Happy 500th Birthday John Calvin!

Tonight we celebrated John Calvin's birthday at a small Presbyterian church in Lancaster with friends from several different churches. Of course there was birthday cake - complete with a picture of John Calvin himself in the icing! The children played "Pin the beard on the Theologian" and colored pictures from the "C is for Calvin" page in the soon to be published book called "Church History ABC's" written by Steve Nichols and illustrated by Ned Bustard. Look for the book in bookstores soon! We know these men and are very excited about their project! It will be a wonderful book for children to introduce them to people and events in church history.

The evening also included art work and music in honor of the life of John Calvin and in praise and glory to God. We all sang a hymn written by Calvin from the Geneva Psalter called "I Greet Thee, Who my Sure Redeemer Art." This hymn speaks of the sweet grace found in Christ. I love the first and fourth stanzas best:

"I greet thee,

Who my sure Redeemer art,

My only trust and Savior of my heart,

Who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;

I pray thee from our hearts all cares to take.

"Thou has the true and perfect gentleness,

No harshness has thou and no bitterness:

Make us to taste the sweet grace found in Thee

And ever stay in thy sweet unity."

Sunday morning

What a blessing it was to be in church today! After several weeks of sickness, it was so good to be able to worship with our church family this morning. This weekend was the Global Symposium, a Conference on Biblical Missions so we were able to hear several missionaries speak and visit many displays. We heard a missionary couple with MNA First Nations who work with Native American tribes. Guess how many tribes are recognized by the federal government in this country? I guessed 50, thinking was probably too many. But actually there are 560 tribes in this country!!! It was heart-breaking to be reminded of the sad history of the native people, but encouraging to hear of the work of God in the lives of so many native Americans.

We also heard from missionaries with MTW in Germany working in Berlin. I was amazed at the complete lack of Christian concepts in that city. They are a post-modern people with no idea of church, God, moral absolutes or truth. Even the Reformation that swept through other parts of Germany never reached their city so they have had no Christian influence.

Our main speaker in the services today was Dr. Stephen Beck with Greater Europe Mission to Frankfurt, Germany. He spoke on Proclaiming Christ in a Post-Christian Culture and how to reach the post-modern culture for Christ. It is hard for us in the U.S., and perhaps more so in Lancaster County, PA, to imagine the complete lack of Christian thought or ideas. Yet, that is the case for much of Europe. No concept of church - what is church? no concept of God, worship, truth, morality. How do we reach people like that? By serving. By loving them and serving them. Trying to include them in our circle of belonging. Everyone wants to belong and be loved. Through loving service, and a sense of belonging, many post-modern people are coming to Christ. It is a slow process, but God is working in the hearts of His people and His grace is irrisistable!

Every Sunday morning, we recite prayers of confession as a church body. I love that aspect of our service. I'm thankful for these prayers that I can use to speak what is in my heart that I don't always have the words to say. Here was our prayer for this morning:

O my Savior, I am slow to learn and ever prone to forget all your best lessons. I am pained to think upon too many prayerless mornings when I might have claimed the day for your service. Except for your tender forgiveness - all undeserved - unspent opportunities and cold compassion toward others would be my condemnation.

Your life-giving Spirit can shatter the walking trance of unbelief and degenerate behavior in which millions still sleep. As you empower the work of evangelism, please blow upon my spiritual ashes until an unmistakable flame of Christ in me shows his truth and mercy to some other soul. Make me your instrument: to comfort someone in despair, or to bring the wayward to the Cross of Jesus. Amen.

Jaden's Baptism

Yesterday was a very special day for our family as we had Jaden baptised. I was so nervous because three year olds can be so unpredictable and I was imagining all the worst things that Jaden could possibly do or say up there in front of the church! As it turned out, everything went very well. There were 4 little ones baptised and of course, Jaden was the oldest! Mark held him and he had a sweet calm little face as Dr. Rogers sprinkled the water on top of his head.

It is so amazing how God is involved in so many details in our lives. Yesterday morning in Jaden's Sunday School class, the lesson was on baptism! How perfect that was! Jaden has a limited understanding of what it all means, but we have explained it to him the best we can. This shows that he is God's little boy and promises to save Jaden if he puts his faith in Him. We look forward to that day when Jaden does know Jesus as his Savior. For now, he knows that God loves him and the seeds of believing faith are starting to grow in his heart.

A Visit from Dr. Rogers

Our pastor, Dr. Rogers, came to visit us at our home this morning. Tomorrow Jaden is getting baptised and Dr. Rogers wanted to come over and spend some time with Jaden and show him what was going to happen and to pray with us. I thought that was a great idea! Hopefully Jaden will do OK tomorrow and it will be somewhat familiar for him because of the "practice" session today!

When we first told Jaden that Dr. Rogers was coming over to our house, he was SO EXCITED!!! We quickly realized that he thought we were telling him Mr. Rogers was coming over!!! And Jaden loves Mr. Rogers' TV show! Then we explained that our pastor was coming and showed him a picture of him so he wouldn't act disappointed when it wasn't Mr. Rogers at our door!

