God's face - Jordan's drawing

So Jordan (3) asked me a fascinating question tonight. He had a pen and paper and wanted to draw a picture. Before he started, he looked up and said, "Dad, how do you vaw (draw) God?"

I responded, "Well that's a great question. Why don't you have a go?"

I know lots of people have tried. In classical art God is sometimes depicted as an old man. In cartoons, he can be represented as a cloud. Of course we can't draw God, and maybe we're not supposed to.

Jordan thought about it and then said, "Well, I'm just going to draw a face."

When he'd finished he came and showed it to me. "Look Dad, JEEsus!"

Now what a wonderful truth that is. Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve had direct access to God's presence. The bible tells us that they even took walks together. And yet when they sinned, Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, and hence from God's presence. The distance between man and God was perhaps never felt so poignantly as when Moses desired to see God. Even though God considered Moses a personal friend, he nevertheless warned that Moses could not see his face - and live. In Scripture, God's face indicates his presence. There was a limit to the extent that humanity could experience the direct presence of God. I said there was.

But when God sent Jesus, all that changed. Now, because of Jesus, we have access to the presence of God. In Christ, we see the very face of God. 2 Cor 4:6 tells us that we now have been given in our hearts the knowledge of God in the face of Christ.

Of course Jordan doesn't realise this. He just knows how to draw faces and not much else. But what he stumbled upon was a powerful revelation. How do we draw/depict (see) God? Answer: in the face of Christ.

Good job Jordy.

Every night I bless my children with the priestly blessing:

"The Lord bless you and keep you,
the Lord cause his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you,
the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace."

(So much more to say here about why "the Lord" is repeated three times, and why it is the second one that talks about his face shining...but this post is finished)

Stuff

Thought I'd (finally) share the latest with you all...

Spring has sprung.
The bare ground now has daffodils, hyacinths and tulips springing up. I'm so happy to see my cute little flowers blossoming. And the trees are finally budding and even flowering in some species. Lawns are green again and get this... today I literally saw two cute little cotton-tailed bunnies hopping around. One was chasing the other... (we all know what that was about). I love the Spring time here. I just wish it wasn't so rainy - it's a lot like a Melbourne winter.

God and the GAP
Today, we won a competition for 50% off at Gap (you know that store that sells really nice clothes for the whole family) for a whole year! This is like God's way of saying, "I not only care to provide for you, but I also want to dress you well!" Cool huh? For those of you who don't fully understand how big of a blessing this is, let me explain... GAP is our favourite clothing store. It is good quality, however, it is on the pricey side (for American prices). I like to shop their clearance wracks and just look out for their sales. But to have 50% off for a year, is even better. It's funny, because we had already been talking about how we want to "stock up" on good clothes and shoes to bring home (since it is SO much cheaper over here). And then this happened. They are giving away one of these everyday to one customer until April 30. We had only entered once, and won. This is not the first time that we've blessed with the Gap.... last year I scored a $60 pair of jeans for free for Clay, and we got another pair earlier in the year ridiculous cheap - like almost free!

The kids
Mia is a dream baby. [Oh yeah, I guess that I haven't had the time to blog and mention that we had a baby girl January 17 this year.] She's easy and sweet. Sleeping so good too. We are so relieved that she is fitting into our family so nicely. She's laughing now, holds her head up well during tummy time, is easily engaged and enjoys batting dangly toys. The boys love her so much. Yesterday afternoon I was in the basement loading some laundry when I faintly heard crying from upstairs. I switched on the baby monitor (that we had turned off for my cousin who had been sleeping downstairs), and heard the sound of music playing from her room. While I raced upstairs, I noticed that the crying had stopped. Jordan who had also been asleep, had climbed into her cot to settle her and had turned on her musical mobile. He was patting her on the back, and explained to me that she had been crying. Such a sweet big brother.

Speaking of Jordan, we celebrated Jordan's 3rd birthday with a cute little party for him and his friends. I had invited quite a number of children with their mothers and realised that unless we had the party carefully planned we'd run into chaos in our little townhouse - especially since it was going to be a rainy day. So I scripted a mini Playschool-like concert that Clayton and I performed. We had a guitar, sang songs and acted a little. It was a lot of fun and the kids were captivated. I even made props out of cardboard boxes. The party was a great success, however, I was a little exhausted afterward. The next day we had my cousin from Shanghai arriving, so there was little rest to be had. I should mention that we did have a lovely visit from Esther.

We had a wonderful Easter weekend getting together with friends. The kids enjoyed an egg hunt but didn't forget what it was all about; celebrating our Saviour's death and resurrection. While at church, Judah wrote his reflections on Easter: "Jesus died on the cross for are sins, because: if we died for ARe sins we would'ent be able to come alive again. So we selabrate easter because Jesus died on the cross." I thought I'd include the spelling mistakes for your enjoyment. But he really is doing very well at school. Clayton and I were only tonight looking at his spelling words for the week with slight astonishment with where he is up to with words like merchandise, precise and device. I'm not certain that we even knew the meaning of those words at his age. And he seems to come by it all very easily without really even studying. I know where he doesn't get that from! Before long he'll be correcting my spelling!

Nathan is also leaping ahead with his reading and (experimental) writing and will start real school in August. He has decided that he is going to build muscle. He loves to claim that he is hot and sweaty and walk around topless. He even stands infront of the mirror flexing his biceps! (No joke.) We think he might be our athletic one. Nathan is looking forward to playing soccer again and picking up some basketball too.

