Play Buddies

Ellie absolutely LOVES playing with Kayla. It is so cute to watch, and such a joy that we have such a sweet dog! We were able to catch it on video. Enjoy!


They just love each other:

6 Things Joel Osteen Won't Tell You

While reading Michael Horton's Christless Christianity, our blogger friend DF came to six startling conclusions about Joel Osteen.

*****

In a nutshell, Horton majestically fleeces Osteen for preaching a defective gospel.

So, as I draw to a close on reading the book, I wanted to draw out six wrong conclusions Osteen shares about being a Christian. Read on for the drama.

Where Did Osteen Go Wrong?

Joel Osteen went wrong when he decided to become a life-enhancement preacher.

On any given sunday at Lakewood. . . Joel Osteen’s church. . .you’ll hear a pulpit full of the abundant life gospel: try a little harder and luxuries galore will fall into your lap.

Unfortunately, Osteen’s dead wrong.

When we become Christians–born again believers–God doesn’t promise a life of ease. Just the opposite.

Read the rest at http://fallenandflawed.com

*****

Demian makes several pertinent observations regarding the Christian faith and the promises that come with it. I am reminded of the conversation Susan and Mrs. Beaver have in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia book, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Susan: "Is he--quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting [him]."

Mrs. Beaver: "That you will, dearie, and make no mistake...if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

Susan: "Then he isn't safe?"

Mr. Beaver: "Safe?... Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good."

Prosperity and safety in this life are not guarantees found anywhere near the gospel but we can rest assured that His will is good.

First SNOW!

I absolutely LOVE snow! This was Ellie's and Kayla's first snow... so we took some pictures. Enjoy :)

Ellie didn't enjoy sitting in the snow:

...but Kayla loved running around in it (and eating it too):

This is a shot of Ellie in my arms, not in the snow (hence the content face):

Beautiful shot of Kayla:

Our house covered in snow, doesn't it look so pretty?:

Why I Hate Sanctity of Life Sunday

Dr. Russell Moore of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary gives a pithy explanation to his bold statement that he hates sanctity of life Sunday. Great read.

Gut Busting Awesomness

Two Front Teeth

She got her first tooth at 6 months, and the second at 7 months.... no more since then. This is a shot we took over the holidays. I found it and thought, what a great shot of her teeth, I need to share this!

Job and God's Character

If any of you are actively following a Bible reading plan then you might be reading the book of Job right now. This is a particularly difficult book to read for a number of reasons. One of them being that we often bring some predispositions with us when we start reading this book. If you ask most people: "What's the point of the book of Job" they will probably tell you that "Job should be a model for us and we should trust God because his plan is good, like Job did." There is real truth in that statement. God's plan is good. There is also some misconceptions in that statement. Yes, Job was a righteous man. Yes, Job could be a good model for our lives. No, Job did not handle the trials God allowed him to go through like some super-Christian. It is true that Job never committed apostasy yet his tone and demeanor was at times bold and perhaps even harsh or defiant. Several times early on in the book Job confesses his displeasure in life and curses the day he was born. Job's situation was awful and his agony cannot be overstated in terms we can understand yet his language still comes across as a little self-aggrandizing.

In the end Job is restored to a higher standing in society and he learns a valuable lesson about suffering and justice but Job is not the focus of this book, God is. Job sees that God's plan was indeed good and that what happened to him WAS just. When I read this I was almost immediately confounded. God himself declared Job to be a "blameless and upright man who fears God and turns from evil." How could his suffering be just?

This is the conversation Laura and I had a few nights ago. What makes Job's suffering just? How is this fair? Why would God do this? At first we concluded that a little suffering was fair because God had a "higher" purpose to it and he rewarded Job with a better life than he had before. We thought that because Job learned a lesson about God and the fact that someone on the "God-team" triumphed of the evils of Satan by not renouncing his faith in God was a "higher purpose." This isn't totally wrong but there was a fundamental error in our thinking.

