A quote from the foundation of my nation's history

"While men continue to think freely, they will judge variously."
~ Watkin Tench, Captain of the Marines,
Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales, 10 July 1788

A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay, 1789

Twins

Ha! That got your attention, didn't it?

A conversation I had with my 4yo son this morning over cuddles:

Me: I love you, Sam.
Sam: I love you too, Mummy.
Me: I know someone else who loves you. Can you guess?
Sam: Jesus! Jesus loves me!
Me: Yes, Jesus does love you. And I was going to say God loves you.
Sam: God is Jesus.
Me: That's right, Jesus is God.
Sam: God and Jesus are the same, kinda like twins.
Me: You're right. Kind of like twins... did you hear that, Jeff?

Jesus is God. He is the God-man who makes God known to us, in a body we can understand.

Mary Poppins

We've finished reading Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Comes Back and tonight we have begun reading Mary Poppins Opens the Door. At the beginning of the first chapter, Mrs Banks is determined to advertise for a new nurse for the Banks children (Jane, Michael, the twins Barbara and John, and the baby Annabel). Mr Banks is so distraught with the situation - Robertson Ay has just put black polish on one of his shoes and brown polish on the other, a sign of the degeneration the household has fallen into without Mary Poppins - that he mournfully wishes that he had never married; perhaps he could have "Lived in a Cave" instead, he muses.

"As long as Mary Poppins was in the house, everything had gone smoothly. But since that day when she had left them - so suddenly and without a Word of Warning - the family had gone from Bad to Worse.
Here I am, thought Mrs Banks miserably, with five wild children and no one to help me. I've advertised. I've asked my friends. But nothing seems to happen."

Mrs Banks even considers hiring Miss Andrews, the frightful governess from Mr Banks' childhood. On reading this, I looked up from the book to meet Jeff's eyes and suggested, "Perhaps we should advertise for Mary Poppins to come and be our nanny."

Jeff thought this was a brilliant idea. "But," he said, "I don't think she'd like to sleep in the guest room."

And then he added, "But for Mary Poppins, I'd move out of our bedroom and stay in the guest room myself!"

I'd better get back to the reading ... the kids are in bed and Josh is calling out his window, "Mum, we've been waiting for Mary Poppins!"

"Something worse might happen to you"

Many of you will have seen the photo that I posted a while back, of my husband Jeff and I on the last day of our holiday to the USA.We look pretty happy, don’t we?

Would any of you guess that I had almost died only a week before this photo was taken?

Well I did. Here’s another photo, of that time.
One evening during our five week driving tour of the western half of the US, Jeff and I dined out at a rather nice, small, busy restaurant. For the last four or five days we had been in Washington State, enjoying the delights of coastal food. This evening, in Astoria on the northern coast of Oregon, I decided to order a bowl of Dungeness Crab pasta. It was delicious!

But to me, that crab pasta was also poisonous. You see I didn’t know, when I ordered that pasta, that I am allergic to crabmeat.

Jeff and I enjoyed our meals, he paid, and then we began the short walk uphill through the drizzling rain to our Bed and Breakfast. We were only about 20 metres from our B&B when I felt something like a punch in my chest and started breathing a bit harder. After a few deeper breaths, I mentioned to Jeff that I thought I might be having an asthma attack (along with all our kids, I’d been diagnosed last winter). I could still speak fine. As Jeff and I made our way more quickly now to the B&B, we tried to work out what had set off the asthma. Surely not the exercise of the short walk from the restaurant, since we’d walked much further and steeper trails in the last four weeks exploring the Grand Canyon and other wonders of the American environment.

When we got to the B&B, I used my puffer, which I had left in our room. But it didn’t seem to work. After a brief improvement, my breathing was actually getting worse. After only a few minutes, I was taking heaving breaths, my eyes were tearing up, and I knew that whether this was an asthma attack or something else, I had to get to a hospital. Through breaths, I told Jeff he had to take me to a hospital… and then, when he couldn’t contact our host to get directions, with a rather clear head despite my shuddering breaths, I suggested he look up hospital on our GPS.

I know that God is in control over everything that happens. But honestly, when I found out later that the emergency department was only about 1km up the same road we were staying on – a one way road in the direction of the hospital – I knew that God had been looking out for me, knowing what was going to happen when I chose to eat that crab pasta.

To cut a long story short, the triage nurses took one look at me when I stumbled through the doors of the emergency department, gasping for breath, and whisked me into the closest room. They put an oxygen mask on me (oh, bliss!) gave me an injection of adrenaline, as well as giving me several antihistamines, and after about half an hour, I was almost breathing normally again. My episode of anaphylactic shock was under control, and now I just needed to recover. They discharged me at 2am and I slept through much of the next two days of our holiday, exhausted from nearly dying.

