Baby's First Words

What were your first child's first words? I am guessing that you didn't record your second and subsequent children's as rigorously.

This is a list of our first child's first words. They are not in any order, but some of the words later in the list were learnt later. But the first to appear are not to be taken as the first to be said.

I wrote these words down in Narromine in 1976. I wish I had written the date on the sheet!

1. Dee dum dee-dum [Humpty Dumpty]
2. book
3. look
4. deedle deedle [= I’m going to drop this plate if you don’t take it!]
5. bease [please]
6. Bease Mummy
7. dogge [thank you]
8. more
9. nice
10. like
11. bib
12. cup
13. cheese
14. meat
15. egg
16. pea
17. bean
18. tato [potato]
19. Daddy
20. Zustin [Justin]
21. bapple [the first vowel should be a shwa, = apple]
22. peg
23. shoes
24. duss [socks]
25. pants
26. door [= Pick me up, please!]
27. tree
28. dook [drink]
29. boon [balloon]
30. dock [clock]
31. geetar [guitar]
32. speaker [part of hifi]
33. dickie [biscuit]
34. ears
35. eyes
36. nose
37. phone
38. teeth
39. wool
40. eyebrow
41. hair
42. chin
43. beard
44. juice
45. night night [Goodnight]
46. boom boom
47. Brass [Tijuana Brass LP]
48. Ring Ring [Abba song]
49. Bar Bar [Barbara Ann, Beach Boys song]
50. powder
51. hand
52. dirty
53. wet
54. yuck
55. bath
56. hot
57. Bach
58. Chee-cho [Tchaikovsky]
59. Ine [Haydn]
60. Quaygwer [Captain Quaver, Aussie children’s record]
61. brush
62. tractor
63. teapot
64. Joan
65. Gran
66. Dad-dad [Grandad]
67. Pa
68. Nanna
69. Nina [Sheena]
70. bird
71. Georgie
72. dirt
73. grass
74. chair
75. paper
76. duck
77. car
78. truck
79. doash [toast]
80. kee-cat [cat]
81. dawg [dog]
82. beetbic [Weetbix]
83. tissue
84. pen
85. purse
86. keys
87. fish
88. two dolls
89. teddy
90. ball
91. one
92. two
93. sss [three]
94. sharp
95. pin
96. mook [rhymes with book = milk]
97. wash
98. down
99. Bible
100. bed
101. ring
102. light
103. sugar [= sugar bowl]
104. woee [water]
105. man
106. toe
107. woof woof
108. moo
109. pom pom
110. ride
111. stuck [in rocking horse]

Who's who?

I've been reading my ESV Study Bible this morning and began Exodus. Kenneth Laing Harris' notes are very helpful. He points out that some of the language echoes Genesis, and may be intended to convey that God is making a new beginning. For example:

But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. [Exodus 1:7]
The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. [Exodus 2:2]

It is easy to see that the first verse echoes God's words about the people growing numerous in Genesis 6, but Harris points out that

the Hebrew is literally “she saw him, that he was good.” This may refer simply to Moses' being “healthy.” Some have seen here an echo of the creation account (1:7); this would fit with the way the opening events in the book of Exodus act as a creation-like account for the birth of Israel as a nation.

I also like Harris' note about the two Hebrew midwives.

The Hebrew midwives (v. 15) show through their defiant actions that they feared God (vv. 17, 21) more than they feared the king of Egypt (v. 17). For the narrator to say this twice shows that he commends them for their faith. Also, this narrative names so few people (not even naming the pharaohs!) that it is probably a further display of the narrator's approval of the women's deeds that he gives their names, Shiphrah and Puah (v. 15), a detail unnecessary for describing the events themselves. The faithfulness of the midwives is also an indication that there were those among the people of Israel who feared God after all the years of enslavement and before there was any knowledge of God's call of Moses. The exemplary actions of the midwives signify a central theme of the book of Exodus: Israel is called to fear God above any other ruler, nation, or circumstance.

The faithful women are more important than the mighty Pharaoh. I like it!

Vale Gale Storm

I see that Gale Storm died a few days ago. In 1962 my parents bought our first TV. It was pretty bulky, but had a rather small screen. Perhaps 21 inches?

I was in 4th class at school at the time. The TV arrived in the afternoon. I think it was during the school holidays. We turned on the TV and watched one half hour episode of The Gale Storm Show. I remember that there was a Monbulk can of fruit advertisement during the program with the immortal lines

There's no better berry in a can
berry in a can
berry in a can
There's no better berry in a can than a Monbulk
[pause]
Berry in a can!

After the half hour program was over, Mum turned off the TV, because she didn't want us watching too much TV.

However, she relented fairly quickly and I spent many happy hours watching many silly sit-coms and cartoons and children's programs, such as The Bugs Bunny Show, The Mickey Mouse Club, Get Smart, Casey Jones, etc, etc on our black and white TV.

Vale Ms Storm.

Creating stuff that will really last

In Making the Cut, Doug Wilson says that some of what we do now will last into eternity, citing 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 Because of God's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have-- Jesus Christ. 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials-- gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. [New Living Translation, 2nd ed.

This is an intriguing thought. Doug applies it to our music-making.

What we do here matters. The work we do matters. This is not limited to ethical good works; it includes cultural good works.

