Elsie's birthday

Here are some photos from Elsie's 4th birthday. We had two celebrations - one with Dave's family in the morning and one with mine in the afternoon. One of the good things about having a birthday this time of year is that extended family is in town, and everyone's on holidays!

morning tea....

...and afternoon tea!

...and the waterfight!

Just checking in...

It appears I'm having a bit of an unplanned blogging break this week!  We had a great Christmas, but I think I've reached this stage of the year feeling more tired than usual, and it's taken me a few days to feel up to sitting at the computer again after all the excitement.

We had a lovely Christmas weekend.  We hosted (for the first time ever!), Dave's family on Christmas day and spent Boxing Day with mine.  Highlights included some perfect Christmas weather, cousins from both sides of our families playing beautifully together, and great sermons on Christmas morning (from our pastor, on John 1:14) and Boxing day (from Dave, on John 1:15-18). Hosting the Christmas lunch gave me a bigger appreciation for what my mum and mother-in-law have done for so many years!  Unfortunately, I was too busy on Christmas day to take photos, and left the photography to my sister on Boxing day, so I only have a few photos of the Boxing day celebration (see below).

Because quite a few members of the family (again from both sides) aren't normally in Sydney, we've been doing fair bit of catching up with them this week, as well as celebrating Elsie's 4th birthday yesterday (photos of that to come as well!).

Dave has the next week off work, so we'll be trying to do some fun things around Sydney (let me know if you have any good ideas!).  I'll be posting the occasional photo, but there won't be much depth around here for a little while.  I'm planning on doing some reading and thinking in my spare moments.

Sam and Elsie having fun and planning mischief

the girl cousins in their Christmas dresses/skirts my mum made

me and Elsie (I think I'm looking as tired as I was feeling in this photo!)

Lego Nativity Competition

You might have already caught up with the fact that Cathy is running a lego nativity building competition.  Earlier this week, we had some little friends around, so I thought it might be a good chance to have a go.  As it happens, it was Jacob and Rebecca and not the little ones who got excited by this challenge.  Here is their attempt:

The firefighter is the innkeeper telling them there's no room.  You can see the sheep and donkey on the left hand side, and Mary and Joseph (aka Bob the Builder) inside with a lego baby Jesus.  Jake made the star for the top out of yello lego pieces.

The wise men are outside looking in carrying milk and cookies (we don't have gold francinsense and myrrh in our lego colletion!).  I insisted that they ONLY use lego, which made it a bit of a challenge, but did inspire some creative ideas.

'A Golgotha even in Bethlehem'

Christmas, we're told, is meant to be 'the most wonderful time of year', which is probably why it's such a hard time for many of us. Christmas can remind us of people we love who aren't with us anymore. This time of year could trigger painful memories (in my family many of us are still affected at this time of year by the sudden death of my nanna at Christmas time over 20 years ago). Or Christmas could be an unwanted reminder that another year has gone by and you still haven't managed to fall pregnant, or get married or find employment (the list goes on...). Or it could be just hard to feel like celebrating when you're struggling with loneliness or depression.

It's not surprising that the shiny, fake, commercial, Santa version of Christmas is less than exciting for those that are already hurting.  But the irony is that the real Christmas, the Christmas that celebrates the birth of Jesus, celebrates the birth of a Saviour who understands our pain and weakness.

For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—he had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile. (Dorothy Sayers, The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, 1938.)

In the gift of Jesus at Christmas we see God's willingness to enter into our sufferings here on earth - not just the extremities of human suffering and death, but the trivial irritations and frustrations as well. As John Donne wrote (with a theological point that survives even when you make allowance for the poetic exaggeration):

The whole life of Christ was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem; for, to his tenderness then, the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after; and the manger as uneasy at first, as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day. (John Donne, A Sermon Preached at St. Paul's Cathedral in London on Christmas Day, 1626.)

Image from istockphoto.com

Treats for neighbours...

DONE!

But for the sake of 'keeping it real' I should confess, it was almost at the expense of our house which I almost burnt down in the process of making them! 

