Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Summer lapse


With the onset of summer, I'll be taking a vacation from my own blog. Summer is too short to spend it behind the screen. Thanks to all who have contributed with their comments and visits. Have a great summer!

Friday, May 26, 2006

The Dan Brown/Dave Hunt Connection


Dave Hunt's book, What Love Is This? has done to the Christian church in North America what Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code has done for Christianity worldwide. They have both promoted an intentionally incorrect view of an important issue. Both exhibit poor research and both contain untrue statements regarding their respective opponents. It is to their discredit that both authors maintain that their books are accurate and need little, if no revising, at all. Many books have been written to refute Dan Brown's "historical" claims about Jesus. Dave Hunt also has been widely refuted by many articles and books and on public radio broadcasts. He has been corrected about many of the errors found in his book concerning Augustine and Calvin and others and also regarding at least one passage that he misquotes in order to prove his points(Matt. 23:37), yet to no avail. He continues to preach and teach in churches around the U.S., warning against the dangers of Reformed Theology, including its so called "Roman Catholic" roots. Nevermind that the Reformers and the Roman Catholics have had much to disagree about for centuries, including free-will and predestination. I see many Christians today who have had exposure to his book and in turn make exceedingly ignorant remarks about Calvinism and all its related issues. Blame, although ultimately laid on the reader for not exercising discernment, must also be shared by Dave Hunt for pursuing such a topic with literary recklessness.
For a short critique of Dave Hunt's book, click here.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Canadian ministry with unique idea

I came across this ministry as a result of a visit to a local Christian bookstore here in Ottawa.
Harvest of Hope Catalogue

Monday, May 15, 2006

McD's former employee speaks out

Here's a link to my high-school friend Robyn discussing her recent 7-month stint working at McDonalds: bobsburbullings
Read this brief clip from her rant about working the drive-thru. This is so reminiscent of a Seinfeld episode.
Or how about this. Me: "Welcome to McDonald's, can I help you?" Customer: "Yes, I would like a shdoiedmigumed and a doimekdligm...umm....and thieldkme." Me: "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Customer: "Yes, I would like a shdoiedmigumed and a doimekdligm and thieldkme."
Or, here's another one. Me: "Welcome to McDonald's, can I help you?" Customer: "UMM! I WOULD LIKE, UMM...A.... CHEESEBURGER!" Remember people, these poor people taking your order have ear phones on. Your normal talking voice is fine. Now, if either one of those examples are your real talking voice, then you have more problems then I know.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Perhaps Not Your Typical Mother's Day Thoughts

Since I became a mother almost three years ago, there has been one general topic that my mind shuts down over. That one topic is suffering children. In whatever capacity that children suffer, from abortion to starvation, from neglect to outright abuse/murder, my heart breaks over these issues. And I mean it. I get this terrible feeling in my stomach and I breath real fast while thinking about the issue. I simply can no longer dwell on the topic. The stories that have entered my realm through the radio newshour or reading online and other mediums bother me for days. When I think about what we as humans do to our children, I am reminded of the passage in Jeremiah 32:35 where God talks about the sin of the Israelites.
"They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin."

God considered the sin of the Israelites so terrible that He says it was foreign to His thoughts. It would be like us saying, "It never occured to me that..." or I never dreamed...". God actually had told the Israelites in Levicitus 18:21, " Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.". So although God had commanded them in advance not to sacrfice their children, the wickedness of the Israelites was so great that they in fact did commit the "unthinkable".
Are we any different? As Christians we should be. Our treatment of our children should distinguish us from the non-Christians around us. God's rules to the Israelites were intended to set them apart from the heathen nations around them. Ditto that for today's believers as well.
This Sunday is Mother's Day, but really it's a day about children. After all, that's what distinguishes some women from all women. With rampant on-demand abortions, disjointed families, overflowing daycares and all manner of unspeakable violent crimes against children, the fires of Molech are all around us.
I started reading a book last night that a cousin from the states sent up for me to read. She went throught it with a women's study group and thought I would benefit from it as well. It's called A Mother's Heart by Jean Fleming. I'm only 36 pages in but one of the things that has convicted me so far is the idea of being kinder to our children. For me, when I'm looking for obedience, I tend to be short with my patience rope. Working at being kind, even when dealing with disobedience is a tall, but necessary order. Abusive reactions, whatever their form, are not unattainable sins for any of us. I know that certain times with my son have been appalling when I look back over his short life. I have cried out for forgiveness for my anger and have no illusions about the future. But in claiming God's grace and mercy to me, I am humbled in my prayers. Mothers are important, but Christian mothers operating under the wideness of God's daily grace are vital.
There will doubtless be more news stories that I cannot handle, but only by God's grace will I not be one of them.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Happy Anniversary!


Today is our fourth anniversary. We were married on a Friday night in my parent's frontyard with a dessert reception following. Other than my husband's twin brother trying to pass himself off to me as my newlywed husband, things went well. And oh, the MC initially introduced us substituting that pesky twin's name for my husband's, but quickly realizing his mistake, he got it right. Still not sure to this day if that was an intentional mistake or what.
This is also my husband's first day at his first post-grad job. Meaning he worked while doing his degrees but this is his first job as a qualified electrical engineer and the reason why we moved to Ottawa.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Relocation Rant

You know the old saying, "So-and-so couldn't find their way out of a paper bag."?
Insert cardboard box and that is what we are currently up against. Unpacking is quite easy here as we have much more house to work with. Filling it up with the right furniture, now that's a different story.
Did I mention that I hate shopping? Shopping for new items is such a pain since it often takes more than 3 trips to the right stores to find the particular items you are looking for. Give me a day to browse and buy without the pressure of needing to purchase a certain item.
And I haven't have a caramel frappuchino in over a week even though I am now driving by Starbucks' drive-thrus left, right and center. Did I mention that I love drive-thrus? With small children, everything should be in a drive-thru, starting with Walmart!
Our son is growing up, we kept the crib, but have not set it back up. We want to transition him to a real bed and figured now is the perfect time. I'll run up and check to see if he fell asleep on the mattress or if he's on the floor. Legs are on the floor, but body and head are on the mattress. I think he's off to a good start, only tried once to get up and walk around his new room still filled with boxes.
So far he's asked three different times for his little friends at church. I don't think he understood the permamence of our goodbyes to them. But we have pictures, so we will post them so that he can remember them for our visits back east.
Time to get out into the sunshine, I have a backyard to dig in!
And my neighbor's bleeding heart is creeping over through the wooden fence. I think I'll take cutting for myself! That's one cheap way to get some perennials.
I want to get more posting done, but I'm also working on getting some others to post on here as well. So hopefully you will see some new by-lines up here in the near future.