Easy as Pie

It's spring! Butterscotch and her new litter of kittens...

A wild ass?

For the past couple of years, I have set aside Fridays. They are free from sports practices, schoolwork, and music lessons. On this day, our homeschool is devoted to Bible study and field trips (weather permitting).

 

We're back studying the patriarchs again, and have worked our way up to Abraham. And as usual, Wyatt was having trouble focusing on the lesson. He's the kid who always wants to be outside hauling brush, mowing, pruning and earning lot's of extra chore cash. All he could think about was the apple orchard and the rare sunshine. Levi was taking cues from Wyatt and wasn't following along as Jed read his section of Genesis aloud.

 

So, even though it wasn't his turn, I told Wyatt to read the next part and gave him time to find where we were, and waited while he started reading...

 

Wyatt: Where are we?

 

Me: Genesis chapter 15. Remember, we just talked about the covenant of cutting. Now we're in Genesis 16, where Sarai sends the pregnant Hagar away.

 

Wyatt: What verse?

 

Me: verse 9.

 

Wyatt: Then the angel of the Lord said to her, "You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment. The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will greatly multiply your offspring and they will be too many to count.'  You have concieved and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction. This man will be like a wild ass.....wait a minute. This man will be like a wild ass?

 

Levi; (perking up) What did you say?

 

Wyatt: (laughing) a wild ass!

 

Waylon: Can he say that?

 

Levi: (laughing) Let me see that. What verse is that?

 

Jed: Mine says a wild donkey of a man.

 

Me: Different translation.

 

Wyatt: (doubled over with laugher) I need a pen. I've got to underline that.

 

Levi: There it is!  "A wild ass! (more laughter)

 

Waylon: Can he say that?

 

Me: Yes, honey. It's in the Bible. This man will be like a wild ass. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him.

 

Jed: Wow, how'd you like to get a message like that about your kid? I mean the angel told Mary she'd have a son and he would be Jesus, the Son of God. And an angel told Elisabeth she'd have a son, and his       name would be John and he would prepare the way for the Lord. But Ishmael will be a wild ass that everybody hates?

 

Wyatt: (still laughing) I love Bible study.

 

Levi: (giggling) Can I read next?

 

Waylon: So, did he grow up to hate everyone?

 

Me: Ishmael grew up to be the father of a huge tribe of Arabs that hated the Jews.

 

Jed: Ooohhhh, I get it. That's why we still have Muslims and Jews at war all the time.

 

Me: Yes, Ishmael was the firstborn, so the Muslims feel like they deserve Abraham's blessing and property.They are jealous of Isaac and his offspring. They don't accept that God chose to bless the world through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's line..who would give birth to King David, King Solomon and finally Jesus. They follow a different prophet, Muhammed, who worshipped the moon god, Allah, and Allah's three daughters. They bow to Mecca because that is where Allah was stationed. That's why the crecent moon is on their flag.  Most of the content of the Koran can be found in pre-Islamic sources, as Arabian folklore. Their god, Allah, is not the God of the Bible.

 

Jed: But God said it would happen. He said Ishmael would hate everyone and everyone would hate him.

 

Me: Yes. He knew it. He knows us and our lives before we are even born.

 

Wyatt: (underlining) a wild ass....

 

 

This is Nellie's, "I did it myself", smile...

The Shack: my review

 I read "The Shack" last year because it was being so widely promoted as a "Christian bestseller". Many women's groups are reading it together, and it continues to be described as a "tranforming" and "life-changing" piece of fiction. I love a good story, and if it reflects Biblical truth, all the better!

Like the little girl in this story, I was abducted into the woods as a child and raped at knifepoint. He didn't kill me, though I believe it was his desire to do so. Somehow, I lived through it, but life had changed for me. I grew up struggling to understand a God of love and justice too. A creation such as Papa" in "The Shack" would not have been satisfying in the least. It would have been patronizing and untrue. It was only when I bought a Bible in college that I found all the answers, healing, and redemption I needed. I had no problem understanding a God of justice who judges sin and a God of mercy who loves sinners.

 

However,  the author of "The Shack" seems to think that Scripture is not enough to explain the problem of pain in the world and God's answer in Christ. From beginning to end, The Shack has a quietly subversive quality to it. The author very subtly criticizes many aspects of the church and contemporary Christianity before replacing the concepts he criticizes with new ones. He criticizes seminary education (”Mack struggled to keep up with [Papa], to make some sense of what was happening. None of his old seminary training was helping in the least” (91)), the Bible (”God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects” (65-66)), Sunday School (”This isn’t Sunday School. This is a flying lesson” (98)), the church as a body (”You’re talking about the church as this woman you’re in love with; I’m pretty sure I haven’t met her…. She’s not the place I go on Sundays” (177)), the church as individuals (”For Mack these words were like a breath of fresh air! Simple. Not a bunch of exhausting work and long list of demands and not the sitting in endless meetings staring at the backs of people’s heads, people he really didn’t even know. Just sharing life” (178)), family devotions (”Images of family devotions from his childhood came spilling into his mind, not exactly good memories…. He half expected Jesus to pull out a huge old King James Bible” (107)), theological certainty (”I have a great fondness for uncertainty [said Sarayu]” (203)), the word “Christian” as a descriptor (”Who said anything about being a Christian? I’m not a Christian [said Jesus]” (182)) and on and on.

