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Ride, Bolly, Ride...

5/1/2018

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The rest of the quote goes, "In search of El Dorado" (from the film "El Dorado")...but in this case it wasn't El Dorado I was after.

Anyway, to back up, yesterday saw the day I had scheduled for Gardening Day 1. The morning started with a quick three-stop run into our little town (post office, bank to deposit a couple of checks, and the gas station). Arriving home with my fuel, I unloaded it at the back of the barn, parked the car, and headed back to open the barn up wide.

Done with that, I hopped on the mower and mowed the top half of the garden area. I mowed fairly high so that the shorter dandelions would not be damaged too badly, except for where I was going to till.

I don't recall if this is only our second year of strip-tilling or the third. Either way, strip-tilling the top half of the garden was the task I had laid out for myself. Once done with the mowing, I greased the Bolens, hopped on and gave the thing a crank. Oh, it turned over, but it was clear it wasn't going to roar to life, even after being on the charger over night. Thankfully, this battery charger has this nice 50 amp jump feature (I've used it several times for various vehicles)...and when I got that set up, old Bolly rattled to life! (By the way, I gassed up first. It's not particularly fun, especially for me being so short, to put gas in the tank over that muffler when it's hot.)

Merrily on my way (and this was before lunch y'all!), I made the first pass. At the end of the row, following my usual routine when the field is planted (it got planted Saturday), I went to back up and do a multi-point turn around (the Bolens turns like a barge on the Mississippi...or an oil-tanker--whichever "meterpher" you prefer). Nothing. 

Reverse was non-extant. 

You have got to be kidding me! 

Okay, you're not. Why do we always have something go wrong with our machinery?

I wasn't hugely upset and decided that I would just have to bounce over the newly planted corn to get Bolly turned around and back to the barn. I also decided that I wasn't going to bug my dad with the problem unless I really couldn't figure it out myself. So I headed in to do a little research. (The internet is a gold-mine if you know how to dig right.) Locating a manual for a roughly contemporary dated Bolens yard tractor, I poked about looking for something that might be of help. I was in and out a couple of times (had to take pictures with clean-hands!) and someplace in here was lunch. After lunch, I headed out with a page printed from a manual for reference...
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I think this Bolens looks kinda funny without the fender arrangement...
Fender removal was simple (and I am ever so thankful for that little red Sears tool set we keep in the back of the Suburban. It comes in mighty handy). 

​I compared my set up to the somewhat striated photos on the manual page and went to work.
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My area of focus...
I don't really know how long I spent tinkering, but I quickly figured out how the machine was supposed to work. 
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When the drive pedal is pushed forward (with the toe), the forward jaw opens out (above photo) which, if my brain/knowledge is correct, engages a gear in what I think is probably called the gear box. When the drive pedal is pushed down (with the heel), it opens up the rear jaw (next picture), which reverses the gear (or some such thing). So, I may be a little sketchy on what exactly happens inside the box, but I did figure out that which side of the jaw opened corresponded with either forward or backward motion.
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Furthermore, I was able to figure out, even without the help of the manual (though it confirmed my suspicions) that the thing (someplace in the manual, I thought it called it a clevis) in the next photo that is rather flat and kidney shaped was the culprit, more or less. 
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The foot brake (which must be completely depressed for the engine to even think about turning over) is also connected to it (there at the rear is the foot brake bar's connection). There is a bar with an little "L" shaped end (you can just see it) that moves within the "kidney" determining the direction of motion. The Kidney is capable of some movement--which is where the problem came in. It had, somehow, since the last use of the Bolens gotten shifted ever so slightly, thus prohibiting the rear jaw to open wide-enough to engage the gear. It was an easy fix once I figured out exactly what I needed to do. (I didn't even need tools. Just some slight elbow grease--though I got more grease on me that the amount of elbow grease I needed.)

Before I put the fender arrangement back on, I cranked the machine (I was very careful, Mom!! I have zero interest in getting caught in a spinning drive shaft!) and using my hand, played with the pedal and ran it back and forth. Satisfied, I turned the tractor off, put the fender contraption back on, reattached the seat, crawled on, cranked up...and proceeded to spend the next several hours happily traversing back and forth tilling up the dirt.
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The top half of the garden area...
I will have to till some more since today we pretty much filled up the ground I broke yesterday. But I don't mind. I like running machinery. :) 

And that was Day 1 and 2 of Gardening 2018....

     Racheal

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Tips on How to Mow Like a Beekeeper

4/26/2018

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This really is a tongue in cheek kind of post, but with, I guess, a dose of truth in it. 

Mowing like a (backyard) beekeeper requires, first, that one divest themselves of any remnants of a "keeping up with the Jones" mentality. Your yard is that...a yard, a pasture, not a "lawn" to be manicured.

Which leads to the second point. You have to utterly disregard how the neighbors are going to perceive you. "Dandelions...just going amok! Haven't they heard of Round-up??" (By the way, you will be greeted with a shotgun if you try to spray my beloved yellow weed-flowers. Spray 'em in your own yard. Over here, I'm propagating them. Seriously. Bees love them...and dandelion honey has such a delicate, sweet flavor!) There is also a bit of a jungle around the front of the house. Well, I'm just waiting for the Star of David to bloom. Once they are done, I'll mow it. 

Third, you will learn to dodge bees and clumps of flowers. This will result in wiggly, scriggly mow lines. If you want a checkerboard patterned lawn--don't become a beekeeper.

Similarly, you will just laugh when you see a low-flying plane and question whether the pilot thinks the idiot downstairs is mowing drunk. 

Lastly, alternate which parts of the yard you do mow...because you really don't want the grass to eat your property.

How to mow like a beekeeper: Mow the grass...miss as many flowers as possible...and ignore what the neighbors might think. 

Your crazy resident beekeeper,

      Racheal

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Procrastinated No Longer

4/16/2018

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In which I restring my classical guitar.

I bought these strings at least a year ago, if not a little longer ago than that. Cordelia (my Cordoba C-5 classical) needed re-stringing then. Well, Sweetwater's amazing promptness and customer service aside, I did not get around to it...I just putting it off and putting it off and putting it off.

Well, today, I finished excuses and changed my strings.
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I always forget how sweet and happy it makes my instrument to have fresh new strings...until I put them on.

So, now my girl has a lovely voice again...she's no longer off-sounding, even in tune.

      Racheal

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Random Spring Updates

4/11/2018

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It is finally beginning to look like Spring is actually getting here. But of course, as soon as I say that, it's going to drop off cold again here this weekend. (Literally.) 

Anyway, I took advantage of a beautiful sunny, low-60's temperature afternoon to begin the spring yard work. I started with the poor, mostly dead weigela out by the road.  
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Before
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I should have cleared the dead stuff up before I took the "After" shot...
Some of that might not survive still, but that was all that had any life left in it. 

​Once I got done trimming, I collected the trimmings and the windfall linden branches and zipped them up the hill in the go-buggy. After dumping that load, I collected another load of windfall maple wood.