The one thing those emergency department staff drilled into me before they discharged me was that I was not to eat shellfish again. Never. If I did, it just might kill me.

The next morning, as I looked back on what had happened, I was reminded of a few verses in the Bible. The first, I had read in my regular Bible study that week. In John 5:14, Jesus talks to a man he has just healed. The man had been an invalid for 38 years, and now he could walk again. Jesus warned him:
“See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse might happen to you.”

What the emergency department staff had said, reminded me of that verse. They had said, “Stop eating shellfish, or something worse might happen to you.”

Jesus said to the healed invalid, “Stop sinning, or something worse might happen to you”: something worse than 38 years unable to walk? What on earth could be worse than that?

There’s another verse in the Bible with a similar warning that tells us just what the “worse” thing is. Romans 6:23 says “The consequence of sin is death.” The Bible tells us that sin – ignoring and disobeying God – leads to death, in just the same way that for me, eating a plate of shellfish will lead to death.

Of course, I didn’t die from the crab pasta, because the hospital staff intervened. And Romans 6:23 goes on to say that we don’t need to die from sin either. It says, “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God doesn’t want us to die as a result of disobeying Him. God wants us to trust His Son Jesus Christ, and to accept the good consequence that comes from trusting Jesus. That consequence is just like my second chance after eating the poisonous pasta – but even better. Eternal life is God’s gift to everyone who trusts in His Son, Jesus Christ, who already died on our behalf so that we can live forever with God.

Because I trust in Jesus, I am going to have eternal life. But Jesus is not just some “get out of jail free card”. I still need to work hard to “stop sinning”, because Jesus calls me to a high standard, a life of complete obedience to God.

This Blogger is TEMPORARILY not Blogging

Hi to all of you wonderful regular readers of my blog!

Due to a sudden and unexpected - and delightful - turn of events, I have a pressing need to direct my writing energies elsewhere for a while, and maybe even the next few months. (If you want a hint, check out my tags for this post.) For that reason, I won't be posting on Equip Academy at least for the next fortnight, and probably (God willing!) until around mid-February 2010.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm giving up TV as well. Even though The Office is showing two nights a week at a manageable time starting this week!

Please keep me in your prayers. I look forward to writing for you again in 2010.

Grace, peace and love in Christ,
Sharon

PS If you are hanging out for something else to read online, you might like to check out these blogs, which I will also be reading (some more frequently than others):

Amy Edward's blog Veritas at Home - an American homeschooling mum of four + one in-utero, who loves BSF like me and is a faithful Christian. (Did I mention Amy's blog shares a "birthday" with mine, and we have become great blogging buddies since we met online?)

Meredith's blog The Key to the Door - a fellow Perthite whose husband is a graduate of the same Theological College as mine, Meredith shares insights from her Bible reading and on Christian living.

John Granger's blog Forks High School Professor - for those who share with me a fascination in the deeper meanings buried in by Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga.

Kellie's blog Blue House Academy - another Christian homeschooler, whose American family is "touched by Austism".

For other recommendations, please check out the "Blogs I enjoy" and "Friends who blog" links in my left hand sidebar.

Expanding my vocabulary

One of the things I love about reading books written before I was born is that they use language I am not familiar with, and my vocabulary is expanding gradually as I read these words, determine their meaning from their use in context (or from a dictionary if needs must) and then begin to deliberately look for opportunities to use them in my own conversations.

So here are the words I have learnt from my last week of reading.
Note: None of the words from CS Lewis's works were in my dictionary, so I have given my initial presumed definition with (?).

From Heidi by Johnanna Spyri, originally written in German, originally published in 1880:

asseverated: [past tense verb] declared seriously, solemnly or earnestly.
Heidi p2-3 " 'The child stay up there with Alm-Uncle! You must be out of your senses, Dete! ... That would be all very well if he were like other people,' asseverated stout Barbel warmly, 'but you know what he is. And what can he do with a child, especially with one so young!' "
My usage: I had to summarise the words of Deut 32:46 for my BSF lesson last week. From the NIV: Deuteronomy 32:45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess." I thought to myself, "Aha! Moses asseverated the Law to the people of Israel!" Bet you didn't know that, now, did you?

