Glory to God in the highest

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

Luke 2:10-14

Thinking rightly about motherhood

I'm grateful for some of Tim Challies' readers writing in, to correct/improve one of his recent articles. Though Tim had good and useful things to say concerning the value of being a mother and home-maker, he used unhelpful terminology which failed to recognise the Bible's portrayal of a mother and home-maker as being the highest, and most glorious calling of a married woman. It is a unique privilege to be embraced, not depicted as a second-best, or equal option.

When a career in the work-place is "given up" or "sacrificed" in favour of this calling, that which is "given up" is a less glorious, lower calling. That may not immediately feel like it's the case when one is still in the grip of the world's thinking, and on day one of exchanging being a praised professional for a pile of poo, but that does not make it any less the case, when evaluated Biblically. Saying this is emphatically not to pre-judge every individual case and set of every family's circumstances. But it is an important matter for Christians to get right, when living in a society which comprehensively rejects the Bible's vision for how the sexes are to live together.

http://www.challies.com/articles/letters-to-the-editor-8-homemaking-reading-humility

Tim publishes a variety of responses, and not all of Tim's correspondents get this right. One grinds an axe by taking Tim to task for not saying anything about singleness. But Tim's article was about the choices facing married women. Taking needless offence because our particular case isn't discussed  in detail every time is unhelpful. Similarly, not every married couple is fertile, etc. Unfortunately, though, the particular correspondent I'm thinking of makes her individual case a gold standard for every article about married women to be judged by, and makes absurd comments like "I am afraid articles like yours inadvertently encourages a middle-class Christianity - where women tie their identities to husbands and children instead of God." To read a mild post about the blessings of being a home-maker, and read in between the lines an encouragement to people to turn away from God, is absurd. You don't have to be an expert psycho-analyst to detect someone who protesteth too much.

"It’s violence. It’s a person. It’s killing."

In which an employee of an "abortion provider" admits that the work she's involved in is the violent killing of an innocent human being, but suggests that it'd be tactically better for abortionists to admit that and then make the argument that that killing innocents doesn't really matter that much:

http://www.lifenews.com/2015/11/13/abortionist-admits-the-brutality-of-abortion-its-violence-its-a-person-its-killing/

Why is it so hard?

Why, when raising children, is it so hard to get them to do what's in their own best interests?

Take that question to Calvary. Our Saviour had to die so that we could learn, slowly and stubbornly, to do what's in our own best interests - which is, to walk closely with God, avoiding and putting to death sin. How quickly are you learning?

Does that give a new perspective on the matter?

Because it is according to my principles

The biggest selling science-fiction book ever (thus far!) is Dune, by Frank Herbert. I've been reading it. In one of the sequels, I came across this memorable quote:

" When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles."

That was penned in the 1970s. If we applied it to the course of the anti-Christian movement of the last couple of generations, could there be a better description?

Act one: tolerance, tolerance! Let's all get along! We just want the same freedoms as you have!

Act two: Die, you bigots! You have no place in our society!

The finding of non-fossilized dinosaur bones

http://creation.com/unpermineralized-hadrosaur-bones-alaska

Stephen Holland protests the ordination of women bishops at St. Paul's cathedral

At around the six-minute mark, there is a very fine explanation of why simply not turning up is not a Biblical protest against wrongdoing, if it is happening in your church/denomination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EW3OT4_oks . Note that this video is not available in YouTube's "Safety Mode", which is interesting in itself.