Emma Lenoir Mixon

12/23/11 01:35

6# 10oz

Additionally, Today is Jennifer’s Birthday!! Call her with stories of how awesome she is!

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Saturday morning at Taylor with Be-Bop and Pop-Pop.

Is this what the new healthcare legislation is all about? Buy insurance from the Government? What a Dumb idea! Why would anyone buy insurance from the Government? Here comes the IRS slingshot.

On another exciting note, going to Oxford this weekend for graduation. I admit, there are very few things in life more boring than going to a graduation ceremony. We go to show support and give congratulations to:

Amanda Claire Mixon graduating Magna cum Laude with a degree in accounting! (she beat me, I was barely cum Laude).

Christina Wells Ashoo graduating with her Juris Doctorate (or is it Juris Doctor?)!

Congrats to both on a job well done.

Well, I took a week or so off from the blog as our house should now be on the market. Needless to say, the last week has been very busy and tiring. So, this strip came in on Saturday’s e-mail, but I liked it better than today’s. Don’t we wonder about trying to be in the right place at the right time? Do we often blame circumstances on the failure of some venture? If I had only done this, If I had only ____… you name it. We think that if we had changed one of the variables that things would have worked out differently…

There are a few billboards throughout Nashville that proclaim May 21, 2011 as the day of the second coming of Christ. They point to some Old Testament references in which specific people were aware of events that were going to happen. Probably the most interesting example was that “Noah Knew!” And thus we are somehow supposed to be able to know things as well? In Genesis 6, “¹³And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” There’s a pretty good reason that Noah knew what was going to happen, God told him. Now this group proclaiming the end times may say that God told them about this date, and I take issue with that. (There are many other passages of scripture that they butcher as well, but this could go on forever). At the beginning of  the letter to the Hebrews, it is written: “¹Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” It is clear that God spoke directly to men in the past many times and in many ways. What is also clear is that the whole “package” of Jesus is not only God’s word to us, is the last word that God spoke. Think about it. To paraphrase a favorite hymn “What more can God say to us than what He has said through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ?” If we find ourselves looking for more than that, for looking for direct words from God, then we will find ourselves either frustrated by the lack of response, or believing that whatever we want to do must be a message from God. [much of this train of thought was introduced to me by a recent guest lecture by David Garner]

Jesus, prior to the triumphal entry, was commenting on the second coming. Mark 13:32-37:  ³²“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. ³⁵ Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— ³⁶lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

If Jesus tells us that the second coming is not for us to know, I think we should take Him at His word. I think that Calvin’s idea from this strip does have some merit when thinking about how to truly be prepared. His theory seems to jive with what Jesus said. The right place for man is leaning only in faith on Christ. If that be the case, then you’ll always be in the right place no matter the time.

Having a couple of boys at home who are currently sopranos, I can relate. Puberty is such a cruel, cruel time. I guess it keeps you humble. Regardless, it’s a low blow by Hobbes. I’ve been playing around with the settings, trying to make the strip more readable without having to click on it or squint.

In College, I was asked to read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. To say that I remember anything about this book other than the title and what the cover of the book looked like would be a stretch. Nevertheless, we find Calvin and Hobbes starting another meeting of G.R.O.S.S. and right off the bat, things take a turn for the worse. Hobbes is taking an approach of doing what feels right, whereas Calvin is sticking to his guns and trying to run the meeting per the proper protocol. Does this have any application to us? But of course!

We read in the Westminister Confession of Faith (Chapter 21 paragraph 1): The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.

An illustration as to this principle in action is the story of Aaron and his sons. In Leviticus 9, Aaron and Moses are seen offering a sacrifice to the Lord as they were directd. What follows is” ²⁴And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”  We see God accepting their sacrifice. Shortly thereafter in Leviticus 10:1-3, we see a different story ” ¹Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. ²And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. ³Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.”

And Aaron held his peace. Wow. Most would say that Aaron would have every right to be mad at God for what just happened. I think Aaron had a more appropriate appreciation for the Holiness of God. The heart of the matter and how this relates to today’s comic is in the Regulative principle of worship. This is clearly stated in the passage above from the Confession which is drawn from scripture. (I freely admit that my knowledge of the Confession and the Regulative principle come from Chad Bailey and Matt Bradley). Simply put, God has ordained the ways in which we are to approach and worship him, we are not to use the “imaginations and devices of men” to think that we can somehow worship God better than He has prescribed. The consequences for Nadab and Abihu were dire and you can bet that Calvin and Hobbes will soon come to blows as well.

Click to view slideshow. 

Today’s Calvin and Hobbes is bringing back a favorite of mine: G.R.O.S.S. or Get Rid Of Slimy girlS.

This is my motivation for building the boys a tree house. And telling them that girls are slimy. I wonder how long it took Bill Waterson to come up with these rhymes? I always enjoyed it on Whose Line is it Anyway? when Wayne Brady would create songs off the cuff. I get the feeling that Waterson could do this as well.