The boys continue to work on their break-dance moves. Tonight we again slid the coffee table aside and let them do their thing. Nathan's latest trick is spinning 180 degrees on his head. Judah likes to perform a sturdy and well controlled head stand and then launch backwards. Jordan, just likes to strut his stuff. And Mia is a captive audience. There's never a dull moment with these kids.

Us grown ups
Well, Clayton is still suffering from fatigue so he's taking it slow. Please keep him in your prayers. He had some blood work done today to just make sure everything is okay. He feels that the Lord has reassured him that his health will not fail him. I guess this is just where wisdom kicks in - in terms of setting limits, maintaining a sustainable pace and good routines, adequate sleep, good diet etc. This marathon was never going to be easy - we suspect it was his latest "sprint" that he is paying for. He really will deserve a medal when this is over. He recently taught a series that he prepared from the book of Proverbs. It was really good for him to get back into sermon preparation and delivery. I was encouraged as a listener to enjoy all the meaty stuff that he dished out with such clarity - nice to see that all this study is really loading up his arsenal so to speak. Even more encouraging to witness him flowing in the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Me... well there's not much time for anything on top of keeping the house in order, and the family fed and looked after. Keeping the house in order is a continual challenge, but my job has become significantly more challenging since we decided to go gluten free for Nath. It has added considerable cost, time and labour to meal preparation! But, if it turns out to make a difference, then it's a sacrifice that's worth it. I was recently asked to mentor one of the girls from the college who attends our church. I've met with her only a few times now, but it has been positive for both her and myself included. It has got me thinking more about how I need to be sowing into the deposit that the Lord has given me, by spending more time studying His word. I have to admit that I do find this difficult to do with the busy family life that we have, and the constant demands that there are, but I'm sure that God will work with whatever I can do. We have Logos software on the computer so I'm going to ask Clayton to show me how to use it.

I'll try to upload some photos at a "more godly hour". It's way past my bedtime and I'm afraid that this coach is going to turn into a pumpkin.

eternal security, the unpardonable sin and suicide - a response to some common questions

Recently one of my students emailed me the following:

My friend and I were talking last night, and he brought up the question of how we know we are saved--as in, if you were once saved, but then turned away from God later in life, or died while in the throes of sin (and would suicide count here? isn't it a sin like any other?), would you go to heaven? I thought you would, because God ultimately knows every action and thought and emission of the heart, and he can judge our intentions. But then I was reading Hebrews for a paper I'm working on, and I came across 6:4-6, which says: "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." I guess I'd just like to know what your thoughts are on the subject, whenever you get the chance.

Since I have come across these sorts of questions a number of times I thought it was high time I formulated a response. Here was my attempt:

What you've asked is a very good question. And a very important question. And a big question. There are a number of issues here, so I appreciate you asking for my thoughts on the matter rather than "an answer" - because I almost certainly could not give a satisfactory one. But since you've asked, I will "think aloud." Here goes:



1. Regarding the effect of God's grace and the effects of sin.

Some people think that when we surrender to the Lordship of Christ; when we ask Him to forgive our sins, he forgives everything we have done to that point, making us "perfect" (if you will) in that moment, and then giving us the power through the Holy Spirit to not sin from that point on. Its almost as if any sin committed before that point is covered, but after that we are on our own. In that moment, God sees us the way that He sees His perfect son. But after that moment, he sees, well, us again. In fact, whether we think that or not, many of us live that way. This means that when we do (inevitably) sin, we are living outside of God's grace and must repent immediately unless we die in that state, which would mean that we would be eternally damned. This, I think, explains a lot of "rededicating" that goes on in Churches (don't know if you know what I mean by this or not, but I'm referring to the tendency for people to "get saved" over and over and over again because of a misunderstanding of the power of God's grace to redeem the entirety of one's life).



I don't think this is how it works. I think this diminishes the power of God's grace. In effect it makes our own actions more powerful than God's. I don't at all want to end up at the other extreme and affirm "once saved always saved" in a way that means it doesn't matter what you do. It clearly does. I just want to be conscious to make God's grace more powerful.



When we come to Christ then and ask forgiveness He forgives us - not just for what we have done, but for who and what we are (Adam's descendants), and hence what we will do in the future. God redeems our entire life, because he sees it all - not just the little bit of it that we can see looking back. I think this is a wonderfully encouraging thought. When we are saved, God decrees over us "not guilty." In that moment we "hear" this in faith - sins forgiven, saved. In that moment, we are so optimistic. We don't know how the rest of our life is going to turn out. We don't know how we are going to disappoint God in the future. In that moment, we honestly believe that we never will. But God actually knows the end from the beginning, and He still decrees over us "not guilty - saved."



Now there is, of course, a sense in which God's decree is (in the words of Jesus) "...neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." And there certainly is a sense in which the Holy Spirit is given in order to sanctify us and that we are actually and properly (I'm trying to say "ontologically" without using a big word) different from that point on. I'm not sure whether or not that difference means that it is easier not to sin. I think it means that we are from that point on, acutely aware of our sin. We loathe it, and do not want to do it (See Rom 7 for this dynamic - this is, I believe, a saved person) and recognize its sinfulness. It is this loathing of sin that assures us, I believe that we are in fact saved, because it is indicative of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives (more on that later - I think).



