Labor Day Road Trip - Bandelier

The blessings of old age

In preparing to teach a class on "What is a good church?", I've used a Google search tool to pull together people's thoughts on this from across the blogosphere. One common sentiment that pops up among bloggers is that they want a church with lots of people their own age. They especially dislike churches that are elderly.

This brought to mind how my thoughts towards the elderly have changed. There was a time when I too avoided churches with older people. In fact, for years, a church I attended had no one over 50 that I can remember.

But this changed when I prayed with an old man in the sunset of his life. He has walked with God longer than I have been alive. His body is failing him, but His God has not. His faith has stretched across time and has lasted through adversity, and this gives me hope that I, too, will not fall away.

When we don't know our elderly fathers and mothers in the faith we miss out on one means that God uses to assure us of perseverance. Just as Jacob, when dying blessed his sons, leaning on his staff to worship (Heb 11:21), so too can our fathers in the faith bless us in their worship of God.

A new job

On Tuesday I'll start my 12th job in the Air Force. That's 12 jobs in 15 years--I can't keep a job!

As work responsibilities have increased over the years, so has my satisfaction with the Air Force. This new job will be a bigger challenge than the last. And it's a good thing that we like Albuquerque, because my boss has requested that I stay here longer than a normal tour. We'll see what the Air Force Personnel Center thinks of that.

Christ the Center

Christ the Center is a fairly new podcast led by a panel of PCA and OPC pastors; I've grown to really enjoy learning more about the reformed faith this way. Here's a list of recent episodes:

The Eschatological Views of the Westminster Divines
Cultural Relevance, Mercy Ministry and the Social Gospel
The Pastor and the Academy
The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century
Recovering the Reformed Confession
Union with Christ and Twofold Grace
Reformed Church Growth
Reforming or Conforming?

Zeke's first word

A few weeks ago the kids watched the movie "Annie". The "Tomorrow" song stuck with Faith; she kept singing it for days. It even affected Zeke, who hasn't said anything other than a "momma"-sounding utterance when he's crying. But tonight at dinner he picked up Faith's refrain, and so his first word is officially "Tomorrow".

Does this word symbolically reveal anything about Zeke's laid back personality? Time will tell.

A General's Staff

Yesterday afternoon I found out that we had another tour to give at work today--we give lots of tours, many of them to high-ranking officers. But this one was different. The staff for this General Officer live in fear of him and they had me running in all directions. In 15 years of military life, I've never seen staff officers ping so hard. They took over my office, re-did the briefing slides many times this morning, asked me to call the whole building to attention when he walks in, and basically stayed on the verge of an anxiety attack the whole morning. To top it all off, one of the staff officers even had my hat for the whole visit, thinking it was his own. You probably have to be a military person to appreciate the embarrassment of missing your cover, especially with General Officers around. I was glad to see them leave, and thankfully I got my hat back.

The Reformation

This book explains the Reformation in an easy and quick manner without being uninteresting. In a fresh way the doctrines of the Reformation are presented through the lively characters of the Reformation. This link keeps the book from being academic without losing the doctrinal nature of the Reformation. My favorite chapter was "The Women of the Reformation", particularly the young life of Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen who at 16 years of age had a remarkable grasp on the gospel.

Ouch! This hits too close to home

Ken Myers (MARS HILL AUDIO) in an article titled "That's why they call them browsers" writes on the detrimental effect that Internet-based communications has on learning and especially deep reading. Here's a summary pieced together from a few quotes that hit me the hardest.

"Carr observes that deep reading--reading that is more like prayer than basketball--is deliberately discouraged by the structure of the Web and in the business models of the Web's reigning powers. 'The faster we surf across the Web--the more links we click and pages we view--the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to deed us advertisements.'"

"We are constantly lured from the important and profound to the distacting, 'interesting', piquant."

"He touches everything brought within easy reach of his mind by the constantly increasing means of transportation, information, education, and amusement, but he doesn't really absorb anything. He contents himself with having 'heard about it', he labels it with some current catchword, and shoves it aside for the next. He is a hollow man and tries to fill his emptiness with constant, reckless activity."

This article is a call to action, but I'm not sure how to go about making the change. Any ideas on how to avoid the pitfalls described here without getting completely off the Information Superhighway?

Read the whole thing.