Poking around here, there and yonder, I discovered that various mints are peeking out, the bleeding heart is coming up, and joy of joy--DANDELIONS!!
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I need to figure out something with my camera here...
Right, so there were only about an even half-dozen that I saw, but still...bee forage is a comin'!

Katherine hied out to plant the cherry trees that Mr. Y, a WWII vet from church, had given us.
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Cutie Pie...even if her colors *did* all clash!
I took my shotgun out with me, on the off chance that a Starling would show his pointy little beak. Naturally, true to form, I saw nary a one during the entirety of my time out of doors, but I decided to give my little break-action a mini-photoshoot of her own:
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I have bees buzzing in and out of both hives (Huzzah!) I made up some syrup and put it out since it will be warm enough (day and night) for the next few days to enable them to consume the stuff. 

That's the outdoor report. Indoors, I am taking baby-steps towards conquering a few piles and messes that I have not been able to keep up with with my feet being broke out (speaking of which, they are look and feel the best they have since before they broke out in November).

I am still extracting the honey I took off the hive that died in January (I think it was).
I finally washed the honey bucket that had the Spring 2017 honey in it that I fed back to my little hive. It had been sitting on the table for weeks now. (Procrastination. And not feeling good. A combo that I really am trying to to address better.) 

I still need to vacuum the floor here to finish my to-do list for the day...better go do that....

      Racheal

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A Muse on "Adulting" and Lyme Recovery

4/5/2018

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I got home from a quick trip into our little town after mailing a package and dropping into the School Corporation building to fill out the necessary paperwork to get our Farmer's Market cleared to use the School Corp. parking lot--our location for the last, oh, I don't know, decade maybe? 

I took over the Market Master position last year...but the previous Market Master had already taken care of this legal aspect, so I was facing a new experience. I was slightly nervous about it for several reason, not least possibly being the fact that I've hardly been out of the house for months now as I continue to deal with a re-occurring foot infection that for two weeks out of three keeps me strictly shoe-less. So, boldly walking in on strangers and "adulting" caused some slight apprehension. Silly, I know...but the truth.

Anyway, I got home from said quick trip...and as I plunked my wallet down on my desk, I declared to Katherine (who was practicing her piano), "Well, I adulted and it was fairly painless."

She almost laughed and said, "It usually is."

And you know what? She is right. It usually is pretty painless to behave like I'm my age. To face a stranger over a business proposition with my head up and my shoulders back. I may not look beautiful or graceful, but honesty and a grin never hurt anybody. 

I was talking to my mom this morning some about how each of us, even my parents, deal with "moving on" as we begin to function on a higher plane the more we beat our Lyme and Co. When I was diagnosed, I was 22. I am now 26. Those four years in between...large chunks of them are missing. I lived through them (obviously, I'm not dead) and I even did things like working a Farmer's Market every weekend June through September...and a reenactment here and there. But, so much of that time was lost. I aged, without necessarily my mind getting any older. (So don't mind me when I act a little too young. I just haven't caught up to myself yet. ;D) I lost social skills I once had...

Beyond that, there is an emotional "loss". Like I said to my mom, it's like there are emotions there, underneath the flatness, but you just can't quite reach them. (Other days, you sit and cry for no logical reasons.) And then the anxiety--which can cause undue and ridiculous (if you aren't the person living it) stress over even very simple things--perhaps having to get out and pump gas. 

We have to relearn how to deal with emotions, good and bad. We have to relearn how to face stressful situations. We have to learn how to live again. Really live. Not just breathe, eat, and sleep. 

Relearn how to read and absorb information. To read a sewing pattern. To play instruments and sing. To follow through with a task (oh what a biggie this one is!) To step outside our comfort zone.

To adult. 

To walk into a building of complete strangers, standing straight and tall, with a smile and no stuttering as we inform them why this funny looking girl with the black-leggings, denim skirt and red cabled sweater has just intruded into the peace of a beautiful lobby.

It's getting easier. 

I only regret that the "G" I wrote on the paper was so wobbly. A capital "G" is the worst looking letter in my handwriting's vocabulary. 

     Racheal

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Chapter 26: The Third Commandment, Part 5

4/1/2018

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I finished reading of the sins forbidden in the third commandment today, as well as the remainder of the chapter.

Picking up then with abusing the Word, creatures or anything contained under the name of God in charms or sinful lusts and practices: 
Using God’s name, or anything God has revealed, or anything by which He has revealed Himself, or anything He has created as a “good luck piece” or a “lucky charm,” in an attempt to control the present and future, to satisfy sinful desires, to accomplish things or to explain and justify sinful practices is particularly evil and obviously a transgression of the Third Commandment. (397)

A false prophet is one who seeks, by the occult, to communicate with the unseen world by unlawful means; and who seeks to predict and control the future by unlawful means in defiance of God and His Biblical revelation. Why are these unlawful means—witchcraft, sorcery, magic, divination, etc.—forbidden and detested by God? (1) The true believer is to walk by faith in the Word of God and not by sight, and the occult is an effort to deny that basic principle. (2) The occult assumes that God can be forced or persuaded to act in certain predicted ways through magic, trickery, and rituals of various sorts, ways originating in the fallen, depraved human imagination determined to rebel against God and to live by power obtained “from below.” (3) It assumes that the real and superior power is somewhere other than in the God of the Bible, that even He is influenced by a great, mysterious power, that He cannot fully control, and that pervades the entire universe. (4) It involves, by implication, the belief that Satan is that ultimate power. (5) Since Biblical Law has as its foundation the one true God, false prophets, in ignoring His Word, assault the foundation of society, thereby becoming guilty of treason, idolatry and blasphemy. (401)

Biblical Law is the one God-ordained way to predict and plan for the future. The central purpose of this whole section of Deuteronomy is to provide God’s people with a true means of predicting and preparing for the future in the unchanging Law of God. If men disobey that Law, certain curses will result; and if they obey, blessings will result (Deut. 28; Lev. 26).
Maliging God's Truth, Grace, and Ways:
The gospel preaching of Paul and Barnabas was having great success in Antioch....so the Jewish leaders openly tried to contradict the apostolic gospel, “and cast abusive aspersions on the two apostles, perhaps including the name of Jesus in their defamatory remarks.”211 They would revile the apostles as heretics and their gospel as heresy, “blaspheming Christ Himself as an impostor and a false Messiah.”212 Such maligning of God’s name, i.e., of His gospel, His Son, and His apostles as vehicles of God’s revelation, is a clear transgression of the Third Commandment.
211. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts, 281.
212. J. A. Alexander, Acts of the Apostles (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust [1857] 1991), 40.

