So much for artistic photos. Probably needed to have the flash on...

Pre-Bake

Right, so I didn't chop the oats either--food processor, you know.

Decided against covering with tinfoil...

      Racheal

This was *after* the soap bubbles dissipated and I'd already cleaned the slides. (I also ended up getting some tea-tree oil in there to help kill the mold that I am positive was growing in the tubes.)

Air-drying time...

It's amazing how *smooth* the valves are after oiling. I had oiled them not very long ago, upon the suggestion of a young friend of mine who plays...I'd never thought of it and it really, really helped. Of course, after washing, they needed re-oiling.

I can't imagine a brass-playing profile without a double chin...so here goes. It may just be me, but tone might have sounded better? Flavor is, irregardless. :D

      Racheal

Simony is the sin that takes its name from Simon the Sorcerer...who tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from Peter with the laying on of hands. It refers to the sin of buying spiritual power and ecclesiastical office and functions, or to the charging of fees for the benefits of receiving the Word and Sacraments. (181)

The Greek word is hierosuleo meaning to rob a temple, i.e., to rob God. So then, sacrilege is theft directed against God. Malachi 3:7–12 gives us an example of sacrilege—the robbing of God by not paying Him the “tithes and offerings” due Him. (182)

"For the church to be derelict in its duties is thus sacrilege. This need not be obvious theft and adultery as in the case of these two priests. God is robbed and sacrilege is committed where antinomianism [a distaste and disregard for Biblical Law] is taught and tithing denied, where modernism [with its critical approach to the Bible and situational ethics] prevails and a so-called new theology and new morality are preached, where to any degree the churches arrogate to themselves the authority due unto God alone, and wherever authority is used for anything other than lawful, godly ends. 261. Rushdoony, Law and Society, 39–40. (184)

All neglect [of]… the worship and ordinances which God has appointed is also a transgression of the Second Commandment. When a person neglects to worship God regularly according to His Word privately, with his family and especially with the congregation of the Lord publicly, it is disobedience to God, who commands us repeatedly in the Bible to worship with His people, “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:25). (185)

What would cause “the habit of some” to become the “forsaking of ourselves together?” Apostasy from the faith, which Hebrews was written to warn against, and negligence and the lack of diligence and conscientious care to regularly attend to the worship and ordinances of God, are the two leading causes. Other causes include: Fear of persecution, ridicule and slander in those who prefer their reputation, prestige, ease and comfort before Christ and the duties we owe Him in the gospel; Unbelief deceitfully and secretly working within gradually moving the negligent person to full apostasy, which is the way “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” shows itself—in the neglect of worship, first of private worship, then family worship and congregational worship; and Spiritual laziness which is excused with a variety of phony reasons. (186)

If merely neglecting the worship and ordinances of God is sinful, how much more heinous is all… contempt [for] the worship and ordinances which God has appointed. There are two ways of treating the worship and ordinances of God with contempt. First, by not attending worship and using the ordinances regularly and often in faith with a holy, humble and proper frame of spirit,
"which the solemnity of the duties themselves, or the authority of God enjoining them, or the advantages which we may expect to receive by them, call for. When we do not seriously think what we are going about before we engage in holy duties,
or watch over our hearts and affections, or when we worship God in a careless and indifferent manner; we may be said to draw nigh to him with our lips, while our hearts are far from him. 274. Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 2:331. (190)

Any attempt to hinder or to put a stumbling block in the path of anyone from worshipping God, especially from congregational worship, or from worshipping God publicly in the way He commands in the Bible, is guilty of breaking the Second Commandment and, unless he repents, will be judged by God. This applies to parents hindering their children from worship, friends hindering friends, the civil government hindering Christians, the church hierarchy hindering true worship by the imposition of ordinances not commanded by God or by outlawing the use of ordinances commanded by God... (194)

If hindering people from coming to the worship and ordinances of God is sinful, how much more wicked is it to be involved in overtly opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed. (199)

A person who breaks the Second Commandment will see the consequences of his idolatry among his descendants: the father’s sins will be imitated in his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and so God’s judgment will fall upon his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren: “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” 
....
On the other hand, a faithful believer who obeys the Second Commandment will see the gracious blessings of his obedience among his descendants: “showing lovingkindness to thousands [of generations], to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” “All the way to the most extended generation imaginable, God will show favor to those who are faithful to Him and keep His commandments.”295 Because David was faithful to God’s commands, his dynasty continued for generations. 295. Douma, The Ten Commandments, 57 (205-206)

