Everybody take a deep breath now...

PHEW! Been busy? I sure have been! I'm right in the middle of the old "countdown to Christmas" and I have had a lot on my plate. Not all of it has been last minute Christmas preparations, though there has been plenty of that. I have thankfully been able to carve out time for Advent Services, Sunday School Christmas Pageant practises (the children will be putting on a beautiful Christmas Eve Children's Service), and the Christmas Chorale put on by my daughter's school (she is in both the Concert choir and the Jazz Choir). It's good to pause for a while to enjoy these things. The "work" will always be there.

Consider this a "catch-up" post - little mini updates of all the things I wanted to blog about, but didn't get around to while I've been scurrying about!

Christmas Cookie Roundup
Hey, thanks to everyone who participated! I've collected up all the recipes (well, URLs to them anyways) and here they are:
Shortybear's first entry is No-bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars. (Let me just say: Chocolate, peanut butter AND no-bake? Who is this genius? This is the first one I'm going to try!) She follows that up with two more, Raspberry Oatmeal Squares and Chocolate Cookies. They all sound like keepers.
Beth has submitted Cherry Snowballs. This is one I've never heard of before - totally unique. Since most of the cookie recipes in my repertoire are variations on a theme, I intend to try this one as well.
Debbie checks in with a delicious and easy to make candy recipe. Nummy!
Allison contributed Peanut Butter Dreams, another one on my "to try" list.
And finally, Denise, the undisputed cookie queen, shares her Pizzelle recipe.

Ladies, start your ovens!

Really, I haven't been procrastinating
Well ok, I have been. I haven't selected a recipient to honour with a Mercy Drop yet. Since Beth honoured me with one several weeks ago I have been putting off selecting someone. Honestly, trying to narrow it to a single recipient is daunting for me because each of you, in your own way, is a Mercy Drop to me. How can I choose just one? So, though I am now going to single out one blog in particular, I reserve the right to bestow this honour again.

I choose Shortybear's Place. I find a model of faith there every day. Every day. This has not been Denise's best year ever. Quite frankly, her trials this year reminded me of Jobs. And she will quite readily admit that this has been a very difficult time for her, but also like Job, she knows that her Redeemer lives, and that is what comes through in her posts. She models a hang-on-at-all-costs faith that I admire, and what she shares refreshes me. I thank you for that, Denise.

Please pray
Would you all please keep our Sunday School in your prayers? The children will be participating in the service this Sunday. At our final practise, we were still struggling a bit. Please pray that the Lord would use these precious little ones to bring His Word, and if our delivery is less than "polished" let that not obscure the Light.

Happy Birthday Jack
Clues, clues. A couple of things Sara mentioned let me to believe that yesterday was her son's birthday. I was right! There is an adorable pic of mom and son on her blog. Happy birthday little man!

Feed in a manger
A friend, in her annual Christmas letter, writes:
This year as we reflect again on what Christmas means to us, I came upon an interesting quotation from IVP's Ancient Commentary on the the Scriptures. It seems that the name Bethlehem means "house of bread". Cyril of Alexandria writes of the Christ child that "He is placed like feed in a manger, that we, by now approaching the manger, yes, his table, find no longer feed, but the bread from heaven, which is the body of life." Jesus himself says in John 6:35 "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." May the Child in the manger provide food for our hungry souls this Christmas and always!

Heavenly food indeed.

Leeeetle rant

Sometimes I wonder if the devil designs snares that are custom made for me.

Yesterday I had a day where everything was 3 times harder than it needed to be.

I had a client who wanted to order a laser printer. The model she wanted was backordered, so I had to call her back to tell her. Then she decided she could go with another manufacturer and would I recommend something? So found a couple of printers that met her specs and emailed the info to her. There was nothing wrong with either choice - they either met or exceeded her requirements PLUS they were both less expensive. In the end, she decided she would wait for the backordered one to come in. Sigh. A request that should have taken me 10 minutes to process got streched out all day.

Same thing with a software license I needed to straighten out. I needed to get a downgrade license key for a client. I got on the phone with the software vendor (I'm not gonna say who) and was put on hold.

All day.

I'm not kidding - I never got through the entire day. I called first thing this morning and got through after about 20 minutes on hold. But again, another minor task that stretched out all day and into the next.