I realised as we were making White Christmas that we had no copha (well, none that wasn't out of date!), so I quickly decided we should hop in the car and get some.  We got to the shops and discovered they'd sold out of copha (turns out everyone else is making white Christmas too...).  Then just as I was dealing with my disappointment about the copha, I remembered I'd left some almonds roasting on the stove.  I made a very quick exit from Franklins and drove as fast as I could legally drive back home, to discover a very smoky house, but luckily no fire. 

I ended up making the White Christmas just with white chocolate and it tasted okay - not ideal, but at least we still have a house!!

Dave and the kids had fund delivering them this evening, and even discovered (to Jacob's great excitement) that we have a marine biologist living in our street, who is about to do his honours project at Uni next year on the ecology of rock-pools.  So we are looking forward to Jacob learning a bit more about marine biology next year, and all of us getting to know our neighbours a bit better!

Carols in the Park

Tonight was the carols night in the park at the bottom of our street, run by the local Brethren church (which is just over our back fence). 

Here's a few things about it that I thought worked really well:

- It's a tradition; they've been doing it every December for about the last forty years, and it's become a neighbourhood institution; it evolves from year to year but a lot is constant, including lots of the traditional, singable, well-known carols;

- It's fun; they invest some money and effort and energy in a few simple things (like plastic glow-candles, with the church's name and URL printed on them) that help make it fun for kids;

- It's relational; the fliers encourage people to arrive early and promise a free sausage sandwich and drink for the first three hundred, so lots of people are there before it's dark, mingling and chatting and enjoying the summer evening;

- It's genuinely local; you look around at the faces in the crowd and the faces on the stage and they're people you know from the local streets and the local school; the guy who gave the talk was not a professional but just one of the dads from the local school, who lives in our street and goes to that church;

- It's unpretentious; the singers had some talent and had clearly practised hard, and the sound and light were adequate for the occasion, but no-one was taking themselves too seriously and the overall feel was authentically grass-roots;

- It's unashamedly gospel-focused; there were giveaway New Testaments and at the centre of the night was a short, simple, orthodox, engaging talk presenting the gospel and urging us to respond;

- It's supported by a whole church; a whole lot of people from the Brethren church were involved one way or another in making it happen - serving the free sausage sandwiches and drinks as people arrived, doing the sound and light and set-up, organising the kids' club segment; even baking the cupcakes (hundreds of them) that they gave out to everyone half way through the night;

- It's linked in with a guest-friendly January; they were able to give us a simple and inviting description of how church and kids' church work on Sunday mornings and the breakfast BBQs that they would be running in January.

Here are some pics...

A true baby

"First of all, we are looking at a true baby.  He is not an idea or a religious experience.  He is a newborn infant who makes noises and cries when he gets hungry.  What we are looking at is real, simple, definite, complete.  We are looking at a true baby."

from Francis Schaeffer, No Little People (L'Abri Fellowship, 1974), quoted in Nancy Guthrie (ed.) Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus (Crossway, 2008), p. 104.

Image from guardian.co.uk

Christmas Eve, by Christina Rossetti

Love the last two lines!

Christmas Eve

Christmas hath a darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,

Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answring music
For all Angels soon to sing:

Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Teachers' presents

For the past couple of years, I've tried to give the teachers something the kids have made for them as a way of saying 'thank you'.  Last year, they made chunky beaded bracelets.  This year, I decided to buy a few of Ally's owl tutorial kits and help the kids make them.  I was pleased with how easy they were to make*, and the teachers did seem to really appreciate them.

Here are Elsie's (I forgot to photograph the older two's efforts)

* I do admit, I did have to help the kids a bit, but all of them could do at least some of it!

News! (and a movie)

We have recently started telling our friends the exciting news that we are expecting (God willing) to have another baby in June next year. 

In honour of the occasion, Dave and I made this short film.  Hope you enjoy!  (I should say that the other character in the film is an entirely fictional pastiche created out of a complex collage of memories and anecdotes!)

From the archives: The real Mary (a book review)

I'm in the middle of the end of year 'sprint' and haven't the time to blog this week (U2 concert, preschool concert, end of year assemblies, dinner out with the mums at school etc etc - things should calm down once school finishes!), so I thought I would pull an old post out of the archives today.  This is a review of a book I read a few years ago about Mary, the mother of Jesus.  It was originally published in December 2007.

