Who's body is it anyway

I listened to this sermon over at a fellow RCA minister's blog. It was a good reminder of whom our bodies really belong.

What a thought

The following was part of my morning Bible reading today. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. Exodus 9:13-16 What a thought, God could have destroyed Pharaoh and his people in such a way that they would have been completely destroyed, but he allowed them to continue in life. Even more, he allowed them to continue to fight and rebel against Him. This was not a sign of God's weakness, but rather of His overarching control of all things. For, he would turn that resistance to praise of His name, to show that God is great. Today as I consider how our culture is rebelling against God in more and more blatant ways, and even among those who go by the name of the Christian, knowing rebellion against the plain Word of God is seemingly growing. Sometimes I wonder why God allows this, and here is the answer, "to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." What a comfort in the battle for the hearts and minds of people. God will use even the rebellion of people and nations and churches to bring glory to His name. God will be glorified in the salvation of his elect, and in the just punishment of sinners.

Update on Father in law

After it seemed like things were getting better, things have gotten worse again. The doctors were sure that the clots in his leg and lungs had stabilized, so they moved him back to Palmerston hospital to get back into his physiotherapy. However, not more than a day back in Palmerston, a clot moved into his lungs again causing another blockage. He was rushed to St. Marys Hospital in Kitchener where they have him back on heparin and will do some more tests today. To make matters even more problematic, there is a rattle in his breathing which may indicated pneumonia. Currently he is on an antibiotic to deal with pneumonia and has slightly labored breathing on 70% Oxygen. Dad is starting to despair that he will recover from this, and both he and mom are getting very tired. Please continue to pray for both of them?

Making the church attractive to the world

As I was reading a blog entry here I was struck by the statement about making the church attractive to the man outside. I have heard this statement again and again in present times. In fact this seems to be the mantra of those who teach on how the church is to grow. However, as I read that comment in relation to the discussion on the beatitudes, it hit me, why do we even think this way? Jesus taught us, "Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." (John 15:20) By its very nature, the church is different from and unacceptable to a world under sin. The constant testimony of the Scriptures is that those who follow Jesus will be rejects, outcast, and persecuted. As Christians who take the Word of God seriously, as not just some human opinion, but as the very word of God written, we must realize that by its very nature the Church is not attractive to the world. To make it attractive to the world is not merely a matter of changing what we do, but would require either downplaying or changing of the message we are charged to proclaim. This still begs ths question, "Why do we seem to think we need to make the church attractive to the world?" There are several possible answers I can see. We could want to do this because we want people to come to embrace Christ in a true and living faith as their Lord and Saviour. This is an a very proper goal. We are called to be salt and light in this world of decay and darkness. Yet, just before that teaching by Jesus he pronounced a blessing on those who are persecuted saying, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:10-12) So it seems that proclaiming Christ to people is not a matter of making the Church attractive, but proclaiming Christ even if that means we are rejected by many. The other reason that came to my mind why we may have the seemingly overwhelming desire to make the church attractive to the world is related to the above one. We want to win people to Christ, but we realize how attractive the world is to us in comparison to the church, and want to compete with it. The problem with this is that behind it lies something very troubling. The fact that we find the world so very attractive. In essence what we are saying is, "Yes, the world is great and fun and satisfying, but here we can make the church like that too." I say this is troubling because behind it lies not a full orbed satisfaction in Christ, but a seeming dissatisfaction with Christ, as if coming to him is not truly satisfying, but only coming to him along with all the fun of the world. Now I want to be careful here, because I do realize that often what we do as the church is not what it should be. We often have practices and traditions that are not commanded by scripture which may be what makes a particular congregation unattractive to a person. I am not by this saying that one type of song is better than another, be it traditional or contemporary. Nor am I commenting on musical instruments should be used in worship. Rather, I am trying to say that we need to realize that we do not attract people to Christ or the Church by making it attractive, but rather by proclaiming Christ in all his glory and worshiping him, whatever our worship style, with all our heart. These thoughts are just in their formative point, but where they are going is troubling.

First time changing oil

Today was a first for me, I changed the oil in my wife's Mazda Protege. I know, big strong, manly man that I am, I should have done something like that log ago, I never have. I have replaced the exhaust system on the '78 Trans Am I used to have, done tune-ups, fixed body work, and a whole host of other things, but never did an oil change. Well, today all that changed. Amazingly enough it went forward without a hitch (at least so far) and there is not oil spewing all over. For the small bit of work it took to do this, I finished an oil change with a good quality oil and a Fram oil filter for $13. I wonder why I didn't do this long ago. Now if I could only find the grease points on her car I could use my new grease gun and give them a shot of grease as well. That will have to wait for the next time I am under there.

