A Better Word

Blood speaks. But what does it say? Well, it depends on whose blood is speaking. After Cain had murdered his brother Abel, the Lord said to him, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10) Abel’s blood was crying out for justice and retribution. Punish the guilty one! But someone else’s blood is speaking, and it speaks a better word. “…Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” The word “better” is the Greek word, kereitton, meaning more excellent. Just as the Lord Jesus is more excellent, His blood speaks a more excellent word than justice and retribution. His blood cries forgiveness, redemption, and grace. The verb “speak” in this verse is a present active participle, which really isn’t all that complicated. It just means that the blood of Jesus is continually and presently speaking this more excellent word. He lives always to intercede for us, speaking forgiveness, redemption, and grace. We are accepted in the Beloved.
Paul says in Ephesians 1:7 that “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” He lavished grace on us in the form of redemption and forgiveness. Lavished means, “to exceed a fixed number or measure.” I love that. There is no end to His grace. You can’t measure it, and you can’t out sin it. Whatever number man can count up to, His grace exceeds that. So God can afford to lavish this grace on us. In fact His whole purpose in saving us was so that for all of eternity He could show us this grace by His kindness to us in Christ. (Ephesians 2:7) Amazing. He died for our sins, shed His blood to save us so that He could, for all of eternity, lavish grace on us. There is no better word than that.

An Uninvited Guest

"And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke 2:6-7 ESV

The Greek word for inn in this passage is kataluma, meaning a loosing down (from kata=down, luo=to loose). Hence, a place where you unloose your burden and relax. It is the same word in Luke 22:11 translated guest chamber or guest room in connection with the upper room. In the Eastern culture the guest, when invited, was an honored member of the household and continually served. It was customary to pay homage to a guest with a kiss of greeting, to wash his feet and annoint his head with oil. Such was the honored place of an invited guest.

But the Lord Jesus, Creator and Sustainer of all things, was not an invited guest into our dark world. "He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own and His own received Him not." (John 1:10-11) "He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." (Is. 53:3) Here was a Guest worthy of all honor and praise. This was a holy night, a Savior was born which was the very Christ of God. It was good news of great joy for all people. But He was not recognized. He was not honored. He was not praised.

Malachai, the last prophet of God before a 400 year silence, recorded the Words of the Lord. The priests of the Lord were dishonoring the Lord with defiled offerings: blind, lame and sick offerings. He said they wouldn't offer such offerings to their governor and expect favor and neither would He show them favor. "For I am a great King, says the Lord of Hosts." There is something so sad in that statement. How far the people were from God that He should have to tell them that He was a great King. Yet, with the Lord there is mercy for Malachai also recorded these words. "For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed." Praise God for His mercy for it is the only reason I am not consumed. I thank God that He enabled me to recognize the Light. I thank God for a Savior and a Guest who came, even though uninvited and unwanted, and loved and healed and died. I thank God for a risen, living Savior. And I pray with my whole heart that I be strengthened to honor Him in such a way that He would be magnified, for He is a great King.

Herein is Love

"And some began to spit on Him..."

For the Jew, to spit in a person's face was the most shameful form of insult one could give. According to the Gospel of Mark, they did this to their Messiah, to the Holy One of God. That the high and lofty One was willing to endure such irreverence, such disrespect to His person is breathtaking. Herein is love.

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. 1 John 3:16

Reflections on Jesus by Napoleon

"Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself have founded great empires, but on what did those creations of our genius rest? Upon force. But Jesus founded his on love. This very day millions would die for him. I have inspired multitudes with enthusiastic devotion: they would die for me. But to do it, I had to be present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lit up the flame of devotion in their hearts. But Jesus Christ by some mysterious influence, even through the lapse of eighteen centuries, so draws the hearts of men towards him that thousands at a word would rush through fire and flood for him, not counting their lives dear to themselves." Napoleon

Take My Yoke

Jesus said, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Lately His yoke is not easy and His burden is not light. It's too hard, I say. I don't want this burden any longer, this besetting sin, this difficulty, I whine. I have no rest unto my soul. Why? The answer is in the verse. "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me." I have no rest because I am not taking the yoke. In fact, I'm trying to weasel my way out of it. True learning takes place when the student takes ownership of his learning, when he willingly takes on the discipline of applying himself to his studies. Learning of Him cannot happen until I take the yoke, not when I simply endure it. When I take it willingly upon myself, I learn meekness. I learn to accept God's will for my life, not only without complaint but with the assurance that it is for my good. Then, and only then, will His yoke be easy and His burden light.