gape: [verb] to open mouth wide; to yawn.
From dictionary.com, gape [verb] means "to open the mouth wide involuntarily, as the result of hunger, sleepiness, or absorbed attention" (Random House)
Heidi p66 [Clara, the invalid, is speaking.] " 'You were expressly sent for to come here and to remain with me and share my lessons; there will be some fun about them now as you cannot read, something new to do, for they are dreadfully dull, and I think the morning will never pass away. You know my tutor comes every morning at about ten o'clock, and then we go on with lessons till two, and it does seem such a long time. Sometimes he takes up the book and holds it close up to his face, as if he was very short-sighted, but I know it's only because he wants so dreadfully to gape, and Fraulein Rottenmeir takes her large handkerchief out also now and then and covers her face with it, as if she was moved by what we had been reading, but that is only because she is longing to gape too. And I myself often want to gape, but I am obliged to stop myself, for if Fraulein Rottenmeir sees me gaping she runs off at once and fetches the cod-liver oil ... but now it will be so much more amusing...' "
My usage: I already knew the definition of "gape" as in to open one's mouth wide, but I had never heard it applied to yawning before. FWIW, crocodiles gape, opening their mouths to allow air to flow into them as a means of cooling off.

From Perelandra: Voyage to Venus by Charles Staples (CS) Lewis, first published in 1943:

fissiparate: [verb] to divide a whole into two, particularly a pair of opposites (?)
According to dictionary.com, fissiparity, aka schizogenesis, means "reproduction by fission"
Ibid, fissiparous [adjective] means "producing new biological units or individuals by fission" (Meriam-Webster); "Reproducing or propagating by fission" (Stedman's Medical); and "2. Tending to break up into parts or break away from a main body; factious" (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)
Ibid, related words breakaway, separatist (Visual Thesaurus)
Perelandra p112 [Weston, possessed by the devil or one of his demons, is speaking.] " 'It is a most interesting thing in popular religion, this tendency to fissiparate, to breed pairs of opposites: heaven and hell, God and Devil.' "

miserific: [adjective] induces misery (?)
Perelandra p135-136 "As there is one Face above all worlds merely to see which is irrevocable joy, so at the bottom of all worlds that face is waiting whose sight alone is the misery from which none who beholds it can recover. And though there seemed to be, and indeed were, a thousand roads by which a man could walk through the world, there was not a single one which did not lead sooner or later either to the Beatific Vision or the Miserific Vision."
My usage: I have to admit, I don't want to have an opportunity to use miserific in conversation. Especially if the conversation is about my kids!


From That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown Ups by CS Lewis, first published in 1945:

neurasthenic: [noun] a person who suffers from a mental illness, with symptoms of lack of mental clarity and tiredness (?)
From dictionary.com neurasthenic [noun] means "an individual affected with neurasthenia" (Meriam-Webster's Medical).
Ibid, neurasthenia [noun] means "A psychological disorder characterized by chronic fatigue and weakness, loss of memory, and generalized aches and pains, formerly thought to result from exhaustion of the nervous system. No longer in scientific use." (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).
That Hideous Strength p51 " 'I don't feel comfortable going away while you're in your present state -'
'What state?' said Jane, turning round and facing him [Mark, her husband] for the first time.
'Well - I mean - just a bit nervy - as anyone may be temporarily.'
'Because I happened to be having a nightmare when you came home last night - or rather this morning - there's no need to talk as if I was a neurasthenic.' "
My usage: I woke up feeling like a neurasthenic yesterday, which may have been because I went to bed after midnight, having been absorbed in reading Perelandra.

seccotined: [past tense verb] attached by a fine connection, cf "hanging by a thread" (??)
cf. sectile: able to be cut smoothly with a knife; -o- used as a connective to join compound words; -ine: pertaining to.
That Hideous Strength p89-90 [Mrs Dimble, the kindly professor's wife, is speaking.] " 'There was an odious little man in a peaked cap who talked to Cecil with a cigarette in his mouth, at least it wasn't in his mouth but seccotined onto his upper lip - you know...' "

traducers: [plural adjectival noun] slanderers (?)
From dictionary.com traduce means "to speak maliciously and falsely of; slander; defame: to traduce someone's character" (Random House); "To cause humiliation or disgrace to by making malicious and false statements" (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)
That Hideous Strength p95 [Mr Straik, the "Mad Parson" is speaking.] " 'There will be resistance. They will gnaw their tongues and not repent. We are not to be deterred. We face these disorders with a firmness which will lead traducers to say that we have desired them. Let them say so. In a sense we have. It is no part of our witness to preserve that organisation of ordered sin which is called Society.' "
My usage: Anyone who says that my vocabulary knowledge is merely up to high-school level is a mere traducer, do you hear?

Admitting You're Wrong: Of Frogs and Fellow-Workers

Last term, Joshua did a research project on frogs. In his final poster he wrote (among other things), "Frogs eat through their skin."

