Stars and Rocks

I was speaking to a lady today at church who has been having a hard time with an old-earth Creationist friend. I hear this again and again, so I want to make this observation for all to consider. The old-earth people say that the scientific evidence points to an old earth. I agree that it does. Stars are a long, long ways away from us. It would take millions of years (if our calculations are right) for the light to reach us. The science is "right," but when did God put his stamp on the findings of the scientific method? If you ask certain questions, and it's the asking of the question that is wrong in the first place, don't be surprised if you get a messed-up answer. For instance:

1) Stars are given for light on the earth, not for clocks to measure the amount of time from the present to the beginning of creation. It's a radical idea, isn't it. Stars aren't clocks. They're lights.

2) Rocks are given to be . . . rocks. Hard things. Build your house on them. Make a necklace. Etc. They're not given to be clocks. "Radiometric dating of rocks places the formation of the world at roughly 3.5 million years ago." Do you understand the assumption that's inherent in this? Did God place rocks here so we could tell time?

I like to imagine that creation is a stage, and we're in the audience. The thing about stages is that their primary function is to work audience-ward. Creation is amazing because of all the spectacular machinery off-stage that makes the show go on. But if you're trying to understand the show by peeking behind the curtain, you are certain to misunderstand things. "No, Romeo is just some guy who sits at a mirror and puts on make-up." Back to reality--if you are peeking back stage and trying to put everything together that way, you going to be told to go back to your seat.

The Best Bibles

Here are a couple of questions to consider:

1) When you first became a Christian, wasn't there a thrill about owning your very own Bible? Wasn't there something in you that said, "This is my greatest possession"?

2) Didn't that first love, that zeal you had at the first, begin to lag as you bought one bible after another only to see them deteriorate after five or ten years of use? Isn't it true that Bibles are just commodities to you now?

My how low you have become.

Those of you who have put up with leather bibles that come apart at the seams need to wake up and . . . smell the bibles that don't do that. It is a well-known fact that there are a good many bibles today that fancy themselves as "premier editions," when in fact their binding looks like it was assembled by Mrs. Granger's third grade class. For those of you who are interested, it is acknowledged by Bible collectors that the very best Bibles in the world are produced by a company called R. L. Allan and Sons out of Scotland. They have recently put out an ESV in Highland Goatskin that is supposed to be amazing.















Their bibles are distributed through this website www.bibles-direct.com
In second place, although some would say first place, comes Cambridge Bibles. Cambridge has been considered the best Bible maker in the world for many, many years, but Allan has not be as widely known. Cambridge is now offering a semi-compact edition of the ESV called a Pitt-Minion edition. This is a type-setting that was developed many years ago that was designed to be small and very readable. Whereas the Allan Bible is basically the same type-setting as the Crossway ESV Reference Bible, the Pitt-Minion is truly unique. Cambridge Bibles are distrubted in the US by Baker Book House through www.CambridgeBibles.com.

You have the Allan ESV in Tan Goatskin above, and several colors of Goatskin Pitt-Minion ESV's below.



























You may be wondering, "Devin, where did you become so savvy about Bibles?" I learned it all on my new favorite blog, Bible Design and Binding, by J. Mark Bertrand.

More of you are probably wondering, "Devin, how much does a Bible like this cost?" You can often find them on eBay for less than $100, but the Bibles I have described here cost about $130 new.

I want to see all of you in the pew with one soon--and can you mention it to my wife before Christmas?

Pulled in Many Directions

This is a quote from Douglas Wilson's blog Blog and Mablog. The context is sitting with your little ones in church, but I also like to apply it to our busy lives with children in general. Read and be blessed.

...the point of this exhortation is to let you parents know that we know how much work you do, and to encourage you in it. It is good work, work that will bear fruit for many years, over many generations. It is sometimes easy to lose sight of the long view, especially if you have five children under the age of seven, and all of them are squirmy. It is easy to lose sight of that when you haven’t heard more than ten minutes of a sermon at a time in three years, and you wonder if you will ever be able to listen to a sermon again.

But the life of Christ is not best represented by listening to a lecture, undistracted by anything. The life of Christ is pulled in many directions, just like you are being, and you are willing for this to happen so that your children may come to worship the Lord. Laying it down for someone else this way is our glory. It is a sacrifice to bring them to the Word, to the psalms, to the wine and to the bread.

So don’t measure what you get out of these worship services with carnal balances. The weight of glory you are carrying is far beyond the weight of toddlers in your lap.

Our First Post

So here we are: Devin and Amy Smith
Aiden: 6
Jonathan: 4 1/2
Geneva: 2 1/2
Abigail: 1

I'll be 30 in 2 weeks. Devin and I will have been married 8 years in January. We have 4 kids. We've moved twice, graduated seminary, traveled overseas, and attended two churches.
As the Lord leads us through this journey, we are so thankful for our near and far family as well as for friends we've walked with along the way. Yet I have to confess that I am the world's worst keep-in-touch-er. I mean THE worst. This blog is my attempt to stay better connected with all of you, who, though our attempt was well-meaning, have just failed to keep in touch with very well.

Also, I just HAD to show this picture to you. If you know Devin at all, you will apprectiate this. Martin Luther nailing the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenburg. Lego style. Happy belated Reformation Day!