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Sore Feet

5/31/2014

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For me, sore feet often mean that I have been working, and working hard. So, on the one hand, sore feet are a good thing. :) However, on the other hand, they aren't necessarily the most comfortable.

Anyway, I'm not really complaining because me feet are sore this evening. I'm just thinking out loud.

I did work fairly hard today. I started out (after the morning dishes) by doing a deep cleaning of the back bathroom/laundry room. It was really being to need it. (And I just realized I forgot to clean the mirrors! Oops...) The dryer was piled messily and was quite dusty, the floor had coffee from last week still dried on it, there was a pile of wet towels in one corner (why were they all piled there anyway?), and the sink was nasty. If you can't tell already, I think I forgot to clean the bathroom last week. 

From there, I moved upstairs with the vacuum cleaner, which Daddy fixed (yippee!) and proceeded to do a fairly in-depth vacuuming of my floor. I don't always move the old treadle machine (make that "hardly ever"), but I did today. I also changed the towel under the cat box (along with the litter)...and took all the cat dishes downstairs. As soon as I was done and re-introduced the cats to the room (I take them out when I clean; locking Runty in Savannah's room and tying Curio to the banister in the stairwell), I brought them up some water--but I didn't bring up clean food plates...and I forgot, as usual, I had done so when I went to feed them this evening! Thus, an extra trip downstairs. :D 

Runty has this irritating habit of playing in the cat box when I first put in clean litter. It's ridiculous!

Anyway, by the time this stuff was all done, it was time for lunch. We ate and I did the dishes again...and sometime during the afternoon I headed out for the garden where I ended up hoeing down both sides of the carrot row and weeding it (Savannah did a little weeding too). I developed a pretty good system by the time I was done. First, I took the hoe ("my" hoe, I think it was Grandma's, is really short, too short for anyone else to use with any comfort), and went along the edge of the carrots for roughly six to eight feet (I am aware of only  one carrot I chopped out--which is somewhat impressive since the carrots are still tiny) and then along the edge of the opposing row of whatever (greens of some sort on the west side, peppers on the other). After that I took this really great hoe (basically like a scuffle hoe, if you know what that is) and cleaned the center of the row. Next, I actually pulled the weeds from among the carrots. Repeat. 

That is all I got done in the garden. It doesn't sound like much, but it took a while. When one weeds carrots, most particularly small carrots, one must be careful. (Huh...I sound like some kind of textbook!)

Before I came in, I limped over and checked on my chicks, feeding and watering them. They look nice and lively!

Anyway, to return to sore feet (that's where we started, remember?), I believe I have a little infection in the center of my left sole. I stepped/kicked a ragged bone in my bedroom a couple mornings ago and poked a minuscule hole in the bottom of my foot--and then spent the next couple of days charging around everywhere barefoot. Yeah...smart, I know. 

Oh, and if you wonder if I really keep bones on my bedroom floor; I can explain. I feed the bones to my cats and they drag them all over the place...

Clear? ;)

Oh, yes...and I started the Cowden protocol this morning. And since I had my dinner dose thirty minutes ago...I can go eat now!!!

     Racheal

And yes, Racheal just loves eating...
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Peepers!!

5/30/2014

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Peepers! Fuzz-balls! Chicks!!

Ahem...

Yes, we got our new batch of chickens today. :)

I wasn't really aware that Mama had even ordered them until a few days ago. (Thus Saturday's finishing, more or less, of the brooder coop.) Anyway, this morning, as the market day final prep stuff got underway, Mama told me that she wanted to me do something for her. That "something" was finalize for the chicks arrival.

Gladly, I went to work. I like chickens, you know, and chicks are kind of fun.

First, I washed the feeders and water jars...
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Before...(you can't really tell how dirty they were from the picture.)
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After...
I left them in the house to dry and went out to put the bedding in the galvanized water trough we use as a brooder. 
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The finished brooder coop.
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The water trough brooder.
Someplace along in here, I had to go ask Daddy where the heat lamps and power cord were. The bulbs themselves were actually on top of the old Cadillac in the garage, not on the shelf where he said they were (I'm glad Katherine knew where they were!). The 'China-mans hat' was clipped to the support beam of the lean-to on the old garage and the power cord was in the barn. :)
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Bedding in, heat lamp on...
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All ready! Due to the size of the chicks when they arrive, I took the lids of the feed trays. The chicks would be incapable of eating out of them if the lids were on. As is, they rather have to get in to eat! :D
I didn't have the thing set up a moment too soon, either. The chicks arrived practically as soon as I had everything ready.
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Box full of peepers!
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Eagerly opening the box...
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Peepers!!
The first thing you do when you receive chicks in the mail is to pick them up one by one and dip their beaks in some water and make sure they get a drink. Then you can put them into the brooder where they have free access to water and feed.
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Say "Hi!"
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Fuzz-balls!
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Smart ones too...they found the water real quick!
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Ya think he was a little miffed with me?? :D
Of the fifty-one birds (one was free when you ordered 50, I guess), I found one that was real sickly looking:
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See how it's eyes are shut and it's kind of curled into the fetal position? As soon as I saw those closed eyes like that, I knew he was a goner.
It died after a couple of hours, which wasn't surprising. So, what with that chick and the one of Katherine's chickens I found dead in the paddock, there are two dead animals today.

However, on a different note (though still chicken related), I went to go feed the chickens some popcorn that Mama had burnt while making popcorn for the market today, and as I was doing so, I noticed that the black hen that keeps 'escaping' into the next paddock was just sitting there and not coming over for the food. I decided I had better go check on her. She was sitting practically smack-dab in the middle of the paddock, a "nest" formed in the grass and four eggs under her. So, plain and simple, she is broody! I hope the eggs are fertilized...I know nothing about letting hens go broody because we've never let any of them do so before. 

Popcorn reminds me--Mama asked me to figure out how to make chocolate popcorn for next week while she was gone this afternoon, so after lunch, I did.

If you like chocolate and popcorn, you'd probably love this. Even though I am not supposed to be eating either sugar or corn of any sort at this point, I of course, had to taste it (call it my weekend popcorn splurge). I personally could stand it to be a little less sweet, but still, it was good. :)
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Well, that's the excitement of today. How was your day?

      Racheal

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Just Things...

5/29/2014

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I really don't seem to be doing a very good job at keeping up over here lately...I guess I can just give the old excuse of "same ol', same ol'". It would be fairly true too, I suppose. 

I mowed grass Tuesday morning...then I sat and played my guitar for most of the afternoon. I went out late afternoon and put the remaining tomato cages out. We still have a fairly significant number of plants that need cages. After that, I hoed between two rows of beans. The one row is mostly up, the other (the Romas) has maybe half-a-dozen plants up. I think we need to re-seed that row.

I tilled yesterday morning, until I ran out of gas. While doing that, I sang a hunk of my repertoire at the top of my lungs. One wouldn't think that singing over the top of a roaring motor and with earplugs in would be conducive to singing nicely, but I actually think (could anyone had heard me) that I sounded pretty decent. I played my guitar for a good piece after lunch. Then, later, I help Mama a little bit to start cleaning out the basement. It rained late yesterday afternoon, so that was making me sleepy and kind of non-intelligent. 

