Friday Vocabulary - Contumacious

This weeks word, as you can see by the title, is contumacious. Well, actually, the word itself is not contumacious. I mean the word is contumacious but it's not acting contumacious. Contumacious is the word I'm going to define. So, now we will get to business.
If you are insubordinate, rebellious, disobedient and willfully resisting authority, then you are contumacious. Children are usually contumacious around two years of age. I know I certainly was. In fact, I was contumacious until I became a christian.
So, there you have it. The definition of contumacious. See you later.

The Quote of Wednesday

Our hope:

"Well Faithful, thou hast faithfully profest
Unto thy Lord, with whom thou shalt be blest,
When faithless ones, with all their vain delight,
Are crying out under their hellish plight.
Sing, Faithful, sing, and let thy name survive;
For though they kill'd thee, thou art yet alive."

From Pilgims Progress by John Bunyan; the song of Christian about Faithful after he escaped from Vanity Fair.

Memorizing Psalm 66

I was busy all last week with various things, so I never got the verses out. That's alright because I didn't memorize all of the last set.
So here is the set for this week.




From Psalm 66:

Monday
v.6 - "He turned the sea into dry land; They went through the river on foot. There we will rejoice in Him."

Tuesday
v.7 - "He rules by His power forever; His eyes observe the nations; Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah"

Wednesday
v.8 - "Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard,"

Thursday
v.9 - "Who keeps our soul among the living, And does not allow our feet to be moved."

Friday
v.10 - "For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined."

Saturday
v.11 - "You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs."

Friday Vocabulary - Vacillate

Ok, here is the second word for today: Vacillate.

Vacillate means to sway or waver or to fluctuate or to show indecision or to be irresolute.
I can't think of anything more to say on this topic.

Friday Vocabulary - Reconnaissance

Ok, this post was supposed to go up last week, but who can think of such mundane topics as reconnaissance on the day that we celebrate the triumph of light over darkness in Ireland? So you are going to get two vocabulary words today. One now and one later.

The word for now is reconnaisance. In military science, it is the process of finding out about the enemy by examination or survey. You can also use reconnaisance to survey land for other reasons like in engineering to prepare for triangulation or in geology when you are trying to learn its features.
Ok, that's all I have to say right now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!
We love you!
Love,
Kirk, Jo, Elly, Joel, and Annie





We have lots of surprises for when you come home and one of them will make you look like this:

Annie wants to write something now.

annelise wonts too no you dad hape brthda dad mom gudbi

Most of the word are read the way they sound not the way they are spelled.

Soda Bread

This is the recipe I use for soda bread. My dad, who has high cholesterol, can eat this.

Soda Bread #2 (That really is the name of it)

4 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/3 to 3/4 pint of milk or buttermilk
Raisins or currants

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
Measure all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix them together with a spoon.
Pour in the milk (or buttermilk). Then throw in the raisins (or currants). Stir it all up. Then knead the dough with your clean hands. Roll it into a ball. Place the ball on a greased cookie sheet. Using a knife, cut a large X on the top of the loaf. Bake the loaf in the oven for 45 minutes.

The Quote of Wednesday (A day late)

I have been looking this up. Some places say it was written by Saint Patrick, but most seem to agree that it was not.

Saint Patrick's Breastplate

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's host to save me,
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me adundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I rise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity.
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

Memorizing Psalm 66

This is something new. To give Jo and I some accountability, and also for anyone who would like to join us, we are going to start posting Scriptures to memorize over the week. This is the first set.

From Psalm 66:

Tuesday
v. 1 - "To the chief musician. A song. A psalm.
Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!"

Wednesday
v. 2 - "Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious."

Thursday
v. 3 - "Say to God, 'How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.'"

Friday
v. 4 - "'All the earth shall worship You and sing praises to You; They shall sing praises to Your name.' Selah"

Saturday
v. 5 - "Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men."

Memorizing and a Women's Conference

This past Saturday, Jo and I went with our mum to a women's conference. The topic was knowing the heart of God.

