I love this guy

Being a bit of an art history aficionado, I'll occasionally find myself staring at random pictures for extended amounts of time. It's almost never to admire the composition or the brilliance of the symbolism like someone who just called herself an "art history aficionado" ought to be doing. No, I'm usually just fascinated by what the people inside it are up to.

Marriage a la Mode is a series of paintings by the English artist William Hogarth ridiculing standard aristocratic marriages of the day. The second painting in the series shows a married couple the morning after an all-night party:

Notice that guy in the left-hand corner?

Is his facial expression not awesome? One look at him and you know exactly what he's thinking. How many times have we all felt the same way? You can't not sympathize with him. I just love it.

On the myth called 'Summer Vacation'

They say that long ago, in the mists of ancient history, a certain practice was widely observed in early western culture. The story goes that in the summer months, children would lay aside their school books and devote their summers to climbing trees, chasing the ice cream man, swimming in the lake (or if they were lucky, the pool), capturing fireflies, and reading the occasional adventure story when it rained. Of course, as in all myths, the long-established order had its adversaries and a hallmark of the time was the Olympian-v-Titan-esque battles between the children and their parents. These parents, armed with chores and schedules, were part of the school of philosophy that taught that "The unstructured life is not worth living." To this day, it isn't certain exactly who won, as archaeologists constantly unearth evidence  that supports both sides.

When I was little, I was one of the many who believed in this legend. Similar to the story of Santa Claus, it is taught by parents and teachers to children everywhere. And, like the Santa legend, when a child reaches a certain age he is subjected to the rude awakening that the story he has been told all his life by everyone he trusted was, in fact, a lie. Delaying this revelation until high school only makes it more painful.

Such has been my fate. My days are filled with extra studying, college visiting, transcript making, library organizing, and blog-neglecting. Hopefully the craziness will die down soon and I can start blogging a little more regularly again. I miss writing and the way it stretches my brain. However, I have started reading Knowing God and love it. There will probably be a related post forthcoming. :-)

Of the dread SAT and its aftermath - a rant

So on the 4th I took the SAT, and my brain, in reaction to the trauma it experienced in being forced to use solely its left side for 4.5 hours, revolted and allowed me the use of only the right side the following week. So pretty much all I did was sew, garden, and clean. (The operative word there being 'all'. Normally I like all three, but at the end of the week I felt like I was in a coma.)

Do you know how ego-trying it is to have to wait nearly a month to know how smart you are? It's only on the 23rd that I get to see not only whether I'm smarter than a 5th grader but also, more importantly, if I'm really as intelligent as I pretend I am. And then I guess finding out whether I'm eligible for scholarships is nice too.....

And don't for a second believe that you can trust your gut feeling on how you did. It is a lie. A nasty lie, a la Jeremiah 17:9. Maddie, who is much braver than I, took the ACT twice (aghh!!!) and said that on the last time, she felt like she did much better than she did on the first. But in the end, she got the same score. And take my own personal experience. Each time I'd practice a section - let's say math - I'd finish, feeling pretty confident and exclaiming like Napoleon Dynamite "It's sweet, it's awesome, it's, INCREDIBLE!" at my mental prowess, only to be faced with the stark reality that I got only half the problems right. Reader, it is an experience unmatched in disappointment.

Anyways, things are back to normal now that I can look at a book or my email without my brain shutting down. I'll just try to amuse myself with my blog in a desperate attempt to keep my sanity while waiting for next Thursday. IT CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH. Pity me.

"Heresy Hunting"

I'm of the opinion that the best way to understand a false teaching is to read what the "culprit" himself has to say - not what his critics write about him. Sure, reading critiques of the former can be helpful, but I'm wary about trusting 3rd parties when it comes to these things. I want to see it for myself. So I decided to make a list of 12 books written by people ranging from those who I disagree with on a minor doctrinal issue to outright dangerous heretics. What have I read so far, you ask?

First, there was Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis seems to be the most quoted Christian thinker of the 20th century, so of course most of the book was pretty good. What I didn't like was his cavalier approach to explaining the atonement ("Yeah, the whole thing does sound pretty dumb when you think of it, but hey, it works!") and the pattern of his reasoning skills melting down at the very hint of Calvinism. While I enjoyed looking at Christianity from a philosophical perspective, I'm not quite sure what I think of using that to introduce non-believers to what we believe. (The Bible says faith comes through the reading of the Word, and I barely remember seeing any Scripture in the book.)

Next was The Prayer of Jabez. It is the most mercenary book I've ever read. The message of the book? God is longing to give you all these assorted blessings, but can't because we won't ask for them!!!!! Here's the crowning glory of it all:

"In my experience, most Christians seem to pray solely for strength to endure temptations - for victory over the attacks of our raging adversary, Satan. Somehow we don't think to ask God to simply to keep us away from temptation and keep the devil at bay in our lives. But in the model prayer Jesus gave His followers, nearly a quarter of its fifty words ask for deliverance: "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13). Nothing about spiritual insight or special powers. Not a word about confrontation. When was the last time you asked God to keep you away from temptation? In the same way that God wants you to ask for more blessing, more territory, and more power, He longs to hear you plead for safekeeping from evil. Without a temptation, we would not sin. Most of us face too many temptations - and therefore sin too often - because we don’t ask God to lead us away from temptation. We make a huge spiritual leap forward, therefore, when we begin to focus less on beating temptation and more on avoiding it."

asghdfgibsdfhbgripfgerpgiohwrtopghrtbgp

Moving on, the last book I finished was The Da Vinci Code. Honestly, I don't understand why every Christian author has found it his duty to write a refutation or two of this - it's just a mystery novel. It's fiction. Yeah, the parts elaborating the alleged Jesus-Mary Magdalene affair were pretty irritating, but I really don't think a secular novel - not a Christian ALLEGORY, like The Shack - is that dangerous to the church.

