Posts from — August 2004

As mentioned, the Stewart’s came down on Saturday. We had a nice time. Kate is, of course, a cutie. It is amazing how agile a baby’s forhead can be. They have a whole Linus thing going on. I loved all Kate’s little faces.

As mentioned at This Classical Life, we played a game of Hoopla. We won with like four minutes to spare. Looking back, I think we were too lenient with starting the time. Oh well… next time.

Mike, who I met for the first time, reminded me of someone. I couldn’t think who, but Megan knew because he reminded her of him also… our friend Brian Martin, who is currently a student at covenant seminary. Mike had some discussions with Kate, and I feel privleged to have been ringside. I also learned that Kate already knows three catechism questions… and in Latin! She’s one smart baby, I tell ya.

I was, and am, thankful that they put aside a day to come down and spend some time with us. It’s great to meet likeminded friends, and spend time with them, particularly time around the table, eating and talking.

…I just should have picked Mike’s brain more about how to go about teaching the girls Latin.

The other day I discovered that one of the girls (I think Ashley) had taken out our A Bug’s Life DVD and played with it in such a way that it is all scratched up now. You can watch about two thirds of the movie, and then it is one, distorted, pixelated image.

I am crushed.

Todd Davis delivers some sound words in response to RC Sproul Jr’s, and other’s, criticism of those that accept Roman Catholic baptism as valid Christian baptism.

Tomorrow I get to meet Kate!

One good thing about the stupid navbar is that the blogger link is at the top of the page, so I don’t have to scroll down to click it (or type blogger.com in the address bar).

Boy, I am such a lazy man.

If you were a pastor (or if you are one), and there was a local ‘association’ of ministers that got together once a month to primarily build relationships with one another, and this group officially accepted women pastors, would you take part in the group?

So there’s this guy. A Christian guy. And he says that he and his wife and have decided that they don’t want to have any children. So someone asks him why they made the decision, and what criteria they used to determine that not having children was a good thing to do. He answered, “I don’t think that we thought about it in terms as whether it was good or not but rather whether it was something we wanted to do or not.”

How typical is that? How sad is it? How condemning is it? We actually have come to the point where Christians don’t care about the consequences of their actions. They We don’t care about the reasons behind their our actions. They We don’t care about “Why”.

All that matters is “What I want”.

I am searching for a good logic textbook. Something that is good for beginners, but isn’t just a throwaway. And some thing that is distinctively christian would be a very big added bonus.

Do you know of such a book?

update: I just had to include this, from Valerie:

How did your kid get to be such a pope?
Excomm’ing ev’ry Internet dope?
Sitting with an imperious air
In a great big blue easy chair?

You must be a Trentish Lot.

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da
Turn back from Rome and flee very far!
You will live in happiness too,
Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do.

A cleric’s collar is one thing. But what is up with the pink shirt?!

I don’t think I’ll ever find that acceptable.

According to some people, I have children named Heidelberg and Dordt.

The nerve…

In his recent article Playing with Knives: God the Dangerous, Doug Jones writes,

…almost always, we see Abraham portrayed in the sacrifice episode as distraught, grief-stricken, and faithless. One commentator says that this was a “heart-rending trial” and another says that “the words `take now thy son, thy only son Isaac’ gripped Abraham’s heart.” Another says that “Abraham anguished” over the loss of his son. I once watched an actor portray an account of Abraham in which the actor wept and wept over the command to kill his son.

and a little bit later

But the text doesn’t give any of these responses. Why do we accept them? We are little unitarian Jobs. Abraham was truly tested; the text says that. But we have no hint of anguish or weeping. Why couldn’t Abraham’s faith be pictured as victorious and bold? He might have gone whistling up the mountain without a hint of anguish, because He knew the character of God. The character of God overflows any void.

And in response to these quotes, and some of my own ramblings, my friend Andrew Peterson said, in part,

I can hardly imagine anything more victorious and bold than Abraham taking those heavy steps up the mountain with his son’s hand in his own, knowing what he was about to do.

And I say, “Amen to that”.