tonyandkirsten.org

Well, we finally made our long-planned trip to the post office to take advantage of precise weighing available twenty four hours a day. Amazingly, Madeline weighs about 9lbs, 15oz already! Too bad she is already too heavy for a produce scale weighing…those only go up to about 9lbs… Pictures of our adventure at the post office and other pictures that will be embarassing to Madeline when she grows up are posted in the gallery…

We signed our name or initials about 500 times this morning and were handed the keys to the townhouse at 3418 West Street in Ames…making us officially home owners. The next step is to pick paint colors for the various rooms! I’m so excited about finally being able to paint rooms any color we chose, instead of the boring off-white/cream color of rental properties in Ames.

The previous residents of the place (three ISU football players) left a bunch of random stuff in the place. Our realtors said that isn’t the way it’s supposed to go, but it definitely wasn’t the worst they had seen. Some of the stuff was kind of gross, like a bath towel draped over a railing and some food in the fridge…but other stuff is actually kind of cool, like a nice desk, a bookcase and a garbage can.

I’m really excited about the ministry opportunities we will have with this new house due to the extra space. I’m also really thankful for some of the little blessings God has provided along the way during this purchase process. One of the few things we didn’t like about this place was the fact there was no street parking on our block. Visitors would have needed to park down the street or around the corner. Since the time we signed the purchase agreement, they re-did the parking regulations on the street, and signs are up stating there is the typical campustown alternating sides on various days parking scheme.

Financially, things worked out better than expected. We had put down a sizeable amount of earnest money (kind of like a down payment, but it goes toward closing costs first — it shows you are serious about buying a house). I had originally thought we would either come out even at closing or have to pay a little bit more. As it turns out since the sellers are paying a big part of the closing costs and the costs weren’t as high as I thought they would be, we are getting over $600 of our earnest money back — very useful considering we have medical bills to pay from having a baby and will have other expenses associated with moving and buying a house (stuff like cleaning the carpet in our old place, buying curtains and paint for the new house, etc). And one final small blessing today — the realtors weren’t pleased with the condition in which the previous owners and residents left the carpet, and so they arranged for the carpets to be professionally cleaned today at no charge to us! That’s one less thing for us to worry about.

Once we get moved in, we’ll have everyone over for a big party. Meanwhile, drop us a line or give us a call if you would like to help with painting, packing or carrying heavy boxes.

Since Tony is busy warming up some taco shells for our chicken and black bean burritos, I will take a moment to welcome two new bloggers to our Rock blogging community — Wendy Korthals and Nate Swinton. Both of their blogs are now syndicated to PlanetRockISU for your reading pleasure.

Now that blogging has spread to the Linden Ministry Team, I think we have five out of six Rock Ministry Teams represented on PlanetRockISU…now we just need to convince a person or two from the off campus team to join the ranks of the bloggers…
If you know of any other Rock bloggers not represented on PlanetRockISU, please leave a comment here or email us and let us know!

This was so different from my other entry, I thought I should post separately.

Today’s random fact doesn’t come from public radio, but instead from a web search spurred on by my curiousity. I’ve been thinking about songs to sing to Madeline, and was remembering that my mom used to sing “You are My Sunshine” to me as a kid. I couldn’t remember any of the lyrics beyond the chorus, so I googled for it…and found out an amazing fact: The song “You are my Sunshine” is one of two official songs of the state of Louisiana. Fascinating, isn’t it?

And here is a question to ponder: Why do decaff coffee and lattes taste the same (at least to my taste buds) as their regular counterparts…while the Caffeine Free Diet Mountain Dew I bought this week has a definitely different tast than the regular Diet Mtn. Dew? The caffine free stuff just lacks a certain zing. So does caffine have a flavor, or not???

There you have it..randomness for a cool, rainy Thursday.

I can’t give a full review of Herschel Martindale’s new book since I have not yet read the whole thing, but what I have read so far is very worthwhile. It’s a pretty short book — only 128 pages — so you could read it in one sitting if you wanted to. But, I think it’s the kind of reading to take slowly and ponder.

He divides his book into 30 short chapters, each with a few study questions at the end. The topics comprise most of the basic tenets of Christianity from reading the Word to being filled with the Spirit to the Great Commission. It would be an excellent choice (from what I have read so far) to give to a new Christian or to study with a new Christian as you are following them up. But, as someone who has been following God for a few years, I also find myself being challenged by these thoughts from a man who has been following God about twice as long as I have been alive…
Continue reading »

So, this is the “What-I’ve-learned-in-one-month-as-a-father and-should-have-blogged-about-on-Father’s-Day but-didn’t-so-you’re-getting-it-now” post.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, — Eph 5:24

In other words, as Mark Darling puts it, “Husbands, Die.”

No other verse has found its way into my head more often in the last month than this one. Some nights, it’s almost a mantra. Never in my life, have I been forced to die to my flesh and serve — or else profane the name of Christ by going back on my marriage vows, and be worse than an unbeliever — than I have in the last month.

Want to sleep at 4 AM? Me too. Guess what? Die. Oh, you think you’re at the end of your rope, and can’t take any more crying and you’ll fall over trying to rock your daughter to sleep? Knock, knock. Who’s there? Die. But all I want to do something fun — or sleep — or eat using both hands. You know what? Die.

I don’t mean to make fatherhood sound awful. It’s really not. There are joys unimaginable to be found — and she can’t even hold her head up, or smile. I just mean to say that I’m beginning to understand the depth of Christ’s love for the church. It’s a level of sacrifice and selflessness that I had never conceived of when I made my vows to Kirsten — and I understand more now than then the shallowness with which I currently understand Christ’s love. As much as I’ve been surprised by the sacrifice required, and at times by my lack of willingness to actually die — I am equally amazed at the completeness with which Christ loved us.