Finally, I'm currently reading 'Reformed' Is Not Enough by Doug Wilson. The Federal Vision camp is really confusing. So far, what strikes me is that they're obsessed with focusing on the church visible, at the expense of protecting the church invisible. Normally, I don't think I would really give too much attention to this group, as I'm not a Presbyterian, but you come across it a lot in the Christian classical homeschooling circle, so I wanted to be able to recognize it when I see it.

So maybe next I'll read The Purpose Driven Life, now that Warren and Piper are friends. How the heck did that happen?

I continue in existence

Lilacs & Apple (?) Blossoms from the backyard

The last month was rather crazy, so sorry for depriving you of the unmatched wit and profundity that has come to be such an attribute of this blog.....I decided to do the humane thing and post again before life begins to lose all meaning. [snort]

Right now I don't really feel like droning on and on about all the news-related things that have happened that I normally would have blogged about, so I will just list them here and say I was excited about them:

• The Royal Wedding (I might post an encomium on that wedding dress, ha)
• The demise of Bin Laden
• The rapture-that-gives-"secret"-a-whole-new-meaning-because-we-didn't-even-notice-it-happening
• Earth Day (haha, just threw that in there to see if you were paying attention)

My computer was broken for the past several weeks, so I was forced to find other ways to amuse myself rather than stalking people on Facebook or reading Wikipedia (or delighting you with my writing). I got a lot of reading done, and now live in horror of spending as much time on the computer as I used to. It's pathetic how much of your day you can waste on here. BLAH.

Sunday felt like an example of what God intended the Lord's Day to be like. I learned new things in Sunday School and the fellowship was great (as it always is), but what stood out most was the classic eerie feeling that the sermon was aimed directly at myself. (I love how God uses sermons to address something in our lives exactly when we need to hear it most.) Anyways, it was exactly like when Christian goes to the Palace Beautiful. I love my church.

Yesterday, I started planning out my school schedule for next year. It's rather sad and weird to think it's the last time I'll be doing that. I always looked at seniors as these adult, enlightened beings, so it seems wrong to think that's what I'll be this year as I am clearly neither of the two. Ha.

Hope you're having a great spring!

Jesus Lives

Jesus lives, and so shall I.

Death! thy sting is gone forever!
He who deigned for me to die,
Lives, the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me from the dust:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and reigns supreme,
And, his kingdom still remaining,
I shall also be with him,
Ever living, ever reigning.
God has promised: be it must:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and by his grace,
Vict'ry o'er my passions giving,
I will cleanse my heart and ways,
Ever to his glory living.
Me he raises from the dust.
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, I know full well
Nought from him my heart can sever,
Life nor death nor powers of hell,
Joy nor grief, hence forth forever.
None of all his saints is lost;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and death is now
But my entrance into glory.
Courage, then, my soul, for thou
Hast a crown of life before thee;
Thou shalt find thy hopes were just;
Jesus is the Christian's Trust.

2764 Years

After completely embarrassing myself in excitement at the museum yesterday upon finding an ancient Roman wood panel painting (Yeah, slightly obsessed....actually, not even that. I'm gone all the way.), I might as well do it again today:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROME!!!!

"I hope my passion for Rome's past has not impaired my judgment; for I do honestly believe that no country has ever been greater or purer than ours or richer in good citizens and noble deeds...."

Livy

Spurgeon hits the nail right on the head

"There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation - the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands - the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne.

"On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne that we trust." (quoted in The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink)

Another Sunday blurb

One of the reasons why I love my pastor's sermons is that they inevitably get me thinking. Ok, so not always is it something that has directly to do with the topic, but it's always related. Anyways, lately we've been in the Upper Room Discourse, and the apostle Peter's been coming up. It hit me that I've always looked at him sort of as two different people. 

First, there's the Foot-in-Mouth Peter who unfailingly comes up with brilliant statements like this one during the Transfiguration: 

"Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Then there's the Peter of Acts 2 who gives a stunning sermon ex tempore at Pentecost and goes on to write a couple books in the New Testament.

But what I find rather fascinating is the amount of time that elapses between these two different personalities: 50 days. There are only 7 weeks between Peter's denial of Christ to his sermon about Him in Acts 2. That's quite a transformation in such a short amount of time.

So of course it set me thinking, how could that happen? And then I arrived at the obvious conclusion - it was the Holy Spirit. I find that encouraging, because even though you don't see that kind of dramatic change happen too often anymore, it shows that if God can do that kind of a work in someone, He can help me in the tiniest problems I have. Which now brings me back to what the sermon today was really about - if we want to progress in sanctification, we need to rely on Christ.

Christ's death

As I was listening to my pastor's sermon this morning, something about Christ's death hit me. We all know of the classic Who Killed Christ? debates that went on (and still happen) through the centuries. Some point the finger at the Jews, citing all the passages where the Pharisees/Sanhedrin plotted His murder. Their opponents stand behind the fact that Pontius Pilate took the official charge of overseeing His torture and crucifixion. Well, both sides are right. And what I found interesting about that is its theological connection. God's causing both the Jews AND the Gentiles to be responsible for Christ's death highlights the universality of man's guilt. (Romans 3:23) Who knows what kind of weird heresies would have turned up had the Jews dealt with it amongst themselves, or vice-versa? (I can just see another "Pos" debate, this time concerning the Great Commission - "All means all except when we're talking about the race of people who killed Jesus....." {Now wouldn't that be quite the dilemma, considering Christians are the true ones responsible for Christ's death.}) All in all, it makes me appreciate the sovereignty of God even more.