How I have been wasting my time lately.

Since I have been avoiding my 6 page paper on Sir Orfeo I have been cleaning the house from top to bottom. Ok, let me rephrase that: I have cleaned the bed room and kitchen really well. When I am acting more in character with my self I have been browsing blogs, like usual, and playing this game. It's really addictive, and you can tell that by the top scores. I have only gotten as high as 5,000 points or so, so I have a long way to go before I am a pro like those 16,000 and more people.

The whole reason why I wrote this post was to see if I learned how to make links. I don't know why but our blogger dashboard doesn't have the option to just highlight the text you want to make a link any more. It's important that we cite other bloggers, and therefore I need to know how to do it. This is just practice. So if it works we can all pat me on the back. If not, sorry, you won't be able to play my pig game.

Egg hunt 2

Egg hunt 2
Originally uploaded by Devona.

Here's the aformentioned "fence-lick-egg." It took her a while to realise that she was supposed to grab the colorful egg, and not the dingy gross fence.

Liv and Learn. hehe.

Egg hunt 1

Egg hunt 1
Originally uploaded by Devona.

Here we are! Olivia's first Egg Hunt. She "found" three eggs. And I carried her around and got my heels stuck in the mud. It was a festive day.

This is the second egg she found. I ate the candy inside. ;-)

Easter Olivia.

IMG_0804
Originally uploaded by Devona.

It is a bit late, but I wanted to share our Olivia with everyone. This is Olivia with her Aunt Ginny, and Aunt Sarah (popping out of the back ground) on Easter Sunday after church. So don't you think she looks like a Brazier now? Jeez!

I just figurerd out how to post pictures, so I'm back in buisness now!

Coming soon, as in about 10 minutes, Olivia's first egg hunt! (She licked a fence!)

Spring is here, finally.

It is official. Spring is here, Praise God, and I couldn't have waited for it any longer. Since the weather is so nice we went outside at our playgroup yesterday, and played in the grass. Olivia thinks that grass is the neatest thing she's ever seen, and she rubbed her face in it over and over again. Until yesterday, she'd never touched it. She has a few little red marks on her belly today, so I'm wondering if she might have sensitive skin lke her Daddy-o did when he was a baby. I was terrified all day long that she would get sun burn, so I was always walking around her to make sure she was mostly in my shadow, and it at least covered her face. I definately suffer from first-time-mom-syndrome.

It was good to remember what the sun feels like. In Ohio it is easy to forget what it's like to absorb UV rays. They really only make cameo appearences in these parts. It's mostly rain and clouds, especially if you're within 30 minutes of the lake. We had more cloudy days than Seattle last year.

Isaiah 53

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Blessings this Good Friday.

Thank you, Lord, for condescending to us to live a perfect life, dying in our stead, and defeating death for our benefit.

We await your return.

God Bless you all.
From Love and Blunder

Sorry We've Been Absent

Well, we've made the big switch. We've gone from PC to MAC, as some of you MACers out there will be happy to know. So it's been a big change, and I have no idea how to use this thing. It looks really nice, the text is all crisp, but there's all these keyboard commands, and the windows are all non-descript. I get lost all the time. I am also having probles unerstanding a lot of the programs and the way they work. How come I can't get into Rob's files and bring them over to my own desktop? I want to use the IMovie program and put the little digital movie clips of Olivia in there, but some of the best ones are in Rob's files and I can't access them. AAHHH!

Well, this was originally intended to let you all know where we've been, but instead it turned into a big rant. NOt very interesting stuff for our first blog in a week. I guess everyone has their boring entries. I better stop now before this one gets any worse.

Liv's tooth.

That's right blog-family. Your blog-niece/granddaughter/sister has popped her first tooth through her gums. Just shy of 5 months, she makes the big step towards hurting her mommy (If you know what I mean). Ouch. It hasn't happened yet, but I know it's coming soon.

The tooth started to make its way through the gums on tuesday, but I couldn't see it. I wasn't sure if it was really a tooth or just wishful thinking. Well, today I felt it plain as day. I looked, and there it was!! On the bottom right hand side, a little tiny tooth just barely sticking out.

I'm so proud.

