Posts from — June 2006

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

I love my friends.

I was just cleaning out the desk, and found a slip of paper with the notes from what I said at my Mother’s funeral, to several hundred people.

Everything said about my mom is true. She was a wonderful mother. The best. I can’t imagine anything being different that would have made things better. There isn’t a person I can think of that could have raised me better. And my brother, and my sister. Or taken care of my father, and the family. No one could have ever been as wonderful and loving as my mom.

But when we look at the Holy Scriptures, we see a different picture of my mom. The picture painted of her in Scripture (as well as everyone else) is one of complete and total helplessness. Scripture tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. That our righteousness, all of our righteous deeds add up to nothin more than filthy rags before God. And so, with all the goodness in my mom’s life — You can look at the brief biography in the bulletin to get a small glimpse — but for all the help she has given she has only earned one thing. And that is everlasting judgment from a Holy God.

But provision was made for her. She wasn’t left to get what she deserved. Jesus Christ came to earth… God Himself came to earth. And He lived a perfectly sinless life, and suffered the shame of the cross, bearing the sins of those who believe.

And so I will quote that familiar verse, that speaks so much truth, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

My mom was not good enough to get into heaven. But through faith the absolute perfection of Jesus Christ was imputed to her, and I trust that she is in the presence of the Lord now, praising His name.

Friday night around the dinner table, after we had all finished eating, Geneva and I played a game where my arm was robotic, and she was controlling it. We had pizza… two different kinds, and there was left overs of each. So she was using my arm to transfer one piece to the other dish… consolidating them to put away until lunch.

After the job was done, the game continues for a bit, and then she made my hand go down below the table and said, “slap it on down”. She may or may not have been aware that she was quoting Pixar’s short Boundin’. Trying to find out, I asked her if she knew what that line was from. She said she did, but didn’t know the name of the movie. I asked her what it was about. Ashley piped up, and said there is a truck that comes and takes the sheep away. I asked what happened to him, and Geneva answered ‘they took off his sparkly snow’, to which Ashley quickly added, ‘and he turned into a bunny!’

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Kristen mentioned Blingo, and I signed up. I figure it can’t hurt… It’s the same results that Google turns up, and there’s an easy to use searchbox plugin for Firefox (and stuff for IE, too, if you’re a masochist)… so I’m all set.

Sign up through my referral link, and if you win, I win, too!

Here is a chapter listing:

Foreword – Douglas Wilson
Introduction – Gregg Strawbridge
A Presbyterian Defense of Paedocommunion – Robert S. Rayburn
Presbyterian, Examine Thyself: Restoring Children to the Table – Jeffrey J. Meyers
The Kingdom of God and Children at the Table – Tim Gallant
Children and the Religious Meals of the Old Creation – James B. Jordan
Christ’s Way-bread for a Child – Ray R. Sutton
God of my Youth: Infant Faith in the Psalter – Rich Lusk
Sacramental Hermeneutics and the Ceremonies of Israel – Peter J. Leithart
The Testimony of the Ancient Church – Blake Purcell
The Polemics of Infant Communion – Gregg Strawbridge
Appendix: The Presbyterian Doctrines of Covenant Children, Covenant Nurture, and Covenant Succession – Robert S. Rayburn

Or save a few bucks and get it from Sky Cow Books.

My friend Geof suggests that I share this experience, as it would be good for the internet.

When I clicked on my Shopping Cart in the music store, I would get the following error:

“We could not complete your Music Store request. An unknown error ocurred (5002). There was an error in the Music Store. Please try again later.”

I emailed iTMS support about it and received the following reply:

Dear Richard,

Thank you for contacting the iTunes Music Store.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this Error 5002 issue may have caused. Please note that it was necessary to clear the contents of your shopping cart to resolve the issue you have been experiencing.

It seems like one of the songs you are trying to purchase is in the middle of being modified and is unable to be purchased at this time. So this is preventing you from checking out and giving you this error code. What we recommend you doing on this particular order would be to add one
or two items time, checking the cart after each item. When the cart shows that error “5002” we have found our song that is being modified. When you find this song we would appreciate it if you would report back to us which song is giving you this error. From there we can take appropriate actions to getting this fixed.

Thank you for being an iTunes Music Store customer. We appreciate your business.

I don’t recall what was in my shopping cart, so I won’t be much help to iTMS. But maybe it’ll be help to you.

In case you ever need one.

Cool Flickr Group… people find old photos of a location, and then set it next to a present day version. I especially like this one; the new is actually an improvment!

HT: The Presbyteer

Ashley, finding me mindin my own business: “Daddy, Geneva is owning the ponies! I asked her nicely and she won’t give me one!”
Me, ascertaining the situation: “Geneva, how many ponies do you have?”
Geneva, counting them: “One, two, three.”
Me: “Ashley has one, and you have three. Why don’t you give her one to play with, so you both have two. You can pick which one to give her.”
Geneva, deciding: “Hm.. baby!” and hand her a little pony.
Ashley: “Daddy! Geneva won’t give me a mommy one!”

Geneva comments: jjlkjkrjyr5rjkkkkkkkkjujjjjnbh geneva okimoto

I while back I got a hit on my blog for a search for Joost Nixon, pastor of Christ Church, Spokane, WA and Executive Producer of St. Anne’s Pub. Interested, I followed the search link.

In browsing the results I found a comment that he left on Doug Wilson’s blog. Nevermind the context of it, I think it’s glorious all by its lonesome…

You imply smart men don’t ever make mistakes. Experience tells us precisely the opposite is true. In fact, there is only one smart Man that hasn’t, and that is Christ. And his word says that we should give the judgment of charity and that love believes all things. So believe. You’ll feel a heap better if you do.