Just before Christmas I was doing some thinking about Mary, so when I saw so when I saw The Real Mary - Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus, at the 'local' Christian bookshop, I decided to read it over Christmas (and yes, it has taken me this long to post a review on it!).

The first half of the book is a run through of all the passages that feature Mary in the gospels. This was helpful for me as there were things about Mary that I had not picked up before and having them pointed out helped me understand the story of Jesus better - which is always a good thing! In particular, I liked the way that McKnight helped us see the real, earthy, Jewish, three-dimensional humanity of Mary, and the way he explored the journey Mary makes from being Jesus' mother (in the true sense of the word since he was truly human) to being a follower of Jesus. I found myself thinking a lot about the connections and tensions between earthly family and the family that's created by the kingdom of God - connections and tensions that were there even in the case of Jesus' own earthly family.

The flash of the sword predicted by Simeon was the beginning of sorrow for Mary. As we accompany Mary in her journey with Jesus, we will see how difficult it was, not only for her, but for everyone else who loved and followed him, to put together the strange story Jesus' life would tell...Twelve years later, in that very temple area where Simeon spoke of that mysterious sword, Jesus would give Mary and Joseph one more indication that Jesus' life would not turn out as they expected. The Son of God, they would learn, listened to the heart of a different Father... Mary would then learn to follow her son.

At the same time, there were points at which I had some problems with the book. Here are a few:

1. There were some minor quibbles (eg. Tacitus writing "during the reign of Nero" - p. 40, and the beloved disciple as a "cousin" of Jesus - p. 91) that took the edge off my confidence that McKnight knew what he was talking about when he made arguments on the basis of historical context and background (eg. when he offers the intriguing comment on p. 30 that "treasuring" and "pondering" were "standard words in Judaism for thinking about events in one's life so one could make sense of and narrate what God was doing in history"). Mostly, though, he seemed to know his way around the first century world!

2. Whilst I appreciated McKnight's attempt to redress the 'domestication' of Mary's song and remind us of its big Kingdom-of-God themes, I thought he over-did this point in an effort to make Mary into a kind of patron saint for evangelical political activism. At almost every point McKnight seemed keen to dismiss any image of her as 'meek' and replace it with the image of a 'dangerous', politically motivated woman. So, in McKnight's version, Mary's Magnificat becomes at one point a "plea" for justice (p. 15) rather than (as he admits a few pages later) a celebration of what God has already done - or at least commenced - in Christ. When God finally reveals himself to Mary, McKnight imagines her saying "What took you so long?" (p. 20). He argues that "instead of sitting back hoping good things would happen for Israel, Mary turned the wheel of history to make things happen for Israel" (p. 25).

What seemed to me to be missing from this section was anything more than a passing acknowledgement of the deep Biblical roots of "meekness" and "hoping" and "waiting" as part of a godly response to suffering and injustice (eg. Ps 37, 130, 131).

3. Connected with this last point, I thought, were the points where McKnight's Arminian theology seemed to bias his reading of Mary, underplaying God's sovereignty and emphasising human activity and decision. So (as I mentioned in the last paragraph), McKnight's Mary "turned the wheel of history to make things happen for Israel". Similarly (p.69) it was Mary who "turned the key that unlocked the door to Jesus' first miracle" (p.69).

4. In the second half of the book, I thought that McKnight downplayed the importance of the differences between Protestants and Catholics, in keeping with his claim in the opening chapter that, in his opinion, "the Cold War between Protestants and Roman Catholics over Mary has ended" (p. 5). His Arminian emphasis on God's need for human co-operation to get his plans fulfilled means McKnight is happy to go at least part of the way with Catholicism in its official teaching about Mary as mediatrix and co-redeemer (p.134), though he does question some of the uses to which that teaching is put in popular Catholicism.

For the most part, his tendency is to trace every disagreement between Catholics and Protestants over Mary back to differing ideas about the relationship between the Bible and church tradition, without asking whether these disagreements might also reflect different understandings of the way God's grace works in our salvation. (There are some helpful comments in the 'Mary' chapter of Ray Galea's recent book on Catholicism.)

Finally, I wasn't really sure about some of his suggestions to honour Mary at the end of the book - eg. an 'honour Mary day'. While I agree with his conclusions that we can learn from Mary's faith, I can't see why we would do that for her above the many other men and women we find in the Bible who are examples of faith in our God. When it comes down to it, while we can learn from her example, the reality is that the New Testament gives us four gospels, not three gospels and a book about Mary.

