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(KE'RE OS'I TE) N., A LONGING TO LOOK
INTO THE THINGS OF THE LORD [C.1996 < GK.
KYRIOS LORD + -ITY; IMIT. CURIOSITY]


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Monday, May 30, 2005 AD
Embarking on an Adventure
I am going to attempt to install my curtain rods. This involves drilling holes in my walls. My newly patched, painted, pristine walls. I confess to being rather trepid about this. I am posting about it so that I'll have to go through with it and then report the results. Hopefully it will go better than my first adventure today -- hunting high and low for my WinXP disc, giving up on finding it, putting out an SOS for a loaner, making a 45-minute round trip to a friend's house to borrow theirs, and finally finding mine...in the CD drive. And then I couldn't install it, anyway. Verily the Good Lord doth haveth a sense of humor! But I am procrastinating....

Question: When drilling a hole for a plastic wall anchor, is the hole supposed to be as deep as the anchor, or will the anchor go in further as I put the screw in?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/30/2005 05:55:00 PM • Permalink
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They're All Coming to Visit Me!
Frommer's has named Baltimore one of its top 10 up-and-coming vacation destinations. (Link via fellow Charm City denizen Gregory.) If you want to be trendy, but are cheap, I now have two, count 'em, two guest rooms just begging to be occupied by company. And a couch and plenty of floor space for extra urchins. Gimme a holler if you're interested. Um...if I semi-sorta know you...like we read each other's blogs or something. The whole wide Interweb is not to consider itself invited!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/30/2005 02:59:00 PM • Permalink
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Saturday, May 28, 2005 AD
The Trouble with Making Soup
The one trouble I have found with making soup is that sometimes it turns out amazingly tasty, but there's no way of recreating the recipe. There was the leftover Southwest pot roast gravy and the leftover chicken broth and the soup-mix-in-a-jar someone gave me two Christmases ago and the can of tomatoes and the hot sausage from the freezer and the this-and-that from the fridge. Who knows in what quantities, or even what exactly was in that jar? I may never be able to make this soup again, but man, oh, man am I going to enjoy this pot while it lasts. Glory to God for culinary pleasures, however fleeting!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/28/2005 10:29:00 PM • Permalink
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Almost Free at Last, Almost Free at Last....

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Anticipatory congrats to Mike on his retirement after nearly 22 years in the Air Force, and to Kelly for having been faithfully at his side almost all the way. And thanks to Anne, who attended the pre-retirement festivities armed with camera and with gifts on behalf of some cyberfriends.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/28/2005 03:08:00 PM • Permalink
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DVDs on Order
Wanting to fulfill my Columbia House commitment (and never, ever do business with them again) and to create a small stash of films I won't mind watching repeatedly, I ordered the following DVDs this morning:
  • The Jewel In The Crown -- I watched this in its initial run (well, the bits I could see between poor reception, missed episodes, and my poor mother's constant requests for translation of the British accents) but haven't seen it since.
  • Luther -- There were some things about this film that annoyed me (most notably that Mr. Fiennes was just too pretty for the role), but it's worth having all the same.
  • Wives and Daughters -- Can you believe I haven't seen this yet?
  • Babette's Feast -- Such a wonderful film about grace.
  • Jane Austen: The Complete Collection -- This has all the old BBC productions -- Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility -- most of which I've never seen.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/28/2005 10:52:00 AM • Permalink
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Thursday, May 26, 2005 AD
Stop It, Stop It, Stop It!
By royal decree I hereby...uh...decree, I guess, though that seems redundant...that no one else is allowed to start an interesting blog. My friend Sarah has informed me that her friend Kris Lundgaard, author of The Enemy Within, has started a new blog, Brinded Cow, which not only borrows its name from a fine poem, but already sports some fine posts. Corollary to my decree: No one else is allowed to tell me about any interesting blogs, either. But at least Sarah's transgression is mitigated by the fact that Brinded Cow is less than two months old, so I can start at the beginning and read it all.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/26/2005 10:02:00 PM • Permalink
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Tuesday, May 24, 2005 AD
I Finally Did It!
I finally asked my supervisor about the possibility of my working from home. We discussed the pros and cons, and she's going to talk it over with the president and the HR director. There's no precedent for local staff doing this on a regular basis, so they may not be amenable to it, but she seemed open to the possibility. I'd definitely want to start on a trial basis -- a month or so -- to see if it worked. I was honest about the possibility that I may be fooling myself with regard to my ability to be self-disciplined enough to work at home, but frankly, I can't see it being all that much more of a problem than being self-disciplined enough to work at the office. I hope they'll at least give me a chance to give it a try. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but if it does, I really think it would be a positive move for me.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/24/2005 02:34:00 PM • Permalink
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From the Same Sermon I Listened to Yesterday
“We don’t like not being in control, and the Gospel reminds us profoundly that we are not in control. The Gospel tells us that God is God; He is the Creator; He is the new-Creator. And so, consequently, when we are confronted with the fact that we must be something that we are not, we have to turn to God and plead for mercy. When the law comes to us and confronts us with our duty to be something else, to be some other way, we recognize that this is not something we have any control over, and so we cry out to God for mercy. And that cry itself is an indicator that God has already shown mercy. For if God had not shown mercy, you wouldn’t even be crying out for mercy; you would still hate His sovereignty over all things.