2. On the theoretical underpinnings of this discussion

You may or may not be aware of an old debate between "Calvinists" and "Arminians" which raises similar questions to the one you are asking. The essence of the question is this. On the one hand, we believe that God's power to save is infinitely more powerful than our own power to thwart our salvation. But on the other hand, we observe that there are some people who become born again, and then for whatever reason, walk away from this later in life. How do we explain this? The Calvinist would say that the person who appeared saved to us, was never really actually saved (or only appeared to walk away, but continued to actually be saved). The Arminian would say that this proves that we do actually have the (God given) power in our own self will to walk away from Him and thus to thwart his plans for us. It seems to me that both have a ring of truth to them, and both affirm important things (God's power and sovereignty on the one hand, and the reality that we are held accountable by God for the decisions that we make on the other). I would only make the point that while there may be no difference that is visible from the outside, there is an enormous difference between a sinful person who has walked away (or who by walking away demonstrated that they were never really saved or whatever) and rejects God and ceases to "struggle" with sin, and a sinful person who has slid away, and yet is desperately concerned about this and cries out to God to change them and for the power to be different though they may never fully receive what they hope for in this life in a way that would be visible to those observing their life from the outside. the latter evidences the presence of the Holy Spirit (and hence is still "saved"), while the former evidences a rejection of the Holy Spirit. For this reason I often encourage people who are concerned that they are "struggling" (with sin) in a particular area. At least they are struggling! Because of the presence of our adversary and the reality of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, that struggle is pretty much guaranteed. Where the struggle has ceased, there is a problem.



What shall we say then of the person who "falls away?" I'm not sure that we have come much further than the Calvinist/Arminian formulation of this problem. We must either say that the person was never "properly saved" (there's probably a better, more technical way of putting this!) or that they actually were saved, but only temporarily and that they "walked away." But it seems to me (not to others I can assure you - this is apparently a very important question) that it is pointless to speculate about this. The point is, well, not to fall away/walk away/slide away. And I think that it is very helpful in this quest to realize that God has forgiven and redeemed our whole life, not just the bit that we saw when we first came to him (which would be pretty rough luck if you came to him at the age of 5 say. But it is typically these sorts in my observation who struggle with this question). And we can count on that. So when we do sin, and come to God in sincere repentance, we are not moment by moment changing our status from "lost" to "saved" we are reminding ourselves that we are His; we are learning to depend on Him more and more; we are being changed moment by moment from the inside out by the Holy Spirit - the one who convicted us of the wrong in the first place. When we do have moments of "rededication" it is not as if we are "starting again." It may just be that there is an area of our lives that the Holy Spirit now wants to deal with that we may not have been conscious of having not surrendered to Him.



3. On the unpardonable sin

The passage that you mention is often raised by people concerned that they have committed the unpardonable sin. It is a challenging word and should not be lightly brushed aside. Sin is serious. Every sin is serious. Sin sent Jesus to the cross. We should not take the grace of God lightly. It should produce in us the obligation (for want of a far better word) to live in a way that is pleasing to him. However, given what I've said under #1 and #2, I believe that if a person is concerned that they have committed the unpardonable sin (blasphemy/rejection? of the Holy Spirit), that is the evidence that they have not.



4. On suicide

A ticklish question. I hope you can see from the above why I do not think that suicide automatically damns a person just because they have not had a chance to repent after doing it. There are probably good reasons for believing that it does. But I just don't. Suicide is always tragic, undoubtedly sinful, and probably terribly selfish, but I'm just not sure how helpful it is to those who do battle with or who have done battle with this desperate thought for those of us who have not (I have had many battles - not this one. I do not presume that you either have or have not struggled with suicidal thoughts, and would not judge you either way) to speculate about it. Here's at least one reason why. If (let's say for example) a Christian person is struggling with suicidal thoughts, what they desperately need is to cry out to a God who hears and a God who cares and a God who saves. But if all that they can see from this God (reflected in, interpreted by and spoken by His servants - which so often is the way that we "hear from God" and understand God's word) is that He is with them but only up to a point, and that if they make this decision they do so on their own, then all this person hears is judgment. And this is the kind of thought that is more likely to drive them towards the act rather than away from it.

Pledge

I pledge allegiance to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Kingdom into which that name alone admits, one true Church under Christ whose Incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension provides salvation, purpose and hope and for all who believe.

And since one cannot serve two masters...

that is my only allegiance.

That's assuming that "allegiance" is all about essentially "Lordship" - who I answer to. If its simply a matter of whose side I'm on in the event of war, it probably makes a big difference that my Lord is the Prince of Peace. If allegiance is about my obedience to civil authority I render this without hesitation as an act of obedience to Christ, to the fullest extent that that is possible given my primary allegiance (in other words, in all things that do not contradict God's Word).

Forgive me, this is just something I need to process.

A few portraits taken in October

Jordan 2.5 years:

Nathan 5 years:

Judah 6.5 years:

Christmas Letter 2010

Since it has been a ridiculously long time since we posted anything on here, I thought that this Christmas letter might help fill in a few gaps.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Dear family and friends,

It would probably make sense to have the writer of the family prepare this letter, but since he needs all the time and focus he can muster to keep chipping away at his 100,000 word dissertation, I figured that I’d give it a go. As I type this letter, we have around five weeks to wait for the birth of our fourth child. We are all very much longing and waiting with great anticipation to meet this new addition to our family. I can only begin to imagine how Mary felt; pregnant with her first born son, knowing that she was carrying the Son of God! It is such a precious time for us to be celebrating the birth of our saviour, and expecting our own little one’s imminent arrival.

So for the Coombs family, we look back at yet another year living in the States, and are thankful to God for His love, His generous provision and unfailing faithfulness. I know it all sounds very cliche, but we really do feel incredibly thankful for the life that we have, and for the lives that we have been entrusted with. There is something wonderful about children, and we are enjoying having them in our lives.