Brushes with death

The military police knocked on our door last night, showed me a picture, and asked if I had seen this person in the last few hours. I recognized the person in the picture and joined in the search last night through the base and along Central Avenue for a suicidal friend who hours earlier had disappeared on foot with nothing but pajamas. Thankfully this person was found alive and is now getting help.

Pulling out of my neighborhood this morning on my way to work, the car up ahead was driving at idle speed and drifting between lanes. I pulled along side and clearly saw that the driver was unconscious and alone. I pulled ahead just in time to miss him as he veered into my lane and then crashed into a park bench. A small crowd formed, we felt a weak pulse, and got help. I don't know if this man is alive now.

How should we respond when brushed by death? It certainly has my attention today.

Calling out the "Apostates"

After reading the first chapter of our new book for adult Sunday school, I'm really impressed. It unashamedly presents a strong case for the centrality of the local church in God's plan and a believer's life.

The authors square off against the idea that Christians don't need the local church, facing the church's detractors, such as popular Christian pollster George Barna, head-on. Referring to 1 John 2:19 they spell out the principle that those who claim to be a Christian but separate themselves from the church may possibly be just disobedient, but "it is more likely that they are not really believers". Subltly, they mention that in past centuries those that left the church were called "apostates" not revolutionaries.

In another bold statement, the authors call Christians away from fighting for a "Christian America" through para-church organizations and urge us to expend our energies towards the edification and growth of the local church. For God has promised that His church will endure; religious liberty in America has no divine guarantee.

This book is off to a great start!

Sanctification tests

"This is a false understanding of sanctification: that a person's level of sanctification depends on their fervor. And the goal is to increase their fervor. In the New Testament, sanctification almost always is worked out in real life, not in your private activities but in your public activities. Things like how you treat your wife. Things like how you treat your kids. Things like how you treat your fellow church members. Do you call on them when they're missing? Do you take them food when they are hungy? Do you help them find jobs? Do you support the mercy and benevolence activities? Sanctification in the New Testament manifests itself in very concrete, public ways and not in things like private journaling."

White Horse Inn broadcast titled: Calling the sheep to become self-feeders?

Encouraging parents that feel inadequate and guilty

Another good Ask Pastor John:

"First, I want to encourage people that all of us feel inadequate at the front end and guilty at the back end of parenting. We think we're doing our best. We think we've hit upon a way to do this or that. Then 10 or 20 years into parenting we read a book, hear a talk, or observe another person and realize, "Whoa, that's a good idea. I never thought of that, and I never did that. What if I had done that?"

No matter how good we are as parents we wind up feeling inadequate and guilty at the end. The key for having hope and for picking up and pressing on is, first, the cross of Christ, and receiving the forgiveness for our inadequacies and our failures. Secondly—and this is really, really important—it's knowing that God rescues children from the worst of homes, homes way worse than yours."

Read the whole thing.

Faith turns 3

1st day of school

Grace and Isaiah began the school year today at the new classical Christian school in town, Oak Grove Classical Academy. They will attend two days a week and we will continue to homeschool the remainder of the time.

Both children were eager to start school today, but Isaiah's reasons were based on a strange expectation that he would get to play drums and paint all he wants. I don't know why he thought this is what happens at school, and he was a little dejected to have spent a good portion of the day working on his handwriting and math skills. But overall it was a good start to the school year.

How can eternity influence a mother's daily tasks?

From "Ask Pastor John [Piper]":

"I believe it is a very high calling to be a mom charged with teaching everything she possibly can to one, two, or eight kids.

The women who flourish most and who delight most in that calling—and who are best at it—are not women whose lives are circumscribed by their houses. They are women who are aware of the world. They're aware of God's global purpose. They're aware of the ultimate purposes of God in history. They're aware of things in history and in the far off reaches of the world today that God is doing. And those are part of what they want to build into these children. They want to raise global Christians, world Christians.

A mother will delight most in the little baby in front of her when she has a vision of God and a vision of the world that's big enough to admit that this little child has a destiny in front of him or her and might become this or that.

If she is totally circumscribed by her little home—with no vision for the world—then I think her domestic scene is probably going to shrivel up on her, and she is going to feel that it is small and constraining. But if she sees it in the wider context of what she is a part of in the missionary enterprise, I think every detail of her life can take on a global significance, indeed, an historical significance.

I really believe that. When I used to sit down for devotions with our four boys at home my mind wasn't simply, "OK I have a duty as a dad: I'm supposed to do devotions at night." My mind was, "What will they become?"