—Douglas Wilson, “Scriptural Roles of Wives,” somewhere around minute 8 of the MP3 (the online version, which is no longer online, not the for-sale version, which is still for sale, but on which this bit probably occurs a little earlier in the recording...clear as mud?)
That last bit, which I completely missed hearing yesterday, jumped out as a tremendous encouragement today. So often I see the slow progress of sanctification....or rather I don't see it, because it is so slow, and I think it isn't happening and I fall into doubt and despair. I need to remember that wanting mercy is a sign that I've already got it. I can't rest there, of course. I can't say, “Whew, I prayed my Kyrie eleisons for the day so I can quit working out my salvation with fear and trembling.” But I can, in another sense, restfully trust that God is indeed working in me to will and to work for His good pleasure.

(Somebody bookmark this post and throw it in my face next time I need it!)
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/24/2005 12:30:00 PM • Permalink
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Monday, May 23, 2005 AD
When I Grow Up...
...I want to be Gabrielle. I'm twice as old, but not half as useful.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/23/2005 09:31:00 PM • Permalink
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So I'm Listening to This MP3 Sermon, Right?
And the guy's talking about Titus 2, right? And he's discussing what it means to be temperate, etc., right? And he says basically that the gist of what the younger women are supposed to learn is how to be a lady, right? Only just a split second before he says the word "lady," the document I'm working on does something goofy and I spit out, "What the h***?" Sometimes the Lord rebukes with humor, eh?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/23/2005 04:37:00 PM • Permalink
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Saturday, May 21, 2005 AD
The Inner Know-It-All in Each of Us
I like this post on the Top 10 Things Everyone Thinks They Can Do. I italicized the ones I claim:

10. Write song lyrics (This is the hardest one for me to joke about, because I really do think I can do this, and yet I also have great doubts about my ability to do this.)

9. Design a website (As long as you don't want anything technically current.)

8. Write a children's book (Not unless it was one of those toddler board books. I could probably write ten pages on color -- "Red Blue Yellow Green Orange White Brown Pink Purple Black" -- or on animals -- "Dog Cat Horse..." -- you get the picture.)

7. Write movie reviews (Whenever I try to write about a movie or a book, I usually preface my remarks with a disclaimer that I don't know how to write about film or literature.)

6. Be a comedian (Well I am officially the funniest chick at my workplace.)

5. Design a church service (Happily, if I did, it'd look a lot like CREC's, so I can stay out of trouble there.)

4. Work in sports (Hahahahahahaha!)

3. Write Top 10 lists (I had one published in ETC.)

2. Write a book (I'm sure I've got one in me somewhere.)

1. Name anything (Except, evidently, Tim Challies' book review circle thingie.)

I guess that gives me a know-it-all score of 7/10. How 'bout you?

