Blog Archives

Of Life of Late...

4/30/2015

I was hoping, when I woke up this morning, that the menigits that has plauged me the two days prior would be gone. By the time I was ready to go feed the chickens an hour and half later, it was manifestly apparent that such was not the case. But, to back up in time a bit...

Monday morning we girls had our lastest Lyme appointment. With the different blood works in, it shows that both Savannah and I (and therefore probably the rest of the family) have Dengue Fever antibodies. Yes, you read that right...bone breaking fever. According to Dr. Ritchie most, if not all, of her patients show Dengue Fever in their blood work. Interesting.

I am fairly lost when it comes to reading lab reports and glancing at my papers here...I forget what this first thing was for...but I'm about 200 points low on it. I have some sort of mutation in one of my DNA strands that makes me more seceptable to viruses (I think that's right). There is other stuff too, but I can't remember what they are.

Katherine has had definite improvement since she switched protocols. Me, I described myself as the "slow poke" because I do not exactly see anything profoundly different. Savannah has also had improvements. As soon as this upcoming conference (next week!!) is over, I will start my Dengue Fever killer...and gradually up my Lyme and Bartonella killers, along with my detoxers. I guess I just need to be hammering these bugs a little more vivaciously. Maybe.

So anyway, Tuesday I spent mainly "down" with an attack of menigitis--which continued into Wednesday. Only, yesterday afternoon I spent almost entirely on my feet poking around in the kitchen and doing little things that were necessary. By supper time I was running an 98.6 (though that is the "normal" body temperature, it's a fever for me) and really didn't feel so great.

Today, as the whirl of market preperation has been going on (this weekend both Farmer's Markets open), my main contribution was ironing doll dresses. I took a couple hour break after lunch because by then I was feeling pretty rotten again. Then I got back to ironing doll clothes. I seriously need to take the time to make doll-sized tailor's hams. But anyway....

I finally got the "impersonator's information" letter from the conference planners this afternoon, so I know a little better what I'm supposed to do. And I do need two days worth of clothes. Glad I planned on that. I'm really kind of excited, though a little nervous...and I just hope I feel good by then. When one's head and neck hurt they aren't exactly the most coherent or even really want to talk. Particularly if there is any noise sensitivity. (I'm dealing with a little of that, but my light sensitivity is worse; going outside hurts my eyes.)

I'm awful ready for supper...

Racheal

1 Comment

Of Lunch...

4/23/2015

1 Comment

Just a goofy little short post. I was getting hungry and nobody else was even thinking about making lunch...so I went to work. I had already put the chicken in the oven early in the morning, so I just grabbed a quart of green beans, a jar of winter squash, and popped a few heads of broccoli into the pressure cooker.

Anyway, this guy:

I'd guess he was at least 8 lb.s.

I raised him, dressed him, cooked him...and ate him!

I even had a thigh today...I generally get a leg since I sit next to Daddy and he always eats a thigh...and the attached leg usually ends up on my plate. :) (Fine by me...I'm a dark meat person and I love chicken legs. However, today the bird got cut up before he landed on the table...so I got a thigh. ;D)

Racheal

1 Comment

If Life Were an Egg...

4/20/2015

1 Comment

I washed nine dozen eggs today...I confess it was probably the most productive thing I did this day.

If my state of well-being today was to be compared to an egg, it would probably look something like this neat-looking speckled thing.

Instead of being a smooth, un-freckled surface, it was filled with moments (the spots) where a voice would pass heedlessly through my head (I heard the voice, but the words did not register at all)...when I would get up to do something and then turn around three times like a cat fixing to bed down--because I forgot what I was doing.

Other spots over here would be the times when I simply could not stand up straight.

Over here is an attempt to speak and my words came out a jumble of incoherent syllables. Or again, whatever I said, while coherent, was down-right stupid.

Glance over at this patch of speckles...this would be when I stood with my hands in the dishwater, my chin quivering for no real logical reason other than I felt like crying. (I didn't actually break down and cry today...but I sure felt like it a few times.)

On another section of the egg, these dark spots just might represent the knees and ankle joints that ached. I did take pause to wonder if the wet weather was a factor...but it just as possibly was not.

Over here is that strange itch on my back...naturally in that spot that I cannot reach. I am thankful for the back-scratching technique I learned from watching my departed grandfather arch his back along the corner of the kitchen.

Glance again...this is a senseless giggle over who knows what.

Or here. The mind is blank, the eyes glazed over staring into nothingness.

I joke, in this area, that my coffee will be cold by the time I finish it the rate I'm drinking it. My hands are stiff and my movements slow and ponderous.

My eyelids droop and I feel fatigued and worn.