That being said, I enjoyed reading this book. While there were some points at which I disagreed with McKnight, he gave me an angle on the story of Jesus that helped me to see some things with new eyes, and provoked me to think hard about the way I follow him in my life as a woman and a mother.

Painting is Annunciation with St. Emidius, by Carlo Crivelli, (1486)

U2 Concert

We were there.  Can't believe it's 17 years since my first U2 concert!!

(I do have some pics on Daves's phone, but can't work out how to get them off there.)

A Christmas Carol, by G.K. Chesterton

This week's Christmas poem is by G.K Chesterton.

A Christmas Carol, by G.K. Chesterton
The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary’s knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.

Bone marrow register

Here's a link to a segment on the TODAY show this morning with Stuart and Bridget Flynn (you'll have to click on the 'bone marrow donors' link on the right hand side).  Bridget is one of the teachers at our kids' school and her husband Stuart has been battling with lymphoma for the last two years.  He is scheduled to have a stem cell transplant in late January. Bridget has recently given birth to their first child, Daniel. 

They are trying to raise awareness of the bone marrow registry as Stuart needs to find a 6/6 match for the transplant in the next two months. A world wide search found a 5/6 match which they can use but it's not ideal.  In order to be on the register, you need to ask at your local blood bank. 

Presentation day reflections

We started a new annual tradition in our family yesterday. On presentation day each year, we will go out for milkshakes after school. This will happen regardless of whether all or some or none of our children have been given a prize for their achievements.

I agree that it's good to celebrate achievements and honour good work. I like it when my kids are praised at school and when they win a prize. But, I'm becoming more and more conscious of how important it is that my kids know I am proud of them whenever they try hard and whenever they do good work - not just when they win awards for it. I'm becoming more and more aware of the kids in the school hall who tried hard but didn’t win (and in some cases might have been more deserving recipients than the kids who did get prizes), and of the pitfalls for those whose efforts did end up being rewarded by a prize.

Here's what I've been thinking:

- I need to celebrate ALL my kids’ achievements, whether or not the teachers have noticed. The after-school milkshake was a good chance to make a point of telling all three of my kids (yes, even the preschooler!) how I'd seen them grow this year, what things I'd seen them learning and how thankful I was for them.

- I need to make sure that I don’t go overboard with excitement when they do win an award. It's not fair to the kid who has won a prize (what will happen next year when s/he doesn't win?), it’s not fair to the kid who missed out (do we love a kid who wins prizes more than a kid who doesn’t?), and it runs the risk of teaching both of them to make too much of the trinkets and baubles handed out by the world and its adjudicators.

- I need to help my kids, if they do win prizes, to do that without boasting (and it will help them to do that if I’m not boasting!) and, if they miss out, to be gracious and happy for those who do win. Presentation day is a great opportunity to learn life lessons!

- MOST importantly, I need to make it clear that, while education is a good gift from God it is not what is ultimately important. I need to focus more on my children’s character development than on their literacy and numeracy. I need to do this for myself (as it is so easy on these awards days to get sucked into believing that the school results are all that matters). And I need my kids to see this - to understand that kindness is more important than cleverness, good work counts for more than good grades, and God’s glory in Christ is what matters most of all.

Our advent (so far)

I realised yesterday that in the midst of all the other advent calendars I've been publishing on this blog, I haven't shared much about what our family has been doing. 

We've been using our faithful old advent calendar that I made as part of a church event ('Counter cultural Christmas') I ran at my old church a few years ago.  As well as that this year, I've copied the package idea that a few people have been using, and have adapted the readings so that on some days there is a random package to open (a 'lucky dip'), on other days there is a package that directly relates to the passage or activity, and on other days there is no package.  I've found that doing it this way means that the main focus has been on the Bible reading (the old way, where there were lollies and other treats in the pockets meant the kids were slightly distracted while we did the reading).

The other new thing we're doing this year is using Ally's idea of having activities to go with the readings.  This has also shifted the focus off the 'treats' and on to more meaningful things.  Highlights so far have been playing charades with lollipops in our mouths (much hilarity that night!), thinking up the various names that the Bible uses for Jesus and what they mean, and writing letters to the oldest member of the family, Dave's nana. (He and Elsie delivered them to her the next day). 