I would add one to the list: Everyone thinks they can be a graphic designer and a copyeditor. Oh how many times I've bit my tongue when I've wanted to say to colleagues, "Leave me alone and let me do my job because you are not good at it!" Can you think of other additions?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/21/2005 03:05:00 PM • Permalink
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News I Can Use
How to avoid crying when chopping onions. (From Paulo, purveyor extraordinaire of fascinating, funny, trivial, practical and sometimes just plain bizzare links.)
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/21/2005 09:28:00 AM • Permalink
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Thursday, May 19, 2005 AD
Something I Should Hang on My Wall
"My mother and most women I think (including myself) simply hate the monotony [of housework]. There's so much I'd rather do! Theologically, when I'm doing an annoying housework task, I try to think of how God cleanses us over and over again in our sanctification. What if he left us filthy and just let us get worse and worse instead of forgiving us over and over? Our homes should be an extension of that biblical reality."
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/19/2005 03:34:00 PM • Permalink
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2006 HSC Conference Early Bird Registration
The Highlands Study Center has extended the "Really Early Bird Rate" on next year's conference, to be held May 5 and 6 in or near Abingdon, Va. The rate is $35 per individual or $140 per family (and they really do welcome the whole family) through June 30. The theme is Generations: Honoring Your Father and Being a Father of Honor, and the speakers are a pair of Sprouls (Senior and Junior) and a pair of Phillipses (Howard and Doug). I can forward the flyer to anyone who's interested -- just ask.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/19/2005 03:10:00 PM • Permalink
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Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
1) Crown and Covenant has a bunch of Psalm recordings on cassette on clearance. I ordered several and am enjoying them muchly.

2) PsalmCast is back!

3) When I'm in a spiritual slump, singing is probably the most effective remedy for me. Praying takes too much work. Even praying ready-made prayers, e.g., from the BCP, is drudgery because I feel as if I'm faking it, as if I'm a hypocrite. And it's hard to concentrate. But with singing, I can use the music as a crutch. I don't have to think so much about the words, but then pretty soon, they take effect, encouraging, rebuking, prodding me to actually worship.

4) Last night I sang some hymns (see item three for why) and was struck by the second verse of "Lead On, O King Eternal":
Lead on, O King eternal,
Till sin’s fierce war shall cease,
And holiness shall whisper
The sweet amen of peace.

For not with swords’ loud clashing,
Nor roll of stirring drums;
With deeds of love and mercy
The heavenly kingdom comes.
The lines I italicized really got to me. Beautiful.

5) I haven't written a song in two and a half years. That's probably the longest stretch I've gone without writing a new song in the 19 or so years since I started writing songs. This was the last one I wrote. I need to remedy that situation. Anybody wanna spur me on? If there is a passage of Scripture you'd like to see made into a song, suggest it in the comments. If I come up with something decent, I'll post the lyrics. I might even try to post a recording.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/19/2005 09:32:00 AM • Permalink
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Tuesday, May 17, 2005 AD
Spamwurst
Anybody else getting e-slammed with worm-generated Germanic processed meat? I've been getting hundreds of messages at my work address -- one every few minutes -- and I just got my first one at my personal address.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/17/2005 02:17:00 PM • Permalink
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Changing the Words
In a metrical version of Psalm 45, one of the lines ends "your father's household dear." It's funny, because I've always read verse 10 as, "Forget about all that past misery" rather than "Put aside that good thing in favor of this better one." So if you listen closely you can hear me sing, "your father's household drear." Hey...neither's in the original text, so it's not like I'm mucking about with the Word itself, right?

Part of the reason the hyphenation thing annoys me is that I would so like to be rid of my current surname and would never keep it should the normal opportunity to change it arise. I don't want it to be my identity. This is also why I prefer to be called Miss Valerie rather than Miss B---. If I'm going to be identified by only going to be one of my names, I'd rather it be the one I like! But I acquiesce to parental rules on these matters....
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/17/2005 11:47:00 AM • Permalink
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A Small Accomplishment
I got up, got ready and left the house this morning without going back to bed or sitting down at the computer. I got to the office at 8:15 rather than three hours later, as has become all too typical for me. My colleagues started predicting blizzards and clutching their chests while exclaiming, "I'm comin' Elizabeth!" I can't say as I'm being any more productive than usual now that I'm here (especially since I can hardly keep my eyes open), but I'm grateful for whatever baby steps the Lord enables!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/17/2005 10:22:00 AM • Permalink
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The Stupid Principle
RC has noted on occasion that included in our arsenal of interpretive weaponry should be this hermeneutical principle: If you see people in the Bible doing something stupid, don't say, "I can't believe they could be that stupid," but instead ask, "How am I stupid in the exact same way?"