This section over here might represent my wheezing inability to breath deeply (otherwise known as 'air hunger') and my TB-sounding cough that is almost always more pronounced in a chill wind.

So...if life were an egg, it would not be one of those pristine, perfectly shaped and colored ones with nary a flaw...but it would be like one that is more interesting to look at...speckled and spotted.

I may not always be thankful as I ought to be, but in the long run, I do believe I shall be grateful for this experience...and already it helps me to understand particular aspects about particular persons that I would not have.

Racheal

1 Comment

Adoption, Repentance, and Sanctification, Part 4

4/19/2015

0 Comments

Breached 100 pages today!

But anyway, the subject today is sanctification. Dr. Morecraft begins by enumerating a number of false views on sanctification; which views I will not go through, but rather follow along with the things in common:

All of these views are antinomian, i.e., they all discount the full demands of the Law of God on the Christian. Most of them accommodate God’s demands on us to our abilities, or lack thereof. (91)

All these views have a defective view of sin, seeing it generally as a voluntary and deliberate transgression of known and accommodated law. ...
All these views have a self-complacency.
"If we make our own consciences the measure of sin, it becomes easy to refuse to recognize as sin what we do not want to consider as sin."139 ....
All these views separate justification and sanctification, which are received by two different acts of faith. ....
Most, if not all, of these views see sanctification as an act in which the believer attains to the state of freedom from sinning, which is a direct contradiction to the Bible, in such places as 1 John 1:8–2:3. ....
These views hold that sanctification is an instantaneous experience, while the Bible presents it as a life-long process beginning with conversion and ending in death for the believer. ...
Most of these views are preoccupied with known sin, and not with the sinful dispositions of the heart and inner life. They teach that, although the sinful nature is not eradicated, nevertheless, a believer may be free from all known and deliberate sin.
139. Smith, Systematic Theology, 2:481. (92-93)

The nature of the Christian life:

The Christian life has been called “the pursuit of holiness,” i.e., obedience to Biblical Law from the heart for Jesus’ sake. Everything about our salvation is aimed at saving us from sinning and at conforming us into the image of Christ. (94)

The saving work of each person of the Trinity is aimed at making us holy. God the Father chose us “to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph. 1:4)....Jesus, God’s Son, “gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works” (Tit. 2:14). The Holy Spirit’s work in us is to enable us NOT “to carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16), BUT to enable us to produce “the fruit of the Spirit” (5:22), so that “if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (5:25). (95)

Our Christian duty is to live well, to perform good works from the heart, to live a godly life, to lead a virtuous way of life, and to seek, above all, the glory and honor of our God. Our behavior will reveal whether the repentance of our heart is counterfeit or genuine, whether our faith and love for Christ are sincere and true. (95)

What are the presuppositions concerning sanctification?

Whereas sanctification is inseparable from the other aspects of salvation, it is a distinct work of God within us, distinguishable from the other acts of God’s grace....Sanctification is the progressive advancing of that implanted seed of new life in Christ by the Spirit. We are sanctified because we are justified— in “putting on” the righteousness of Christ we are affected by it: “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal. 3:27). (96)

The following are the relation that sanctification has to election, regeneration, and justification:

1 Peter 1:1–2 defines Christians as those “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.” In this text sanctification is seen as the means by which God’s decree of election is effected. This means that only the elect, and all the elect of God, chosen from all eternity to be His, experience sanctification. (96)

The point is inescapable, “Those who are sanctified are all the elect and they alone.”143. Wilhelmus a Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 4 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1992), 3:5 (97)

Having been “born from above” by God’s Spirit (John 3:3), justified through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22), and adopted into God’s family (John 1:12), we are conformed more and more into the holy image of Christ (Rom. 8:29), and that process is called sanctification. It is the process within us that begins with regeneration wherein God delivers the justified believer from the defilement and tyranny of sin and renews him in the image of Christ by His Spirit and Word, enabling him to live an increasingly holy life. (97)

All those whom God justifies He sanctifies. Sanctification is the proof of justification. The two are inseparable in God’s plan of salvation. (99)

Following on the heels of this, Dr. Morecraft discuses the necessity and certainty of sanctification:

The reason sanctification is absolutely necessary for salvation, so that without it “no one will see the Lord,” is this: God is holy. (100)

If God’s holiness causes Him to have a holy hatred and holy anger against all that is unholy and less than morally flawless, then He will judge and condemn sinners, because of their lack of holiness....Therefore, this holy and gracious God has taken the initiative and has laid such a basis in His holy Son, Jesus Christ: “He who did not
spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)....We are clothed with Christ’s righteousness, imputed to us, credited to our account and paying all debts in full we owed God for our sins, and are, therefore, accepted with God on that basis: “I will rejoice greatly
in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness” (Isa. 61:10). (101)

