Gotta love Martin Luther

This just came across in my email today, from our former pastor in MA. I thought it was great and wanted to share it...

HOW TO BE A GREAT THEOLOGIAN
excerpts from Martin Luther.

1. Prayer. For this reason you should despair of your wisdom and reason; for with these you will acquire nothing, but by your arrogance cast yourself and others into the pit of hell as did Lucifer. Kneel down in your chamber and ask God in true humility and seriousness to grant you true wisdom.

2. Meditation. In the second place, you should meditate, and not only in your heart, but also outwardly, the oral Word and the expressed words that are written in the Book, which you must always consider and reconsider, andread and read over with diligent attention and reflection to see what the Holy Spirit means thereby. And take care that you do not become weary of it, thinking that you have read it sufficiently if you have read, heard, or said it once or twice and understand it perfectly. For in this way no great theologian is made, but they (who do not study) are like immature fruit, which falls down before it is half ripe. For this reason you see in this Psalm 119 that David is always boasting that he would speak, meditate, declare, sing, hear, read, day and night forever nothing else than the Word of God alone and the commandments of God. For God does not purpose to give you His Spirit without the external Word. Be guided by that. For He did not command in vain to write, preach, read, hear, sing, and declare His external Word.

3. Temptation. In the third place, there is tentatio, that is, trial. That is the true touchstone which teaches you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how true, sincere, sweet, lovely, powerful, comforting the Word of God is, so that it is the wisdom above all wisdom. Thus you see how David in the Psalm just mentioned complains about all manner of enemies, wicked princes and tyrants, false prophets and factions,which he must endure because he always meditates, that is, deals with God's Word in every possible way, as stated. For as soon as the Word of God bears fruit through you, the devil will trouble you, make you a real teacher, and teach you through tribulation to seek and to love the Word of God. For I myself - if I am permitted to voice my humble opinion - must thank my papists very much for so buffeting, distressing, and terrifying me by the devil's fury that they made me a fairly good theologian, which otherwise I should never have become.

4. Humility. Then (namely, if you follow the rule of David exhibited in Psalm 119) you will find how shallow and unworthy will appear to you the writings of the Fathers, and you will condemn not only the books of the opponents, but also be ever less pleased with your own writing andpreaching. If you have arrived at this stage, you may surely hope that you have just begun to be a real theologian, one who is able to teach not only the young and unlearned, but also the advanced and well-instructed Christians. For Christ's Church includes all manner of Christians - young, old, weak, sick, healthy, strong, aggressive, indolent, simple, wise, etc. But if you consider yourself learned and imagine that you have attained the goal and feel proud of your booklets, teaching and writing, as though you had done marvelously and preached wondrously, and if you are much pleased because people praise you before others and you must be praised or otherwise you are disappointed and feel like giving up - if you are minded like that, my friend, just grab yourself by the ears, and if you grab rightly, you willfind a fine pair of big, long, rough, donkey ears. Then go to a little more expense and adorn yourself with golden bells, so that wherever you go people can hear you, admiringly point at you with their fingers and say, "Lo andbehold, there is that wonderful man who can write such excellent books and preach so remarkably!" Then certainly you will be blessed, yes more than blessed, in the kingdom of heaven; indeed, in that kingdom in which the fireof hell has been prepared for the devil and his angels! . . In this Book, God's glory alone is set forth, and it says: Deus superbis esistit, humilibus autem dat gratium. Cui est gloria in secula seculerum [God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. To Whom be glory forever andever]. Amen.


This year is the best year I've had in a long time of consistently spending time in God's Word, and I am so glad to be influenced by men like Luther, Edwards, Spurgeon, MacArthur, Piper, Mohler, and my husband (can I put him on that list?!) so that as I read the Bible, the glory of God leaps off every page. How rich!!!! Why must I fight my flesh to enjoy the Lord in this way?!

Andrew is two today. I'll write more later about his birthday celebrations today, but I thought I'd post some pictures here...

Here he is one day old, in the hospital in Thousand Oaks, California.

