What is the invisible church?

The invisible church is the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head.[1] 

1. Eph. 1:20, 22-23

   …that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places… .
   
   

   And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

   
   John 10:16

     And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

   
   John 11:52

   …and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 64

Eight Random Things

I’ve been tagged by Kevin Sorenson in the eight random things meme, wherein I am obliged to list eight random things about myself. Here we go; let’s see what I can come up with.

1. This is the first day there has been no snow in my back yard. Tomorrow, I’m going get out there and scoop a winter’s worth of dog doo. Right now there’s a robin hopping around in the garden.
   
2. I was born in Tennesee, in a doctor’s office/hospital in an apartment up above a store.
   
3. I have four children. My longest labour was 6 1/2 hours, and that wasn’t my first child. My shortest? 45 minutes. I yelled at my husband during my first labour because he wanted to stop and have breakfast on the way to the hospital. He’d learned in the prenatal class about how long first labours take, so he wanted to fortify himself with bacon, eggs, toast and hashbrowns. Let’s just say that it’s a good thing he didn’t stop to eat.
   
4. I took a speed reading class and did very well, reading at breakneck speed with 80-90% comprehension. As soon as the class was over, I went back to reading very slowly, because 80-90% comprehension isn’t good enough.
5. I really like liver and onions. Head cheese, too. And I’m probably one of the few people who is saddened by the fact that it’s no longer considered safe to fry up calf’s brains for breakfast.
6. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of cheese cake or potato chips. I suppose that’s not really random, because it’s connected to the item before, but tough cookies. (I do like cookies.)
7. If you peeked under my bed right now, you would find a whole lot of dust bunnies and a few socks without mates. Cleaning under my bed is on my list, right after poop scooping in the backyard.
   
8. What am I reading for fun right now? The Chicago Manual of Style. The only problem is that it’s a little heavy to carry around in my purse.

Woo-hoo! I came up with eight things. All I can say is that it’s a good thing it wasn’t the 100 things meme. Nobody needs to know what’s under my fridge.

Never Say Never

My youngest child is about to graduate from high school, which means that pretty soon I’ll have four semi-adult kids. My kids have taught me lots of things, and many of those lessons might be more important than this one, but this is the one I feel like writing about today. So what is it I’ve learned? I’ve learned that that it’s usually best never to say “That would never happen in this family!”

This is advice that I don’t always follow. Just last week I found myself wondering out loud about what kind of a home grows a child of a certain age who still thinks that a certain childish tactic will get them what they want. Of course, behind my remark was the assumption that this sort of thing would never happen in my home. And, you know, I’m pretty sure I never did have a child try that particular trick, probably because they knew by that age that it wouldn’t work for them. Nevertheless, it was exactly the sort of thing that an honest parent could never be completely sure that at least one of their own child would never try, so I really should have kept my mouth shut on the grounds that my remark assumed things I couldn’t be sure of, never mind that it was just plain mean-spirited and gossipy.  But most of all, my remark showed a fair bit of pride. Ironic, wasn’t it?  If rearing four children to adulthood can teach me anything, it ought to be humility.

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