A thought-provoking quotation from a great man.

I was reading before bed last night, and this passage jolted me back awake.

"It is not in our life that God's help and presence must still
be proved, but rather God's presence and help have been demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus Christ. It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to His Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today. The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die, and the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the Last Day. Our salvation is "external to ourselves." I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ. Only he who allows himself to be found in Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, his Cross, and his resurrection, is with God and God with him." *

Thus wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together. His purpose was to encourage Christians to read as much of the Word of God and be as familiar with it as possible. Bonhoeffer advocated that Christians in community, ie families, seminaries, schools, should read a full chapter of the Old Testament and half a chapter of the New Testament in the morning and at night, as well as praying the psalms. He complained that the modern Christian is too ignorant of the Word of God to appreciate its interwoven context and his own place in the context of salvation.

What we call our life, our troubles, our guilt, is by no means all of reality; there in the Scriptures is our life, our need, our guilt, and our salvation. . . . We must learn to know the Scriptures again, as the Reformers knew them. We must not grudge the time and work that it takes.

Bonhoeffer asserts that only people who are well-versed in the Scriptures, their context and their continuity and above all their relationship to the person of Jesus Christ, can correctly guide a church, effectively rebuke a sinner, or even be certain of his or her own salvation.

"It is not surprising that the person who attempts to cast discredit upon their wisdom whould be the one who does not seriously read, know, and study the Scriptures. But one who will not learn to handle the Bible for himself is not an evangelical Christian."*

It seemed pretty harsh to me last night, but I even then I could see his point. We can only know God as God reveals himself, and the only place that God has revealed himself directly is in Scripture. Yes, he also works in our lives, but as valuable as testimonies are, if they are not understood in the light of what God has already done and how God shows himself to operate, they won't answer any questions.

I think about all the times that my depression, my anxiety, my loneliness, and my mistakes have made me question my security. "If I were a Christian, I wouldn't feel this way. I must be doing something wrong." was my daily mantra a couple of years ago. Only after I understood that my feelings were not a proper indication of salvation but my salvation was settled by something that was done and established two thousand years ago did I begin to feel saved. From that point I could begin to knowingly practice obedience, and faith as a mature Christian.

*apologies for the structure. I'm still learning to make blogger work for me.

Picture overload

Here we are, halfway through the summer, and I haven't posted any pictures of Boogaloo for a month and a half at least. I guess facebook has something to do with that, as well as Seth's rapidly approaching separation date. Plus, it's been a busy summer. Two weddings in my family and one reunion in Seth's. Plenty of photo opportunities, not so many posting opportunities.

Boogaloo has had a busy summer. She was the flower girl in her Auntie Abby's wedding. This is the picture before the wedding. By the time the wedding had commenced, we had discarded the pretty headband (which she picked out herself, incidentally).

Boogaloo practices dropping her petals.And then she practices picking them up again. The official picture of the Berkompas kids. From the left: Boogaloo, myself, Abby now Groenewold, Laura, and Abby's twin brother Ted. Boogaloo gets ready in the nursery bathroom. I guess you could call that her first make up, but I washed it off when she wasn't paying attention.

After we saw Abby and Jesse off on their honeymoon, we took a trip up to Leavenworth.

If you ever get the chance, it's well worth the visit. This is the hat shop where they cram every kind of hat imaginable into about 200 square feet. This is my brother Ted and his girlfriend Ally getting back to their roots.There's something a little fishy about that. And here's a picture that people who know my mother would never expect to see. Boogaloo tries on a pretty pink pony hat. She's beginning to have a thing for ponies, as will be seen when I post pictures of the other family reunion.

And going to Leavenworth always requires a stop at the specialty ice cream shop. Blackberry cheesecake marble wafflecone anyone?

Baby wears shades. Boogaloo dons her mom's shades just for the fun of it.

A friendly snail decides to investigate Boogaloo's shoe. This summer, we've learned that nothing stops a snail from moving forward when it wants to, not even the presence of another snail. It just goes right over top or lets the other snail go right over top of it. Now, is that greatness of focus and determination or is it just oblivious stupidity?
Boogaloo the fly ninja. Once the doors stay open during the summer, we have a fair share of flies. This year, Boogaloo decided that she was going to be in charge of driving them back out again. And when she got tired of that, she decided that Babydoll would take up the fly-swatters. Needless to say, nothing came of that, but what a cute idea. Oh, she makes me smile.

Hilarious. For everyone who grew up singing the Hallelujah Chorus every other year in choir, here is a new way to sing it. The premise is that the "singers" are monks who have taken a vow of silence. The person who came up with this is very talented.

http://voxvocispublicus.homestead.com/Index.html

Well, that was embarrassing.

Have you ever felt like events are conspiring to embarrass you? I had one of those moments this past Monday.

I was just bopping along, minding my own business, trying to get back in the swing of things after a week with the inlaws. It's the fourth. I'm the groove. Laundry is on the line. Milk is in the fridge. The grass is now an acceptable length, and the weeds blend in. And a neighbor comes to my gate.