Although we can speak of a collective working out of these curses and blessings, they do not work automatically. If a father sins, that does not mean necessarily that his descendants are doomed. And if a father is faithful to the Lord, that does not automatically guarantee that all his children will be faithful. (206)

The appended sanction and blessing, however, is not the first reason given for obeying the Second Commandment. The first reason is God’s sovereignty over us—for I, the Lord your God (Ex. 20:5). (207)

God is our Creator and we are His creatures. God is the Lord of creation and we are His subjects whose reason for existence is to glorify and enjoy Him in whole hearted obedience to His commands for Jesus’ sake. (208)

Because He is Elohim, our Almighty Creator, He owns us—the human race in general and each individual particularly—“The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it” (Ps. 24:1). The Creator is our Proprietor. Because He is Jehovah, which is His covenant name—He is the God who is for His covenant people, who controls all things for their sake, who reveals Himself to them and whose presence is in their midst—His people are doubly His. (208)

By virtue of creation, we are His; and by virtue of His covenant of redemption, we are His: “for you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). We are His redeemed servants to live for His pleasure and to do His revealed will. (209)

We are to obey the Second Commandment for the God who gave it is “a jealous God” (Ex. 20:5), who has fervent zeal for His own worship: “you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Ex. 34:14). (209)

[T]he Hebrew word for “jealousy” or “zeal” means “ardor,” which signifies God’s love for His people and His jealousy in their behalf, as well as for His jealousy for His own honor, which is inseparable from the welfare of His faithful people. He has a profound desire to protect them, and a jealous determination to protect and vindicate His own honor and purposes. (210)

Idolatry and rebellion against God provoke Him to anger: “Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness” (Deut. 9:7a). In Jeremiah 7:19, the Lord declares, “Do they provoke Me to anger?… Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?” (211)

God identifies those who defy the Second Commandment as “those who hate Me” (Ex. 20:5). All who live in disobedience to God hate Him! This may not always appear to be the case either by the observer or by the disobedient person himself, but regardless of how it appears, it is true. (213)

Spiritual adultery leads to social adultery. If the covenant parents play the whore and give their love and worship to idols instead of to the living God, then they will also allow their covenant children to intermarry with idolators and pagans, which is not only condemned by God, but which leads to the destruction of the church by the world. (214-215)

What does it mean to say that God visits iniquity? The word “visits” is used in the Bible in a good and bad sense. God visits His people to bless them (Gen. 21:1; 50:24; Ex. 13:19; Ps. 80:14); but He also visits people to judge and punish them: “And Thou, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish [literally to visit] all the nations; do not be gracious to any who are treacherous in iniquity” (Ps. 59:5)....God will terribly punish transgressions of His Law, most particularly, in this case, the making of molten images by which to worship Him. (216-217)

First, we must recognize that God owes us and our children nothing. (217)

Second, the mercy God bestows upon the children of the faithful is this: He does not allow them to remain dead in their trespasses and sins....On the other hand, when He punishes the iniquities of the father upon their children, He merely leaves the individuals as they are—dead in sin and under condemnation. (218)

Third, we must understand why God revealed that He would visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children.
"Men are so stubborn and sluggish that if Moses had simply said that [God would punish only the breakers of the Second Commandment and not their children], then they might not have been sufficiently aroused by fear. But Moses presses on. God, he says, will not only punish you personally, but he will extend his vengeance to your offspring, and not simply to your children, but He will pursue to the very end; for you will constantly feel his anger like a burning fire; even after your death people will see the marks of your iniquity.… " 315. Calvin, John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments, 74. (219)

God esteems the observers of [the Second Commandment] such as love Him and keep His commandments: “showing lovingkindness…to those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Ex. 20:6). Those who love the Lord obey His commandments, for love… is the fulfillment of the Law (Rom. 13:10...)....It is impossible to desire to honor God and to be subject to His commands, unless our heart is filled with love for Him that moves us to cling to Him and to live for His pleasure. (221-222)

God promises mercy to them [those who love Him and keep His commandments] unto many generations: “showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Ex. 20:6). (223)

"The implication should be obvious: the capital base of righteousness will grow to fill the earth over time. Even a little growth, if compounded over a long enough period of time, produces astronomically large results—so large, in fact, that exponential growth points to an eventual final judgment and an end of time.… The righteous widow’s two mites (Luke 21:2–4) if invested at 1% per annum over a
thousand generations, would be worth more than all the wealth on earth. In other words, the concept of “a thousand generations” is symbolic; it means everything there is, a total victory for righteousness. Furthermore, this victory is no overnight affair; it comes as all growth processes come for a society: step by step.…" ​323. North, The Sinai Strategy, 43–45 (224)

