We just got home from a great time at the Lake.

Listen closely and you'll hear the bellowing of the founding fathers from the grave.

It's deja vu for the boys in blue.

"In that day, the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown,

As I was walking through the wilderness of this world, I came to a place where there was a cave. I laid down in that place to sleep, and as I slept I had a dream in which I saw a man dressed in rags standing in a certain place and facing away from his own house... As I looked, I saw him open the Book and read out of it, and as he read he wept and trembled. Unable to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a sorrowful cry, saying, "What shall I do?"

He went home in this state of mind but restrained himself as long as he could so his wife and children would not notice his distress. Yet he could not be silent long, because his troubled feeling was getting worse. He finally revealed to his wife and children what was going on in his mind, saying, "Oh, my dear wife and children, I'm suffering from inner turmoil because of a burden that lays heavily upon me."

"And, what's worse, I've been reliably informed that our city will be burned with fire from Heaven. In that fearful disaster, I with you my wife and you my sweet children will come to a miserable ruin unless some way of escape may be found which we may be delivered."

Any of you old-timers out there getting ready to turn 40 this year?  

John R. de Witt wrote a great booklet titled, What is the Reformed Faith?  In it, de Witt summarized the distinguishing traits of what it meant to follow Christ in the Reformed tradition.

The reformed faith has also been characterized by a clear understanding of the distinction between, and relationship of, law and gospel.  One of the striking differences within historic Protestantism is to be found here... Though Luther and Calvin were formally of one mind in their understanding of the three-fold use of the law, yet Luther's stress was on the first use of the law while Calvin's was on the third, the so-called 'practical use.'

The law is our paedagogue to Christ as the New Testament plainly teaches us; but it is more than that; it is also our blessed and holy guide to the life of obedience and faith.  Here the instruction of the Apostle Paul is paradigmatic for the New Testament as a whole (Rom 8:3,4).  The law is not the gospel: it is not a means of life or a means to life.  But we also go on to declare that the gospel is likewise not law-less; it is a way of life, the way of life for God's people.  If the holy law of God is indeed a reflection of the holiness of God himself, then the Christian, too, though free from the law as a means of life, continues in a  relationship of joyful obedience to the law which God in his free mercy has given. 

The bad news continues to worsen for the Yankee pitching rotation.

WorldNetDaily wrote an excellent piece today about several prominent black Republican leaders who are cautioning their constituents not to assume they are voting for McCain in the upcoming election.

The thought that the former member of the  Republican congressional leadership might actually consider voting for Barack Obama came up over the weekend when the Associated Press reported just that in a story pointing out conservative pundit Armstrong Williams and former Secretary of State Colin Powell were thinking about it - and had good things to say about the Democratic nominee.

Is Watts serious about Obama?

"Well, no, I didn't say that," he told Sean Hannity on his national radio show today.  "What I said in the article was that I was a free agent.  No one should assume that J.C. Watts should vote one way."

Read this great page in Tedd Tripp's book about parenting, Shepherding a Child's Heart:

Our Fathers Day celebration is now in count-down mode around here.

...what I was trying to say about the housing crises, but only better.

Last night, Nicholas' quest for his first homerun fell 2 feet short on two different occasions. Both balls hit high up on the fence, but neither went over.

Without doubt, teachers who work for Oklahoma's early-education programs can do much to help young children to prepare for school by helping them learn colors, numbers, letters, shapes, and simple logic.  But their best efforts typically fall short of a loving at-home parent, usually the mother.  Why?

In the first place, in even the best-run state program, children experience some staff turnover, inevitably disorienting and disruptive to learning, as children try to familiarize themselves with the personality of a new teacher... An at-home mother is a reassuringly permanent teacher, the most familiar and constant presence in the child's life.

Second, though good early-education teachers try to make some adjustments to accommodate children's personalities and temperaments, their curriculum is more or less set for them and the groups of children are too large to fully individualize instruction.  In contrast, an at-home mother usually knows her child's needs and characteristics better than any other adult..."

Today, our newly elected democratic candidate was in the news touting his new economic stimulus idea.  

The past few weeks, I've been visiting with different friends about the topic of subordination within the hierarchy of the Kingdom of God.  Not one of those topics you hear a lot about on sports radio, granted.  But definitely something I've been wrestling with.

