Christianity at Risk

On the basis which has been laid down one can speak briefly of the purpose with which the Christian enters into dialogue with people of other faiths. This purpose can only be obedient witness to Jesus Christ. Any other purpose, any goal which subordinates the honour of Jesus Christ to some purpose derived from another source, is impossible for the Christian. To accept such another purpose would involve a denial of the total lordship of Jesus Christ. A Christian cannot try to evade the accusation that, for him, dialogue is part of his obedient witness to Jesus Christ.

But this does not mean that the purpose of dialogue is to persuade the non-Christian partner to accept the Christianity of the Christian partner. Its purpose is not that Christianity should acquire one more recruit. One the contrary: obedient witness to Christ means that whenever we come with another person (Christian or not) into the presence of the Cross, we are prepared to receive judgment and correction, to find that our Christianity hides within its appearance of obedience the reality of disobedience. Each meeting with a non-Christian partner in dialogue therefore puts my own Christianity at risk. . . . The Christian who enters into dialogue with people of other faiths and ideologies is accepting the risk. But to put my Christianity at risk is precisely the way by which I can confess Jesus Christ as Lord - Lord over all worlds and Lord over my faith. (Weston, Paul. "Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian." Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 2006 p168, 171)

As I read this, and it rings true in my heart, I can't help but draw the inevitable conclusions. Could it be that we have sought to share the good news in a way that doesn't put our own Christianity at risk? Could it be that we expect only our partner in conversation to be changed through the cross? Or could it be that we so little proclaim the good news of Christ that our Christianity is never placed at risk in dialogue, and is therefore never refined, and we are laden with chaff?

Daddy daughter outing

I found someone to take our picture together!

Opening the Word

Today Elisabeth opened up a little Gideon's New Testament and said,

"The Golden Rule sums up the Law and the Prophets."

She uttered a half dozen other things that I wish I could have caught on video. But she was aware - and so were we - that songs were the source of her insight. She was alluding to Do to Others on Hide 'em in Your Heart CD. Thank God for good music!

Family Devotions

We haven't yet hit our stride in family devotions. We read to Elisabeth from her children's Bible every night, and talk about it. We usually go through a small section of the catechism, and then we pray together. Yet this is not really family devotions. It is good, and helpful, but I'm looking forward to that time when we can truly have family devotions in a way that engages us together as a family. Today this post on Doing Family Devotions was very helpful to me, and I hope will be helpful to others.

HT: Justin Taylor

I prefer not

Elisabeth and I were just talking about whether or not to use the potty seat that sits on top of the toilet seat to make sitting on the big toilet more comfortable. In classic Elisabeth fashion, she replied simply:

"I prefer not."

A foretaste of the Kingdom

To put it even more sharply: the hope, of which the Church is called to be the bearer in the midst of a famine of hope, is a radically other-worldly hope. Knowing that Jesus is king and that he will come to reign, it fashions its life and invites the whole community to fashion its life in the light of this reality, because every other way of living is based on an illusion. It thus creates signs, parables, foretastes, appetizers of the kingdom in the midst of the hopelessness of the world. (Weston, Paul. "Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian." Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 2006 p146)

Surely we do live in a famine of hope and have the privilege of living together as a foretaste of the kingdom in the midst of the hopelessness of the world because we know that Jesus is King and that He will come to reign!

Somersaulting photo

Here is the promised picture of Elisabeth in action!

Being the Body

In the last week or so, I have been so thankful for the Body of Christ. A week ago Saturday, Rebecca was on call, so good friends of our watched Elisabeth (on one day's notice) for the morning so that I could help paint at church. This past weekend, another couple took her for a whole day so that we could go to a wedding. Then Monday night other friends came to watch Elisabeth for the evening as Rebecca was on call again, and I had a meeting at church. In addition to all that, another couple approached us (without any solicitation whatsoever) at church and said that they want to take Elisabeth for an evening and send us on a date! How richly blessed we are to be surrounded by such friends, who reveal Christ to us in their love!

Zip that zipper

Yesterday Elisabeth surprised me by loading and zipping the zipper on her rain jacket. I have never seen her do it before. A whole new world of self-dressing is now opening!

A good night's sleep

Last night Elisabeth (and, by consequence, her daddy) slept all the way through the night for the first time in a month! Since we came back from vacation at the end of July, Elisabeth has been waking in the night, either to call for one of her parents, or to toddle on into our bedroom and crawl up on the chair at least once - and sometimes several times - in a night. What bliss it is to sleep all the way through the night! Thank God!