It is not only a NECESSITY that we be holy, it is a CERTAINTY that believers in Jesus will be holy, although never perfectly so in this life....Furthermore, having decreed it, He now has recreated us in Christ in order that we will be holy: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). (102)

The triune God is our sanctifier:

Just as “it is God who justifies” (Rom. 8:33), so it is God who sanctifies, thus rendering our sanctification certain and irreversible—nothing can halt the purposes or activity of God for and in His people. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6)....(1) Sanctification, as the work of God, is surrounded in a mystery, as in all His works that leaves us in awe and adoration. (2) For our development as Christians in holiness, we are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9–14). (102)

We are saved from bondage to sin and Satan, when Christ sends His Holy Spirit into our hearts to raise us from spiritual death, renew our hearts, unite us to Himself and give us new life (Rom. 6–8). The Spirit, then, takes up residence in our lives to help us live for God, so that “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Rom. 8:9). (103)

By this progressive work in the believer, the Holy Spirit transforms him to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ... (104)

Sanctification does not take place in us apart from the Bible, which is not only true, but which is divine truth itself: “Thy Word is truth.” (105)

In addition, the Bible says that Christ is our sanctification...He is the PATTERN of our sanctification, i.e., we are conformed into His holy image (Rom. 8:29). He is the SECURER of our sanctification by His perfect redemptive work on the cross (Tit. 3:5–7; Rom. 8:32). He is the BAPTIZER with the sanctifying Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4, 5). (106)

(1) Our sanctification is accomplished for us by the life, sufferings and death
of Jesus Christ. (2) We receive this sanctification because of His sharing of our humanity157 and of our vital union with Him: “He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father.” (3) The eternal Son of God incarnate had to live a life of perfect obedience in order to offset the disobedience of those for whom He died: “as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19)....(4) The effect of Christ’s sanctification in life and death for us is our sanctification and eternal salvation, which consists, not only in being saved from the punishment of sin, but also in being saved from the power of sin, which is sanctification, i.e., He became the source
of salvation for all those who are obeying Him as “the sanctified.” (107-108)

More next week (Lord willing!) on this subject!

Racheal

0 Comments

Sunny Saturday

4/18/2015

1 Comment

I declare! I seem to be having a run of less than fantastically creative titles. Oh well. Dull brain for the last few days in particular. I don't know how much of it has to do with upping my bartonella killer from 5 to 6 drops (twice a day), but it may have something to do with it. Then again, it may not. I never am completely sure on these things.

Now, lest you think I'm nothing but a short bundle of woe, allow me to inform you that I played my guitar (and not just my easy stuff--classical pieces too that required all my fingers, four fret stretches, and barre chords) for roughly an hour this morning and I did not need my brace! Now, how's that for good news? I was very pleased, even though my wrist was quite stiff when I got done. Not having the brace on noticeably improves my range of motion, stiff or not.

I made lunch today, even though half way through one of the three onions I merrily chopped up, I sliced into my own thumb. It hit me right across the nail, about half way down. I was unable to tell whether or not I sliced all the way through the nail or if there was just blood from the fleshy cut pooling up in a groove. I am rather inclined to think that it was the latter since it didn't hurt terribly. Thankfully, it was a nice clean cut with a sharp knife and I didn't keep bearing down on it. So, I've been gimping around with a band-aid for the rest of the day...which means that I didn't get the eggs washed after lunch as I had planned. And that the idea of weeding rhubarb was scrubbed. I really kind of need both hands capable of getting filthy for that job--particularly when working around the mini plants.

I went to town with Mama...we took a car-load of stuff to the Salvation Army. Since we were there, we went ahead and gave it a quick walk through. I was standing there, looking at the bookshelf and when I turned around I laid eyes on a cheerfully orange linen skirt. I am rather partial to orange (why? don't ask...I haven't an answer) and this was a really nice shade. I turned back around...then reversed myself and reached out and plucked it off the rack. "Mama...look at this!" A pause where I look at the size tag, "It says it's a 4." (No, I do not wear a 4...probably not since I was...12? if then...) Then I hold it up to myself (I can usually tell if a skirt will fit by the 'hold'em up' test), "I think I can wear it..." I tried it on...and I could! I beg leave to argue with the manufacturer on their sizing...ahem. Then, as it turned out, the tag was the 75% off color (which we didn't know until check out). So I got this nice, orange skirt for less than a dollar!!

From there we went to Big Lots...then the grocery store. Nothing exciting there. Unless you want to count getting hungry and walking through food as an adventure.