He was wrong. Frogs eat with their mouths. But despite his teacher telling him that he was wrong, and me telling him that he was wrong, and him not knowing where he had found that bit of information, Joshua stuck to his guns.

Tomorrow, Joshua has the opportunity to present his Frog Project at the class assembly. But his teacher, not wanting to reinforce this erroneous idea and spread Joshua's confusion throughout the school, told him he could not read it out unless he either

(1) changed it to say "Frogs breathe through their skin." (This fact is correct, agreed upon by both Joshua's teacher, myself, and Joshua, as well as numerous non-fiction books on frogs.) OR

(2) proved that frogs do eat through their skin, by finding a non-fiction source for the information. OR

(3) Agreed not to include the sentence in the absence of evidence.

Joshua's teacher let me know what was on the line, and this afternoon Joshua (and the rest of the kids) spent ages sitting snuggled on the couch with me, reading about frogs in some books from our home library. We started with the Family Guide to Nature from Reader's Digest. (Hearty thanks to my Mum & Dad, who handed that book down to us from their bookshelf a few years back!) From page 203, I read,

"Tadpoles breathe with gills, which some aquatic salamanders retain even as adults. But while mature frogs and toads have lungs, they get most of the air they need through their moist skin. ... The tadpoles of frogs and toads are vegetariansd, though larval salamanders feed on tiny aquatic animals. But as adults all amphibians are meat eaters."

At this point, I asked Joshua if he thought it was possible to eat meat through one's skin. He admitted that it seemed unlikely. I read on:

"Most species have long, [extendable] tongues that dart out with lightning speed to snap up any small creatures moving nearby. Larger prey is grasped with the forelegs."

I wasn't expecting anything from Joshua at this stage, but he burst out with a somewhat quizzical "I was wrong!

I am ashamed to say that I am never that quick to admit my flaws and faults.

I studied today in my Women's Gathering (Acts 15:36-40) about Paul being unwilling to work with John Mark because he had "deserted" Paul and Barnabas when they left Cyprus (on their first missionary journey out from Antioch). Paul chose Silas as his co-worker for a second missionary trip, but Barnabas was willing to give John Mark a second opportunity, and took him to Cyprus again.

We talked about how John Mark would have probably known about the reason for Paul and Barnabas deciding to separate. I wonder what he felt about Paul's rejection? Although the passage records Paul's description of the event as a desertion, Luke had earlier used milder language. Acts 13:13 records merely that, "From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem." The Bible does not record whether Paul was right to refuse to have John Mark come along. It gives no record of the success - or otherwise - of Barnabas's second trip to Cyprus with John Mark. Given that John Mark had been "with them as their helper" (Acts 13:5) on Cyprus before, he was Barnabas's cousin (Colossians 4:10), and Barnabas hailed from Cyprus (Acts 4:36), it seems likely that Barnabas and Saul may have been well suited as companions for a second trip to Cyprus.

Nowhere does the Bible record Paul apologising to John Mark (or Barnabas) for his rejection of John Mark. Nowhere does the Bible tell of John Mark saying sorry to Paul for leaving him in the lurch when they left Cyprus the first time. But the Bible does show us that they were later reunited and John Mark was again welcomed by Paul in his ministry.

In Paul's letter to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse, he passed on John Mark's greetings, letting them know that John Mark might visit them, and if he did, to welcome him. Colosse was in Psidia, not too far west of the places where Paul and Barnabas had travelled to share the gospel after John Mark left them. It seems that Paul no longer feared John Mark would be unwilling to travel in those parts. At the same time, Paul wrote to Philemon and the church that met in their home in Colosse, describing John Mark as a "fellow-worker".

In Paul's last letter, 2 Timothy, he wrote asking that Timothy would bring John Mark to him (2 Timothy 4:11). Paul wrote that John Mark was "helpful to me in my ministry". So it seems that John Mark had gone full circle in Paul's esteem. At first he was a helper, then he was a deserter not suitable as a co-worker, then he was a fellow-worker who was to be welcomed by the churches, and once again he was helpful to Paul in his ministry.

It seems somewhere in there someone must have admitted they were wrong. Maybe Barnabas's second opportunity for John Mark to work with him on Cyprus showed that he was indeed a good helper. Maybe Paul apologised for misjudging John Mark; maybe John Mark apologised for leaving Paul. Maybe they both apologised and were forgiven. What we do know is that they overcame their differences and were able to work fruitfully together again. A little recognition of fault goes a long way.