Clever Quote

I love clever quotes. Here is one from For God So Loved by J. Sidlow Baxter.

"Writing in The American Magazine not long ago, a manufacturer expressed himself thus: 'It takes a girl in our factory about two days to learn to put the seventeen parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that these millions of worlds, all balanced so wonderfully in space - it may be that they just happened; it may be by a billion years of tumbling about they finally arranged themselves. I don't know. I am merely a plain manufacturer of cutlery. But this I do know: that you can shake the seventeen parts of a meat chopper around in a washtub for the next seventeen billion years, and you'll never make a meat chopper.'"

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." 1 Corinthians 1:27

Still, Still, Still

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Breath of Heaven

Angels Have We Heard on High

First Prize Excellence Award!

The Whole Group

Kevin's First Recital

Kevin's Knights & Warfare Display

Haley's Castle Project

A Medieval Feast !

We had our medeival unit celebration last night. What a wonderful time! We began our night with a feast: fresh baked bread with honey and herb butter, cheeses, quail from the King's own forest (chicken), wild boar (spiral ham), roasted parsnips, carrots, onions, rutabagas, and other vegetables, roasted potatoes and fresh greens, all from the King's own garden.

To begin, we had a formal Presentation of the Salt to the high table. Following that we had the Uppercrust Ceremony where the upper crust from a loaf of bread was presented to the most honored guest,hence our term "uppercrust" today. The last ceremony before the Procession of Platters was the Laverer and Aquamanile Ceremony in which the Laverer would help the guests to wash their hands by pouring warm water from a pitcher called an Aquamanile into finger bowls filled with spices and herbs.

For our entertainment, Princess Rosemund (Haley) sang O Come, All Ye Faithful in English and Latin. Sir Eric recited and performed The Duke of Plaza-Toro by W. S. Gilbert, a poem from Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera, The Gondilier, in which they made fun of the nobility. Princess Rosemund ended it all by singing and playing Be Thou My Vision, an ancient Irish hymn written in the 8th century.

Then the roasting of the Jester (Dad) began. The wits of the Jester were pit against the wits of Princess Rosemund and Sir Eric in Stump the Chump. Each contestant had an easy button from Staples in front of them. I asked twenty questions about historical people or events in the Middle Ages and whoever hit their button first and gave the right answer scored ten points. Sir Eric was our winner!

We finished off our night with castle pies and tea and coffee. It was a lot of work, but it was worth every memory.

Kevin's Saltdough Map of Europe

Kevin made a saltdough map of Europe, painting it to show the location of Germanic tribes around 500 A.D.

First Full Week

We did it. And it was a success! Our first history discussion on Wednesday went very well. I was quite pleased with their participation; it really seemed as though we were all learning. I felt that Haley really interacted with the material and thought about the whys of it all. When we met to speak about her writing goals for the year, she voiced her approval of the whole read, think, and write process. For the most part, we only hit a couple of snags the whole week.

The main issue is Haley's time. I am changing Latin to four times per week. We still should be able to complete the course by the end of the year and that will give her more time on Mondays for history reading. I may take Fix-It out completely because we will more than likely need all the time we can get when she gets a full writing assignment. We will take it as it comes.

One thing I need to keep at the forefront of my thought is to customize each week. When there is a larger writing assignment, we can cut back someplace else: history reading for that week, Latin perhaps. I need to keep in mind what skills are important for her to develop at that particular time. We can't do it all.

Hopefully, our success is not short lived. Next week looks like a bear with only four days and a lengthy church history assignment.