Coming home, the car was acting slightly...off. We pulled into the garage and the left front quadrant was smoking. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I think Daddy said something about the wheel bearing freezing up.

I doodled around outside for a bit, getting my feet dirty and scratched up. I sort of 'helped' Mama with a clean out job on the north side of the house.

All in all, I feel as though I have had a slow day with that dumb look on my face the whole time. :)

How was YOUR day?

Racheal

1 Comment

Bur-rarb

4/15/2015

0 Comments

Forgive me...that is inescapable when the subject of rhubarb comes up.

Anyway, we did a little rhubarb transplanting this afternoon. I weeded around some of the wee tiny plants...which while it took a little while per plant, takes very little time to tell about.

I enjoyed playing with a few worms...I like them you know. Daddy kept accidentally chopping them in half...

All in all, I spent a decent amount of time on my knees, elbows, and hands with my chin and cheek almost touching the ground to peer under the little leaves. In fact, I unburied several small sections that had previously been hidden and would have been choked out relatively soon if someone's short fingers had not discovered them. I lost some rhubarb last year to weeds so I am really going to try to be more on the ball with my weeding this year.

My wrist brace got muddy, but it was highly appreciated--from carrying hunks of rhubarb-root containing clay-y sod to resting on that wrist to using my fine motor skills to pull grass and other weeds with my left hand. I discovered sometime in the past that I pull weeds just as well, if not better occasionally, with my 'off hand'. I am going to guestimate that it is because that hand is stronger due to the guitar...not that I have been playing much recently. (As I type, I have two guitar players [who play by ear] behind me working out Malagauna [sp] again. Daddy had it once but has forgotten it. I have sheet music for it, but seldom play that particular song. It used to tie me into knots to play it.)

I guess I'll go mosey off and wash the dishes...that way the music can continue. :)

Racheal

0 Comments

Of Spring Cleaning

4/14/2015

0 Comments

More or less. Mama and I cleaned out the garage this past Saturday. It was embarrassingly piled with boxes and, depending on how tight the car was put in, the path was little better than a goat path. (Try navigating that with a sloppy-full bucket of wet chicken feed in one hand and a bucket of water in the other--while wearing rubber boots. Amazingly, I never sloshed nor tripped.)

At this current moment, the garage will not hold the car--but only because Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to cleaning out the basement (the door into said third story is in the garage). The basement leaks...and we have a wood burning furnace...and we dump the wood through a window in the winter...and food gets stored down there--both canned and not [like winter squash]...and I think you may be able to have something of a vision of the wood chip/ash dust over everything. We didn't have an over abundance of mold...but there was a little. That is why I, yours truly, who has a high level of mold already in my system, wore the respirator most of the time I was down there. (I took it off a couple of times because the bridge of my nose was hurting.)

I started out yesterday by scooping up several five gallon buckets full of wood chippy stuff and hauling that out of the basement. I cleaned out the furnace--no need to let ashes sit in it all summer--and took the last two buckets of ashes out for the season. No knee deep snow to wade through to get to the garden either! Yippee!! Daddy and I cleaned out the old oil room (which is the room the wood lands in when slid down the chute during the cold days) yesterday--buckets of paint...the wheat sprouting apparatus...a wooden pallet. These items mostly emerged from the basement via the window. The wheat sprouting thingy, I think, was the only thing that had to come out by means of the stairway.

The next thing we did was move the fabric off the "dread sled" (something along the lines of a stretcher Daddy built a few years back that was supposed to be used in case of a tornado emergency to get Grandpa into the basement...it was never actually tried out.) I believe there is somewhere's along 9 rubbermaid boxes of varying sizes full of fabric. In my own not necessarily so humble opinion, I do not think that we need to go fabric shopping anytime soon...I wonder if we can make it somewhat more accessible. We put six of them into the next room, up on top of a series of cinder block and wood slab shelves. The other three, plus the boxes holding Savannah and I's china got moved to the other side of the furnace. Mama and I took the china to the garage this afternoon, but that's getting ahead of myself.

Mama, Daddy, and Savannah went to a market meeting for the upcoming Farmer's Market, so I had Katherine help me take the dread sled and another pallet out of the basement. I then swept again (the whole basement basically) before coming up and washing my now nasty filthy hair. Katherine had been going to make supper, but I ended up fixing our omelettes. She was washing up dishes from a kimchi/kraut making spree, so I didn't mind. I really would rather make supper than wash up the food processor.