I started this anecdote with Joshua's Frog Project. Well, we didn't stop reading about frogs when we found out they eat through their mouths and breathe through their skin. And I'm very pleased that we didn't! Because half an hour later, in Steve Parish's Amazing Facts About Australian Frogs & Reptiles, on page 12, I read aloud:

"Frogs do not drink through their mouths. Apart from a small amount of moisture from their food, they obtain nearly all their water requirements by taking in liquid through the skin on their undersides. The water passes into spaces called lymph sacs, then into the bloodstream."

So Joshua is content to amend his report to read, "Frog's don't eat through their skin. Frogs drink through their skin."And tomorrow he will read this startling fact out at his school assembly.

[The font used in the typing above is Sassoon Primary Infant. We bought it with some of our tax return money. Isn't it marvellous?]

Leadership and God's sovereignty

Amy quoted John Adams on her blog yesterday: "No man has yet produced any revelation from heaven in his favor, any divine communication to govern his fellow men." I think he was wrong!

Surely Moses is one person of whom it could be said that there was "divine communication" in favour of him leading his fellow men. Exodus 3 recounts Moses' calling by God for a particular task in leading people, in particular Exod 3:10: "So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt." By anyone's standard leading 600,000 men plus women and children and hangers-on out of one nation (on foot!) into another demands a particular position of governmental power.

Later, the Israelites asked that Moses would meet with God apart from them and be an intermediary between them and God (Exodus 20:19). This position of intermediary was definitely in line with God's promises to Moses, for example in Exod 19:9: "The LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you."..." I think it would be reasonable to say that God not only appointed Moses as leader of the Israelites, He also took steps to ensure that His divine appointment would be recognised, acknowledged and adhered to.

Then when Moses' (and then also Aaron's) leadership was challenged, as recorded in Numbers 12 and Numbers 16 & 17, God made it clear in no uncertain terms that His choice of leader - His choice alone - was to hold governmental and/or priestly power over the people.

There were other people who were God-ordained leaders of nations. The first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, were divinely appointed. 1 Samuel 8 records how the Israelite people demanded that God would give them a king, and God agreed to their demands (see 1 Samuel 8:19-22 especially). 1 Samuel 9:17 records, "When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people."" Samuel annointed Saul at God's direct instruction (1 Samuel 10). It was only later (1 Samuel 11:12-15) that the people of Israel had an opportunity to ratify God's sovereign choice of their leader.

Then, because of Saul's wicked presumption in offering sacrifices to the LORD, a task not in his God-given job description, God took away His favour from upon Saul. God chose David to be king, and Samuel anointed David following God's precise instructions. It was many years later that David came into his kingship officially, but from the time of his anointing, David was the chosen king of Israel in God's eyes, if not in those of Saul or the people. (See 1 Samuel 13, 15, 16:1-13 and following chapters.)

It is clear from all these passages that God does indeed appoint and anoint particular people for government leadership positions, or at least He has done so in the past. So I do not agree with Adams. (I find it particularly ironic that John Adam's wife was named Abigail, so I would have hoped that they would be familiar with the story of King David, if not the others.) Adams was one of the US presidents, right? Please forgive my lack of knowledge of US history.

Not knowing the context of this journal entry, it is hard to know whether Adams was presuming that God no longer acts (in these post-cross "last days") to choose national leaders in the way that He did in the past, or if Adams believed God never did, or only did with Israel. Perhaps you can hazard a more educated guess.) Even if I presume Adams held the first belief, I think this is a wrong stance. Paul wrote of a gift of leadership that is bestowed by God's grace in Romans 12, in particular where he wrote, "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is ... leadership, let him govern diligently..." (from Romans 12:6-8). By God's grace, some people are specially gifted for governance. And God does not gift people for a task if He does not expect them to carry out that task. So by gifting certain people for governance, He is showing His divine favour for their leadership, in my opinion.

Furthermore, Paul wrote on the subject of general (non-Christian) governance in Romans 13:1-7. In the first verse, he wrote, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.". Paul's opinion on the matter could not be clearer. All human authorities, whether godly or ungodly in their administration of their duties, are established by God.

Perhaps, as in the case of Saul's oft-times despotic rule, we may see that God is visiting judgement upon us by His choice of leader over our nation(s). Then again, we shouldn't be too quick to assume that God is giving us what we deserve. It is certain that God plans to use our trials under ungodly leaders (and even under the most God-fearing leaders) to bring us to maturity in Christ. As Paul had written earlier in his letter to the Romans, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." In my view, the important thing is not so much who God appoints for leadership over the nations, but how we, as Christians, respond to their leadership.

Of utmost importance is our response to God's supreme choice of leader for us: our King and Saviour, Jesus Christ, God's Son. In Ephesians 1:9-10 & 22-23, Paul wrote, "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. ... And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." Jesus Christ is the God-appointed leader over all Christians throughout time, and one day God will reveal that He is also sovereign over all that exists, whether they have recognised Christ's authority in the past or not.

