How can you trust God?

Okay, I'm back to theology, folks. Thank you so much for your sweet comments and support. Anna Kate slept throught the night finally again (and so did the other two). They're not well yet, but seem to finally all be headed that direction. Brian saw the doctor and it seems that perhaps there is an intelligent explanation for the knee pain. It seems that his knee is higher than it should be, which may be causing the knee, shin, and hip pain. He is doing some new exercises that will hopefully help, and has some other options including cortisone shots to consider. And he had fluid in his ears which was causing all of the dizziness. So maybe soon he'll feel better too.

We've been round and round with a lot of health issues. Brian got really sick when Anna Kate was two weeks old and was eventually out of work for a month pretty much drugged up and writhing in pain with the doctor's telling us that it was IBS and he should learn to live with it. It wasn't. He had a slow burning gallbladder infection and recovered from his three month ordeal rather quickly after its removal. A second downward spiral occurred about the time I got pregnant with Rose and continued to worsen until a couple of months after she was born. Fibromyalgia was the eventual diagnosis this time, and all of the "help" from medical doctors served to only make it worse. Those are very long stories, but the reason I shared was to explain one thing I learned. I didn't learn it then, but I understand it now. Trusting God.

I was overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do. Both times I had to research and go over medical files and find what the doctors wouldn't take the time to look for. Find answers. And take care of my family. And it was stressful. And someone would say, "trust God. He has a plan. He's going to work this together for your good." "Right," I'd think, "this is definitely looking like it's for my good." "I know what kind of good God does. He lets fathers become incapacitated. He lets mothers die. He lets children get cancer. But I know that He has done so much for me in purchasing my eternal salvation. I get that. And I'm grateful. But the trusting Him for stuff right now part? Way out of my grasp. I just don't get that. What am I supposed to trust Him for?"

Some people think that He's going to always do something good in your life if you just trust. A Joel Olsteen kind of good. Your "best life now" kind of good. And I knew that wasn't true. I'd seen friends lose their children. I'd seen unsaved loved ones die and go to hell. I'd read of Christians across the world being totured and killed. That obviously wasn't it. So what the heck was I supposed to be trusting him about?!

I thought of the situation in terms of a father and child. I trust my Daddy. He's a steelworker /preacher. He's big and he's strong. When you're with him, nothing is going to hurt you. In a normal crowd of men, he could take any one of them. And he would die for me. Without a second thought. He madeall of his decisions regarding me with an eye on my protection. Nothing was allowed to hurt me. No one would have that chance. I was not allowed to be anywhere he deemed unsafe, and no young man was ever allowed to break my heart. I was protected. (I might have said suffocated.) But this is someone you can trust. Then I would try to compare this to my heavenly Father. And the disconnect was unbelievable. If my Dad had it in his power to prevent me from being in an accident, he would. He would have saved my Pap. He would have fixed my husband's body. I was sure he would if he could. But God didn't. I don't remember this being so much a crisis of faith as an inability to do what good Christians do. I was willing, but had no idea how to trust God. I decided trusting God was about it all working out in eternity, and that's about as far as my understanding went.

I know that I still have a lot to learn, but now I see that trusting God is trusting Him to conform us to the image of His Son. That trusting God is believing that He does all things for His glory. That if I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness then that is all I will want. And that's what I'll get. And the pieces come together. That everything God does is good. No matter what. You can trust that. And it can change the way you live now, because you can know that everything is under his control and He has a reason. And that reason is His glory.

When someone asks Brian how he's doing (and he feels postiviely awful), he says, "Better than I deserve!" It's all about His glory. Anything we desire more than His glory is idolatry. If we seek His glory above all else, then it becomes easy to trust Him. And when you say "why me?" it will be a whisper of gratefulness that He would choose us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever.

"But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God."

Sickness stats

I just can't keep people well around here.

We arrived back home last Friday night, and Saturday morning I took Rose and Ethan to the doctor. Rose had an ear infection, and Ethan looked like just bad allergies, possibly starting a sinus infection. Just as we pulled into the driveway, Ethan threw up all over the inside of the van. I removed the seat and spent the afternoon with a scrub brush and while I was at it, some sweet friends who had called a couple of weeks ago aout giving us a bunkbed, called to ask if they could drop it off! I didn't want to put them off any longer, but it was nuts. Making gluten free food is generally not a quick process, Brian felt terrible, the grass needed cut badly, and in order to put the bunk beds in the house, Anna Kate and Rose's toddler beds had to be disassembled and put in the attic (the pull-down-a-ladder-from-the-ceiling variety), Ethan's bed has to be dissassembled, moved to their room, then reassembled, then the bunk beds had to be assembled.