I'm not sure what the plan is for today, but there is bound to be some little job for me to do.

My aunt arrived last night after I had gone to bed. She is here to rather help out with Granddaddy some. 

Well, anyway, I think I shall go hunt up a job. If none are ready for me, I'll either play my guitar some more (I'm working on a new piece that I've had marked for several years, but finally decided to sink my teeth into it--it's six pages long and takes me all the way down to 14th position--which can be complicated when one's guitar lacks a cutout) or read some more out of Shelby Foote's The Civil War. I am trying to use my spare moments elsewhere than on the computer (though I'm still wasting far too much time here)...

Until later than,

      Racheal

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Tilling...and Minuscule Help

5/25/2014

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I spent much of the latter part of the week on the Bolens, tilling up the remainder of the garden area (that is, the part that is not covered by the straw so kindly provided to us by our tenant farmer). I only had one "accident" and that was when I caught the irrigation hose with the tines once coming out of the field. I thought I had them lifted, but I guess it must have been one of those time that they didn't come all the way up and I forgot to double-check before I came on out. Thankfully, the damage was minimal, as well as apparently easy to fix. I turned the engine off (because even when the tines are not engaged, they still rotate too much to mess with them as up close and personal as I needed to) and unwound the little bit of stiff plastic hose from the tine's axle. The whole rigmarole probably took under five minutes and I was back at work. Katherine (who by the way got a loverly sunburn out there working in the sun all day--without a hat!) took a few pictures of the day.
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Does that even look like me??? I knew it was going to be funny when she took it because of how I was holding my face. :D
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Heading out to work....Isn't our new driveway beautiful? It's very bright, however...thus the squinting under the hat-brim.
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Happy kid. I like machinery. "RRRrrrrrr...."
Meanwhile...Daddy was doing this!
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Gates for the rest of the chicken paddocks.
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What did I say about it being really bright out there?
After he got done with the gates, he moved on to making a brooder coop. The base for that was our very first farmer's market tent, made out of PVC pipe...there are some memories, some very profoundly stuck in my mind, that go with that thing. However, I'm glad to see the old thing getting put to good use.

Once I was done tilling, I went and "helped" him with a little chicken wire on the new brooder coop. And then came the fun part--moving it!
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My "rooster-tail" cracks me up. (I started carrying a handkerchief last summer like that and haven't regretted it for a minute, no matter how goofy I look...)
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Da goofy peeps!
After we got it moved, we put up snow fencing around the top. It still needs some over the top for the tarp support, but we called it quits after strapping the hole "building" down with dog-stakes and ratchet straps. One of those straps was so tied up I have no idea how it got that way... 
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Ready for supper...hot, tired, slightly sunburned, but satisfied with a good days work.
I am thankful for a good week, full of strength and stamina. :) 

Praise God for work and fun!

      Racheal

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The Reality of Sin

5/25/2014

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Chapter 10 of Authentic Christianity covers WLC questions 21-29. I will not put them up here for obvious reasons... 

Anyway, Dr. Morecraft starts out our study of 'the reality of sin' with the heading "The Origin of Sin".
In no way can God be considered its source, although He has, in fact, foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time....It would be blasphemous to speak of the holy God as the author of sin....There is and can be no unrighteousness in the holy God, who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all. He cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone to evil (James 1:13). (651-652)

Sin originated with Satan, the Tempter (Gen. 3:1). (652)

Satan is a created reality. Jesus considered him to be a real, personal being (Mark 1:13), and so did His apostles (Eph. 2:1–3). He is thoroughly wicked and malicious. There is nothing in him to admire at all. His purpose is to overthrow God’s plan and kingdom, and to take God’s place in the world. He is a created being with many powers superior to those of man; but, being a finite creature, he is no rival or
threat to God. He is not omniscient, omnipresent or omnipotent. In fact, he is under the restraints of the sovereignty of God (Job 1) and he is fatally wounded and curtailed in his influences and activities by the cross of Christ and the preaching of the gospel. (652)

[O]riginally, Adam and Eve were created perfectly holy and yet capable of choosing evil. They had the power to remain upright, but they also were capable of falling. (652)

The fall was included in God’s plan so that we would gain far more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam. Adam was in a holy and happy condition before the fall, but there was always the possibility of falling away. Now, in Christ, believers are increasingly holy and happy, and someday we will be perfectly so. In addition,
there is no possibility of our falling away from this saved condition, now or ever. (653)

The temptation was a shrewd and evil conspiracy against God and man. Satan injected unbelief into Eve’s mind so as to produce actual disobedience. He attacked the integrity, goodness, power and truthfulness of the Creator, by asking Eve: “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’”...Satan attempted to make God look like a fool before man, so he could make man look like a fool before God. (654)

At the fall, God held Satan responsible for tempting man; but he also held Adam and Eve accountable for entertaining and embracing the temptation in their hearts (Gen. 3:14–19). God did NOT look at their sin in any of the following ways: (1) The existence of evil in man by virtue of the fact that he had a physical body, thereby
robbing sin of its ethical character and blaming the Creator of the body with the evil; (2) The unavoidable result of created limitations, which obliterates the distinction between moral evil and simple mistakes; (3) An illusion resulting from human ignorance, which would reduce phrases, as “moral behavior,” to meaninglessness; (4) The lack of God-consciousness resulting from the soul’s unfortunate connection with a physical organism, which makes man sinful because of his createdness; (5) Simple ignorance of the truth which education would remedy, which is contrary to the fact that sin is transgression against the law of God; (6) The opposition of our lower animal appetites to our gradual evolutionary development, which is an attempt to define sin without considering the fact that sin is a revolt against God and a breaking of His laws. 
All of these views of sin make sin a metaphysical, not ethical, problem for man, rooted in his own created humanness.(654-655)

Adam tried to escape the responsibility and consequences of his sin in environmentalism, i.e., the idea that man is what his environment makes him, thereby shifting the blame for his sin away from himself...Adam was blaming God for his sin as the cause of his problems....Human beings are totally accountable to God their Creator and Judge for all their actions and attitudes. (655)

"Can Satan force us against our will to sin? A. No, he tempts us and knocks at the door without, but our will and lust opens the door. Satan is [the] midwife that helps forward the birth but our will and lust is father and mother to all our sins." 6 Samuel Rutherford, Rutherford’s Catechism (Edinburgh: Blue Banner Productions, [1886] 1998), 24. (656)
Secondly, what is the character of sin?
Put very simply in the words of the Larger Catechism Q. 24: “Sin is any want [lack] of conformity unto, or transgression of any law of God.” The “law of God” is comprised of the commandments of the God, who is the one Judge, King, Lawgiver and Redeemer (Isa. 33:22), which He has given to all people in all ages and in all situations as their rule of life, individually and corporately; and which are revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. (658)

