Yesterday, i welcomed a new child—not a natural child from my own flesh, but a spiritual child over which i have spiritual care, born to a couple in my congregation. Today, i celebrate my own birthday. Yet, in contemplating the beginning of a new life, so welcomed and loved by everyone in our congregation, and in embarking on the thirtieth year of my own life, i can’t help but think of those children whose parents didn’t love them and cherish their entrance into the world the way my parents did.

This is a very sad report of such circumstances in our world today. There was a time when Christians were at the forefront of rescuing such unwanted children born in their communities. In Roman society, such unwanted children were “exposed” (i.e., to the elements) by being left out in the gutters of the streets or dumped in the garbage heaps of the cities. This invariably would lead to the child’s death by exposure to the elements or by dehidration/starvation. Christians would go around, collect these children, and adopt them into their homes and churches, teaching them to trust in Christ and live different lives in response to God’s grace offered in the Lord Jesus. It is interesting that this kindness shown to small children was turned into false accusation of cannibalism by non-Christians. Many of the very people who would so heartlessly throw unwanted children out into the streets or landfills would then turn around and audaciously accuse Christians, who sought to rescue those children, of eating the children, because the Pagans conflated what few things that they knew about Christian worship and practice (i.e., the story of the Nativity of Christ [this child, whom Christians regard as their Savior, born into a feeding trough], the celebration of the Eucharist of Christ [Christ having given his body to eat and his blood to drink], and Christians taking these abandoned children into their homes).

I read an article recently about strange names that some saints in the early Church had received. Some of the stranger ones were rather vulgar names that apparently were monuments to their having been plucked up from sure death after being cast out as unwanted children. I remember one in particular was a diminutive version a very expressive word in Greek, politely translated into English as “Little Piece of Garbage,” but more expressively and bluntly translated “Little Shit.” No doubt, his testimony was that, as an infant, he was cast out with the trash but rescued by Christians and adopted into their homes. For whatever reason, they either gave themselves these disparaging names or received them from their adoptive parents, most probably with a view to being a perpetual reminder of where they came from, always knowing that whatever would come of their lives would be always owing to God’s grace and power so evidently at work.

Unfortunately, in the modern day, the horrendous act of abortion is hidden from the sensitive eyes of the public, keeping them from seeing exactly what they are perpetuating in their advocacy for a mother’s “choice” to murder her unborn child. And even worse, it prevents Christians from being able to do what they were so quick and anxious to do in earlier times: to help save these unwanted children who are born to unloving and uncaring parents—many of which, today, are born alive and viable in botched abortion attempts. It is astounding that “civilized” and “enlightened” societies such as ours doesn’t do more to ensure that where life is it would be preserved at all costs.

Even as i thank the Lord for my life, and the lives of all my children (both natural and spiritual), and so recognize the love and grace that we all have received from God through the agency of our families and the Church, i pray that God would remove the monstrosity of infanticide (both within the womb and without) from our world forever.

I got a call Wednesday evening from Ligonier Ministries. I had previously been a supporter of Ligonier (it is one of those ministries that has enough of an ecclesiastical connection that i don’t have the qualms with it i do about parachurch ministries, which i refuse to support in any fashion), having once received Tabletalk Magazine and, at one point, the monthly sermon. So, they were calling to ask me if i would consider supporting again.

They had called last spring, too. I told the guy last year that i was unsure if i could continue my support of Ligonier because of that fall 2006 article they published in Tabletalk by Clark, which so clearly distorted and skewed the issues concerning the Federal Vision. (Please Note: i am not a Federal Visionist, but i also don’t believe that the Federal Vision is some heretical sect to be shunned and excised from our ecclesiastical institutions.) Well, he told me last year that he would forward my concerns to RC (i know! my personal message to RC Sproul—are you impressed?) and they’d send me a special backage of samples of Tabletalk and tapes. Well, when it got here, it was a few old issues of Tabletalk, a tape about Christology, and a form letter from RC about how they’re trying to advance Reformed teaching through Ligonier. Big whoop. Suffice to say, it didn’t inspire me to pull my checkbook out and put Ligonier Ministries on the dotted line.

