Last night Ashley was being a real pill at dinner. She refused to eat. So she sat at the table for much longer than everyone else (it seems to be a regular occurence for Ashley). Anyhow… at one point, I told her to take a bite, and she wouldn’t, and started fussing and crying about it, and I got up to resituate her and help her get the food on the fork and into her mouth. In the midst of all this action Megan gave me a look.

Now, thinking back the look was entirely appropriate. Ashley needed to know that Daddy loves her, but Daddy just wanted Ashley to do what he told her to do. And that’s what Megan was trying to get me to recognize with her look.

But, I was getting frustrated with Ashley, and was all sensitive, and I ended up snapping at Megan. We then left the room to have a discussion. Things were resolved, and she left to go to a ladies book study. There’s a whole story here about how the lady that was giving her a ride showed up in the midst of our discussion, and we weren’t about to go answer the door like that…

Then I went out to the girls and told them that I was wrong to speak to Mommy that way, and asked them to please forgive me. They were quite cheerful about granting their forgiveness, but then Geneva asked me why I spoke to Megan the way I did. I replied, “Because Daddy was sinning”. There was a look on her face that was just great. She didn’t say anything more about it, so I only have the look to go on. It was sort of surprise, but also understanding. Like she thought, “Hey, Daddy sins too, and he needs to be forgiven just like I do when I sin.”

I felt like, even though I had screwed up, the situation was redeemed by teaching the girls that I submit to the same God that they do. The buck doesn’t stop with me… I am just an earthly minister of the authority.

And, Ashley ate enough of her dinner that I excused her from the table, and then, later in the evening, she ate all the rest of her chocolate easter bunny (except for the part that was smeared all around her mouth).

I just got this in an email:

LYNCHBURG, Virginia (AP) — The Rev. Jerry Falwell was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, battling his second case of viral pneumonia in just five weeks, hospital and church officials said.
Falwell, 71, was admitted to Lynchburg General Hospital shortly before midnight Monday suffering from “respiratory arrest,” the hospital said in a statement.
He was put on a ventilator and stabilized but remained in critical condition, the hospital said.
“He’s resting comfortably and in stable condition,” said Ron Godwin, Falwell’s executive assistant. “It’s a recurrence of the viral pneumonia.”

I know Rev. Falwell is the butt of not a few jokes, and often aggravates us all to no end. But he has done quite a lot in this little town of Lynchburg for the cause of Christ, and we need to keep him in our prayers.

A family from church, our neighbors, is currently on their European Vacation. They left on Saturday, and will be gone for just over two weeks. They planned their trip months ago, and at the time didn’t realize they would be gone Easter Sunday.

But, they ended up being in London then, and decided to visit NT Wright’s church for Easter service.

Now I have to wait til they get back to hear about it.

At Providence, we have a time of corporate prayer, where we pray for various things. Men are asked before hand (usually the night before) if they would pray, and are given a section (Thanksgivings, Petitions, Ongoing, etc.)

One thing we consistently do is pray for another CREC congregation, and also for a local congregation. Each we we pray for two different churches.

This past Sunday, I was called on to pray the petitions, and the CREC congregation we prayed for was Christ Reformed Evangelical Church in Annapolis, MD. Having met Pastor Sauder a few times, and some of the congregants once, and knowing (in bloggerland) Valerie, it was a nice change. I was able to put some actual faces on the people we were praying for, which makes it that much easier to pray for them, and be sincere in the prayer. Not that I’m not sincere otherwise, but it’s much more real when you know them as actual, flesh and blood people, and not just abstractions.

Now I’m waiting to pray for Christ Church of Searcy, AR, since I sort of (that whole blogger/internet thing) know Mike and Pastor Davis.

I told me so; regarding a certain “discussion” about Wright.

Some strong accusations were made about what Wright believes and teaches. A person asks for sources to back up the accusations. I said to myself, “It’s going to be articles written by others that are just as antagonistic towards Wright… not actual quotes or references to what Wright has written”.

The accuser gives a general reference to WSPRS, with the comment that he has “discussed at length” (which, apparently, you can do without so much as a single quote! In reality, he can’t remember what exactly Wright said in the book because he read the book once, years ago, and then threw it away), and a link to an article by Cornelis P. Venema.

I so called that one.

We had a great day yesterday. Church was good, and Pastor Hurt preached a great sermon, with a particularly catchy title. Of course, I screwed up on recording the sermon… so you can’t listen to it. Unless you want the second half of it… I could send you that, but i’m not going to post it on the church website.

After church we had some friends over… one family, and one student. Our girls were just crazy. They didn’t sleep all day. I think it was the effects of the easter candy… which also caused them to run around and scream a lot. But they had a blast.

