I had the privilege of preaching God’s Word this morning in our church’s worship service, filling in for our pastor-teacher who’s taking a family vacation.  It’s really a terrific honor to be a messenger of God’s Word to His people, and I believe God was gracious and enabled me to deliver His Word with clarity and conviction.

My primary text was Philippians 1:27-28.  The main thrust of the message was that the church must be committed to living worthy of the gospel.  The marks of such a commitment are pursuing unity by the power of the gospel, upholding the centrality and truth of the gospel, and sustaining a clear and courageous witness of the gospel to the lost.

Listen for yourself, if you like.  Or, read my sermon notes.

And just for fun, here’s a wordle from my sermon manuscript:

Daddy made two marshmallow guns for the boys out of PVC pipes and joints.

Andrew posing with the marshmallow gun:

Daddy helping Andrew to shoot the marshmallow out:

Simultaneous shooting:

The boys love their new toy that Daddy made for them.  What fun!  Matthew officially declared that Saturdays and Sundays are his favorite days of the week because Daddy doesn’t have to go to work.

I remember when I was applying for colleges years ago, that one of the reasons I didn’t get so many scholarships was that I was too lazy to write essays to get them.

That and the fact that I wasn’t a young three-legged short male of Tahitian-German descent with financial need.  Yes, I’m making fun of the fact that so many scholarships are tied to very narrow categories of people.

Anyway, since getting on the blogosphere — and many years later — free stuff seems so much more worth working at.  Why?  Because I’m a little less lazy about writing, and much more cheap frugal! Ha!

For example, last week, Bob Kauflin offered 20 copies of his new book Worship Matters to bloggers who wrote in with a blurb on “why worship matters.”  And I got an email this morning that I’d won.  Yay!  As the main “worship leader” in my church, I think it’s important to constantly be challenged and refined in my thinking on worship; so I look forward to reading the book.

Here’s what I submitted, so you can read it here and on Bob’s blog when he announces the other winners later today:

Worship matters because we were created by God to worship.  More specifically, we were created to worship Him.  But sin has corrupted us, and still we continue to worship; but instead of worshiping God, we worship created things (Ro 1:23).  But worship still matters because it is still the reason we were created, and more importantly because it is the reason Christ came (Jn 4:23-24) and redeemed us, and it is therefore the reason the church exists, and the reason we continue to preach the gospel: to draw men and women into true worship of our great and awesome God.

The Christmas season is now over and my oldest is sad that all the fun and activities are also over. All the 24 days leading up to Christmas were very fun filled for the children. We celebrated the Christmas day by singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus, opening presents, and hosting a big family gathering.

As I reflect on this year’s Christmas celebration, I really enjoyed our Advent celebration starting with December 1. With a simple activity for each day, coupled with a reading about the birth of Jesus, we were able to extend the spirit of Christmas and savor the wonder of Christmas. Celebrating the Advent is a Christmas tradition that I want to continue with my family. I want my children to treasure these wonderful memories with us as well as learning about the purpose of Jesus’ coming. We come away from our month long celebration contended and joyful.

We are now getting back on track doing school work. I look forward to all the many adventures of homeschooling with my children. 2007 was a blessed year and we look onward with much hope and celebration in 2008.

For today’s advent “activity,” we opened our home to many friends from church and hosted a Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange.  Naturally the kids enjoyed having other children and many adults with whom they could play, and interact.

 Two highlights for us:

1) Our typically shy and timid Calissa was all smiles for quite a while without us in the room!  She happily sat and played with a few of the party attendees, and was a joy to them!

2) During the gift exchange, Matthew got his hands on a very nice looking toy Hummer.  A couple of times, a few adults almost “stole” the toy on their turn, but held back noting how much he liked it (naturally).  But finally, another boy decided to steal it on his turn… and Matthew very easily let it go!  I was very proud of him, for I knew that even though he liked it, he was willing to let it go, partly because I’d warned him before the party “not to get too attached” to anything.  Still, it was quite an accomplishment for him.

I also appreciated the loving gestures of several adults doing some swaps at the end of the game with kids who ended up feeling disappointed.

Here are some photos of the revelry…

Calissa surrounded by admirers:

Me, explaining the rules of the gift exchange to the crowd:

More shots of the “crowd” in our home:

Distributing gifts (note the Hummer toy which was temporarily Matthew’s, in bottom right corner of photo):

We took a break today.  Grandparents took the boys out to dinner, we went out with the girls.

Tomorrow, however, will be fun-filled!  Stay tuned…

Remember the contest we entered for Tim Challies’ Reformation Day Symposium? Our submission won!!! In Challies’ words:

Musings of the Dings - The strategy here worked—brownie points were awarded for including a five-year old in the symposium.

My husband said that Challies might be a bit biased because he also has little ones so he is quite sympathetic. Nevertheless, we are very excited, even more excited than our son.