoe in the pile of leaves.

Surely in Temples Made with Hands...

I used to love "Built on the Rock the Church Doth Stand."  It has some great lines and a good, strong tune. 

But when I began to understand that Jesus really truly IS there in the Divine Service -- there in His word -- there in the Supper -- there in the preaching -- there in the absolving -- I began to be troubled by

Surely in temples made with hands
God the most high is not dwelling.
High above earth His temple stands,
all earthly temples excelling.

But He is dwelling here, in this building, in this nave, in this chancel, on this altar.  He is!

When I crabbed about that line to Pastor Wiest, he told me to "take it up with Paul" because it's exactly what the apostle said when he was preaching in Athens, at Mars Hill.  Well, just go and hog-tie me, Pastor Wiest!  Darn it, how can I argue with the apostle who was inspired by God to say it?

But it still bothered me.

So after church today we looked at the Greek.  And now it makes a little more sense.  All through John -- especially where Jesus talks about abiding in the word, and abiding in the Spirit, and abiding in Him, and His abiding in us -- it's a different word.  It's not the same kind of "dwell."  So often "dwelling" is "living" or "abiding" or "remaining."  But at Mars Hill, when Paul said that God does not "dwell" in earthly temples, it's more like God isn't housed in earthly temples, like, y'know, "contained."  

Well, now, that makes loads more sense. 

He does abide here in our churches.  He does remain there.  He does dwell with us there.  But He's not limited there; He's not locked up there.

So now I'm wondering what impression the song gives other people.  Maybe I'm the only one.  Maybe everybody else thinks it's a no-brainer that God is everywhere and yet at the same time is specially located in the holy place of our churches.