Megan made a leg of lamb, which I don’t think I’ve ever had before. I enjoyed it, but she didn’t like it. So I probably won’t ever have it again.

The kids had an easter egg hunt. It was a cold and rainy day, so it was an indoor hunt. Just as much fun, I think.

I didn’t get around to posting yesterday about the Maundy Thursday service we attended, so I’ll do it now, and also include a few comments about our Good Friday service last night.

Rivermont EPC is a beautiful building… there is no argument about that. The building we normally meet in is old, and pretty cool, but it is worn down and not taken care of very well. You can tell it’s been around a while. So being able to worship at Rivermont is a privlege and joy in itself.
The acoustics of the sanctuary are great, and they also have a huge pipe organ installed there. Thursday was the first time I had heard it in action, and it was great.
There were several readings, each by a different pastor of a reformed church in our community. In total, there were five churches represented… Providence, Rivermont, Grace Assebly (a local, baptist non-denominational congregation), Redeemer PCA, and New Covenant Reformed Episcopal Church. There is an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in town as well, but they chose (for whatever reason - I do not know) not to participate.
In between readings, we sang songs. Most of them were simply printed in the bulletin (we only sang one or two verses of each), but some we needed to look up in the red trinity hymnals available. The singing was nice. And it was fun to sing some songs that we don’t usually sing.
We did celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which was sort of weird for us. At Providence, it is a very corporate event. The bread is passed out, and we wait for everyone to get their bread. Then Pastor Hurt gives a short supper homily followed by a prayer, and we partake together. And, when we are eating the bread (and then again with the wine) we look around at one another. It is a way that we recognize the body of Christ… who are our brothers and our sisters.
But at the Maundy Thursday service… there was no waiting for everyone to get their bread. You, apparently, were on your own. As the plate was being passed, we each took a piece of bread, and waited. I have developed a short catechism that I go through with the girls during this time, and Thursday night was no different. Then the wine was disributed. Well, “wine”. It was grape juice.
But, as I looked around, I didn’t see anyone else holding their bread. And most people had their heads down. I felt weird. It has been a while since I’ve experienced the Lord’s Supper “celebrated” in this way.
So, we all ate our bread and drank our wannabe wine. Like I said… it felt very strange. I felt like we weren’t really a part of one another. At least my family all ate together, and recognized each other. But looking around at others, we felt very isolated.
After the Supper, we received a blessed, and the service concluded. We didn’t stick around too long, because Megan was still recovering from her cold. It was pretty funny when we got the bread… It appeared to be plain white sandwich bread, cut into small, 1/2″ squares. Geneva looked at it and said, “this is small! And, when we got the juice, she and Ashley both commented that “this isn’t wine!”. I was reminded of that story David Chilton wrote about a conversation with his son.

Friday night, Megan stayed home with Fiona. She felt like she needed to rest, so that she would be well enough to attend church on Sunday. So Geneva and Ashley and I went. I was reading two of the lessons, so I was a little nervous about how the girls would behave while I was up, but I figured they’d do just fine. Turns out that As I went up, one of Pastor Hurt’s daughters went and sat with them, to keep them under control.
We sang from the Book of Psalms for Singing between lessons. It was pretty cool, actually. There was a reading from one of the gospels about a particular series of events leading up to the Crucifixion, and then we would sing a Psalm foretelling those events.
At the end of the service, we did receive a benediction. I’ve read some other descriptions of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, where the benediction was withheld until Sunday, at our Easter service. I plan to talk about that with my session, because it seems fitting. A stark contrast to our typical liturgy, which draws attention to what we are remebering… especially on Good Friday.

I haven’t shaved for nearly four weeks.

There is a joint Maundy Thursday service tonight that we are attending. This will be my first ever Maundy Thursday experience. I had never even heard of Maundy Thursday until two years ago, or so. And I didn’t know what it was until about a month ago.

But, now I do. And I am excited to be able to worship together with some of the other reformed churches in the area. One thing that we have been trying to do is establish some unity with the other churches. When our church was first planted, our pastor received some less than favorable comments about ‘another’ reformed church in the area. Of course his reply was that we need fifty more reformed churches! Anyhow… hopefully it will all go smoothly, and no one will freak out when our (Providence’s) two year olds receive the Lord’s Supper.

If you are in the area, it is at Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church, at 7:00.

these are pretty cool. And weird.

I think Jon Barlow would like them.

EDIT: this is really, really weird. I had NOT seen jon’s blog when I posted this. He posted these same pictures this morning. I must really know that guy! It’s also weird that he also posted about Maundy Thursday.