John Donne

I love being a college student. I would never graduate if I could get away with it. I get to read all of this amazing literature, and I get rewarded for it! Too bad it costs a million dollars, and I can't bring Olivia with me to class.

We're reading John Donne (if you haven't gathered by my post title). I have decided that he is the second best thing to come from the Reformation, only trumped by "The Solas," and justification by faith alone. That's a bold statement I know, especially from one who has a hard time understanding poetry. But this is powerful stuff.

English Lit 1 by Devona beings here:
John Donne was writing in the early 1600s. He was born into a Catholic family, and remained Catholic until he did intense, personal, theological study as an adult. He then converted to the Anglican Church, and became a priest. He grew to be so respected in his faith that he became the Dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral.

He is the first poet to use the sonnet to explore religious themes. Here are two of his poems, that are speculated to have been written post conversion. It can't be proven, though, because all of his poems were published at once after he died, and there were no dates to order their composition.

From the Holy Sonnets:

10
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures me,
Must pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.


14
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breath, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

I believe -- the Christian experience

I've heard it more than once, and wonder it all the time: "Okay, salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Gotcha. But what about living out the Gospel?" Plenty of others wonder, too.

Because of the nature of Christ's work for us, its fullness and completeness apart from any of our work or merit, a description of the lifestyle of an orthodox Christian is extremely hard to characterize. How then do we live? As Gerhard Forde points out in On Being a Theologian of the Cross:

It is quite impossible to write "the" or even "a" theology of the cross. The attempt to do so would no doubt be just another attempt to give a final propositional answer to Jesus' cry from the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" We can't answer Jesus' question. We can only die with him and await God's answer in him. To claim such an answer would simply be to leave the actual cross behind for the sake of the theology in our books. It would be just another theology about the cross, not a theology of the cross. Basically, all theologies about the cross turn out to be theologies of glory.

The difficulty here is that the cross is the theo-logy, the logos of God; the word of the cross is the attack. It doesn't coin itself in ready theological propositions that we can appropriate and still go on pretty much as usual. The word of the cross kills and makes alive. It crucifies the old being in anticipation of the resurrection of the new. "The cross alone is our theology," Luther could say. And those oft-quote words are to be taken literally. But we cannot fail to notice what an odd claim it is. How can the cross be a theology? The cross is an event. Theology is reflection on and explanation of the event. Theology is about the event, is it not? However, that is what makes writing some definitive theology of the cross impossible. At best all such theology can do is to clear the way for the proclamation of the cross, to drive us actually to preach the word of the cross as that folly that destroys the wisdom of the wise.

All of the work required to make us Christians is done by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But our lives go on minute by minute. What are we left to do?

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
- John 6:28-29

We are left, by grace, to walk in faith. Believing in Christ is the work of God. And what has Christ done for us? He has finished our work, which is why he tells us only to believe that he has done it.

That work Christ performed in his life, death, burial, and resurrection is double edged: It is the ultimate attack on sin, and the ultimate creative work of new life.

"The love of God does not first discover but creates what is pleasing to it," writes Martin Luther. Delivered to us in Word and Sacrament, that work of Christ is all-sufficient and without fault. This is exactly what Luther is getting at when he writes his introduction to the Apostle's Creed in the Large Catechism:

Thus far we have heard the first part of Christian doctrine, in which we have seen all that God wishes us to do or to leave undone. Now, there properly follows the Creed, which sets forth to us everything that we must expect and receive from God, and, to state it quite briefly, teaches us to know Him fully. And this is intended to help us do that which according to the Ten Commandments we ought to do. For they are set so high that all human ability is far too feeble and weak to [attain to or] keep them. Therefore it is as necessary to learn this part as the former in order that we may know how to attain thereto, whence and whereby to obtain such power. For if we could by our own powers keep the Ten Commandments as they are to be kept, we would need nothing further, neither the Creed nor the Lord's Prayer.

That power is obtained by belief in Christ. We "live out" our faith by believing that Christ's work, put into us, is creating in us a clean heart, renewing within us a right spirit. We live out our faith by believing in the grace of God, for us, in all times: past, present, and future.

