New Toy

Just purchased an iPad Pro 12.9 inch with Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. I’ve saved up my blow money for it. I actually got it mostly for the bigger screen real estate and the larger keyboard for easier typing. I loved my little iPad Air, but this one gives a lot more space. I’m working on a book this summer that will be coordinated with illustrations and I wanted to be able to have the pictures side by side with my text as I wrote. I figure this larger screen will do the trick! It’s speedy, has great screen, and yet is still quite portable. 

Apple’s set up for transferring files is the essence of simplicity. Simply bringing the old iPad near to the new one, follow the instructions on the screen and in a matter of less than an hour, my entire content was transferred and my old iPad wiped clean for trade in. Slick!

And another Making the Case Conference is in the rearview mirror…

…but it was a great joy. Stellar line up of speakers, of course. Loud and joyous singing at Compline, Matins, the Hymn Sing and the Divine Service. Got to meet lots of new friends and catch up ever so briefly with old friends. I look forward to it every single year. It’s exhausting (to a native introvert like myself; lots and lots and lots of people time). And I’m tickled pink when it’s behind us and it mellows into memories. Here are some random pics:

Happy 41st to Us…

… and how is that even possible? 

That Was a Wonderful, Crazy Week

A true whirlwind. 

SATURDAY:  Leave Hamel, drive to Logan Ohio, so…

SUNDAY: …we can attend Emmanuel Lutheran in Lancaster for Pentecost. Was so blessed to hear our old friend, Mark Raddatz, preach and preside. Also to meet some fans of The Word Endures. Then the drive to Maryland.

MONDAY:..Memorial Day, we celebrated with Cindi’s sister Deb and many of her children and grandchildren, with Cindi’s sister Dee and family, and with Aunt Sandy. 

TUESDAY…Cindi and I enjoyed a Salvadoran lunch with my brother Joe’s widow, Peggy. Was so great catching up with her! Then in the evening, dinner and games with the Dillons, Quades, and Aunt Sandy. We played Farkle. 

WEDNESDAY…after rush hour, we headed down to Richardsville Virginia, the town my family was from. We visited with my sister and her family (including several of her great-great grandchildren). We always used to tell Sissy how much she looked like Grandma Bess (my dad’s mom). No more. She has become the spitting image of my mom! I visited family graves and my mom’s family’s home. Walked over to my brother Maupin’s widow’s home and was blessed to run into two of his children and one of his grandchildren. We visited for a while, but when the bugs started chewing on us, headed back to Sis’s screened in porch. We waited around to see if the whippoorwills would sing, but alas, they were silent that evening. We spent the night at a great Air B&B in downtown Fredericksburg.

THURSDAY…after a late breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Sis, Jimmy and great grandson Brayden, we headed back to MD, giving thanks many times over that we don’t live in this area anymore and convinced we could never do it again. Traffic insane! We had a quiet supper with the Dillons, Quades and Aunt Sandy.

FRIDAY…a trip to check out the Museum of the Bible. I was a bit disappointed. Not a lot of rare manuscripts on display at all. Lots of facsimiles. And even a Nestle Aland Greek NT under glass (????). Aunt Sandy joined us for dinner one more time and we got in a game of five crowns.

SATURDAY…long trip to Lauren and Dean’s. All was going smoothly till horrible accident closed the interstate for an hour before we got to Indy. Not sure, but suspect some of those in the crash perished. The ambulance came with sirens and lights and left rather quietly and not hurriedly with no siren. May the Lord have mercy on them all! We pulled into St. Paul’s Dieterich just after six and enjoyed a lovely visit with Herberts grandchildren and Lauren and Dean.

SUNDAY…after the Divine Service at St. John’s Dieterich, where my son-in-law Dean presided and gave out the gifts, we returned to parsonage for a late breakfast, and finally hit the trail for home. We got here about quarter to two, quickly unpacked, and ran over to the dairy to pick up yoghurt and fresh milk. I’m glad things are quiet for a couple days before our regular routine resumes. Tomorrow we’re heading out for dinner to celebrate our 41st anniversary. 