God promises faithful observers of the Second Commandment that He will “show lovingkindness” to them and to thousands of their faithful descendants. He uses the word “lovingkindness” (NASB) or “mercy” (KJV) for two good reasons.
First, this word cannot possibly mean a just reward due to services paid, as if God had said, “I recognize the obedient service paid to Me from those who worship Me, and I will honor them according to what their service deserves.” However, because all our righteousness is as filthy rags, if that is what God said, we would receive nothing from Him but His condemnation. God could have said that, but, praise His name, He said I will show them lovingkindness.
...
Second, the word “lovingkindness” deflates human pride, “so much so that men cannot glorify in their words as if they merited a reward. Rather let us perceive that [what] God intended to mean by it is that when we serve him we still have need of his support as well as need of his forgiveness of our vices and weaknesses.” 325.Calvin, John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments, 79–80. (225)

The Westminster Confession of Faith adds this explanation to its statement of the regulative principle of worship: there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed” (I, vi). (226)

Although the church’s authority regarding ceremonies and institutions of worship is limited to the administration and application of them as the Bible commands, the church does have a limited and well-defined power with reference to the circumstances connected with public worship, in common with any civil and well-ordered assembly of people to order and regulate them by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word....In other words, the church has the power and the duty to maintain order and proper decorum in
her assemblies and to restrain and correct any improprieties, indecencies or disorder. (227)

Therefore, how is the line to be drawn between matters of propriety and order which must be regulated by the church and matters of divine command in worship which the church may not regulate but administer? ...
(1) It must be only a circumstance of divine worship; no substantial part of it; no sacred significant and efficacious ceremony.332
(2) That which the church may lawfully prescribe by her laws and ordinances, as a thing left to her determination, must be one of such things as were not determinable by Scripture…333
(3) If the church prescribe anything lawfully, so that she prescribe no more than she has power given her to prescribe, her ordinance must be accompanied with some good reason and warrant given for the satisfaction of tender consciences.334
332. Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies Obtruded on the Church of Scotland, 281–82
333. Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies Obtruded on the Church of Scotland, 283–84.
334. Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies Obtruded on the Church of Scotland, 284
(228-229)

Frank Smith, in his book, Worship in the Presence of God, has given us a concise summary of Gillespie’s three criteria for distinguishing circumstances ABOUT worship from ceremonies IN worship: “(1). It must be something which is truly circumstantial—that is, it must not have any liturgical significance; (2). it must be something which could not have been prescribed by the Bible (such as the language of worship, or the time or place of the service); (3). it must be something which, when imposed, will not wound tender consciences.” 337. Frank Smith, “What Is Worship,” Worship in the Presence of God, 18. (229-230)

The centrality of the Bible as the Word of God to Christianity means that reading will never become obsolete and that the very act of reading can have spiritual significance.  (230)

"Whereas other religions may stress visions, experiences, or even the silence of meditation as the way to achieve contact with the divine, Christianity insists on the role of language, [because], [l]anguage is the basis for all communication and so lies at the heart of any personal relationship." 338. Veith, Reading Between the Lines, 17–18. (230)

The point Postman is making, (although we would describe the God of the Bible in other terms), is that “‘word-centered’ people think in a completely different mode from ‘image-centered’ people.” 341. Veith, Reading Between the Lines, 21. (232)

Since, as the Bible warns us, graven images lead to paganism of the worst sort, it is not surprising to see how this “new mentality” has impacted religion with postmodernism’s repudiation of all absolutes, worldviews and the very concept of truth itself, and with the New Age Movement with its comical irrationalism. Categories such as true and false, right and wrong, revelation and superstition have become irrelevant to the “image” generation. Even among Christians today, the concern is (234)

Veith warns Evangelicals, who supposedly love the Bible, not to allow themselves to be seduced into being conformed to this evil world rather than to the written Word of God, similar to the way the children of Israel were seduced by the graven images of the Canaanites and the thought-forms they embodied. We show ourselves to be seduced when we stress feeling rather than truth, when we seek emotional experiences rather than conformity to the life and death of Jesus Christ. We want instant religious gratification—“name it and claim it”—rather that complete submission of ourselves to the revealed will of God written in the Bible. (234-235)

     Racheal

God forbids trying to capture the Lord God in any mental or visual images, for such efforts are a contradiction of His uncreated, immaterial and infinite spirituality, a rejection of God’s sovereignty, a denial of His incomparable majesty, and represent attempts to control God by magic. (129)