In the new Israel, Jesus Christ subordinates himself to God the Father (1 Cor. 11:3); the elders and the church to the apostles - who liken themselves to fathers - by the command of God the Father and of the Son (1 Cor. 4:15, 1 Tim. 1:2, Tit. 1:4, 1 John 5:21); the parents and the church at large to the leaders (Eph. 6:2, Heb. 13:17); the wife to her husband (1 Cor. 11:3, Eph 5:22-24, Col. 3:18, 1 Tim. 2:11-12); and the children to both parents (Eph. 6:1, Col. 3:20, 1 Tim. 5:4).

Not exactly sure why I find this so interesting, but evidently the rash of foreclosures hitting the country is not exclusive to us ordinary folks.

So this morning we're sitting in Panera eating cinnamon rolls - a tradition we've always done after our kids' doctor appointments - when this guy who looks familiar walks by our booth.  He stops, comes back to our booth and says, "You look really familiar, do we know each other?"

A good friend of ours once told a story about a football camp for quarterbacks that Dan Marino used to hold.  As I recall, the camp was for highly-touted college quarterbacks who wanted to hone their skills prior to entering the NFL.

We believe that we ought to discern diligently and very carefully, by the Word of God, what is the true church-- for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of "the church."

We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who nonetheless are not part of it, even though they are physically there.  But we are speaking of distinguishing the body and fellowship of the true church from all sects that call themselves "the church."

The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks:  The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults.  In Short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head.  By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church-- and no one ought to be separated from it.

As for those who can belong to the church, we can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians; namely by faith, and by their fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness, once they have received the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ.  They love the true God and their neighbors, without turning to the right or left, and they crucify the flesh and its works.

Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the Spirit all the days of their lives, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus, in whom they have forgiveness of their sins, through faith in him.

As for the false church, it assigns more authority to itself and its ordinances than to the Word of God; it does not want to subject itself to the yoke of Christ; it does not administer the sacraments as Christ commanded in his Word; it rather adds to them or subtracts from them as it pleases; it bases itself on men, more than on Jesus Christ; it persecutes those who live holy lives according to the Word of God and who rebuke it for its faults, greed, and idolatry.

These two churches are easy to recognize and thus to distinguish from each other.

"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken."
Psalm 62:1-2

The picture above is of our precious Maddox, at about 3 weeks of age. She was being rolled from the NICU, where she had been since birth, to Radiology for a CT scan of her sweet little head.

Saturday was one of those days of mixed blessings. You know the kind where you're forced to revisit a time in your life that you wished didn't happen... only to be reminded - once again - of how God had saved you from a desperate situation and how far He's brought you since.

Our daughter, Maddox, is a ray of sunshine. She's full of life, she's got a great sense of humor and she brightens whatever room she's in. It's easy to forget that when she was born, she had a Grade 3 (out of a possible 4) brain hemorrhage, and due to the hemorrhage, she developed Hydrocephalus, and due to the Hydrocephalus, she had to have a permanent shunt placed, and due to the shunt, she requires a life-time of care that goes with it.

We spent the first month of her life in the NICU and our days were filled with talking to Neurosurgeons and Neurologists about the long-term effects of her condition. We were told that there was a good chance she would develop Cerebral Palsy, that she most likely would experience several kinds of developmental delays, and that we certainly should count on numerous trips to the E.R. throughout the year from complications that are common with shunts.

Saturday, at age 3 1/2, was visit number one.

On Thursday, we noticed a lump on Maddox' neck in the vicinity of her shunt line (the tubing that runs under her skin that connects the device in her brain down through her torso and ends in her abdomen). After watching it for a couple of days, we decided we should probably get it looked at and took her to her doctor for her opinion. This facilitated a transfer to Children's Hospital, two CT scans, one x-ray, some blood work, a consult with a radiologist and a visit from a pediatric neurosurgeon.

Everything ended up fine. But we once again felt the same sense of unease that we felt three-and-a-half years ago. Hoping for good news, but not sure what the test results would show. That's the "mixed" part of the "mixed blessing."

The "blessing" part came from the numerous comments we heard that reminded us how unbelievably fortunate we've been that Saturday was our first trip to Children's since her birth.

One of our doctors said she couldn't believe that Maddox had a grade 3 bleed because she just looked so good. Our CT scan tech was in shock when we told her that Saturday was our first scan since she was one-month old, and most of her care-givers made some kind of comment about how healthy she was.

It was just one of those days where on one hand, we hated to be back in that all-too-dreaded of situations; but on the other hand, it was a great reminder of how far God's brought us.

We're certain we'll have more nervous days like Saturday, but as one of our pastors taught us, "God is perpetually out for our good; and deliverance from sin is a far greater blessing than deliverance from affliction."