I guess it sounds petty to complain about minor issues like these. It just seemed that they were happening one on top of the other and after a while it starts to wear me down. I wonder if this is Satan, deliberately trying to frustrate me. Does he do that? Does he have that kind of power? I don't know. I know that he was able to torment Job and God allowed it. I guess what I mean is: does Satan have the power to orchestrate frustrations, problems, tragedies or illnesses in our lives? Or is it just sin in the world that is responsible for these things?

Ok. Rant over now.

Online cookie exchange

I wondered if anyone would be interested in swapping their favourite Christmas cookie recipes? If you're interested, simply post a recipe to your blog! These are the treats on my Christmas goodie list this year:

• Butter pecan shortbread
• Peppermint sugar cookies
• Almond spritz
• Toblerone fudge
• Chocolate caramel thumbprints
• Chocolate hazelnut truffles
• Raspberry almond bars
• Chewy choco-nut triangles
• Cheesecake brownies
• Mexican wedding cakes

Cheesecake Brownies
1 pkg. brownie mix
1/2 brick of light cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and pour into greased 8" square pan. Mix the cream cheese, sugar, flour and egg until well blended. Spoon over brownie batter. Cut through batter with knife several times for marble effect.

Bake 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out with fudgy crumbs attached. Do not overbake. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares.

Mmm mmm mmm....

Hebrews 6:4-6

For more than a week now, I've been thinking about Sara's questions about Hebrews 6:4-6 and how these verses relate to her situation. I get the impression that her understanding of these verses has caused her to conclude that she has been excluded from the Kingdom and life eternal because she had a period of "rebellion" or "falling away" in her teenage years. Though the Holy Spirit has since drawn her back to faith, she fears that her salvation has been forfeited. These verses seem to imply that very thing, don't they? Doctor Luther himself referred to these passages as "hard knots".

Sara is very dear to me and I want to offer comfort to her. I do not want to simply offer warm fuzzies and wishful thinking – that’s false comfort. I believe that there is comfort for her from God's Word – comfort that is based on objective fact and not just my own sentimentality. I went back to read the passages that Sara indicated were troubling her and decided I better read through the entire book of Hebrews again.

Going through the letter (which, as the name implies was written to Jewish Christians) I noticed the number of times that the writer warns them against falling away, returning to Judaism and apostasy. (See 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:20; 10:26-31). There is an urgency to these appeals since we are in "these last days" (1:2). It would probably take me days to detail my thoughts and impressions here and so I am going to cop out and provide a quote from Franzmann which summarizes them nicely.

The message is, thirdly, marked by the consciousness that the days since God spoke in His Son are "these last days". Christ has appeared "at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (9:26). It is the beginning of the end; the new world of God has become a reality in the midst of the old, and men "have tasted...the powers of the age to come" (6:5) even now. What former ages had possessed in an imperfect form, a form which itself pointed to a fuller realization, is now a present blessing - a better covenant (7:22), better sacrifices (9:23), a better possession (10:34), and a better hope (7:19). Men still hope, and the full realization of all that Christ has wrought is still to come. But the Day is drawing near (10:25) when all that is now a sure hope shall be fully realized. This "last days" character of Jesus' work, its eschatological character, gives it a final, once-for-all character and makes the decision of faith one of terrible urgency; eternal issues are being decided now, in faith or unbelief. Man is confronted by an eternal and inescapable either-or. Seen in this eschatological light, the sternness of the warnings in 6:4-8 and 10:26-31, warnings which at first glance seem to preclude the possibility of a second repentance, is not strange. God has spoken His last word, and the time is short; men must not be left under the delusion that they can coolly and deliberately sin and then repent in order to sin again. Such sinning is the last step on the way toward apostasy; it is the expression of an "evil,unbelieving heart" (3:12) which cannot find the way to repentance because it has deliberately cut itself off from God, the Giver of repentance.

I don't know if this will be helpful for you Sara. I see a difference between what Franzmann is describing here and your situation. You aren't fooling around here, playing fast and loose with sin and grace. In fact, you admit having struck a bargain: I'll be Yours in this life, Lord, even if you have excluded me from the next life. That in itself indicates to me that you live accordinging to the Spirit. You couldn't have made that bargain apart from the Holy
Spirit - because apart from the Spirit, you simply wouldn't have cared whether you lived according to His will or not.

I want to leave you with this final thought Sara, something that you and other readers may find controversial. No matter. Please just hear me out and meditate on it.

