Blessed are those who mourn

I just started reading the book Give them Grace. The authors begin the second chapter with an account of God creating this world and all its wonders and the devastating consequences of the fall. I've read about it a hundred times, talked about it, shared it with others, but for some reason it struck me tonight. Why? I want to shake Adam's shoulders and ask him this. Why did you give up a beautiful, unmarred world? Why did you reject a perfect relationship with God? How could you not be satisfied with walks in a garden of paradise with the Almighty who just last week created heaven and earth and bestowed their care to you? Why did you choose pride, doubt, suffering, chaos, separation from God, uncertainty, toil, and soul rending pain when you had been given joy, peace, love, a helpmeet, a friend in God, and a dream world? I mourn the loss of God's beautiful, untainted creation in all its glory. I mourn the loss of sinless humanity and hearts that naturally love God and desire communion with him and with others. Why? Because when faced with a choice of everything one could desire from God or to be a god, humanity chooses the latter. Adam did and in him we all did. Don't flatter yourself into thinking you would have been different, would have risen above temptation, scorned the serpent's slippery words. Adam represents everyone of us and none would have chosen differently. And so I mourn that I was born into a world of darkness, an enemy of God.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). Even as I mourn, I am comforted that God is the Healer of the broken, the twisted, the angry, and the mourners. This world with its evil still has so much beauty because even in our flawed state, you can see the Hand of God. Creation is his artwork and we are his image, still yearning to be loved by Him.  Our sin shows our desperate, crushing need for our Savior. The fall and the taint of sin are only the first chapter of the story and the next tells of God's amazing plan to send a Redeemer to bind our broken hearts and restore a right relationship with God. I am comforted because I know there is more than this earth and I know this earth is not my home. I'm here now to glorify God and to show the beauty of his grace to love a sinner who continually chooses suffering, toil, chaos, and pride over Him. One day, there will be a new earth that will be paradise. I find great peace in knowing that it is his design that we mourn so that we may know the loving comfort of his arms.

the Blessing of Baptism

 Izzy couldn't stop staring up at Clyde.

This post has been delayed but I don't want it to go undocumented. On March 17th, we baptized Izzy. For a couple of born and raised Baptists, this was a pretty big deal and the result of a few years of study, questions to pastors, and much prayer. It was such an amazing and unexpected blessing. God continues to show us the true meaning of his Covenant and our covenant community. I don't believe that baptizing Izzy saves her or guarantees her future salvation, but I do believe that it provides an amazing blessing and hope for her and us and our families. Hundreds of years before Izzy was born, God made a promise to Abraham to be his God and the God of his descendants and that promise holds true for Nathan, me, and our children. He is faithful to his people. I do believe that there is a very real blessing for children raised in a covenant home. Being raised by believers and being raised to know God does not promise Izzy salvation but it does bless her and give us a very great hope of her future salvation. It is a reminder to us although that her salvation is in God's hands, and that our parenting choices, good or bad cannot impact it. God can and will use us to draw her closer to him, but He doesn't need us and we cannot get between her and God. What an encouragement it is also to know that we're not doing this alone. Our church and our families have committed to come alongside us in our parenting and to help raise Izzy. They have a right and a responsibility to show her the grace and love of God in their interactions with her and our family and how they live their lives. I don't think that my words really capture the joy and encouragement that we received from her baptism, but I hope they give a glimpse of it.

Nate and I wrote a blessing for Izzy which we read at her baptism and that I hope we continue to pray often:

Isabelle, may the Lord bless you and keep you and show his love to you through these broken vessels that are your parents and your church. You have an infectious light and joy that we pray always marks you as a child of God. May the grace of God so fully saturates every fiber of your being that it pours out into the lives of those around you. May it overcome your weaknesses, devastate your pride, and continually point you back to Christ.  Take comfort in the covenant promises that are yours in Christ, knowing that Yahweh is your God and you are his beloved child. Know that nothing in all creation can separate you from his love.  Love indiscriminately and with abandon those who love you and those who hate you, seeing the image of God in all people. May you discover the richness of relationships with believers, sharpening each other, carrying each other’s burdens, and loving each other with the love of Christ. May you delight in His Word and find your strength, your purpose, and your joy there. Know that you have been set free and need not rely on your own goodness for righteousness. Rather, as you grow in the Lord, learn to draw ever more deeply from the well of grace found in the Gospel and live by the Spirit, allowing Him to transform you into a woman who is patient, kind, faithful, gentle and self-disciplined. Izzy, we pray daily that you will know that you are loved and that his grace is sufficient for you.

Here are links to a few of the articles we read on Baptism with varying degrees of helpfulness:

http://www.fpcjackson.org/resources/apologetics/Covenant%20Theology%20&%20Justification/Ligons_covtheology/07.htm

http://www.michaelspotts.com/post/11666835786/infant-baptism-bogus-or-blessing

http://www.apuritansmind.com/covenant-theology/dr-jonathan-edwards-on-baptism-part-2/

http://equip.pcacep.org/why-baptize-infants.html

Thankful

I tend to get really frustrated at what I see around me and to think it's a bit hopeless. I believe that our basic and constitutionally endowed freedoms are under attack in America. I believe that human depravity is finding new ways every day to wreak havoc on our order and our lives as seen in the Boston attacks. I believe that the voices of individual thinkers are becoming drowned out by the mob voice of group-think and irrational emotionalism. I tend to have a "the world is ending and there's nothing we can do to stop it" mentality when it comes to matters of politics and evil.  But the other day a comment made in passing gave me a brief moment of perspective.That comment made from habit, that it could be a lot worse, reminded me....it could be a lot worse. And that thought made me thankful.

I am thankful that I live in a country where violent attacks on innocent lives are still greeted with horror and a degree of surprise, rather than being an expected daily occurrence.

I am thankful that we have amazing hospitals and emergency personnel that respond immediately and effectively to save lives, whether on the clock or not.

I am thankful that my daughter can still grow up to vote in a democratic nation and that her vote will count as much as any man's.

I am thankful that we still have an organized government that protects the lives of its citizens both at home and abroad.

I am thankful that I can still make so many decisions without government interference and that the music I listen to, shows I watch, and words I read have not been censured.

I am thankful for the freedom to worship my God with my family and to freely and joyfully impart the love of the Father to my child.

I am thankful for every church and organization that seeks to meet the basic physical needs of hurting people here and abroad.

I am thankful that we are not all the same and that our diversity is by God's design.

Most of all, I am thankful that my God reigns sovereign over all these earthly issues that I get so passionate about. I am thankful that one day every knee will bow to him. I am thankful that his sacrifice secured a future in heaven for his children where there will be no tears and no death. I am thankful that he is the true Healer, Provider, and Protector.