Paul wrote of Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness well in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." Jesus is the Lord and King over all things because it was through Him that all things were created. But Jesus' lordship is not dependent solely on something that happened long ago. Jesus is Lord because God has made Him Lord, dwelling fully in Jesus Christ, revealing his invisible nature through the visible man, Jesus, who once walked the earth and was killed on a cross, but who was brought back to life by God's choice and power, and now reigns in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. All praise be to God, the LORD, who is King and Lord of all! Do you recognise Jesus Christ as having authority over you, because He is your King, Lord, Boss and Master?

Opinions on Ministry from Avonlea

We are reading through Anne of Green Gables as a family after dinner some evenings, and I am finding some unique and hilarious insights into opinions of those who enter Christian ministry within the pages. Mrs Rachel Lynde, ever ready with a word on many subjects, has had several things to say. Anne's take - on Mrs Lynde's opinions and the matters themselves - is at times wise beyond her years.

For those who are not familiar with the Anne books, Marilla and Matthew are Anne's adoptive parents; Mr and Mrs Allan are the newly wed, newly arrived to Avonlea, minister and his wife.

"We met the new minister and his wife coming from the station. For all I was feeling so bad about Mr Phillips going away I couldn't help taking a little interest in a new minister, could I? His wife is very pretty. Not exactly regally lovely, of course, - it wouldn't do, I suppose, for a minister to have a regally lovely wife, because it might set a bad example. Mrs Lynde says the minister's wife over at Newbridge set a very bad example because she dresses so fashionably. Our new minister's wife was dressed in blue muslin with lovely puffed sleeves and a hat trimmed with roses. Jane Andrews said she thought puffed sleeves were too worldly for a minister's wife, but I didn't make any such uncharitable remark, Marilla, because I know what it is to long for puffed sleeves. Besides, she's only been a minister's wife for a little while, so one should make allowances, shouldn't they?"

Old Mr Bentley, the minister whom Anne had found lacking in imagination, had been pastor of Avonlea for eighteen years. He was a widower when he came, and a widower he remained, despite the fact that gossip regularly married him to this, that, or the other one, every year of his sojourn. In the preceding February he had resigned his charge and departed amid the regrets of his people, most of whom had the affection born of long intercourse for their good old minister in spite of his short-comings as an orator. Since then the Avonlea church had enjoyed a variety of religious dissipation in listening to the many and various candidates and 'supplies' who came Sunday after Sunday to preach on trial. These stood or fell by the judgement of the fathers and mothers in Israel; but a certain small, red-headed girl who sat meekly in the corner of the old Cuthbert pew also had her opinions about them and discussed the same in full with Matthew, Marilla always declining from principle to criticize ministers in any shape or form.
"I don't think Mr Smith would have done, Matthew," was Anne's final summing up. "Mrs Lynde says his delivery was so poor, but I think his worst fault was just like Mr Bentley's - he had no imagination. And Mr Terry had too much; he let it run away with him just as I did mine in the matter of the Haunted Wood. Besides, Mrs Lynde says his theology wasn't sound. Mr Gresham was a very good man and a very religious man, but he told too many funny stories and made the people laugh too much; he was undignified, and you must have some dignity about a minister, mustn't you, Matthew? I thought Mr Marshall was decidedly attractive; but Mrs Lynde says he isn't married or even engaged, because she made special inquiries about him, and she says it would never do to have a young unmarried minister in Avonlea, because he might marry in the congregation, and that would make trouble. Mrs Lynde is a very far-seeing woman, isn't she, Matthew? I'm very glad they've called Mr Allan. I liked him because his sermon was interesting and he prayed as if he meant it and not just as if he did it because he was in the habit of it. Mrs Lynde says he isn't perfect, but she says she supposes we couldn't expect a perfect minister for seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, and anyhow his theology is sound because she questioned him thoroughly on all the points of doctrine. And she knows his wife's people and they are most respectable and the women are all good housekeepers. Mrs Lynde says that sound doctrine in the man and good housekeeping in the woman make an ideal combination for a minister's family."

"I'm not half so skinny as I was when I came here, but I have no dimples yet. If I had perhaps I could influence people for good. Mrs Allan said we ought always try to influence other people for good. She talked so nice about everything. I never knew before that religion was such a cheerful thing. I always thought it was kind of melancholy, but Mrs Allan's isn't, and I'd like to be a Christian if I could be one like her. I wouldn't want to be one like Mr Superintendent Bell."
"It's very naughty of you to speak so about Mr Bell," said Marilla severely. "Mr Bell is a real good man."
"Oh, of course he's good," agreed Anne, "but he doesn't seem to get any comfort out of it. If I could be good I'd dance and sing all day because I was glad of it. I suppose Mrs Allan is too old to dance and sing and of course it wouldn't be dignified in a minister's wife. But I can just feel she's glad she's a Christian and that she'd be one even if she could get to heaven without it."