I kind of fell away too for a while, but since returning to faith, I have never doubted my salvation, even in light of the troubling passages in Hebrews, and there is one single reason for this. I, as do all Lutherans, understand faith to be GOD'S WORK and not our own. We believe that Scripture clearly teaches that it takes God to create the faith through the Gospel (Rom. 10:17), which faith accepts Jesus as our personal Saviour. Faith is not a work of ours; it is the gift of God (Eph.2:8, 9). We can't choose to become Christ's. Since God Himself created the faith that allows me to believe His promises, I do not ever doubt His promises or my salvation. God did it all, including creating saving faith in me, and drawing me back to Him. Having this proper understanding of the nature of faith changes everything! It gives me purpose and peace. Purpose to serve God and my neighbour in everything I do, and peace that I receive forgiveness when I fail. If you would like me to share the Scriptures that illuminate this truth I would be happy to do so.

Here's a bit of fun

What American accent do you have? Find out!

My results:
North Central
"North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.

Ya think?

A last minute night out

Why is it that impromtu plans are the most fun? My husband called about 20 minutes ago to tell us that he had been given 4 tickets to see the Rangers game tonight! (That's the Kitchener Rangers, Sara. Sorry!) We didn't have anything planned so woo hoo, let's go! We decided we'll grab a quick burger or something on the way and make it a family night out. I called the box office to see if we could get one more ticket, but no, they are completely sold out in our section. I was SO disappointed. We need 5 tickets - there's 5 of us. But....it turns out our oldest has plans anyway (he's 17 and is starting to get his own social life) so yippee!! Game on again!

I promise to have a longer post tomorrow - I have been working on some thoughts for Sara as well as considering who I would like to honour with a Mercy Drop. Thank you very much, Beth, for thinking of me. I agree, it is truly humbling to be thought of that way and makes me all the more aware of the awesome privilege we have to encourage and edify one another. "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward works of love and good deeds." (Hebrews 10:24)

Have a great evening everybody!

When everyone's gone home

Shortybear is coming up on a milestone - December 21 will be 8 months since her mother went to be with her Lord. This will be her first Christmas without her mom. At her blog today she reminds us that those who have lost a loved one continue to need compassion long after the loved one is gone.

Interestingly, I have been thinking a lot about this very thing myself the last couple of days. Some of you may remember that this past summer friends of mine lost their 18 month son in a tragic accident. Evan Remy Howell would have celebrated his second birthday on December 18th this year. I have been thinking a lot about his parents, Morley and Heather, and how agonizingly painful it must be for them as they approach not only this date, but Christmas without him as well. I have been thinking about how I may express my own sorrow to them, but I want to do it in a way that might be a comfort to them.

Here is a letter that my former pastor Reverend Kevin Walrath sends to a newly grieving person or family. It is his original writing. He has given permission for others to share it and no acknowledgement is necessary should you wish to use it.

When everyone's gone home.

They were all there.
There were words of comfort.
People were there for you.

But then comes what for many is the worst time.
The funeral is over.
The supporters have gone home.
Everyone is back to work.

Your life too resumes the routine - outwardly.
So why do you feel so bad?
Why do things seem like they are out of place?

The world has changed - that's why.
It will never be the same again.
It seems silly - You didn't live every minute with that person anyway.
And perhaps there's some guilt that opportunities have slipped away.
There's nothing to be done about that now.

But while life has changed,
And people may not fully appreciate the pain,
And wonder why you just don't "get on with your life" right away,
God knows you and He knows that it still hurts.
"As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:13-14 NIV)

He will not abandon you.
God's Word continues to remind us,
"The LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deut. 31:6 NIV)

And the Jesus who wept at His friend's grave,
And suffered the pain of His own death for our sake,
But who alone blazed the trail to eternal life by His resurrection,
Wants to you to know His love and His presence with you now.

With thoughts and prayers to you and your family.
Sincerely Yours, Pastor Kevin Walrath

Dear Sisters in Christ,

Today I stopped into Faithprints, something I continue to do every couple of days. I am sad to say that the Administrator (Linda, I believe) is feeling very discouraged and frustrated by the overwhelmingly negative response to the recent site overhaul she made. It seems she put in many, many hours and a fair bit of her own money to design and maintain the site. She did it because she believed the changes would help expand the community there. She reports that she had nothing but negative emails complaining about the changes. I can only imagine how discouraging this must be for her - especially coming from other believers. However poorly the site re-design was executed, she deserves at least to be acknowledged for her ongoing - and sincere - efforts to maintain a Christian community on the web.