We can hardly believe that Judah will be seven in just a couple of months. He loves school and has a wonderful first grade teacher who takes great delight in him. This year his reading has really taken off and he now enjoys reading chapter books. He is an avid Lego creator, likes to draw, break-dance and play outside with the neighbours. During the summer, his favourite activity is swimming and racing down water slides at the local pool, and now that we’ve entered the winter months, he is taken with zipping down hills on a snow sled. In typical first born fashion, he is diligent, responsible, helpful and protective. We are so very proud of Judah not only for his accomplishments, but more so for his heart. He’s our quality-time guy, and with life travelling at the fast pace that it does, we have to be mindful of taking the time out to just sit and play chess or Monopoly together from time to time.

Clayton junior, oops, I mean Nathan, who is five, is our budding philosopher/theologian. This is not something that we have projected on to him, but in all seriousness, the kid asks HUGE questions and ponders the mysteries of God and the universe. Having said this, Nathan is not ALL serious. He is the wacky one in the family, and loves to goof around. He has a very tender and generous heart that we have to be careful to protect and not trample on when we are in a hurry (I continually seek God for more patience!) Nathan is creative and can spend hours at the kitchen table drawing. He like Judah, also takes pleasure in break-dancing and playing with Lego. He also enjoys riding his bike, playing soccer and playing with his best friend Lilyanne who lives next-door.

Jordan, is the sweet and charming, yet tough two year-old who we all simply adore. He has brought so much joy to our lives, and continues to be a very easy-going child. He’s a big talker and has had become quite confident at expressing himself. The youngest of three boys, Jordan is keen to grow up and be a ‘big boy’ experiencing all of the same things that his older brothers enjoy like riding a real bike. (Actually, he rides a toddler two-wheeler balance bike—one that is without pedals that he can sort of scoot around on). Probably the most significant thing that happened to Jordan this year, was that he gave his heart to the Lord. It was a very precious moment that quite honestly took us by surprise. It was a real privilege to take part in this and it was a great reminder that the Kingdom of God really does belong to such as these.

Clayton has continued to work hard. Having earlier this year completed the course work component of his PhD, he has been working on writing his dissertation/thesis. Facing the enormous task that this represents, he has had to establish some rather disciplined habits and daily practises. He suspects that writing this ‘beast,’ is as least as much about developing life-long habits of a writer as it is about the actual written content itself. So I guess it’s true of this process, that it is more about the journey than the destination. The staff at the local Dunkin Donuts that he walks to at 5:30am each morning, now address him by name, and know his ritual order for a black half decaffeinated coffee with a plain multi-grain bagel. Aside from writing, Clayton has taught several classes and even enjoyed teaching a series at church. He recently presented a paper at a theological conference that was held in Atlanta and looks forward to travelling to Oxford next year to do the same. He has had a paper that he wrote on “Pentecostal hermeneutics” published earlier this year and hopes to have one or two others published before he is done. But the thing that most impresses me about this man, is that with all of this, he still has his priorities in order. Devoted and whole-hearted follower of Jesus; present, involved and tender loving father and selfless lover. I couldn’t ask for more. Apologies for gushing, but yes, we are still very much in love—I guess I shouldn’t be apologising for that.

I suppose that this letter would not be complete without me sharing a little about myself. It goes without saying that during this season of life (that being motherhood), each day is filled with the mundane: changing nappies, serving meals, cleaning, driving children to school and so on. But each day is accented with moments of sweet pleasure and from time to time, reflections of the reality that God’s eternal purposes are presently being forged in the mundane. A favourite Christian singer/song writer of mine, Steven Curtis Chapman sings of how as parents, we are “changing the world one little heartbeat at a time.” I have been encouraged as I watch my children grow and mature that giving my life to raising my kids is exactly where God wants me. In the past, it has been tempting at times to be impatient and wish for this intense season of motherhood to all hurry up and be over, so that I can get back to getting on with the life that I had before, but I’ve woken up to the fact that this is REAL life, and that raising these precious children, should end up being my greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God. A year ago, on the way home from a women’s retreat, I talked with friends about the sorts of things that we hoped to accomplish once we had more time to ourselves. I shared about how I would like to become a lifestyle photographer. I later realised that there was no reason to wait, and that these things simply didn’t happen overnight, so I just began taking photos. I figured that I could just learn as I went. It has been fun and I have already taken a number of photo shoots for families, church and will this week be taking photos for Nathan’s pre-school. Getting heavier into this pregnancy, I am shifting gears and have taken up knitting. Call me old fashioned, but there is something magnificent about knitting for your unborn child while they are being knit together in your womb.

Earlier this year we moved into a townhouse just walking distance from Wheaton College. It has been wonderful to live again in a community with a couple of other young families and has reminded us a lot of our time at Fuller Seminary. It has been tremendous for the boys to have friends to play with outside around the little playground that we have on the property and to have other parents to share life with. Our community has not only been a great source of love and support, but it has also presented us with many opportunities to live and give outside of our comfort levels and we are thankful for that. It has been wonderful to see our children grow in acceptance and affection of others who they would not naturally be drawn to. There has been an older Vietnamese widow that we have had a lot to do with this year. To start with, Jordan would say to me quietly, “But I don’t like her.” And he was not alone. Hoa was loud and inconsiderate, pushy and demanding. And her face and hands, which were severely disfigured by a house fire in which she lost her granddaughter, were unnerving to our two year-old. But Jordan would slowly learn that Jesus loves Hoa, and so would he.

Thank you for slowing down and taking the time to read this letter. We would love to hear from you, so please do drop us an email and let us know how you are doing. To those of you who have faithfully supported us during this time of preparation and foundation building, we thank you for your commitment and generosity.
Wishing you the gift of faith, the blessing of hope and the peace of His love at Christmas and always.

