We thought we would add our own style points for OU's consideration in the BCS.

We received this great quote from of our good friend, Shawn Young. It comes from a paper written by the Scottish Reformer John Colquhoun. His paper is titled, "The Difference Between True and False Repentance." If you're interested in reading the entire piece, let us know and we'll E-mail it to you.

"The evangelical penitent looks over the highest mountains that are raised before him--the greatness of his transgressions, the plagues of his heart, the temptations of Satan--to infinite mercy. There he will fly. In that he will hope, though his case seem ever so dark, and though every thing appear to turn against him. And the more lively his hope is, the more humbled and grieved he is for his iniquities, and the more vigorous his endeavours are after new obedience."

We had this wonderful prayer in our liturgy on Sunday.

We prayed this collectively as a church body after having read the 10 commandments together, and then knelt and confessed our sins privately.

Take a moment to pray this prayer with other Christian brothers and sisters around the world!

O God of grace, You have imputed my sin to my substitute, and have imputed His righteousness to me, clothing me with a bridegroom's robe, decking me with jewels of holiness. But in my Christian walk, I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin. I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for You justify the ungodly. Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, and the exceeding wonder of grace! Amen

Puritan, Thomas Brooks, provides countless thoughts to encourage us struggling believers who at times doubt in our assurance, in his book, Heaven on Earth. One of his pages reminds us of the wellspring of hope we have - in Hope.

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27

When Alexander went upon a hopeful expedition, he gave away his gold; and when he was asked what he kept for himself, he answered, Spem majorum et meliorum, the hope of greater and better things.

So a Christian will part with anything rather than with his hope; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory. Souls that are big in hope, will not be long without sweet assurance. God loves not to see the hoping should go always up and down sighing and morning for want of a good word from heaven, for want of possessing what it hopes in time to enjoy. Hold out hope and patience "a little longer, and he that hath promised to come, will come, and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:37).

Today, we had a great time celebrating the kids' birthdays in a combined party at Metro Gymnastics.   

A couple of really interesting articles today on the not-talked-about-enough issue of abortion.

The first article comes from LifeSiteNews. It tells of a Serbian physician who after having aborted 48,000 babies became one of the biggest Pro Life advocates in the Balkans.

In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. 'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn't recognize the name."

"Why don't you ask me who these children are?" St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream. "They are the ones you killed with your abortions,” the Dominican saint told him. Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions, the article stated.

Here's the second article – from the AP today:

A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote.

"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."

As a reformed Protestant, I don't believe that penance is required to be reconciled to God. We believe that is what Jesus did for us when He died for our sins.

I do, however, agree with the premise that if any of us knowingly supports anything where sin is committed against the Lord, we should examine ourselves before participating in the Lord's Supper, and repent of this sin along with the others we've committed.

Just for perspective, I wanted to post a couple of news articles pulled from the internet today and contrast those against a video that was sent to us by e-mail.

The first article comes from WorldnetDaily. It tells how a group of homosexual activists ransacked a church during their Sunday worship service.

Worshippers at a Bible-teaching church in Lansing, Mich., were stunned Sunday when members of a pro-homosexual, pro-anarchy organization named Bash Back interrupted their service to fling propaganda and condoms around the sanctuary, drape a profane banner from the balcony and feature two lesbians making out at the pulpit.

According to De Leeuw, "Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony.

"'Jesus was gay,' they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss," he wrote.

He cited the Bash Back organization's own announcement of other items members brought into the church, including "a megaphone, noise makers, condoms, glitter by the bucket load, confetti, pink fabric. ..."

As hard as that is to believe, you should read the entire article by clicking this link to read the whole account.

The second article is a video clip from KPSP-TV's news coverage of a rally in Palm Springs in response to California's passing of Prop 8. This new law amends California's state constitution to only recognize marriage between a man and a woman.

You may want to pause the background music on the left side of this website before playing this video.



Now compare those two stories with this video of Nick Vujicic. There is a peace, joy and hope that can only come through placing your entire life in the hands of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

The first two stories just reek of self-centered sin and man's enmity with God when outside of Christ. While the last is actually a lingering fragrance of how God can give hope and meaning in the most overwhelming trials.

About a year ago, some friends introduced us to a wonderful book on how to teach character to our children called Polite Moments. It's one of those great books that compliments biblical training and helps to teach our kids how they can better live as Christians in the world.

We liked the book so much, that we actually made it a weekly subject in our schooling. I'm telling you, there is nothing better than hearing your kids talk about how they could have done this or that better to glorify God in their lives. Though we have a long ways to go, I'm grateful that the Lord has allowed us the opportunity to at least begin thinking along these lines.

I thought I'd include one of the pages as an example, in case it's something you might be interested in.

Do Nothing to Draw Attention to Yourself

It is not the purpose of your face and body to be used to get attention for yourself. Attention drawn to yourself is gain for you - and loss for Christ. Phil. 3:7 Your body is to "magnify" Jesus Christ. As others look at you, and see the way that you live (your speech, behavior, and attitudes), they should think more of Jesus Christ. Phil. 1:20 John 3:30 Rom. 6:19,20 When you show off, Jesus Christ is not magnified, honored, or glorified. 1 Cor. 10:31 The more you try to exalt yourself, the less use you will be to the Lord. 2 Cor. 12:7-10 Let others say good things about you; consider yourself to be an "unprofitable servant." Prov. 27:2 Luke 17:10 Those who use their faces, voices, and bodies to draw attention to themselves are conforming to the world. Rom 12:1,2

For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Galatians 6:3

Following OU's Saturday night trouncing of Nebraska (62-28), the computer guys over at the BCS actually managed to drop the Sooners two spots in the polls - from 4th to 6th. Figure that.

As a side note, we were just a few minutes late arriving to the game and by the time we got to our seats, the score was 21-0.

Pause a moment to pray the wonderful Puritan prayer below - one of the many great prayers in The Valley of Vision.

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

In the Catechism book we formerly used for our kids, there was a question that asked, "How does God reveal Himself?"

Do you know the answer?

I'll give you a hint... The first way is through His word and second has a lot to do with the picture of this beautiful Maple tree we took in our back yard today.