I'll miss this sight

Here's my first look arriving home from work. Faith and Zeke must hear the garage door going up and they're eagerly awaiting my entry into home every day.

I'll miss this sight for a while--I'll be out of town. Please pray for us and offer help to Kristin if you're able. Thanks!

Zeke illustrates "one step forward, two steps back"

Resurrection Day (No advocate more effective)

Jesus, apprehended for payment of my debt,
strides forth from the prison of the grave
free, and conqueror of death, hell, and all opposing might.

Jesus, once man of sorrows crowned with thorns,
now, Lord of life wreathed with glory.

Once: shame, agony, and death.
Now and for forevermore: Advocate, Intercessor, and Ruler of All!


Adapted from Valley of Vision, p48

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Zeke can't walk, but he can still boogey

To be honest, Zeke dances better as a baby than I ever have.

Ministry Notes -- Those who don't trust the Bible

Here are just a few comments on ministry from this week. I haven't posted much on these activities before because I wasn't sure how to write things that didn't sound self-serving. But in the spirit of David Brainerd, here's a try.

I spent several hours this week with two different men talking about the trustworthiness of the Bible. One of these men is depressed and both suffer spiritually to different degrees from a weak faith.

The man I met with who is depressed knows that the darkness in his life stems from a measure of despair over not knowing what to believe about God. He's an intelligent man but has many objections to the canonicity of the New Testament. He is trying to derive what to believe about God from creation only since he can't trust special revelation. He is in a desperate condition and the plan is for us to continue to meet together with the objective of persuading him to trust God's revealed word. I am praying for him and I'd appreciate your prayers as well.

What are all your beloveds to this Beloved?

You that are yet in the flower of your days, full of health and strength, and, with all the vigor of your spirits, do pursue some one thing, some another, consider, I pray, what are all your beloveds to this Beloved? What have you gotten by them? Let us see the peace, quietness, assurance of everlasting blessedness that they have given you.

Pray study him a little; you love him not, because you know him not. Why does one of you spend his time in idleness and folly, and wasting of precious time, perhaps debauchedly? Merely because you know not our dear Lord Jesus. Why do you spend your 'money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not?'

John Owen, Communion with God

If God's Word isn't saving you, what will?

Fear your own hardness of heart more than anything else. Beware of rigidity, ingratitude, a demanding spirit. Beware of an unmelted heart that is never satisfied. Beware of a mind that looks for excuses not to believe. Beware of the impulse that always finds a reason to delay a response. Beware of thinking how the sermon applies to someone else. God watches how you hear his Word.

Ray Ortlund, Jr in his commentary on Isaiah

Inexhaustible Grace

If all the world should set themselves to drink free grace, mercy, and pardon, drawing water continually from the wells of salvation; if they should set themselves to draw from one single promise, an angel standing by and crying, 'Drink, O my friends, yea, drink abundantly, take so much grace and pardon as shall be abundantly sufficient for the world of sin which is in every one of you'--they would not be able to sink the grace of the promise one hair's breadth. There is enough for millions of worlds, if they were, because it flows into it from an infinite, bottomless fountain.

Show me the sinner that can spread his iniquities to the dimensions of this grace.

John Owen, Communion with God

Isaiah hearts the Navy

Isaiah's reaction to the news today that the Navy shot down the failed satellite before it crash-landed on top of him, "YEAH! Where does it say that? [pointing at the computer] Read it to me." After Kristin read the opening lines of the article he was satisfied and said, "They blowed it up! That's what I said they should do a month ago. Can I go jump [on the trampoline] now?" The world outside is safe again for our little fella.

The "spy" is falling, or, how to terrify a 5 year old

A few weeks ago during lunch with my family I mentioned an article I read that morning about a bus-sized US spy satellite that malfunctioned and will tumble to earth in the coming weeks. This news entranced Isaiah who ever since lives his life in fear, ducking for cover when outside, and in general waiting for the inevitable moment of being crushed by a burning bus from space.

I've learned that a 5 year old has no concept of probabilities or how large the earth is. Kristin and I are repeatedly asked by him whether it has landed yet. What's more, sometimes when he hears the sound of a jet flying overhead (a common sound on an air force base) he quivers and braces for impact.

I had no intention of scaring my son and so this is all pretty funny to me, but Kristin (soft-heart that she is) has compassion upon the boy. I get the evil eye from her whenever he brings it up. I think maybe she secretly hopes it'll hit me.

Ski trip

Many thanks to our loving church family for taking Eli with them on the ski trip to Angel Fire this weekend without his parents. We worried some over whether this was a wise decision, and Eli even expressed doubts over whether this was too much for him, but it turned out to be a great experience. He's the first in our southern family to venture down a snow-covered mountain and now we'd all like to try it ourselves.

