Belated Yet Again

Yesterday was Youngest Daughter’s birthday, so I’m wishing her blog birthday greetings. True to form, they are belated greetings, although I was not so negligent in real life. Real life just got away from me yesterday, and the blog was neglected, but the girl wasn’t.

 

Here she is at four. She had just discovered the game of Candy Land. Every day, right after her nap, she would carefully set up her Candy Land game on the chest she’s sitting on in the photo. Then as soon as her father walked in the door after his day’s work, she would rope him into a game. How could he say no? If you’ve ever played Candy Land, though, you know how much he’d have preferred to do anything else.

 

Recently I had a conversation about coddled kids whose parents have never let them lose at anything, so they have skewed expectations for how things ought to go for them in life. In our house, teaching the child to lose at games was their father’s job. Here’s a little word of free advice to dads who want to follow his example: When you pick a game to use to teach your little one the skill of losing, choose checkers, or Chinese checkers, or Jenga, or pick-up sticks.  Never, ever, choose Candy Land.  At least if you want to keep your sanity.

 

So here are belated twenty-third birthday greeting to Youngest Daughter, the sweet little girl who drove her dad crazy with her Candy Land game.

Appetizers All Around

This month’s recipe roundup will be held at Hiraeth.  Kim says,

… in May we’re calling for easy, delicious (and possibly impressive) appetizers. (The best appetizers are easy, delicious, AND impressive, right?)

Here are a few of the details, but you should read the whole spiel:

• Date of Appetizer Round Up:  Wednesday, May 16
• Deadline for entries:  For inclusion in the first draft of the round up, have your recipe in to Kim before 8AM CDT May 16.  However, entries are accepted throughout the day until the final draft at 8PM CDT May 16.
• Recipe eligibility:  Any recipe that fits the appetizer category is eligible—old post, new post, someone else’s post.  Even unbloggers can enter!
• How you can help:  First, spread the word of the round up to the readers of your blog, and then make sure to contribute a recipe when the time comes.  And finally, you might consider offering to host a future recipe round up.
  

Isn’t this fun?

The Ironies of the Cross from D. A. Carson

Do you have some boring spring cleaning or yard work to do? Download a good sermon, like The Ironies of the Cross from D. A. Carson, and listen while you work. Don’t worry that you can’t take notes, because I’ve already done that for you and posted them right here. And don’t think that you can skip the sermon because you’ve read my notes. The sermon has so much more, not the least of which is Don Carson’s dramatic reading of the scripture.

---

 
The text of this sermon is Matthew 27: 27-50.

The use of irony in narrative is a way of telling us what’s important in a story. In this account, Matthew gives us four ironies in the story of the cross.

The Four Ironies of the Cross

1. The man who is mocked as king is king. (verses 27-31)
   
   

   • The ironic statement in scripture:

     And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

     
     
   • How this statement is ironic: Those mocking think it’s false, but Matthew and his readers know that Jesus really is king, but a different sort of king with a different sort of kingdom. See Matthew 20:20ff, which includes this statement from Jesus:

     You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Click to read more ...