We judged it to be OK that because there was a lesson learned in the end that it was fair for God to allow Job to be persecuted the way he was. WRONG. That logic places some arbitrary set of constraints on what God can do and still be a just God. The rationale of why Job's suffering was just is not predicated on the end benefits to Job but rather the fact that it was ordained by God. The fundamental question that needs to be answered for this to make sense is, what defines justice? The answer: God does. God's character is totally self-defined. If God does it, it is just. Holiness is anything that God does. Sovereignty is the execution of God's omnipotence. The characteristics we associate with and attribute to God are self referential. God is neither defined by nor constrained by anything other than himself. We must must go through every pain necessary to ensure we do not attempt to constrain God's character or we will miss out on some amazing opportunities to throw our selves at his mercy.

The lesson to be learned from Job are many but perhaps the most important is (to borrow from John Piper) Christian hedonism no matter our circumstances because of who God has revealed himself to be.

Kayla aka Brittney Spears

Okay maybe not quite Brittney Spears and more along the line of Ray Charles... but here is our dog singing the blues. (watch how she looks around at first like she is checking to see if anybody else is watching. love it.)



That is me playing the harmonica I gave Zach for Christmas. I think she's singing about how she gets no love now that Ellie is here. Don't believe her, we still try to give her lots of love.

Important Finding on Cesarean Births!

I came across an article on newsandobserver.com that was very informative and thought I should share! Here's the link to the article: http://www.newsobserver.com/2187/story/1357988.html

A study was done about cesareans performed before 39 weeks versus cesareans performed after 39 weeks. The results you should read for yourself in the article, but I'll summarize a few key points.

Cesareans are usually scheduled early to mothers who had already one c-section. Well this study found that babies will have more complications if a c-section is performed before 39 weeks. The key problem is that more women are choosing to have c-sections the first time without a necessary cause for it. This leads to scheduling an earlier c-section the second time to avoid the uterus from rupturing.

So I think all doctors (and all friends) should highly encourage natural birth not just of the complications that already can come with a c-section, but how much more significant the complications can be the second time around. Of course I definitely understand the situations where a c-section is vital and necessary, and I'm not talking about that. But just when there is an option presented and you CAN wait (which we all know is hard to do once you get to 36 weeks)... let the baby come naturally!

Broad Readership

Over the last few months our family blog has grown to have an unimaginably large and diverse readership. Ok, thats not quite the truth but there are enough people that visit our blog each day or want notification of updates that blogger can't handle it (they only support a very few people to get e-mail notification). For this reason we added a feed burner gadget just below the picture on the right side of our blog. If you would like e-mail notification of new posts rather then just wasting time every day checking our blog then you can enter your e-mail address in that gadget and we will send you an e-mail after each new post. This should free up enough extra time that you can stalk some other family or news site. Try it out.

Practicing...

I thought I would share some of my favorite photos I have captured while practicing with my new camera :)

Ellie was not very happy being my subject...

She got better though after I gave her some toys...

Of course I can't forget Kayla:

Ellie posing in her crib with her new best friend, Jack the monkey:

Ellie is a pink bear!

Our New Hobby

Zach and I have picked up a new hobby... professional photography. We received a Nikon DSLR camera for Christmas (Thanks to Zach's grandmother and mom!). For those of you that may not know what this camera is, it is basically a low-end professional camera. Zach has been more intrigued by it than I have (the reason being that I have been sick), and has taken some great shots! So I cannot give myself credit for any of these photographs, but I wanted to share!

Some shots of Ellie with her new toys:

This last one is of Ellie is playing with a toy that is supposed to motivate her to crawl :)

A beautiful Christmas shot of my mom's decorations and tree:


And lastly some shots Zach took of downtown Winston-Salem:

Remembering Mary

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit."Matthew 1:18

Have you ever pondered how Mary felt? A virgin, pregnant. What a woman of faith she must have been, of course God knew that... He wouldn't have just chosen anyone to raise His son.

"A Baby Changes Everything":



This baby changed everything...

The Meaning of Christmas

You have read quite a few blog posts from Zach the past few weeks, and none from me... I know you have missed hearing about Ellie! Well the reason why I have been MIA is because Ellie and I have been sick. I'm not quite sure if we have recovered yet... but we both definitely feel better. Zach arrived home on December 11 to both of his girls coming down with a cold. Ellie ended up having 3 doctor visits within 8 days, life has definitely been hectic these past few weeks. The first visit was on Friday (the 12th) to diagnose her with a cold, the second on Tuesday to diagnose her with a double ear infection, and the third on Thursday to ease our concern with her temperature dropping to 96 degrees most nights. We definitely had many nights of worrying and casting those worries to God through prayer, and we are so thankful that it has only been mild illnesses.