Biblical Law is the one and only standard from God which defines sin for us, so that we can distinguish accurately between good and evil...Unless Biblical law is used to determine what is good and what is evil, we have no reliable standard, and man himself will become the final authority in all things, which always leads to tyranny. If God’s law is rejected, there can be no moral absolutes, no reliable authority to distinguish morality from immorality, except fallen human subjectivity, which “is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” (658)

Man’s first act of disobedience can be described in many ways; but, primarily, it was a rejection of God as the supreme and final authority for life. (659)
Satan presented several lies to Adam and Eve:
[1] God is not in control of things. He does not know infallibly how things will turn out. There is no universal government, no absolute law to which all people are accountable. (660)

[2] They chose to believe that obedience to God’s Word enslaves a person and
cramps his life; and that obedience to self over God is true freedom. (660)

[3] Adam and Eve chose to believe that they, like God, had the ability to determine
good and evil without reference to God or to His Word. (661)

[4] ...fallen man can live beyond God’s standard of good and evil and beyond the consequences of doing evil, because he himself can know for himself and in himself what constitutes good and evil. (661)
How then is sin transmitted? Why are we sinners because Adam sinned? Dr. Morecraft uses Romans 5: 12-19 to explain this.
The history of the human race can be summed up in terms of what has happened because of Adam and what has happened because of Christ. This means that salvation is not simply a matter of forgiveness. It is a radical change in our whole
position before God: formerly we were “in Adam” and now we are “in Christ.” We have become members of the new kingdom, the new age, the new race, the new humanity, covenantally represented in Jesus Christ, just as we were a part of the fallen and condemned race, covenantally represented in Adam. (663)

In Romans 5:12–19, Adam is presented as the head of the fallen race. His actions were not exclusively private. He was a “public” person and his actions were those of a representative. He acted for those whom he represented; and he represented the entire, fallen, human race (1 Cor. 15:22)....All sinned in Adam our representative! His transgression affected his immediate descendants (Gen. 5:1–6:6) and everybody else since then (Rom. 3:23). (664)
In the following passages, Dr. Morecraft explains how "our covenantal relationship with Adam" affects us:
First, Adam’s sin, as our representative and covenantal head, constitutes all his descendants as sinners....And it gives us actual sinful human natures, which we inherit from our ancestors all the way back to Adam....In fact, we were constituted sinners in Adam’s loins....We sin because we are born sinners, which sinful nature we inherited from Adam. (664-665)

Second, Adam’s sin brought death and the reign of death to all his descendants. (665)

Third, Adam’s sin brought condemnation and divine judgment upon all his descendants, because of their culpability in his transgression. (665)
Returning to Romans 5...
The good news of this passage is that Christ has come to be the head of a redeemed race of people, those who believe in Him as their Lord and Savior. (665)

This representative-principle in the Bible has many important implications.
(1) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN ACTIONS... (2) THE SOLIDARITY OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN: The actions of parents do affect their children....
(3) THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF UNIVERSALISM: “All” and “many” in Romans 5:12–19 represent two groups of people—all the many who are in Adam, and all the many who are in Christ.... (4) THE HEADSHIP PRINCIPLE ILLUSTRATED IN LIFE: The divinely delegated headship of husbands, parents, elders and civil magistrates demands submission as illustrative of our submission to Christ, our New Covenant Head. (5) THE SOLIDARITY OF THOSE IN CHRIST: Jesus deals with believers as parts of a whole body, as well as individuals.... (6) THE UNITY OF THE BIBLE: God deals with people from first to last on the same principles of grace, faith and Christ... (7) THE SOLIDARITY OF THOSE IN ADAM: We must expect the unregenerate to continue to conspire against and oppose the Church of Christ. (666-667)
The next topic is "The Consequences of Sin.
Fallen man’s entire life, personally and culturally, is devastated by sin. His whole life is marked by TOTAL DEPRAVITY and TOTAL INABILITY. (667)

Total depravity refers to the fact that “[e]very aspect of man’s being is affected and governed by sin. Mind and body, reason and emotions, will, sexuality, and all things else are changed, altered and warped by the Fall.” 18. R. J. Rushdoony, Systematic Theology, 1:445–446. (667)

To speak of total depravity is not to say that all people are as depraved as they can be, but that all people are sinful throughout every aspect of their being. (668)

Total inability has reference to the fact that sin has totally incapacitated  unregenerate man from delivering himself from his sinful plight, and from doing anything that is pleasing to God as long as he is in that unregenerate condition: “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for IT IS NOT EVEN ABLE TO DO SO; and those who are in the flesh CANNOT please God” (Rom. 5:7–8, emphasis added). (669)

So then, a fallen human being is totally depraved and totally unable to deliver himself from his depravity. (670)
To be a little more specific on how sin affects us daily:
Fallen man has also lost his fellowship with God.... This close fellowship with God is restored only in the reconciling work of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:16). (671)

God placed a curse on the central roles of fallen man and woman. He cursed the ground for Adam’s sake (Gen. 3:17), and He cursed child-bearing for Eve’s sake (3:16). Now, no fulfillment is to be found in these central roles and functions, which are so essential to the life of man and woman. Man was created to find contentment in meaningful work, but, apart from Christ, there are only “thorns”
and “sweat,” with a loss of meaning and purpose and calling. Woman is to find fulfillment in child-bearing, but apart from Christ, there is “pain” in childbirth and frustrating, embittering rivalry with man. (671-672)

The entirety of unregenerate, fallen human existence is under the fiery anger of Almighty God. (672)

Man’s only hope is to run to Jesus for refuge from the anger of God because Christ has taken the anger of God against sin in Himself and has removed the curse from all who receive Him as Lord and Savior (Gal. 3:13–14). (672)

What is the anger of God? It is comprised of three elements. (1) His great displeasure at all sin...(2) His passionate resistance to every will set against
His own will...(3) His fierce, judicial attack on all resistance and rebellion against Him in attitudes or actions... (672)

God’s anger is not arbitrary, irrational, impulsive or unjust. It is His eternal detestation of all sin in His universe. It is His holiness, offended and insulted by our sin, stirred to activity against it. It is, as someone has said, “the onslaught of the holy God asserting and establishing His absolute claim to dominion.” 22. http://tinyurl.com/ygsu5kw (673)
Dr. Morecraft points us to the things that can happen to man in this life as the result of God's righteous anger: 
(1) Because of God’s anger, He often blinds the minds of the unbelieving, as a righteous judicial response to the willful refusal of man to use his mind and life for God’s glory.

(2) In His judgment on people and their cultures, God sometimes “gives them over to a reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28).

(3) In His holy anger God sometimes punishes the wicked by sending upon them “a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thes. 2:11–12).

(4) Often God responds to the persistently disobedient who harden their hearts and stiffen their necks against Him, by hardening their hearts even harder, thus completing in judgment what the sinner had begun in rebellion.

(5) God’s wrath can also constantly terrify a sinner and make him a miserable slave to that terror, driving him to irrationality (Isa. 33:14; Gen. 4:13; Matt. 27:4).