Here he is celebrating his first birthday here in Charlotte...

And here he is just a few weeks ago, eating an orange...

Six months old!

Hard to believe it, but Jonathan is six months old today. He celebrated by going grocery shopping with Mommy and brothers, and having pureed peas for lunch. This afternoon, perhaps he will lay on the floor for a while.

Happy half birthday, Jonny Baby!

March Madness, Part Two

I knew Dr. Al Mohler would have a word to say about the tournament, and he did, on his blog, earlier this week. Once again I wonder how he has time to read (and the ability to retain) as much as he does.

It is interesting watching the largest exhibition of "amateur" sports in our country every year. The college sports arena has become so invaded by unhealthy competition (i.e., pushing athletes through with a passing grade so that they can compete) that I find it hard to call it truly amateur. But every year, CBS strives to promote it this way, don't they? There definitely is charm in a story of the hometown boy who worked hard all day, shot baskets in his spare time, and finally got his chance on the big stage. I was glued to the TV just like anyone when Vermont was making a run for it last year. It's like the Jimmy Roberts stories from the Olympics; they pull on our heartstrings with the stories of little known athletes from tiny countries who worked so hard to just compete..."and that's what these Olympics are all about, Bob."

I don't deny that for the most part, these stories are probably true. There are a lot of hardworking athletes out there that don't have the money to devote themselves wholly to training, so they work out in their spare time. These are the ones that are the great stories of the bracket of 64 teams. But when it gets down to the final game, it's always the superpowers duking it out. In my bracket this year, I have UConn and Duke in the finals. I would wager that the starting five for those teams aren't the kind of kids who toiled away in school and at work and played ball in their spare time. You don't get athletic scholarships and start for a basketball superpower if you minor in basketball in high school.

So what's my point? I'm not sure. I think it's just...enjoy this first weekend of competition, because this is the sweet stuff. I find more nobility in the small teams from small schools sweating it out for one game than JJ Redick doing what he's always done and coming home to NC to be treated like a basketball god.

"Let us be able to lose gracefully and to win courteously; to accept criticism as well as praise; and to appreciate the attitude of the other fellow at all times." -- James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball

Oh, and Happy St. Pat's day. We'll be eating Corned Beef and Cabbage tonight along with everyone else. Whoops, we're not having cabbage...nobody likes it, including the cook.

I took some pictures of the guys today while they were playing in our room.


This afternoon, Jonathan's friend Emma came for a visit. She's much more mobile than he is; while he was doing his usual slug routine on the floor, she rolled into him and they got a bit tangled up...


Watch out Emma!!! He's going to bite you!

Here's a commentary by Frank Deford (Sports Illustrated writer) heard on NPR's Morning Edition this morning. I wanted to stand up and cheer when I heard it! Barry Bonds should leave baseball and never come back!

Yeah, I'm one of those ten women in the world who actually care about sports. I even listen to sports radio when my husband isn't home, can you believe it? Here's my favorite show, the Herd. Yes, Colin Cowherd gets adolescent sometimes but for the most part he is clean and entertaining. I frequently laugh out loud when I listen to him. Here's a quotable from yesterday's show, "Reality Check- People who still don't think Bonds took steroids are like people who think the moon landing was staged."

Now, on to more important things...

MARCH MADNESS

If you haven't already been invited, please get in on our March Madness tournament if you'd like. Go to http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/group?groupID=106896&password=charlotte and fill out a bracket. We're gathering a big group this year and the winner gets...absolutely nothing!! Even Cameron and Ben (and maybe Andrew) will have a bracket, so there's no excuse-making allowed. Just good fun!

I am finally going to bite the bullet and order my homeschool curriculum this week. Take a look at the website and give me some feedback. A friend and I were talking over the weekend, and she put my thoughts into words..."If I were to put together my own curriculum, this is what I'd do." How nice that it's been done for us!

Here's an interesting article on blogging:

http://www.ransomfellowship.org/Article_Blogging.html

Thanks Beth! The baby's crying; otherwise I would jot down some of my thoughts about it here. Maybe later.

