It's Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is full and that we all get to normal eating on Monday. I think David Murray provides a good template for me, so here goes:
1. God. So thankful that he's Triune. So thankful that he sent Jesus to take my place so that I could take his place with him still there! So thankful that Jesus is God. So thankful God dwells in my through the Holy Spirit. Especially thankful for the renewed discussions about the Trinity on these blogs.
2. Family. Dad, Andrew, Pappy, Uncle Delmous, Granny. I'm thankful for the homes you provide and your leadership and inspiration. Thankful for Mary moving in to care for Andrew and our house. Thankful that water can be as thick as blood.
3. Life. I'm still a live. Do you know how much driving I do? Do you know how many times I've ran red lights and been honked at this year? Not one car has swiped me. I only had one parking lot mishap. I also live in dangerous neighborhoods, go to dangerous neighborhoods, and do more walking in downtown Atlanta by my lonesome. I'm still alive.
4. Lessons. Reliving the Patriarchs with my kids at church awakened a whole new Christology in the Old Testament that I had not thought of before. God always planned on giving his life to save his elect. You can see Christ so clearly in his appearances as the Angel of the Lord. I also learned this year to not ask a young man if he has a job, to choose my battles, to hold my tongue, how to speak up without offending, how to offend without caring, but caring lest I should lose the person, how to thing on what I do believe instead of criticizing what I disagree with in others' beliefs.
5. Preaching. I don't do it, and I don't hear it live much, but I do lead children at church and I'm always so thankful that God lives inside the words of Scripture. I'm also glad that in addition to Piper, MacArthur, and others, I've finally found paedobaptistic talking heads such as RC Sproul, Michael Horton, Carl Trueman, and the folks at URC learning.
6. Seminary. Erskine Seminary still sticks with the Bible's inerrancy. I was so happy to see on Reformation 21 that one of the college profs at Erskine had a note signed by three of my favorite professors from the Seminary, Dale Johnson, RJ Gore, and Toney Parks, and another from the college I hadn't heard of.
7. HeadHeartHand Media. I'm so thankful that I found David Murray's DVDs on the Angel of the Lord. It fit in perfectly with my Abraham studies and Aubrie just love them. Her dad, Shannon, even borrowed them and watched all the videos.
8. Blog. I'm so glad I finally opened up this blog. It's taking my anger and pressure off of facebook, made me way cooler, and I can put my thoughts into more words than a status will allow. I found a network of Reformed bloggers, and I feel the love!
9. Church. I don't understand people who have really good theology, yet they don't go to church. You can't truly love God and not go to church. Some people, you'd think they'd go out of sheer boredom. I do pray that we get more intellectualism in our churches soon so that more men will show up. Hopefully single men around my age.
10. Friends. Along with Buffy from Trevecca, who I've talked to more this year (can't spell Buffy without BFF), I made friends with her friend Liza, another PCAer. We outnumber Buffy who is Nazarene and quite Arminian, though a much better sympathizer to our theology than Buffy's husband Chris who openly debated Liza and me on Facebook. God also let me see Hannah from Erskine again, her brother Jonathan, who I still like. He also gave me my dear friend Caitlin my one local friend who is not busy all the time, and other friends at Clayton State like Chinee, Clayton, Adrian.
11. Bloggers. I don't know where I'd be without Eddie, Gregg, Craig, Persis, Tim Challies, and Ligonier ministries.
12. Teaching CDs. Another thing I love about Caitlin. She's as Roman Catholic as I am Reformed Christian. It's often RC v. RC. We're always loaning books, CDs, articles to each other. We can sit and debate each other without getting at each others' throats. She loaned me these CS Lewis teaching CDs, which I still have and am now reading the lecture notes. But I listened to them on the way to church every Sunday as my "sermon" and when I finished, Ligonier had sent me a sampler, and finally I ordered more CDs from RC Sproul. I don't know where I'd be without them and am glad Caitlin started me on that habit.
13. Simon's Cat. I love cats. I hate dogs but live with two of them and they love me. I just get the biggest kick out of Simon's Cat and can watch the same 17 videos all day. Here's a new one:
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
14. Switchfoot. I'm blogging about them regularly now, and I'll always love those guys for being on Christian labels yet making real music. Musicians can get away with so much more.
Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving, Meghan!
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