The Parish Principle

The relation between the Church in a 'place' and the secular reality of that 'place' is intrinsic, not extrinsic. It is not just that it happens to be located in that spot on the map. It is the Church of God for that place, and that is because the Church does not exist for itself, but for God, and for the world which Jesus came to save.

I do not think we shall recover the true form of the parish [the Church of God for a place] until we recover a truly missionary approach to our culture. I do not think we shall achieve a truly missionary encounter with our culture without recovering the true form of the parish. These two tasks are reciprocally related to each other, and we have to work together on them both. (Weston, Paul. "Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian." Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 2006 p133, 142)

In the past several weeks, the parish principle has been brewing in me, realizing that the very definition of the Church is the mission of God to a particular place. We are His ambassadors, which makes the Church a local embassy of the Kingdom of God among those who do not acknowledge His rule. We are not an affinity club for Christians of similar doctrine, worship preference or social agenda. We are placed in a place to bring the good news of the Kingdom to that place, and if we function otherwise, we are dysfunctional.

Are you going too?

Elisabeth is recently thinking herself quite mature and able to manage things alone. Not infrequently she will ask me if I can go out, and she can stay home alone.

On Friday night I said to Elisabeth that baby Zoe might come over to play with us for the evening so that her parents could go out on a date. Elisabeth asked me immediately,

"Are you going out with them?"

Not only does she think her self independent enough to be home alone, apparently she also thinks she could take care of a nine-month old!

Tracing Letters and Coloring in the Lines

Elisabeth had a newfound interest in tracing letters. We have a Wipe Clean book for learning to write letters that is ideal for Elisabeth. She writes the letters right on top of the dotted lines!

She has also shown interest in staying in the lines when she colors, rather than scribbling all over the page. Some months ago she began to localize and start writing inside the shape she wanted to fill (but then ended up all over the page. Now she fills in most of the space with marginal spillover (so that you can at least tell she was trying to fill in the shape.

Somersaulting

Today Elisabeth did a somersault (by herself) for the first time! Pictures to follow when she becomes more accomplished . . .

Guess where I am!

Elisabeth and I found a playground that has a fantastic world map cast into the concrete on the ground. And guess what location Elisabeth found on the map? Better yet, while we were in that park she met a little boy who speaks only Mandarin at home, and his mom taught Elisabeth to count to ten in Mandarin! (We'll need a lot more reinforcement for any of it to stick . . .)

Cute kid = Free stuff

Today Elisabeth and I stopped into a Dunkin' Donuts to use the restroom. When we came out, we surveyed the donut menu and chose one. The person serving us thought Elisabeth as so cute that he gave her three free donut holes!

That's not the first time that has happened this week. Earlier in the week we were in a small shop that had loose candy. We didn't even end up buying anything, and the manager gave Elisabeth a free bag of loose candy. (I had one happy and wired little kid.)

"Brain" failure

I'm at a bit of a loss (and looking for input from my computer savvy friends). I use my Palm for everything - to such an extent that my friends and family make fun of me for it. I love being able to carry everything in my pocket. The problem is that my "brain" is now failing.

Just today I realized that when I have been creating new Memos in Palm Desktop, they disappear when I sync - both from the Desktop, and on my Palm. So I checked out the record limit (I'm not anywhere near the 32,767 record limit), as well as the memory on my Palm to see if I had reached capacity and for that reason it was deleting them. (My Palm wasn't quite full, but I moved over most of the applications to my expansion card so that there is abundant memory left on the Palm - and the problem persists.)

Any help? I feel handicapped not being able to reliably store information!

Philadelphia Chickens

Sandra Boynton outdoes herself with this "imaginary musical revue." I think it is probably funnier for parents than children, but Elisabeth seems to love it.

Beware that the genre of music is much more akin to Broadway than children's tunes. (The music makes me smile just as much as the silly lyrics.)

My two favorites are Snoozers and I like to Fuss.

Great children's music

Right now I am listening to Hide 'em in your heart, a CD of children's tunes from Steve Green. Essentially it is Scripture set to music. I like both that the music is good (I don't mind getting the tunes stuck in my head . . . which I can't say for lots of children's music) and the Scriptures selected are a great representation of what a child learn first about God's salvation in Christ.

I think this is a great example of solid content with great aesthetic quality.

Hey, Wake up!

Hey, Wake Up! is an adorable Boynton Book about morning routines. Elisabeth knows this one by heart too, and there are parts that make her giggle every time. If you read it, you'll quickly know which parts.

On a humorous note, Elisabeth opened this book yesterday and began reciting Birthday Monsters instead!