​(406-407)
Scorning God's Truth, Grace, and Ways:
In the Bible a “scoffer” or “the scornful” are those who are full of indifference, intolerance or hatred for the “name of God,” for revealed truth and revealed religion and anything connected with it. They think of God and treat Christianity with contempt, as they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18f). (407-408)
Reviling God's Truth, Grace, and Ways:
Hence, to malign Christians or their life-transforming gospel is to take the name of the Lord in vain. This hostility of the pagan to the Christian often results in a campaign of insult and slander against the Christian to discredit him, his Bible and his God. The reason for this hostility is given by Jesus in John 15:18–19: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (410)
Opposing God's Truth, Grace, and Ways:
To oppose the preaching of the revealed truth of God, to try to resist and defy the overtures and purposes of the gospel of God’s grace, and to stand in opposition to any of the ways of God with man, is to oppose God Himself. It is to oppose, resist, and defy the revelation of His name to man which is man’s salvation. Such opposition is to oppose the only name by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Hence, it is a transgression of the Third Commandment. (411)
Making a Profession of Religion in Hypocrisy or for Sinister Ends:
The Bible describes those who make such hypocritical professions of faith as “lovers of self…holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power.” They live to please and satisfy the desires and goals of self, not of God. (417)
Being Ashamed of True Religion:
Being ashamed to confess Christ and His divinely-revealed religion as the only true Savior and only true religion, before a hostile and wicked culture is taking the Lord’s name in vain. It is rooted in unbelief and cowardice. It is so heinous in the sight of the Lord Himself that He will be “ashamed” of those who are ashamed of
Him, at His glorious Second Coming. (420)
Being a Shame to True Religion by Uncomfortable, Unwise, Unfruitful, and Offensive Walking, or Backsliding from it:
[By Uncomfortable Walking]
A life that does not conform to one’s Christian profession or to the Word of God is a transgression of the Third Commandment. It is to profess the name of Christ, and to bear that name as “Christian,” and then to live in disregard for the claims of Christ on one’s life or in conformity to the implications and demands of that name
which is above all other names (Phil. 2:9), by which name alone we are saved (Acts 4:12). (421)

[By Unwise Walking]
Failure to walk wisely and carefully before a watching world brings shame on Christ and Christianity and is therefore a breach of the Third Commandment. To be “careful” in how one walks is to walk strictly by the rule of God’s Word without deviating by a hair’s breath. To walk as a “wise” person is to walk as one who possesses divine truth, “understand[ing] what the will of God is,” and who lives in the “light” of that truth, and not as those who live in “darkness.” (423)

[By Unfruitful Walking]
Someone whose life does not “bear fruit for God” (Rom. 7:4), by that fruitlessness, betrays his Christian profession and takes the Lord’s name, which he professes and bears, in vain....What is the fruit that our union with Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to bear for God? It is a life of obedience to Christ and love for others (John 15:7–12). It is a life of holiness (Rom. 6:22). It is “the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). True believers “bear” the fruit of Christ-likeness and “gather” fruit in the church and world (Rom. 1:13), i.e., are effective in ministering the gospel to other people. Fruit confirms one’s profession and keeps him from bringing shame to that Christian profession: “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit.… So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 18–20). (424)

[By Offensive Walking]
Any bringing of shame or dishonor of God’s revealed name, i.e., Biblical Christianity, is a breaking of the Third Commandment, and it is most certain that we bring shame to Christ and dishonor to Christianity by professed Christians walking offensively, i.e., by teaching others to live godly lives, but failing to teach ourselves to do so, by preaching that one should not steal or commit adultery or
idolatry, and then by stealing, committing adultery or idolatry ourselves (Rom. 2:21–22). We live offensively if we boast that we are Christians, who believe the Bible, and that the Law of God is that one and only righteous standard by which we must live or be judged by God, and yet through our breaking or disregarding of the demands of the Law dishonor God and His name which we profess to bear (Rom. 2:23). (427-428)

[By Backsliding]
Although it is impossible to be lost again after being regenerated by the Holy Spirit, it is possible for true believers to backslide for a time from a correct understanding of the Bible because of ignorance, negligence, confusion, or allowing oneself to be swayed from the truth by the eloquence or persuasion of a false teacher. Such backsliding in the understanding of truth leads to backsliding in the practice of truth. (429)
Finally, in concluding the chapter, what are the reasons for obeying the third commandment?
We are to obey the Third Commandment simply because God commands it. We are the creatures of the Creator, subjects of the Lord, and children of the Redeemer, and because of all those relations with God, we want to obey whatever He commands....We will not wait until God gives us reasons for His commandments. We don’t need reasons in order to obey. And because God is not accountable to us, He often commands but does not give us any reasons behind His commands, other than that He commanded it: “Why do you complain against Him that He does not
give an account of all His doings?” (Job 33:13). And yet in mercy and in grace, God condescends to our need and often reveals the reasons behind His commands or gives us motives to encourage us to be faithful in the keeping of them. (434-435)

We want to obey the Third Commandment because the One who gave it is “the Lord,” Jehovah, the God of the Covenant, who is in complete control of His creation, who reveals Himself, i.e., “My name,” to His people, and who is present with His people to fellowship with them and to guide them, and who is self-existent and all sufficient in and of Himself: “I am that I am.”...Therefore, we want to obey this commandment because we love the Lord who gave it. (435)

But, the Lord who gave us this commandment also refers to Himself as “your God.” We are not to take in vain the name of “your God” (Ex. 20:7), of “our God” (Ex. 5:3), of “my God” (Ps. 22:10). It would be audacious of us to use these terms with reference to the transcendent Creator of the universe, if He had not brought us into
intimate union and eternal communion with Himself by His Covenant. It is because of His promise which we believe that we call the infinite God “our God.”...Matthew says of the birth of Jesus that it was the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name IMMANUEL, which translated means, GOD WITH US” (Matt. 1:23). Therefore, we obey the Third Commandment because the God who gave it is “our God,” our Friend, our Savior. He is God with us in Jesus Christ. The strength and motivation we need to obey it we find in this vital union we have with Him. (435-436)

God motivates us to obey the Third Commandment by means of a solemn threat which implies that: (1) A Day of Judgment is coming when all human beings “shall have all their conduct investigated with the scrutiny of omniscience, shall all be found innocent or guilty, and shall all be condemned or acquitted.”243 (2) On that Day of Reckoning we will have to answer to God for every irreverent thought, feeling, word or action, for every infraction of this commandment, and of all others. (3) God will by no means clear those who are found guilty on that Day or leave them unpunished. (4) No mercy shall be shown to those who are found guilty on that Day. ​243. Plumer, The Law of God, 286. (436-437)
Chapter 26: Fini.