Ralph Winter used to say that nothing has an impact on kids except what they do daily. So we did Global Prayer Digest daily, and we did devotions daily.

The goal isn't just to fulfill some little task that dads are supposed to do. Rather, you're building men who hopefully someday will have absorbed so much of God and so much of the Bible that it's going to shape their whole world. And they might wind up going to Pakistan to help build shelters for earthquake victims."

Sheep & greener grass

In this sermon Pastor Joel Beeke shares a good anecdote about changing churches.

After a sermon he gave at a conference a woman approached him and fawned over the message saying that she wishes she could hear preaching like that at her church. Dr Beeke cautioned her that if she were to switch to his church, within a few months she would probably be tired of his preaching, too. He went on to explain that as sheep we are prone to think the grass is greener elsewhere and often it can seem that way at first. But soon the newness wears off, other grass looks greener and the cycle perpetuates.

I've experienced this first hand and have come to regret it later. Commitment in all areas of life (which should include membership in a local church) is the better approach.

Echos from last Sunday

This line from a hymn we sang in worship Sunday is taken from Phil 1:21 and expresses the longing of a Christian's heart well:

"...having known it "Christ to live," let me know it "gain to die."

Thank you, Mr. Wardlaw.

Christ, of All My Hopes the Ground
Ralph Wardlaw
1817

Grammar Girl

I'm a product of public education. In the deep South. And I hardly paid attention. Plus my brain is like a bucket without a bottom.

Enter the Grammar Girl podcast. In about 5 minutes I'm reminded of all the things I was supposed to learn by 5th grade like,

• "Affect" or "effect"
• When to omit the word "that"
• "Who" versus "Whom"

Plus 114 other things that I probably don't know about my own (and only) language. Subscribe here or search iTunes podcasts for "Grammar Girl".

The horse and his boy

Eli has always loved horses and has ridden for several years. But today was his first time bareback.

No church, no problem?

The latest podcast of White Horse Inn is really good, especially if you're not sure why it's important to be part of a local church. The corresponding magazine articles in the current issue of Modern Reformation is also well done.

Rise in the Darkness

Good music, good for your soul. I'm enjoying some great passages of Scripture, old hymns, and original songs set to a mix of meditative and stirring acoustics. My favorite so far is the great job he does with "Not What My Hands Have Done". We met the artist when he passed through ABQ a couple of summers ago and it looks like he's coming back to NM pretty soon.

A good tool for family worship

I've been impressed with this book as we've used it during family worship. It's an easy way to explain the answers to the Westminster Shorter Catechism and to read through the supporting Scriptures, too.

By the way, the author lives in this area (Mesa, Arizona) and, if she's able to come, would make a great speaker for a woman's retreat.

"Bud-bud"

The kids have taken to calling Zeke by the nickname, Bud-bud. You needed to know that to understand the Line of the Day, which was from Isaiah's lips.

"Hey Mom! Bud-bud has strong toes. When I ran over them with the scooter he didn't cry."

Also, today I'm kicking off another series titled "Mess of the Day" and there are two for the day both involving Bud-bud. The first was discovered when Kristin found Zeke perched on the dining room table happily shredding paper napkins. The second occured when Zeke cluster-bombed the kitchen floor by emptying the whole containter of Beta fish food that he lifted unknowningly from the girls' room.

American Generalship: Character is everything

I read this as part of Air War College, one of the Air Force's military education programs. It's an easy read, although lengthy, because the author had such personal access to some of the greatest American generals: George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, and down to the '90s with Colin Powell and Schwarzkopf. In fact, in over 35 years he has interviewed more than a thousand officers of flag rank, over 100 of those being 4-star generals.

This book is about effective leadership and leader development, but the reason I'm blogging about it here, is because it has value for more than just military leadership. I want my children, and especially my sons, to have rock-solid character, but that can be difficult to define. That's where I found this description of Gen Marshall helpful and can use it as a prayer for my children as they mature:

"his unshakable integrity; his consistent courtesy and gentlemanliness of conduct; his ironclad sense of duty; his imperturbability--the imperturbability of a good conscience--in the face of harassment, pressures, and criticisms; his deliberateness and conscientiousness of decision; his serene readiness--once a decision has been made--to abide by its consequences, whatever they might be; his lack of petty vanity or ambition; his indifference to the whims and moods of public opinion, particularly as manifested in the mass media; and his impeccable fairness and avoidance of favoritism in the treatment of subordinates."