Though I did not directly complain to her, I certainly did not hide the fact (here, on this blog) that I was unhappy about losing my blog again. This was wrong of me and I repent of it. The commandment "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour" means that we not only should not do anything to harm our neighbour's reputation, but more: we are to uphold and defend it. This I failed to do. For this reason, I have removed my very first post on this blog where I spoke unkindly about my unfortunate experience of losing my FP blog.

At this point I do not intend to move my blog again. I'm weary of moving around. I will, however, sign up at the new FP for the purpose of sending Linda a private message (something I miss and wish we had the ability to do here) to apologize and ask for her forgiveness, because Christians shouldn't treat one another so shabbily. Going forward I intend to include her and her Faithprints ministry in my prayers.

O Lord, have mercy on me and forgive me for failing to live up to your holy ideal. Cleanse my heart from selfishness, that I may do your will and be a blessing to others. In Jesus precious name. Amen

Merry Advent

Mrs. E. suggested that we post on our blogs our favourite family traditions to "keep Christ in Christmas". Ok, I'm game!

I would like to suggest observing Advent as a way of keeping the holiday Christ-focused. (Ok, sidebar here: Did you wonder why my blog is called Ask a Lutheran? I am a Christian first, yes. But I am a Lutheran Christian. It is a big part of my identity. I'm aware that some of our traditions are different from much of modern Protestantism - the Quempas Celebration for example - and that I can't just assume that everybody is going to know what I'm talking about all the time. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop talking! It just means that sometimes I have to do a bit of explaining for those who may not be familiar...)

So, Advent. Advent is the beginning of the Church Year in the Lutheran church (and other churches who observe the traditional western church year). The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." In Advent, we look forward with longing to the coming or arrival of the Messiah. We don't just celebrate Jesus' first coming but we look towards the Second Coming as well. There's a really good article on Advent here if you are interested.

Many of the Advent traditions are centred around the "anticipation" aspect. I can't speak for others, but for me it heightens the joy of Christmas Day when it arrives. Some of the things we do:

• On each of the Sunday's in Advent, we light the candle(s) in the Advent wreath and then we have a devotion. We usually do it in the eveing after dinner. Now that the kids are older, we get them involved with the lighting of the candle, reading the Scriptures/devotion and leading in prayer.

• On the Saturday before Advent begins (today!) we put up our Christmas tree and decorate the house.

• I bake steadily throughout the month leading up to Christmas. Just a couple batches at a time, a couple of times through out the week. It is part of the "getting ready" ritual for me, not at all a chore, but something I really enjoy.

• I play Christmas music all the time during Advent! "Advent music" is harder to come by, lol! You may be familiar with O Come, O Come Emmanuel. This one goes back to the 12th century and is beautiful in both words and melody. It was originally part of the liturgy for Advent but now is sung as a hymn.

• Even the wrapping of Christmas gifts is part of the "getting ready" ritual for me, something my husband and I do together in the evening after the kids have gone to bed.

Now, I guess that some would argue that many of these things are not particularly "Christian" and that any non-believer could do the same. The difference is I am getting ready for Christ's coming. Lots of the things I do are just symbolic - the baking, the wrapping - but when Christmas Day finally arrives, I am prepared. I don't mean "I'm ready, I got all the tasks done". I mean I'm prepared for His arrival. In a strange way, the outward preparations have a way of inwardly preparing my heart. If you haven't read the article above that I suggested, really, go read it. This one explains WAY better than I ever could what goes on in my heart.

The big day itself rather simple, and Christ-focused. We open our gifts on Christmas Eve, so the gifts don't become the primary focus of the day. I get up and get the turkey in the oven and then we go to church. (Another sidebar: do you all go to church on Christmas Day? My in-laws, who are not Lutheran, don't even HAVE a service at their church on Christmas Day! Is that normal? I think it's weird. I'm not slagging on non-Lutherans here - there are plenty of folks at our church who fail to come on Christmas as well. But hello, what are we celebrating here?) Anyway, off to church we go, which is (I think) the best way of all to include Christ in Christmas. Go visit Him in His house and celebrate with joy the long awaited arrival! After a month of preparation, it is truly the height of my day. Then it's on home for roast beast (and lots of goodies - I baked all month, remember?) with our extended family.

Now, I need to clarify something here: I am TOTALLY prone to succumbing to the temptation of allowing the outward things take over. Have done it in the past. Still have to be on guard. Observing Advent - both in the church and in our home - helps me to keep my focus where it ought to be. You should try it!

This is the day the Lord has made

...Let us REJOICE and be glad in it!