It was time to call in back-ups. Our sweet shepherding group friend Chris came over and cut the grass, which is no small task here since our riding lawn mower won't work. And Brian's dad came to set up the beds. Needless to say, the kids got to bed late. Brian was really sick all weekend.

The week was only slightly better, Brian got a little better, then worse again and could barely move today. He went back to using his cane. Ethan's cough seems to be a lot better, but he's been having really bad headaches. He's been breaking out in welts from the grass too. I'm going to try giving him Claritin every day. If he's not better tomorrow, I think I'll try the antibiotic the doctor gave me just in case. I think Rosie's ear is better, but she's been mumbling about the other one, so I'm not sure. I can't decide if I should give her the antibiotic or keep waiting. Neither of them have a fever.

Anna Kate's been the sickest, though. We actually were at the doctor's this morning. I didn't even know they were open on Sunday. It's apparently for emergencies only. She has the yucky cough and choking that Ethan had last week and has awakened between 12:30 and 1:30 AM for the past four nights choking and screaming and having a tummy ache and sometimes throwing up. Then we watch a movie until 2 or 3 AM when she falls back to sleep with me on the couch. I think I've only slept in my own bed once this past week! Last night the infection was pouring out of her eyes and pink-tinged, which freaked me out and made me call the nurse. So now she has eyedrops. But no sinus or ear infection or lung problem. And she plays almost all day with great gusto. But she has an off and on fever that shoots up and makes her miserable until the Tylenol kicks in again.

So it's been nuts around here. And I don't think I've heard a sermon at church since Easter. I took the kids the week after, but helped in the nursery because I didn't see a friend to sit with and hate sitting alone (Brian was home sick), and then all of them have been sick the last two weekends. I MISS CHURCH! I was actually there serving a snack to three hundred people that were at a conference Friday night, but I can't wait to make it back to a real service.

Did I mention that I'm tired and that I don't think the laundry will ever be done? :^)

Well it's late and I need to hurry to Walmart for a humidifier filter before Anna Kate wakes up screaming tonight. I just wanted to finish this post finally. There are so many other things I've been wanting to write about, but hopefully now you'll at least see why I haven't.

Star Wars Stamps

Vote for your favorite. Enter the contest. Play the game. Love the music.

http://www.uspsjedimaster.com/main/splash.html

Happy Arbor Day!

Sorry, no great ideas for Arbor Day, as you can see below, It's all about butterflies today!

Butterfly day

1. Go to Journey North and click through a photo journal of a monarch lifecycle, then watch videos of a caterpillar eating and a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Awesome!


2. Let younger kids try this drawing activity from kid soup.


3. We still haven't gotten to these winged wonders at Family Fun. Today's the day! Update: We did try these, but they proved a bit difficult for the kids, so we switched over to coffee filter butterflies and they were thrilled with them!


4. Try butterfly math or connect the dots.


5. Little ones will enjoy tracing the days of the week on these Very Hungry Caterpillar worsheets from First School. Anna Kate loved this, and Rosie tried it out too.


6. Label the butterfly lifecycle , body, or a caterpillar from Enchanted Learning. (Just in case you didn't realize it, you can copy and paste these into a Word document to print them without banner ads.) While you're there, print a butterfly lifecycle sheet too.


7. There's a free thematic unit from schoolexpress. Better for, maybe, 2nd grade?


8. The Earth's Birthday has an easy to read mini book to print.


9. Print these gorgeous butterflies from Billy Bear and use them in these crafts (second craft)or make up your own. I think I'll use card stock.


10. Print these pretty bookmarks.


11. Easy to read books: Heinemann Read and Learn: Butterfly (Spilsbury); All Aboard Reading: Butterflies (Neye); From Egg to Butterfly (Zemlicka)


12. The Butterfly Book: A Kid's Guide to Attracting, Raising, and Keeping Butterflies (Hamilton)

I happily nabbed all of those books at the library, which inspired this day. The kids are thoroughly enjoying it.