      Racheal

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Chapter 26: The Third Commandment, Part 4

3/25/2018

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Picking up where we left off two weeks ago, with the sins forbidden by the third commandment, we begin with murmuring and quarreling with God's decrees and providence:
[Decrees]
The unbelieving mind cannot bear to hear of the sovereignty and predestination of God without instantly being upset and without audaciously attempting to call God to an account for His eternal decrees, or without accusing God with injustice, having sought to measure Him by the yard stick of their own observation, experience and reason. (361)

It is certainly permissible to bring any questions we have about the Bible’s teaching on the decrees of God to the Bible to have it answer and explain them, but they must be questions that arise in a humble, believing, submissive and teachable mind. Questions regarding God’s sovereignty that are hostile or quarrelsome are transgressions of the Third Commandment. (362-363)

[Providence]
Murmuring against, quarreling at or discontentment with God’s providential dealings with us is also a taking of God’s name in vain. (363)

We will always murmur against and quarrel with God’s providence, whenever we judge God by the standard of our experience and when we think that God is answerable to us to explain the why’s and wherefore’s of His providential ways with us. It is the other way around, we are accountable to Him. Furthermore, there is never any basis for our murmuring, for God never, never acts out of character, He never treats His creation unkindly or unjustly—“Far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to do wrong” (Job 34:10). (363-364)
Curious Prying into God's Decrees and Providences:
God makes this point in Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” God commands us to do three things in this verse. First, we are forbidden to allow our curiosity to lead us to pry into the secret
counsels of God concerning what He has decreed to do, but which things He has not revealed, so that we can have “inside information” so as to know and control the future apart from the Word of God. Second, we are directed diligently to make full inquiry into what God has revealed to us in His Word, because all that is revealed
there is for our benefit and guidance....Third, we are also to acquaint fully our children with the things God has revealed in His Word that they, with us, might observe His Law and believe His promises with all our heart. (364-365)
Misapplying God's Decrees and Providence:
In Romans 3:1–8, Paul is vindicating the character and decrees of God from the complaints and accusations of unbelieving man, who deliberately tries to misapply God’s decrees and providence so as to make God look foolish to justify his own unbelief and to evade the true implications of that character and those decrees. Here we can see the difference between the believer and the unbeliever: a believer always justifies God and accuses self, but an unbeliever always accuses God and justifies self. (365-366)

Any misapplication and misinterpretation of God’s decrees that would make those who live in sin immune from divine punishment is a taking of God’s name in vain. God is faithful to His promises, but He never promised to forgive those who refuse to repent and believe in Jesus. (367)

Furthermore, any doctrine of men that excuses sin, removes its odiousness, alleviates its guilt, compromises the need for repentance of it, and condemns the need for continuing conviction and confession of it is of Satan and is to be despised. (367)
Misinterpreting the Word of God or any part of it:
Interpreting the Bible is exhilarating and humbling at the same time. It is also dangerous. Interpreting the Bible in any way, ignorantly or deliberately, that denies the true meaning of God’s Name—i.e., of the Biblical revelation of the character, will and ways of God—is a transgression of the Third Commandment. It is for this reason that the Bible warns: “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment” (James 3:1) and exhorts us to: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15; emphasis added). “The man who handles the word of the truth properly does not
change, pervert, mutilate, or distort it, neither does he use it with a wrong purpose in mind. On the contrary, he prayerfully interprets Scripture in the light of Scripture.”162
All believers are privileged, commanded and enabled by the Spirit to study and interpret the Bible for themselves (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2, 3)...
However, believers do not have the right to interpret the Bible any way they see fit, and any ignorance of Biblical principles of interpreting the Bible, which ignorance leads to misinterpretations of the Bible, is of no excuse before God for distorting His Word.
162. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, [1955] 1979), 263. (369)

The only infallible interpreter of the Bible is the Bible.
Each text of the Bible has one true meaning and not a variety of possible meanings.
The less clear texts of the Bible are to be interpreted by the more clear and not vice versa. (372)
Misapplying the Word, or any part of it:
Not only is misinterpreting the Bible a taking of God’s name in vain, so is misapplying the Word or any part of it. Correct interpretation leads to practical application; believing the truth leads to doing the truth. Therefore, misinterpretation leads to misapplication; but, furthermore, a misapplication is sometimes drawn from a correct interpretation. (372)

What is wisdom? It is insight into the true nature of God, life and the world that comes from diligent study of the Word of God, plus the practical skill in applying those insights to everyday situations and decisions. (373)
Perverting the Word, or any part of it:
It should be obvious that deliberately perverting the Word or any part of it, twisting and distorting it to suit our purposes or to represent our viewpoint is a great evil. If anything takes the Lord’s name in vain it is this. (378)

"[W]e must not read the Bible just to conform our own ideas and support our own theories…this is what Peter has in mind, and this is what Paul has in mind when he corrects this tendency—the danger of coming to the Scriptures with your own ideas and theories.…That is one way of wresting the Scriptures to your own destruction. " 171. D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Expository Sermons on 2 Peter (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1983), 215–16. (379)
Using the Word in Profane Jests:
Immorality, impurity and greed, along with everything that leads to these sins, are to be avoided by God’s “beloved children” (5:1–2), and not only avoided, but not even made the topic of conversation, for it is inconsistent with the character of “saints,” i.e., people called out of the world and consecrated to God. “Filthiness” is obscenity and whatever excites moral disgust, the opposite of what is good, beautiful and wholesome, whatever is disgusting in word and conduct....“Silly talk” is the frivolous and senseless talk of fools or drunkards who despise wisdom (Prov. 1:7). “Coarse jesting” (profane jesting) is difficult to translate. It means literally “that which turns easily” and in its early usage means “urbanity” and “politeness.”...Paul is warning us of talk that moves easily and comfortably into the mire of unbecoming expressions. This can happen in people who have a “garbage mind,” that turn every topic of conversation into some off-color, coarse joke or story. Thus, the word came to mean in Paul “coarse jesting,” wittiness in telling coarse jokes and stories. (381-382)

“Foolish talking and jesting are not the ways in which Christian cheerfulness should express itself, but rather giving of thanks. [The Christian] [r]eligion is the source of joy and gladness, but its joy is expressed in a [Christian] way, in thanksgiving and praise.”180 This is the reason that such “coarse jesting” is a transgression of the
Third Commandment, a taking of God’s name in vain. If we move easily, continually and naturally into coarse and profane talk, we are not able or desirous to give praise, honor and thanksgiving to that Name which is above every name. 180. Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., n.d.), 284. (383)
Fruitless Discussions with Reference to the Word:
What exactly were these individual who yearned to be known as expert teachers of the Bible doing?
(1) They were “teaching strange doctrines, different” than the Spirit-inspired apostolic teaching. These “different doctrines” were a “different gospel,” which is not really another gospel, but a distortion of the one gospel (Gal. 1:6). Such teaching of different doctrines, then, comes under the strong anathema of Paul in Galatians 1:8–9.
(2) They were preoccupied with “myths and endless genealogies,” i.e., man-made supplements to the Law of God, such as rabbinical traditions, myths, fables (2 Tim. 4:4; 1 Tim. 4:7), and old wives’ tales that were Jewish (legalistic and racist) in
character (Titus 1:14).   ....
(3) They were “turn[ing] aside to fruitless discussion,” because they had “stray[ed] from” apostolic doctrine (1:6). They had deviated not only from apostolic doctrine but from the goals of that doctrine—love, a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith (1:7).
(388-389)

