"In a society in which sex is de-personalized, and thus degraded, even conscientious parents will have enormous difficulty transmitting to their children the capacity to view themselves and others as persons, rather than as objects of sexual desire and satisfaction."-Robert P. George, "Pornography, Public Morality, and Constitutional Rights"
Here are some pictures for Pop and Mom (Marijke's parents):
Cherry tomatoes ripening:
Our first heirloom tomato, a real mutant:
This is when I started clearing weeds from the bottom of the garden in order to expand it:
Picking up our load of mushroom compost a couple weeks ago:
Our second heirloom tomato, perfect in every way:
We are starting to get LOTS of tomatoes:
Some of our corn has turned out great. Most of it has not turned out great; in them, most of the kernels have not "plumped."
I ran over Matilda (just kidding):
I took this picture this morning - Tom rototilling our compost into the garden:
We planted 11 5' rows of potatoes, with more to come:
Christ’s dislike of what is amiss in us does not turn into hatred of our persons, but into the victorious subduing of all our infirmities.
-Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed
What is the gospel itself but a merciful moderation, in which Christ's obedience is esteemed ours, and our sins laid upon him, wherein God, from being a judge, becomes our Father, pardoning our sins and accepting our obedience, though feeble and blemished? We are now brought to heaven under the covenant of grace by a way of love and mercy.-Thomas Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, 36.
We harvested and dried the garlic we planted in November. All I did was plant a couple rows of cloves from Trader Joe's garlic, and voila! Much larger and more flavorful garlic bunches than we started with!
SERMON ILLUSTRATION ALERT!
Yesterday, a tree fell over on the property. It was not even windy and the tree looked pretty much fine - the tree was just rotten on the inside and then - wham! - fell over. No humans or dogs or chickens were harmed, although a fence and some green bean plants may not come out of this singing and dancing:
The chickens are now laying a whopping seven eggs a day!
Pop, here is the irrigation system I pieced together from your sprinkler heads:
Here is a beetle hanging out on our purple green beans. If you look closely beneath the beetle, you can see a very small green bean growing.
Here are some ladybugs hanging out on the asparagus:
And a mosquito catcher (?) on the corn:
Ladybug on the corn:
We are harvesting one zucchini every couple days or so:
Asparagus shoots:
One of the tomato seedlings I rescued from composty obscurity is now bearing plants:
Today's harvest:
Edward Welch gives Christians some excellent questions to ask about their own views of addiction (whether their own or others'):
- "Is sin or sickness my primary problem? Do I think of addiction as something I have or something I do?
- Do I summarize my life by asking, 'What do I really desire? Christ or ______ (alcohol, pornography, shopping, and so on)'?
- Am I emphasizing both voluntary and slavery?
- Am I being defined more by my past addiction than by the blood of Christ?
- Do I stand in judgment of the church because I think it has naive views on addiction?
- Do I come to church to educate it or because I need to worship the Lord with others? DO I need the ministry of others even as they need me?
- Am I meeting regularly with Christians of various backgrounds, or am I finding my fellowship with people who don't know Christ but know my struggle with alcohol?
- Am I keeping in mind the larger goal, which is to glorify God?" (Welch, Addiction: A Banquet in the Grave, 119).
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