Well, Wednesday’s call was the follow-up for that call months ago. He said that his notes showed my concern about Ligonier’s stance on the Federal Vision. I could hardly believe my ears when this caller (a man who sounded at least my age if not older) responded with this question: “You mean our view of government? Separation of Church and State, or something like that?” Um, no.

Of course i told him that since they had last called, RC royally stuck his foot in his mouth by saying what he said on the floor of 2007 GA. As a result, i told him, i won’t be able to support Ligonier anymore, unless something drastically changes. I don’t have enough money (nor do i have a low enough view of the Church) to give my money to a ministry that is perpetuating the division rather than trying to heal it. I’ll save my money for ministries (of the Church) that do seek for Christian unity and not further schism.

It’s been over a week since i’ve posted now. I’ve just been busy with other things.

Last week, we were down in Greer, SC, where my parents live. We visited there not just to see my parents; we were there to have Will checked up by the midwife as well. He’s getting big. He’s now 15 lbs and 26 inches long. He’s a hog for three months, if you ask me. I actually wasn’t up to going and staying down there for five days, but i did anyway. I only could do that because i spent most of my time there working on what i’d normally have done at home, including getting my sermon done for this past Sunday and getting my report ready for presbytery (i’m on the Court Records Committee), which met Saturday.

Presbytery was long. I still have problems with the way things go on in our presbytery. Westminster Presbytery still has a requirement that the presbytery reject from membership anyone who has any other view of creation than 24/6, which excludes any view of longer-than-normal days of creation, Framework, or any other view that is accepted in almost any other PCA presbytery (and my own “home” denomination, the ARP Church as well). There was some debate over that Saturday, because there is a former licentiate in our presbytery (who, i believe, is a Minister in another presbytery) who was to serve as stated supply at a congregation no without a pastor (they had intended on calling him as pastor, but that was a deal-breaker because of this issue as well). He had formerly held to a 24/6 view, but has since modified his view, only in that he doesn’t say categorically that the days in Genesis 1 were 24 hours long. As a result in this small modification in his view, WP will no longer allow him to minister within their bounds—though, a stop-gap measure was approved, that he would continue to act as supply pastor until the spring meeting, and that the session of the congregation he is preaching at would either find someone else as stated supply or call a qualified person, but even that measure didn’t pass without a couple of people making known their intention to file a protest against the decision, because they said it violated the BCO’s provision that only licensed men can preach regularly within the bounds of a presbytery. The discrepancy, though, was over whether it applied to licentiates as well as ministers, or whether it only applies to ministers. What a fiasco. It was obvious to me that the statement needed to be revised, but when i propsed a motion to assemble a committee to re-examine the position paper that adopted views on several issues and, if they deemed necessary, to revise it, a great majority of the men in WP acted as though i was trying to tear the presbytery apart, because, they claimed, that provision is the only thing holding our fragile presbytery together. I suppose in a presbytery where orthodoxy is viewed as so narrow that hardly any dissenting voice is allowed to be heard (every minister in WP with an exception to the Confession and other constitutional documents is forbidden by the presbytery from teaching or otherwise advocating their views; e.g., my views that the office of deacon should be open to women and that not all images of Christ are inherently idolatrous) is always just one step away from dissolution. How sad. One would have thought that the change in makeup of the presbytery over the years (some of the more extreme members of WP have moved on, most of them out of the PCA) would have done something to turn that fractious tenor around, but i suppose it hasn’t.

Otherwise, i’ve been continuing the same old same-old. Thinking, wishing, hoping, and praying.

I got the DVD of the Federal Vision conference at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (incidentally, the building they’re renovating is the old Taylors school that my grandmother went to when she was a child). I’m planning on watching Guy Waters and Joey Pipa critique the Federal Vision whatever-you-call-it. I’m actually planning on going to lunch to discuss it with a friend of mine in the presbytery, who also got a copy of it. We’re both pretty much on the fence, but he’s much more suspicious and worried about the FV than i am. I’m hoping we’ll have further respectful and helpful conversations like the ones we already have.