Having encouraged Titus to preach with confidence the Spirit produced, apostolic gospel of Christ so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds (Titus 3:8), Paul warns him to “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless” (3:9). Irrelevant investigations into genealogical lore—Jewish legends
and rabbinical traditions, unedifying skirmishes about the Law, unnecessary scholastic arguments and wrangling are all to be avoided simply because they are all of no value whatever. It should be noted that all these things Paul warns Titus to shun are doctrines, teachings, viewpoints, principles, regulations and insights that originate with human reason, experience and observation rather than with the Word of God. (390)
Maintaining False Doctrines:
The maintaining or advocating of false doctrines, i.e., teaching that “does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ,” that is not faithful to the divinely-revealed truths of the Bible, is much more than false, it is taking God’s name in vain, it leads away from Christ and godliness, and it is destructive to a person’s spiritual state and to the state of human society. ....
First, the doctrine is “different,” not that it is a different but equally true way of understanding God, but because it is a distortion of the one and only way of understanding God as revealed in the Bible’s gospel (Gal. 1:6f).
Second, this doctrine does not “agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Sound, unimpaired, uninfected and healthy words that promote life, knowledge and godliness are found only in the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, who speaks His words directly and inerrantly through His prophets and apostles in the Bible, and through His ministers of the gospel who
faithfully preach that written Word (Rom. 10:14). .....
Third, this doctrine is not in agreement “with the doctrine conforming to godliness.”   .....
Fourth, the person who maintains or advocates these false doctrines “is conceited and understands nothing.” Morally and spiritually he is blinded by conceit, his vision is clouded, he walks and thinks in darkness, and he is “full of smoke.” His false presuppositions and doctrines prevent him from knowing anything true about
God and life.   .....
Fifth, the advocator of false doctrines “has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words.”...They waste their time and energy seeking to satisfy their curiosity in answering questions the Bible leaves unanswered, or in answering questions from the perspective of human reason and observation unaided by revelation or in replacing the answers of the Word of God with those of human, man-made tradition.    ....
Sixth, from such morbid interests “arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction.” The phrase, “abusive language,” refers to defiant irreverence toward God in our language and behavior, insults directed to God and man.
Seventh, such behavior and attitudes on the part of these who maintain false doctrine reveal that they are “men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth.” A depraved mind hates the truth, opposing and suppressing it.
(391-393)

He charges Timothy to “remind” them of the apostolic doctrine (Acts 2:42), and to “solemnly charge them in the presence of God” to do four things in the carrying out of the functions of their ministerial office, and to do these things himself as an ordained minister.
First, he is to “remind them of these things.” Ministers must never grow weary of preaching time and again all that God has revealed through His prophets and apostles and only what God has revealed in His Word, for these things need to be continually presented and in fact they cannot be too frequently repeated. Ministers are to take great pains to impress the apostolic gospel upon the hearts of their hearers by frequent repetition. ....
Second, he is to charge them before God “not to wrangle about words, which is useless, and leads to the ruin of the hearers,” for such preaching does not treat the revealed name of the Lord with the respect and reverence it deserves. .....
Third, “be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” When a commandment forbids one sin, it implicitly requires the opposite duty; so that, rather than maintaining useless and false doctrines, ministers are to be faithful and diligent workmen of God, who need not be ashamed of what they preach, because they are “handling accurately the word of truth,” without perverting it, distorting it, adding to it, subtracting from it or using it for wrong purposes.   ....
Fourth, “but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.” Ministers must guard the treasure of sound doctrine that has been entrusted to them to defend, teach and bear witness to by being diligent to impart solid food in their preaching, detesting ostentation, resisting ambitious desires to impress his hearers with his abililties and scholarship, being cautious not to talk without spiritual purpose, in plain and forthright language and not with a high-sounding, verbose and bombastic style of preaching.
(394-396)
Here I left off, being of a rather dull state of mind today. Hopefully, next time will see the conclusion of Chapter 26.

     Racheal

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Chapter 26: The Third Commandment, Part 3

3/11/2018

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I began the section revolving around WLC Q. 113 today. 

Q. 113: What are the sins forbidden in the third commandment?
A.: The sins forbidden in the third commandment are, the not using of God’s name as is required; and the abuse of it in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked mentioning or otherwise using his titles, attributes, ordinances, or works, by blasphemy, perjury; all sinful cursings, oaths, vows, and lots; violating of our oaths and vows, if lawful; and fulfilling them, if of things unlawful; murmuring and quarrelling at, curious prying into, and misapplying of God’s decrees and providences; misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way perverting the word, or any part of it, to profane jests, curious or unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines; abusing it, the creatures, or any thing contained under the name of God, to charms, or sinful lusts and practices; the maligning, scorning, reviling, or any wise opposing of God’s truth, grace, and ways; making profession of religion in hypocrisy, or for sinister ends; being ashamed of it, or a shame to it, by unconformable, unwise, unfruitful, and offensive walking, or backsliding from it. 

I did not, you will probably not be surprised to know, make it beyond oaths and vows. Beginning then with the first of the Sins Forbidden by the third commandment: Failure to use God's Name as required.
God threatens to curse all those who do not honor His name as it deserves and who do not take His name, and all it means, to heart. God will curse their persons and
their blessings. This is particularly true of Christian leaders, like the priests to whom these words were originally addressed (vs. 1). They must show the people the right way to live and worship, and correct any impiety and false worship in the people whenever they see the people growing cold in God’s worship. (306)
The Abuse of God's Name:
[1: Ignorance]
Abusing or misusing God’s name in ignorance is still a breaking of the Third Commandment, for our ignorance of God, i.e., the willful suppression of the truth in unrighteousness, is guilty, inexcusable ignorance: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). (307)

“The unbeliever is fully responsible for his mental state, and this is a state of culpable ignorance. That explains why Paul issued a call for repentance to the
Athenians (v. 30); their ignorant mindset was immoral.” 79. ​Bahnsen, Always Ready, 256 (308)

[2: In Vanity]
The reason for these petitions [Prov. 30:7-9] is that he does not want to dishonor his God by sinning against Him either by unbelief or pride....Either way he considers his sin as an abuse of God’s name in vain. (308)

[3. Irreverent Profanity]
By their treatment of the altar and the table of the Temple, the people and priests were, in God’s opinion, guilty of contemptuous behavior in corrupting His worship, because they had regarded the worship of God as of such little sacred value, that it was nothing to them to adulterate that worship. Irreverence for the means by which God reveals Himself is irreverence for the God who is “majestic in holiness” and who is “a consuming fire.” (310)