I'll share more highlights as they happen!

Terry Deary giveaway winner

Thanks to all who entered the competition to win a free, signed copy of Terry Deary's Turn out the Light.  I loved reading all the recommendations (and a BIG thank you to the kids who participated!).  I randomly chose the winner tonight, and the prize goes to Jenny. 

Jenny, can you email me your address, and I'll arrange to send your prize to you?

The courtship of grebes

Here's a youtube clip from 'Life' that Jacob told us about; it's about the most beautiful thing I've seen in ages!!

Bushcare

A few months ago, Dave was looking for something that he and his Bible study group (he leads a men's group) could do together that would serve our local community.  In the end, he settled on the idea of joining the local bushcare group which meets in a small area of bush about 5 minutes walk away once a month on a Saturday morning.

Although this wasn't originally part of the plan, it also occurred to him that it would also be a good thing for Jacob to do with him - and he was right!  It's been a wonderful thing for them to do together once a month.  Here are a few reasons why:

- it's been good for them to have something special that they share - a father/son bonding experience;

- by doing it together, it's given Jacob the chance to see see Dave modelling a number of things - hard work (well he already sees that at other times, but you know what I mean!), doing something which serves the community, a concern for the local environment, he's even been able to listen to Dave talk about the gospel with the other two volunteers;

- for a kid like Jacob who is a little obsessed with all things living - the chance to spend a couple of hours pulling weeds while watching for the occasional bird or water dragon has been a blissful experience!  Not only that, but Dave has been really impressed with the way the representative from the local council has taken the time to teach Jacob new things and turn it into a learning experience for him (he knows a lot more about local weed species now!).

You can read more about bushcare groups here.

Photo of Madeira vine (a nasty weed), from Pittwater council's website.

And the (randomly chosen!) winner is...

Skye!! 

Thank you to everyone who sent your ideas in to share.  Being able to share some inspiration was the big idea of this giveaway, so thanks for taking part. 

Skye, please email me so I can send out your beautiful star decoration from harrysdesk.

PS.  I had originally said the Terry Deary prize winner would be announced today too, but I thought two giveaways in one day might be just too much excitement.  So, you have until Wednesday, if you'd still like to enter that one (it's a little less involved than this competition!).

’Twas just this time, last year, I died, by Emily Dickinson

Not your typical Christmas poem, but I guess it is your typical Emily Dickinson!

445

Emily Dickinson

’Twas just this time, last year, I died.
I know I heard the Corn,
When I was carried by the Farms —
It had the Tassels on —

I thought how yellow it would look —
When Richard went to mill —
And then, I wanted to get out,
But something held my will.

I thought just how Red — Apples wedged
The Stubble’s joints between —
And the Carts stooping round the fields
To take the Pumpkins in —

I wondered which would miss me, least,
And when Thanksgiving, came,
If Father’d multiply the plates —
To make an even Sum —

And would it blur the Christmas glee
My Stocking hang too high
For any Santa Claus to reach
The Altitude of me —

But this sort, grieved myself,
And so, I thought the other way,
How just this time, some perfect year —
Themself, should come to me —

Advent giveaway - entry 10

In the final hours of this competition, here is another entry. This time, from Jenny:

One of the big hits last year was to each write a note of encouragement to everyone else in the family. This year I have decided to do it a little differently and I have asked 4 extended family members to each write a note to our 4 children and they will write a note to each of them when we get to that day! Also we have decided to surprise them with a couple of days away camping right after school finishes. My husband and I will be at a work function and will get Nana to do the Advent devotional and read the special family surprise! I love that we are focussing on the Christmas story and that we are building really special family memories as well.

The winner (randomly selected) will be announced tomorrow!

Advent giveaway - entry 9

This entry comes from Alison:

I have to say I've been inspired by everyone's ideas on your blog and have enjoyed putting something together this year. My kids are 2.5 and 9 months, and I am generally sleep deprived, so my efforts are quite basic. And I didn't want to spend much money so they are done on the cheap too!

I finger painted some envelopes with numbers (a fun activity in itself to do with the toddler) and stuck them on a sheet of cardboard. I've got another blank sheet as well.

