Our Smiling Baby Boy

So we have realized a couple things. First, we have not done any posts exclusively on Carter. He doesn't even have his own label for crying out loud (which Carter can do). Second, this boy has some of the greatest smiles. We would be remiss if we did not share that with the world. Enjoy some of these great pics of a great smile.

How can you not smile when you have cereal fed to you by the world's greatest Momma?!?! This is one of my favorites!

 I think this shirt summarizes who gets him to smile the most.

 

 Daddy's future ball-player... he looks good in a hat!

Cooking w/ Liz -- 2 Birds at the Same Time

Tim and I have lived in Honduras for four years. During that time my normal way of cooking changed drastically. Buying frozen pizzas, frozen lasagnas, and ready to go boxed meals (just add meat) just couldnt happen any more. I had to learn how to make meals from scratch. Praise the Lord for internet! I tried new recipes all the time. It didn't matter to me how much time it took. I had all evening after school. Then my way of cooking changed again when our first child, Abigail, was born. I didn't have a lot of time for big homemade meals. Now baby number two is here, and I have very little time to plan and prepare meals. I figured out a way to make meals without taking too much time away from my babies. 

I would like to share some of my favorite recipes that have made my life a little easier. I start every week preparing two whole chickens. I could buy an already cooked rotisserie chicken, but I enjoy making them myself.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees
2. Clean chickens
3. Put them side by side in a 9x13 glass dish
4. Sprinkle garlic, salt, and pepper on the top
5. Add about a half inch of water
6. Cover with aluminum foil
7. Put chickens in preheated oven for one hour
8. Turn oven off but leave the chickens in without opening the door for 4-6 hours (I leave mine in while we are at church on Sunday mornings.)

This makes delicious meat for several meals throughout the upcoming week.  Bonus: I save all the juices in the bottom of the pan for chicken broth.

ISIS and Beheadings

I've seen some videos of my brothers having their necks sawed with a rusty blade. I get very literally sick when I replay those horrific scenes in my head. Truly, the world is not and was not worthy of these martyrs (Hebrews 11:38).

I'm experiencing an internal struggle with ISIS. I think a lot of American Christians, if they were honest with themselves and Scripture (like loving your enemy), feel the same tension. Do we want justice for these terrorist or grace for these sinners? The answer is YES!!!! Yes to both, says Russell Moore, to which I wholeheartedly agree. I encourage you to read his article.

In the end, this is why it is vital that the cross is central in our theology... in our life! It is at the cross where both love and wrath, grace and justice, enmity and reconciliation came together in a beautiful, harmonious way. We need this harmony when we think and pray for ISIS and our brothers and sisters being attacked by them.

How long, O Lord!

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!

Set the world to rights. Vindicate your believers. Restore paradise. Bless the nations with your presence.

Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!!! 

Book Review: The Defense of the Faith

Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith, 1^st ed. 1955, 4^th ed., K. Scott Oliphint editor. P&R Publishers, 2008.

I haven’t done a book review in a while. It’s not that I haven’t been reading. It’s just that I haven’t read much that merited me to share my thoughts. I’m still not sure that Van Til’s book The Defense of theFaith meets that qualification, but alas here I am anyways.

Van Til is known as the father of presuppositional apologetics. He argues that his method is THE reformed apologetic that is most consistent with Scripture and Calvin himself. A bit of backstory: Van Til left Calvin College perhaps in large part due to controversy stirred up with his apologetical method. He then took up a tenure at Westminster Theological Seminary and flourished. His ardent students who have followed in his footsteps are the late Greg Bahnsen and John Frame.

I would be lying if I told you that this book was great. I’m not a philosopher and my theological chops are not all that sharp as a result. My area of expertise is NT studies, biblical theology, and the NT's use of the OT. Apologetically, my area of “expertise” would be biblical studies related. I can handle Ehrman. I don’t know what to do with Kant. Be that as it may, Van Til laid out quite eloquently (read: philosophical jargon that flew high over my head) his methodology for a consistently reformed apologetic. It goes something like this. 