This is certainly an illustration of good character and I pray that my household will be known for it.

What is a Healthy Church Member?

Many, and perhaps even the majority of Christians, have a fear of commitment to the church. Two reasons in particular concern me the most. First, some of the most popular churches I know do not practice membership and second, a large number of Christians have an unhealthy desire for independence or autonomy in their personal life. In both cases, many Christians do not practice biblical membership simply because they've never been taught how to or seen it lived out firsthand.

This short book (120 small pages) helps Christians understand what church membership is supposed to be and how God has designed it to help both the local church and you grow in maturity to Christ.

Here are the ten points Anyabwile focuses on:

A healthy church member is an expositional listener
A healthy church member is a biblical theologian
A healthy church member is gospel Saturated
A healthy church member is genuinely converted
A healthy church member is a biblical evangelist
A healthy church member is a committed member
A healthy church member seeks discipline
A healthy church member is a growing disciple
A healthy church member is a humble follower
A healthy church member is a prayer warrior

Each of these ten points receives a chapter-length treatment that concludes with good questions for reflection and application.

I wish I had read a book like this years ago; it may have prevented some painful mistakes I made in being part of a local church.

Staycation -- The End

Staycation Day 5

The saga continues, yet at a slower pace. Our only destination was the new playplace, ABQ Jump. As the pictures below show, this is an indoor area stuffed with 7 gaint, inflatable, vinyl jumpy playsets. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely, until a troupe of teenagers invaded and ran rough-shod over the little children, which is when we left.

Staycation Day 4

Today we enjoyed the Rio Grande Zoo, the Wall-E movie, and our favorite ice cream place, I Scream Ice Cream. This little locally-owned shop has the best toys in town and diverse ice cream flavors, but you have to watch out for the celebrities.

Staycation Day 3

Day 3 began when I woke up, stepped into the hall, and found this...
As Isaiah tells the story he was on his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night but collapsed en route (a distance of 3 feet from his room) from "tiredness" and made the hallway carpet his bed for the remainder of the night. To me this is a sign that we're having a good vacation; if the 6 year old is worn out, things are going well.

Today took us to the Tram with grandma, a 4,000 feet climb up a suspended cable in 15 minutes.
The crest is a refreshing getaway from the city with its cooler, wet climate and lush forest greens.

IT'Z was the second stop of the day. For those lucky enough not to know what IT'Z is, it's a mega-sized Chuck-E-Cheese. It's easy to know what it sounds like inside an IT'Z; simply turn on every TV, stereo, and alarm clock in your home to different stations, crank them up full blast, and let them go while you try to communicate with others scattered throughout the house. Throw in an assortment of strobe lights and a couple thousand flashing lights to complete the effect.

Staycation Day 2

Today was spent at the Explora children's museum/science center, a picnic lunch, and ice skating.
They could have spent the whole morning building a better ball drop.
He built it.


We skate on the edge (of the wall). This is how we roll, er, skate.

Staycation Day 1

We're on our version of a vacation, one where we stay put in Albuquerque and see the local sights. Dubbed "Staycation", it saves on gas and lodging, and still provides a good time with the comforts of home. For day 1 we went to the city Aquarium and Botanic Gardens. The children never tire of the Alice and Wonderland effect of the magic garden with its larger-than-life vegetables, caves, and maze.

In other news, the older children were able to save up $200 between the three of them and thus fulfill a deal we made with them to purchase a Wii. Surprisingly, Grace has found her athletic niche and so far is undefeatable at any Wii sport. The most humbling defeat for me was boxing; my Mii character was decked four times in three rounds by her little girl Mii before finally being KO'ed. Kristin had a good laugh at my desperate lunging punches and Grace's rabbit-like speed punching.

The opposite of a guardian angel

With Shadow around, you have to stay alert. Glory (our dog) wasn't checking six and got jumped. The same thing happens to us way too often when we enter a room or just turn a corner.

Children unplugged

Take away the DVD players and the X-boxes from a neighborhood full of children and what happens? Games of freeze tag, backyard baseball, and touch football break out. The sound of children's laughter is heard all over the block. Parents get to know each other, share stories, and swap memories.

Just behind our house is the Temporary Lodging Facility (TLF); the place where families stay when their household goods (including collections of videos and video games) have been packed up and are in transit to or from Albuquerque. Summer is the moving season, and the TLF stays busy.