I find this to be a useful question with which to approach not only Scripture, but life in general. While I failed to come up with an insightful answer in response to the hyphenated name issue I raised in my last post, I did find the display of another of my pet peeves to be an effective mirror this morning. I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some things for the day's sustenance. Two clerks -- the one scanning my purchases and another girl -- were chatting. They were completely oblivious to my presence. No greeting, no pleasant small talk, no eye contact, no smile, no thank-you. Ironically, the topic of their conversation was why one of them got passed over for the shift supervisor position she'd wanted. Uh...maybe because they take customer service skills into consideration?

Of course the insight into my own shortcomings was clear: I am too often involved in my own self-absorbed interests to pay any heed to someone I ought to be serving. What is my Internet addiction but one big conversation at the expense of my service to God and others? And at least the check-out chick was ringing up my groceries. Serving in even such a perfunctory, mechanical fashion would generally be a step in the right direction for me.

I also recommend this hermeneutical principle for those who struggle with forgiving others. The requirement to forgive as you've been forgiven doesn't mean to remember merely that God has forgiven you of some stuff in the vague and vast catregory called "sin," and that you therefore ought to be forgiving of some stuff in that vague and vast category, it means that whatever sin your brother has committed against you, you are more than likely guilty of breaking God's law in the exact same place. If you can't figure out where or when or how, perhaps you're not looking deeply enough. Or perhaps you should just assume that, in God's mercy, you've forgotten having committed that particular crime. Or perhaps you should remember that you're not dead yet, and there's a whole lot of sinning yet to be done, and maybe you just haven't gotten around to it.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/17/2005 01:48:00 AM • Permalink
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Monday, May 16, 2005 AD
Yet Another Reason Hyphenated Names Are Stupid
I just picked up a phone message from someone with a multiplicity of appellations, each of which had three or four syllables, and all of which ran together into one indistinguishable aural blur. I do not have the faintest clue what this woman's name is! Hyphenated names are a bloody nuisance and anyone who chooses to use one ought to be smacked.

ADDENDUM: Via IM, Paulo threatened to hyphenate Koslowski-Ordoveza, but then he backed down. I think he was afraid of getting smacked. Alas, this was not, as I had hoped, a veiled announcement of rapidly approaching nuptials. We did, however, discuss the Filipino tradition of adding the wife's maiden name as a middle name, and came up with some great names for their kids: Therese Anne Koslowski Ordoveza (TAKO), Wanda Anne Catherine Koslowski Ordoveza (WACKO) and Sylvester Ian Charles Koslowski Ordoveza (SICKO).
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/16/2005 07:44:00 PM • Permalink
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One of Life's Deep Mysteries
Is there any way of keeping a long broomstick skirt from getting caught under the casters of an office chair? I get tangled several times a day, and it's really rather a nuisance besides probably not being very good for my skirts. Do any of my readers (of the female persuasion...I know some knuckleheaded guy will be tempted to answer affirmatively) have this problem?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/16/2005 04:57:00 PM • Permalink
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Spanish Informant Needed
Is it proper punctuation, en Español, to put punctuation marks outside of an ending quotation mark rather than inside? I'm doing a layout of something in Spanish, and this caught my eye, as Things Ought Not Be Done That Way in English.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/16/2005 12:52:00 PM • Permalink
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Saturday, May 14, 2005 AD
Pray for Me, Brethren and Sistern
More specifically, pray for my poor 'puter. I got it back two Sundays ago from my friend Leslie, who had reassembled it for me. It was dead again the next morning, so I've been back on my brother's laptop, which is exceedingly unstable and has none of the software I need to use. So Mike has flown all the way from Texas just to fix it (well...something about a job interview, too, but we know what's the really important part of the trip). So I'm going to load it all in the car tomorrow, and sometime between church and fellowship dinner and whatnot, Mike's going to lay hands on it (maybe I could get the elders to pray, too, but I'm thinking that anointing with oil would probably not help matters). I told him we could skip it, since it's the Sunday and all, but he likened my plight to having had my horse fall into a ditch, and assured me that its rescue would therefore be lawful Sabbath activity. Anyway, it being Pentecost and all, I'm thinking a nice little miraculous cyberhealing wouldn't be too much to ask for, would it?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/14/2005 11:33:00 PM • Permalink
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Distinctive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators
Toni has reinstated comments, in part because I made her feel guilty. I confess that gives me quite a sense of satisfaction!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/14/2005 10:43:00 PM • Permalink
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Xtra: Yeast Zoned!
(OK, so you come up with a better XYZ title!)