I haven't given you much of an update on Ellie. She definitely is the cutest and happiest baby around! Alright, I might be a little biased, but she truly is such a joy in our lives. Everyday we are so amazed by how much love we have for this child, and how blessed we are to have a healthy, happy baby. She still is not crawling, rolling, or walking... but this is nothing we are concerned about. We know most of this immobility is from her not spending much time on her belly since she screams every time we put her on it. She loves to stand and pull up by grabbing onto our fingers, so we do know she is progressing. She actually has been taking steps while holding onto our hands, so she might just skip the whole crawling phase... that won't bother me! I absolutely love how I can still just sit her on the floor and she will be in the same spot when I leave the room and come back. She also has been saying 'da da' a lot the past month. She has been jabbering here and there, I love it though when she talks and we can't keep her quiet!

Thankfully we have been able to get our Christmas shopping done with hardly any stress and are now visiting family in Kernersville and Winston-Salem. This Christmas season, I have reflected a lot about the meaning of Christmas... not so much because I am remembering Christ's birth, but because I am forgetting it. When asked the question, 'What is your first thought when you think about Christmas?', what is your answer? My answer struck me because mine probably would not be Christ's birth. It is so easy to think of Christmas as being a time to give, a time to come together as family, a time to decorate, shop, and bake. Christmas was meant to be 'the holy day' which we know as holiday. It isn't about coming together as family or giving and receiving gifts. How much more Christmas really is... how it symbolizes something that we cannot hardly fathom and something so miraculous. It is a time meant to remember this miracle and the greatest gift we have ever been given. Here is a video that I got from one of my favorite blogs, girltalk, that reminds us and helps me reflect on the true meaning of Christmas:
(it might be a little long, but definitely worth watching... trust me, you should make time for this)

Favorite Books of 2008

As the end of the 2008 approaches it appears to be common practice in the blogosphere to write a post of your favorite books from the year so that is what I have done. Below you will find a list (in no particular order) of my favorite books with a very short synopsis.

Too Busy not to Pray - Bill Hybels - This is a phenomenal book written by a great pastor. The book gives some of the most practical advice on prayer I have ever heard. The book goes through some fundamental truths of the Gospel related to prayer including: What kind of God do we pray to?, why pray?, does prayer really work?, what hampers our prayer? and finally He gives us a great model to follow in our prayer life. The goal of the book is help those how struggle to maintained a disciplined prayer life through encouragement and some very practical advice. Its a great read and I highly suggest it.

The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis - This is a very short book by C.S. Lewis but in terms of theological and philosophical truth its weight must be measured in tons. The purpose of the book is to form an argument against the subjective nature of the intellectual culture of his time. What's so great about this book is that it is message is timeless and has never been more applicable than it is today. Lewis makes a convincing argument that the death of objective law and morality will ultimately result in the abolition of man because the man with the most temporal power have the ability to impose his own subjective law on "weaker" individual thus rendering them powerless. One of the most influential books related to apologetics and absolute truth.

East of Eden - John Steinbeck - This is probably my favorite literary work of all time. Its a bit on the long side (600 pages) but its impossible to put down after you read the first 50 pages. East of Eden is a complex and layered retelling of the story of Cain and Able found in Genesis. Though the book has an engaging and well formed plot, I think Steinbeck deserves the most praise for his character development. Throughout the book you notice that he is gradually developing each one of the characters to reveal their true heart. There are no archetypes, each character is thoroughly "normal" and Steinbeck shows each of their motives throughout the story.

AWESOME GIVEAWAY

Check out Trevin Wax's blog. He is giving away his 10 favorite books of the year PLUS an awesome ESV Study Bible...that $260 worth of GREAT books. If you love books like I do, click here!

The Uncomfortable Christmas

As the Christmas season is already upon us and Christmas day is soon approaching I am particularly concerned about one issue...Santa. As a family, Laura and I are trying to decide whether or not to tell Ellie about Santa (Laura is in favor and I am opposed). There are reasons for and there are reasons against but none of them seem to sway me to make a definitive statement contrary to my current opinion. Because of this I am thoroughly uncomfortable this Christmas in respect to how we celebrate it with Ellie, to that end I am also extremely thankful that she will only be about 9 months old and probably won't remember it so I have another year to stall in case we don't make up our minds.