Joys of Parenthood

Ok, this isn't really about the joys of parenthood, although there are plenty of them. Rather it was a rather tongue in cheek way of saying that often children can make life rather trying :) Our boy Justin, after sleeping well for three nights, decided that Saturday night was a good time to wake up at 2:30 and cry for an hour or so. I am the sort of person who does not handle being woken up in the middle of my sleep very well. I never seem to get back to sleep the way I need to so I can be rested the next day. So today I get to do my preaching, leading in worship, and teaching with a wonderful headache, all because I didn't get the sleep I needed last night :) Oh the wonders of having a baby in the house. At least this time he didn't scratch my cornea :D On the positive side, Justin is not usually this way. Generally he is a happy baby who may not sleep through the whole night, but who doesn't spend an hour complaining because we can't figure out what is going on with him. I think of all of us, he is the only one who slept enough to be full of energy today.

January 14th Update on Father In law

I received an update from my brother in law this morning. Bill is struggling with being in hospital. He is also struggling with an intestinal issue which made him a bit weak and tired. He has problems sleeping at night, and then has a hard time staying awake all day. The medications he is on are also affecting his mental state, making it hard for him to be alert and causing some hallucinations. A new doctor has been assigned to him for what will probably be the rest of his stay in Kitchener. The blood clots are very probably stable enough to be of no concern at this point. That means that physiotherapy can start with few worries about the clot letting loose. The blood thinners he is on, have his blood to a thin count of 1.7, the target being nicely over 2, normal being at 1, so things are going well that way. His hemoglobin count is at the bottom of normal (121, where normal is 120-160), which means he can probably stop taking the iron pills, which will help some of his stomach issue's. They will be looking into seeing if there is anything they can do about the medications affecting his mental state. As to his being in the hospital for 3 months, if he demonstrates the ability to safely move around on his own, it will be no problem for him to get out of the hospital for at least day trips.

January 12 Update on father in law

Today we went to visit Annette's father. He looked much better than he did when we saw him a week earlier. He no longer is on the Oxygen, and his breathing is pretty good. He has a cough which he picked up in the hospital before he got the clot in his lungs, but other than that he sounds good. His blood Oxygen level was 95% which is better than it was a week ago with the mask on and a high level of O2. All in all it looks like the clot is probably clearing and his lung function is improving. He will probably be transfered back to Palmerston Hospital next week. On the negative side, he has been told that he will have to remain in hospital for the next 3 months until they do the second part of his surgery. Bill is not very happy about this. Yet today we heard that if his mobility improves he may be able to go home for several hours some days, which is better than being trapped in the hospital for 3 months. He also finds sleeping very difficult even on the air mattress they have him on right now, and is still very uncomfortable. It seems that the worst with the clot is passed, which is a great answer to prayer, but if you could continue to pray that the healing will progress well it would be very much appreciated. Also, pray that he will be able to get out of the hospital soon, even if it is just for a few hours, while he waits for the second half of his surgery.

January 8th update on Father In Law

Not a whole lot of news today, which is not a surprise since it is the weekend. Dad was apparently failry uncomfortable today when he was being visited. He has been moved to another room. I'm not sure if that is a reflecton of his improved medical condition, or if it was simply to provide a better bed for him. Hopefully we will receive more detailed news as the week progresses. We still ask your prayers that things will progress well, and the clots will clear.

Father-in-law progressing in recovery

Today we heard that Bill is doing slightly better than when we saw him. His blood oxygen level is still good, and has improved enough that they could take the oxygen mask off and only use the tube on his nose. He still breaths a little more rapidly than normal, but he is not gasping for air. He remains very tired, and the hospital is going to put a special bed in to try to help him get more comfortable so he can sleep. Items for prayer: 1) That the heparin will work to dissolve the clots 2) That Bill will be able to sleep so he can regain some of his strength 3) That when they start to introduce warfarin into his system, that he will not have any adverse reaction. 4) That the doctors will have wisdom in dealing with his condition.