On these summer evenings the kids and I enjoy hopping the back fence and playing in the neighborhood games. Last night it was twilight baseball, the evening before it was dodgeball.

One of the parents who recently sold their house and is staying in the TLF for 3 weeks said, "I've never seen so many children! This is like another world from our neighborhood on Tramway; we never saw any children besides our own!"

After talking for a while he asked me some questions about adoption, which as usual, allowed me an opportunity to talk about Jesus and the family of God.

Community comes alive when children are unplugged.

Humility: True Greatness

Confessing my sins is no indication that I'm sufficiently convinced of their danger in my life. Rather, the fact that I haven't done something as simple as read a book about my most common sins is an indication that I'm not taking my walk with God seriously. So with this book I am beginning to fight back against a sin that has schooled me for years.

I enjoy the ministry of C.J. Mahaney, who is the author of this book and a conference speaker at great events like Together for the Gospel, Ligonier's National Conference, etc. Humility is short and easy to read. But it still packs a punch if pride is a sin in your life.

Tabletalk magazine gave it a glowing review; their only complaint was they wish it was longer.

Here are the points that I don't want to forget in my battle with pride:

• Pride has one end: self-glorification; it desires to rob God of his due and in fact contends for supremacy with him. The proud person seeks to glorify himself and not God.
• Pride is ranked by many as the most difficult sin to root out
• True greatness as biblically defined is not self-glorification but serving others for the glory of God

As with all of C.J. Mahaney's efforts, Humility is focused on the Cross for putting the sin of pride to death and he makes sure to include many practical applications (ex: a list of daily suggestions to fight pride, how to have humility in parenting, in trials, in sports, etc).

Crisis Pregnancy Chronicles

Kristin has recently switched from being a scheduler/secretary at our city's Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) to serving as a counselor. This is a high-stress job, but one that is of utmost importance when you consider what is at stake.

This week a teenage couple came in for an ultrasound and counseling, along with the girl's mother. When the young man found out his girlfriend was pregnant, he declared that he would not look or speak to her until she had an abortion. The mother was indecisive about what to do and put the decision squarely on her daughter's shoulders.

There's more to the story than I can share here but the couple stayed a lot longer than scheduled and it appears some progress was made. Kristin was able to pray with the young lady.

Meanwhile, the leading abortion-advocacy organization, NARAL, has apparently stepped up their efforts to shut-down CPCs, or at least dissuade as many pregnant women as possible from going there. This recent report describes CPCs as deceptive and misleading. NARAL continues to lobby Congress for legislation to severely limit the work of CPCs. The CPCs and those that volunteer there are worthy of your prayers.

An Ordinary Pastor

The prolific biblical scholar and ubiquitous speaker, Don Carson, tells the story of his father, Tom Carson, through a collection of his father's private journal entries. Here we see the life of an "ordinary pastor"--one who does not rise above the local level, preach to thousands, or write books to millions.

This short and easy book convinces the reader that the work of an ordinary pastor, if he is faithful to his call, is not short and easy. Tom's love for the flock meant that he patiently endured hardship and poured himself out--well after "retirement age"--in life-long service to his Savior's bride. This is just what an ordinary pastor does.

Tom Carson was more aware of his faults than his strengths and he struggled with seasons of depression when he doubted his abilities and service. But he was a man who remained faithful and who served the Lord with all his heart.

I enjoyed reading this book from first to last. There is much we can learn from a faithful, but ordinary, pastor.

Loving adopted children

What a joy it has been to study the way God has saved us through adoption into his family (Gal 4:1-7, Rom 8:15-17). C.J. Mahaney was right in his recent message on adoption that meditating on this truth of Scripture will lead to assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, and I believe, increase of grace.

All Christians doubt, at times, whether it's possible that the Father really loves us as much as he loves his only begotten Son, Jesus. Could he love his adopted children as much as he does his only begotten Son?

My experience as a father of adopted and biological children is that there is no difference in the love I have for them. Whether through adoption or birth, they are all part of my family, and being in the family is what counts.

If you are in the family of God, you are loved as much as Jesus himself is loved by the Father. Believe it! Rejoice in it!

Googling got me

Here's a google search that took me by surprise tonight and moved me to tears (just a little, of course). Type in "Gotcha Day adoption" and click on images. ("Gotcha Day" is adoption lingo for "the day we got you.")

You'll see page after page of great photos of beaming parents and orphans finding homes. We love gotcha day stories! Here's a few great pictures.