I am well aware that regardless of decision, culture, school, family, and friends will all tell Ellie about Santa and I am OK with that but I (just me, not Laura) am not comfortable making it a part of our immediate families tradition for a couple of reasons. Lets take a look at what message Santa conveys to children...

1) Santa is omnipresent - Maybe not omnipresent but at least he possesses special abilities so that he can go to every single house in the entire world in a single night.

2) Santa is omniscient - He knows every good or bad deed you have done all year.

3) He judges children on their works - The quality and quantity or presents (rewards) each child gets is based on how good he/she was this year.

4) He answers petitions - Children may ask Santa for anything they want and he uses his discretion to determine if the child is worthy.

Perhaps I'm being pedantic but Santa sounds a lot like a god figure, he even has some characteristics of God and this is troubling. What are the potential consequences of telling a little kid about Santa you may be asking. The problem isn't when the child is 2 or 3 but when they turn 8 or 9. An 8 year old is absolutely capable of understanding the gospel to a point where they can trust Christ as their savior but may not have a complete theological grasp of the character of God. Now, to that child the characteristics of Santa seem very similar to the characteristics of God and they may not be able to make the distinction between God-attributes and Santa-attributes. Suddenly the child thinks God judges us and blesses us based on our performance rather than out of the grace we have through the glorification of Christ through his death and resurrection.

But Zach, Santa is good for kid's imaginative development you may say. I agree that Santa-like figures may have the ability to make a child's imagination run wild with fantastic ideas and adventures. This is great. My question to you would be, what's wrong with my kids imagination the rest of the year? We don't talk about Santa any time during the year except December. If you are the exception to that statement then you are probably using Santa as a bargaining tool to get your kids to behave and that is just wrong. All year long children play with imaginary friends and dream up awesome adventures, they don't loose this ability because its Christmas.

But Zach, Santa represents love you say again with growing disdain for this blog. Perhaps this is true if that's what you have taught your children but couldn't we simply explain that God is love and he became flesh to prove it and that we give gifts to show others how much we love them and to reflect that same love? Don't tell me explaining how a fat guy with reindeer can go to every house in the world in a single day is easier than telling your kids simply God loves us and this is one way we celebrate.

Don't be mistaken, I don't think anyone is a bad parent for telling their kids about Santa and I certainly don't think you should avoid Santa but perhaps Santa should be more of a festive figure like pumpkins are for Halloween. I just think our official Christmas celebration should be more Christ centered. Every child will probably believe Santa to some extent because he is so popular in our culture, there is no need for us to reinforce or encourage that belief in our home.

Despite the contentious tone of this post, the verdict is still out I am open to hear any argument. for or against

Yummy Suckers

Ellie tried her first sucker... don't worry it's her one and only as of right now :)

You Don't Care About This

If you read Slate today you may have noticed a piece entitled, Bringing Brutal Back. The piece is about the architect Paul Rudolph. The long and short of the article is that Rudolph's architectural style could be making a comeback...at least at Yale. About a third of the way down there is the following quote:

Yet by the time of his death in 1997, Rudolph was all but forgotten. What happened? In a word, taste—changing taste. By the 1970s, Postmodernism had introduced wit and irony to architecture, neither of which interested the serious Rudolph, whose brand of heroic monumentalism now struck many people—and many potential clients—as bombastic.

Suffice it to say that the irony postmodernism brought to style was surly not witty. Postmodernistic style is completely indifferent to questions of consistency, context, or continuity. It self conscientiously splices genres, attitudes and styles without reason. Wit expresses a certain intellect. Therefore, as stated above, postmodernistic style may be ironic in the sense that it produces something with traits that you wouldn't expect but there is nothing witty about those ironic characteristics. Though there are examples of postmodernistic architecture that are extremely impressive, as a general rule they are random, out of context, and simply overbearing. The problem with the quote about Rudolph''s architecture is that it makes no sense.

The Doghouse

I hope nobody I know ends up in the doghouse... The Doghouse