I've been putting little things into the envelopes along with some lollies and tiny teddies. I'm sort of making it up as I go along, but the plan is to spend a few days on the creation story (which we've been learning this year) and then jump to the story of Jesus birth, spending most of the time on that. You can see in the photo of the blue sheet the first picture is of 'the heavens and the earth', then we have plants and animals, then some pipe cleaner figures of 'Adam and Eve'!

Closer to Christmas Day, I'm planning on having different parts of a nativity picture in each envelope, and will gradually build up the picture by sticking them on the second sheet of cardboard. I've also got a set of nativity finger puppets (pictures are on my blog here) and I'll be putting them in the envelopes too. So there will be a gradual build up of little toys to play with.

Inspired by the book Treasuring God in Our Traditions, I bought some small candles to use as advent candles - we're enjoying lighting one each evening and our 2 year old takes great delight in blowing it out before bed. He usually then wants to sing Happy Birthday!

It's been really nice so far to build the rituals into our day and it does feel like Christmas is a bit more special this year as a result.

Advent giveaway - entry 8

This entry is from Ruth.  Her family use a Jesus tree over December.  Here's her explanation:

The Jesus Tree

The following involves colourful felt symbols which are used as conversation starters to explore the idea of who Jesus is.

In an ideal world one symbol could be discussed each day at the dinner table (we usually do it before dessert and dessert may then involve a special treat such as a lolly). However in the busyness of December we often find we are doing more than one a night and this works equally well.

We take it in turns as to who gets to choose and talk about a symbol – to ask everyone else if they can guess what it might mean about Jesus or to try to suggest it themselves. Then they can read the bible verse suggested on the tag and everyone can join in the discussion.

We have started with an empty “tree” and by Christmas Day we have hung up all of the symbols. In the past I have used a wooden cross tree in a pot but found it a pain to store so this year I am trying the idea of using a dead branch from the garden.

We tend to review the symbols again on Christmas Day.

One thing I like about this is that it has evolved with the different ages of my kids – we can read more and have more in depth conversations as they get older.


Idea about Jesus / Bible Verses / Symbol


Jesus is the Gate - John 10:7-11 - Gate


Jesus is the word - John 1 “In the beginning was the word...and the word was God..The word became flesh and made His dwelling among us..” - Bible


Jesus is the Way - John 14:1-6 - W


Jesus is the Truth - John 14:6 - T


Jesus is the Life - John 14:6 -L


Jesus is the King - Rev19:16 “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” -Crown


Jesus is the Good Shepherd - John 10:11-16 - Shepherd


Jesus is the Bread of Life - John 6:35 - Loaf of bread


Jesus is the Living Water - John 7:37-39 - Drop of water


Jesus is the Lamb of God - John 1:29 - Lamb


Jesus is the Victor - 1 Cor 15:54b-57 - King with sword


Jesus is the True Vine - John 15:1-9 - Vine with fruit bearing branches


Jesus is the light - John 8:12 - Light


Jesus is the Ransom for Many - John 20:28 - Money


Jesus is the son of David - Matt 20:30-31, Matt1:1 - King


Jesus is the stone - Luke20:17-19, Acts 4:10-12 - Stone


Jesus is a gift - John 3:16 - Present


Jesus’ blood was shed for me - Matt 26:27,28 - Drop of blood


Jesus heals - Matt 20:30-34, Mark 10:46-52 (helps people to see and also understand Him) - Eye


Jesus heals - Mark 2:1-12 (our bodies and our hearts) - Plaster boot


Jesus is wisdom and knowledge - “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be found in Jesus” - Col 2:3 - Treasure chest


Jesus is God’s son - “God said this is my Son whom I love” Matt 3:17 - Dove


Jesus died for us - 1Peter3:18 “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” - Cross


Jesus rose again - Matt 16:21, Matt 27:62-66 - Empty tomb


Jesus is preparing a place for us in heaven - John 14:1-4 - House

Thanks Ruth!

Unworthy servants

One of things I've been reflecting on this year as Missional Motherhood Month draws to a close is how overwhelming the thought of 'mission' can be.  I have a limited amount of energy and time, and at times I find that the responsibilities in front of my nose take so much of that time and energy that it's hard to think at all about those outside my immediate circle.  It also doesn't help that being a mother is already the sort of role which never ends.  It's not the kind of job I can leave at the office.  And it's not the kind of role where I'll ever feel like I'm on top of things.

