Friday, January 20, 2006

FIELD TRIP

We left early this a.m. to pick up Melody and her children and head out to the Barrow Museum in Eola, TX. Our first stop was a gas station to wait for other members of the homeschool group. Melody was the coordinator for this month’s activities.

This museum is cool. It’s still a working Longhorn ranch and the profits from the cattle are invested into the foundation that runs the museum. It began as one couple’s love of collecting things. They eventually built a barn to house their collections and then it GREW. There is now a house you can tour, a big barn of antique cars and farm machinery, a caboose, a HUGE barn of antiques and thousands (Jared thinks over 14,000) of arrowheads, a building of pianos and instruments and a tipi used annually in reenactments. The weather was beautiful – perfect for our picnic lunch! The only down side to the day was the dueling babies on the ride home. Rowan and Stacia decided to have a vocal competition…possibly inspired by the antique organs and pianos they had witnessed.

These museums really defy “categorizing”. There was china, crystal, old clothes, old toys, rocks, coral, lots of “dead heads” (taxidermy specimens), a giant AK King Crab, combines, currency from around the world, weapons and military uniforms various time periods and countries…amazing! Jared’s personal favorite was the 1935 Morris Eight car.

Here are some pictures of the day (some of my favorites won't upload)!

We began at the tipi – here are Noah, Shiloh, Nolan and Arielle inside…note the paint with “Indian Paint”. The guide participates in reenactments and shared lots of great info.

Shopkeeper NoahThis ones for you, Mom! {grin}
Lunch counter - check out the prices

Various pendulums making various shapes

Melody & Shiloh

Farmer Noah!

Farmer Nolan!
Girls can be farmers too!
Jared's favorite was this 1935 Morris Eight
Awesome carving on this clock from Black Forest, Germany

Book Review - The Grace & Truth Paradox by Randy Alcorn


Finished another book – a small one – but a book! I’ve determined to finish all the ½ read books around here before I begin another and then to keep reading this year…..I need to read…it’s relaxing. {grin} No, I won’t write a review for each book – more of a reaction, or favorite quotes or well – let’s see what I end up doing over the year. {snort} In any event...here's the first one.

We began this little book in the fall in our Chapel Adult Sunday School Class. I would recommend the study for groups looking for a “light study with a heavy punch”. This book comes with a study guide that could easily be used for a 4 week class…However, we stretched it from Sept – 22 Jan. This would make a great Ladies Summer study or even Sunday school for High School. It would also be a good study (using the workbook) for a mentoring relationship. This is a short book. I felt this was a very balanced view of grace. This is a topical study vs. inductive study but it is a very good covering of the topic. Timely to many.

The basic premise of this book is that Jesus was FULL of grace and truth (John 1:14). We are to be like Christ. We tend to lean towards either grace or truth and need to aim for a balanced manifestation of both. Grace is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions (p 68). Dare I admit that this point is brought home so many ways and so effectively that there were a few times when I thought “I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” {blush}

“The two (grace and truth) are interdependent. We should never approach truth except in a spirit of grace, or grace except in a spirit of truth.” P 16

“Truth without grace breeds a self-righteous legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ. Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ.” P 18

“If we accurately demonstrate grace and truth, some will be drawn to us and others will be offended by us – just as they were by Jesus” p. 20

“The Christian life is far more than sin management. Behavior modifications that’s not empowered by God’s heart-changing grace is self-righteous, as repugnant to God as the worst sins people gossip about.(authors emphasis) Children who grow up with graceless truth are repelled by self-righteousness and attracted to the world’s slickly marketed grace-substitutes.” P 37

“Our culture views truth as something inside us, subject to revision according to our growth and enlightenment. Scripture views truth as something outside us, which we can believe or not but can never sway.” P 39

“I wanted to minimize the truth of human sin. I wanted to pass truth and go directly to grace. Yet without the bad news, there can be no good news. Without the truth of God’s holiness and the stark reality of our sin, Christ’s grace is meaningless.” p 60

A little girl’s prayer “Lord, make the bad people good and the good people nice”. P 61

“Grace never lowers the standard of holiness. Jesus didn’t lower the bar; He raised it!” p 66

“The ancient, historical Jesus came full of grace and truth. The modern, mythological Jesus comes full of tolerance and relativism.” P 72

“Without truth, we lack courage to speak and convictions to speak about. Without grace, we lack compassion to meet people’s deepest needs”. P 72

“Being a good witness once meant faithfully representing Christ, even when it meant being unpopular. Now it means “making people like us.” By that definition Christ wasn’t always Christ-like”. P 73.

Randy gives a great illustration from a child who spent 6 years in a prison camp with Eric Liddell. Awesome example of grace and truth working in a person’s life…but far too long to explain here (Chapter 9). Another great example was of his plane crash in AK.

“True grace undercuts not only self-righteousness, but also self-sufficiency.” P 83.

“God’s grace to us is lightning. Our grace to others is thunder. Lightning comes first; thunder responds. We show grace to others because He first showed grace to us.

“Truth without grace crushes people and ceases to b truth. Grace without truth deceives people and ceases be grace.” P 88

“Truth without grace degenerates into judgmental legalism. Grace without truth degenerates into deceitful tolerance.” P 88.

I know – many think I tend towards truth but looking over my life I can see a lot of unwillingness to speak the truth. I can think of one situation specifically where someone hated Christians and I was proud that they liked me…but it was because I was a pastor’s wife who kept my views to myself. God forgive me. That balance can be a challenge to find.