This morning, after washing eleven dozen eggs (can you tell I didn't get to them on Saturday--and neither did anybody else? :D), I returned to the basement. Daddy was already down there and was doing something...I think it was clearing off the rest of the wall adjoining the one the dread sled had sat against. I just remembered that this was when the boxes with the china got moved (the first time). Anyway, before lunch, we had that wall cleaned off and the "oil room" scrubbed.

After lunch, Daddy and Katherine went off to town--Katherine had one more blood test. Mama joined me downstairs and we proceeded to haul a good deal of stuff up the stairs so that we could clean the entire furnace room more efficiently. The scrubbing and water sweeping commenced!

At one point, Mama dropped the hose...and it landed on the spray nozzle lever...and she "threatened" to squirt me for laughing because she got soaked. I couldn't help it...it was funny!!

By the time Daddy and Katherine got home, we had pretty well gotten the floor cleaned up. I continued to piddle around while Daddy fixed up a new landing spot for the remaining coal. I mostly just stood around like an ornamental bump on the wall (a rather odd looking one with that "gas mask" on my face) while he transferred the bags. By that point, I was tired enough that I probably would have had a great deal of difficulty lifting one of the bag. (I started out the day tired. Lyme again. Thankfully, my stomach has not been in rebellion today like it was much of yesterday.)

I went to get a snack (it almost always helps) and I guess he hauled out the old pallet while I was munching on carrots because when I got back down there, he had just about finished scrubbing the floor where the pallet had sat. I helped with sweeping the excess water down the sump pump and then announced that, "I'm going to feed the chickens early and call it quits." There wasn't much more to be done until the floor dries anyway. I imagine, therefore, that "stuff" will get returned to the basement tomorrow, the bedstead removed (it has mold on it too) and that area spot cleaned...

Savannah is currently fixing supper and me, myself, and I shall happily consume said supper when it is done. :) In the meantime, maybe I can push myself to do something else useful...then again...maybe I'll pick up my book and read a little. I have to remind myself often enough that reading is not a waste of time.

Until my next post then...fare-thee-well!!

Racheal

0 Comments

Adoption, Repentance, and Sanctification, Part 3

4/12/2015

0 Comments

Continuing upon the subject of repentance...

The repentant man grieves over his sins:

What is the nature of this godly sorrow? Why does it produce repentance? First of all, it is the opposite of “the sorrow of the world [which] produces death.”...The world’s sorrow may be bitter and intense, like that of Esau in Hebrews 12:16, 17; but it is unlike David’s godly sorrow, which was directed to God in deep contrition,
regret, confession and repentance. (52)

Second, this godly sorrow is not merely a regret of sin because of its unpleasant consequences, it is a sorrow for sin as sin, “not only for the guilt of it, but the loathsomeness of it; not only for the ill it does to ourselves, but the dishonor and wrong it does to a holy gracious God.” 74 Thomas Boston, “The Necessity of Repentance,” Repentance (MacDill AFB, FL: Tyndale Bible Society, n.d.), 37. (53)

The repentant man also hates his sins:

True repentance includes hatred for sin along with the hatred of self for sinning. (54)

And why does the repentant believer hate his sin so? (1) Because it is an offense to his holy, majestic and loving Father in Heaven; (2) Because of what it did to his beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross; (3) Because it grieves the
Holy Spirit Who dwells within Him; and (4) Because of its destructive effects in the believer’s life. (55)

Five things in the believer stir up the self-loathing of repentance. (1) The great and gross sins in the life that deeply wound and defile the conscience, like Peter’s denying of Jesus, which made him weep bitterly. (See Acts 2:36, 37.) (2) The spiritual awareness of the extent of sin in his inner life, that moved Isaiah
to say that “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (64:6). (3) The sinful pollution that cleaves to the faithful performance of all our duties before God (Isa. 64:6)....(4) The aggravations of sin (Luke 15:18). When the penitent believer considers “with what bent of affection he has sinned, the light, the many mercies, vows, and resolutions, &c he has sinned against, he cannot but loath himself as a wretched self-destroyer.”83 (5) Instability and inconsistency in doing what is good... 83. Boston, “The Necessity of Repentance,” 43. (57)

The repentant sinner turns from his sins...and to God:

True repentance is a turning...Whatever sense of shame, guilt and sorrow one may have over his sin, if it does not move him to turn from his sin to God, it is nothing....(1) True repentance does not omit any sins. It turns from ALL abominations, from EVERY idol; even the most cherished shall go. It declares: “what more have I to do with idols!” (Hos. 14:8). (2) True repentance avoids all appearances and occasions of sin. (58)