[4. Superstition]
For example, in the incident described in 1 Samuel 4, Israel had a misplaced and superstitious trust in the ark of God, rather than the God of the ark: “Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord that IT may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies” (vs. 3). Such superstitious attitude
and use of the ark of the Lord is a heinous sin against the Lord of the ark. Faith puts its trust in the trustworthiness of divinely instituted symbols, sacraments and ordinances as pledges of God’s presence and blessing to His faithful people. But these divine symbols, sacraments and ordinances do not derive their power from the trust that is properly placed in them, that is, in God through them. (311)

[5. Wicked Mentioning of God's Name]
    A] Titles and Attributes:
Those wicked people who speak against God wickedly, taking His holy name in vain, using His glorious titles or mentioning His perfections in a wicked and irreverent manner are counted by God as His enemies and as haters of God....God takes a person’s wicked use of His name far more seriously than we ordinarily think. God hates it, is insulted by it and will punish it. (320)
   
    B] Ordinances:
To mention or use God’s divinely instituted ordinances revealed in His Word in a wicked manner is also taking the Lord’s Name in vain. In Psalm 50, “the Mighty One, the Lord…God, your God” (vs. 1, 7) counts “the wicked” as everyone who speaks His statutes and ordinances favorably and who confess His covenant, making their public vows, but who hate His discipline of them and audaciously
disregard His revealed Word. (321)

Correct forms of worship and correct words in worship without faith, heart and repentance are forms and words used wickedly before God. Such empty formalism, being superstitious and without heart, is detestable to God. (321)

    C] Works:
Any wicked mentioning or using of God’s creative, providential or redemptive works amounts to taking His name in vain. Isaiah 5:8–30 is a catalogue of the specific sins of Israel and their appropriate judgment. In verses 11–12, Israel is condemned for being a debauched people. Their lifestyle, music and knowledge are debased and immoral. They give themselves to drunkenness and dissipation making them unfit to glorify God in six days of meaningful work for God’s glory and one day of rest and worship. (324)
By Blasphemy: 
This last passage (Lev. 24:11–16) shows us how God views blaspheming His name: it is such a heinous sin and crime in His sight that it must be punished by the civil magistrate, and it is of such an extremely heinous nature, because it is against God’s infinitely valuable Name, that its only just punishment is death. Blasphemy, then, remains a capital crime as long as God’s name is infinitely holy. (326-327)

Basic to a godly social order is the sanctity of the name of the God who defends such an order. (The source of law for a society is the God of that society.) The blasphemer verbally assaults the name of God: His titles, perfections, works, ordinances, representatives, etc. He publicly challenges God and His representatives to do something about his renunciation of his covenant oath to God and his faith in God by uttering a curse against God. Such verbal assault is rebellion and treason. It is an attack upon the foundation of a godly social order, which social order is to be defended and maintained by the civil magistrate. (327)
By Perjury:
Perjury is a serious offense according to Biblical Law. It is regarded as a destruction of the processes of justice (Lev. 19:12; Deut. 17:6, 7; 19:16–21; Prov. 19:5, 9; 25:18; Matt. 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20). Biblical Law equates perjury with blasphemy, since it is God’s justice that is offended (Lev. 19:12). (329)
By all Sinful Cursing, Oaths, Vows, and Lots:
[1: Cursing]
"You need not go far in this life to meet a Shimei. His personal characteristics are all too common.… Here is an unbridled tongue, fulminating in the foulest language and pointing to an untamed heart (James 3:5–6). Here, also is the capacity to combine a monolithic sense of being in the right with a readiness to indulge a sinful, judgmental attitude to another person (James 3:9). Allied to this is a lack of interest in solving whatever problem exists, or of extending the slightest hint of a willingness to forgive a perceived wrong, and a vicious enthusiasm to see the wrath of God poured out on that person. The Shimeis of this world are driven by a burning desire for revenge. They don’t want any repentance, reconciliation, or restitution. They want to see the other fellow “get his deserts,” as the saying goes. Bitterness consumes those who, far from not letting the sun go down on their anger
and so leaving everything in the hands of a just Father- God, wallow in unholy anger, self-pity or vengefulness. 114. Keddie, Triumph of the King, 155–56. (335)

[2: Oaths]
    A] Flippant Oaths made in Everyday Conversation:
Both Jesus and James (5:12), forbade flippant oaths in everyday conversion, lightly taken with reference to trivial matters. They did not forbid oath-taking, but the taking of such oaths in every day conversation. (335)

Therefore, when Christ said, “make no oath at all,” He was not absolutely forbidding all oaths on necessary and solemn occasions, but, rather, was forbidding the taking of oaths in everyday conversation and oaths in the name of creatures, rather than in the name of God. (336)

    B] Made in the Name of Someone or Something other than God:
Oaths are to be taken only in the name of the God of the Bible, the one, true and living God....Swearing in the name of God implies faith in and confession of the God of the Bible and of His glorious perfections, especially His omniscience, omnipotence, justice and sovereignty. It follows, therefore, that to swear in the name of anyone or anything else besides Him is utterly unlawful and is nothing less than idolatry, which God hates. (337)

    C] Swearing to Something that One is not Fully Persuaded is the Truth:
In taking an oath we should swear to nothing but what we are fully persuaded to be the truth: “And you shall swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness” (Jer. 4:2). (338)

    D] Swearing to What is not Good and Just:
To swear to that which is good and just is to swear to that which is Scriptural because the Bible, as a written revelation of the character and will of God, is the standard for goodness and justice. (338)

    E] Swearing to Something that One is not Able and Resolved to Perform:
We should swear to do nothing but what we are able to do with the Lord’s help and what we are resolved and prepared to do. (341)

    F] Oaths Obligating Sinning:
​No oath is obligatory which binds a man to do what is unlawful or impossible. The sin lies in taking such an oath, not in breaking it. The reason of this rule is, that no man can bring himself under the obligation to commit a sin. (343)

[3. Vows]
    A] To do Something Forbidden:
We may never do what God’s Law forbids us to do; hence, it is wicked to vow to do what God forbids (Acts 23:12, 14; Mark 6:26). (343)

    B] To do Something which would Hinder our Performing any Duty Commanded by God:
Because we are to obey whatever God commands of us in His Word, we may take no vows that would keep us from doing what God commands. (343)

    C] To do Something which is Not in Our Power to Perform:
The Bible explicitly forbids us from vowing to do things that we are totally incompetent to carry out: “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.… You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips” (Deut. 23:21, 23). Therefore, vows which are not in our power to perform are forbidden, as well as vows which we do not have the authority to make. (344)

    D] To do Something which we have No Promise From God for the Ability to do:
Where there is no divine bidding, there is no divine enabling....Therefore, since we cannot faithfully keep a vow without the assistance of Christ and His Spirit, we cannot make any vows other than those which obligate us to do what He has commanded, since the only promise of ability which He gives us is in reference to being enabled to do what His Word commands. Hence, Roman Catholic vows of
perpetual chastity, poverty and silence, or Fundamentalist vows of total abstinence of alcoholic beverages are forbidden us since God has not promised to give us the ability to keep such vows because He has not commanded such things of us in His Word. (345)