The speaker, Mrs. Pope, emphasized the importance of getting into the word of God. To know the heart of God, one must read His word for it is there that He has chosen to reveal Himself. To have the heart of God, one must meditate on and obey these words. Mrs. Pope mentioned five changes in one's life which came from knowing and having the heart of God and which I list as follows:
1. Your attitude towards God will change. His words will become sweet, and your time with God will not be a chore.
2. Your relationship with God will change. He will be your treasure and your all in all.
3. Your heart for others will change. You will consider your neighbors and friends more highly than yourself.
4. Your heart for the world will change. You will have a passion for world missions to bring others into the kingdom of God.
5. Your prayer life will change. Your prayers will reflect God's desires and not your own.
Of course, these changes will never be finished while we are still in these sinful bodies, but the process of change shall go on day by day.

One of the best ways to know the Scripture is by memorization. Mrs. Pope gave some tips to memorize Scripture more effectively, based on her own experience (memorizing over a hundred chapters of Scripture). She recommended getting a small ringed notebook of 3" by 5" index cards and writing the portion of Scripture you are going to memorize on them. You can carry it with you throughout the day and look over the verses, say them to yourself, and meditate on them. It is important to recite those verses you have already memorized over and over again, while you dress, while you do your chores, and while you wait for things, so they will be kept fresh in your mind. Jo and I have adopted this method for our own. As an encouragement, I have been so blessed by this constant placing of God's word before me in the few days I have worked on it.

All in all, this was a most excellent conference which, by the grace of God, has spurred me on in my walk with Him.

Friday Vocabulary - Inconceivable

I can't figure out how to start this post. Isn't that inconceivable?
So now that I have started, I will finish. The word for today is inconceivable.
When something is inconceivable, it means that you can't understand or imagine anything like it.

I can't think of anything else to say but I don't think that is inconceivable. Good bye!

The Quote of Wednesday

This passage is from Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. I found this most convicting when I read it.

Evening of July Sixth

~"How many wrongs and sins have I committed?" Job 13:23~
"Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God's people is? Think how heinous your own transgression is, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like a high mountain, but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelian upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain. What an aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of God's children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the multitude of the redeemed, 'a great multitude that no one could count,' and you will have some conception of the great mass of the guilt of the people for whom Jesus shed His blood. But we arrive at a more adequate idea of the magnitude of sin by the greatness of the remedy provided. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's only and well-beloved Son. God's Son! Angels cast their crowns before Him! All the choral symphonies of heaven surround His glorious throne. 'God over all, forever praised! Amen.' And yet He takes upon Himself the form of a servant, and is scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain; since nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement for our offenses. No human mind can adequately estimate the infinite value of the divine sacrifice, for as great as the sin of God's people is, the atonement which takes it away is immeasurably greater. Therefore, the believer, even when sin rolls like a dark flood and the remembrance of the past is bitter, can yet stand before the blazing throne of the great and holy God, and cry, 'Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life.' While the recollecton of his sin fills him with shame and sorrow, he at the same time makes it a foil to show the brightness of mercy - guilt is the dark night in which the fair star of divine love shines with serene splendor."

Friday Vocabulary - Capricious

This weeks vocabulary is actually two words: capricious and caprice. I'm doing two words this time because they are connected.
The first word we will define is caprice because it comes first alphabetically.

Caprice is a whim, a freak, a fancy, or a fantastical goat leap. Basically it's to have a tendency to do things impulsively.

Now capricious, the word I intended on defining. If you are capricious, you are governed by caprice. You are unsteady, changeable, fickle, and fanciful.
God is not capricious, but man is.
Capricious can also mean fantastic or playful. But that meaning is now obsolete.

The Quote of Wednesday

My brother is getting baptised this Sunday, so last Sunday, my dad pulled out his Westminster Confession of Faith and we had some "profitable discourse on baptism and sacraments." The quote for today is from the Westminster Confession of Faith although I do not know how we stand on infant baptism.
Of the Sacraments

1.Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and His benefits; and to confirm our interest in Him; as also, to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church, and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to His Word.
2. There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified: whence it comes to pass,that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.
3. The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments rightly used, is not conffered by any power in them: neither doth the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it: but upon the work of the Spirit, and the word of institution, which contains,together with a precept authorizing the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.
4. There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord: neither of them which may be dispensed by any but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained.
5. The sacraments of the Old Testament, in regard of the spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited, were, for substance, the same with those of the New.

Of Baptism

1. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the coventant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.
2. The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel, lawfully called thereunto.
3. Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary: but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person.
4. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents, are to be baptized.
5. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it; or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.
6. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; yet notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age of infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in His appointed time.
7. The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered unto any person.