Anna Kate and Ethan and their butterfly tree

Whitewashing jihad in schools

I may have been the only one who missed this up until now, but Sheila Wray Gregoire referenced it in her weekly letter and I was amazed. Twice now, homeschoolers have been used as fictitious perpetrators for mock terrorism drills at public schools. Interesting, huh? Wouldn't want those kids to suspect a Muslim or the kid beside them in math that's doodling bombs in his notebook, but those homeschool kids...

Read Michelle Malkins syndicated commentary here.

Becoming Jane

is a new movie based on the life of Jane Austen. Hop over to By Sun and Candlelight where Dawn has more info or visit the official website. Yay!

Prayer for a friend

I'm so grateful or all of your prayers for my family in the past. This time I'm asking for you to pray for Monica, one of my friends from church. She went into the hospital because of a lingering cough that got very bad, and was soon given a shocking diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. She has 7, 5, and 5 month old children who have gone up north to stay with grandparents as she undergoes chemotherapy. Please lift her and her husband John up in your prayers today, won't you?

My boy

Lindsey's 1000th post

Enjoy the Journey has hit its 1000th post today and Lindsey is shamelessly begging for comments to commemorate the occasion. So even if you don't usually read her blog (and you should because it's great stuff), go leave her a comment, or even a few comments. Make her day!

The Birthday Trip

WARNING: TOO MANY PICTURES!

It's quiet here at the moment, so I'll try to get this post up.

I mentioned to Brian back in February that Kenny Chesney was going to be launching his Flip Flop Summer Tour and that very observant man remembered and bought tickets to the nearest city the day they went on sale, snagging balcony tickets. Very interesting experience. We'd never been to a large secular concert before, only Christian, classical, Riverdance kind of stuff. We learned a few things. First, there are no scan buttons at a concert. You're stuck with whatever is playing. Loudly. And with terrible acoustics at this particular place at least. So you can't understand what they're saying - unless you already knew the song. Weird. Second, some people do not drink in moderation.

It's kind of like the movies, you have to do a background check to be sure you're not going to see something you don't want to see. So it wasn't terrible, in fact, a lot of the Kenny Chesney performance was loads of fun, but I don't think we'll try that again. Unless maybe it's Rascall Flatts. And then I'll make sure that we know who else is coming with them.

So we had a great ride up with me not knowing where we were going until we were over half way there. I'd actually done a search for concerts on that date the night before and it was the only one I'd found, and I thought, maybe?... But I was so surprised that he really did that. Brian is terrible at keeping secrets from me. It makes him crazy. But I think he had even more fun making me crazy. We checked in at our hotel, changed, and had a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday's (great crab cakes!), then headed to the concert. Oh, and I had to share this pic from our motel room's ceiling - it cracked us up!

The next day was garden day. Three botanical gardens in a row. With a delightful lunch in between. (If you've never had a sweet potato biscuit before - mmm, heavenly!) Unfortunately, Brian started a sinus infection too, but refused to let it slow him down. My new camera was great fun! I'm so glad that he insisted I buy it before we went. I took hundreds of pictures, but I tried to narrow it down.

We got everyone that passed us to take a picture of us

together. A lesson I learned from my honeymoon

pictures - we only had one together!

This camera has lots of cool features to try out.

Brian is my hero.

He was a very good sport about being

my favorite subject.

Some cute dogs we met.

By the end of the day, I was feeling like a

budding wildlife photographer! :^)

Just so you know I'm not dead...

Here's a tease of where we were.

We returned home to sicker kids than we left and Brian was sick this weekend too (sinus infection/ear infection stuff). As we pulled back into our driveway saturday after a run to the doctor's, Ethan threw up all over the inside of the van and I spent the afternoon removing the van seat and scrubbing the interior - it's clean now, at least! The combination of trip and weekend has left me insanely behind. I have felt much more like a failure than the Proverbs 31 wife of Brian's rose colored glasses. So I'll blog more when the rest of my life is in better order. See you then!

Where is that man taking me ???!!!!