Doug Wilson asks, "And when have you heard of yeast being successfully zoned to just one end of the loaf?" Well, that sort of happens to me every once in a while when I forget to put the kneading blade into the bread machine, and I get a nice brick of unmixed, unleavened ingredients. But that's not what he had in mind, I suppose.

The funnier thing I thought of in regard to that post (and his previous one) was Mr. Wilson's April Fool's Day joke. If'n it had only been true, then his enemies would have loved his idea of equal application of the zoning regs thereunto!

Of course the truly vexing thing about this mess going on in Moscow is that it seems to have distracted Mr. Wilson from writing more of the stuff I like to read...such as his parables. And it's all about me, right?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/14/2005 07:49:00 PM • Permalink
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Thursday, May 12, 2005 AD
I'm Not Getting This
Rick Saenz has written a post on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's views on community. Some of Bonhoeffer's reasoning seems to me to fall really flat. If brotherhood in Christ is the foundation of community, are we not to desire also to have walls and a roof? If a natural family has the bond of blood, is it not also to desire the maturity of its members? Is not a husband and father to have a vision for his family -- for their sanctification and for their service to God? Of course the vision -- whether in a family or in a Christian community -- can be wrong-headed and lead to disaster, but is that cause to condemn the very notion of vision? Say the foundation of brotherhood is laid. How are we to decide the floor plan, the number of stories, the architectural style etc. without a vision? Why can't those who have the vision have truly submitted it to Christ? Why can't the vision be truly prompted by and truly submitted to the Holy Spirit rather than being set up in opposition to Him? Why can't the vision be congruent with brotherhood -- why the assumption that it will be antithetical? Why must exclusion of the weak and poor necessarily occur if their inclusion is part of the vision? There's a whiff of "Doctrine divides, so ditch it" about Bonhoeffer's conclusions. There's a whiff of egalitarianism, of "authotity (the source of vision) corrupts, therefore let's not have any."

Maybe I'm just misreading or misinterpreting what Bonhoeffer is saying, but my reading, at least, isn't very favorable.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/12/2005 12:15:00 AM • Permalink
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Wednesday, May 11, 2005 AD
Sometimes Being Intuitive Is a Nuisance
It's frustrating when something seems as obvious to me as the nose on my face (and it's not an insubstantial protuberance), but others can't see it, and I am not capable of adequately explaining it. Paedocommunion is one of those things. I first heard of it soon after I embraced lots of other Reformed distinctives I'd struggled with for a long time, including paedobaptism, and it just seemed like a perfect fit with the rest of the doctrines. Anyway, I'm involved in a friendly discussion about it, which is driving me just a wee bit batty!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/11/2005 01:50:00 PM • Permalink
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It's Playing in Peoria
A couple days before I came across the blog I quoted yesterday, I had stumbled upon, by a different route, the husband-wife blogs A Dark and Quiet Room and A Woman's Perspective. All three blogs are written, as my further sleuthing reveals, by members of Redeemer PCA in Peoria, Ill. I haven't read through all of the posts on A Woman's Perspective, but I'm glad I discovered it while it was still new enough to catch up on. The author is composing some thoughts she hopes to form into a book aimed at urban women who grew up, often fatherless, without the examples and training that would encourage and equip them to become godly wives and homemakers. Let's see...does that sound like anyone I know? Oh yeah...me! Although I'm not exactly her target audience -- "young, married, Christian women...who are living in the cities" -- since I'm no longer young and not yet married, I'm excited to see a Reformed writer aiming at that audience with the message that homemaking is a good and worthy and attainable calling. Kudos to Mrs. Ben-Ezra for tackling this!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/11/2005 06:22:00 AM • Permalink
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005 AD
Baby Ash
A father mourns and preaches, and a mother reflects on the miscarriage of their son.
In two weeks time we’re going to sit right here and dine with Jesus. Today we come into the heavenlies with him to worship. We sit here with Jesus. With Jesus in the presence of our enemies!

