happy news

i have some happy news: i get to go hang with the fam and the extended fam and em and her sis and pop REALLY soon. like in 3 days or so. yay for that. oh, and at the beach. :-D

His Love Can Never Fail

this is a hymn on the new indelible grace cd, which i so far think is excellent. that said, i have only gotten to song 7 or something... i keep listening to the other ones over and over again because i like them so much...

without further ado,

His Love Can Never Fail
i do not ask to see the way
my feet will have to tread,
but only that my soul may feed
upon the living Bread.
tis better far that i should walk
by faith close to His side;
i may not know the way i go
but, oh, i know my Guide

His love can never fail, His love can never fail
my soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail
my soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail

and if my feet would go astray,
they cannot, for i know
that Jesus guides my falt'ring steps
as joyfully i go.
and though i may not see His face,
my faith is strong and clear
that in each hour of sore distress
my Savior will be near

His love can never fail, His love can never fail
my soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail
my soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail

i will not fear, though darkness come
abroad o'er all the land,
if i may only feel the touch
of His own loving hand.
and though i tremble when i think
how weak i am, and frail,
my soul is satisfied to know
His love can never fail

His love can never fail, His love can never fail
my soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail
my soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
isn't that beautiful?

Great Quotes from The Wedding

"Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day." (63)

Jane: "I wanted someone who wanted to marry a wife and mother, and someone who would respect my choice." (156)

"Though I'd been the same man I'd been for the past year - a man deeply in love with his wife and trying his best to keep her - I'd made one small but significant adjustment.
"This week, I hadn't been focusing on my problems and doing my best to correct them. This week, I'd been thinking of her; I'd committed myself to helping her with family responsibilities, I'd listened with interest whenever she spoke, and everything we discussed seemed new. I'd laughed at her jokes and held her as she'd cried, apologized for my faults, and showed her the affection she both needed and deserved. In other words, I'd been the man she'd always wanted, the man I once had been, and - like an old habit rediscovered - I now understood that it was all I ever needed to do for us to begin enjoying each other's company once again." (182)

here's the link again.

Oh, The DaVinci Code

this evening i attended a talk given by skip ryan about the davinci code. he talked about what is wrong with the history and theology presented in the book and the film. it was quite good, and i commend to you in particular his statement that christian thought that isn't thought out isn't worth thinking at all. (think about that for a minute ;-)) but of course, while the lies and deceit, comingled with just enough truth to be believable, are dangerous, what is perhaps more dangerous to those of us who do think about these things is the distraction from the gospel it provides. Christ died to save sinners. the davinci code steals that from us - it, like all forms of gnosticism, makes salvation and redemption something we can handle. but the truth is that we are hopelessly screwed up and nothing short of the death and resurrection of the Son of God could remedy the mess i've gotten myself into (and by mess i mean eternal damnation) and restore me to right relationship with God Himself through union with the Son. we should remember this, the heart of the gospel, when we talk with people about the book and the film. after all, facts help, but they don't change hearts. only the Holy Spirit working through the gospel, which paul tells us is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16)

[please do not hear me say that the greatest benefit of the gospel is that we don't burn in hell. as i am learning in God is the gospel, it is rather that God is glorified and that we get to be with Him - revelling in His presence - forever. that should bring to mind the westminster catechism's first question...]

Baddah-Bing

sorry, i'm becoming increasingly bad at titling things. this is just another update, full of random thoughts and updates and questions.

my sister's flight gets in tonight at 2ish AM. since i spent most of the day on my back with a rather bizarre and highly unwelcome illness, i'm going to bed before then, but i hope she wakes me up to say hi. i've missed her.

yesterday at the wonderful annual memorial day party thrown by some family friends i got into a fight of sorts with an old middle school history professor of mine. he ridiculed me, frankly, for my "ignorant" claim to be a calvinist when i don't even know what the (pardon my spelling) bezial and hermention debates were. though a google search wouldn't come up with anything, i did try searching a few more terms he mentioned and found this, which seems to be on topic with the debate we had. call me crazy, but in my extremely young and relatively uneducated mind, it seems like the four options outlined on that site - and the two options (of those four, don't think he made them up) my professor mentioned in our discussion - present for us an inappropriately limited number of options. that's what i think anyway.

on an entirely different note, today i read the wedding and loved it. basically, it's the story of a man who realizes he needs to woo his wife again after 29 years of marriage. by now you probably know i'm quite the romantic, so it should come as no surprise that i liked the book. but i saw so much more in it - the redemption of relationship is a beautiful thing. i'll post a few quotes from it tomorrow.

thanks to everyone who posted their favorite books from childhood. i'm responsible for story time and so my question was defintely designed in part to get ideas. it seems that there are sometimes connections between such things and who we become later. and sometimes not nearly so much.

i will never understand boxing - like RAW on tnt and such. i just don't get the appeal at all.