Discover the champion in you

This semester I am involved in teaching three first year classes in an intro to theology subject. In the first session I like to ask them to tell a little about themselves and one of the prompts I give them is something like "What is your vision for the Church? What is one thing you hope for the Church, or one thing that frustrates you about the Church?"

Usually I get things like "I wish the Church were more unified," "I think the Church needs to teach Grace more," "I long for deeper community," etc. The other night I got one that shocked me. It was from a student from Dallas, Texas. He said:

"What's my hope for the Church? Actually I have a very specific one. You guys know Joel Osteen? I hate him. My hope for the Church is that he is put in jail. I despise that man."

Just writing the words that he said does not do it justice. It really was quite venomous. Since then I've thought of a number of things I should have said. But all I managed was "...wow...ok. Next."

I am not unaware of the criticisms leveled against Joel Osteen. But even if they are totally justified, there is something desperately wrong with a Christian saying that they "hate" anybody, especially a brother. It kind of reminded me of all the Christians I heard saying how much the "hated" George Bush several years ago, and even of some other folks who while they may choose their words better harbor similar sentiments towards the current US president.

Yuck.

We should love our enemies. We should pray for and submit to our leaders. Simple. Not easy, but simple.

I'm not saying that we need to just blindly follow, or that people of influence ought to be immune from legitimate criticism. I'm simply saying that those who are leaders, either political or spiritual, carry a huge burden of responsibility and need our encouragement, support and prayer not our judgment.

No whining and disobedience? Not on your life!

Tonight at bedtime, Nathan hit me with a precious truth. I had not been especially annoyed with him, but had snapped at him over dinner time for his incessant chattery nagging (I often call it "chirping" - Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, DadadadadadadadadadadadadadadaDAAAAAAAAAD!).

But this is what he said: "Dad, I bet you're glad that you had us right?" - "I sure am" I said.

"But if you didn't then you wouldn't have anybody whining at you and disobeying..."

I gave him a big hug and assured him in words that he could understand that I would choose my current chaotic life over a life of peace without them any day of the week.

It sure did remind me to always be thankful though.

Jordan's response to the gospel

Tonight I was reading little book that was essentially a presentation of the gospel for children to Nathan and Jordan. Jordan had brought it to me and asked me to read it to him as it was a book that he'd never seen. Initially, I was reluctant as I had already read a story and was wanting to get the boys to bed so that Clayton and I could enjoy the rest of the evening together. But Jordan insisted, and I mean, how can you really say no to you child asking you to read to them about the Jesus?!

When it got to the part describing and depicting the crucifixion, Jordan exclaimed with a grumpy voice, "That's not fair!". On the last page, the invitation is made to children, "Would you like to invite Jesus into your heart?" Both Nathan and Jordan at once enthusiastically responded, "I do!" Then, Nathan proudly added, "But I've already done that. I've already asked Jesus into my life." (Something he did earlier this year when we were in Australia in response to an altar call that was on a Hillsong Kids dvd.) Jordan then retorted with a but-what-about-me voice, "But I haven't." Shocked that this response was coming from a two year-old, I asked Jordan again explaining what we were talking about, to kind of test if he really knew what he was responding to. He affirmed his desire. So we led him through a little prayer and rejoiced with him with a big hug.

Tonight I was reminded of God's love of children and their childlike faith. It was a reminder, that they are never too young to hear and respond to the word of God. I wanted to share this with you because even after all of this, I was tempted to think, that it was not a real decision because he is too young to fully understand the gravity of it all, but you know what, I don't think that any of us ever come to the place of fully appreciating what Jesus did for us on the cross. When Jordan saw drawings in this little book of Jesus with a crown of thorns and being nailed to the cross, he understood that the price Jesus paid was not fair.

A little chat with Jordan

Sorry about the slight visual delay. I'm not sure why this happened.

A cool place for the Coombs family

It's been such a long time since I (Angela) posted anything on here, that it feels like typing an update has escalated to one of those Christmas letters that you put off writing, just because you don't know where to begin. So rather than putting the pressure on myself to update you on everything that has happened over the past 6 months or so, I thought that I'd just share about our most recent news.

After several months of ongoing health issues (asthma, persistent coughing, and always falling sick), returning home to Australia for three months over Christmas, brought great relief, as well as a clue. My suspicions were confirmed when on returning to our home in Wheaton, I was back to being sick again. Something in our home was making me sick. After some prayful investigations we became almost certain that the problem lied within the centralised heating and cooling system.

Leaving winter behind, meant that we no longer needed to use the heating anymore, and that we could have our windows open. Praise God, I have not been sick now for over a month. But the problem would still face us as soon as the weather demanded our need for heating or cooling. So surely this old house simply needed it's ducts and vents cleaned out right? If only it were that simple... Last summer they discovered that there was asbestos used in the joins of the duct work, and it was deemed that the ducts should never ever be disturbed again. So cleaning them was out of the question.

A few weeks ago, we received from the college, notice to vacate. We'd had had our turn and it was time to make the place available for another international student family. Now we had to look to God to work a miracle. How would we ever find a well maintained, affordable place to live that was within walking distance to the college, with enough rooms to house our growing family? We had been paying a subsidised rent rate (compared to the rest of the Wheaton rental market) for a furnished house, and all our utilities included. So in order to maintain our current level of expenditure, we would need to take a huge step down. Obviously we would need to move out of a house and into an apartment, but there were virtually no three bedroom apartments around. We quickly became discouraged with the available options listed within our budget. Everything was either too small and run down, or a long way out.