 

Not only does the book get many orthodox doctrines wrong, it relies so heavily on emotionality as to despise discernment and Scriptural authority. I found the depictions of the Trinity to be especially disturbing and trite, as if made largely with an Oprah movie in mind and not the Godhead of the Bible.   If a Christian can't see a problem with conveying our righteous and Holy God as a jovial African American cookie baker, a sensual Asian woman with a pagan-like devotion to the life spirit in nature, and an out-of-work carpenter who spends his time idly canoeing or going for day hikes...then it will take a whole lot of work to address the flawed theology.

 

Another reviewer pointed out, "Much of the story focuses on forgiveness. Mack has to learn to forgive first God (or at least to come to an intellectual understanding of why God was unable to intervene to save Missy) and then, at the book’s culmination, to forgive the murderer. I am adamantly opposed to the idea that we would ever need to forgive God for anything. However, because this teaching is seen only vaguely in the novel, I will pass over it for now and turn to another area of forgiveness—that of unconditional forgiveness.

Nowhere in Scripture will we find the idea that we can or should forgive an unrepentant person for this kind of crime. Rather, Scripture makes it clear that repentance must precede forgiveness. Without repentance there can be no forgiveness. This is true of God’s offer of forgiveness to us and, as we are to model this in our human relationships, must be true of how we offer forgiveness to others. So when, at the book’s climax, Mack cries out “I forgive you” to the murderer (who is not present and has not sought forgiveness) he cannot offer true forgiveness. Neither can true forgiveness exist where Mack is unable to pursue reconciliation with this man. Forgiveness makes no sense and means nothing if we require it in this way. It may make a person feel better about himself, but it cannot bring about true forgiveness and true reconciliation. And so Young teaches a therapeutic, inadequate and unbiblical understanding of forgiveness."

I agree. The main problem in the story is dealing with the pain of a murdered child. The main answer is that God has no concept of sin, or justice...only love for all regardless of what we do or believe. As Whitney Houstan would say, "the greatest love of all is learning to love yourself." It's all that simple. Once we die, nothing we do here really matters, because we will finally be free from the earthly burden of not loving ourselves enough. Now, have a cookie and go in peace.

Keep in mind, too, that the author wrote "The Shack" as a response to his own adultery.The answers to life's most painful questions are answered badly and insufficiently by him  in "The Shack", but because they answered in such as way as to make a person cry, they are perceived as "truth" that hit's home. The author has, essentially, made an emotional and humanistic argument and wrapped it up in a best-selling Christian package.  This is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is a new god, hastily sewn together from parts of movies and books and self-affirmation seminars.

A good letter

"In only a few months, Democrats have passed massive spending bills at the taxpayer's expense. To make matters worse, the manner in which this legislation was forced through Congress was not transparent or honest. For example, the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus' spending bill was rushed through Congress without any Member having read it. And, the $410 billion legislation that passed this week contained nearly 9,000 ‘airdropped' earmarks, most of which were not even considered in committee let alone on the House floor. This is unacceptable.
 
"House Republicans trust President Obama will veto any spending bill that is not consistent with his campaign commitment to ‘fiscal responsibility and accountability and ensuring that spending commitments are paid for without burdening our children and grandchildren.' And, since the Democrats' bill also goes against President Obama's pledge to ‘slash earmarks to no greater than 1994 levels and ensure all spending decisions are open to the public,' we urge him to stand by his word.
 
"We side with the American people who are tired of business-as-usual with Washington's out-of-control spending habits. Our nation's families and small businesses are being forced to make sacrifices and cut down on spending and we believe, so should government. American taxpayers deserve better."
 
House Republican Reps. Boehner, Cantor, McCotter, McMorris Rodgers, Carter, Sessions, Blunt, Dreier and McCarthy joined Rep. Pence in sending this letter to President Obama.

I would add...900 million in the Omnibus bill to rebuild Hamas territory in Gaza? Are you kidding me?!  VETO this thing!

Do you see what I hear?

Imagine that when you see a sunset, you hear music. Or when you listen to two guitars, one tastes like a pear and the other makes you see the color yellow. Perhaps you are completely convinced that the number five is green. If you have experiences like these, you might have synesthesia, like me.

Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight. Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people's names with a sensory perception such as smell, color or flavor. The word synesthesia comes from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception). Therefore, synesthesia literally means "joined perception."

 

Ira finds it fascinating.  He's forever having me listen to different guitars...much as a wine dealer might hire me as a taster. Instead of saying ,"It has a light oak flavor with fruity finish", I say things like, "The Martin D-45 sounds like whipped cream, the Ovation sounds like a square, and the Gibson sounds like Randy Travis."  All guitars are unique, according to their age, their materials, and how much they've been played.  I can help Ira to identify an instrument with a certain tone/flavor that he cannot hear while he is playing from behind the sound hole. 

 

I've always seen colors and tasted flavors with music, and conversely, I often hear sounds with certain colors. Sunsets are an orchestra, dandelions shout, and red hums. It must explain, in part, my love of stained glass. I can hardly take my eyes of it because I "hear" it too.  It's a wonderful sound to have around the house...

   

 

New Kittens

The night before we left for the Great Wolf Lodge, Huckleberry had two kittens ina  box in Nellie's closet. Now that they have opened their eyes, Huckleberry feels compelled to move them to another location, perhaps to confound imaginary predators who might scent out her original "cave". I anticipated this and prepared the bottom drawer of Nellie's dresser as a new hideout. It's funny to see Huckleberry's demon eyes peering out from the one inch crack...

 

TWILIGHT

 I have received many emails in my inbox from Christian mothers worried about the "Twilight" series. They see the frenzy all around them, and wonder how to protect their daughters from a demonic story about vampires and werewolves. I was concerned about it too, with several neices and friends caught up in the Twilight phenomenon. So, I got the books and decided to critique them for myself.

 

If your daughter is not ready for Jane Austen, Bronte, Shakespeare, or Dickens, then she is not ready for "Twilight". I'm not comparing it as a literary masterpiece, but as a matter of themes and characters.  Far from being a dark vampire tale like Stoker's Dracula, Twilight is much more akin to "Wuthering Heights" or  "Romeo and Juliet". Thus, the enormous fan base among women of all ages.

 

 Unlike the Harry Potter series, which is philosophically void with maddeningly shallow relationships and fuzzy morality, Twilight effectively addresses questions about the meaning of life and the nature of love. (True, the answers aren't right out of the Bible, but neither do they warp into morbid, post modern enoui.)  Though Edward and Bella are passionate, their relationship is chaste and much more about the union of souls than it is about the union of bodies.  Even a kiss has the potential of igniting a fatal fire, so Edward steadfastly maintaines a line which he will not cross with her. 

 

The vampire family in which Edward lives are "vegetarians". Their 'father" Dr. Cullen, is a compassionate and kind E.R. doctor who has committed his life..as a vampire...to saving human beings. He has taught his wife and five "adopted" children to live on animal blood, which they hunt as game in the forests and mountains of Washington State.  They have extraordinary strength, beauty, speed, and self control. Each also has a special gift. Jasper can calm the worst fears in anyone he is near. Edward can hear what people think. Alice can see the future. They all had these "spritual gifts" as humans, but as vampires the gifts are greatly enhanced. Each was once the fatal victim of violence, plague, accident, or war. Just as they were about to die, they were "saved" through emergency vampirization by someone who loved them.

 

The Cullen family stands in stark contrast to a group of evil European vampires, the Volturi, who do not know love and have no purpose other than protecting their own existence. They are the brutal, unfeeling enforcers of their own laws; corrupt within and without. A buracracy of self-obsession and expediency. They are the police of the vampire world, keeping rogues in check and often acting as a unseen, causal force in historical human conflict, much like the enmy of our soul whose goal is to destroy, steal and kill.

 

Into this strange world and spiritual battle stumbles (literally) Bella. She is fated to meet Edward (and his family) at Forks High School.  She and Edward are "star crossed lovers" drawn together, trying to make sense of the impossible connection they feel.  Edward desperately fears bringing harm Bella by association and also wrestles with the question of whether or not he has retained a soul. Bella fights constantly with her own low self-esteem and fears of abandonment that she inherited from her divorced parents.  

 

Now, I haven't seen the movie. But the books were great fun and very readable. The author explores themes of the lifelong fidelity, true friendship, the transforming bonds of family. It has a pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-family message to convey. If you consider romance novels to be demonic and dangerous, then this isn't for you. But if you enjoy an allegory about overcoming your carnal nature, and making a free will choice to give everything you've got for love...love of a friend, love of a child, love of a spouse...then you'll probably become a Twilight fan too.

 

My only caution would be that romance novels, whether with Edward and Bella or Mr. Darcy and Elisabeth, are powerful fantasies for young women, to which real relationships cannot possibly be favorably compared. I recommend that young women also read, "Ten stupid things that women do to mess up their lives" by Dr. Laura Schlessinger and "Lies women believe" by Nancy Campbell. Both shed a great deal of light on the folly of being led by the nose by mere emotion and attaching themselves to unworthy, uncommited men in order to fill unmet emotional needs. 