[4. Lots]
In the light of what we explained about lots, as revelatory of God’s will until the completion of the Biblical canon, any use of lots to determine God’s will is sinful. It is to seek to know God’s will apart from the all-sufficient Word of God which thoroughly equips us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17). (353)
By Violating our Oaths and Vows if Lawful, and Fulfilling them if Unlawful:
[1. Violation of Lawful Oaths and Vows]
The word treason, means literally “to give up” or “to betray” a trust, an oath or a vow. (353)

It is…a sin to refuse an oath touching any thing that is good and just, being imposed by lawful authority (WCF, XXII, iii). (354)

This incident [Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar] also teaches us that we are to keep lawful oaths even when they are made to heretics and infidels. The obligation of a lawful oath does not depend upon the character of the person imposing the oath. (356)

[2. Occasions when Oaths and Vows May Be Broken]
    A] When they would Commit Us to Sinning:
Because oaths are made in the name of God to a God-ordained agency, and because vows are made directly to God, neither church nor state can regard either as in any way binding men to them, rather than to God’s law. No disobedient and faithless church can regard its clergy and laity as bound to loyalty to the institution, and no lawless state can bind the conscience of man apart from the Word of God. (357)

B] When made by a Family Member without the Consent or Knowledge of the Head of the Family

C] When Imposed on Us for Evil Purposes:
Therefore, “where the truth is being extracted from us for evil purposes, for the commission of a crime, we are under no obligation to tell the truth. To tell the truth and help an evildoer in the commission of a crime is to become an accessory to it.” 153. ​Rushdoony, Law and Society, 118. (361)
And there we stop for the day...

      Racheal

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An Inventory and An Inspection

3/8/2018

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With the sunshine today and the fact that my feet, which have been suffering from a bacterial infection for some time now, felt as though they could risk a little while in socks and boots, I pulled on my coat, collected my clipboard and pencil, and proceeded to walk to the barn. My gimp wasn't too noticeable, so I'm happy.

I decided that I might as well run the vehicles while I was out there, so I cranked up Annabelle and the Ford and let them run while I gently eased myself onto the loft stairs. Once in the loft I set about inventorying my bee-hive components. I have two living colonies (check out the Bee Project for the latest news) and two more 3 pound packages on order. These should arrive on the 19th of April so I want to make sure I'm ready for them. (Look at me! Thinking ahead! Somewhat at any rate. I call this progress. ;] )

I have enough components to start me out this season, but I would like to have at least one extra hive body (I'd prefer two) and several extra supers on hand in case of the need for a split--or a swarm. I had a first-year swarm mid-July last year. (Which is a little late in the year--but the ironic part is, the swarm which went into the winter with next to zero stores, is still alive. The big, strong hive they swarmed from--with nearly two supers of stores--died. Anyway...oddness which I can't account for.) So, I'm weighing my options and my costs and trying to determine how much I want to spend. I've sunk a couple thousand into bees already in the last three years and I want be wise and not just buy extra stuff because I "might" need it--but at the same time, I don't want to need it and not have it. (You can loose a swarm that way, you know.)

Anyway, when I got done with that (and bawling Tom-Tom out for climbing the apartment's screen door), I gingerly climbed out of the loft, turned off the engines and closed the back door of the barn. Then I went for a slow little walk from the barn door--to the bee-hives and through the orchard. It was too cold for the bees to really be out, but I'd seen one going into the little hive on my way to the barn, so I know they are still okay. 

But to the trees...we have four pear trees (counting the little one which I doubt will bloom this year; it didn't last year and it's still only about as tall as I am and big around as my thumb at the bottom). Part of one of the pear trees is dead...but the ends of the  living branches are getting 'fuzzy'. The maples, by the way, have the little pinky-red flowers coming out all over them! (And I just had a thought and went and looked it up--and the Red Maple flowers are a source of pollen and nectar for bees! Yay!! More trees, please! ;] ) The Yellow Delicious apple and the red apple (I don't know what variety it is) are "fuzzing" too, as well as that flat peach--which I'm a little surprised about. I've been expecting that thing to be dead for several years now. :D  Of course, the Lindens are no where near leafing out (and they leaf out before the flowers come--normally in early to mid-June around here if my memory serves me correctly). 

The Flowering Quince is still just sitting there--I know there's a lot of dead in it, so I don't know exactly where to look. Also, I'm rather disappointed to say, the Wigglia is mostly gone--I'd noticed a couple days ago looking out the window that it looked awful broke down and I hadn't remembered it looking that bad. Well, I found out why. The center section is laid over, dead and rotted at the roots! 

In other news, the Daffodils are coming up (no blooms at all yet)...and there are wee patches of wild garlic here, there, and yonder. Even the day-lilies are poking up around the Lilac! Before I know it, the grass will need mowing. :D

Spring hasn't quite sprung, but we're getting close! 
Picture
I've been watching these maples through this window in the mornings for days now--each day, the flowers have gotten more pronounced.

      Racheal

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Chapter 26: The Third Commandment, Part 2

3/4/2018

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Continuing the coverage of WLC question #112 today, we jump right into the specific ways by which God makes Himself known. Dr. Morecraft notes eight:
[1: The Titles and Attributes of God]
Why does God give Himself so many names and titles in the Bible? To give us true knowledge of Himself, His perfections and His will. Some of those titles are: Jehovah, God, Lord, Holy One of Israel, Rock, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Preserver of men, King of nations, Lord of hosts, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Father of mercies, the Hearer of Prayer, the God of salvation, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His names—Jehovah, El Shaddai, Elohim—reveal who God is in Himself, and His titles—Creator of the ends of the earth, the God of Abraham, the Father of mercies—reveal who God is with reference to His creation and His people. (274)

Therefore, we are to speak and use God’s names holily and reverently. (278)

God is what He reveals Himself to be. He is His perfections. God’s Being is God’s Perfections. His Being is the fullness of His perfections, which are “real distinctions and differentiations that are to be found in the [inexhaustible] fullness of God’s Being.”48....Although God’s perfections can be distinguished, nevertheless every perfection is “identical with God’s being. 
48. Smith, Systematic Theology, 1:127. (278)

Because all of God’s perfections are “majestic in holiness,” they are all to be spoken of holily and reverently. (279)

[2: The Ordinances of God]
The ordinances of God are those rules by which God is to be worshipped, which are established by Him and commanded of us in His Word. They are those actions and rituals that He has commanded us to observe in His worship. Those divinely-appointed ordinances include the reading, preaching and hearing of the Word of
God, the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, prayer, the singing of praise, offerings, confessions of faith, benedictions, fasting, times of thanksgiving, oaths and vows.
All of these ordinances are outward and ordinary means of saving grace whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of His mediation…all which are made effectual to the elect for their salvation (WLC, Q. 153–154). Therefore they are to be used with diligence, because the only way we may escape the wrath and curse of God due to us by reason of the transgression of the Law is what God has required
of us—repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and the diligent use of the outward means of grace (WLC, Q. 153). (281)