A day or so later, it was Jordan's birthday, and we thought we'd take a walk to try out his new bike. We aimlessly wandered around and ended up at a nearby playground. Here Clayton got talking with another young father who he had shared a class with a little while ago. Somehow, it came up in conversation that there was a 3 bedroom townhouse vacant next door to them that was in his opinion; pretty nice. He said that the only problem was that it was furnished, which would be a problem if we had furniture, but since we had none, this would be a huge blessing. He had the keys to the place and was able to show us around. We were impressed. It was neat and clean, the bathrooms were tastefully re-modelled and it even had a dishwasher!

We had tried to call the property's owner, and had only been able to leave voice mail. In that long week of in-between-time waiting, we had started to conclude that perhaps the place was not for lease. One morning while Judah was at school, I drove around with Nathan and Jordan in the car, looking desperately to see if I might stumble across any "for rent" signs. Nathan said that he would like to move into a new place that had a playground. I told him that he'd better pray to God for that one. With that, he said, "Well let's do it now!" and prayed, "God, I pray that we could live in a place that is cool for kids. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Almost a week after leaving a message with property's owner, our call was returned and after a long telephone conversation with the owner of the property it soon became obvious that God had led us to our next home. Not only had she meticulously maintained the property, but she had recently gone to the expense of having a brand new, high efficiency centralised heating and cooling system with (I might add) a hepa filtration system that would help remove dust and dirt from the air! She also explained that she had re-lined the walls and roof with a high grade insulation, that substantially improved the energy efficiency of the home and would subsequently reduce our utility expense. Without going into all of the other details, it was clear that this place had our name all over it. We just had to wait to hear back about the price.

After a lot of waiting, we finally had word on the price they were asking. To our disappointment, it was more than we could comfortably afford to pay. How could this be, that God would set us up in this way, but not come through with a good price. I mean it was a reasonable price (given what's out there) but we were kind of hoping for miraculously sweet deal. Clayton got back to the owner and essentially, counter offered. Because she really liked us and wanted to work with us, she and her husband came down dramatically in price and were able to offer us an excellent rate.

So, in a couple of weeks time, we will move into "a place that's cool for kids". Yes, it even has a decent playground out the back. Thank you God! Nathan's faith has been encouraged, and he is now praying for a baby sister! Actually he was praying for twins, but I told him that he needn't be greedy.

P.S. Interestingly, Clayton was talking to the previous tenant of our college home today, and he mentioned that one of his children also had inexplicable health problems along the same lines as mine throughout the time they were in the house which cleared up when they left. Nice to know that it was not all in my head.

The resurrection changes everything!

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. The go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." Matt 28:5-7

"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. Ac 1:11

I met a new friend the other day; a guy from Sydney who came to Wheaton to interview for a place in the PhD program this coming academic year. As he shared about his journey he told me that he used to be an atheist; one of the zealous annoying kind that delighted in shaking the faith of his Christian friends. But one day a friend challenged him to research the claims of Christianity rather than simply ridiculing them. As he did he reluctantly had to admit that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus was overwhelming. This realisation created a crisis for him, but in the end he came to the conclusion that the resurrection changes everything and that if it was true then the only option for him was to surrender his life to Jesus. And God has used him powerfully ever since.

That revelation is more difficult to grasp I think for people like me who cannot remember a moment when they have doubted the resurrection.
The previous evening Ange and I had been reading through the resurrection account in Matthew. As we reflected again on the implications of the physical resurrection of Christ we thanked God that we by faith had died in him, been burried with him in baptism and through the Holy Spirit have been raised to live a new life. Here are just a few reasons that I think the resurrection is GREAT NEWS for all.

1) Jesus' resurrection and ascension enables him to send the Spirit for whom I am daily thankful.
2) Jesus' physical ascension guarantees his physical return, just as he promised at the end of all things to set everything right.
3) In his physical bodily resurrection and ascension, Jesus has literally brought humanity into intimate relationship with God in his own person. Jesus' humanity is now part of the Trinity itself and that is the guarantee that in Him, we are now united to God.

I fear I have not expressed this too well, but wanted to share at least with the few followers of this blog the joy I have at living in the power of the Holy Spirit following a risen Savior who died for my sins and who now intercedes for me in the presence of the Father.

Nathan's questions

Its been an embarassingly long time since we blogged and most who are still following us would know why. For those who don't we took a trip back to Australia over Christmas. Ange and the kids were there for 13 weeks and I myself came back for what was supposed to be just under 4 weeks in the middle of that time (it turned into 6...). Ange may blog about that trip in time, but a great time was had by all and our plans for future ministry are firming up after a couple of strategic meetings.

Now to the subject of this post. I've been wanting to record some of Nathan's deep questions for a while now. But over the last six months or so he's been asking some probing and theologically deep questions. Here are some examples:

1) "Is God bigger than his house?" (translation: what does "omnipresent" really mean? Is there an "everywhere" that God fills? If so, then that place is bigger than God).

2) "Is God older than his Mum?" (translation: explain the mechanics of the Incarnation please.)

3) "God doesn't have a wife...so his Mum's his wife. Right?" (translation: There exists in humanity a desire to connect with both a male and a female deity. Should we move towards the Roman Catholic approach to solving this by deifying Mary?

Needless to say, in each case, my answers were not as good as his questions.

Thanks for your interest. This blog is something which we intend to resurrect. Watch this space.

Clayton

Judah's Song - God is Powerful!