Odyssey Quotes

Connie: "Eugene, you just ended a sentence with a preposition!"
Eugene: "Impossible! Prepositions are not words I end sentences with!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connie: "I think it needs a bigger ending."
Bernard: "Oh, like what?"
Sam: "Maybe Percival goes out and gets hit by a bus."
Courtney: "A bus."
Sam: "Yeah! Then the moral could be look both ways before you cross the street."
Connie: "I don't think so, Sam."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jason: "Eugene, how would you like to take a trip to the Middle East?"
Eugene: "I'd have to think about it. Okay, I thought about it - let's go! By the way... your treat?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clerk: "The bell works, sir, but thank you for testing it for us; nice robe, by the way."
Eugene: "It's a caftan, I've recently returned from the Middle East."
Clerk: "Delaware or Maryland?"
[a little later]
Eugene: "'The bell works sir.' I'd like to work his bell."

Tell Me Tell Me: Favorite Children's Books

ok, so occasionally i will ask you to tell me something. a "sound off" opportunity of sorts.

some of my favorite books from my childhood were ~>

ezra jack keats' the snowy day
don freeman's corduroy
russell hoban's frances books
eric carle's the very hungry caterpillar
marjorie flack's the story about ping
beatrix potter's stories
leroy neiman's casey at the bat
anything nancy drew
louisa may alcott's little women
l. m. montgomery's anne of green gables

what were your favorite books as a small child?

Update

We're gonna have fun tonight, kids. I'm going to tell you all kinds of fun things.

First off, I'm sure you've noticed that lately I've been watching alot of movies. This is because I love movies and I'm trying to "catch up" so to speak. Today I'm going to brag on the Disney Channel Original Movie that just went to DVD - "High School Musical." It was fabulous - very much an old-school musical, and the music is great.

You will also have noticed that I now product-link to the B&N website. Call it loyalty.

I am getting excited about trying out for American Idol - yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am actually sticking my neck out and actually going to auditions. I'm hoping they put up the information soon, and that there's something close-ish.

My precious old dog Bridget - who is a Golden Retriever long out-living her expected lifespan. She's nearly 15 (Golden Retrievers are supposed to live 10-12 years), and she's now having a really rough time getting up. She's such a sweetheart, and though she's been quite blind and quite deaf for a while, it's hard to watch her body slowing down and stopping. :-( She's my miracle dog - I prayed for her for years, and our family got her for Christmas when I was 6.

I love to read. L-O-V-E to read. It's really fun. Especially novels. Still plugging away at God Is the Gospel, though. :-) Never let it be said that my affection for novels is indicative of not enjoying theology... ;-)

I'm keeping my car, by the way. I just decided I like it too much. Well, that and my dad was like "What are you thinking????" That was kinda a clincher for me.

KJ is called "the Bug" because "Squirrel" didn't stick. No, really - that's why. He used to not let anyone but me call him "the Bug," but now he lets Dad and Mom call him that every once in a while. It's a petname, but there's absolutely no reason behind it. Sorry to disappoint.

Does anyone besides me think that the "Sonic has it; others don't" commercials are exceedingly annoying?

Fact

i just cried like a baby watching "king kong."

Latin, History, and Other Exciting Examinations

i know what you're thinking. hold it, lauren - you said you were done with exams. you're home from school. you started your job and everything. what's the deal? well, the bug (i.e. my brother) has examinations this week, and when your 13 year old brother has exams, and you're home from college, you might as well have them to with all the studying you two do. right now the bug is reviewing his history. today he took latin and english - i was mostly in charge of latin. but tomorrow is math and history. thankfully, i'm not helping with math (we do want the fellow to pass, you know), but history is all me. incidentally, the class is called "renaissance and reformation history," which i happen to know pretty well. i think the bug will be a history or art history major. he knows SO MUCH and retains SO MUCH and is excited about it. it's really cool. he wants to be an architect. (he has a couple of computer programs that let him design houses, and he does it all the time; he "specializes" in palatial domiciles. in other words, he likes mansions.)

thankfully, the bug's summer starts on friday and then we can do all the fun things we've planned - go ice skating at the mall, go see "over the hedge," go swimming in the pool, go to local art museums, etc. since i'm only working 4 days a week, we should be able to hang out kinda alot. i happen to love the bug, so i'm crazy about this idea.

katie (my amazonian athlete sister) finally finishes up exams and comes home on the 30th. she only has 11 days off before she has to go back :-( but at least she gets to come home for a little.

also near and exciting: 40% off week at b&n for employees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!