Today's the day! Brian's getting off at lunch today and taking me somewhere and we're staying overnight and doing something tomorrow (I think - it may just be catching up on all the sleep we missed last night due to our pollen inflicted children). This is my birthday present, so he told me almost a month ago, but won't even give me a clue. How am I supposed to pick out clothes???? His attempts at trying to guide me in the right direction there are laughable. Different things require different clothes! Guess I'll pack four outfits instead of one. :^) This is driving me crazy and that wicked (read wonderful) man is thoroughly enjoying it.Yesterday I got my fantasmic new camera to take along. This thing is amazing. It has a zilion specialized shooting modes and records video in stereo sound that, according to reviews, has better quality than low-end digital camcorders.

The Canon Powershot S3 IS.

Dress up your desktop

with this one by my husband.

(Hop over to Growing Vertical to get the full size image.)

Supreme Court upholds Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act

"WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure today - handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench. The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion." Read the rest of The Salt Lake Tribune article here.

Earth Day Myths

In Genesis 1:28 it says, "And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

As Earth Day approaches, I believe that we need to take a balanced view of our planet and how we should dominate, subdue, and care for it. Sometimes it's easy to take the information we hear around us at face value and not consider where it's coming from. So today I'm offering you "the other side of the story" for popular environmental concerns courtesy of The Heartland Institute. I want to be careful to teach my children to appreciate and care for what God has blessed us with without giving them false or misleading information.

The general idea:

Common-Sense Environmentalism
"For people sincerely committed to the goals of a cleaner and safer environment, these are truly the best of times. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat are all safer than at any previous time in our lives. Wilderness areas in the United States are expanding, wildlife is flourishing, and once-endangered species have been saved.
We now know that prosperity, private property rights, and freedom from an overly intrusive government, all values that we share, need not be sacrificed to save the environment. We can have them all, but it requires a new approach to environmentalism that relies more on science and less on hype."

Recycling:

Mandatory Recycling Wastes Resources, Harms Environment
"Recycling is a productive part of the market system. Informed, voluntary recycling conserves resources. In sharp contrast, mandatory recycling wastes resources--and Seattle’s latest political action misleads the public into supporting such wastefulness."

Global Warming:

Global Warming Outlook Far from Alarming
"It would be nice if my colleagues would actually level with politicians about various “solutions” for climate change. The Kyoto Protocol, if fulfilled by every signatory, would reduce global warming by 0.07 degrees Celsius per half-century. That’s too small to measure, because the Earth’s temperature varies by more than that from year to year."

Polar Bears:

ESA Listing Not Needed for Polar Bears
"The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has written on the threats allegedly posed to polar bears from global warming. According to the WWF, there are approximately 22,000 polar bears in about 20 distinct populations worldwide. Only two bear populations--accounting for about 16.4 percent of the total number of bears--are decreasing, and they are in areas where air temperatures have actually fallen, such as the Baffin Bay region."

It's important to get both sides of the story in order to make informed decisions. For more information on environmental issues go to the Heartland Institute's Environment section.

Does your little girl need a special dress?

These beautiful dresses (and others)

were featured on the Vision Forum blog.

Go check them out and bookmark them.

Potty Song

This is Rosie's new favorite song. We've even made motions, which I think boosted its appeal.


G C E F EE D
1-2-3- Let's hear some pee (Hold one, then two, then three fingers up, then cup your hand behind you ear)

G B D EE D C
1-2-3- In the pot-ty (Hold one, then two, then three fingers up, then point down in the potty)

G C E F EE D
1-2-3- Let's hear some pee (Hold one, then two, then three fingers up, then cup your hand behind your ear)

G B D EE D C
Flush it down in the pot-ty (Make a flushing motion, then point down in the potty)


I'm pretty sure I made this one up from scratch, but if you've seen it somewhere before let me know.
Copyright 2007

Spring Day on the farm

Anna Kate holding a chinchilla...

and petting a three week old groundhog

Ethan washed wool, picked seeds out of cotton, carded it, and spun it

Old fashioned sheep shearing

My beloved

and my little man

Rosie's tired.

She's going to take a break in the flowerbed.

Volcanoes

Ethan chose an Eyewitness: Volcano video for Anna Kate at the library last week. It was connected to her love of Hawaii. To be more specific all of my kids love something to do with Hawaii. For Anna Kate it's really dancing the hula; for Ethan, volcanoes; for Rosie Lilo and Stitch (she calls them both "Stitch") - and all of them are in love with the beach.