On a very positive note, potty-training of our daughter seems to be going quite well. She’s basically trained except for using pull-ups or diapers when she has to sit in the car for an extended period of time, or when she naps in the afternoon and sleeps at night. However, she has had a penchant, lately, for writing on everything—the floor, the table, the bedsheets, &c.—and smearing soap and lotion on every possible surface she can find. Spanking works, but it takes a while to modify behavior on a longterm basis.

More later. Working on sermon.

…We’ve come a long way, baby!

It’s funny that i would quote that, not only that it is a woman’s cigarette and i don’t smoke women’s cigarettes any more than i smoke any other cigarettes, but that i am saying that about my marriage to my dear wife, who not only doesn’t smoke, but loathes all smoke. But, to the point…

Nine years ago this afternoon, i entered into a Holy Covenant with my wife that i would, before God and the Church, love honor and cherish her every day of my life from that day until the day one of us dies. We’ve both made a bunch of mistakes and we’ve sinned against each other as well as against God, but we have sought his grace and forgiveness, showing love and acceptance to one another in spite of our faults and failures, and we have had a wonderful nine years so far.

Happy Anniversary, Angela, my love!

May Jehovah continue to bless us richly and draw us closer to one another as we face many more years ahead.

Last evening i went to the grocery store here in town (we don’t shop there, but we pick a few things up there now and again) to get some vegetables and milk so we would have what we needed until we go to the Wally World over in Norton. (We’d go broke if we shopped here in town!)

Well, once i had picked up everything, i got in the checkout line, and i waited behind the four other people who were checking out in the only lane that was open. When i finally got up close and the person in front of me was being rung up, the bag boy started getting boisterous and braggish, but, for the life of me, i couldn’t understand why, because he was bragging about how he absolutely hates his brother. The worst thing about how he hates his brother (as if that weren’t enough) was that he and his brothers were twins (but, apparently, not identicaltwins, because he plainly said, “If i had to look like my brother, i’d kill myself!”). Suffice it to say he was far too free in sharing his feelings than he should have been in general, much less in public with customers around.

Well, the cashier, another young man around the same age—16 or 17 or so—was just chuckling at this and egging him on a bit with some lightly probative questions (”Dude, he’s your twin! You hate your twin brother?” “So, let me get this right: you hate your brother, you don’t want to look anything like him, and he’s your twin brother?”).

Well, about that time, i got up to the checkout. The kid didn’t really stop saying anything. In fact, he offered one last bit of commentary: “Some people just say they hate their siblings, but i really mean it!”

This all bothered me terribly. Don’t get me wrong: i know how it is not to get along with people (whether real siblings, other family members, or Church members), but for someone to brag so openly that he hates his brother was just so astoundingly crass and hurtful. He went on a bit more, and i just had to say something, but i didn’t want to be too condescending, either.

I just blurted out the first thing that popped into my mind. “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

When i said that, both the bag boy and the cashier just stopped talking and looked at me. The bag boy said, “That’s a pretty good saying.” To which i replied, “Well, i think so, too. It’s from the Bible.” The cashier said to the bag boy, “That’s not a saying. That’s the Bible!” And then he asked, “Where’s that from?” I told him it was from 1 John 4. He just said that that was good to know, and gave me my receipt. I told them to have a good evening, and i took my bags and went.

I certainly hope that young man thinks more about how much he “hates” his brother. Perhaps he’ll reconsider both his relationship to God and to his brother.

Mark Horne reminds us of the good points of the Auburn Avenue 2002 Pastor’s Conference, regardless of the more controversial aspects.

