Small Adventures

Looks like it’s time for another picture blog to spice things up a bit around here. We haven’t been doing much out of the ordinary lately, but here are some pictures of what we enjoy most.

This is one of Wesley’s favorite floor activities. Our friend, Jane, got him this little toy at a garage sale, and it has been a hit! Wesley is good at punching the buttons and knocking over/picking up the little characters all of which cause the toy to burst forth in joyful tune. He has this contemplative face during the whole process.

Bath time continues to be one of Wesley's favorite things. He's quite the splasher and loves to kick his little ducky all around while getting the whole kitchen counter wet. He seems to understand what you do with cups now. When we try to use this cup to pour water over his head, he grabs it and tries to "drink" from it.

Now that the weather is finally getting warmer, we are LOVING our BOB stroller! Wesley seems to love getting strapped in and going for a walk with the puppy at the park or the neighborhood near our house. Wesley and I have been having some good walks together while John Mark runs. (His mini-marathon is next Saturday!)
Last weekend, I didn't have to work on Friday, so we decided to have a little "getaway" weekend. We went to Cumberland River and stayed in a little cabin. We really didn't do much except eat and walk around the river, but we had a really good time.
Our deck overlooked the water. I didn't get a picture of our view for some reason, but it was nice. It actually rained pretty much all Friday. We even had to go to the main house for awhile to wait until a tornado warning expired for the area where we were.
These were taken Thursday night while the weather was still nice.

As my mom says, you could land a helicopter on that bottom lip. :) In other news, Wesley has not one, not two, but THREE teeth! We were wondering why he was a lot fussier than usual for a couple of days, then last Wednesday, I noticed one little tooth emerging on the bottom left. Now almost a week and a half later, he's the proud owner of all of these! Needless to say, the fussiness has lingered. We're amazed at how little he drools, though!

Other than that, we're just sittin' around being silly. (Thanks to Lela!)

Christian Community and Sunday School

I need some help. I began a "young adult" Sunday school class 18 months ago (or more), and I am hitting some walls. Less than two years after we started, only one of the original members of the class still attends. We have gone through Wayne Grudem's paper back summary of Christian beliefs (=theology). We have watched a video series by Rick Warren and Chuck Colson about worldview, reading a book by George Barna in conjunction (Beltway Park graciously sent me the materials). Interspersed among these we have had stand-alone studies on faith, Christian growth and maturity, surveys of parts of the Old Testament, how to share the gospel, etc.

A few times we have planned movie nights at our house or another's, but these have not been as popular as I would have hoped.

Our young adults (say, high school graduates through 40 years) are generally the least consistent bunch in our little church. I know a few of them want to know God more and to enjoy refreshing friendships with other believers. I want to facilitate that. Sunday school is not getting the job done. I'm not getting the job done. One guy who had not come (except to Sunday morning worship service) in about a year came at the beginning of the worldview series, got his book, and has not come back to Sunday school. I don't think this guy or the others who don't come are to blame. Why would anyone want to put effort into a group that does not catch their interest or facilitate the connections that add joy to the week?

I started looking around online for good resources for Sunday school. I'm reading books and hoping to get some fresh ideas from you about strategies that might work better than Sunday school.

Sexual Ethics and NT Marriage strategy

Sorry for taking so long to post my notes from the sermon on the 7th commandment! I decided to simply copy and paste my notes exactly with minimal changes. My notes were just over a page printed, but the sermon took 30-35 minutes. I did much explaining, and these brief points might not be clear.

Introduction: “You shall not commit adultery.” Why did this make the Ten Words?

Background: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Leviticus 20:10
“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. Deut. 22:22
John 8 - Jesus and the woman caught in adultery – Where is the guy?
Numbers 5:11-31 - when evidence is lacking but there is suspicion


Single-Sentence Application: Since marriage is the most important “Creation” relationship, we must protect it strenuously.

