A Post for Good Friday

For those few who visit this website...

"Any authenticity that we are going to have as persons of faith and any authority that we are going to have as witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ will come because of our exposure to bruises and scars. There is no other way to authenticity. There is a certain counterfeit pose that one may maintain, but as to an entrance into the full, the true authority, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, that comes by exposure and by wounds. There is no other way. If one looks back at those who have deeply affected their generation, the discovery will be made that almost without exception they did it against some minus, some ache, some pain in their own lives ...

At some time, who can say when, there will be a crown of thorns pressed down upon your head. It may be some private anguish. It may be some profoundly disturbing condition in your own family. One cannot detail the direction whence the affliction will come, but when it does, you will have every right to rail against it and to cry out against that kind of providence, even to argue with God, to withstand him to the face ...

But do one other thing. Take it. Accept. For was it not our Lord's word that the cup he looked into, the awful agony which waited for him, did not come from unfriendly hands: "The cup which my Father hath given, shall I not drink of it?"

I promise you this, if you can take whatever deep hurt that occurs in your life and hold it up before God and say to him, even in bitterness, of this which you despise and this which you hate, "If there is anything you can do with it, take, and use it."

I promise you, you will be utterly amazed at what will occur," - Gardner C. Taylor, sermon delivered February 1, 1978.

(Hat tip Andrew Sullivan)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Enjoy!

In Like a Lion...

Wow, it's already March of 2008!

What a dereliction of duties. I finally managed to sit down, as the scrolling Flickr! photos to the right indicate, and have added some new photos to view. Click the photo to the right or the Family Photos link (or that one right here) further down at the right to view.

Nothing too crazy has been happening, so we're just waiting out the winter for Spring to arrive. A few bits, though:

Mandy - we've added a dog to our household, so the urban farm continues to take shape. A bit too rambunctious for John & Judy, she now lives with us. Gabriel loves it, but even he gets a bit run over by her every now and then.

Gabriel Activities - He's been enjoying painting/art classes and now a toddler tumbling/bouncing class over at the Hillsboro SHARC. He's also a regular in the Turtles Sunday School class at Summit View Covenant Church.. see below.

SVCC.org - We've become regular attendees at Summit View Covenant Church in Beaverton.. located ever so temptingly near Monteaux's and Popeye's Fried Chicken. I don't know how to describe it other than to say that it's what you would get if a moderate Baptist church, an espresso/cafe, and a maternity ward were plopped into a blender. Once nice feature is that their sermons are in podcasts.. take a peak if you care to. Kurt Carlson is a good teacher.