07.31.07
Randomness at Five Weeks Along
It is embarrassing to buy a pregnancy test. They are located at our local Rite-Aid with all the other interesting sexual things, which I stand in front of as I study the backs of various pregnancy test boxes. I finally choose one, and look up to see no less than five people observing me with looks that I don’t return long enough to analyze.
When the test said I was pregnant, I, disbelieving, finished sauteing the green beans for dinner.
When I call you to tell the good news, it is terribly deflating to have you tell me in an unexcited way that you were expecting it. I want to caustically react with comments like, ” Well, we are slow learners, so it took a year.” Or perhaps ask you to describe your understanding of our personal life. Also, please don’t speculate to me about ‘when it happened’.
Our due date is March 29- April 1.
Some women suffer morning sickness and daily irritability. I suffer morning anger and daily sickness. Thankfully, my husband is off to work in the mornings and doesn’t have to deal with my irrational hormone fluctuations.
Please pray for our Baby’s health, and my peace, especially these first ten weeks. Thank You!
07.30.07
Though often accused of loving Edwards’ to an unholy degree, I must again affirm my unwavering affection of Owen
Yesterday was our First anniversary. We were out of town, and unable to attend our church. And so, the search began. After visiting various respected web sites and finding nothing in the way of what we were quite looking for, we took a chance on a church we could find the least information about. Obscurity in the greater evangelical world has often been, in my confessedly limited experience, a sign of possible doctrinal accuracy, though not always.
The sermon was riddled with references to God’s sovereignty, his power over Satan (presented as the strong man in Luke 11), his inability to be evil, etc. The text was Luke 11:14-26, where Jesus casts out the dumb spirit. Verses 24-26:
The unclean spirit when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, I will turn back unto my house whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. (ASV)
This pastor’s interpretation of this text was when a person is presented with the gospel, the spirits fly out, and everything is ready for Christ’s entry. He preached that as the house is left vacant, “Man’s will stands between him and the Savior.”
This is a shocking contradiction to me.
How can one speak of the obvious power of God over Satan, who goes around looking for someone to devour (making him more powerful than the unconverted sinner), yet force that Man’s will is greater than God’s? Where in Scripture is God minimized like this?
And here, methinks, they place God in a most unhappy condition, by affirming that they are often damned whom he would have to be saved, though he desires their salvation with a most vehement desire and natural affection,- such, I think, as crows have to the good of their young ones: for that there are in him such desires as are never fulfilled, because not regulated by wisdom and justice, they plainly affirm; for although by his infinite power, perhaps, he might accomplish them, yet it would not become him so to do. (p. 50)
First, “Our God is in the heavens,” saith the psalmist: “he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased,” Ps. cxv. 3. Not only part, but all, in the kindom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will,” Dan. iv. 17. The transposition of kingdoms is not without the mixture of divers free and voluntary actions of men, and yet in that great work God doth all that he pleaseth. Yea, before him “all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” verse 35. “My counsel,” saith he, ” shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure,” Isa xlvi. 10; “ I have purposed, I will also do it, ” verse 11…So certain is he of accomplishing all his purposes, that he confirms it with an oath: ” The Lord of hosts hath sworn, Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,” Isa. xiv. 24. (p. 51-52)
John Owen, A Display of Arminianism
I need more tea. Mine has gone cold.
07.18.07
Heffalumps and Woozles
How is it that road trips always seem to bring out the mundane? While Kari and I definitely re-fueled at Starbucks more than gas stations, I think my favorite moment was when we called our various navigators (usually to ask where the next Starbucks was on our chosen stretch of highway) with, ” What was PuddleGlum? ” How we got to this in a ten-hour conversation that spanned much more glorious topics I’ll never know.
My apologies for this post, by the way, I am experimenting with Windows Live Writer, so I am trying different things. Thanks for your patience. Sorry you feel like a guinea pig. Yes it took three tries for me to spell that word.
Oh, by the way, the answer, which you already knew, is Marshwiggle.
Say La Pie
My Yesterday:
I waited 27 minutes past my appointment time for a TB skin test that took 48 seconds. Thankfully I had a Puritan to read. Despite the godly input, I experienced irrational anger the rest of the day when dealing with further challenges.
I was definitely discouraged to find at Value Village that I would have to wait 38 years before receiving the hefty 20% senior discount on any and all merchandise.
I was kicked in the rear by a little boy swinging from a clothes rack at Ross.
And I almost had my trachea torn out by a three-year-old clawing my throat at work. He was upset because I had disentangled him from his mother’s ankle.
Today, I called in sick.