What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord.
- Psalm 116:12-14

John Piper likes to say that this kind of "payback" consists of God filling our cups of salvation so that we may continually drink more deeply.

There is no formula here, no fad theology or twelve-step method, only Fact: The Fact of Christ Jesus and the utter objectivity of his work on our behalf.

Believe in the utter freedom we have as Christians, saved by grace. We are freed to say with Christ (and really believe) that "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the mourners, blessed are the meek..." We are freed to run the race that Christ has marked out for us, because Christ himself gives us every drop of strength we need. Believe.

I'm not saying that we will never sin again, or that life is rosey when we believe. But if believing is the very work of God. then every sin must be an act of unbelief, even if it's only momentary. Life is not easy when we believe--Christ told us it would not be--but his work in us is perseverance, life, and peace.

When a man believes that in himself, Christ has accomplished all good work and continues to accomplish good work, how does he live? How does he love his wife and child, when he believes completely that Christ has accomplished in him perfect love? How does he look at his career and his finances when he believes that Christ has accomplished all perseverance and humility? How does he deal with his failures, when he believes that in him, Christ has given endless grace?

"I believe, help thou my unbelief," thus becomes the cry of every Christian. Life no longer is a "To Do" list, but a "Done" list. Our challenge is believing it.

Rich Mullins, in the refrain to his driving arrangement of the Apostle's Creed, sings:

I believe what I believe
Is what makes me what I am
I did not make it,
No it is making me
It is the very truth of God
and not the invention of any man.

I believe it, I believe it.

Love and Blunder radio

I've added a radio to our sidebar. What do you think? Does it work? Let me know.

Current playlist:
1 - Andrew Osenga - Kankakee
2 - Wilco - Via Chicago
3 - Ron Sexsmith - Hard Bargain
4- Innocence Mission - Beautiful Change
5- Emmylou Harris - Every Grain of Sand
6- The Cure - Just Like Heaven
7- The Be Good Tanyas - Rain and Snow
8- Daniel Lanois - I Love You
9- Andrew Peterson - High Noon
10 - Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
11- Death Cab for Cutie - The New Year
12- Sixence None the Richer - Paralyzed

The Tragical History of a '93 Honda Civic

Our car bit the big one. And now it is dead.

We are now a one car family until we find a good deal.

Poor poor Civic, we loved you so much. I will always remember driving you and putting monkey stickers on your windows. Poor Civic, you were the first car I ever took out a loan for, and first loan I ever paid off. Civic, you are a sign of my passing into adulthood, I bought you at the grand old age of 19.

I will miss you old car. You had a good 12 years, and I'm thankful you decided to spend those last 4 with me, I will never forget you. *sniff*

The emerging church on White Horse Inn

The emerging church on White Horse Inn

Now Are the Days Fulfilled

I like this hymn we sang in church the other day, especially the second verse:

Now Are the Days Fulfilled
Author unknown

Now are the days fulfilled, God's Son is manifested,
Now His great majesty In human flesh is vested.
Behold the mighty God, By whom all wrath is stilled,
The woman's promised Seed -- Now are the days fulfilled.

Now are the days fulfilled, Lo, Jacob's Star is shining,
The gloomy night has fled Wherein the world lay pining.
Now, Israel look on Him Who long thy heart hath thrilled;
Hear Zion's watchmen cry: Now are the days fulfilled.

Now are the days fulfilled, The child of God rejoices;
No bondage of the Law, No curses that it voices,
Can fill our hearts with fear; on Christ our hope we build.
Behold the Prince of Peace-- Now are the days fulfilled.

Exactly what I needed to hear.

Bill Watterson reminds us to reevaluate when life starts to look like Office Space or one of those Career Builder commercials with the monkeys. I appreciate his words.

New contributor

Olivia is now a contributor. TaDa!!

I couldn't put her birth year in her profile because you must be 13 to use blogger. So all you preteens trying to blog, just leave the year blank. Silly blogger, leaving the biggest loophole right there in the open with big red letters telling you how to break the rules.

We're not really breaking the rules because Olivia has our permission, since she is of course on our own blog.

We'll have to keep our eyes open for when our sweet Beast decides to make her first entry!