Judah has often blessed us with spontaneous songs at prayer time.  He really does have a worshipful heart.  Some of what he sings is precious and profound, and some of it is just kiddie drivel (much like our grown up songs if I'm to be honest) but it just about brings me to tears every time.  Anyway, now he's learning to write (he's in the very early stages, so what's in the picture is probably the most he's written at one time) and while Ange and I were preparing dinner tonight he announced that he was writing a song. I helped him with the spelling of "hallelujah" (which I think I got wrong anyway!).  Here's the translation:

God is our fun

He's our King

He's our Lord

For the Lord is our heart.

I love You Lord.

Hallelujah

God is powerful...

OK, so its a first draft, but the kid's 5!  Yes, I'm a real proud dad, and super-blessed by the wonderful kids that God has given me. 

Happy 4th Birthday Nathan

Last week we celebrated Nathan's 4th birthday. We had what he described as being "the best birthday party in his whole life". And it was. We played lots of fun games including a good ol' fashioned egg and spoon race - with real raw eggs! Here are a few photos from the party. Thanks again to family for the gifts you gave, and for those that we were able to get him on your behalf. He is enjoying his new clothes and a Playmobil Knights play set and just loves singing and dancing to his new Colin Buchanan cd.

The Chicago Air Show - view from Lake Michigan

Some good friends of ours Bonnie and Reid Bristow invited us out on their sailing boat to watch the Chicago Air Show. Apart from the sea sickness, we had a wonderful day and some spectacular views of jets and planes that soared above us. Reid a commercial pilot, who once served in the air-force, was able to tell us about each aircraft as it flew by, and tell us what it is like to fly many of them. Here are a few shots from the day. Unfortunately, it was a rather hazy (foggy) day, so none of the shots were particularly good of the city.

My Frugal Adventures

A friend of ours recently got us into game of "coupon clipping". To explain what I mean by this; manufacturers will often advertise with coupons, offering a discount to encourage shoppers to purchase their products. So the game, is then to cut out coupons from the newspaper or print them from the internet and work them in such a way that you leverage an already good retail promotion, by working them both together. I've only been doing it for a week or so now, and here are today's purchases.

At Target, we spent $10.41 for all of the the products pictured below!

Here's how it all worked:

Target was running a store promotion where if you bought 4 Special K items, that you would get a $5 gift card. We also had two "Save $1 off 1 box of cereal" coupons and one "buy 2, get $1 off" cereal bars coupons, so the net result was

2 boxes of Special K Blueberry Cereal for $2.78

2 boxes of Special K breakfast bars for $3.78

Total: $6.56 

With the $5 gift card, we put it towards our ice-cream bargain extravaganza:

Target had a promotion where by if you bought 5 Edy's (aka Dreyer's) ice-cream tubs or Frozen fruit bars, you would get yes, another $5 Target gift card. To add to this, we also had five "$1 off" coupons for these products that are usually $3.99 but were on sale for $2.50.

It worked out as follows:

4 tubs of premium ice-cream @ $1.50 each

1 box of all natural frozen fruit bars @ $1.50

Total: $7.50, less the $5 gift card from the Special K promo =  net total of $2.50!!!!)

Then, we had a coupon for "save $4 off a participating Schick shaving product". Clayton happens to use the Schick Quattro razor (4 blades), and had been putting off buying refill blades due their expense. With this $4 off coupon, and the $5 Target gift card from the ice-cream transaction, we paid just 35 cents for a 4 pack of Titanium blades, a product that is usually $9.94!!!!

At Dominic's (aka Safeway), we bought the following for just $7.95 with $18.29 in total savings derived from manufacturer coupons and a great store promotion on cereal.

At K-Mart they were doubling coupons, so this meant that a $2 off coupon became a $4 saving! Here, the following products pictured below were purchased for just under $30. Doesn't sound quite as outrageous as my other purchases above, but actually, some of the items purchased are typically very expensive. Some highlights include: Jumbo pack of Huggies for $2.26, 3 FREE liquid hand soap pumps, and Scotch pop-up tape with dispenser for 19 cents.

Thank you LORD!!! 

Family Camp

Last week we were blessed to be able to attend our first ever "Family Camp" at Green Lake Wisconsin. No, we were not 'camping' as such, (although we have pitched a couple of tents together as a family) but we were attending a Christian non-denominational conference for families. 

Every morning our boys attended a quality children's ministry program, while we sat through two excellent teaching sessions. The first of these was on marriage and parenting and, the second, an exegesis on the first few chapters of 2 Corinthians from a wonderful old theologian. In the afternoon we rested, and enjoyed the beautiful lake - playing on the beach, canoeing, paddle-boating and even fishing! Each night after dinner, the children were watched and even put to bed by a baby-sitter, while we worshipped and enjoyed another session of preaching, this time - insights from the story of the prodigal son, and then enjoyed the rest of the evening kid free until 11pm. 

It was a wonderful time of refreshing and refocussing. Clayton and I both came away from our time at Green Lake feeling better connected to God and each-other, having heard from God with regards to marriage, family and even with a bit of vision and passion for how the Lord might use us as a couple when we return to Australia. 

Recent pics of the boys

To see more photos, visit my Facebook Photo Album.

Abundant Blessing

Most readers of this blog will already be aware that over the last few months we have felt God challenge us to step out in faith and begin raising financial support in order to ensure that we will remain here until I finish the PhD. This has been an incredibly daunting step for us. The bottom line is we don't like asking for money - in fact I think very few people do. However, we have been greatly encouraged by the generosity of those that have decided support us and by the growing number of random one off financial gifts. God has truly been gracious to us. He continues to provide just as he always has.

We deeply appreciate His goodness and our family and friends who support us with prayer, encouragement and finances.

Thankful,
Clayton

What's the point Dad?