My constant temptation when I feel so overwhelmed is to tighten the circle of the people I need to think about loving, shrink my vision down to the few people who I can't ignore, and define my obligations carefully enough for me to have a decent chance of meeting them.  In other words, my temptation is to ask, "Who is my neighbour?", with the hope of getting an answer that I can use to justify myself.

At one level, I think, this way of thinking reflects some important realities.  It is a helpful thing to remind myself of the people who have the first call on my time and energy and prayers.  When I do good to Dave, or to the kids, or to the members of my church, I'm not just doing good to particular individuals; I'm also honouring the value that God places on marriage and family and church.  God doesn't call me to live a life of uncentred, random, indiscriminate acts of kindness to the whole world in general; he places me within a family and a church and the Bible gives me pointed reminders like the "especiallies" of 1 Tim 5:8 and Galatians 6:10.

But at another level, I think this way of thinking includes a tendency I should be fiercely resisting.  The fact that the call to mission is such an open-ended one - that I can so easily feel overwhelmed, and I'm never able to say that I've 'done' it adequately - is a painful but life-saving medicine for people with proud, perfectionist tendencies like mine.  When I let myself feel the force of it, it mortifies my pride, drives me back to God's grace, and reminds me of the ever-growing debt of gratitude that I owe to God and my never-ceasing need to rely on him.

At times like this, the little parable that Jesus tells in Luke 17 is a good one for me to come back to, so I thought it might be a good passage to finish with as Missional Motherhood Month comes to an end:

"Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸ Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰ So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’"

Advent giveaway - entry 7

This contribution actually comes from last year's winner, Miriam, who has come up with a new idea this year:

This year I have decided to do something a bit different and have an advent parcel! I really can't claim much credit for any of the ideas though. They are all plagerised from a combination of other people's!!

I went with Cathy McKay's advent present calendar idea and simultaneously put together a couple more for good friends of ours who were moving away from our college residential community. It was my husband's idea to have it as a 'pass the parcel' and pull one layer off at a time. I am hoping it will work well for us, and our friends, while we all do a bit of travelling over the month of December.

For the Bible readings, I used Ally Adeney's advent program for 2009 which works through Luke 1 and 2. The package ended up being bigger than what I had originally anticipated, because I included a lot of craft activities to do. I had a bit too much fun not being confined to fitting everything into the tiny pockets of our usual calendar (entry 2 in last year's giveaway)! And for our friends - whose children will not be at school for most of December - I wanted to focus on providing some stimulating activities for them to do to help fill their time. At least it will get smaller over time! The activities were a combination of my own, Catherine McLennan's and Ally Adeney's. A real joint effort for sure. It made me thankful for so many helpful bloggers!!

I will be accepting entries until Sunday night (5 December), so you can email me your entry up until then!

The best kept secret of Christian mission

One of the gifts Dave brought home for me from America last week was a book by John Dickson called The best kept secret of Christian mission - promoting the gospel with more than our lips.  Published this year, it appears to be pretty similar to Dickson's earlier book, Promoting the Gospel. 

I read his earlier book on Mission-Commitment in Ancient Judaism and in the Pauline Communities (sample chapters available here) for a NT essay that I wrote last year and found it very helpful.  This book seems to be an outworking of that thesis, applying it to our contemporary context.

I haven't read it all yet, so I can't obviously comment fully on it (I'll review it when I have read it!), but so far I really like what he has to say.  The basic gist of the book is that Christians are called to be part of God's mission because he is the one Lord to whom everyone owes allegiance, but promoting the gospel involves more activities than the verbal ones we normally associate with the word 'mission'.  It involves our whole lives:  

I want to make a distinction ... between the specific activity of proclaiming the gospel and the broader category of promoting the gospel.  The former is properly called "evangelism", a word that derives from the New Testament term euangelizomai, which only ever means "announcing (grand) news".  The wider category of promoting the gospel includes any and every activity that draws others to Christ (including of course, evangelism).  People sometimes use the words ‘mission’ or ‘outreach’ or ‘witness’ for this larger work, but  I prefer the expression ‘promoting the gospel’ (I'm sure I pinched this from someone but I can't remember whom) because it reminds us that at the heart of our mission to the world is the news of Christ, the gospel.  In my view, when "mission" becomes disconnected from the gospel, as it sadly does in come church circles, it no longer deserves to be called Christian mission.