(6) According to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, God sends a large variety of effects of divine wrath upon a rebellious culture: poor health, malignant diseases, and war (26:14–17), famine and economic collapse (26:18–20), wild animals (26:21–22), the devastations of war (26:23–26), national destruction, exile and slavery (26:27–39).

(7) God’s wrath brings death: “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

(674-676)
Then he speaks of hell.
The most horrifying punishment of sin is what awaits the unbelieving sinner after death in HELL. It is a reality. (676)

Hell is a place and condition of unimaginable torment, misery, pain and woe....The existence of those in hell will be nothing else but one of sorrow, regret and uncontrolled and unceasing anger and rage, requiring unceasing punishment. (676)

Hell is a place of unquenchable fire. (676)

Hell is an actual, never-ending existence of wicked human beings in excruciating, everlasting fire, as a just punishment for their sin. (677)

Hell is a place where both the body and the soul of the wicked are tormented forever, with no hope of cessation or escape. (677)
He concludes with these thoughts:
You must come to grips with this truth which is as clear as daylight: HELL AWAITS THE IMPENITENT UNBELIEVER. (678)

Be more afraid of sin than you are of hell. (679)
There is also as short appendix, entitled "Predestination and Sin" from which I will just briefly quote:
Because God is the omniscient, all-wise and omnipotent God, He is able to render the actions of man certain without compelling or forcing man to do what is contrary to his will. All the actions of man are free and spontaneous on man’s part and predetermined by God. When man sins, he does so freely without any compulsion on the part of God. (682)

"Because sin is revolt against God and His Law, sin is totally an alien and impossible concept to ascribe to God, in commission or in origin, i.e., moral origin. The question [Is God the author of sin?] thus is not an admissible one…. Man being
a creature, he is totally the “product” of God’s creative purpose, and thus totally subject to the will and law of his Maker. Sin is a rejection of creaturehood and a demand for transcendence over and beyond the limitations of the creature.
This is the root and origin of sin." 4. Rushdoony, Systematic Theology, 1:443–44. Emphasis added. (683)
With that, Chapter Ten is concluded.

      Racheal

P.S. I had to chuckle when I hit page 666...it may seem rather obvious, but the real reason is because Savannah and I have a "666" game we play which we started several years ago watching elevator numbers at the Shades of Green resort in Orlando. A dear friend kept looking at us like we were nuts while we added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided the ever changing floor numbers on the elevators to come up with the number 666. It seems like this sleepiness-induced "silly" game was prompted from a book Mama was reading at the time.
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May 23rd, 2014

5/23/2014

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I have a couple of rhubarb pies in the oven at the moment. I was supposed to make them last night, but I was so tired that I just didn't. But I'll get there in a minute. First, let me tell you about Wednesday evening.

I loaded myself into the car as it was going on five (I meant to leave a little earlier) and headed off to Ruth's house. I ran into some rain on the way down--including a little hail. I realized after the first couple 'whack!'s that sounded like rocks hitting the car that it was hailing. Thankfully, that didn't last long. It bugs me how people in this state don't turn their lights on in the rain (or twilight). It's not safe. But anyway...

I arrived at Ruth's and I really should have taken my mud boots--because I ended up with wet boots and my jeans soaked half-way to my knee. The main purpose was to introduce me to "the girls" (as she calls her horses), but I also wanted to see if I could help out around her place any. However, all I ended up doing was scooping one of the horse-stalls. According to Ruth, just working with the horses (which she doesn't have time to do much) would be help.

Alright, so there are three horses--but only one to be ridden. First, there is Beulah, a sweet little quarter horse. She can't be ridden because her knees. She's about the same color as Snip, though a little darker. Second, there is Rose...this is the one who can be ridden. She is a Halflinger--a little short draft breed. While she is around 4-6 inches shorter than Snip, her feet are twice as big! After watch Ruth do a little ground work with her, I tried (with helpful commentary and instruction from Ruth--she actually explained what things meant!) a little bit. Rose was confused because I was confused, but I think we got along okay for a first time. Third, there is Annie (also Halflinger). I like Annie; she reminds me of Snip. She's the youngest of the three and the worst behaved. Ruth worked with her a little bit and then I worked with her a little bit more. I was starting to get the hang of it...

Ruth also has sheep--they all have names, but I couldn't tell them apart...even though she does and has names for them all. There is also an old male Llama...those guys are kind of interesting looking. :) He seemed nice enough.

Then...there are the dogs. Jacob (an old dog) and Amos (both are Great Pyrenees). Amos is around a year old and his so full of life! Such a BIG puppy...the only way I could semi-control him was by taking a huge hand full of his fur at the back of his neck and attempting to steer him like that. He didn't seem to mind at all. (I came home with dog slobber all over me. You should have seen Abby sniffy daintily at my pant leg...and then Runty doing the same thing! It was hilarious!)

Anyway, I had a good time, got home after dark, and am supposed to go back sometime next week during the afternoon, as Ruth has her vacation next week.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day on the Bolins, tilling the garden. Nothing very exciting about that (in the telling), but I enjoy running the machinery. I was very tired by the end of the day, but I feel fine (except for stiff muscles in my shoulders and neck this morning). After these pies come out of the oven here in around fifteen minutes, I'll head back out to try to finish up. I probably would have gotten finished yesterday, except that the ground was too wet and you simply cannot get mud clumps smoothed very well, because everytime you come back over it, it makes new clumps. Hopefully, I turned it up enough that it will be dry enough to really finish it up today.

I did get a little more sunburn yesterday on my forearms where they hung out of my sleeves all day...and a little on my face. Golf caps work alright for a sunshade over the eyes, but don't keep the face from getting a little fried. So...I pulled out my old big brim straw hat (I got it at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, way back in '03; it's seen a lot of use and is still in pretty good shape) and brought that downstairs this morning. I really don't want any more sunburn on my ears, thank-you very much! ;P

Anyway, I'll be off to the barn here in a few minutes to grease the Bolins up again (that is a job--particularly getting to the rear U-joint on the upper drive shaft (there are two; one runs the machine, the other runs the attachment). I wasn't quite sure I actually got on the grease port back there yesterday...

See ya later!

     Racheal

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Grass

5/21/2014

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Before I went to bed last night, I had decided that today I was going to mow the grass, weather permitting.

Well, I got going early (something about waking up at 6:30 to a chorus of "Hey! Hey! HEY!" wafting up the stairwell) and after eating a delicious breakfast I bounded out to the barn (I'm having a really good energy streak right now). The back door opens easier from inside, so that's why I went into through the front instead of going around to the back. It still took me a couple of good hard tries before the door opened, but I got it and started doing the pre-mow check on the lawn mower. The oil was low, but I had forgotten the right kind of oil to use, so I sprinted into the house to ask Daddy. He told me (10W-30) and I dashed back out to the barn and selected the correct oil from the wall locker by the motor home. Next I had to fill up the gas tank...grease the thing...and now we're ready. (Actually, I think I greased it first.)