Therefore, we use God’s ordinances holily and reverently only when we: (1) Believe that by them Christ communicates to us the benefits of His mediation, and by faith we draw strength from them to increase our faith and holiness of life; and (2) Believe that God is present in and through them, so that we use them with “a single eye to His glory.” (282)

[3: The Word of God]
Most especially must the Word of God—the reading, preaching and hearing of it—be approached with humility, holiness and reverence. Because of all the divine ordinances, it is especially the Word, sacraments and prayer that are the means by which Christ communicates to His church the benefits of His mediation. (283)

When the Word is faithfully preached, the exalted Christ Himself from the right hand of God preaches to His people in the preaching of His ministers: “How then will they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:14–15a). (283)

[4: The Sacraments of God]
The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, being instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ are divinely-commanded ordinances that are, along with the Word of God, especially… effectual to the elect for their salvation, as “the visible words” of God. The Bible is God’s sermon to the heart, through the ears. The sacraments are God’s sermon to the heart through the eyes, mouth, nose, and hands....Because in the Lord’s Supper, for instance, we commune in the benefits of the breaking of Christ’s precious body and the spilling of His precious blood (1 Cor. 10:16), and because of the close sacramental union between Christ’s blood and body and the visible elements of bread and wine (1 Cor. 11:24–25), communion is an especially holy and joyful meal, not to be taken lightly or flippantly. (284-285)

[5: Prayers to God]
Prayers said mindlessly, flippantly, impatiently, or disrespectfully are transgressions of the Third Commandment. Because of the holiness and supremacy of the God to whom we pray and because of the solemn nature of prayer as coming before the throne of God, we are always to pray with an awful apprehension of the majesty of God, and deep sense of our own unworthiness, necessities and sins; with penitent, thankful and enlarged hearts; with understanding, faith, sincerity, fervency, love and perseverance, waiting upon Him, with humble submission to His will, directed by the Word of God and offered in the name and merits of Jesus Christ (WLC, Q. 185). (286-287)

[6: Oaths and Vows to God]
Oaths and vows are to be made holily and reverently, not only because of the solemn nature of them and because so much depends upon their truthfulness, but also because as ordinances of God, they are means of grace, and in faithfulness to Biblical oaths and vows God “reveals His name to us,” i.e., sanctifies us and brings us into closer fellowship with Himself. (287)

God blesses us through properly taken oaths and vows in at least two specific ways. First, they confirm and reaffirm the truth in us and in the congregation, thereby binding us more strictly to believing and doing the truth. Second, they are means by which we declare ourselves to be the Lord’s people, totally dedicated to His
worship and service. (287-288)

Because God takes all oaths and vows seriously, punishing those who are unfaithful to them and blessing those who are faithful to them, we must do the same and use them with all holy fear and reverence. We must be careful to avoid all unnecessary and unbiblical oaths; and we must be careful to fulfill all lawful oaths we have made, even to our own hurt if necessary: “O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue… who honors those who fear the Lord; he who swears to his own hurt and does not change” (Ps. 15:1–4). (289)

This law of the Lord seeks to do two things: (1) To discourage the rash making of vows; and (2) to encourage the practice of truthfulness and faithfulness in all our relations with the Lord and with each other. (290)

[7: The Casting of Lots]
The casting of lots (similar to throwing dice or drawing straws) was an ordinance of God by which God, in an extraordinary manner, revealed His will to His people: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:33). (293)

We know very little about the nature of “casting lots,” but it was apparently a divine ordinance by which God revealed His will to His people. (293)

Since it was a sacred divine ordinance, it was not to be used to satisfy curiosity, discover a secret (choice of a mate, a profession, a location), or in neglect of the use of the infallible rule of the Word of God. (293)

With the cessation of divine verbal revelation in the completion of the sixty-six books of the canon of the Bible, the “many ways” that God formerly “spoke” to the people of God, revealing His will, have ceased. Now He speaks to us “in His Son” by the Spirit in and through the Bible, which not only is “God-breathed,” and therefore inerrant, but which also is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17; [)]...The point is: casting lots was a temporary ordinance of God—as were the miraculous spiritual gifts—that is no longer to be used as a means of ascertaining the will of God because we have the complete canon of the Bible. (294)

[8: The Works of God]
What are the works of God? They are His mighty works of creation, providence and redemption. What is it to speak and think of God’s works holily and reverently? It is to be grateful for them, to admire God’s handiwork in them, to glorify His sovereignty, grace, power and wisdom in them, to meditate on the revelation of His
glory in them, and allow ourselves to be moved to deeper love for Him and more faithful obedience to Him so as to walk humbly and thankfully before Him. (295)
Dr. Morecraft draws our attention to six specific ways by which God's name is to be used holily and reverently:
[1: In Writing]
We must make sure that if we ever write anything about God’s Self-revelation that we do so with great care and with much fear and trembling, lest what we write be displeasing to Him because it is an incorrect interpretation or application of His Word, because it is written in such a way as to mislead, because it is carelessly written, because it is written not to glorify God and that others might revere Him, but for the purpose of bringing attention and praise to self. (296)

[2: By an Holy Profession]
We are to use the Lord’s Name in public professions of faith. We are to confess the Lord is the one true and living God, besides whom there is no other (Deut. 6:4, 13). We are to profess before God and man that “we are loyal to Him, honor and fear Him, put our trust in Him, and that we are loyal to His truth, cause, and children. We must furthermore confess that we are not ashamed of this, but deem it to be the greatest honor to be known for this.” 67. Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 3:128. (296)

[3: By an Answerable Conversation]
1 Peter 3:13–16 is emphatic: any confession of our faith or defense of our hope must be backed by a consistently Christian way of life. Our behavior must be answerable to our profession: “we must walk the talk!” (301)

[4: To the Glory of God]
What is our highest motive for obeying the Third Commandment and for using God’s name holily and reverently in thought, word and deed? Answer: to the glory of God, because the chief and highest end of man is to glorify God and fully to enjoy Him forever (WLC, Q. 1). In 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul could not have said it more comprehensively: “whether, then, you eat or drink or WHATEVER YOU DO, do ALL to the glory of God” (emphasis added). (303)

[5: For the Good of Ourselves]
Although our ultimate purpose for obeying the Third Commandment is the glory of God, because of God’s promise to bless graciously those who obey it, we are also motivated by the good of ourselves which such obedience brings. (303)

[6: For the Good of Others]
The Christian obeys also because he knows his obedience will benefit others, it will be for the good…of others. God has enabled him to love other people from his heart and to be genuinely concerned for their physical, spiritual and eternal welfare. (304)
Here we end for the day. Next time, we will begin on question 113.

​      Racheal

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