First, there can be no neutral ground between believers and non-believers. We all interpret nature, being, and knowledge based on our presuppositions for good or for bad. However, since we are all created and bear the image of God because of God’s common grace, there is a sense of divinity [sensus divinitatis because Latin makes it better!] wherein we all have some knowledge of God. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is that the sinner suppresses that truth (Rom. 1:18ff.) and opts to believe in autonomy rather than acknowledge subservience to the Creator. What this looks like then is that a Christian can offer all the proof or evidence in the world to an unbeliever. But the unbeliever will simply interpret it based on his presupposition of autonomy. The error, among others as Van Til points out, is that the non-believer has no way to account for fact or logic so as to interpret nature or reality or being and so on. That is not to say that the unbeliever cannot know something. However, they can only know because they have access to the only way we can know anything – the sensus divinitatis. But because they deny their knowledge of God and suppress it, they cannot account for how they know anything. This makes the non-believer function in the realm of both a rational and irrational epistemology. They can rationally use logic to know something, but they believe everything is left to chance which can only lead to irrationality (what they know can just as simply change). However, the believer can account for knowledge because not only does he acknowledge the sensus divinitatis, but God has determined everything in the counsel of his will and thus knows everything. Only that which he ordained can happen. Thus God has an absolute knowledge. There is no chance with God. And God has revealed himself partly in the sensus divinitatis. Therefore knowledge is accessible and accountable for believers. When non-Christians know something and declare they know something, they are actually borrowing from the Christian worldview or tapping into the truth of God that they so deeply try to suppress.Therefore, the only way to account for anything, much less knowledge or reality or facts, is through the Christian (and reformed) worldview. Or to put it another way, Bahnsen said, "[T]he proof of the Christian God is the impossibility of the contrary."

Even as I type this out, I feel like I do not completely understand or have the ability to explain Van Til. I almost certainly need to re-read it, and sooner the better. However, I have encountered modern presuppositional apologists and have been quite impressed with their argumentation. Perhaps the best example of this method in action is Greg Bahnsen’s debate against Gordon Stein the atheist. He totally destroys him. It is definitely worth the listen.

As for the book, Van Til is dealing with a lot of issues. But more than anything, he is not just arguing for a methodology, he is arguing, or better defending his methodology from his peers who have completely trashed him. It got quite tiresome having to read how so-and-so got it wrong or misquoted or misrepresented or misunderstood his views. Conversely, I found the philosophical approach and the presuppositional method quite engaging. I have taught a low level form of it in my 10^th grade class the past 2 years. But I still teach a classical approach as well. But Van Til does an extraordinary job explaining why his method is thoroughly reformed and thus biblical. I want/need to read more by others who can speak to me on my level.

With that in mind, I can’t say at all why this book was in my High School library! But I am delighted it was. But I can only give it one thumb up since it is a read beyond me. Perhaps this just means I need to improve my philosophy and metaphysical theology more.

Terrible 2's???

We now have a 2 year old in our house. Abigail hit the "terrible" stage this past January. It has its terrible moments. But I would prefer to call it the "terrific 2's". God has blessed us with an amazing daughter. She is a carbon copy of her momma, a daddy's girl, a great big sister, and fills our family with an infectious laugh and a gorgeous smile.

 

 

January 2015

2014 is over. We had a great time with family this summer. Tim finally finished his ThM. Carter was born. Abigail is growing fast (too fast!). And Liz got to spend quality time with the kids on maternity leave.

The beginning of 2015 has been hard. With Liz leaving behind Carter and Abigail to return to work, it is a daily struggle. We look forward for what God has in store for us this year, especially as we make preparations to return to the States. Tim is passionate about pastoring again, and so we hope God provides an open door for that to happen. Liz desires to stay home with the children. So there are some uncertainties as we move forward. But we know the God of all grace will provide in our times of uncertainty. Please pray for us.