Joyful Domesticity

“When most Christians hear about their responsibility to practice hospitality, they can think up an amazing number of creative excuses to explain why they cannot be hospitable. Yet Christians are commanded to be hospitable.” Alexander Strauch

I’ve used all of these excuses to apply for hospitality exemptions. But Scripture has denied all my claims. The Bible is clear about who is to show hospitality: all Christians. By God’s grace, that includes me.

All Christians–not just the rich, or the creative, or the organized, or the gourmet cooks, or the outgoing personalities or the ones with lots of free time. All Christians.

Members of the first century church understood that: “loving one another demanded being hospitable” (Dict. of NT Background, emphasis mine). So where genuine Christian love exists, there you’ll find hospitality. Or, in other words, we can’t claim to love others and refuse to show hospitality. It is, “a matter of obedience” (Alexander Strauch).

And it has particular application to us as Christian women. It is “a natural extension of [our] authority in the domestic sphere” (Dict. of the Later NT) and thus a primary qualification for the godly woman (1 Timothy 5:9).

All Christians are to practice hospitality but not all in the same way. “As each has received a gift” we are to serve one another, “as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Pet. 4:7-10).

My hospitality may not be as frequent as my friend Taye’s. My house may not be as clean as Alyssa’s. My food won’t be as delicious as Bonnie’s or my presentation as creative as Lesley’s. But God has given me grace. I must use that gift of grace to serve and love and show hospitality.

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” 1 Peter 4:7-10

I know I haven’t posted any pictures in weeks and weeks. So, here are a couple to fill the appetite, for those of you who wanted to see. 🙂 Enjoy.

Picking strawberries in the country. Yummm!


so this picture of me in my garden was taken three weeks ago, and it’s waaaaaay bigger now. All of the plants have overgrown the pathways, and the pumpkins are now weaving their vines through the chain link fence into the neighbor’s yard! yikes! I am getting about a gallon of green beans every 1 to 2 days. The peas are so tall now, that I will have to ask my 6’2″ husband to pick the top ones! And now I also realize why 12 zucchini plants and 15 yellow squash plants is considered TOO MANY!! lol. I have just planted my second crop of spinach, swiss chard, and lettuce. Thankfully my little boy likes to sleep in, so I can go get my gardening done in the mornings. It’s such a big job for just one person. Maybe I should have had a smaller garden for my first effort. 🙂 Oh well, I’ve somehow managed to keep up with it, and we’ll have veggies to last all year, I think. Wheeeee!! Time to start blanching and freezing. 🙂

Gabriel and I went to a Lavender Festival with my mom, and it was extremely hot that afternoon. So we got a cone of huckleberry ice cream to share. Gabriel loved it.

Here is my total 100% boy with one of his favorite toys: all-natural, completely organic pine stick. Hahaha.

Toby Sumpter pastored our church in the country for a few months one summer, and I don’t know if I have ever been as spiritually stimulated, challenged, and encouraged as I was during that time. In addition to great theology and unpacking biblical stories (he was taking us through Genesis), he gave us such good, constant reminders that we do not dictate worship. It is not up to us to decide what kind of music to sing, what elements are necessary in the liturgy, or even how to pray. Our opinions and preferences simply do not matter. What matters, then? What God thinks, what God wants, what God commands.
We no more decide on our own accord how to worship or when to worship than we can who to worship!! Scripture has it all laid out. Everyone agrees that Scripture commands WHO to worship. But it also commands HOW and WHEN. What a blessing that we don’t have to figure these things out on our own. Scripture is the revelation of God, it is one way He speaks to us. It is a way He teaches us and guides us. Especially about our relationship with Him.

Anyway… that was totally going off on a tangent… but it was something that Toby really impressed upon us. So the Sumpters have really blessed my family, both when I still was under the headship of my parents and now as the helpmeet in my own family. Of course Toby Sumpter is no longer our pastor, but he pastors a church about one hundred miles away. I still glean much wisdom and encouragement from his blog. God has truly blessed this man, and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to learn from him.
Check out his blog: http://www.havingtwolegs.blogspot.com
And then come see my newest bookmark, as I recently found out how to listen to his sermons online!
http://www.trinitykirk.com/sermons.php
Praise the Lord for modern technology. Not only do we have the freedom to worship our God without worry of persecution & death — we also have books, online sermons, blogs, and so many other ways that we now can glean biblical wisdom and grow in grace. Praise the Lord!

I have gone back to the beginning of Pastor Sumpter’s sermons on Job. I think May 17th was the first one. They are excellent. I can not stress that word enough. God is good and kind to me, providing me with these sermons right now. I plan on getting caught up and being current with the series shortly.

• so how has God been growing your knowledge of His worship lately?
• have you gone through Scripture looking for His commands on what He desires in worship, instead of catering to your own preferences?
• what is one of your bookmarks that helps you walk in paths of righteousness?
• if you listen to online sermons, do you sit quietly with Bible in-lap, or is it background while doing something else?

I won’t bother with all the details.
Suffice it to say that we did not get the bloodwork started today.
Apparently the only person in our entire city who can do it is on vacation.
So they botched-up my appointment, and now we have to wait again.
Back into the schedule we go.
I guess we’ll try yet again another time.