Interesting side note here: Mr. Fred Rogers was actually a Presbyterian pastor in the Pittsburgh Presbytery at the same time that our pastor, Dr. Michael Rogers was when he was a young pastor in western PA! So for a time they were in the same Presbytery although our pastor said they never actually met each other.

Back to Jaden's baptism, it has taken us a year and a half to get to this special day. We first started attending Westminster Presbyterian Church back in September 2007. Over the months that followed, we studied more and more about reformed theology and the doctrines of grace. Some things that we have always believed have been challenged as we began reading the Bible in a new light. Both of us have bachelor degrees in Bible from a Bible college and yet we continue to learn and grow in the Word of God and it is an exciting journey! One of the areas that our understanding has changed has been the sacrament of baptism.... moving from credo-baptist to paedo-baptist. What helped us to understand what we now believe is the biblical application of baptism is an understanding of covenant theology. It is like puzzle pieces that all fit together! I won't try to write an in-depth explanation here, but I have linked a couple of good articles about baptism on this page. Also the monergism site that I have listed is an excellent place to go to understand reformed theology.

So tomorrow is the big day... Jaden will be baptised as a three year old! I guess you could say that he is twice blessed! He was dedicated at 6 months at our former church! It will be a special day for us as this will be a visible sign and seal of God's covenant of grace. No, this does not save Jaden. There is nothing magic about the water sprinkled on his head. Rather it is a visible marking of Jaden being included in God's covenant people. We hope and pray he will one day put his faith in God and we will teach and instruct him in the ways of the Lord. What an awesome responsibility we have. Yet, it is not our efforts that will save Jaden. (Thank goodness!!!) It will only be through God's grace and His grace alone.

Hymn of the Month

For the past 8 years of homeschooling, we have always begun our school days with Bible reading and a hymn. Each month, we sing a different hymn so that we can learn all the stanzas together. Sometimes we read about the history of the hymn and the author. It has been a wonderful way to start our days singing a hymn of praise to the Lord!

Last month, we just got a new hymn book, the Trinity Hymnal, that our church uses. Since we became Presbyterians over a year ago, we've had to learn many, many new hymns! I don't think we've had a Sunday since we've been there that there wasn't at least one unfamiliar song sung - sometimes all the hymns are unfamiliar!!! (Presbyterians sing different hymns!)

So my goal is to learn some of these "new" yet very old hymns. Joel picked our hymn for this month which is new to us: "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness" by Ludwig von Zinzendorf, 1739,

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are,
My glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds,
In these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in thy great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear,
From guilt and shame.

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
Ev'n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived,
Hath died, for me.

Jesus, be endless praise to thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for me -
For me a full atonement made,
An everlasting ransom paid.

O let the dead now hear thy voice;
Now bid thy banished ones rejoice;
Their beauty this,
Their glorious dress,
Jesus, the blood and righteousness.

Reformation Sunday

Our church celebrates Reformation Day every year, remembering Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis to the door of the Church and beginning the reformation across Europe. Our church hosts a Reformation Conference in which a distinguished speaker comes for the weekend and teaches several sessions and preaches both services on Sunday. This year, we had Dr. Carl Trueman, a professor of church history and academic dean of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He is originally from England and both his sermon and his accent were wonderful to listen to! He spoke on God's sovereignty in the salvation of His people.

And today for the first time, I was able to recite the Apostle's Creed without looking!! It took me one year and two months to memorize it! I was the last in our family to be able to recite it from memory. I say that I have SOOOOOO much in my brain already, it is really hard to cram more in there!

On Being Presbyterian

One year ago, the first Sunday of September, we visited Westminster Presbyterian Church for the very first time. We liked it so well, we went every Sunday after that! We became "full fledged Presbyterians" last November when we joined the church after attending a 12 week membership class and meeting with the pastor and elders.

Looking back, we are very thankful for God's leading us there. We have learned so much, grown so much and have come to love and appreciate the ministry and the people. We have been stretched, challenged, and inspired to study and examine and even question things that we had always thought... like baptism, covenant theology, Calvinism, eschatology and creation.

Being Presbyterian was different for us, but we are becoming more and more Presbyterian in many ways! I can almost say the Apostle's Creed from memory! I still have to hold my hymnal open to the front cover, but one week soon I'll be able to say it without peeking! Mark and the kids were much quicker at memorizing it than I am! After all, its been a year!!! I figure that I have too many other things in my brain so adding more is harder for me!

And the hymns are gradually becoming more familiar. Presbyterians sing different hymns than other churches, believe it or not! Mark is involved in the Matins Choir, Ivy is in Junior choir, Joel will be singing specials. And Jaden loves singing in Sunday School!

I am looking forward to a new year of Women's Bible study starting this week. We'll be going through the book of Dueteronomy. Joel is excited about being in the Junior High youth group and Ivy will have another year in GEMS club for girls. Mark and I also enjoy our home fellowship group which will be meeting again twice a month.

We no longer feel "new" to the church. We have become very connected and yes, even transformed (or rather reformed) in many ways as we have become Presbyterians!