Well, I started mowing. I thought the blades sounded horrid, so after doing behind the barn, I brought it up to the house and told Daddy, he came out and listened to it and said it was fine. I hopped back on and continued mowing. I got the barn yard done and had just finished one strip of the road (I never mow the same way twice here) when the engine started losing power, then surging back, then losing power again. The engine seized up and died right there on me. So...back into the house I go for the third time. Daddy was already getting up to come out; from where he was sitting he could see out the window and he had seen the stop and the smoke everywhere. 

We went out, he looked, he said, "It seized up...let's go get the go-buggy and drag it away from here." We had to go get some small chains off the trailer behind the barn...and then, I had to sit on the lawn mower and steer (backwards!) while Daddy drug the things around to the old garage. Now that was a crazy ride for me. I don't have that backwards steering thing down very well at all (from what I noticed, it seemed like it was rather the same principle as backing a trailer and I can't do that decently to save my life. I can back just fine, but not with a trailer attached!) 

While Daddy started taking down the engine, I strolled back to the barn, readied the string trimmer (essentially, a cross between a push mower and a weed-whacker), and got to work taking down weeds around places that you can't get with a riding lawn mower. I had gotten almost all the way through the "orchard" when it was time for lunch...

After lunch, I went back to work. I had to replace the strings someplace along there in the next hour thanks to some twiggy stuff I cleared out around the quince and whatever that other thing is out front by the driveway. I'm mightily afraid that I killed a poor wee birdie chick. I'd guess it was a robin...and it had probably fallen out of the it's nest and was under the pine out front and I just got it when I went under the overhanging branches. :( I don't like doing that sort of thing.

I saw a couple of garter/garden snakes, but thankfully, I didn't get too close to them with those whirling red strings. 

I killed the engine once because I tipped the trimmer back too far and the oil flooded...something (I forget what Daddy called it; he actually came out when he heard it die--I was right behind the house). Anyway, it cranked back up and away I went again (after letting the machine cool for a couple minutes). 

I got done, put the trimmer back in the barn, and as I was going in, noticed that I had forgotten to do around the barn and the junk pile. Oh well, I wasn't going to go finish that for two reasons: 1) I had a bandanna full of eggs (I watered the chickens when I noticed they were all out and gathered the eggs at the same time), and 2) I was on the verge of being overheated and dehydrated. I am trying to learn how to be a little more responsible when it comes to overheating myself (a tendency I've always had).

If I don't hear otherwise, I'm going down to the place of one of the ladies in our church this evening--to get acquainted with her set up and animals. I hope to be able to go down once a week or so and do a little work (like stable cleaning) for her and in return get to ride one of her horses. I believe she said the only one that takes a Western saddle (English is a whole 'nother animal) is named Rose. She also told me Rose follows direct reining only...which is alright. I do know how to direct rein, though it isn't second nature to me like neck-reining. Sooo....I get to relearn that. ;D

In conclusion: it feels so good to work and be hot and sweaty again! (That latter sounds rather gross, but I mean it.) I'm glad my stamina seems to be holding out...

      Racheal

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Rhubarb

5/20/2014

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I don't think this particular blog has seen much, if at all, about rhubarb on it. Well, that is hereby being rectified.

You see, I spent the last two days, standing, squatting, kneeling, and sitting as the fancy took me, around the plants, big and little (or practically un-see-able) that comprise our rhubarb patch. 

Since I last worked in the rhubarb, the number of plants have dwindled rather noticeably. I hear this can be blamed primary on the voles (mice, basically) eating the roots. Nasty little boogers. Of course, weather also can take it's toll on rhubarb (like any other plant), but voles were the primary issue.

Anyway, it's a big job, but quite satisfying when finished. :) I'm glad that there were not near as many thistles as there used to be. My wrists (particularly my right one) are a little stiff, but not enough for me to start complaining about it.


Yesterday, because I was doing the big patch, which commonly has more thistles in it than the rest of the rhubarb together, I wore gloves. This morning when I went out, I put them on, pulled a couple of handfuls of grass and took them off. My pinky fingers were just too sore from wearing them all day the day before.
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The rows (a couple of them).
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A small, but not tiny plant surrounded by weeds.
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This area behind the barn is commonly known as the "Big Patch"...the Big Patch, before weeding.
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The Big Patch, from the other end, after weeding.
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Guess who? (And I hope no one is surprised that the knees of my jeans are somewhat grass-stained.) That must have been before lunch, because I still have my gloves shoved in my back pocket.
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A little perspective on my days work-place. ;)
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Finished...
The grass still needs to be mowed, but I did some down the center of the rows with the push string trimmer yesterday. Either way, the rhubarb patch definitely looks better than it did...and more than that, those minute plants aren't being choked to death anymore!

      Racheal

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Life in the Garden of Eden

5/18/2014

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Chapter 9 of Authentic Christianity covers the twentieth question of the Westminster Larger Catechism: "What was the providence of God toward man in the estate in which he was created? The providence of God toward man in the estate in which he was created, was the placing him in paradise, appointing him to dress it, giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the earth; putting the creatures under his dominion, and ordaining
marriage for his help; affording him communion with himself; instituting the Sabbath; entering into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience, of which the tree of life was a pledge; and forbidding to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death." 

The first topic addressed is "the original home of the first human beings".
The original home of the first human beings was the Garden of Eden: “And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed” (Gen. 2:8). (609)

It was not, in the first place, simply the original home for the first man and woman, it was the place where the man and the woman would be received into fellowship
with the Creator in His own “home.” Eden was God’s home on earth. (610)

Eden would become the home-base from which Adam and Eve would fill the earth and subdue it and exercise dominion over it. All its resources and pleasures could be used toward that end. And, make no mistake about it, Eden was a place of abundant natural resources (2:11), of challenge, work and delight. (610)
That leads directly into Dr. Morecraft's second point: the original task(s) of humanity. Adam was to be an obedient gardener, the manager of creation, the steward of creation, and God's representative-servant (p. 611-612).
Adam was created to work (Gen. 2:5, 15). Work is not a curse, but a calling and a blessing. Adam was given work to do before the Fall, and manual labor at that....Work is God-like, because God works in creation, providence and redemption. (612)

The work mandate does not simply call for work, it calls for work with a certain constancy and regularity—six days of work with one day of rest. “The cycle of labor is as irreversible as the cycle of rest. The law of God cannot be violated
with impunity. We can be quite certain that a great many of our physical and economic ills proceed from failure to observe the weekly day of rest. But we can also be quite sure that a great many of our economic ills arise from our failure to recognize the sanctity of six days of labor.” 7. Murray, Principles of Conduct, 83. (612)

The Work Mandate underlies the whole issue of human vocation....Man is to work in his calling....“Every individual’s line of life, therefore, is, as it were, a post
assigned him by the Lord, that he may not wander about in uncertainty all his days.”9. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. Trans. by John Allen (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, 1936), 1:790. (613)