Update on my father in law

"We went to see my father in law today. He seems to be doing a little better, and his breathing is not labored any longer. They did a bunch of tests today to confirm that he has a blood clot in his lungs and still has one in his leg as well. The doctor came while we were visiting and confirmed that he has a pulmonary embolism which it affecting his left lung and partially affecting his right lung. His blood oxygen level is above 90% which is good, although he still needs to be on oxygen. The doctor stated that the first 72 hours are the most dangerous, so each day he stays alive should improve his situation. He is on heparin and they are going to try to get him on warfarin although he had some problems with warfarin six years ago. He still tires out very quickly. The expectation is that it will take at least 2 weeks for the clots to re-absorb, and it will be at least 6 weeks until he will be able to have the hip repair surgery completed. Reading about pulmonary embolisms shows that they are very common and very dangerous. In the US 600000 people per year will have them and of that group 100000 will die. However, those who die usually die in the first 30 to 60 minutes. That means each day improves the prognosis. Please keep lifting Bill up in your prayers as well as his wife Wilma and their family. This is a very trying time for all of us."

Prayers requested

I am not really sure how many people read this blog, but if you read it and believe in Jesus Christ, please pray for my wife's father. He is in hospital with a blood clot in his lungs. This all started a little more than 3 weeks back when he went in to have a hip replacement that was loose and infected fixed. Since the surgery he has been in hospital. Yesterday he was doing very well, feeling good, and progressing well with his rehabilitation, then today this clot happened and he had to be moved to another hospital. We don't have much details beyond him having the clot and being quite ill. My mother-in-law is very concerned. Please pray the God's glory will be seen in this as he sustains them and us through it. Also, please pray that if it is God's will, that he will bring healing. Thank-you.

Still Amazed

Once again I was amazed at how fast our son is growing. It seems that almost daily he develops some way. Yesterday he would only scoot around the floor pulling himself with his hands. Today he is using his feet to push while pulling with his hands. Annette told me that he can even stand in the bath-tub when there is no water in it. To top this off he is starting to show some problem solving attempts. Annette blocked off his access to the dog bed Riley sleeps on to keep Justin from doing his favorite thing, crawling up and grabbing Riley's paws. When Justin encountered this barricade, he tried to figure out a way around or over. He even started to try to crawl around it. Two days ago he wouldn't have done that. As I said, it is amazing how quick he develops.

Early Morning thoughts

One of the strange things that has happened to me since the birth of Justin is that the time I wake up in the morning has moved much earlier. I say this is strange because with Annette nursing him, I don't have to get up early since I cannot feed him. Yet, I still find that I am regularly up at 6am. For me this is weird because I still have difficulty getting to sleep before 11:30pm. Needless to say this has left me rather tired. Over the past couple of days I have been ill as well with aches and pains, a sore throat, and headache. Thankfully, the worst of it was on Monday, and since then I have been feeling better each day, although I am not over it yet. I can still feel it there in the background although fading.

RSS feeds

Over the past couple of days I have discovered the joy of RSS feeds. If you don't know what an RSS feed is you can look here RSS Links What I have done using them is added my most recent blog entry to my personal web-page as well as adding a page to my web page that gathers together the RSS feeds from various blogs that I read frequently. Sadly, not all of the blogs I read have RSS feeds, or if they do, they don't make it know what the address for the feed is. So I encourage all those who have blogs to set up an RSS feed. If you are with livejournal you already have one. If you are a paying user of blogspot you can set one up in your blog settings, but if you are not a paying member, you can use Feedburner.com to get a free RSS feed for your blogspot blog.

Dark, cloudy day

Today is yet another dark and dull day weather wise. None of us got much sleep last night. I could not seem to sleep more than an hour before waking up feeling uncomfortable. Whatever bug had gotten in my system leaving me feeling physically miserable all Monday is still active. Annette was woken up by Justin almost as frequently. In fact Justin is the only one who seems to have lots of energy is Justin. Oh to be a baby again.

New Years

As is our practice, we both ended the old year and started the new year in worship with our church family. What stood out to me this year was that we worshiped together with the local Christian Reformed Church this New Years day at an evening service. What I found amazing what how the message preached by the pastor of the CRC fit so well with the morning message that I preached at our New Years Day service. Both were calls for us to live as God has called us to live. My focus was on Paul's words in Philippians 2:5, "Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus." I pointed out that those who believe in Christ are to be transformed by that, so that they have a view of the world and their lives that is in keeping with Christ following the pattern he gave of humility, obedience, and love for the glory of God. The evening service focused of how we are to live as the family of believers, bearing each others burdens and gently restoring one another when we sin. My prayer is that we will see this sort of world view fill our congregation, and my own life.

