Author Archives: MzEllen

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Here are some conclusions/questions...

The author concludes that babies of covenant families are given faith by God. He is "happily agnostic" when it comes to the salvation of babies that die in unbeliving families.

so...
If we are saved by faith, it would follow that babies have some sort of faith. If they do not have faith, then how are they saved?

If babies have faith, but can fall away, what does that do for perseverence?

I'm fairly new to Reformed theology and I know that baptism does not save. However, Lusk seems to say that baptism is more than a symbol, it is more like the (my words) door through which salvation comes.

How does one relate baptism to salvation?

If baptism is a symbol, and not a vehicle, why baptize infants before they understand the symbolism?

Here is a tough one. I spent years outside the church. Looking back, I can pinpoint a moment when my relationship with God became very real. Given it is possible that is the moment I "got saved" - are the babies that I lost before that moment saved or lost?

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She Feasts

The blog I got this from said it was a Friday thing...I'm doing it on Monday.

Appetize
What is a word that your family uses that would not be considered common? Snuberated. It came from an aunt that got offended by video game "kills" - even pacman. Video game "gotchas" are now "snuberations".

Soup
What theme of calendar do you have on your wall this year? I have "mom's organized family" calendar.

Salad
Name 3 people you speak with on a daily basis. Phil, Tom, Manda

Main Course
If you could put a new tattoo on someone you know - who would it be, what would the tattoo be of, and where would you put it on them? Manda wants a tattoo anyway...I'd stick a Tom's Design on her. My son has designed a tattoo with an "alpha" and "omega" interposed. It've very cool and would look great on a girl's shoulder. Or a pale white lily (for lily of the valley) on her ankle.

Dessert
What is the last beverage you drank out of a glass bottle? Easy! Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

blogger doesn't use trackback, but here's a link to she-lives: http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/3865776

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My Family’s (non)Traditions

Over the last five years I’ve decided that if a tradition isn’t working – pick a new one!

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two holidays that my family “struggles” with traditions – meaning that in the past there has been a tension between what the tradition “should” be and what really works for us.

I’ve come to the conclusion that family traditions are extremely important – and you need to make your traditions yours. Adopting somebody else’s just isn’t the same.

The first year after my husband passed away, we decided that we really didn’t want to spend Christmas at home. Too many memories. So, we spent the holiday with my mom and dad in Florida. It was very nice (and warm). But it wasn’t home. It was my kids’ first Christmas “without Dad”, they didn’t need to escape – they needed Christmas at home. We have spent Christmas at home every year since – but it hasn’t looked the way that it did.

The next Thanksgiving (the second one without Dad) was the big change in tradition. For years, we had gone to my brother’s home for Thanksgiving Day and I planned on that again. Just a few days before the holiday, I called to find out what I could bring. After a couple of stalls, I was told that everybody was spending this Thanksgiving with their in-laws. Golly – that stung.

I felt totally alone – I didn’t have in-laws to spend the holiday with. So, I made an “executive decision” to just stay home. A dear friend put it this way: I could either decided to make do with what was left of my family – or we could go on because this is our family. The first Thanksgiving I did the whole big dinner thing – for 3 of us. Oh, there was so much food! And in the afternoon (NO football at my house) we rented movies and had a marathon. It was right before the third LOTR came out and I had not seen the first 2 – so on Thanksgiving Day we got me caught up.

Every year since, we have turned down invitations – Thanksgiving is a family time. Our family time. This year, we did spend it with my sister-in-laws. But the rule was – we had to have a movie marathon. It really works for us and (at this point) we have no intention of changing it.

This year, for Christmas, we don’t have a tree up yet (it’s in the basement, in a box). We all have final exams for college next week, I should be (at this moment) working on that research paper.

The new tradition is friends and fun. My kids have friends in families that don’t seem to “get it”. Last year, three teenagers left their families before noon on Christmas Day to come to our house. One of them had been removed from his home and placed with his sister. His birthday is Christmas Day – and they forgot. This boy turned 16 on Christmas Day and came to my house. He cried when I made a birthday cake.

Don’t get me wrong – glitz and ribbon and ornaments and stars and all that “stuff” is nice. This year I went to the mall for that.

It’s the people that should be the outstanding tradition.

Since I’ve been a widow, I’ve had lonely times around the holidays. Most single folks do.

But I’ve also seen that there are people – in my life, kids – that are a lot worse off.

Christmas this year? Church service in the morning, and then I expect some extra teenagers for movies, video games and frozen pizza.