 

 Oh, how we yearn for true love!  The big secrect is that the greatest love of all time is available to every woman in the passion of Christ, who left glory, suffered to save her, and  gave Himself up for her.  It's a story written into our hearts, so that we yearn for an all-consuming love that never fails and never dies. Our Prince HAS come. We just need to wake from our slumber and reach for Him so He can warm our stone cold hearts.

The age of accountability

Last evening, Nellie was having difficulty finishing her dinner. All she could think about was the piece of candy (left over from the Great Wolf Lodge arcade) that was waiting for dessert. I insisted that she finish her food first, and she frowned and sulked about it for quite a while. Then she aquiessed with a sigh, took her plate up to her room, and proceeded to nibble away on the remnents while she watched "Curious George". About 45 minutes later, she came to me with a big smile and announced, "I finished my dinner!" I asked, "Did you eat all of it, Nellie?" She nodded and replied, "Yes". I was dubious, but decided to give her the candy as it was getting close to bedtime.

 

In the morning I discovered her dinner plate in her room, half eaten. The toast and pieces of hot dog obviously picked at and moved around. When I pointed it out to Nellie she immediately hung her head in guilt and refused to look at me. (I'm sure if she were in the Garden of Eden she would have run and hid herself!) Her crime had been exposed.  She knew her chances of getting another piece of candy today had just been dashed.  As I sat and pondered the will of a three year old to deliberately lie to the one she loves most, I wondered if she felt worse about lying or worse about the candy.

 

A friend of Levi's recently told him that children under seven years old could not go to hell. It was something he had been taught about the "Age of Accountability". The theory is that a person is not subject to the law of God until he or she is mature enough to understand and to be responsible for behavior.  It is not pinpointed in Scripture as a specific age. But some have a number in mind and teach it as fact.  In any case, children mature at different rates and ages as their spirits are fashioned, shaped, and molded by parents, teachers, and life’s experiences.

Is there any biblical evidence for this approach? I believe there is. In Romans, chapter seven, Paul speaks of the effect the law had on him. In one critical passage, he states, "For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." Paul grew up studying the law. He was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), one of the great teachers of the law. So whatever the experience described here, it had to occur when he was very young because he speaks of a time that he was without the law.

What, then, was his condition without the law? Paul says that when he was without the law, he was alive. Then, when the commandment came (that is, when he understood the commandment against lusting - Romans 7:7), sin revived and he died. I believe this is a description of Paul passing from a state of innocence into a state of personal accountability to God. He realized what sin was and that he was guilty. Up until then, he was alive. At that point, he died. He was not saved before, but he had not yet died to God either. If he had physically died before this spiritual death, he would have gone to be with God because he was alive to Him. He belonged to God until his willful sin separated him from God. This is the condition of every baby. They are alive unto God until they die in sin.

Though what follows is experiential (not a proof), I have seen evidences in young children that made me believe that they were alive to God in ways that we do not understand. Their worship and prayers are beautifully sincere, and they have no trouble believing in whom they cannot see. Jesus said the Kingdom of heaven belonged to faith such as theirs. They are not separated from God as we are. They have never sinned in the way that we do as adults.  But, as any parent of a three year old candy thief will tell you, they do have a sin nature.... and that is obvious. The difference is, they initially do not understand the willfulness of their actions. 

So, like the God of second chances, I gave Nellie a chance to do right and finish her dinner tonight. She did, without argument, and silently brought me the empty plate. Her enormous brown eyes were neither demanding, nor self-satisfied. All she waited for was my acknowledgement of her obedience. Maybe she did feel worse about lying after all?

Yeah..I gave her the candy.

What's your favorite earmark?

“We need earmark reform,” Obama said in September during a presidential debate in Oxford, Miss. “And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”

"There are no earmarks in this bill." -President Obama on the Stimulus bill

Mr. Liar, Liar Pants on Fire will soon be authorizing 9,000 earmarks in the massive,3,000 page pork laden bill. (Thanks to you, liberal democrats, for this change we can believe in!)

My favorites include:

Wild blueberry research and potato cloning in Maine,
A planetarium for an Obama buddy in Illinois,
Brown Tree Snake Management in Guam
Film industry grants and rum tax cuts in Puerto Rico,
Moving the Jacksonville Bandstand to Washington D. C.,
Saving the salt marsh mouse habitat in San Francisco.

$2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children

$100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners

$900 million for new cars and golf carts for Federal employees,

$5.8 million for the Ted Kennedy Senate institute and endowment,

$200,000 for Gang tattoo removal

2 million for "for the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii

$75K for “Totally Teen Zone” promotion telling “teenagers that it’s okay to “totally zone out