Not the most pleasant part of being a parent

This weekend is usually one of my favorite of the year. We have our morning worship service, followed by a lunch together as a congregation, followed by our annual Christmas program. However, such was not to be the case this year. Oh, the day we pleasant enough. The Christmas program was quite good, bringing together Christmas and Easter, but I was not very comfortable. You see, on Saturday night my baby son decided that my one eye was fascinating to him, and he reached out with his sharp little nails (talons would probably be a more accurate term) and scraped my cornea. Off to the hospital I went to have my diagnosis confirmed. Sure enough, I had a bad scratch to the cornea, and it was quite big. I expected them to put on an eye patch for 24 hours, as that is what they used to to, but no longer. Now they put a whole host of eye drops in the eye that is scratched. The first one is to relax the eye, and it immediately takes away the pain, and dilates the pupil so you can't see clearly at all. The next is a pain killer, and finally an anti-biotic. The good side of this is not having to wear a patch. The bad side is I had to preach with one eye that would not focus at all. That meant reading scripture and all the rest by closing the bad eye so I could see to read. Even looking at the congregation was uncomfortable, and eventually resulted in me wishing I was just home in the dark. The meal as usual was great, and even the Christmas program was very good. However, my eye was a major pain the whole time. Even typing this I keep my one eye closed. I am very thankful that I am at least a passable typist :) The great part is that in all of this God gave what was needed to proclaim his word. In spite of the discomfort, the Lord's day was still a good day to be with his people. Now I just need to remember to keep my eyes away from little baby hands :)

Who would have thunk it?

David Palmer

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Christmas Light's Will Never Be The Same

The Lights of Christmas Story

OFTEN ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL GATHERINGS and creating social unrest, house church pastors in China face arrest, persecution and imprisonment. When imprisoned they are forced to do hard labor – making bricks, mining coal, putting together cigarette lighters...and even assembling Christmas lights. The same Christmas lights we use to celebrate the Savior’s birth are being used to punish Chinese pastors who have risked everything to share Jesus to the largest people group on earth – it’s a story that captures everyone’s heart who hears it. Instead of boycotting these items, house church leaders in China have asked that we use our Christmas lights as reminders to pray that they have the strength to stand firm for the Savior during their suffering, and for the Lord to protect and care for their families. The Lights Of Christmas Story PICTURE THIS! A COLD, DARK PRISON CELL IN THE NORTHERN INTERIOR OF CHINA. The cell is only 20' by 20' and occupied by 40 prisoners. One of these prisoners is a Chinese underground church pastor in his mid-40s, sentenced to a three-year prison term for preaching the Gospel of Christ. At 5:30 a.m., after being allowed four hours of sleep, a swift blow awakens him to his back from the boot of a communist prison guard. Pastor Stephen is allowed to have one of the two bowls of soup that will be his food for the day including the one small steamed roll he is given each day, he will consume perhaps 500 calories. Now all 40 prisoners are taken to a room and put in two lines facing each other and forced to kneel. In front of each prisoner is placed a box containing unassembled Christmas lights. The guard viciously barks out the command and Pastor Stephen quickly grabs the empty strings of lights and begins to assemble them. He takes the tiny individual light bulbs and threads the two small metal wires extending from the glass through the plastic holder and bends them into place. Before long, his fingers are raw and bleeding. Then he puts the bulb into the fitting on the string of lights and clamps it into place with his teeth, as prisoners are not allowed tools. His quota for the day - 5000 bulbs. Work will continue for 16 to 20 hours or all night if necessary. If the guards are unsatisfied with the speed or quality of the work, he will be beaten mercilessly. Such is a normal workday for this humble servant of God. When he is taken back to his cell, he recalls the many verses of Scripture he has memorized and thanks God for His faithfulness in spite of the hardship. Then quietly he begins to sing worship songs he has hidden away in his heart and he begins to pray for the well being of his family. Tears of thanksgiving begin to roll down his face as he ponders how blessed he is to be considered worthy to suffer for Christ. Blessed because he is a part of the underground Church of China - the largest Church in the world, numbering over 80 million believers. A Church that is vibrant and passionate and deep in the things of God. A Church that is paying a great price for this great turning to God with persecution and suffering. For more information on this click.