First, we must “cast away” from us ALL our transgressions. This “casting away” of our sins means more than to cease from these sins in our behavior while possibly harboring them in our minds....This casting away involves: (1) “[A] dissolving of that union which is between sin and the soul,”87 therefore the Lord calls upon us to rend our hearts (Joel 2:13) and to break up the fallow ground and not sow among the thorns (Jer. 4:3). (2) When a breach takes place between a person’s sins and his soul, when his heart is broken in contrition, he loathes and abhors his sins AND himself for committing them....(3) He who abhors his sins and who loathes himself for sinning, will cast out and away that which is abhorred and detested, because those sins are “abominations” to God. 87. William Greenhill, An Exposition of Ezekiel (Edinburgh; Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, [1645–1667] 1994), 467. (59-60)

Second, we must make ourselves “a new heart and a new spirit.” (60)

After pointing out that the return Ezekiel is calling for is addressed to the covenant people of God and is a call to return from backsliding away from God, to the reformation and revival of spiritual life, and not a call for actual regeneration of the soul, which is the work of God, not man, Shedd explains: "God does not, [in Ezekiel 18:30–31], command man to quicken [regenerate] himself; to create life from the dead; to command the light to shine out of darkness; to call things that be
not as though they were, 2 Cor. 4:6; Rom. 4:17. In [vs. 31]… he exhorts regenerate but backsliding man, as he does the church at Ephesus to “repent and do the first works,” Rev. 2:5." 89. W. G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 3 vols. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1980), 2:493. (61)

How does one, therefore, make himself a new heart and spirit? Answer: to apply himself diligently as a believer to those external means of grace, e.g., the reading of the Bible, the preached Word, and prayer. God makes effective these means of grace in the creating and nourishing of faith, repentance, and obedience. (62)

Repentance has two sides to it. It turns FROM SIN TO GOD. (63)

The believer returns to God as: (1) His Lord and Master to whom he owes obedience: “I considered my ways, and turned my feet to Thy testimonies” (Ps.
119:59)....(2) The One in Whom his heart rests and finds happiness....(3) The God whom he loves and whom he loves to serve with all his heart and soul....(4) The living and life-giving God Who is His Savior in Jesus Christ, in Whom alone he rests for eternal salvation: “Come, let us return to the LORD…He
will heal us” (Hos. 6:1). (65)

The repentant sinner purposes and endeavors constantly to walk with Him...in obedience...in all ways:

Being reconciled to God in Christ, the believer is reconciled to the entire Law of God,
which he now loves because it is the revelation of the character and will of His Redeemer: “Therefore I love Your commandments above gold, yes, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem right ALL Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way” (Ps. 119:127– 128; emphasis added). (66)

This obedience of the heart and life to the entirety of God’s moral demands on His people revealed in His Word is “the crowning act and the grand test of genuine repentance.” 100 Shaw, The Reformed Faith, 157. (67)

He has a fixed purpose and determination to walk with God in obedience to His Word, having been brought to that purpose and determination and sustained in it by the power of the Spirit—“The LORD is my portion: I have promised to keep Your words” (Ps. 119:57). (67)

Inseparable from such a purpose is the actual endeavor to walk with God in obedience, because “purposes, without endeavours, are but like blossoms without fruit which can never prove one to be a true penitent.”104...Depending upon the Lord to givehim strength (Phil. 4:13), the believer aims at nothing less than perfection
of life before God, and so he exerts effort and diligence in working toward that end, in the practical outworking of his purpose in his every day life. 104. Fisher, Fisher’s Catechism, 162. (68)

It is a resolution that he immediately puts in execution without delay, like the prodigal son who said, “I will arise and go to my father,” and immediately arose and went to his father (Luke 15:18, 20)....And having put his purpose into immediate operation, he constantly endeavors to walk with God in obedience. (69)

The focus of the believer’s holy purpose and endeavors is constantly to walk with God....Christians are to walk AFTER God in imitation of His character as revealed in His Word; BEFORE God, conscious of the protection and care of His presence and providence; UNDER God in glad submission to His sovereignty over us; and WITH God in daily, conscious, worshipful fellowship with Him as friend with Friend. (69-70)

Our daily walk with God has several consequences. It produces practical godliness in our lives and prepares us for faithfulness amid the trials and pains of life. Because we become like that which we worship, if we walk closely and obediently with God in Christ, we will become godly and Christ-like in our characters and behavior. Our walk with God does not conclude at death, it intensifies; for to be absent from the body in death, is to be at home with the Lord in Heaven. (70)

The truly repentant person walks in fellowship with God day by day in all the ways of new obedience. Why is our obedience to God that grows out of our fellowship with God called by the Catechism new obedience? It is because this obedience flows from his new heart (Ezek. 36:26–28), is influenced by new motives, e.g., the grace
of God (Tit. 2:11–12) and the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), is performed in a new manner, i.e., it is performed in complete dependence upon the strength of Christ (Phil. 4:13), with delight (Isa. 64:5), and with the whole heart (Ps. 119:69), and is directed at a new end, i.e., the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). (71)

Traits of true repentance:

The apostle Paul enumerates seven traits of true repentance in this verse: earnestness, vindication, indignation, fear, longing, zeal and avenging of wrong. (72)

Repentance is necessary for salvation. Is is also meritorious?