The ultimate goal of man’s work in the development of the earth’s resources is not the cultivation of man’s abilities, nor the beautification and utilization of the earth’s resources for man’s enjoyment, it is the MAGNIFYING OF GOD’S GLORY. (613)
God, from the very beginning, has exercised a divine provision for the need of humans.
God verbally revealed to man how human life was to be maintained, at least in the Garden of Eden, before the invasion of death. Man’s food was to consist of herbs bearing seed and trees bearing fruit (1:11–12). Later on, after the Fall and the Flood, God revealed to man that he could also eat meat (Gen.9:3). In fact, there is reason to believe that God gave permission to man to eat meat after the Fall and even before the Flood....Jabal, the descendant of Cain, who lived long before Noah, was “the father ofthose who dwell in tents AND HAVE LIVESTOCK” (Gen. 4:20), i.e., he raised cattle or sheep, indicating a demand for meat. (614-615)

Furthermore, if Adam and his family were to continue to eat plenteously of the fruit and vegetables provided by God, they would have to continue to work hard in cultivating them. By doing so Adam and his family would develop personally and economically. (615)
God's creation ordinances were/are as follows:
To man in the beginning of his existence, God gave several creation mandates, or creation ordinances—marriage, procreation, dominion, sabbath and work—which were to guide and direct the entire life of man and woman down through their generations. (617)

All of these mandates were given to man, so that as man obeyed them he would reflect (“image”) his God-likeness, on his human level. He would live as God lives, although on a creaturely level, as he obeyed these ordinances. God is creative and productive; therefore man is to be procreative. God enjoys intimate unity with himself, as the Trinity, so man is to enjoy the “one fleshness” of marriage. God has unlimited Dominion, therefore man is to exercise limited dominion under God. God works, so man is to work. God rests in Himself, so man is to rest in God. (617)

"Their obligation and sanctity remain inviolate. It is not saying too much if we maintain that these creation ordinances furnish us with what is central in the Biblical ethic. These ordinances govern the life of man in that which is central in
man’s interest, life and occupation; they touch upon every area of life and behaviour. The fall did bring revolutionary changes into man’s life; yet these ordinances are still in effect and they indicate that the interests and occupations which lay closest to man’s heart in original integrity must still lie close to his heart in his fallen [and converted] state. Conditions and circumstances have been revolutionized by sin, but the basic structure of this earth, and of man’s life in it, has not been destroyed." 13. Murray, Principles of Conduct, 44. (617-618)
To look at some of these a separately, turn first with me to look at the Dominion Mandate:
The two basic facts about all human beings which are essential to understanding the meaning of our humanity, our “humanness,” are: (1) Man and woman are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27); (2) Man and woman are called to have dominion over all the earth... (618)

Human beings were created in the image of God to exercise godly dominion over all the earth....He is called to build a God-honoring culture out of the resources of Eden and to fill it with generations of godly descendants. (618)

This mandate has reference to the harnessing and utilizing of the earth’s resources for the construction of a godly culture and civilization on the earth through the generations of mankind, which would be based on the Word of God and done to the glory of God....Christian mankind’s additional responsibilities include evangelism and world missions. (619)
Secondly, the Marriage Mandate:
Marriage originated with God (Gen. 1:28; 2:18–25), and therefore has a sanctity, that must be respected by everyone... (619)
Dr. Morecraft draws out four main points under this heading. First, the structure and intimate unity of marriage.
“The skeleton is the structure of the body, that which supports the body; the body
would be like that of a jellyfish without the skeleton. Adam says, ‘She is bone of my bones’ (‘The structure of my being is the structure of her being’). ‘Flesh of my flesh’ (‘The very life of me is the life of her; I find myself, I realize myself in terms of her’).” 16. Rousas J. Rushdoony, Toward A Christian Marriage, ed. Elizabeth Fellerson (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1975), 15. (620)
Second, the authority in marriage:
Marriage involves a LEAVING AND CLEAVING (Gen. 2:24). 1 Corinthians 11:3 makes clear that the head of a married woman is her husband, not her father. When a marriage takes place, a new authority structure is created and a transfer of allegiance takes place. (620)
Third, the roles of husband and wife.
Ephesians 5:22–33 clarifies these roles of the husband as the loving head and the wife as the loving and submissive helpmeet; but the creation mandates, such as
Genesis 1:28, make clear that “the woman shares with the man the responsibility to subdue the earth to the glory of God. She joins with him in his task of forming a culture glorifying to God the Creator.”17 O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980), 77. (620)
Four, the purpose of marriage, of which there are four...
First, marriage is a means to the end of global dominion under God (Gen. 1:28). God blesses man to multiply and replenish the earth, so as to subdue it....In other words, marriage is not an end unto itself, but a God-appointed means to a God-appointed end. (621)

Second, marriage was instituted by God for intimate companionship (Gen. 2:18; Ps. 68:6, 7). (621)

Third, in marriage is the completion of the Divine image. Man and woman in marriage, TWO PERSONS SHARING ONE LIFE IN GOD’S IMAGE, complete the picture intended by the image of God. (621)

Fourth, marriage was instituted by God for procreation and replenishing the earth with godly generations (Gen. 1:28). Marriage is the institution established by God for the fulfillment of the procreative mandate to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 2:23, 24)....The Bible teaches us to have as many children as wisdom dictates, so as to subdue the earth. The assumption is that Christians will try to have large families, knowing that it is the Lord who opens and shuts the womb,
and that all children are gifts of God to His people (Ps. 127:3). (621)
He adds:
Marriage is also the God-given provision for the sex impulses with which God has endowed us. These impulses are not sinful, for they have been implanted in us by God. (621)

However, the expression of these sexual desires must not be governed by impulse, but by rational choice based on the Word of God. “In a word, entrance upon the marital status is to be for the believer not an act of blind, impetuous impulse or fancy, but an act dictated by rational, deliberate decision in the light of the criterion by which God enables us to judge, the gift given us by God or the gift withheld from us.” 20 Murray, Principles of Conduct, 81. (622)
From there Dr. Morecraft moves right into the Sabbath Mandate (which I happened to notice was the seventh bolded heading; reckon he did that on purpose or by accident? :]):
Adam rested on his weekly Sabbath, because he “saw” God rest from His creative labors on His Sabbath, at the close of the week of creation... (622)

Just as Adam kept the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, because of DIVINE
EXAMPLE, so Christians keep the Sabbath on the first day of the week because of DIVINE EXAMPLE—on the first day of the week Christ rested from His redemptive labors (Heb. 4:9–10). (623)

God’s rest on the seventh day of the creation week was not one of inactivity. God ceased from the work of creation and began the works of providence and redemption. God’s rest was the rest of delight in His finished work of creation. Our Sabbath rest is the rest of delight in the accomplishment of God’s works of creation, providence and redemption. (623)
The communion between God and mankind is the next topic.
In this communion, or fellowship, between God and man, God “blessed” them and
communicated to them in words and sentences meaningful to both God and man (1:28). (624)

In Eden, God and man were close friends. God took delight in revealing Himself in all His glory to man, not merely intellectually, but in such a way as to bring intense delight to Adam. In this communion Adam had free and constant access to God, without fear of rejection, and with great pleasure in God’s presence. (625)
The last section in this chapter covers the Covenant of Life. (26. This covenant between God and Adam in Eden has been given several names in the history of theology, all of which are appropriate: (1) The Covenant of Works, emphasizing its conditions; (2) The Covenant of Life, emphasizing its promises; (3) The Covenant of Creation, emphasizing its universality; and (4) The Edenic Covenant, emphasizing its geographical and historical location.)

