Lately everything I read points right back to the fact that I need to be writing about practical Christianity, spiritual disciplines, simple – yet honest holiness before a righteous God.

And so I will. Starting today.

TheHolyLife.com is now live.  I hope you will join me there as I explore this theme of living set apart from the world’s standard so that I can align better to His standard.

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Over the past few weeks, the same song has presented itself to me in different forms. It plays over and over in my head, “This is my desire: to be used by You.  All my life I have seen where You’ve taken me.  Beyond all I have hoped and there’s more left unseen.  There’s not much I can do to repay all You’ve done so I give my hands to use.  This is my desire, this is my return.”  Jeremy Camp hit it dead center with this one.

I want to be used.

Lately I’ve felt used in a different way, not used the way that Adam was – with productive, meaningful work.  That’s my desire.  I want meaning in what I do.  That is my return.

It doesn’t get much more meaningful than this:

I’ve forgotten that Christ IS using me.  In many ways really. And I forget that.  But I’ve got to remember this one: “And I know my life, it’s to do Your will”

And this is part of His will:

Gen 1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth..”

Ps 127:3-5 “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.”

Ps 128 “Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.  Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.  May the LORD bless you from Zion all the days of your life; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem, and may you live to see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel.”

Johanna (Joey) Lee Brammer was born at Siloam Hospital in Lippo Cikarang, Indonesia.  She was delivered by the same doctor, Dr. Agnes, that delivered her older brother Silas twenty months before.  She was so determined to join this world, to serve the Lord, that she was a full half-body, head and all, out before the doc got to the room.  Though Jess labored for eight hard hours, she pushed one, two and three and she was there. Seven minutes flat.

She’s a little smaller than her brothers, weighing 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 20.5 inches long but she is a fighter. She’s been shadow boxing in utero for months and now she is fighting a bacterial blood infection within her first hours.  But the Lord is her shepherd too. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  Those were the words, repeated again and again that gave Jess the strength as she needed it.

And He is our shepherd.  He leads us beside still waters.  He restores our soul.  I can feel my soul restored.  I am reminded of the meaningful work He has given me:

Pr 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

It doesn’t get better than this… and I’ve got to remember that… cause THIS is pretty amazing really.

To God be the glory.

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Silas the copy cat, never one to be left out when Miah is doing something, has decided he wants to be potty trained. Seeing as he is only 19 months, we thought we had a bit more time before we were back to bathroom basics. Not the case. He likes to sit on his little potty and won’t keep his clothes on if he thinks he needs to go. He is doing a great job too! We haven’t really had to change a poopy diaper, or a very wet one even, for a few days now.

The only downside is that he wants to go to the bathroom EVERYTIME he needs to go. This means that even if it is just a few little dribbles he will be pulling off his clothes and diaper and going. He tells us “bath” and points to his diaper if he hasn’t gotten it off before we have noticed.

So needless to say the diaper changes may be less full but they are more frequent. We tried underwear with him over the weekend, but he was wetting too many pairs in the process.

Today while we were walking in the mall to the grocery store he stopped and was trying to get his shorts and diaper off to go to the bathroom…he is THAT serious.

I am glad to see him take the initiative in his training, let’s just hope it doesn’t take up all of our time.

Photo by: massdistraction

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via Google’s new Buzz, a friend responded with,

What are you thoughts on 5:1 ’s verb-tense’?

In my tired 3:30am self I didn’t really want to think theologically, but I went ahead and responded back with a quick cut and paste from a syntax glossary,

present — The verb tense where the writer portrays an action in process or a state of being with no assessment of the action’s completion.¹

But then I was thinking, “Maybe I should put a little more thought into it.”  So here’s a rundown of a quick passage study I did this morning and what I took from it.

The Breakdown

Let’s focus on just two words of the passage.  The first word is repeated four times in different forms and the second is repeated twice.  My teachers always told me that if something is said more than once, its going to be on the test.  So I’m going to assume these two words are important.

1. has (x2), not have (x2)

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Both of these words and their repetitions come from the Greek word echon which basically means, “To have, to hold, i.e., to have and hold, implying continued possession.”³ It’s the continued possession part that intrigues me.

The word also implies a special relation or connection.⁴ Refer to the above and you see the present tense shows that it is in the state of being – not completed.

The second usage has the same terms, but this times throws it into the negative, i.e., not possessing, not having a special relation or connection to.

Both the positive form and the negative refer to having the Son – put simply: Christ.  Having or not having that special relation to Christ either qualifies you or disqualifies you for the result, the effect, the reward for having – that is life.

Now take a look at life.

2. life (x2)

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

The word defined in English as life is the Greek word zōḗ which breaks down as:

Generally, physical life and existence as opposed to death and nonexistence.⁵

and

In the sense of existence, life, in an absolute sense and without end (Heb. 7:16).⁶

Put them together and we see that this life that John speaks of is an endless, physical existence – life without end.

Interestingly, in the original Greek the words are not “life” but “the life”.  The word ὁ ho is used, meaning “the”. When I taught English I would often remind my students that the difference between a/an and the is that with the first it could be one of many, but with the second, the there is but one.

Not only that, but the form of the word is singular, meaning, again, that there is but one life. One possibility. One path. One Way.

Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? He who has the Son, has the life.

The Takeaway

We fight about so many things in life.  Don’t believe me?  Check Google News. Its all fighting. What do we fight about the most?  Religion. Some follow God through Christ.  Others reject Christ.  Some say that “you do as you do and I’ll do as I do” as though we could actually not offend each other – when both of our very beliefs are in themselves offensive to the other.