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

It is on God’s Word alone that we will one day be judged, so it must now guide our faith and life. If we allow it to light our path continually, we will not go astray. And if we have strayed from the path out of weakness, this light will always bring us back. Therefore, we must let the humble prayer of faithful Samuel be our prayer as well: “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.”—God Grant It!, p. 440. 

Lewis

I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned (even in plucking out his right eye) has not been lost: that the kernel of what he is really seeking even in his most depraved wishes will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in ‘the High Countries.’ In that sense it will be true for those who have completed the journey (and for no others) to say good is everything and heaven is everywhere.—Business of Heaven, p. 134

[He’d read his Thompson, no? 

‘All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.

All which thy child’s mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:

Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’]

Catechesis: On Predestination

He [God] will also strengthen, increase, and support the end of the good work that He has begun in them, if they cling to God’s Word, pray diligently, abide in God’s goodness, and faithfully use the gifts they have received.—FC SD XI:21

Lewis

Because we love something else more than this world, we love even this world better than those who know no other.—Business of Heaven, p. 130.

Catechesis: Adiaphora

We also believe, teach, and confess that at a time of confession, when the enemies of God’s Word want to suppress the pure doctrine of the Holy Gospel, God’s entire church, indeed, every single Christian, but especially the ministers of the Word, as the directors of the community of God, is bound by God’s Word to confess the doctrine freely and openly.—FC SD X:10

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

It is not the hearing of the sermon that saves a person, but the doing of what was preached, the keeping of the Word. In short, the doing of the Word is faith.—C. F. W. Walther on James 1:22ff. (God Grant It!, p. 425)

Patristic Quote of the Day

These are the voices of the church from which every church had its origin; these are the voices of the metropolis of the citizens of the new covenant; these are the voices of the apostles.—St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.12.5

A very happy Mothers’ Day…

…to all the wonderful moms I’ve known. Particularly my own, Mildred Hume Mastin Weedon! She was a remarkable woman in so very many ways. I realized with shock today that in this picture of us together, SHE’S the same age I am now. Wow. How did that happen? She was a big old tease who, like all her family, loved to laugh! She poured out such love on all her children!

And then my “other” mom: Joanne DeVries, who was as much a good friend as a mom. We had so very much fun together across the years! 

Also to my wife, Cindi, who just continues to be THE super mom par excellence. 

To my two daughters and my daughter-in-law, each of whom approach motherhood in their own unique way, but in their different approaches each being a blessing to my sweet grandchildren.

To my sister, Marie (usually just called Sissy), who was like a second mom to me. I remember her and Jimmy picking up after the first day of kindergarten, just days before their marriage. Can’t even count the number of trips they took me on when I was little! 

To my “Church” moms: Mil Gerni (Burlington), Wilma Henke and Clara Wehrend (Hamel), all now deceased, but like my own mom, never forgotten!  Each of these ladies felt zero compunction about giving their pastor “a talking to” when they felt it was called for, and I remain grateful for them all!

This Week’s Numbers

Summary for this week (Monday through Friday)

Miles walked: 25 (a bit more than 5 miles per day)

Times running down and up the staircase in our house: 130+ (keeps heartrate up while I walk!)

Pushups: 15,000

Pull-ups: 372

45 lb. KB swings: 372

High Intensity Interval Training: 1 hour (1/2 Tues; 1/2 Thurs)

As I told Craig today, one of things I really look forward to in retirement is being able to do my workouts without concern about fitting it around my work schedule. As I said in post a few days ago, I don’t ever want to do the workout prior to doing, but I sure do love how great it feels when it’s done!

A Joyous Cantate

as ten young people were confirmed in the holy faith. Here is the opening procession in which the Confirmands follow the cross as the congregation sings St. John of Damascus’ hymn: “Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain.”

This morning, as I fixing the coffee…

 Moonset. 

Then as I was enjoying my coffee…sunrise. 