Brian and I are going away to a yet-undisclosed location of his planning on Thursday and Friday, so I decided to save the video for their school day with Gran, and then, as often happens, I got on a roll and put together a volcano unit. I'll send some to Gran's and we'll do some next week and some we'll save for another time, but there's some really cool stuff out there! Use discretion, of course, because these are secular science sources.

Make a volcano:

1. Classic version
2. Easier artistic version
3. Another easier version
4. Easiest version - this is the one I'm sending to Gran's, but I'm writing a note on it to add the red food coloring to the vinegar, because I know that my kids won't buy that's it's a volcanic eruption if the "lava" is white
5. Cheater's version

Worksheets, etc. :

1. Crayola Volcano Mini Book
2. Time for Kids map worksheets here and here.
3. Label a volcano diagram
4. Volcano writing paper
5. Fill in the blank

Online articles:

1. Science News for Kids - enter "volcanoes" in the search box if nothing comes up. There are several articles
2. "Exploring Volcanoes" - I also found a juvenile book by this researcher, Donna O'Meara, at our library
3. "Explore Volcanoes"
4. "Volcano! Mountain of Fire" - this online stroy at National Geographic Kids has video clips as well.

Online activities:

1. VolcanoWorld's Games & Fun Stuff - has a neat dot to dot among other things
2. For older kids (looks like preteen and up): a strategy game in which you are a disaster manager handling a volcanic eruption and evacuating a town

And last, but not least -

Home Ec (otherwise known as Snack Time):

• Volcano Cake

I also did a juvenile volcano search on the library's database. I chose several more books and videos. I'll try to let you know later which one's were favorites.

"Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org".

She understood as a child

Ethan and Anna Kate are on the couch behind me discussing Judas. Ethan says, "did you know that Judas was one of His disciples?" Anna Kate replies, "yeah, he's the one who traded Him in." Ethan quickly says,"not traded Him in - betrayed Him, Anna!"

She speaks!

Rose was looking at the pictures on my blog and saw Gran which then set her off to identify everyone in the pictures. "Pa" "Daddy" "Mommy" Then, she surprised me by saying, "I'm the mommy" pointing to me, then "I'm the baby" pointing to herself! She continued on with "Brur" (brother) and her almost internalized version of "Anna Kate" and continued identifying herself as "baby". I guess she got tired of trying to say "Rosie".

Pearls Before Breakfast

This astonishing story has been all over the blogosphere, but if you've missed it so far, go here and catch the story with music and video. Then take time to notice the neauty in your world today. :&)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=emailarticle

Easter pics and newsyness

Well, it's still crazy around here. I feel like I've been careening from project to project. First the church ministry fair, the next week Mom's birthday dinner, the next week Brian's mom in the hospital (she looked so much better on Easter! thanks so much for praying) and the car in the shop, then Anna Kate's two parties that weekend, and then I realized that I ought to have Easter dinner at my house because Mom shouldn't have to worry about it. So I threw together a dinner menu with a lot of help form Kraft Kitchens:

Orange-Spinach Salad
Spiral Ham with Coke (poured over it. makes it very tender)
Mom's amazing green beans and devilled eggs that she insisted were no trouble
New Potatoes in Dill Cream Sauce
Maple-Glazed Baby Carrots
Brown and serve rolls
Lemonade
Iced orange, passionfruit & jasmine green tea (our family's favorite tea, except Anna - there always has to be one dissenter)
Strawberry blossoms with almond cream
Rice krispy squares iced like petit fours sent by Nanny from The Popcorn Factory
Easter creamy jello jigglers (I used lemon jello and white chocolate pudding mix
and cut out butterflies instead of eggs)
Angel lush (used a Gluten Free Pantry cake mix)

Now, don't be fooled by that innocent little Rosie face. She is a terror! I can't take my eyes off of her for 30 seconds without some disaster occurring. Easter dinner was a little late thanks to her. She went into the laundry room and turned on the sink and pulled out the drain and stuffed something else in it and flooded the room and into the adjacent playroom- then she managed to sneak off and do it all over again about half an hour later. She is in a bed because she could climb out of her crib, she pulls chairs over to kitchen counters and the stove, she can turn doorknobs, she can knock over safety gates...