Who are these enemies? These are our King’s enemies—and today I will only talk about one of them.

Look at 1 Corinthians 15:25-26

“For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.”

The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

Death is our enemy.

Jesus prepares a Table for us in the presence of death.
As I read these posts I didn't expect them to lead to an excellent apologetic for weekly Communion, but there is is: Our enemies are ever-present, and therefore we need to be constantly remembering that our Shepherd feeds us in their presence.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/10/2005 08:37:00 AM • Permalink
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How's a Girl Supposed to Sleep in These Conditions?
I went upstairs to go to bed, and when I turned on the light, whom should I surprise but The Millipede That Ate Montana crawling on the ceiling right over my pillows? So I grab the handiest chemical weapon (how long before I give up and start squashing them on the new paint?), wait 'til he moves somewhere other than over my bed, and give him a good squirt. He falls to the floor, and I spray him again before he scurries away. Is this brand slow-acting, I wonder, or does it just not do anything at all? Is he dead, or is he just waiting 'til I turn out the light so he can attack me in my sleep? I tell myself that he must be in his death throes, and that it's safe to go to bed. But wait! There's another nefarious creature, this time a silverfish, crawling on the wall over my bed. I spritz him, too, and he crawls around a bit more before coming to a stop. Dead? I ain't gettin' close enough to check! Anyway, now I've got the heebie-jeebies and am afraid to go sleep in my bed. Do these long-leggity-beasties crawl on me in my sleep? Do they have thousands of brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts and parents and children and cousins living in the cracks and crevices of my bedroom? Would it really be so bad to live someplace like Antarctica where it's perhaps too cold for the creepy-crawlies to live? What if I just left all the lights on in my house all the time...would that make them want to move out? Sigh...I guess I'd better go see if the coast is clear. If I don't see you again, search my house for an insect with a very large lump in his belly -- I have probably been swallowed whole....
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/10/2005 03:22:00 AM • Permalink
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Monday, May 09, 2005 AD
When Pentamom's Kids Start Having Kids...
...will she be their Pentagram?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/09/2005 10:41:00 PM • Permalink
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OK, My Interest Is Piqued
There are already a dozen wrong details I could gripe about, and the White Witch looks disturbingly like the Borg queen, and I still don't trust that they haven't gutted the thing of its spirit (can you gut something of its spirit?), but the new (and huge -- 54.3 MB) trailer makes me want to start counting the days 'til "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" hits theaters.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/09/2005 07:39:00 PM • Permalink
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I Finally Entered a Challies.com Giveaway

May Giveaway

It was the Luther DVD that finally tempted me!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/09/2005 05:49:00 PM • Permalink
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Speaking of Angie Brennan...
"Random Acts of Kindness"

Now why Google doesn't find her site is a mystery....
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/09/2005 10:14:00 AM • Permalink
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Sunday, May 08, 2005 AD
God Is Not Enough
(Snippets from an article by Rich Lusk; link via Tim G)

"[Man] was not only created, as Augustine suggested, with a Trinity-shaped void in his heart that only the Father, Son, and Spirit could fill; he was also created with a human-shaped void that only other people could fill."

...

"God made us in such a way that vertical fellowship with the divine would be insufficient; we also need horizontal fellowship with other humans. God did not just make us for himself, he made us for each other.

"Or, to look at things from another angle, God made the world in such a way that his presence would be mediated from one human to another....He speaks to us, disciplines us, molds us, and so forth, though the agency of others."

...

"American spirituality often treats church community as a 'tacked on' extra to a personal relationship with Jesus. In other words, we often act as if God alone is enough, and other Christians were quite unnecessary. 'Quiet times,' in which the individual gets alone with God, have replaced the church’s corporate gathering as the pinnacle of spiritual growth."

...

"God is our all in all. But how does God manifest his all-sufficiency towards us? Precisely through giving himself to us in one another."
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/08/2005 11:55:00 PM • Permalink
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Fun!
Eleanor (Craigellachie) and her hubby, Rich, were in town for a meeting this weekend. I met with them yesterday afternoon, and we had dinner together and wonderful conversation. This morning I picked them up for church, so they got to be there when I took my membership vows. They were disappointed that, unlike with a wedding, there was no opportunity to "speak now or forever hold your peace." I'm trying not to take it personally that we sang Psalm 64 right after my vows -- a rather mournful and imprecatory response to receiving a new member! ;-P We had to scoot pretty quickly after worship to get them back to their hotel so they could catch their ride to the airport.