In music, what we sing matters. The way we sing it matters. What we compose matters. In the resurrection, we will be given a new song, but this does not mean that the old songs will be taken away. Too often, evangelical Christians throw up their cultural achievements like makeshift scaffolding. We think, "It’s all gonna burn, man," and so what we do here does not matter. But as Paul teaches us in 1 Cor. 3, some of it is going to burn, but other aspects of what we do in ministry will be tested and purified. Some of our hymns will be with us in the resurrection. Rather than trying to guess which ones, we need to turn our attention to all of them, with an educated desire for all of them to glorify the Lamb as worthy, "the Lamb that was slain." We should sing as though we wanted all of them to make the cut.

But are Piper and Lloyd-Jones right?

Which is more scandalous? The multitudes of Christians who think they need to earn their salvation by being good? Or the throng of Christians who think that holy living doesn't matter so long as they have prayed the sinner's prayer?

This intriguing question is asked at the beginning of the article "Not an Academic Question" in Christianity Today.

I'm not sure the article really answers the question.

I have sympathy for those who have the horrors when folk say to themselves "Once Saved Always Saved," so now I can live as I please.

I agree with them that this is not taught in the Bible.

But I also think that it is important to believe God's promises concerning assurance, and to believe that it is not our works which will save us, or keep us saved, but the work of Christ alone.

In church this morning we read Jesus' words in Matthew 10 "He who endures to the end will be saved" and I believe it is also important to stress this, but to complement it with teaching that enduring is also a gift of God.

This is why I have always puzzled over Martyn Lloyd Jones' words on Romans 6:1, which I cited last week.

Surely if we preach the whole Bible, people will realise that they can't presume on God's grace, and that they must persevere, by God's grace.

John Piper echoing Martyn Lloyd-Jones

There is a popular quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones which I hear cited more than any other. In commenting on Paul's words in Romans 6:1, where he quotes his opponents as saying:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Lloyd-Jones famously said:

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of [the charge that we may sin that grace may abound] being brought against it. That is a very good test of gospel preaching....
If my preaching and presentation of the gospel does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel....If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in this way, then you had better examine your sermons again,
and you had better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God.

And John Piper, in commending Doug Wilson, forthcoming Desiring God conference speaker, says that

If you don't preach in such a way that somebody responds like Romans 6:1, you're probably not preaching the gospel.

Mistaken Identity

This morning Mark Sutton, minister of Bathurst Community Church preached at our church, Bathurst Evangelical Church, as our minister is in Bali serving a church there for a few weeks.

As an introduction to telling us about people who mistook who Jesus really was in John chapter 7, verses 1-13, Pastor Sutton told us the story of Laura and Whitney, two friends involved in a tragic accident in which one girl died and the other was seriously injured.

The story of how their bodies were mixed up and how one family held a funeral for their daughter who was still alive and fighting for her life, while the other family unwillingly looked after the first family's daughter is a powerful one.

Jess on the role of mother

Jess at Making home writes some great stuff. This is a sample:

If you are one who loves Christ, who desires to see people come and know Him, and longs to find her purpose in the world, let me commend to you the role of mother.

If you are a young woman who has been told all the horrors and sob stories of colic and tantrums and have somehow missed hearing about the joy of raising up interesting, unique individual men and women who will know and serve God, let me commend to you the role of mother.

If you are a gal of my generation, who was told you could "be anything you wanted to be" without ever even having it be hinted that that "anything" might include being "everything" to some little people, let me commend to you the role of mother.

If you are a lady who wants to change the world and make it a better place, let me commend to you the role of mother.

If you are someone who desires to impact people in a huge way, help others to overcome difficulties and find their strengths and God-given abilities, so that they might in turn serve God & contribute to this glorious world in a more weighty manner, let me commend to you the role of mother.

Mothers...

* ... have the opportunity to impact lives, day-in, day out-for 18+ years, more time than any professor or doctor or preacher or counselor will ever be able to have in the lives of the people they seek to impact.
* ... have the privilege to study and know their children so that they can train, counsel, and encourage them as they grow towards adulthood
* ... are given the blessing and responsibility of connecting deeply and wonderfully with their children in ways that are virtually impossible with the world at large.
* ... have the opportunity to love and be loved in a way that is entirely distinct from any other sort of relationship.
* ... are able to change the world through a mastery of various fields and talents that they themselves do not possess, as they spur on and encourage their children to find their God-given place of service.
* ... are able to teach and train and sharpen and shape and guide and gear their children in ways that will forever alter human history.
* ... have the privilege of praying with intimate understanding for the hearts and lives of people from the very beginning of their existence.
* ... have a purposeful career designed by God Himself, with His assistance and leadership guaranteed throughout.
* ... have the unique experience of watching the man they love grow into a man who loves in ways that were unseen and unknown before he became a father.
* ... have a God-given life with sanctification built-in by the requirements of hard work, selflessness, disappointment, perseverance, patience, grace, self-control, and a continual seeking of wisdom from above.
* ... have the unique opportunity to work hand-in-hand with God Almighty and the husband He has given to mold future adults.

I am not saying this is the only way-- but I am absolutely saying that it is an awesome way, and a God-designed way, for women to yield to their Maker by welcoming with joy and with great sober responsibility the blessing and gracious gift of children into their hearts, lives, and wombs.

God continues to do amazing things in my heart and life and draw me closer to Himself through this role of mother, and I would be a foolish woman indeed if I did not speak highly to you of this beautiful means of sanctification that God has given to women: the disciple-making, world-changing, heart-molding role of mother.