This semester I've been taking an external subject at the University of Chicago on the gospel of Mark. This is an important part of my training because the University of Chicago is generally acknowledged as quite a liberal school, so its helping to acquaint me with the sorts of things that are said about Mark and more generally about Scripture from that perspective. Overall its been a positive experience and there have been some good discussions in class. I have a presentation to do on tuesday on the last twelve verses and was trying to explain my approach to Ange the other night after a day of work on it. Judah was listening "patiently" but broke in at one point and said "What's the point Dad?" A great question. I realised that it was a really good time for me to take a deep breath and try to explain what I was doing simply (to see if in fact there WAS a point). So I explained that while Daddy's "job" (we might use the broader term "calling" but my kids are still under the impression that I have a job like other Dads...) usually involves telling people about the bible to help them understand it better, next week Daddy will be talking to a group of people who know an awful lot about the bible but who don't believe that its God's Word in the same way that we do. He understood and I asked him how he thought I should approach the presentation. What should I tell them?

His answer: "Love Jesus." Another great answer. I pressed him for more and got the following: "The bible is God’s word. When we read the bible its God speaking not us speaking, because he wrote it. You know this. So you’d better believe it or you’ll be punished. I think they’ll believe it when they hear the punish part."

I couldn't stop grinning and affirmed him lavishly. What a refreshing end to a long day!

A Family Update

Here's a quick note on where we're up to from both of us.

The spring is wonderful here. Gone are the freezing temperatures, slippery roads and multiple layers of clothing. The temperature is steadily in the 20s (celsius) (70-80s fahrenheit) and the trees and flowers are in full bloom. If you've never experienced this kind of climate before, you've never experienced the relief and joy that a change in the season brings. Imagine the world under snow and having to stay inside one month and then bright and balmy with patches of stunning tulips in bloom the next.

Clayton has completed one academic year of his PhD and has passed some significant milestones. He has successfully defended his dissertation proposal, passed the candidacy interview (off his L Plates now), passed the German competency exam and started learning Latin, presented a conference paper in Boston and submitted his first article for publication. All in all he's on track to finish mid 2011 for a December graduation (just in time for our tenth wedding anniversary!).

Angela: Hmmm, what to report.... No doubt it's common for mothers with young children to look back on a month, a year or even longer, and wonder, "What have I done with my life?" When so much of it is consumed with the mundane; wiping bottoms, spills, sticky hands, dishes and runny noses, is that it? Is that all that it amounts to? Thankfully, there is a lot more purpose and reward in motherhood. Fortunately, the mundane is cheerfully contrasted by the joy and pleasure that one's children can and do bring. And compassionately, God meets us in the mundane. If we look for Him, He is there. 

The boys: Judah, after one year of pre-school, is getting ready to start (US) kindergarten (= AU:Prep) in the Fall (late August - the start of the school year over here) and Nathan, who has been in 3 y.o. pre-school a couple of mornings a week and absolutely loves it, is excited about the prospect of going more often as of the new (Academic) year. Both Judah and Nathan are growing in their knowledge and love for God and surely must bless the Lord with their sweet prayers heartfelt songs. Jordan has well and truly crossed over into toddler-hood and loves to be considered "one of the boys", joining in wrestling and desperate to start pre-school! All three are a continual blessing in our lives (though often a challenge). They are all so different and we're very thankful that God has made us a family.

A bit of a brag...

Nathan and Jordan still take a decent nap each afternoon, so Judah and I will sometimes get a little quality time together if I'm not preparing dinner or cleaning up after everyone. Today we were working on Judah's reading and made some great progress. After about 20 minutes, he was starting to loose focus, so we started to play a game where I would write a word that he'd not read before based on some of the concepts that we'd just learned, then he had to draw a picture of the word that he had just read. It was so wonderful to see the delight that he had each time he worked out the word. I was so proud that I had to take a photo of it to show you all. He had a bit of trouble with 'robot' as it wasn't really working with anything that we'd just learnt. But don't you just love the pictures? I was interested with how he'd do with drawing an abstract word like 'think'. I think he did pretty well.




And here's a picture of the family that Nathan drew while we were out and about. It's on the back of a bank statement that I had in my handbag - which explains the shape of the paper and the barcode. Child psychologist and loving aunty Georgie says that the presence of hands and fat little fingers, as well as a defined body shape (rather than limbs coming off a big head) are all signs of progress in his cognitive development.

A beautiful song

This is Nathan singing a song that he learnt at pre-school. It is a beautiful song of thankfulness that he likes to sing around the house - it really reflects his heart as he is a very greatful and appreciative little boy. 

Happy 1st Birthday Jordan

I can hardly believe that it has been a year since Jordan entered the world. My only sadness, is that his family back home have not been able to share our joy in watching him grow and have missed out on getting to know him. I thought that I would share a little on our lad...

Jordan Micah Coombs...

Everyday, you light up my world. You are the source of so much joy and delight, and your smile always brightens my day. You are so cute and cuddly. I find you simply delicious! 

You're a curious little boy who likes to explore. You are very independent and seem content to wander around the house playing without me following you. 

You are loving and affectionate and love to give hugs and kisses. You are thrilled when daddy comes home, and will walk as quickly as you can to greet him at the door and will hold his leg until you are picked up and hugged. You LOVE your brothers and you're not afraid to wrestle a little with them either. 

You're a contented little boy and it is a great blessing to me that you rarely fuss or cry for anything. What a wonderful thing it is to have you happy to go shopping or on walks in the stroller with me. 

You are well loved Jordan Micah, and we are so grateful to God for giving you to us.

Here are a few recent pictures from a little photo shoot we had on the Easter weekend - a week before his birthday.