439 words

In this space a couple of months ago I announced my intention to memorize the third chapter of Colossians (439 words) with help from a group of 7 friends. I later decided to finish this work before our pastor began preaching from the chapter, which occured today. Several of my friends finished on-time (or early) and helped me finish too.

As a result I was better prepared than usual for today's sermon. It was easier for me to understand and apply the passage as it was expounded and exhorted by our pastor. Since he typically covers a verse or two a week, it's likely that I'll reap the benefits of my group's labor for the next several month's worth of sermons!

Thanks friends for your help (and expect a small token of my appreciation soon). I plan to continue memorizing Scripture, and for the last several weeks have been learning Desiring God's Fighter verses via this free on-line program that sends me daily e-mail quizzes on a verse a week.

Valentine's Day Challenge

I need to take more seriously my responsibility to improve my marriage. To that end, I have the following plan and would like to know if other husbands will join me with their own?

Sometime this month I will arrange for a babysitter and take Kristin out for a date. Several days before the date I will provide her with the following list of questions* for us to discuss during dinner.

1. What circumstances are challenging or troubling you right now?
2. What decisions that need to be made are most weighing on you?
3. How are you currently experiencing temptation? This week? In this season?
4. Are you more aware of your sin or how Christ is at work in you?
5. In what ways do you most need my leadership?
6. Where do you need me to provide more spiritual direction/nurture?
7. What passage of scripture would you like us to meditate on together? As a family?
8. How can I help you set priorities?
9. In what area do we need to be more unified?
10. Do you know where I most need your help/input

That's the plan. Kinda simple, but I think it'll be good. So anybody else want to encourage me in this and possibly do something similar with your wife this month?

*questions taken from Family Room blog Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg Md.

Sledding in the Sandias

It's been in the 50s in the city lately, but drive up the mountain and you can still enjoy a winter wonderland.

Race Day!

Today was the Pinewood Derby Race for Eli's cub scout pack. We've been working on his car for a couple of weeks. This is what you start with:

After cutting, sanding, weighting, filing the axles, lubing the wheels, and painting this is how it looks:

The whole family went out to watch the race; there were about 20 cars. Eli's turned out to be off by a couple hundredths of a second (we think due to the axles not being prepped enough) and lost his heat. But it was a great time for all and we look forward to trying again next year.

God delivers Marie

Today we met a very special little girl. Marie was just adopted by a Christian couple we spoke with about transracial adoption a few months ago. I posted on that first discussion here.

I rejoice at how God saved Marie from abortion (her birthmom aborted 3 of Marie's older siblings and is still enslaved to a self-destructive lifestyle). What a joy it was to hold this little one today and marvel at how God had plucked her out of this situation and placed her in a loving, Christ-exalting home. I'm especially thankful to have played a minor part in God bringing this about.

Praise the Father of the fatherless who settles the solitary in a home!

New Doos

Faith is a little shy about her new hairdoo, but we all like it.




Zeke must have been jealous about all the raving over Faith's hair. I caught him wearing this.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Parenting is a strange mix of difficulty and success.

Yesterday one of our children wanted to speak to me in private about being a Christian and talking to the elders of the church about becoming a communing member. I wish I had been better prepared for this conversation, I should have been, but eventually the membership and baptismal vows came to mind and we talked through those together. It was a great moment and a highlight of parenthood.

But that same day another child took a marked turn for the worse in a long pattern of poor and troubling behavior. Hours were spent in private talking through sin and what God requires, but in the end the child was sent to bed without repentance.

On a bit of a humorous note, the "ugly" entry centers on a new trick that Zeke picked up. He's entered that phase of infancy that Kristin likes least. When she's out with him in public and someone compliments us on how cute he is and the person leans down close to him, Zeke enjoys at that moment to let loose with a loud and spewy "pbbbbblllttt"! How long will it take for him to figure out that this is also a fun thing to do during the congregational prayer?

Children of promise

I've struggled for years to succinctly describe how the reformed faith views covenant children. Some misunderstand us to think that by baptizing our infants we must think they are saved. Others think that we should consider them lost until we hear a profession of faith. Still others misunderstand the efficacy of baptism itself, thinking that it regenerates them.

Here is the best short summary of the reformed view of covenant children that I've seen.

There is no ground in the promise of the covenant either for presumption that all baptized children are regenerate (or united to Christ) or for the presumption that covenant children are reprobates until they prove otherwise. We are to treat our children as baptized persons, to whom promises have been made. We should expect our covenant children to take up Christ's benefits for themselves, sola fide. We must catechize them faithfully and encourage them to make profession of faith and to come to the Lord's Table, and if they do not, they should face ecclesiastical discipline.

Baptism and the Benefits of Christ, R. Scott Clark, published in The Confessional Presbyterian, 2006