We are celebrating the release (today!) of The Dragon’s Tooth, the first book of five in Nate’s new series called The Ashtown Burials. Your kids will love it, and I couldn’t put it down. Judging from our grandkids’ response, you could read it to the six-year-old’s and turn the older kids loose. Notice the monkey patch. That’s important! And you’ll want to read what my husband has written about it over on his blog.
Archive for the 'From Me' Category
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I learned something today I thought I would pass on. I was reading the temptation account in Genesis and read the (very helpful) notes at the bottom in my New Geneva Study Bible. When Eve allowed herself to be deceived by the serpent, she was allying herself to the devil. (Yikes! That’s what we do whenever we give way to sin.) But when God spoke the curses, He established enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, thus reestablishing Eve’s loyalty to Him. “God graciously converts the depraved woman’s affections from Satan to Himself” (p. 14, note to Genesis 3:15). She is no longer allied to Satan, but to her Father in Heaven. God used the curse itself to bring Eve back on to the right side.
Some more good stuff from the note on Genesis 3:2-5: “The serpent tempts Eve by emphasizing God’s prohibition, not provision; reducing God’s command to a question; casting doubt upon God’s sincerity and defaming His motives; and denying the truthfulness of His threat. The woman gradually yields to Satan’s denials and half-truths by disparaging her privileges in adding to the prohibition (‘nor shall you touch it,’ v. 3) and minimizing the threat (v. 6).”
Okay, did you get that? I especially appreciated the first point. Don’t we often emphasize all the things we can’t do and forget all the blessings and freedoms we have in Christ? Eve had all the garden. Imagine! But she was tempted and deceived into thinking that God was a kill-joy. Of all things! In the midst of amazing, shocking, opulent abundance, she believed that God was short-changing her.
Don’t we sometimes attribute bad motives to God, assuming that “rules” just keep us from having fun? And we even re-word His commandments and blow off His threats, assuming that He will bless us no matter what. That’s how our mother Eve fell.
Good stuff for meditation.
My son has a new book coming out, The Dragon’s Tooth, the first in a five-book series from Random House called The Ashtown Burials. His target age-group is 10-14, and I know he’s hitting his target because Knox (age13) and Rory (age 9) gobbled it up back when Nate was writing it. Now they are anxiously waiting for each new chapter of the second book, one of the perks that comes with being a nephew and a son of the writer. It is also one of the perks of being the mother of the author. I loved it as much as the kids, which means it’s also hitting its target audience of fifty-something.
A few weeks ago Nate shot a book trailer for The Dragon’s Tooth which I am linking you to here. I had to laugh at my son. Not only did he write the book and the screenplay for the trailer, he built the motel sign in his front yard (which Bekah designed) and gathered up the actors (starring Joel Courtney of Super 8) and the props, including my dad’s old black Cadillac, and directed the filming. All this to say, he’s a hands-on guy, which makes his writing all the more interesting and fun. Be braced for weird insects and lots of action!
I’m a little late getting this link up for you to Rachel’s latest post on mothering over at Desiring God’s blog. It’s another wonderful and nourishing word for hungry moms. (And my excuse for being late is that Doug and I have been traveling today and just reached Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where we’ll be this weekend.)
From time to time a well-known Christian leader either steps down or is removed from office because of some flagrant immorality or some other scandalous sin. But other times, as in the case of John Piper last year, a minister takes a leave of absence for a time to sort things out, either personal things or ministry things. It is a leave of absence, not a resignation. It is a time-out to rethink how everyone is doing, off camera. For someone with an internationally known ministry, I can easily imagine that this could be a tremendous help. A minister of a small to mid-size church might be able to take a week off and regroup; but when you are the head of a huge ministry, things go public in a big way. It just comes with the territory.
Recently, C.J. Mahaney has stepped down from his position as head of Sovereign Grace Ministries in order to sort out some misunderstandings, headbonks, and whatnot. I am not going to address the particulars here, because, frankly, I don’t know what they are, and that’s not my point in writing.
A strange thing happens when a minister comes under fire. All the discontents from the past ten or twenty years Continue reading ‘Sociological Events’
In honor of our country’s independence, we did our patriotic duty and made pies and homemade ice cream. The Merkle girls each made a pie, and here they are in front of their masterpieces: Jemma with her apple pie, Hero with strawberry, and Bel with her lattice strawberry-rhubarb. They were fantastic!
Rachel also made pies, just so we would be sure to have more than plenty, and her kids all helped in meaningful ways, don’t you know? Here’s the complete lineup:
And I especially like this patriotic picture below. Even the ice is American!
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