Two Days Late: A Fourth Year in Review

Missing the actual anniversary of my blog summarizes how this last year has been: busy.

My wife and I are one month shy of six years of marriage, while my son is a mere week shy of being two years old. My twin daughters rush toward their fourth birthday, of which they are both quite excited. This summer has been a flurry of activity already. I have recently launched book three in The Canticles of Andurun series: Dragonfyre. I'm working slowly on book six while I continue biblical studies on Hebrews and other areas which I shall later bring to light, God willing.

I spent several months working on a play project for my girls and myself that has been time consuming but richly rewarding and enjoyable. We also had a boarder living with us for the last four plus months, who has recently moved out when he finally found his own living space. I wish I could say that it was a great experience, but things went sour toward the end and it was mutually beneficial that he is gone. I pray for him still, especially since he had questionable interpretive views concerning Israel and who the Jews really were.

My wife has recently become involved ministering in a local vacation Bible school that my church fellowship hosts; at least one family from it. New Hope Bible Church is doing well, though it has already experienced schisms, meeting problems, and more. The body itself is quite sound, and those who left did so more from personal taste than disagreement regarding Christian truths. For the time we aren't attending Sunday service because I elected to work that day so Gillian can minister; a small sacrifice that will only endure the summer.

In the last year I have noticed a disappointing trend in Christians to not take the Creation/Evolution debate seriously. Most think it is a secondary issue of little to no importance. Many bow out as being uninterested; many capitulate and agree that Evolution at least has part of the answers, if not all. If Evolution is true, however, then the gospel is undermined and pointless; a profound point too few Christians even seem to consider or care about. But how can one not care about the gospel that saves, especially since it is the only way by which God elects to save sinners? If death did not come because of the rebellion and sin of our first parents then the gospel is a lie. Death is not upward progress, advancing the favored species; it is the result of sin and death is degeneration and separation from God, both in this life and forever. But if death existed countless ages before Adam and Eve (which is either mythical or allegorical to many Christians) then sin was not the catalyst of death's entrance. Read it plainly: God was either mistaken or He lied. Either way, the Bible is proven faulty, the gospel robbed of its saving ability (if there is no sin, there is no salvation) and the Savior robbed of all glory. Other than that, this is apparently a small issue...

I have last of all had the privilege of watching a young Christian woman be restored to her Lord's service. Shannon has moved on now, but our conversations apparently bore some fruit that helped her to resume a confident faith in her Lord and Savior. Whatever small part I played in this, by God's providence, I am extremely grateful.

It's been a good year, filled with hardships at work (the Miller Hill Mall is slowly dying.) It has also been a hard year filled with sometimes caustic debates, children constantly hurting themselves, and my wife finding out that she is gluten sensitive. That will change purchasing and eating habits, let me tell you. But since her revelation she has felt so much better, and for that we praise the Lord for bringing this needed morsel of information to light.

Anyhow, I digress. The battle with the world, the flesh and the Devil never ends while we are on this earth, and for me sometimes I am more than a conqueror through Christ; sometimes to my shame I am the conquered. But tomorrow is renewed hope; my next breath is renewed hope. Never give up the good fight and continue my brothers and sisters in Christ to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints! In Jesus' name, Amen.