Mental pictures of images of God are idolatrous. God is to be perceived in His perfections and works, not in terms of a specific form or shape, even mentally. (130)

It should be obvious that giving such mental images or visual images the worship, adoration, veneration or honor that belongs alone to God is idolatry, and idolatry that is an abomination to the living God, who is jealous for His own glory. (132)

Although it is obvious that graven images should not be worshipped, it is not as obvious that all worshipping of God by means of, or represented, in or symbolized by such graven images is also idolatry... Aaron had no intention of leading Israel to worship another god than Jehovah, or of worshipping the golden calf, but of worshipping Jehovah by means of and as symbolized in the golden calf. (133)

Why is this desire [to worship God with images] evil? (1) It is rooted in unbelief. Faith rests in the sheer Word of God without any other props. If God says He is
near His people, faith believes God. (2) It is an attempt to control God and to guarantee His presence with His people. (3) Worshipping God by means of a graven image promptly turns into the worshipping of the graven image as God. (134)

The Second Commandment forbids using images as pretended helps to worship, because no feigned images of God, Father, Son or Spirit, are at all helpful in the worship of God, rather they are hindrances to true worship. (140)

Representation of feigned deities give a false appearance, are a pretense and a sham.

Superstitious devices are those ceremonies and rites invented by the brain of man, not commanded by God, used to manipulate the supposed “dark supernatural forces, ” e.g., lucky charms, or used in the worship of the true God, e.g., kneeling to receive communion, clerical vestments and prayers for, or to, the dead. In whatever sense we use the phrase, superstitious devices, all of them are forbidden by God. (142)

We should notice five emphases in this text [Is. 1:10-15]: (1) The Divine disgust for religious rites without repentance; (2) The “heartless” but sincere worship of Judah; (3) The hatred of God’s “soul” for worship without heart; (4) The burden of superstitious worship to God; and (5) The refusal of God to hear and answer prayer in superstitious worship. (143)

[1] In her apostate condition Israel’s worship, prayers, religious rites and holy days meant nothing to Jehovah. In fact, He was repulsed by their observance, frequency and sincerity. Although He had commanded that these things be done in His worship, He never commanded these religious rites apart from repentance and integrity of heart before Him (1 Sam. 15:22; Jer. 6:20; Hos. 6:6; Amos 5:21–23).
....
The sacrifices, prayers and holy days had been prescribed by Jehovah, but not without faith in the heart. (143)

[2] The worshippers in Judah and Jerusalem were generally correct in their worship practices and they may have been enthusiastic and sincere in the performing of them, but sincerity, enthusiasm, and external correctness are no substitutes for obedience to God’s commands from the heart and in the life. (144)

[3] He hates apostate, superstitious worship. “My soul” is an anthropomorphic
expression which means much more than merely a substitute for the personal pronoun “I.” “My soul” is “the center of His being, regarded as encircled and pervaded by self-consciousness." 200. Delitzsch, quoted in Young, The Book of Isaiah, 1:67. (145)

[4] Superstitious worship, then, according to this text is comprised of two things: (1) Worshipping God in a manner not commanded by God; and (2) Worshipping God when in the worshipper’s heart there is no living faith in God. This merely formal, although sincere, worship is seen as a burden resting heavily on the Lord. (145)

[5] Isaiah 1 teaches us that the prayers and worship of apostates, however externally correct and sincere, are rejected by Jehovah, because fervor and zeal in prayer and worship are no substitutes for faith and obedience. (147)

The people and priests of Israel were corrupting the worship of God during Malachi’s day by “presenting defiled food on My [God’s] altar,” i.e., by presenting blind and lame and sick animals to be sacrificed rather than perfect and unblemished animals and by offering unsuitable and coarse bread, probably dry and moldy, to be placed on the “table of showbread” in the Temple. (155)

The people were defiling God’s altar and despising His name by being convinced that they needed to offer sacrifices to God to secure His blessing, and yet by being careless and negligent and disobedient in offering sacrifices that were not exactly what God commanded....They were trying to secure God’s favor by a general correctness in the externals of worship, but for them it was not worth the effort to be carefully and painstakingly obedient to God’s ordinances from the heart. (156)

The priests were particularly defiling God’s altar and despising His name by being wicked and sacrilegious in their corrupting of God’s worship, while suppressing any consciousness of doing anything wrong (1:6). In fact, God’s reproofs through Malachi are primarily directed to the priests, because they allowed and encouraged
the people to corrupt their worship of God by offering the corrupted animals and bread the people brought. (157)