It is interesting that he would choose to quote that portion of that sermon, because it was that last paragraph he quoted that was the lynchpin of my thinking. When i heard those words, it was like—pardon the dramatic allusion to the Holy Apostle Paul—scales fell off of my eyes, and i could see real Covenant Theology for the first time. Before that, i thought i held to Covenant Theology; you know, the kind where the Covenant God made with Adam is what we’re all in, and then, the elect are excused from that Covenant and come under the Covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ sealed with his own blood. But Pastor Steve’s words there made me think of something more earthy, more biblical, and less systematized than High Federal theology (which, i have come to find out, is what the thing i called “Covenant Theology” before is actually called). It was a theology that took the Old Covenant Scriptures just as seriously and applicably as the New Covenant Scriptures.

The truth is, though, that when i began listening to the AAPC 2002 lectures, i was a committed credobaptist Calvinist, but when i finished that sermon, the Lord had shown me the Scriptural truth of his Covenant promises to his people and all of their descendants after them. Of course, at that time, i didn’t have any children, so it didn’t mean all that much to me, but now that i do, it means all the more. God has not committed himself to me and left my children to fend for themselves; he has committed himself to me in his grace and he has promised that very same grace to my children as well—not hypothetically, not academically, not contingently, but truly and sincerely so that he will be our God and that we and our children after us will be his people.

The funny thing about this, in retrospect, is that the only reason that i happened upon those recordings to begin with was because a fellow Baptist friend of mine had brought Steve Schlissel’s preaching to my attention, especially his sermons on the Jewish holidays and their meaning and place to us in a Christian context. I really enjoyed them, and so i explored the whole database of sermons that were, at that time, posted on SermonAudio, and found the lectures from the AAPC. Even more funny, though, is that that fellow Baptist friend is now a committed Covenantalist as well, and i have it on good authority that he reads this blog from time to time (thanks, Al).

No, i don’t agree with every aspect of the Federal Vision, but i must say that some of the things that they teach are the only things that make sense. I don’t know how to be a Covenantalist and give the Covenant sign to my children with the full meaning it brings to bear while retaining doubt in my mind about whether Jehovah is truly my children’s God. If i were to delve into the world of decretalism to the Nth degree (i.e., God only is ever in Covenant with the elect/regenerate; baptism is only truly baptism for the elect/regenerate; God only desires the salvation of the elect/regenerate; &c.), the only logical place for me to be is as a credobaptist. However, if i am to live by what God has revealed, and not by the secret things that belong only to him, then a robust, Scriptural, and grace-filled Covenant Theology is the only thing i can hold.

This past Sunday (1st Advent), the Psalm reading from the Revised Common Lectionary was Psalm 122; it was our call to worship. There, the psalmist there exhorts the people of God to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, both for the sake of our brothers and companions, and also for the sake of the House of God. Well, Paul and Peter both tell us that we, the Church, are indeed that House, and we know that the Church is the Heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Mother of us all. So, i continue to pray for the peace of Jerusaelm and trust that God has a good purpose in all this seeming nonsense. May he be justified when he speaks and prevail when he judges. May his judgment come quickly to bring peace and guidance to these confused sheep.

I’ve been intending on posting some of these for a while now, and today seems like as good a time as any.

Here to the left, we have our two little babies all dressed up to celebrate the Eve of All Saints. LilliAna was a princess (courtesy of her daddy sewing a costume for her). It took about twelve hours all total for me to sew that thing. That was probably a good bit longer than an experienced taylor may have taken, but i finally got it done. LilliAna just loved it to death.

I didn’t make the pea costume that Will wore; that one my mother-in-law had bought for LilliAna when she was an infant. It was neat, though, how it all worked out to have a couple of themed costumes for our little kiddies.

And, of course, here to the right is LilliAna being a ham in her favoritest Halloween costume.

It’s the funniest thing about her, because you don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to get her to strike a pose. She just does it all on her own.

She was really looking forward to going Trick or Treat-ing. We only went to a few places (people in our church and some nearby neighbors), but she still got more candy than she needed!

This to the left again is the new little man who lives at our house. This was a bit over a week ago, so he’s a bit bigger now, but he still looks the same.