I am in love…

…with my new Bible. It was very (as my kids would say) “spendy,” but it’s so worth it. I now have a beautiful ESV with Apocrypha in genuine calfskin leather.  And the Apocrypha is NOT stuck at the end, but placed squarely between the Testaments, exactly where Dr. Luther put it in his Bible. I’ve become increasingly leery of having “study notes” supplied by a publisher in a Bible, and I’m pleased to say this one has only the ESV textual notes and within the margins the wonderful Cambridge system of cross-references. It’s not quite as comfortable in my hand as my KJV with Apocrypha (which is just the perfect fit). Preserving the ESV’s layout of poetical lines also means that the print had to be a tad smaller. But for anyone who is looking for an ESV with Apocrypha (remembering that all Lutheran Bibles originally had those books included), this one is simply top notch. 

On Bodily Discipline

1 Corinthians 9:27 (ESV). But I discipline my body and keep it under control…

My body doesn’t like working out. My body prefers sitting in a chair and mindlessly surfing the internet or reading a good novel or binge watching something. But what my body prefers is something that gets regularly ignored. Some years ago I got into the habit of working out (especially M-F). When I was working at the International Center, my noontime workout was how I kept my sanity! I used to joke: Oh, I work at my gym. They’re amazing! They provide an office for me for use before and after workouts.

It took some thinking when I started working from home again, trying to decide the best time to workout. It didn’t seem to work to do the same noontime slot. So I shifted to early morning. Usually I have my cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise, pray from The Treasury of Daily Prayer with Cindi, pray Matins (using the KJV schedule), do readings from Book of Concord and some devotional material (currently Lewis and Walther) and then finish up coffee and puzzles (yes, addicted to Wordle, Worldle, Quardle, Knotwords, Blossom, and Nerdle). Then before anything else, it’s time to workout, time to make the old bod do the stuff that it doesn’t ever want to do, but which ends up giving me tons of energy and makes me feel so much better.

Lately, I’ve been doing a circuit in the house. By the time I’m done, I’ve climbed down and up the stairs 24 times, and walked all around the interior. I start off with 25 pushups. Walk around and down. Do anywhere from 5 to 9 pull-ups and 5 to 9 45 lb. kettlebell swings. Then run up the stairs and back into my study to record this. Then I walk around again, sprinting up and down the stairs, and maybe catching a drink of water. Then time to do pushups again. That’s my regular Monday to Friday. Add to this, I aim for at least five miles walking each day (and hit that most days). So this week, thus far, I have walked about 25 miles, done 1200 pushups and 320 pull-ups and kettle bell swings each. I’ll rest Saturday and Sunday (though will try to get the walking in) and then resume again next week. And then there’s Tuesdays and Thursdays! That’s when I do what my body does not merely dislike, but actually “loathes, despises and abominates” (anyone recognize that?): 30 minutes of high intensity interval training. I do that using the Apple Fitness app. It’s a killer. I have a love/hate relationship with trainer Jamie Ray.

The cool thing is that discipline, as many have noted, has a way of spilling over in our lives from one area to another. So from exercise to sleep, from sleep to dietary choices, from dietary choices to financial decisions, and so on. But I think it makes great sense to start with disciplining the body, making it do hard work, and ignoring its pleas for “hey, let’s take it easy” and “lighten up, will you?” I think it’s simply a great place to start. I know that I cannot imagine a life now where my workout wasn’t a regular feature of my week. And let me stress that at the beginning of regularly working out, it was nowhere near the intensity I’m doing now. What matters is making that body MOVE and ignoring it’s whiney “but I don’t WANT to.” What matters is to learn to say, “Tough, body, YOU are not in charge; you WILL do as you are told. Got it?”

P.S. One more thing my body doesn’t particularly enjoy? Cold showers. But I end every shower with over a minute of nothing but cold water hitting the skin all over. Like the workout, despite the body’s protests, it ends up making you feel simply great!

Patristic Quote of the Day

Everywhere creation offers obedient service to its Creator. The stars indicated his birth; clouds overshadowed him in his suffering, received him in ascension, and they will accompany him when he returns for judgment.—St. Bede, the Venerable, Commentary on Acts 1.9b

Proverbs 4:18

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. 

Pastor Matt Ruesch Interview

Pr. Ruesch knocks it out of the ball park in this wonderful interview with Dr. Shawn Baker. Check this out!