So then, by corrupting the worship of God, the Larger Catechism is describing such sins as half-heartedness and hypocrisy in the worship of God, failure to see the value of strictness of observance of God’s revealed ordinances of worship, giving to God less than our best and highest devotion, holding anything or anybody as more precious to us than the worship of the triune God. (161)

The text of covenant Law God has given His people is not to be tampered with, for it is the revelation of the will of Jehovah, their Lord and Savior. It is to be accepted as given by Him without amendment or abridgement by human legislation. Without lessening God’s demands, by obeying only part of them, or increasing God’s demands by the addition of human laws, God’s people are to submit themselves entirely to the inviolable Word of God, lest they detract from the majesty of God’s Law, which is a “testimony” of the glorious character of God. (163)

Any addition to the Law of God is forbidden by Deuteronomy ed and taken up of ourselves, and therefore such “practices” makes those who use them “unclean” in God’s sight. Some people invent ways of worshipping God for themselves personally without any desire to impose them on others or to make them public. Even these practices in personal and private worship are forbidden.
Such “practices” make us “unclean,” for placing our own personal practices alongside the Law is not only the height of arrogance, it has the effect of invalidating the Law of God (Mark 7) and is in God’s sight spiritual prostitution, i.e., unfaithfulness to our covenantal Husband and Bridegroom to whom we have pledged our total, life-long, unqualified, and undivided submission to love and
obey: “they played the harlot in their deeds.” (164-165)

Even if these worship rituals invented by man without Divine sanction are received by tradition from others, with a long and distinguished history in the church, they are dishonoring to God and hence forbidden....(1) They make true worship empty and vain: “in vain do they worship Me.” (2) They are the “precepts of men, the tradition of men, your tradition which you handed down,” rather than the commandment of God. (3) The keeping of such traditions causes the “neglecting of the commandment of God,” “nicely set[ting] aside the commandment of God,” and “invalidating the Word of God.” (166)

1] Nor does it matter that man-made worship rituals have the title of antiquity, i.e., they have a long and celebrated history, “inherited from your forefathers;” the passage of time does not make good evil or evil good. It is evil to supplement, amend or abridge the Law of God and it is never right to do so, nor will it ever be right, and although such things have been approved by many for centuries, it has never been right. (166-167)

Even if these human inventions are venerated as the established customs of a religious society, which most of the people followed, along with the rich, powerful, prestigious and famous, they are still forbidden by the Word of God. (167)

Neither religious zeal, sacrificing devotion, utter sincerity nor enthusiastic passion for the worship of God can justify any innovations in worship not sanctioned by God’s command in the Bible. (174)

God accepts no honoring or worshipping of Him, however “good” our intentions, “without it having the express commandment of his own word to be done in all points.” 253. Knox, Selected Writings of John Knox, 24 (179) 

     Racheal

      Racheal

Due to our clothing, I'd guess this was a Sunday...probably end of the day by the exhaustion on my face.

I made this blue 1940's suit for the occasion.

It took probably an hour and half to go up...and after sleeping on a head full of rags--around 45 minutes to take them out. But boy! Did it ever work!! :)

Two nutty girls going cross-country again. ;)

For detailed info on this dress's construction, click the picture. ;)

Collected this one off Facebook. I cannot remember the name of the photographer.

Cooking for thirteen. A new one for me, but accomplished without any undue trouble.

Food for the lads--as Mr. Arthur would say, "An army moves on it's stomach."

Don't mind the modern vehicles in the background--those belonged to the Boy Scout troop that attended and camped at the reenactment.

I recited/read the Declaration of Independence. (I'd better get back to work on it if I want to have it completely memorized this year!)

One friend has wings...and he took Daddy and Katherine up. I think she had a blast, don't you?

I'd say roughly 25-30 pounds of honey.

Just a random cat picture...

So thankful we got to stay in the Courter's cabin this year...it was so hot that the coolness of the interior was a huge blessing!

First time I ever baked a turkey!

It is almost impossible to take good pictures of Grandma because she refuses to cooperate...so we do the best we can!

Meet my nephew, Malcolm!

It was majestic...even if I did get hoarse and "cap out" by a little over half-way through.

The K's are to be "blamed" for us singing...here are the singers. All the girls were altos, the men all basses--except for Mr. K. I hope to join him in the tenor section next fall.

Closing the place down as usual.

"Nate"

I think the new belt fit the bill perfectly! :)

You can't see "it" very well, but Katherine and I are pretty thrilled with our new camera!!

     Racheal