This is also the picture that went out on the birth announcements. If you didn’t get one, don’t feel bad. We’re just poor and couldn’t afford that many. Plus, you have seen more pictures of this one than most of the people who did get them.

On the up side, he seems to like me more than he has been. He doesn’t cry incessantly when i hold him now (now he just cries 75% of the time i hold him).

And this one to the right is of our LilliAna who is almost completely obsessed with make-up. She always wants to get into it and put it on herself.

In this case, she snuck into Angela’s make-up and put on eye shadow (on her cheeks and lips), and mascara (she actually did a good job of getting it on her eyelashes, with some on her nose and cheeks as well).

This was actually the first time she did it, and she’s done it several times since then, for which she’s been thoroughly spanked.

Sixty-seven hours and one minute after her water broke, Angela finally gave birth to our new baby boy, William Marshall Austin, IV. He weighed 8 lbs. and was 21 inches long.

We were really worried about Angela for a while there. Her labor was so hard through the night Sunday night when we went in, and we were just sure that she was making good progress, but Monday morning when the midwife examined her, she saw that she was only 4 cm. dilated. Angela was so disappointed and discouraged. Part of her problem was with her pelvis being twisted, where the ends that should come together to make a circle through which the baby would come weren’t lined up, and the ends were twisted to where they were partially blocking the opening. So, yesterday morning, she went to the chiropractor to get lined back up again. That seemed to help relieve part of her pain, but her labor throughout the rest of the day was very hard and still very unproductive. At around 17:00, the midwife checked her again, and she was only dilated to 6 cm. The only thing that helped was that the midwife pushed the baby back off of Angela’s pelvis and turned him a bit, and when she did that, the cervix popped open, and she was able really to push.

We were all so very relieved when the baby finally came. We were constantly monitoring his heartbeat, and he was strong and healthy all through, but we still were worried that Angela might have to go to the hospital and be chocked full of drugs and possibly have a c-section. Angela was hysterical at the thought of that possibility. So, we were very happy that Will came when he did. LilliAna has been flitting around getting into everything trying to be the center of attention, but she really loves her baby brother and is always wanting to hold him.

Well, we had thought that, once the water broke, the labor would progress faster this time than last. Well, that just hasn’t happened. When LilliAna was born, Angela went 43 hours and 25 minutes from the time her water broke until LilliAna was born. Well, we’re at 42 hours now, and her contractions just started in some significance a little over an hour ago. They’re about 6-10 minutes apart, and lasting about 10-15 seconds now.

We’re so hoping that this child can be coaxed out into the real world before this day is done. Keep praying. We’re fairly close. I’ll be sure to post a pic when we have one of mama and baby.

Well, yesterday, having no labor in sight, i decided to go back to Coeburn. I left yesterday at around 14:30 to head back, and i got home at about 18:00. I went to get ready for Sunday, to make sure i had my sermon complete, the bulletin in order, and the communion service in place.

Well, i had called a few people in the church to let them know i was back, and i wanted to find out if there was anything we needed in terms of food for the fellowship meal we’re planning for Sunday. I continued work on the stuff i needed to get done for Sunday’s service.

Well, at around 23:00, my mother called and told me that Angela’s water had broken. Well, that just threw a wrench into everything about my plans. So, i just put everything back into the car that i had just taken out, and i drove all the way back down to SC.

Bad news is that, even though it has been 14 hours now, Angela’s contractions still haven’t started in any kind of strength. So, i had to go to the herbal store and get some blue cohosh and black cohosh, which is supposed to help encourage the contractions. She mixes 2 ml of each into a little water and swallows it down (i don’t mind saying that i am glad she’s the one that has to drink it and not i!). So, she’s been doing that for almost two hours now. If this doesn’t work, she’s probably going to have to go over to the mid-wife’s office and let the doctor give her something stronger (prescription) that will induce labor.

Pray that Angela’s labor progresses properly and that both mama and baby will be healthy.