J.D.'s Surprise Graduation Party

^{[Brag Warning] Recently my brother JD finished his college courses, took his last test, fought the good fight of "higher education", breaking conventions and challenging the status-quo with creativity and dedication. He will have a bona-fide four year diploma for Business Management mailed to him. He did it on his own with a little help from CollegePlus Online for a fraction of the average cost of college education, in under two and a half years without setting foot in a campus classroom, all before his 20th birthday.}

^{And now he is free.}

^{So what did we do? Threw him a surprise graduation party, of course! It's safe to say he was very surprised. Our grandparents from Indiana drove all the way out the day before, and oblivious JD never suspected it was so they could be at his party the next day. Around 55 people attended, and a good time was had by all. And I could finally sleep soundly again after all that planning. A special thanks to my sister Hannah and my great friend Grace for all their help. Could not have done it without them. Honestly. :)}

A degree isn't really all that special. It's just a piece of paper to hang on the wall and collect dust. But the perseverance, godly wisdom, and dedication he has cultivated are special. And by God's grace, they will never collect dust on a wall.

^{Psalm 1}

¹ Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶ For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

40 Days For Life

40 Days For Life just kicked off this week. It's a peaceful prayer vigil taking place all across America and Canada; together Christians are crying out to God around the clock in front of Planned Parenthoods in hundreds of cities until October 31st for the end of abortion in our land. 40 days for life in the midst of 365 days of death by abortion.

We attended a kick-off event here in Billings where various pastors from various churches spoke on the spiritual warfare to be waged in these next 40 days. We lit candles, and walked in the September dusk to the front of Planned Parenthood. Its sign glared at us in the night, but its light was nothing to the light of each heart. The prayers started. And they continue...

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. - 2 Chron. 7:14

Let's be the generation of Jacob, "the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face." - Psalm 24:6

Let's pray the Lord will say to us what He said to King Josiah:

"Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you," says the LORD. - 2 Kings 22:19

Recall what the King of Judah did: "And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech." - 2 Kings 23:10

The Molechs of our day are the false gods Convenience, Affluence, Fear, and Self. And children are sacrificed to these every day through the fires of abortion. Little image-bearers of God are being destroyed by the father of Lies who hates the image they bear.

So let's cry out to God for those whose cries may never be heard, for repentance and revival starting in our own hearts, for the deceived women seeking abortion, for the cowardly men leading these women, and the priests of the temples of death to be given grace and repentance. For light and truth to triumph over the darkness and lies of modern-day child sacrifice. For God's glory to wave over the death mills and turn them into havens of life. For each of us to see ourselves more clearly, and our own need for God's grace.

May it be.

Cloaks and Glory

The clouds cloak September's brow this morning, and messy hair cloaks mine as I type. It was damp last night. Sleep wouldn't come, because memories crowded it out.

Today, Isaac would be five months old. As I've typed here months ago, it's hard to believe it's been that long, or hasn't been that long. I miss him.

I think back and remember my frailty and humanness, feelings of such weakness and helplessness in those twelve days. Coming to the end of me. And I remember the feeling of a solid, divine strength bearing the weight underneath. Coming to the beginning of the Eternal. Remembering that long last night, the quiet, the dark. Utter fatigue. The thin blankets on the bed. Cody sleeping between the wall and I. Drifting in and out of black sleep as the nurses floated in and out during the night watches. The green recliner within my arm's reach and my sweet Mom resting there, the dulled light of the lamp silhouetting her mother's face; Isaac laying on his tummy, his head over her heart. And the morning came, soft, pink, quiet. And Isaac was gone. And a peace that completely surpassed my little understanding permeated the room. I felt it as real as the dawn. The Good Shepherd carried our little lamb home, but He hadn't left us alone. And then the tears came later. They still come, softly, in the stillness of night. But the peace and assurance of a Good Shepherd remains, cloaking us in His tender mercies. God is good.

~~~

I love this devotional from Charles Spurgeon, taken from "Morning and Evening", the morning of July 19th. (Emphasis mine.)

“The Lord our God hath shewed us his glory." Deuteronomy 5:24

God’s great design in all his works is the manifestation of his own glory. Any aim less than this were unworthy of himself. But how shall the glory of God be manifested to such fallen creatures as we are? Man’s eye is not single, he has ever a side glance towards his own honour, has too high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold the glory of the Lord. It is clear, then, that self must stand out of the way, that there may be room for God to be exalted; and this is the reason why he bringeth his people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes forth to work their deliverance.

He whose life is one even and smooth path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who “do business in great waters,” these see his “wonders in the deep.” Among the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man.

Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by. Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction, you have been capacitated for the outshinings of his glory in his wonderful dealings with you.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Les Misér-apples

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a three-thousand word story of how this Sour-Cream Apple Pie came to into being. Too bad we can't share aromas online yet. (Try not to drool on your keyboard, it isn't good for it.) :)_

First Act: The Apples find out things aren't as they seem.

Second Act: Adversity slices through their lives.

Third Act: [The ending of this story is rather predictable, and left to
the theater of your imagination's tastebuds.]



Fin