When it comes to Easter baskets, it's all about the chocolate(in Rose's book at least). Don't know where she gets it from. She was on a mission to find the caramel kisses in her basket - and everyone else's!

On the flip side, after we prayed for the meal, Anna Kate asked to pray. She thanked God for sending Jesus to die for us and that He is alive, and that when she got to go to heaven she was going to sit on his lap!

And Ethan demanded everyone's attention as he shared the Easter story with the Resurrection Eggs.

In other news, my beloved has really been feeling awful. He's been having terrible knee pain which makes all moving around very painful. Please pray that it passes soon; we have no idea what triggered it.

Our Resurrection Sunday service is always such a beautiful celebration. The large clusters of lilies at the front of the church were lovely. We sang so many of my favorite songs before and after the sermon. "I Will Glory In My Redeemer", "The Power Of the Cross" (it's been in my head ever since),"I Come By the Blood," and what Easter service could be complete without "In Christ Alone"? I had been teaching it to the children all week. Anna Kate and Ethan waited for it at the beginning of the service, but we didn't sing it, then the sermon, then singing at the end. It was the last song! They were happy to be able to try to sing along.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

I wonder...

What was it like the day after Jesus died?

Did the world springing to life around them seem to mock them?

Or did everything seem colorless without Him?

Did any of them anticipate what would happen next?

Did they dare to hope?

Hot Cross Buns

I thought my hot cross buns days were over, but I found this recipe and gave it a shot. I just pulled them out of the oven and we tasted a hot one. They took about 4 hours with double rising, but they are so worth it! Hurry, there's still time to have them after dinner.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who consideredthat he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous,and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors

The Messiah is for Good Friday not just Christmas

Dust off your CD of The Messiah. Start at track 20, "Behold the Lamb of God," then continue through "He Was Despised," "Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs," "And With His Stripes We Are Healed," "Since By Man Came Death," and on through until you're singing, "Worthy is the Lamb and hath redeemed us to God, to God by His blood..."

Response to "Five Streams of the Emergent Church"

Lindsey linked to this article by Scot McKnight on the emerging church as food for thought and mentioned this concept in particular:

"A notable emphasis of the emerging movement is orthopraxy, that is, right living. The contention is that how a person lives is more important than what he or she believes. Many will immediately claim that we need both or that orthopraxy flows from orthodoxy. Most in the emerging movement agree we need both, but they contest the second claim: Experience does not prove that those who believe the right things live the right way...Here is an emerging, provocative way of saying it: "By their fruits [not their theology] you will know them."

There are at least a few things in this description of the emerging church that are huge red flags to me. This quote is the first one. While it is true that many who have or claim to have the right theology have not lived in a way that reflects their belief, I don't think that it is reasonable to think that you will live the right way if you don't believe the right way. When you grasp a right view of God it should radically change the way that you live. Isaiah caught a glimpse of God and saw what he really was. If you don't believe the right things, then how are you supposed to live the right way? how would you know what the right way was? God gave us His word so that we could know the right way to live. We are commanded to search the Scriptures, study to show ourselves approved unto God, and rightly divide the word of truth. This really sounds like the old faith versus works argument that the Bible already addresses. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, but faith without works is dead, it's not genuine. The same thing could be said of your orthodoxy.

Obviously the "in versus out" debate is a big problem, but even the author of this article addressed that.

The political demographics of this movement leave me appalled. Yes, there are too many Christians who believe that the Republicans are saviors. There is only one Savior. He is the only one who can change peoples hearts and make any lasting changes in their lives. That's something this emerging movement needs to remember as well. Social reform comes from the inside out. The church, not the government, should be responsible for reaching out to those in need and has often failed miserably. While we should seek to have the government address serious social problems (Wilberforce and his fight to end slavery being a very visible example) I cannot conceive of believers supporting the Democratic party as a whole. How can you align yourselves with a party that blatantly opposes nearly anything moral? This seems so narrowly focused. Do you think that there were Christians in Nazi Germany who supported the Nazi party because they thought that it would help their people recover from the financial and economical disaster of the First World War? What do we think of them? Do we wonder how they could have stood by and watched an entire race of people be exterminated? Someone please tell me how the Democratic party's supposed "historic commitment to the poor and to centralizing government for social justice" is worth the blood price of millions of tiny babies. If these innocents can't be protected, then why pretend that your protecting or helping anyone?!Not to mention how they'd like to reform my entire way of life from the pennies in my pocket to the way I educate my children and conform it to their master social plan. No thanks! Maybe I'm crazy, but this constitutes a massive lack of discernment to me.