To  begin then--the reality of the covenant:
Although the word “covenant” (berith in Hebrew), is not used in the first chapters of Genesis, all the elements of a true covenant between God and man are definitely present: parties, promises, demands, sanctions, a bond of life-and-death significance....The phrase in Hosea [6:7], “like Adam,”cannot mean “like men,” for two reasons: (1) No plural is used here, and (2) It would be rather inane since man can hardly sin any other way than like men. Nor can it be translated, “at Adam,” for two reasons: (1) It clearly reads “as or like Adam,” and (2) Bible scholars know of no such location as “Adam.” (626)
The foundation of the covenant and principles of grace:
When God entered into this Covenant of Life with unfallen Adam, as the root and head of the human race (Rom. 5:12–20), He acted in pure grace and condescension....This relationship between God and Adam was not only a natural one between Creator and creature, or Sovereign and subject. It had the added quality of a covenant bond, wherein a loving Father graciously seeks the welfare
and happiness of His dependent children. (628)


The undeserved, unearned, and unmerited grace of God pervades the Covenant of Life. It can be seen in the following principles:

First, the principle of probation: God could have defined the relation between Himself as Creator, and man as creature, merely in terms of Sovereign and servant, in which relation, man would be duty-bound to obey the will of his Sovereign, with the expectation of no reward. Instead, when God created man, He created him as His servant, and in his unfallen condition, as His son, in fellowship with Him, as His Image (Gen. 1:27; Luke 3:38; Acts 17:28, 29). (628)

This Covenant of Life, this probation with its conditions, promises, and penalties, was all of grace, for in it God promised to do more for Adam and his posterity than they would ever deserve or merit. (629)

Second, the principle of revelation: Adam could not have dreamed of such a gracious covenant without a special communication from God....Man’s life in this world has always been defined and conditioned by the gracious self-revelation of the character and will of God. (629)

Third, the principle of justification, i.e., probation limited by time: God’s grace is clearly seen in the Covenant of Life in the limitation of Adam’s probationary, testing period, with reference to time. Without the Covenant of Life with its conditions and promises, Adam’s perpetual innocence was his only guarantee of perpetual favor with God. The smallest infraction of God’s revelation would unravel the entire relationship. (630)

Fourth, the principle of representation, i.e., probation limited as to persons: God acted in grace, not only by limiting the time frame of Adam’s probation, but also by limiting the persons being tested to Adam, as the root, head and representative of the entire human race (Rom. 5:12–20). Without the Covenant of Life, wherein Adam stood for all men, representing all who would descend from him in ordinary generation, each individual would have to stand or fall according to his own individual obedience. But in this covenant, the risks of probation were limited to one man, acting for all men, instead of being indefinitely repeated forever in the conduct of each individual. (631)

Fifth, the principle of adoption, i.e., gracious rewards for obedience: God’s grace is especially manifested in the promise of the Covenant of Life, which was to crown the successful probation of Adam. (632)

Sixth, the principle of eternal life: The life promised Adam in the Covenant of Life, upon his successful probation was not mere extended existence. Eternal life in the Bible includes the blessing of knowing God, and all that implies (John 17:2–3). (633)

Eternal life implies: (1) A change of inward condition; and (2) A change of outward condition. (634)

God has always dealt with mankind on the basis of Divine grace, and never on the basis of human merit. Even the Covenant of Life, commonly called the Covenant of Works, is a covenant of Divine grace. (634)
The covenant's participants: 
This covenant established a life and death bond between the Creator of the universe and the first human being, Adam (Gen. 1:2, 26, 28)....God constituted Adam the covenantal head of all mankind so he could act in behalf of all his posterity. (636)
The conditions of the covenant:
God gave Adam the promise of life in the path of obedience, which, if he walked in that path, would secure life for himself and for all his descendants. If he chose to disobey, he would secure death for himself and his posterity (Rom. 5:12–20)....His deliberate choice of disobedience corrupted himself; but, in addition, because he was the natural, covenantal and representative head of mankind, his disobedience affected, corrupted and condemned all his descendants. In righteous judgment, God imputes the guilt of Adam’s sin to all those represented by and covenantally related to him. (637)
The covenant's promises and threats:
God justly threatened Adam and his posterity with death—spiritually, physically, and eternally, if he disobeyed God’s commands. (637)
The covenant's two trees:
THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL (2:9; 3:3) symbolized the principle of probation. It is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil because it was God’s “instrument to lead man through probation to that state of religious and moral maturity wherewith his highest blessedness is connected.”39 It was the sign of God’s supremacy over man and of man’s submission to God. 39. Vos, Biblical Theology, 31. (637-638)

THE TREE OF LIFE was the symbol of the principle of life in its highest potency. It was God’s “pledge” to Adam of life and communion with Him in covenant faithfulness to each other. (638)
The present status of the Covenant of Life:
First, the human race is no longer on probation. (639)

Second, human beings cannot attain to eternal life and communion with God in terms of the Covenant of Life, i.e., by their obedience to God’s Law. This possibility was forever forfeited for the human race by the fall of Adam. (639)

Third, God continues to require of man perfect obedience as a requirement of fellowship with Him....But man, the sinner, is unable to produce that perfection; therefore he is under a curse and God’s righteous condemnation....In the gospel, Jesus Christ offers both His perfect life and His sacrifice on the cross in the place of
those He came to earth to save; so that now, by faith, believers are “accepted in the Beloved.” (639-640)

Once the Covenant of Life had been violated, “no way of relief from the death-curse may be found other than a bloody substitution. Only as Jesus, the Lamb of God, bears in Himself the ultimate curse of the creation covenant may restoration be accomplished.”42...The Covenant of Grace for us is a Covenant of Works for Christ. 42. Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, 87. (640)

The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, our new representative, instead of the first Adam, has by His life, death and resurrection, restored the image of God in His people, the New Humanity in Christ. He has placed them in a position to reign with Him, to share dominion with Him, and to apply successfully the creation mandates to all of
life, motivated by love for Him, so that God’s original goal of worldwide, godly dominion will be reached. (640)

Fourth, the mandates and promises of the Covenant of Life give us a whole and unified world-and-life-view....The Christian man and woman, as the restored images of God, are to be concerned with all of life on earth, now and forever....Faith in and obedience to the Word of God must pervade and dominate everything. .... The creation mandates—dominion, marriage, procreation, Sabbath
and work—which directed and enriched the life of man and woman in Eden before the Fall were not abrogated by the Fall. (641)