The gospel of Christ is not only a gospel of grace through faith, it is also a gospel of repentance. “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:15). “And He [Jesus]… said to them… ‘I tell you… unless you repent,
you will all likewise perish’” (Luke 13:2–3)....As these verses show, repentance is an essential part of the gospel of Christ. Just as the salvation offered in the gospel cannot be enjoyed apart from faith in Christ, so its blessings cannot be enjoyed
without repentance. (74)

“If you wish to inherit the blessing, you may; but there is only one way in which you can—the way of faith, repentance, and obedience.” 117. John Brown, Hebrews (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, [1862] 1972), 643. (75)

Repentance, which is absolutely necessary in all who are saved from sin, neither has nor creates any merit with God. It constitutes no basis or cause for the forgiveness of any sins in the repentant one. (75)

Repentance unto life and faith in Christ are twin gifts of God, both contained in the gift of the new heart in regeneration. They cannot exist apart from each other, one does not precede the other in the regenerate person. They may stimulate each other, but as soon as a person begins to believe in Jesus he also begins to repent
of his sins. (79)

“[T]here can be no embracing of Christ with the heart, as a whole present Saviour, unless sin be felt to be in itself a present evil; and there be a genuine desire to avoid it as well as its penalty.” 127. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 658. (80)

Proofs of repentance:

The Bible commands us to “bring forth fruit in keeping with your repentance” (Matt. 3:8). This fruit will include holiness of life and obedience to God from a loving heart for Him; for repentance is a turning from sin to God, purposing and endeavoring constantly to walk with Him in all the ways of new obedience. (80)

(1) Sincere repentance always leads to confession of sins, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” ....
(2) Sincere repentance will be prompt in compensating for our sin and in remunerating and settling any issue or injury or cost to another because of our sin, wherever it is practicable or necessary. ...
(3) Sincere repentance is watchful against any recurrence of the sin repented of: “For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow has produced in you, what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter” (2 Cor. 7:11). (81-82)

Conclusions:

As there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great, that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent. Praise the Lord! (83)

If you do not truly repent, you will perish eternally!
If you do truly repent, you will never perish! (84)

First, sorrow for sin, as offensive to our merciful and gracious Redeemer (Zech. 12:10). Second, hatred of your sins as abominations before God (Revelation 2:6), completely, constantly and vigorously. Third, a fixed purpose and earnest desire to turn from all evil and to all duty, “guarding against present sins, and the occasions of these we are in hazard of; honestly endeavouring after it [repentance] in the use of [the means of grace], and labouring to remove the hindrances to a holy life.” 133. Boston, “The Necessity of Repentance,” 79. (86)

Racheal

0 Comments

Organization...Bees...Rhubarb...

4/10/2015

0 Comments

Today started out kind of slow...the morning was rather nondescript; to such an extent that I haven't the slightest idea what I did that wasn't part of normal routine.

After lunch, Mama, Daddy, and Katherine went back to town (they had been out all morning) to get Katherine's blood work (her first Lyme appointment was yesterday). I grabbed my coffee and addressed myself to the room that was piled in a rather haphazard fashion with fabric and stuff for our Etsy store. (Methinks I have neglected to mention that...here's the link; if you're interested in 'retro' aprons and various odds and ends. We haven't much stuff up yet.) I ended up consolidating boxes and at least giving myself a cursory notion of what all is there (Mama brought stuff up from Florida). About the time I had gotten all that stuff pulled out into the living room, and got started on re-packing (more or less) the fabric, Savannah arrived to help. We ended up with a room that, yes, is still stacked fairly high, but is more organized and the room doesn't feel claustrophobic any more.

Next task on that front...photographing "stuff".

I did a little poking around and found that I'm a little late on most of the "local" places to get bees. Unless the guy up north of here has any left (and his website leaves some things to be desired), I will probably end up ordering them from Georgia...

Daddy and I got the stand all ready and now my hive body is sitting outside. The supers are still in the basement along with the nuc, but anyway...I'm ready, more or less. When I KNOW I have them coming, I'll probably go on a bee-reading binge. That's how I roll, folks.