Jesus offends people.  He’s alright if he is just a moral teacher.  Or even an all around good guy.  He’s not alright if He’s God. Or the Son of God.  Or the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No.  That’s too far.

John makes it pretty clear here though.  If you have a relationship with Christ – you get life – endless, physical, complete life.  If you don’t, you don’t.  Offensive or not, it is.  What you do with that knowledge – that’s on you.

Footnotes:

^1. Michael S. Heiser, Glossary of Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology ( (Logos Bible Software, 2005; 2005)).
^2. Everything comes from Logos 4 – you can score the free iPod/iPhone version with 31 free books.
^3. Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.; Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).
^4. ibid.
^5. ibid.
^6. ibid.

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Jess graciously puts my lunch together every morning – as I am usually inhaling my breakfast so that I show up only one or two minutes late.  For the past couple of days she’s stuck a simple piece of dark chocolate in there.  Quite good. 

Today I ate my lunch first and then I rewarded myself with the chocolate.

I also wrote my student teacher’s evaluations, reviewed about twenty books and decided which the school should add to our resource room, wrote up the rules to the school’s photography contest being held this quarter, and sent an encouraging email to the student teachers that were with me last week.

Most of that was done by 8:45 am.  I rewarded myself by reading Chris Guillebeau’s Brief Guide to World Domination.  Quite good. 

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I cried this morning when I read this story.

It is the story of the birth of this woman’s second daughter and all of the expectations and ideas you have of who this little person inside of you is going to be, that aren’t always realized. Her daughter was born with down syndrome and she describes all the emotions that came with her giving birth to her little girl and then realizing that she was different.

I cried when I read it and I cried when I took my shower and I cried when Evan asked me if everything was ok. Not a crying for sadness really, this little girl is a precious gift, but more from imagining the shock of finding something like that out at that happy moment when you hold your baby for the first time.

I thought of my own pregnancy and the daughter I have inside of me and wondered what she will be like and how would I respond if the situation were mine. I know I would love her and we would try to give her the best life she could have, since God would have thought us to be capable of caring for someone so special. I just wonder about the initial reaction. That first day and night. All the questions and unanswerable things that must float through your mind.

Most of the days that go by are ones dedicated to just making it through. To get done all the little tasks and jobs that need to be checked off of some list. This story has made me think and it has made me feel and for today at least I felt alive, like I was actually participating in life and not just wading through.  I hope to have more days where I can really feel and not just be.

Photo by: nsaplayer

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We are hoping for a dainty, sweet little bundle of cuddles, though with two older brothers there is probably a good chance she will be a tomboy who loves to wrestle and dig in the dirt. Evan especially is hoping for some cuddles and sweetness as he gets bombarded with punches and entreaties for fighting from the boys as soon as he steps in the door.

Since the doctors here give you an ultrasound at every appointment, we have at least 4 more chances to make sure of this child’s identity before she joins us in the world.

If you have any advice on life with a girl after boys we would love to hear it!

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I’ve been toying with the idea of a weekly recurrent comic strip here called Losing Fatherhood about the adventures of parenting.  Maybe he’s the primary character?

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I gave him another shot last night, which was good because if he is to be a children’s book character I’m going to need to be able to draw him repeatedly in multiple situations.  However, instead of getting him to look younger, I added at least three or four years.

Making his face a little skinner and body lankier made him look older so I am going to give him another go and see if we can subtract about nine years or so.  Maybe a less defined nose?  Any thoughts?

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Hope you enjoy.

Before I go to sleep, Daddy brushes my teeth and Mommy reads me a story. Daddy used to read me the story but he was put on probation when he was caught in the act of skipping pages. He’s up for parole next week with a reading of the 3 Little pigs. Let’s hope all three pigs are present in the story this time.

When I go to sleep, my Daddy holds my hand.  But then he passes gas and I can’t breathe. Even my brother Alli wakes up. He can’t talk but his face say’s enough. That’s when Mommy comes in and hold’s my hand instead.

When Mommy holds my hand, she sings. Her songs make me tired and I drift into dreamland. Daddy’s not allowed to sing anymore. He can’t remember most of the words and his break dancing keeps Alli and me awake.

When Daddy wakes up Alli, Mommy takes over but Alli’s up and he’s not sleepy anymore. So he pretends he’s a pro wrestler throwing his body against the side of his crib and tackling his pillows.

Since Alli can’t talk, I talk for him. I tell Mommy that he’s training for the big time. She tells me to go to sleep, but secretly I think she’s hoping he’ll turn pro one day. Maybe when he turns three.

Eventually I do go to sleep. And when I do, Mommy sneaks out and shuts the door – even though she knows I like it open. I usually lay there for an hour or two, let my parents get comfy in there bed, and then reopen the door – and leave.

I usually just crawl into their bed with them, but sometimes I like to let them know that I’m coming and so I yell through their door, “Mommy, you in der?”  If I wake up Alli, Daddy’s got to go referee the match. I keep his spot on the bed warm for him.

When I go to sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, I sleep in the middle. Daddy must like my feet though because every morning I wake up and they’re in his face. He must move them in the middle of the night. Mommy moves both my arms towards her, but then she scooches over and sleeps with one leg and one arm on the floor. She must think it’s comfortable?

When I get up from sleep I play with my quietest toys, but sometimes I like to gently wake everyone up with a song of my drum. They like it so much they scream with happiness.

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