She came up to tell me that my dog had been howling for several hours on end all weekend. She said that making an animal howl that long verged on animal cruelty. He would howl to the point of getting hoarse. There were several other neighbors who were getting annoyed, and she had walked over to my house while recovering from surgery to let me know how they all felt.

This was not just any neighbor. This was the neighbor that I like to think of as the dog advocate lady. She's extremely nice, but I've only spoken to her four times since we moved in five years ago, and three of those times have been related to my dog. She has two beautifully groomed pitbulls that she refers to as Staffordshire terriers (how many people even know that pitbulls are properly called Staffordshire terriers?), and she has that activist look about her that makes me think, "She will tell you what you're doing wrong."

I was mortified because, contrary to appearances, I really do love my dog, and I really do hate to antagonize my neighbors. I apologized up and down and promised to abort Operation Outdoor Dog immediately. She accepted my apology, and after reiterating that dogs shouldn't howl that long several times (I think she felt a little guilty for imposing), she wished me a happy 4th.

Only after she leaves, and I'm extremely grateful for this, do I realize that my t-shirt says, "PLIA 2002: Whatever You Do, Do It in Jesus' Name." Oh. Shoot. Please, Dog Advocate Lady, don't think that I feel entitled to abuse my dog because I'm a Christian. We don't do that. This is not some kind of steward and master of creation complex. I just didn't know he was howling. I was gone. That's why he was outside. Fervently wishing that my abject apology restored whatever esteem I might have destroyed, I remembered pastor's sermon from the day before. He had said, "Our neighbors don't need to see our 'perfection.' They need to see our reliance on God."

For the record, I was trying to acclimate Max to living outside during the summer. I left him outside while I was running errands, and I instructed my neighbor to leave him outside during the day while I was gone visiting family. He had water, food, shade, and a den of sorts, so I was not neglecting him. He did not have to howl, but howling is part of what he does. Obstreperous dog.

Answered prayers.

God just got me my Internet back. My in-home network disappeared, I couldn't get it to work, and my computer expert is at sea. So I prayed, "Lord, please give me my Internet back," and inexplicably, the next time I logged in, the answer revealed itself.

I do a lot of praying for things, but it occurs to me that I don't often remember to thank God for answering my prayers. Sometimes I forget that I had to pray about a certain situation, and sometimes I just forge ahead through the door that he's opened. But I very often forget to say thank you to God or to tell someone else about my "deliverance." (I don't mean to use the idea of deliverance lightly, but if you knew how hopeless I am with computers . . . ).

I can think of two fervent prayers that I sent up yesterday while driving the I-5 home from the in-laws (Cars are kind of like computers for me. I can handle them as long as nothing unexpected comes along, and every now and again I do something stupid that should compromise my situation but doesn't.). The first prayer was of course "Lord, please get us home safely." The second is less distinct in my mind now, but it had something to do with the abysmal traffic south of Woodlawn Cougar and finding a bathroom in time. Or maybe it was the huge piece of siding that I ran over but didn't actually damage my car. Both were answered in the affirmative. After all, here I am, typing right now. But I had been home for about an hour and a half before I realized that I was sitting in my kitchen chair eating yogurt and Oatmeal Crisp because of the grace and providence of God, or in short because he loves me and wants me to be safe. He had answered my prayer.

Hudson Taylor, a famous missionary to Africa, kept a diary of his prayers. He wrote his prayers along with the date on one side of the page, and he wrote the answers with the date on the other side of the page. He always left room for the answers because he knew there would be answers -- concrete, specific answers to concrete, specific needs. I don't know if he told other people about the answers to prayers that he got, but isn't that the simplest form of praise?

Look at the psalms sometime. Often they are prayers or recitals of what God has done. "You heard my plea and you answered me. You put me in a safe place and put my enemies to shame. Please do it again next time." (general summary, not an actual psalm) If I spent time doing the same thing, would I be in a better state of mind? Would I expect answers more often? Would I have bigger hopes and expectations for the world, stronger surety as I prayed, bigger faith, more concrete love? Would I be more submissive as I waited for prayers to be answered if I had a litany of the prayers he has already answered on my behalf? Would I pray with more faith? I think so.

I remember listening to a lullaby on a cd when Boogaloo was just born. It's a very familiar lullaby. "Lullaby and good night. Go to sleep little baby. Lullaby and good night. Go to sleep my little child." Everyone can quote that part, but I had never learned the chorus, and it took me by surprise. "If God will, thou shalt wake when the morning does break. If God will, thou shalt wake when the morning does break." I was aghast. I thought that was an awful thing to plant in a small child's head. But then I watched my Boogaloo wake up every morning, and I realized that she was awake, and that meant that God had willed to give me another day with her. Life got so much happier when I realized that I should attribute the good things to God's will as well as the bad.

The same principle applies with answered prayers. To realize that God has answered our prayers and acted on our behalf is to realize that he will do so again. It's a building block in our estimation of his character to remember that God hears, sees, and does on a daily basis, and this doing is the foundation of our well being. He got me home safely. I won't quite call that a miracle because that would disparage my driving more than necessary, but considering all the things that can happen on the road, I don't mind being the object of a direct application of divine providence either. And I like the fact that I can call on God, and he has already heard.