So we named our children with a pattern and a purpose.
Boys after Christian men in church history that influenced me, girls after important places in history of the church.
Here’s their names and why...
2/ Hudson Taylor is named for the missionary to China James Hudson Taylor.
I tell Huds to be a leader of men and lead them to take risks in spreading the gospel.
3 Athanasius Clive is named for Athanasius of Alexandria and C.S. Lewis.
I tell Athan to stand for the truth and against the lies with wisdom and unrelenting strength.
4/ Caedmon Knox is named for Cædmon the hymn writer and John Knox of Scotland.
I tell Caed to create things that give God the glory.
5/ Nicaea Liane is named after the location of Council of Nicaea and my grandmother.
I would have told her to live for the “one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, etc"
And she does in heaven.
6/ Galilee Alleluia was named after the stormy Sea of Galilee that Jesus calmed.
She came as a praise-inducing (Alleluia) gift from God when we were still mourning the lost of Nicaea.
I tell Gal to bring the sweet comfort of the gospel to all but especially to those who mourn.
7/ Cedar L’Abri was name after the cedars of Lebanon (1 Kings 5:6) and the ministry of Francis and Edith Schaeffer.
I’ll tell her to lead people to worship the Holy Trinity by being a pleasing aroma to God herself and a giver of hospitality.
8/ Cyprian Ryle is named after Cyprian of Carthage and Bishop J.C. Ryle.
Cyp (nicknamed Sippy by his siblings) is still quite small.
I will tell him to love the visible church but hate dead and empty rituals.
9/ And now we come to the omega.
Our final child, a daughter, Cyrene Aurelia.
She is named for city of Cyrene where Simon the cross-bearer came from and the latin surname Aurelia which means golden, like the temple’s lamp stand.
May she take up her cross and worship Christ.
10/ Names are powerful. Take them seriously. God works in and thru them.
My children increasingly take on the attributes of their namesake. It’s amazing and weird.
P.S. It's fine to simply name your child a name because you like it.
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When women hold power in a church—whether officially or unofficially—two things tend to happen:
1. They strive to include anyone agreeable, regardless of error;
2. They strive to exclude anyone disagreeable, regardless of orthodoxy.
The reason for this is not due to some defect in women; on the contrary, it is exactly because God designed them to be the knitters-together of a society. Comity & harmony are women's forte & their ability to influence others toward such togetherness is both good & glorious...
...in its proper context. If you think of polite society at its best, of the way that it tempers the hard edges of men & establishes a structured space in which everyone can be included & feel confident of a place through observing the proper decorum, this is largely driven by...
“It is a palpable error of some ministers, who make such a disproportion between their preaching and their living; who study hard to preach exactly, and study little or not at all to live exactly.”
“You are likely to see no general reformation til you procure family reformation. Some little obscure religion there may be in here & there one; but while it sticks in single persons, & isn't promoted by these societies, it doth not prosper, nor promise much for future increase.”
I said, "I like you but I plan to go into the ministry. I'll probably be poor, be gone a lot & people will hate me. If you aren't cool with that, this won't work."
22 years later, she's still by my side.
22 reflections on life with a wife...
1. Marry for demonstrated potential which is to say catch them on their way up.
2. Marry as young as reasonable so that you develop your tastes and habits as a couple.
3. Children are infinitely better than pets... so don’t delay having them.
4. Have frank discussions about sexual expectations with your spouse & have as much sex as you both can.
5. When arguing, stop & say “Hey, I love you. We are on the same side. Let’s work this out together.”
6. Pray together & share the things you’re learning from God’s Word.
1/ Judas was a woke virtue signaling social justice warrior…
Pay attention to John 12...
"Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume"
2/ Mary worships Jesus. What is Judas' re-action? Outrage.
He says, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?"
Poor people matter, guys. Mary is being irresponsible.
Wow, Judas really gets it. He loves the oppressed, right?
Nope...
3/ John gives us insight into the source of Judas' wokeness:
"Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it."
Say what? Someone can cloak their sinful motives as...
1/ Exodus is a reminder that the war on males is a very old war. It’s a war that’s recurrent. It reappears anytime a tyrannical government fears opposition. They know that men, unlike women, are a threat as they are designed for conquest and rule. Thus, they must be dealt with.
2/ There are three common ways that such a government deals with a male threat:
1. pacify 2. reeducate 3. kill
We find the first and the third in Exodus 1.
Pharaoh attempts to pacify through hard labor (8-14). When that fails he has the male babies killed (22).
3/ We find reeducation in the Exodus by way of Stephen in Acts 7: “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians” (22).
We also can detect the strong cultural influence of the Egyptians in the idolatry in the Exodus generation. It’s a less direct form of reeducation.