"I can read!"

Caleb had shown interest in learning how to read early on. For the past months, he'd been only reading out words by recognition. One of his favorite words was "God" and for a while he would scream out "God!" each time he saw it on the screen during singing in Sunday worship. And he started recognizing "O LORD my God" since we've been reading through the Psalms in our morning worship.

I started teaching him systematic phonics using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading back in July as we embarked on a more structured homeschooling schedule. After going through the vowels and consonants and their sounds, we finally got to the first lesson last week where he was asked to read three complete sentences. I watched as he moved his little finger across slowly but surely sounding out the words. What joy! Thank you God for the giving of the ability to read!

Echoes in our hearts

Here's a wonderful article from Christianity Today that echoes much with the convictions God has placed in our hearts these recent few years... Enjoy!

Twenty Years...

We spent a day Saturday up in Davis biking around the campus of our alma mater (with Caleb in the trailer), visiting the good old farmers' market, and just reminiscing on God's wondrous doing some twenty years ago when I met Andy, who was still a pagan... It was a spur of the moment trip, and I guess we could call it a 20-year anniversary trip! Summer school just ended and so it was nice and quiet. The hog barns by the engineering building have long been removed but the smells of cows and horses are still a signature of the Davis air. Caleb enjoyed the trip and the ride, and his mommy and daddy got to have some exercise. We thank the Lord for the blessing of a 20-year friendship.

Jesus Doesn't Meet Our Needs

"Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them," said William H. Willimon, and quoted by Al Mohler in his blog today titled "The Problems of Preaching to Felt Needs." On top of the nice quote from Willimon, I really like how Dr. Mohler explained very nicely the three flaws. I would very much recommend reading this post. Strong words are needed to reveal deep sins.

What Does God Promise, Really?

This week's TIME magazine has a cover story on "Does God Want Us to Be Rich?" and Al Mohler responded to the story with some comments on his blog. Most of the Christians I know (including myself of course) would probably say no to the Prosperity Theology if we were asked what we think, but a closer examination of our daily inner thoughts and activities would likely reveal that we are actually not that far from believing in it, or its many derivatives. Our physical, emotional, and psychological needs are so real in our daily lives that we tend to be driven by them, to such a degree that we can lead ourselves into believing in a distorted gospel in which God wants and promises to meet our every need. Our obvious need is money, lots of it. Others are health, jobs, family, and so on...

Here I'd like to make a list of some additional questions we sometimes find ourselves asking:
1. Does God want us to be healthy?
2. Does God want us to have a good or high paying job?
3. Does God want us to have a boyfriend or girlfriend?
4. Does God want us to marry a physically attractive or compatible spouse?
5. Does God want us to attend the best college?
6. Does God want us to have a good and healthy family?
7. Does God want us to be at a good church?
8. Does God want us to be stress free and happy?
9. Does God want us to have good sex in a marriage?

What does God really promise? Does John 10:10 include all these things? We all know that God promises Himself, in His Son. But what good is having God Himself but without those nine things listed above? When we're in pain, we often don't need God, we need to be delivered from our pain, we need good health. When we're single and lonely, we naturally think we need a mate, a good-looking one, not God whom we can't even see. And God, being loving as He is, should, we would think, be happy and willing to give us what we need!?

It's hard not to let our immediate needs define us and shape our image and understanding of God, and this is why we, as broken sinful humans, constantly need God's infinite mercy in opening our eyes to His greater glory and overwhelming us with it. And His glory is seen in His Son, in whom we all supposedly need to rest and be completely satisfied. Lord have mercy, lots of it.

Self-Esteem?

A friend recommended Susan Hunt's My ABC Bible Verses. I've been reading it with Caleb and would highly recommend it as well. One thing I prize in this book is that each lesson focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit, and any good done by the children characters in the book is attributed to the grace of God, never the child himself. Very God-centered.

We also have a devotional book for children (Blessings Every Day: 365 Simple Devotions for the Very Young) that Andy casually picked up years ago at a book sale at work. I was reading through it with Caleb the other day and came across one devotion (which is representative of the other ones) containing these lines:

But when God looks at you, he sees everything about you, like how friendly or smart or kind you are. Most of all, God sees that wonderful person he made. And that's what he loves most.

And a little saying in the bottom:

God sees inside me, he sees in my heart. To him I am wonderful, lovely, and smart!

I almost choked reading it, though I know I probably would not have seen anything wrong with it years ago. Our exodus from "modern evangelicalism" was God's blessing.

So often in today's evangelical world, we are taught to hold high self-esteem. I was even taught in the first lesson of a discipleship class years ago that it was important for me to have high self-esteem. God was not taken out of the picture. I was to have good self-esteem because God loves me and sent Jesus Christ to die for me. It sounded good to me. And it is true God loves me, but it is not the whole truth! To fail to see and admit the total depravity in us and the wrath of God that we deserve in the first place is nothing near Truth; God's love is cheapened and misconstrued. When God looks in my heart, no, he does not see how lovely and smart I am, but how sinful and foolish. If there is anything good, it is by the grace of God because of the cross of Christ and His righteousness alone.

Andy reminds me often to not tell Caleb that I am proud of him (and to not even think that of him). Let him who boasts boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:30-31). May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). Anything that Caleb can do well in, we humbly embrace it as by the grace of God. And we tell him the same.

As I learnt from John Piper, it is not self-esteem we need, but Christ-esteem. Pray that not only do I say it but live it as well.