Understanding and Owning Christian Theology

Week 14 (Nov 6): Marriage & the Family

 MARRIAGE

Genesis 2:20-25

²⁰So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. ²¹And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. ²²Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

²³And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

-Adam needed a helper – woman created especially suitable for man. Equal but different (out of man; Gen. 1:27).
-Adam waxed poetic – loving & sexual relationship – Oneness (Mal. 2:15); 1 Cor. 7:2
-New families (no patriarchal control of the future)
-One man, one woman (polygamy not God’s plan; homosexual unions are not marriage)
-By covenant (Mal. 2:14)
-For dominion (Gen. 1:28)
-For a godly off-spring (Mal. 2:15)

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you with a need to laugh and enjoy yourself – I recommend my daughter Grace’s blog. She is on a long trip Holland (four weeks) and then to Hawaii (1 week). She is documenting her trip with a flair that is quintessentially Grace!!!

I recently came across an excellent paper written by Rich Lusk called The Church and Her Rivals.   It is a bit long, but it is well worth the time.   He begins with the statement: “American evangelicals have a long history of substituting the centrality of the family or state for the centrality of the church.”  Lusk is primarily communicating his “hope of restoring and recreating Christendom, a culture in which church, state, and family all prosper in their respective places.

 

 

 

Rich Lusk has been a very useful servant of the Lord, both as a writer, speaker and pastor.  I have very much appreciated not only his careful scholarship, clear and useful writing style, but also his commitment to serving his church faithfully.

He has made available a good many of his writings on the Trinity Presbyterian Church Pastor’s Page, which I strongly endorse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grammy has just released some of her summer videos, and I’m proud to make them available for public enjoyment!

Amara’s a crazy girl – notice how she keeps asking for more!

 

Daddy has been working out so much lately that he’s also getting Amara to focus on her health and strength.

 

What would summer be without some great pool time?

 

 

 

Yesterday was our best boy’s First Birthday!

How amazing that a whole year has gone by since I snuggled and rocked a tiny little man through the night while Mommy & Daddy recovered from his entrance into the world. It’s been a marvelous year of funny faces, energy, and life. Christian is a complete sweetheart, nearly always happy and from day one has been BUSY! He walks so well it could almost be called running and his little man-face has never stopped amusing us all with its crazy expressions. He has been quite a treat of a first grandson.

Since August 11th fell on Family Night, Michelle let me throw Christian’s first birthday party. Being of the opinion that 1^st birthdays DO matter, I decided to do what I could to go all out. From Kathy (of course!), I’ve learned there are many fun party ideas out there that go beyond balloons and streamers if you’re willing to do a little research. Since Christian isn’t old enough to insist on Batman or Barney, I got to choose something I wanted to do. Growing up, I remember being fascinated with a particular circus-train cake in a book my mom used to get ideas from for our birthdays. For  some reason, it stuck with me and was something I had wished I had little kiddos for: so I could throw a baby-circus party. Well, now I had my chance! I didn’t make that particular cake, but after a little time on the internet, I did find lots of fun “vintage” circus ideas. So, for Christian’s 1^st birthday, the “Big Top” came to our backyard!

Everyone seemed to enjoy Christian’s big night – the Lord gave us a beautiful day (a rarity this summer!), Christian seemed to have a blast and nearly everything looked like I had pictured it in my head (also a rarity).

 

 

 

There were many more ideas than I could afford to produce – some of the party websites showed beautiful circuses, complete with popcorn carts and live monkeys! However, pretty much everything I was going for worked out okay and I was happy with how the party looked. It was all very fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I promised Jessica I’d put up lots of pictures and video on the internet – so here’s the video highlights and my Picasa Web slideshow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Praise God for filling our home with laughter, joy, family and fun! Christian is a treasure we are so blessed to celebrate each day of his life and especially on his first birthday. Now that Christian is one, we have no more babies

Good thing a new supply is coming!

 

We love our Christian!

- Grammy