The concept of promoting the gospel obviously includes evangelism but it also tries to give a proper place to things like prayer, godly behaviour, and answering for the Faith, all of which are explicitly connected in the New Testament with God’s plan to save his people. Such activities are not separate from the work of the gospel; they are supportive of it and vital to it. Praying that your friends and neighbours would come to know Christ is no less a promotion of the gospel than speaking to them about Christ. Both activities are evangelistic, even if only one of them is evangelism in the strict sense. This does not mean that those who pray for their friends need not worry about speaking to them, any more than it means that those who speak to their friends need not worry about praying for them. My point is that both activities are full contributions to the promotion of Christ in the world. (pp. 22-23)

Advent giveaway - entry 6

This contribution comes from Judy:

I made some felt mini-stockings, labelled them with glitter glue, and pegged them onto lengths of ribbon above the fireplace.

 

The first year I tried this, my son was 3 and I had a 18month old daughter. We tried doing a Bible overview reading plan*, but it was beyond them and they really just wanted the sweets in it every day!

Last year I decided to break the calendar into three sections. The first 10 days we covered the fruits of the spirit (I got the pictures from here). On the 10th day we recapped the 9 fruits, coloured them in, laminated them and stuck them into a "basket" which lived on the fridge for the rest of the month! Then we used the little booklets from Gods Little Guidebooks (I bought this through a local church's bookshops, but they are available here) and went through the 10 commandments.

The last 4 days we did the advent story, cobbled together from an overview calendar*.  This seemed to work well, and I was planning to repeat it this year, perhaps doing the commandments first and then the fruits, just for a change. We now have a 5, 3 and 1 year old, so it will be fun to see how much the older two remember from last year.


* Email me if you want a copy of this.

Missional motherhood - guest post 6

Missional motherhood is spilling over into December this year!  Here's another contribution:

I am a mother of Primary School-aged children, so primarily, our local state/public Primary School is our mission field. As a family, we think of what it would be like to be sent here as missionaries by CMS, and what our lives would be like in that role. With God's help, we try to order our lives in that way. One of the ways that I am involved in mission is by spending lots of time at the school, after school hours. There is plenty of opportunity to hang out with people, socialize and get to know each other. We get to talk about all sorts of things, including having gospel conversations. I always try to mention that I am a Christian in the first conversation I have with people. Simply doing that can provide opportunities to talk about Jesus.

Furthermore, our inner city suburb is one where community is highly valued, so extending the relationships to hanging out beyond school is not hard. However, it takes some initiative, time and effort.

We have gotten to know many families at the school this way. I generally get to know the women in the school playground first. Then we get together for morning tea, or shopping, or a play date. Later, we get together as families for Friday night dinners. The husbands then get the chance to meet each other. By then, it is a good, genuine friendship which, to varying degrees, extends into all of life. This includes parties, coffee, dinner, pancake breakfasts, cooking together, minding children, providing meals, shopping, going on outings, etc. It has also recently included being able to read the Bible with some of the women (using Christianity Explored), and a couple of our friends coming to our church gathering.

We long for Jesus to be honoured by all of our friends and we pray that God would glorify himself and his Son as he has mercy on many. We pray that our gracious God will use us to bring Jesus to our friends. We are so excited about the privilege and opportunity to do so! (Even as we are exhausted sometimes!) We love them and don't want them to go to Hell, and are convinced that their only chance is knowing Jesus. So we keep hanging out with them, speaking to them and speaking to God for them and their salvation.

Advent giveaway - entry 5

This entry is from Kath, who has also posted more photos and details of her Advent calendar on her blog.  These Advent calendars were made at their family church servie last Sunday, which is a great idea!  According to her blog explanation: "Each numbered shape has a short passage to build up the Christmas Story over the 25 days. This is craft for amateurs (ie. me)."

Thanks Kath! 

Please email me if you'd like to enter, and have the chance at winning one of Ally's lovely stars.