11.15.07
Baby Gabriel…
While I normally find ultrasound pictures bizarre, I decided that since I am bizarre, and since this is my own small sphere where I have complete control, I would share them. For those of you who do not think it bizarre.
We were able to go in on Monday. Nathan and Michael got to watch the screen where the baby was moving! It is pretty definitely a boy.
Here is the profile shot, procured after much pushing on the part of the technician. It appears our little one is stubborn. He didn’t roll over on his back for this shot until I got up and walked around. The thing under his chin is his arm across his face, reaching toward the camera.
This one is my favorite, because his teensy face is facing us. You can also see his arm up above his head.
So, for those of you into this sort of thing, here you go. If you are grossed out (Nate thinks he looks a bit area 51-ish)…Just don’t look.
Or, you can look at my video showing you the pictures here.
11.09.07
Tea and my SIN…
Since it is all over scripture, I couldn’t really pick a passage. Several different passages from this mornings reading convicted me.
In Psalm 139:23-24, the writer implores,
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! ( ESV)
In regard to these thoughts, Kiel and Delitzsch point out:
He sees in them the danger which threatens himself, and prays God not to give him over to the judgment of self-delusion, but to lay bare the true state of his soul.
I take a long sip of my morning Black Blend and struggle with honesty. I decide to unload on all of you poor brethren.
I struggle with the sin of discontentment. Rather, I wallow in it. The beauties of contentment have often been referred to in this blog. I keep my copy of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs conveniently located around the house. Every passage seems to drip with exhorting conviction. He speaks of contentment in terms of freedom when I only think in terms of obligation. He pleads,
Contentment is freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God’s disposal. Submitting to God’s disposal-What is that? The word submit signifies nothing else but ‘to send under’. Thus in one who is discontented the heart will be unruly, and would even get above God so far as discontent prevails. But now comes the grace of contentment and sends it under, for to submit is to send under a thing. Now when the soul comes to see its own unruliness-Is the hand of God bringing and affliction and yet my heart is troubled and discontented- What, it says, will you be above God?Is this not God’s hand as must your will be regarded more that God’s? O under, under! get you under, O soul! Keep under! keep low! keep under God’s feet! You are under God’s feet, and keep under his feet! Keep under the authority of God, the majesty of God, the sovereignty of God, the power that God has over you!
You would think my need for exhortations such as these stem from some great affliction. Sadly, no. For me it is all about perfume, the symphony and digital cameras. My upcoming birthday prompted these thoughts. In my family, we give gifts for birthdays. There is no biblical warrant for it that I know of, but it is fun:-). I began to realize that I want things and measure things as more important that they are. Perfume, the symphony, and digital cameras are not inherently wrong. They are even good. Rather, my focusing on things that aren’t bad themselves was the deceitful and grievous sin besetting me.
I look up the Hebrew word, ” עצב “ translated “grievous” or “wicked” and find, not too surprisingly, that it has connotations with earthen vessels, idols, worship and pain.
Rather than give me reprieve, words from the next passage of scripture continued to bombard me with insights about myself-
But exhort on another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13 (ESV)
I am thankful that the Lord has opened my eyes a little more about myself in this area. Yet I shudder to think how many more there are!
Thanks be to the Lord that though he does not reveal too much of ourselves to us at one time, he does continue to do so, and in so doing, draws us on toward more of his Holy Graciousness.
11.01.07
Children, Children everywhere, you can find them in your hair…
So it appears that I attract a multitude of reactions.
This fourth month of pregnancy has brought increased thoughtlessness, usually equaling unparalleled rudeness (ask Kari). I have cut myself shaving five times this week. I failed to come up with an appropriate costume for our costume party. I wore a crocodile visor.
I can never find anything, and have lost my laptop and cell phone (one at a time), only to realize I left them in a perfectly safe place…like my in-laws, or the floor of my closet.
It is this stage that Lauren perceives me in and labels it “pregnancy-efficiency mode.”
I continue to play mother to Michael, and have only forgotten to feed him twice. He is gradually learning the Rachel-culture: That there are differences between adults and children. That he has to eat. That he has to obey me. Or else.
Today when Sam was told he got to sit next to me in circle time he exclaimed, “YES! I have been waiting for this for WEEKS!”
When Michael asked why I didn’t like my new maternity pants I just bought yesterday (they shrunk and are not even fashionably short), I replied that they did not fit. He innocently inquired, ” Are they too big for you, or are you too big for it?”
I said nothing. How does one reply to four year olds?
Sola Scriptura
Trinity Hymn # 76
On this beautiful Reformation Day, which passes with hardly any notice, I reflect on what my devotions alone have recently mentioned about the glories of scripture. It is a topic I have been thinking on of late. I had a friend ask me to write her up “a blurb” outlining how to respond to unscriptural assertions made by those who profess to know Christ.
In yesterday’s reading, Hosea 4:6 laments, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;” Psalm 119 drips with statements concerning David’s love for the Word of God. In Nehemiah the people stand all day listening to scripture and weeping over their sin.
Matthew Henry, in his commentary on 2 Timothy 3:10-17, asserts,
Those who would acquaint themselves with the things of God, and be assured of them, must know the holy scriptures, for these are the summary of divine revelation…
It answers all the ends of divine revelation. It instructs us in that which is true, reproves us for that which is amiss, directs us in that which is good. It is of use to all, for we all need to be instructed, corrected, and reproved:
I will write a blurb for my friend. Here it is: All things must be measured against scripture.
Do you think that is too short?
What about this (also from Henry, same section)?
O that we may love our Bibles more, and keep closer to them than ever! and then shall we find the benefit and advantage designed thereby, and shall at last attain the happiness therein promised and assured to us.
Henry’s words resound with me.
