April 2007

Several weeks ago I told our good readers about Abigail Morgan, a precious one-year-old of Christ the Word. Some of you have remembered Abigail in prayer as she underwent chemotherapy preparatory to receiving a bone marrow transplant for leukemia.

Abigail had the transplant a week ago and is now in the thick of issues surrounding that transplant--issues which will likely tell the story of the transplant's success. Today Abigail was moved into the intensive care unit of the University of Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital.

Her mother, Julie, writes:

Abbie continues to have a rough time. She might have VOD (venous-occlusive-disease) which can be caused by the chemo she received for her transplant. What that means is that her liver is backing up with fluid and not working properly. She also might have sepsis (an infection in her blood that causes massive inflammation). She also continues to need a lot of transfusions because her platelets count remains low. Needless to say, she is pretty sick. The doctors have decided to send her down to the ICU for closer monitoring and more aggressive medical management of her fluid status. They are going to try more aggressive drugs to get the fluid off and if that doesn't work then they will try dialysis (which will mean yet another IV access site). I will write more later but remember none of this is a surprise to God and she continues to rest in the Shadow of the Almighty's wing.

We rest our hope in those sheltering wings. Join Christ the Word in remembering Abbie, Darren and Julie, and big sister Eliana in prayer over the next few days in particular. A blog with updates on Abigail can be found here. 

Daily I praise God for the church Mary Lee and I are privileged, with our children, to have for our spiritual home. Last weekend, we had a men's retreat and our youngest, Taylor, came along. There he is, sitting with Alex Bristol, David Canfield, Lawrence Howell, and Steve Traeger's shoulder. Later in the day, we played basketball, and ultimate frisbee. Click through to the next page and you'll see they're both serious business to us.

Sunday afternoons following Home Fellowship Groups, forty of us or so gather at Olcott Park and play soccer until it's too dark to see. It's wonderful--boys and girls, old and young, all having fun together. And finally, a picture of our Easter Sunrise service in our new church building. (Thanks, Colin Hobbs, for serving as our church photographer. Excellent job!)

If you don't have a church home, come and join us. You'd move for a job. Why not for a church? We're always making a place for new members of the family, young and old, single and married, patriarchal and egalitarian, Reformed and Arminian, credo and paedo, highbrow and lowbrow--all are welcome, as long as you recognize that your officers will be boringly biblical on all doctrinal matters, having subscribed to the Westminster Standards.

Of course, David might argue you should move to Toledo, instead. Keep in mind, though, that they're just starting their capital campaign, whereas ours is finis.

Now that the PCA's Ad Interim Study Committee on Federal Vision, New Perspective, and Auburn Avenue Theologies has issued its report, debate will be lively. But framing the debate is vital. And to that end Tim and I have several comments we'd like to make.

1. It appears our report a year ago that some within the PCA desire to rid the PCA of 85 Federal Vision (FV) churches was accurate.

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron... (1 Timothy 4:1, 2)

For years, I've been an electronic subscriber to Joe Sobran's essays and newsletter. This from the essay recceived today:

Abortion and nuclear weapons have lost much of their power to horrify. Like Macbeth, we "have supped full with horrors," except that Macbeth still realizes what he has done and knows what should horrify him.

The modern world's case is worse. When you habitually violate your principles, you don't just harden your conscience; you risk losing it altogether. You even wind up forgetting what your principles used to be.

May the Holy Spirit keep our consciences tender--as tender as the skin of a newborn baby.

The Independent in London reports that lab gargoyles are seeking ethical permission to produce faux sperm from lesbians' bone marrow to the end that lesbians can have daughters who are completely uncorrupted by the male of the species.

We might add, every male except that one man, Adam.

(Thanks, Michael.)