This past Monday, Jonathan had his first taste of cereal. He liked it very much, as you can see from the pictures. He is eating like a champ and no doubt will be gobbling up his share of the grocery bill in no time.







Andrew begged me for a taste, so I let him have some. I don't think he liked it very much...what do you think?!



Tomorrow night for dinner we are having "Killer Shrimp." This is a recipe that was introduced to us by our pastor in MA. It's a restaurant in L.A. (that's Los Angeles, not Lower Alabama) and all they serve is shrimp and bread, and your choice of beverage. But it's....you guessed it...KILLER shrimp. I hope I don't see that face on Andrew again tomorrow night.

This weekend is supposed to be around 80 once more. I guess I should break down and paint my toenails. I was hoping to let them hide inside socks a little longer but I can't stand to leave my flip-flops in the closet when it's so warm outside! Every single day, we have a conversation about when the pool is going to open. There's really no point in telling an (almost) four year old that it's not summer when it's 80 degrees outside. It really makes no sense to him.

Here's a recommendation for you...the readings of Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, as recorded by Peter Dennis. They are available at www.blackstoneaudio.com, and sometimes you can find them at www.amazon.com or www.booksamillion.com. He has also recorded When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, but we don't have those yet. Anyway, he does a great job recreating the original Pooh stories, before they were all twisted up by Disney. We've come to a whole new understanding of Eeyore, for one! These CDs are almost always playing in our van, and David and I frequently find ourselves entranced right along with the kids.

Overheard at the lunch table...

Andrew has started saying the word "cool," but it sounds more like "kew-wel." It's pretty funny. Here's the conversation from lunch today (try to imagine this interspersed with happy macaroni-and-cheese-and-tuna noises):

Andrew: Cool.
Ben and Cameron: (*lengthy discussion of all the people they think are cool*)
Cameron: Nobody's cooler than anybody else.
Ben: That's sad.
Andrew: Football.
Cameron: No, it's not.
Ben: Yes, it is.
Andrew: Football.
...and so it continued. "Football" is an appropriate thing to say in any conversation in our house, at any time, especially if you're under two.

If I haven't talked to you lately, perhaps this would be a good time for me to say ONE MORE TIME how much we love Derek Webb's and Sandra McCracken's (his wife) music. At the most recent concert we went to, we picked up a copy of Sandra's new CD, called "The Builder and the Architect." It's a collection of old (OLD..like, Puritan OLD) hymns and poems inspired by the book The Valley of Vision. It's perfectly lovely and makes my spirit lift for joy. Her voice is delightful. If you have it, let me know what you think of it! Oh, except if you don't like it. Then don't tell me. If you don't have it, buy it for goodness' sake!

Oh, and to you poor New England souls who are expecting snow today...it's almost 80 degrees here today. Sorry. And what does this warm weather do to me? Makes me want to clean! I spent an hour scrubbing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees today. Call it Springtime OCD or something. The nice thing is, the warmth made the floor dry in no time!

Last night we had small group Bible study, as we do each Wednesday. We've started this nice tradition of eating dinner with all the folks who come every week. So one family brings soup, one brings salad, one brings bread, and so on. Nothing complicated, which is great because what's important is being together! I love it! You should see the massive amounts of food be consumed... all told, I think there are about 25 of us, and many of those are hungry teenagers. So the soup-maker for the week has to make gallons to feed us all. The first week we did it, my friend Beth showed up with a pot that a small child could have bathed in...but she had enough!

MORE PICTURES (for Mara!):
Here are Aisling, Cameron and Gramma O'C at your house, Mara! Remember when you all went sledding together?!



Here are Cameron, Ben, Andrew, and David in NYC right after Christmas. Jonathan was strapped to Mommy in the Baby Bjorn.



Here's Andrew looking coy:



Here is Cameron on his fifth birthday. He had a helicopter cake this year. And we remembered the birthday candles. Last year he had votives around his cake!!