After I fed the chickens, I decided to go on a rhubarb look-see (still toting buckets...one empty--which I had to hang on to so it didn't blow away...and one full of eggs). I didn't have any flags with me, because I didn't bother to go get them today. I think, depending on weather and stuff, that I will go rhubarb-flagging tomorrow. However, to return to my story...I really just only looked at one row. But I did more than just look...I weeded around the wee plants. Even though that particular row is short (less than half the length of the full rows), by the time I got done, I felt all shaky. I'm guessing that it is simply because I am THAT out of shape. (I suppose the fact that I'm hungry might have something to do with it...)

If I just keep doing little bits of work like this day-by-day it'll add up, right??

Racheal

0 Comments

April 09th, 2015

4/9/2015

0 Comments

I had one of "those" days yesterday. The kind that leave you feeling completely useless...or if someone even raised their voice a little bit at you you would dissolve into senseless tears. Stoned. Unable to stand up straight. Pain in the hip. Weak. Plain and simple--dumb.

That being the case, you will find it hardly surprising that the task I set myself for the day did not get completed. For that matter, it didn't even get started. As a wise man once said (roughly), "One must learn to use the magic word, 'No'."

Still for all that, I did manage to put some books that are going to Goodwill into boxes and put those two end-table thingys that came from Granddaddy's house together. Only to discover that, "Oh, I was going to paint those..." Oh. Anyway though, all in all, Mama didn't mind that I had put them together. This way they aren't floating around in pieces in various boxes...AND it got the table parts out of the chairs. :D

I forced myself to wash the lunch dishes. It's pretty much true when I jokingly say, "I am able to wash dishes--even when I feel terrible!" Still, it took me repeating to myself, "I do have enough gumption to wash those dishes" a few times before I actually got it done.

After that...I can't really remember what I did....

S0, the long and short of it is that I did yesterday's task today...rearranging my bedroom bookshelves! My War Between the States library got moved from the side that my clothes rack shadows to make it more accessible. I also added some of the books I had in a box as well as my newly acquired ones. I found a few that I had been looking for in a drawer in my desk, so I put them there to. (Railroad War...there you are!! I didn't think it was in Florida...) Come to think of it, I have even more in another drawer. I use those though for research purposes frequently enough.

I ended up bringing down a couple of stacks of books (sorry, Mama!!) that I took off my shelf. I of course left my Douglas Bond's up there--all seven of the ones I own--and my old Detective Book Club books. Then of course there are the short story books I still occasionally pull off and read when I don't feel good. Previous generations children's literature was at least half-way decent. They actually knew how to use words. But I digress.

In the process of shifting books, I also ended up dusting three pieces of furniture (now why didn't I go ahead and do the rest??), hanging my Norman Rockwell pictures that I got for Christmas (thanks for your help, Savannah!!), going through my "reenacting box", and emptying and repacking the top drawer in my dresser. It's a whole lot more practical now. It is good when I clean up with the "get rid of--don't be sentimental" attitude.

Oh, I just remembered something I did yesterday, but it's related, so bear with me. I used to keep my Third National folded up on the bookshelf, since I didn't have a place for it. Well, yesterday afternoon, I decided, since I haven't any curtains at this precise moment (I forget why exactly), that I would utilize the old curtain bar hooks up at the top to hang my flag. As it turns out, the hooks are set too wide to hang the flag vertically (which I didn't really want to do for two reasons: 1] I'm up North and 2] my cats would put holes in it), so I managed to hang it horizontally, rather like a bunting. I would take a photograph and put it up, only I have yet to locate my mother's camera since she's been home. Not that I have looked overly hard, either.

As seems to be the case when I get to house cleaning, by the time I was done with my room, putting clean sheets on, cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen...my heels had begun to hurt. I guess it must be my flat footed-ness...though Grandpa might suggest heel-spurs. NOT something I really would like to seriously consider. But, now that I've sat here for a little while, I think I'll probably get by without a heel induced limp like I had a few days ago. :)

The chickens will need feeding in a few minutes, so I'll go ahead and sign off...

Racheal

P.S. Before I got this posted, Daddy called for someone to come pump the brakes for him...and I ended up with a mini-lesson on disc brakes!

0 Comments

<<Previous

Of Life of Late...

Racheal

Of Lunch...

Racheal

If Life Were an Egg...

Racheal

Adoption, Repentance, and Sanctification, Part 4

Racheal

Sunny Saturday

Racheal

Bur-rarb

Racheal

Of Spring Cleaning

Racheal

Adoption, Repentance, and Sanctification, Part 3

Racheal

Organization...Bees...Rhubarb...

Racheal

April 09th, 2015

Racheal

The Middle Kid

Archives

Categories