A. The holiness of every marriage is a public trust.
1. The sexual union between husband and wife had to be protected from violators.

a. Leviticus 18:6-18 lists all sorts of family members who were potential violators of other marriages because of the multi-generational homesteads.
b. Deuteronomy 22:23-29 addresses cases of premarital sex.
c. Proverbs 2:16-19; 5-7 Fathers were to warn their sons about adulterous women

2. Adultery was a capital offense, but the OT tells of many odd sexual practices.

a. Married women were the only ones who could be violated in a way that was a capital offense.
b. Multiple wives, prostitutes (Lev. 21:7, 9, 14-15) and unwed women were all, in varying degrees, “available.” Even so, there were sacrifices (therefore, sin) for sleeping with a virgin (e.g., Lev. 19:20-22) and an expected marriage.
c. Some have suggested that the Law was only concerned about certain paternity, but this misses the ideal function of Genesis 2 – one man & one woman for life.
d. The sexual sin of Abraham, Jacob, Judah, Gideon, David, Solomon and many others was not excusable. Hosea 4:12-14 speaks against the “double standard” that men enjoyed under the OT Law.

3. The sanctity of marriage must matter to the Church and society.

a. For Christians, Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Hebrews 13:4
b. Adultery without genuine repentance is punishable in hell. Rev. 21:7-8; 1Cor. 6:9-11
c. In society, the consequences of sex outside of marriage hits females much harder than males. (the study by CDC – 1 in 4 girls ages 14-19 have an STD, when only 4 diseases were tested), pregnancies, abortions, childcare, absent fathers, no-fault divorce, etc.
d. Positively, we can evangelize, teach morality, mentor boys, connect the desire for sex with the responsibility of marriage and parenting. Negatively, we can restore the social shame that people used to heap on sexually immoral men.

B. Conclusion: The Bible gives us a strategy for preventing adultery.
1. It starts with a commitment to God’s design for marriage – including the “crazy” idea that marriage partners actually have the potential to bring satisfaction to the other (with God’s blessing).

That means falling in love and falling out of love need to be put in their place. Most of the biblical examples were arranged marriages (as well as better than half the world’s population), and joy and pleasure are not sustained merely by the first feelings. That also means pornography, masturbation, flirting with others to make yourself feel good, escaping into romantic or sexual fantasies – these are off the table.

2. Make it your job to satisfy the emotional and sexual desires of your mate. Negatively, 1Cor. 7:1-5 says it’s your duty even if you don’t feel like it. Particularly, sexual (or emotional) dissatisfaction is an open door to the devil. Positively, Proverbs 5:15-23 says enjoying one another (not to mention Song of Songs) is a blessing from God.

3. Know your weaknesses and fight them with Scripture principles. Matthew 5:27-30

Augustine vs. Augustine

Here is the towering saint of the 4th-5th centuries AD. You might not know who he was, but he has influenced your life indirectly by the way the western world has seen the teasing out of his theology and philosophical musings in Church and state. An obvious example is the time of the Protestant Reformation. The better-known Reformers held strongly to Augustine's view of God's sovereign grace in saving man, seeing it as inconsistent with Roman Church's system of conferring grace through the sacraments. The Roman Church held strongly to Augustine's view that there is only one Church and salvation could only be found inside that Church, so that the Reformers were violating the unity and integrity of the Church.

Even though Augustine had some crazy ideas, he also had some brilliant meditations and explanations of sound doctrine. If you have not, you should at least read his partial autobiography, The Confessions.

I bring all this up because I am reading a few books by outstanding Reformed scholars ("Reformed" in relation to Protestants usually is a way to say that one is related to core theological views that can be traced back to John Calvin). I have learned a tremendous amount about God from Reformed scholars and preachers. In many ways, I consider myself Reformed. But there is a frustrating view common among Reformed scholars [and, I am admitting that they are smarter than I] that I ran across again today - what they make of Jesus' teaching about "the kingdom of heaven/God." And, to be fair, I find serious problems with the way standard Dispensationalists [not going to explain this term!] treat Jesus' teaching on the kingdom as well.



Personal anecdote: when I was an intern at Beltway Park Baptist Church in Abilene, Jesus' teaching about the kingdom captured my attention. It was everywhere in Matthew, Mark and Luke! But Christians don't talk about what the kingdom is. At least I hadn't heard about it. Plus, (as Matt Chandler encouraged me to grapple with it,) the Apostle Paul speaks very little about the kingdom in his letters. How does the kingdom relate to Jesus' cross? Where does the Church fit with those two?



Augustine said (and many Reformed scholars today say) the kingdom is the Church. The parables in Matthew 13 are made to say strange things if the kingdom is the Church. I'm curious how you folks make sense of Jesus' teaching on the kingdom.