So that's my take on this article for anyone that cares. If the emerging church wants to use incense or sit in a circle - good for them, but we have been called by a holy God to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Any movement that forgets that the gospel is the only thing that will every change the world has completely missed the point.

Update on Brian's mom

Mom finally came home from the hospital on Saturday. Her heart does not appear to have suffered damage from the temporary loss of blood flow, but she is still weak from the whole ordeal and from trying to adjust to new medications. Thanks so much for remembering her in your prayers.

I love Goodwill

We had errands to run today. To a book warehouse out in in the middle of nowhere for Ethan's first grade math books and to the dump to properly dispose of the old computor monitor. But to get there we had to go past the Goodwill nearest to a rather well to do population. I'd yet to find my Easter dress. I was out last night and finally found a store that had several I liked, but they were $35-40 each! Way too much in my tightwad book. SO - I decided to give Goodwill a try. For the $35 I would have spent on one dress, I got my Easter dress (on the left) as well as three everyday dresses AND 6 videos.

Another fantastic resource

If you homeschool like I do, pulling from whatever resources you find to fit what your kids are interested in, then you probably love to find new sources of great free materials. Here's one I found recently: LearningPage.com. They offer several sets of themed worksheets to give you an idea and with your free membership you gain access to a new set of worksheets developed each month, as well as the old monthly sets. They even e-mail you to let you know that they're out. If your child loves ocean or zoo animals, bugs, dinosaurs, or space, you'll love the sample sets of worksheets with those themes. The monthly themes are 10 worksheet sets and are on Preschool-3rd grade level - the sets have worksheets on different levels so a family with children in more than one grade could enjoy it together. Monthly themes such as "Thankful Times," "In My Garden," and "Summer Storms" await you with membership (remember, it's FREE). So go check it out!

Guess what we did today?

Went to a train's birthday party! Complete with balloon arch, cookies and juice, clown bounce, carnival games, a train ride - and ridiculously long lines! I'm talking half an hour for the clown bounce and over an hour for the train! We did the other activities, then left and went to Micky D's for lunch then returned when the "party" was over but the train was still running and hopped right on! Rosie. in particular, was thrilled!

Anna Kate's flower dance

Easter for Kids

1. The egg decorating stencils and scrapbook paper are just two of the many gems at Hershey's Easter pages.
2. We are going to do this craft to remember the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I think we'll have to listen to that selection from the Messiah while we do it.
3. We'll probably print these bookmarks for favors at our Easter dinner.
4. And the toymaker dresses up our holiday once again with this beautiful decoration that we'll print onto cardstock for the door.
5. Here's a great empty tomb coloring page.
6. And, of course you can have crosses or lilies on your DTLK writing paper and other Easter themed worksheets too. Brian took the children through Isaiah 53 in family devotions last night. I believe that we'll have phrases from Isaiah 53 for copywork the rest of the week. "All we like sheep have gone astray," "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" "He was despised and rejected of men." "And with His stripes we are healed."

Celebrating Holy Week

March was a crazy busy month! All of the birthdays are now over for a bit and Brian's mom came home from the hospital on Saturday finally. She's still trying to get adjusted to new medications and is still feeling lousy, so I'd appreciate your keeping her in your prayers. I really wanted to do more with Lent and Holy Week this year, but I've had to scale back considerably in order to mantain sanity. So I've returned to my Easter file and pulled out a few gems. I have one that I haven'r found a link for yet that we'll be using this year. Each day we will read the Scriptures relating to the events for each day of Passion Week. Brian has off for Good Friday and the Scripture for that day follow a timeline from early morning, 9AM, 12 noon, and 3PM that I hope to follow. Here are links to a few great resources for remembering this week's events.

1. The Teaching Home's Easter Unit Study
2. Christianity Today has Family Activities for the week leading up to Easter as well as a