Glad for Amanda

This Luther quote was retweeted by Pastor John from a tweet his wife sent out. It makes me thankful for Amanda.

"Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave." --M.Luther

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

From October

We had a great time on Saturday night. Shube came over as usual to help pass out candy while Amanda and I took the kids first to my bosses house and then to our neighbors. My boss has a whole room full of sports memorabilia like autographed balls from Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana and others. Ben thought this was one of the highlights of his night. While we were there, he kept slipping back to the room to check things out. My boss thought that was pretty cool. She loved having us and I was so glad we went.

Trick or treating is always a highlight because we get to see a lot of the neighbors that we don't see all year. There are some old people that really like to see the kids and I like to stand and talk with them for a while. Each year, I get a little braver and stay and talk a little longer.

As soon as the costumes hit the floor we started talking about what we would be for Trick o' Tweet next year. Any ideas for three boys, a little girl and a baby? So far, Robin Hood, his merry men, and Maid Marian are at the top of the list. You can see all of our photos here.

Preview: Halloween '09

More pictures to come on Monday.

Eschatology: What do you believe about the end times?

I have been doing some listening and thinking lately about eschatology. I have not done much thinking about this before. Of course I have read through the book of Revelation and vaguely remember my pastor growing up preaching through the book, but I don't remember much of it. My views come more from osmosis and popular culture. This is probably where I was at prior to my investigation.

• Jesus is coming back. We don't know when. He'll come in what is called the rapture.
• He'll set up a reign on earth for 1000 years. I was cloudy on the details.
• At some point, there will be a judgment.
  
• At the end, whenever that is, Christ will defeat Satan and throw him into Hell or the lake of fire.
• There's a tribulation (7 years?) in there somewhere.

If you're like me and don't really know what you believe or even what the differing views are, then I've got a couple of good resources.

Pastor John moderated a discussion entitled "An Evening of Eschatology", of the three main views of the millennium: Premillennium, Post-millennium, and Amillennium. It was very interesting and very spirited. They do a pretty good job of giving an overview of the three viewpoints.

Since I think I am leaning toward an Amillennial view of the millennium period and of eschatology, I sought out one of the experts in this area, Kim Riddlebarger. He is also one of the guys on my oft mentioned favorite podcast White Horse Inn. If you're interested in a more extensive explanation of Amillennialism, you can listen to Kim's lectures here. I finished the first one today at lunch and it was a great overview. One thing I appreciate about his argument is that he says all of us come to every argument with certain presuppositions. These need to be brought out in the open and tested.

Here is a helpful article by Pastor John with some definitions of important terms in these discussions.

A few main texts that are always talked about in these end times discussions are the following.

• A couple of places in Daniel
• Matthew 24
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 & 2 Thessalonians 1:5-2:12
  
• Revelation 20

What do you believe about the end times? Is this something that you ever think about? Any other resources that you think might be helpful?

Read Alouds--Tales of Robin Hood

The boys are really enjoying our latest read. What could be better than stories of men running around the woods, stealing money from rich people to help their friends and sticking it to people of power? This is why the tales of Robin Hood have been perpetual favorites of all kids. It is so much fun to be reading something to which the boys long for me to keep reading every night. This book takes old tales and updates them in language, while still being rather advanced, is still understandable. Another recommended read.

Read Alouds--The Little Riders

We finished last week a great little book by Margaretha Shemin, The Little Riders. When we first started it I thought it was going to be a snorer. It is about a little girl who lives with her grandparents in German occupied Holland during World War II. She loves sitting in her attic bedroom, watching the little riders in the clock of the church across the square. This all changes when a German officer takes her room and begins to live with them. It is the classic story of stereotypes shattering once you get to know the "other". Apparently it has been made into a Hallmark Channel movie. We'll have to see if we can get it from the library. This is a definite recommended read.

Hymn of the Week--Rock of Ages

With a hymn like this one, I wonder how much teaching I should do. I know that the kids don't get many of these words and the concepts are pretty huge. I decided to do none last night. I think the tunes and the words are important in and of themselves. The concepts will come down the road, Lord willing.

Hymn of the Week
I Need Thee Every Hour
Words by Augustus M. Toplady
Music by Thomas Hastings

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.