Fifth, John Murray explains the following three positive observations concerning the continuing relevance of the Covenant of Life:
(1) We all stood the probation in Adam as our representative head and failed in Adam. His sin was our sin, his fall our fall, by reason of solidarity with him. ...
(2) Christ’s vicarious sin-bearing on behalf of the new humanity included the Adamic sin as well as all other sins.
(3) The obedience Christ rendered fulfilled the obedience in which Adam failed. (641-642)
The Covenant of Life and the Law of God:
God revealed His Law to Adam. He spoke the creation mandates to him, and He inscribed His Law on his conscience...If men after the fall have the work of God’s law written on their consciences, how much more clearly and perfectly would unfallen Adam have that Law written on his heart. (643)

What Law did Adam have?...the Law God gave Adam was the Law of the Ten Commandments...God doubtlessly gave Adam a perfect law, which is the law of love, i.e., the law of the ten commandments (Matt. 22:37–39). (643)
In summary then:
(1) The law of God was the standard of right and wrong for Adam before the Fall.
(2) The demands of God’s law are absolute, requiring personal, entire, exact and perpetual obedience (WCF, XIX, ii).
(3) This very law, in its moral demands, has never been abrogated, and stands for all people everywhere, as summarized in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1–17). (645)
And that is all for today! I had some trouble concentrating, so I'm doubly pleased that I got through a whole chapter. :)

     Racheal

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The Past Week

5/17/2014

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Yes, the past week has been busy. I have actually intended on writing a blog post a couple of times, but just never did, either because I forgot what I was going to say when I sat down at the computer, or because I simply didn't get to it.

Anyway, I might as well start at the beginning of the week...or, actually, the end of last week.

Friday afternoon, after Mama and Savannah head off for the Farmer's Market, Katherine and I went out to plant beans (which will probably have to be replanted with all the rain over the past week). I took the camera and somehow we didn't end up with any good pictures of Katherine...
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Gracious! I look like a horse! (The wind was blowing real hard. Notice I have my hat tied on...)
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My job...the string was supposed to keep us in a straight line. I guess it helped a little bit. (It kept breaking.)
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This is just so classic me!
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Katherine planting.
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I came after her and covered them up...
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We put the irrigation hoses on after we were done. I went into the barn and brought out a few more other than the one's Daddy had already brought out for us.
You can't tell from the pictures, but my poor feet were soo sore. That's what I get from wearing boots practically straight for two years and then a winter in socks. I used to have really tough feet--so much so that I could have walked on those rocks with limping much, if at all. Not any more! Actually, in the above picture, I was doing my "Pat Brady walk". (Not that he actually walked like that, he just used it for effect in some of his songs...like this one.)
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Garden and field with a dandelion buffer. ;)
Daddy was working on the new chicken enclosure the same day.
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I don't recall what we did on Saturday...probably just the usual stuff.

Sunday, we went to church (of course).

Monday, I mowed the grass...or most of it. Mama finished up after I came in. I hadn't realized that she wanted around the garden done, since last time I mowed she told me not to mow the buffer strip. (I also hadn't mowed the rhubarb since it was so wet--but she's right, I should have, knowing it was forecasted to rain all week and this grass is so thick.)

Anyway, I did something very idiotic. I mowed before and after lunch without putting an over shirt over my sleeveless shirt. Yep...I got burnt. Big time. The only nice thing about it is I won't burn so bad next time around (not that I plan on mowing in the heat of the day in a sleeveless shirt again anytime soon...)
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Would you just look at that dumb-dumb grinning! That red hadn't actually started to hurt yet...but boy, by Tuesday, I couldn't even stand my hair on it!!
Which moves us right along to Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon, Mama, Savannah, and I headed out for an overnighter. We had a 9:30 appointment the next morning with Savannah's (and now my) new Lyme doctor. Tuesday's trip was uneventful...I looked out the window and read about half of Guns of Providence on the way over.
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Daddy and Katherine were working on the chickens new home when we left.
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Our beautiful navigator...
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Our lovely driver...
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Selfies are not my strong point... :P
We ate at a real nice Mexican restaurant for supper--food was good and better yet, I didn't get sick on it! :)

Wednesday morning, we went to our appointment. We talked about symptoms and "are you doing this?" or "does this happen?" and such like. I also got my "orders" for my blood draw...yay... Can't say I'm exactly looking forward to getting stuck, but if it doesn't hurt any more than that tetanus shot I got last September, I won't have anything to complain about. Who knows, I may have stabbed myself with a pin more painfully than this is going to be. Anyway, it really does seem, from the symptoms list that I have this stuff.

On our way home, before we stopped for lunch (not blaming anybody but me for that!), we stopped at Jungle Jim's--this really neat international grocery store place. It did rather remind me of the commissary. The biggest problem (other than I was hungry) was the music was too loud. Anyway, we spent someplace around three hours in there and still didn't get all the way through the store. The place is huge. It was fun, even though I kept getting hungrier and hungrier, but still, I was glad when it was time to pull up stakes and head across the street to Bob Evan's. I had a Cobb salad and have now told my family to remind me to get nothing but the salmon at Bob Evan's. What with the sugar in the dressing and the solution in the chicken, I wasn't feeling so grand by the time we got out of there. The coffee was good though! :)

I finished reading Guns of Providence on the way home and still managed to look out the windows (no matter what Mum says! ;P) We drove through a little tourist trap place were we'd been before, briefly, several years ago on our way to one of my cousin's wedding. Being a weekday, most of the stuff wasn't open, but it looked and felt an awful lot like a ghost town the way things are getting run down...
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The canal...
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I think someone actually lives here...
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One of the locks on the canal (I think). I think locks are really neat! I remember seeing my first one and learning how it worked on some weekend trip we made in Louisiana.
Thursday around here was pretty...well...I don't remember what I did. I was pretty tied out (some of that Lyme stamina stuff). I ended up the day curled up under a blanket reading, that's about all I remember.

Yesterday (Friday), I spent the majority of the day in front of the computer, typing. I woke up feeling in a writing mood, so I did that. I did help with lunch and make supper, so I wasn't completely useless. I sometimes wonder if I will ever finish any of my stories...you see, I get these inspirations and start writing and then I get part way in and start wondering, "How should I end this?" That's a terrible problem I have. However, I suppose that each time I write, it helps my writing in some imperceptible way, so maybe it's not exactly a waste of time...

Today, I spent part of the morning sitting on my grandma's floor visiting with my uncle (who is here) and my grandparents. I got Grandpa his coffee (instant decaf--ick! :D) and put the kerosene heater on to try to dry the carpet where something leaked (I forget what--but where it's at, I would guess the washer...)

After lunch, we sat around and discussed our new (or updated) pill regimens. I've had a few things added and the rest of the family is also going on the anti-Lyme supplement regimen. Then I pulled up the Lyme symptom list and we worked through that with Daddy and Katherine...that actually was kind of fun, for some reason.

Later in the afternoon, I tackled the bathroom, before sitting and playing my guitar for a while. I've been doing a little more of that and I love it! I really do love my instrument, even if I will never sound professional.

Well, I'd better scram!

      Racheal

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