It’s the people.

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I followed a link from somewhere (I can't remember where or I'd give credit) to this book. I'm relatively new to Reformed theology and barely have a grip on paedobaptism. I recognize that it's Biblical, but hesitate on the Scriptural backing. So, as kind of a general "more information" kind of thing - I got this book.

Wow.

The author is definitely "truly reformed" - and that's ok. Sometimes I find myself not wanting to sound "TR", yet believing a lot of the same things, but really not wanting the attitudes that I see in some of the "TR" folks. Anyway - that's a whole different topic. The result of the "TR" is that the book is written to Reformed or "Covenant" families.

In my jouney into my own reformation I treated a student from Calvin Seminary to a snack out and one of the hard questions that I asked was "what about babies that die, before or after they're born?" This book (for me, anyway) answered the question for believing parents (unbelieving parents are still up in the air - but they don't believe, so they're not asking the question anyway.)

Here's a link to the book

I'm going to try to go through it with notes and blog about it - Christmas break is coming up
😉

http://www.cmfnow.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=5217&HS=1

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Our sermon title this morning.

Luke 6:27-36 "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

"If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

The first thing - the first line - "to you who hear." Are we paying attention? Are we paying attention?

The Greek word for love here is "agapao" - charity. Not phileos, brotherly love.

Christ's command was to love those who hate you, abuse you, curse you. This is a love that we are to give to those who don't desire it. It removes the possibility of retaliation and it treats others the way you want to be treated.

Our behavior flows from our hearts - is it agapao that flows? phileos? or something else?

"turn the other cheek" means so much more than simply putting up with mistreatment. Agapao turns the tables, responding with charity.

A radical love that declares that we are children of the Most High, merciful and kind.

With the help of the Holy Spirit we CAN love anybody

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1) If you're going to call a business whose phone number uses their name - make sure you know how to spell it (or, in my case, make sure that you know for sure where the letters are on the phone dial).

2) The number for comcast is 1 digit away from a telephone porn number (soft woman's voice: only $5.99 a minute, billed to your visa or mastercard)

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The whole alcohol debate is probably going to be with me for a while, since my dad is a legalistic teetotaler and I'm - well - not.

In the sermon at my church this morning, the text was on the Sabbath (legalism vs. God's law) and how the Jews used hedge laws to "protect" themselves from breaking the law - if you obeyed man's hedge laws, you could never get close to breaking God's real one.

A "hedge law" is an "extra" law that the Jews used to create a hedge around the Law of Moses. For instance - all the Decalogue says about the Sabbath is: "but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates."

So, the Jews took it and ran with it - "what's 'labor'?" - and ended up with a bunch of hedge laws that never appear in Scripture: how far you can walk, how much jewelry (in weight) a woman can wear, etc. These hedge laws were so restrictive that Christ was condemned by the Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath.

Christ never broke God's Law - but he did break the law of man - the hedge laws.

And that's what we have today - hedge laws.

If you don't use alcohol at all, you will never be able to break God's prescription against drunkeness.

Would Christ have obeyed this "hedge law"?

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I'll only have three posts this week, but it's been a good week. I think I did okay on the history test, and sure I did ok (meaning "A" on this one) on the psych test.

The psych paper is done - this is the paper that will be my final exam grade. I did the paper on "The Psychology of Deafness" and the subject turned out to be a lot more interesting that I thought it would.

Next up - "The Rise of the Roman Catholic Church - 800 - 1300). I'm learning a lot. This paper is due on Monday.

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Mom is making this really hard and it not all that its a challenge ... its kinda boring ... kinda really boring ... and yesterday was busy for me ... i woke up late, went out running, ate lunch,got ready for work, got my stuff for class together and i left and wasnt back till after 9. so i had to make up all of my work for yesterday today and now i have to do todays work and its alot of reading that i have to do and i have a headache and the asprin didnt help so that not going to be fun, mom said we would try and make this more fun but government isnt interesting and she wants me to pick a government topic to write abuot ... theres nothing interesting! and now i want to go out but im grounded just because i didnt have my cell phone turned on so im not gonna see any friends and we're about to leave for the weekend ... so today is not a good day ... grrrrrrrrrrrrr and im going to miss church again ... im excited to quit my job so that i wont miss church but its going to end up being a long time before i get to see christina again .... because my job is stupid ... i got a new one but mom doesnt want me to resign from claire's yet and i really really really dont like that store or my manager ... and i really really dont like missing church almost every single week ...