And in the meantime I need to remember that Christ’s hand is holding my chin above the water.
Right now I feel like the water is above my nose.

so this morning I got another hcg test from the doctor and it looks like we’re good to go now for the big blood draw on Monday. sounds like it will be about 35 tubes. and they will only get about half of it from the first arm, so then they’ll switch! ick. not my idea of fun. but *totally 100% worth it*! please pray with us that the blood draws would go well on Monday – that the iron packed foods and gallons of water I’ll be drinking will produce oodles of good blood for them. and then pray with us that God would orchestrate the results to come back quickly! it could take up to a month, but I am hoping for closer to two weeks. 🙂

blessings!!

The word frequently translated “repent” in Job 42:6 is used six other times in the book, and it is nowhere else translated “repent.” It is always translated (in the NKJV anyways) as “comfort” or “comforted” or “comforters.”

One of the great problems for Job is that he can find no real comfort, no true comforter. Rather then being helped, he is hounded by his comforters. The three friends gather around him to comfort him (2:11), and Job certainly was looking for comfort (7:13), but they are “miserable comforters” (16:2). After more of their accusations, Job concludes that they have tried to comfort him with empty [hebel] answers (21:34). Try as he may, Job can find no comfort. Job was once a great king who offered comfort to others in their mourning (29:25), but he has found none in his distress.

Given this narrative, it makes great sense to see Job’s final response to Yahweh’s speeches not as some kind of change of mind (i.e. repentance), especially since the Lord explicitly says that what Job spoke was right (42:7-8). Rather, it makes great sense to see Job as saying that he is finally comforted in his dust and ashes. The last use of the word is in 42:11 where his brothers and sisters come to him, eat with him, and really do comfort him. Job first finds his comfort in Yahweh, the Great Comforter, and then his brothers and sisters come and extend more of the comfort of Yahweh to Job.

The other verb in 42:6 is MA’AS which is usually translated “reject/refuse/despise.” The word is used a number of times in Job: Eliphaz exhorts Job not to reject the discipline of the Almighty (5:17), Bildad says that God will not reject the blameless (8:20), Job cries out to God asking why He despises the work of His hands (10:3), even children despise him Job says (19:18), and Elihu insists that God is just and does not randomly reject people (35:5).

The challenge with translating this verse is that it has no direct object. What does Job reject/despise/refuse? There is one other use of the same verb in Job where there is no direct object but the context fills out the meaning for us. In 7:16, Job says “I despise _____ : I would not live forever. Leave me alone for my days are but a breath.” Given the context it makes good sense for the translators to supply the words “my life.” Job says: “I despise my life: I don’t want to live forever…” And Job says something similar later in 9:21 when he insists, “I am blameless, yet I do not know myself, I despise my life.” And here the direct object “my life” is explicitly provided. The idea is that Job knows he’s blameless, but given his circumstances he does not want to live.

So my suggestion for translating 42:6 is the following:

“Therefore I despise my life but I am comforted in my dust and ashes.”

Job is still in great pain, he has lost so much of what was dear to him, and his kingdom is still in terrific jeopardy, but in those dust and ashes, in the dust and ashes of his mourning and despair, Yahweh has spoken to him. Yahweh has spoken in the midst of the storm, and therefore Job is comforted.

Cherry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup buttermilk; low fat is fine
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped cherries, about 8 ounces

Preparation:

Line muffin cups with paper liners or spray well with a baking spray. Heat oven to 375°.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, soda, salt, and brown sugar, stirring to blend. Whisk eggs with butter and vanilla; stir into the dry ingredients along with buttermilk. Stir until blended. Stir in chopped cherries.

Fill muffin cups about almost to tops of papers. Bake for 20 minutes, or until browned and the tops spring back when pressed lightly with a finger.

Thank you, friends, for faithfully upholding us before the throne of grace. We are thankful for each and every one of you.

The short story:
Dr. R seems very professional, very knowledgeable, very kind. His bedside manner was great, and he treated both my hubby & me with compassion and respect. We are thankful that he supports us and will do whatever he can to help us through the next few weeks (hopefully not months…) of testing, results, and praying for another miracle baby. My body is still hanging onto pregnancy hormones (grrrr) so we can’t begin the big battery of tests until that is gone. So I will keep going in and getting poked until the lab tells us I’m at a zero. We are praying that July 20th will be the day when I can finally “donate blood” — that’s how much they take from me for the testing, so I might as well call it that. 🙂
We’ve got about a 30% chance of finding out the reason(s) our babies have died. It’s worth it to us.
He said that each time I get pregnant (without knowing if I have an anomaly hidden somewhere — thus, the testing), my baby probably has an 80% chance of being full-term and healthy. If we didn’t have Gabriel, that number would be significantly lower. So we praise God for the comfort of our son!!
I don’t even know exactly how to pray — beyond “Thy will be done.” Sometimes I want to pray that we would find something “wrong” in the test results so we can address the issue. Other times I want to pray that all tests would come back unremarkable so there’s nothing to do but keep trying & keep praying. I know that in all things God is good and He is sovereign. So I am confident that our future is in His loving and mighty hands. And so are the futures of my children.
Thank you for your prayers. And the emails. And the comments here. I appreciate each and every one. God bless you.
I have more appointments scheduled. More blood tests. More scans. More consultations. We continue to pray that God will use these appointments, and the medical staff with which we are working, as His instruments of grace.

Peace be with you.