As of yesterday, June 21st, Madeline is a month old!

Some days it’s hard to believe it’s already been a month…other days it seems like it MUST be more than a month since she was born. Today was one of those longer days, where I felt exhausted by dinner time. But even when it’s one of those challenging days, I can try to take joy in the trials and thank God for having a beautiful, healthy daughter. (The operate word there is TRY — don’t get me wrong, I definitely have a wrong attitude at times!)

I put some new pictures of Maddie in the photo gallery if you want to see more of her cuteness.

I guess the shocking revelations of things people don’t tell you until after you have a baby can wait until another day…

This is a notice.

Due to the fact that I must reboot into Windows on my office computer, the aforementioned two websites will be down for part of the day on Tuesday, June 22.

Alas, it has become too difficult to work on my paper, which my major professor insists be done in Microsoft Word, under Linux. I was making it work at first; editing in OpenOffice, maintaining the bibliography in the built-in database, and converting to MS Word format to send for editions. But now, the paper has grown to the point that it is difficult to maintain two versions.

Sadness.
These websites should be back up by 5:30 PM on Tuesday, June 22.

Although I am on “leave of absence” from official ministry duties, I’m not taking a break from editing Daylights. My next deadline is July 1st, so I am trying to catch little bits of time here and there to get it done.

I enjoy being an editor. Really, I do. But when I am in the process of cutting articles to make them fit in the allotted space, my frustration level rises. Here’s the problem: I am editing the writing of pastors (and pastors’ wives) and pastors are often incredibly long winded. Only about 300 words fits in a Daylights article, and that’s not a lot of space to make a point.

Sometimes there are extraneous thoughts to cut out, but other times I am presented with a tightly-written article that seems like it will be butchered by my efforts to make it fit in the 300 word slot. I almost always go ahead and butcher the articles. Occaisonally I send articles back to the authors for revision, but only when they have told me that they prefer to do their own cutting. I suppose my butchering can’t be that bad, or my boss (Dave Bovenmyer) would tell me about it. But I often wish I had more space to showcase the awesome writing of the pastors in our association of churches.

Currently I am working on cutting an amazing article about 1st Timothy 2:12 by John Hopler. It’s about 430 words long, so I am in the difficult process of cutting well over 100 words. But it should get some light in it’s original form, so I will display it here for a few lucky people to read a great treatment of a challenging subject

(And if you have any suggestions of how to cut it, let me know)

AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH
by John Hopler

“But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” 1 Timothy 2:12

A wise, godly man was once asked, “What do you think about churches ordaining women to be pastors?” He responded, “Whatever the Bible says is what I believe.” He understood that a fair reading of the Bible would lead the reader to one-and only one-conclusion: Only men are to be ordained pastors.

Paul in his instructions to Timothy couldn’t make it any clearer: Women are not to be in an authority position over men in the church. Nor are women to teach in such a way that they place themselves in an authority position over men.

Ones argue, “But this makes women second-rate citizens in the church.” My response is that nowhere in the Scripture is a person’s position a basis for his or her value. Our value is in Christ, and in Christ alone. We are all seated in the heavenly places with Christ-male and female. But during our short stay on earth, God has a role for men to play and a role for women to play.
A parallel situation exists with God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son. The Father and the Son are equally God. Yet God is the head of Christ. Jesus has played a distinct role by becoming a man, suffering on the cross, and He is now seated at God’s right hand. Although both are God in essence, there is a role distinction between these two Persons of the Godhead.

But ones argue, “What if a woman is more `gifted’ than other men?” My response is that `gifting’ is never to be used to contradict God’s will. It is God’s will to set up an order in the family to communicate a picture of the relationship between Christ and His church (Ephesians 5:22-33). And the church is meant to be a picture of the family as well as a congregation of families. Consider this question: If a woman were a pastor, would not her husband as part of the church be required to submit to his wife’s authority as “his pastor”? Yet, Ephesians 5:22 is clear that the wife is to submit to her husband.

God has made it very simple. Men are to be sacrificial servant-leaders in the home and in the church. Women as co-heirs with Christ are to model followership in the home and in the church. That is what Paul allowed. We would do well to heed his instructions. (For more information on this topic, read the GCLI article on “Women in Leadership” by John Piper and Wayne Grudem.” or contact me at john.hopler@gcachurches.org)

John Hopler,
Great Commission Churches,
Columbus, Ohio

Between morning garage sale-going, seeing my Dad and step-mom this afternoon and a date to Borders tonight, I didn’t get much public radio listening into my schedule. But I did want to take Matt’s suggestion and share an interesting fact for the day.

So today’s fact is something Tony heard a week or so ago on WOI. I was shocked to learn today that not all chocolate contains milk. Surprisingly, only MILK CHOCOLATE contains milk, and the Nestle company was the first to devise the process that first put milk and chocolate together using powdered milk. Prior to that time, all chocolate was dark chocolate and its creaminess came only from cocoa butter.

I don’t know why this surprises me so much. I guess it is one of those logical things I have never stopped to think about. I’m not that much of a chocolate person though.

Oh, but my favorite flavor of anything is white chocolate raspberry…in case anyone is interested. I had a great piece of said flavor of cheesecake while at Borders today. Tony spent a great deal of time quizing me on how white chocolate raspberry would stack up in a head-to-head challenge versus various other flavor combinations such as caramel/chocolate and pumpkin/whipped cream. (okay, so that’s stretching it to call that a ‘flavor combination’). In such a contest, the white chocolate always comes out on top, but in real life I like variety, so I still wouldn’t actually pick it every time.

And now a preview of coming attractions: Watch this blog soon for shocking tales of things people never explain to you very well before you have a baby. Like the real reason you do twice as much laundry.

Until next time…