This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Jul
4
2018
Nothing to see here today. I’m trying to catch up on sleep after changing time zones. More posts on that will be coming up soon. Plus today is a holiday, at least where I am it is.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.
Psalm 33:12
Mar
27
2018
One of the options at my accent-generating website is an Irish accent. It’s a tough one, because much of the Irish accent can’t be spelled – it’s intonation and such. But that doesn’t stop people from trying to sound Irish. The following image is a graph of website traffic during the month of March. Without looking at the dates at the bottom, can you guess which day was St. Patrick’s Day?
If only there were a popular Australian holiday in the US, that would certainly bump up the stats then too.
nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you;
Ezekiel 3:6
Oct
31
2017
As you may know, today is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. I won’t go into all the history and details of the reformation, as there are many other knowledgeable sites with good information if you’re so inclined.
Today’s topic is actually better suited to John Wycliffe than Martin Luther, but I think they would share the same sentiment, along with a bit of Aldous Huxley.
Luther (and Wycliffe) was fighting against church officials and the rules they imposed. Not because they rules per se, but because they were not part of the Bible. Luther’s cause was to obey God, and if man’s rules didn’t comply with God’s then it was man’s rules that lost out.
The reformation started by Luther and continued by Wycliffe included putting God’s words in the hands of the people. Rather than needing a priest to tell the people what God thought, the people should read the scripture for themselves. The main point being that people should read the Bible for themselves, pray to God themselves, and generally interact with God directly rather than through a middleman.
Luther was known for writing songs that were to be sung by the congregation, rather than sung by a choir and heard by the congregation. Wycliffe was known for translating the Bible into the common language of the people, rather than keeping it in the fancy academic languages of Latin/Greek/Hebrew.
What do we see happening today? Rather than church leaders forbidding people to sing themselves or read their own Bibles for themselves, we have the Brave New World approach: have an entertaining worship band that is so loud that it doesn’t matter if the congregation sings or not, and put the Bible verses on the screen so the congregation doesn’t need to look in their own Bibles.
I don’t think it’s being done on purpose to make lazy/uninformed Christians, but it can get there pretty easily. Make things so convenient that congregants don’t need to practice any individual disciplines.
To throw a little bit of Orwell here (more Animal Farm than 1984), what’s to keep the pastor from rephrasing the verse he puts on the screen, to better make his point? What’s to keep him from dropping Bible verses from the slides after a while? Put something on a giant screen, and people will pay attention to it.
We’re coming full circle from the start of the reformation in that people are happy to have a middleman do the work of reading, singing, and praying for them so they don’t have to.
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”
Acts 5:29
Oct
10
2017
Only three more weeks until Reformation Day. This is the big one, being the 500th anniversary of Luther’s uprising. Start planning your festivities now.
So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.'”
Jeremiah 18:11
Jul
4
2017
This post is a repeat – I’m phoning it in today because I’m enjoying the holiday.
Happy Birthday
A M E R I C AA M E R I C AA M E R I C A!
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.
Psalm 33:12
Jun
22
2017
Happy Midsummer Day!
That’s right – it’s the middle of summer. I know it feels like the beginning of summer because school just finished, but the days are getting shorter now, so summer is really half over.
The time is just flying by now. We haven’t taken our 2017 summer vacation yet, and I’m about to book our 2018 vacation. Having a high schooler involved in extracurricular activities means we can’t travel in August anymore. Note for those who don’t have kids in high school yet: plan your biggest/longest vacation for the summer between your oldest’s 7th and 8th grade years. Your flexibility in scheduling dramatically decreases after that.
Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near
Matthew 24:32
Dec
29
2016
So long, 2016.
When that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our lands.
Genesis 47:18
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