"I hope I shall be a little like Mrs Allan when I grow up. Do you think there is any prospect of it, Marilla?"
"I shouldn't say there was a great deal," was Marilla's encouraging answer. "I'm sure Mrs Allan was never such a silly, forgetful little girl as you are."
"No; but she wasn't always so good as she is now either," said Anne seriously. "She told me so herself - that is, she said she was a dreadful mischief when she was a girl and was always getting into scrapes. I felt so encouraged when I heard that. Is it very wicked of me, Marilla, to feel encouraged when I hear that other people have been bad and mischievous? Mrs Lynde says it is. Mrs Lynde says she always feels shocked when she hears of anyone ever having been naughty, no matter how small they were. Mrs Lynde says she once heard a minister confess that when he was a boy he stole a strawberry tart out of his aunt's pantry and she never had any respect for that minister again. Now I wouldn't have felt that way. I'd have thought that is was real noble of him to confess it, and I'd have thought what an encouraging thing it would be for small boys nowadays who do naughty things and are sorry for them to know that perhaps they may grow up to be ministers in spite of it."

I'm posting this under "Church History".

TwiSaga: My Favourite Quotes

My Top 3 Quotes from the first chapter of Twilight, "First Sight"

#3: "it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged - the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by the pieces of the foreign car it had destroyed."
[pp7-8 Twilight Stephenie Meyer]

This is Bella describing her first sight of the "new - well, new to me" truck her father bought her. I love this sentence for its poetic yet pragmatic description. I also like it for the premonition it gives of a critical event in the storyline, where Edward saves Bella from a car crash, revealing his supernatural speed and strength in the process. The truck, Bella mentions later, is virtually unscathed, while the other car is written off.The safety and solidity of the truck also provides a metaphoric prefigurement of Bella's need to be protected in her stumbling, human vulnerability - a role which Edward takes upon himself with never a scratch to show for his efforts, given his own granite-like, immortal immutability.

#2: "It couldn't have anything to do with me. He didn't know me from Eve."
[p21 Twilight Stephenie Meyer]

This one is Bella, wondering at Edward's reaction at his first sight of her. It uses an interesting twist on the traditional quote, which says "He didn't know me from Adam," thus prefiguring the major role of temptation in the TwiSaga storyline.

#1: "I can do this, I lied to myself feebly. No one was going to bite me."
[p13 Twilight Stephenie Meyer, emphasis mine]

This is my favourite quote not just from this chapter or book, but from the entire series. Oh, the delicious irony! This quote contains Bella's reaction at her first sight of Forks High School, and her first sight of Edward's car in the school car park. It prefigures the revelation that Edward, whom Bella would fall in love with, will later be revealed as a vampire. And that Bella will come to yearn for Edward's bite...

(I did mention that I believe Meyer is a very accomplished author. This commentary on "First Sight" will, I hope, add evidence to my argument.)

Ode to Mothering Part 4

"Mothering is part joy and part guerilla warfare." Ed Anser

We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:6-9

Just in case you are wondering, the first three posts with this title, and one earlier post, together form the transcript of a talk I gave yesterday at our church's Women's Breakfast. You can read them all in order from these links:

A typical Saturday morning
Ode to Mothering 1
Ode to Mothering 2
Ode to Mothering 3

Happy Mother's Day!

In defense of everything else

Amy and I are reading the spiritual autobiography of GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy, together this March.

Chapter 1 is titled "In defense of everything else" and it's pretty short. A few quotations will serve to give you a picture of what Chesterton had in mind when he wrote this book.

I have attempted in a vague and personal way, in a set of mental pictures rather than in a series of deductions, to state the philosophy in which I have come to believe.

I wish to set forth my faith as particularly answering this double spiritual need, the need for that mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar which Christendom has rightly named romance.

…the general proposition that we need this life of practical romance; the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure.

One searches for truth, but it may be that one pursues instinctively the more extraordinary truths.

It recounts my elephantine adventures in pursuit of the obvious.

I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

These essays are concerned only to discuss the actual fact that the central Christian theology (sufficiently summarised in the Apostles’ Creed) is the best root of energy and sound ethics.

This is not an ecclesiastical treatise but a sort of slovenly autobiography.