Oh how I wish I could stretch out some of the past month's social opportunities! Too many too-brief conversations. I with I could turn these microwave meetings into slow-simmering crock-pot occasions. Not that I'd give up a single one of them as they were!

By contrast, having lunch today at Angie and Terry's was a much more emotionally leisurely affair. It was one more bead on an ever-lengthening string of times spent with them and Eric and Melissa -- a precious time, to be sure, but not one that required quite so much significance packed into it.

I have been blessed this weekend. Thanks be to Him from whom all good gifts come!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/08/2005 09:14:00 PM • Permalink
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Saturday, May 07, 2005 AD
Bumper Sticker
I wouldn't've expected to see this one in Baltimore: "Gun Control: Use Both Hands"
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/07/2005 11:45:00 PM • Permalink
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Gossip
In about 12 hours I will be taking my membership vows to join CREC -- an event I am looking forward to with great anticipation. Most Reformed churches I know of have five vows, but CREC has a sixth -- a promise not to gossip about others in the body. So I decided I'd better get a bit of gossip out of my system before I can get in trouble for it. Lean a little closer and I'll whisper to you, in the strictest confidence, a little morsel about the elders at CREC: I sincerely doubt their Reformed credentials. I mean everybody knows what the true mark of real Reformedness is, right? Arrogance, of course. But these four? The humblest group of guys you'd ever hope to meet. I know...quite shocking...but I'm only sharing out of concern. And if anybody asks, don't tell 'em I told you, 'K?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/07/2005 10:39:00 PM • Permalink
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And What Were You Doing at One A.M.?
I was reorganizing my kitchen cabinets. I threw out every yogurt, butter, sour cream, etc. container, some of which I'm sure have been here since before I moved back home in 1991. I pulled out all the stuff I never use and am pretty sure I never will use. I got rid of every lid that was missing a container and every container that was missing a lid. These last two categories will go out in a "yard free" tomorrow, and then what's left to Goodwill. I made sure every container was in the same stack as its matching lid, includinlg the glass ones, which I'm tired of having come crashing down on my head because they're all piled in one heap on a top shelf. Everything is much tidier and better organized, and I feel as if I accomplished something much more important than anything I did at the office today.

Here's a question: How do I destickify old, sticky Tupperware?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/07/2005 01:30:00 AM • Permalink
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Wednesday, May 04, 2005 AD
Cop Enforces Christian's Devotional Discipline
My registration expired April 30. The new stickers came on the 29th, I think, but amidst the rain and company and car troubles, I hadn't put them on yet. So when Officer Friendly pulled me over after he'd followed me all the way through the tunnel, I knew why. He very kindly let me go with just a warning, but while I waited for him to write it up, I did what I do when I'm waiting with nothing to do -- pull out my trusty little snap-flap pocket-size NASB and read the day's Psalms. I got through 4, 34 and most of 64 before he returned with the paperwork. It's sad when the Lord has to chase you down with cops to get you to open the Word!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/04/2005 08:50:00 PM • Permalink
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Message Exchange
PWSNBN George: You are my heroine!
Me: So THAT's why you've got those tracks all over your arms. Been shootin' up!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/04/2005 05:34:00 PM • Permalink
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Did I Miss Anybody?
With Samantha's announcement that Moppet #4's on the way, I've just added a new blog roll indicator (§) for expectant parents. If you're on my blog roll, and are expecting (either naturally or waiting for an adoption), and I missed you, please let me know.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/04/2005 09:48:00 AM • Permalink
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Tuesday, May 03, 2005 AD
It's a Shame What Low Standards Some Churches Have
I had my membership interview tonight for CREC. They decided let me in. Sunday's to be the official day. I am very exceedingly abundantly happy about this event, and I'm not anywhere close to being grateful enough for all the Lord has done to bring it about.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/03/2005 11:16:00 PM • Permalink
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Sunday, May 01, 2005 AD
Trivia Triple Crown Redux
High Post | Moriah's | Phisch's
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/01/2005 07:14:00 AM • Permalink
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