From this chapter, it is apparent to me that this book will have something in common with CS Lewis’s Surprised by Joy. It is written in a style that does not necessarily fit with my extremely analytical mind, and it contains some lovely big words that will content my mind while they challenge my brain. Just what I need to stretch me!

[Image source koorong.com.]

Perspectives on his First Day at (Away) School

At the beginning of Joshua's first day in grade 1, he was confident and pleased to be going out to school.Sitting at his desk waiting for me to leave, he was still pleased and eager.At the end of Joshua's first day of school, he was equally pleased and eager to see me come to take him home!
In Joshua's words:

"It went weller than I thought it would... We didn't even have to do any reading or writing... I did lots of colouring. And listening... School went great, Mum... [At lunchtime] I didn't play with L [a friend in another class], I played with N [the boy he sits next to]. We didn't play, we just told jokes and stuff. I didn't get to play. I spent most of the lunch time walking around, trying to find the adult to ask if I could put my lunchbox away in my bag. I just got back to the gate and the bell went... Mrs C is very kind... I like school. What you do is mostly not learning, it's mostly crafts and fun. Today was my best day ever!"

In my words:

It has been hard to give up my dream of homeschooling Joshua. Dropping him off at school wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. But picking him up was terrible. I didn't cry, but I got really grumpy by the time he'd finished telling me about his day. And I went and bought and ate a Sn*ckers bar, which is probably evidence that if I couldn't have my way with one thing, I darn well was going to with another.

Aah, self-pity is a terrible thing. I'm so disappointed in myself that I couldn't enjoy this day as much as Joshua was, for his sake if not mine.

At least I didn't cry.

(And Anna and I did have a great day of homeschool.)

Jobs for Daddies and Mummies

First of all, marry each other.

The daddies pick flowers from the garden for the mummies when they have their wedding.

Guard each other and feed each other.

Mummies born babies and mummies milk babies - they give them milk from their boobies.

Mummies swing kiddies (on the swing) and daddies do that too.

Worshipping God (adults and kiddies do this and babies can stay at home with mummies or uncles or aunties or whoever).

Cutting trees down with mummies and daddies and kids and babies stay at home and go to bed. Babies go to child care then.

Finished. That's all. Good-bye.

[According to Anna.]

My husband was an engineer

And once an engineer, always an engineer. This video cartoon might go some way to explaining why the UC thought he was "not sensitive enough" to work for them.

Since I received this via email, I don't know who to give credit to as author. But you can find Dilbert online at www.dilbert.com. Thanks to Mrs T for sending it to me - she also knows the joys of being married to an engineer.

Treasure hunting

This past week Jeff has been sending Joshua and Anna on treasure hunts. Each morning they are given a piece of old note paper with a sentence written on it. They have to be able to read the sentence to find the "treasure", which so far has been two or three small chocolate treats. The instructions are things such as "Look in the blue tub on the kitchen bench", and "Look in Daddy's bottom drawer". It's a literacy exercise, pure and simple, and Jeff has the kids very eager to read their sentence so they can find their treasure each morning.

This morning, Anna told me "I have treasure in heaven."

I replied, "That's right. God is storing up treasure in heaven for you in reward for doing His will."

"I wonder what it is" Anna continued. And then, in a deeply serious whisper, "I hope it's M&Ms."

"I know what Amazon is!"

I received a package in the mail yesterday, a large box from the US, my first ever purchase from amazon.com. (I bought the five sets of Bob Books so I don't have to keep borrowing them from my friend and also Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student for my own education.)

When I commented to Jeff that it was probably from Amazon, Joshua became very excited. "A box from Amazon? Wow! Open it, Mummy, please!"

I wasn't sure why Joshua would be all that excited. So I asked him, "What do you think it is?"

"It's a present from Amazon, Mummy. Open it!"

Hmm...

So I asked him again, "What is Amazon?"

"Amazon is a mighty, mighty, mighty gladiator. One of the lady ones. Open it Mummy, I want to see what she sent to you!"

Did I mention the kids love watching Gladiators?

"Mummy, do you promise me?"

Mummy, do you promise me? Do you promise me to teach me to fold clothes? Because I want to be a mummy when I grow up to be an adult and so please do you promise me?

~ Anna, age 4

Overheard this morning

Joshua: "Anna, Anna, where are you? ...
Anna, why do you look so fiendish?"Perhaps it's because she was interrupted 'reading' her book of Bible Stories for Growing Kids?

H is for Hippopotamus

Anna: "Abigail, do you know what word I've made? It's a H." (Placing blocks on head.) "H is for hat - it's a hat. Daddy, H is for hippopotamus! See my H?"And I had thought she was building a tower. I love these moments when things learned pop up unexpectedly.