Hussey's Half Dozen

It is true. The Hussey's have been gardening. What initially started out as a small project has "bloomed". (That's gardener speak for: turned into a huge project that has darn near broke my husband's back.) I did a lot of research and decided that I was going to use the Square Foot Gardening method. Well, anyone that knows me well, knows that I am not the greatest planner. We went to a nursery JUST to get peat moss and vermiculite because I was not done planning what I would plant in our two modest 4x4 plots. I am not sure how we walked out with 18 corn, basil, oregano, thyme, 12 tomato plants, 4 yellow and 8 red bell pepper, 2 red onion, pumpkin, 4 sugar baby watermelon, 4 acorn squash, 8 butternut squash, 2 zucchini, jalapeno, 4 crookneck squash, arugala, lettuce, artichoke, 4 honeydew melons, 4 eggplant, 4 cabbage, 4 cucumber, 4 pickling cucumber, 12 spinach, 1 petite pepper, 5 strawberries, 4 cabbage, 2 bags of pole bean seeds, 1 bag of carrot seeds, and two bags of mesculin (mixed greens) seeds. It is like they put something in the air, or possibly had subliminal messages pouring out of their speakers. Or, maybe it was the heat in the greenhouse that did me in. But, we added two more 4x8 plots to accomodate it all and that is AFTER I returned 9 corn and gave Mariah 2 cuc's, 4 tomato's, and 4 crooknech squash.

James, I'm sure, has his own tale to tell about all of this work and his wife's crazy ideas since he was the one breaking his back. But, I am very thankful and excited. God willing, with all this sowing we will be able to do some heavy reaping. I can't wait to eat the fruit of our labor.

Humility is to make a right estimate of self.~C.H. Spurgeon

When do we ever do that? For me, very rarely. Even when God puts me in lowly circumstances to bring me to a right estimation of self, I still find myself estimating a little bit higher than I ought. The Truth is that we are dust. We are feeble creatures who think far too highly of ourselves. We put on false humility to cloak our pride. For instance, I am delivering dry cleaning to people who can afford to, well, dryclean their clothes, while I am struggling to pay for water to wash my clothes. I am walking up to people's mansions with their drycleaned jeans in hand. I mean, really, dry cleaned jeans?  Must you? And, there are times when they answer their doors and I see the opulence on the inside. And, instead of considering them better than myself, which I am called to do, in my pride I think of my meager circumstances and give myself a pat on the back for being humble. I mean, look at me. I have six kids, one of whom is a newborn. I am homeschooling. I am working to help provide. And, we are broke. What godliness I must possess to still be humble admist all of this hardship? This may seem so foolish to you, but this is the truth of my heart. I am prideful about my humility!

As I told a certain girl today, it must be all of Christ and none of us. It must be all of His righteousness and none of our own. It must be all of His perfect works, and none of our own. It must be all of His merit, and none of our own. The minute that we start looking at ourselves and begin to see some merit in how we live or what we think apart from Chirst is the minute that we look a lot like Satan allowing pride to make a wrong estimation of ourselves. We can never elevate ourselves above Christ, no matter how hard we try. And, we must always, for those of us who count Him as the Author and Perfector of our faith, see ourselves truly: as low as dust apart from Him and fellow heirs with Him.

So, if you dryclean your jeans, I pray that your righteousness is not found in the ability to do so, because mine certainly isn't found in the lack of it.

~Tasha

The biggest mountain peak in the entire solar system is on Mars and it is a volcano called Olympus Mons. I am sure you have heard all of the reports on the news about this history making event. Never before has there been such an eruption. In fact, the effects have been felt all the way in Idaho. The amazing part is that we have some amazing eyewitness pictures that we would like to share with you.

Olympus Mons before Eruption

Eye Witnesses

The Aftermath

Alleyn Cole asked for some updated pics of my three babies... So, these are for her and anyone else that might be a part of the Hussey Baby Fanclub...

I'm blessed to have been a supporter of Tabletalk Magazine and Ligonier Ministries for some years now.  If you haven't had the good fortune to dig deeper into the Bible alongside the various men involved with the teaching ministry there, please check 'em out and drink deeply of timeless truths delivered faithfully.

The May issue is "The Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues," and no: this isn't a Romanist/papist's rag, they're full-bore believers of God's Word and true justification through grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone, and authority through the Scriptures alone (all to God's glory alone).  However, the issue at hand does bring to mind the fact that there are certain sins that can bind us and enslave us far quicker and more easily than others.

I do, however, wish to point out that there are more sins than those seven deadly types, and I wish to enumerate them here, lest you, too, fall into them.  What follows is a list of what I think the church at large ought to include in the list of "deadly sins" (side note: are there "deadly sins" and "life-giving sins"?  Hmmmm....the title's a little misleading, ain't it?)  [Reader beware!  You are entering into the ranting mind of a satyrical tyrant.  Read: "smell the sarcasm."]

1. Leaving the gas tank "1/16th full" (for those optimistic types).  Honestly, this is a deadly sin.  The fact that we always have places to go, be it church or miscellaneous errands, or to work....we're a family that's goin' places, man.  Goin' hither and thither and sometimes yon demands a gas guage that happily reports: "Go get 'em, Tiger!  All systems are go."  Instead, between [in the interest of a happy marriage and not offending her brother, as I'm married to one guilty party and work for the other, I shall refrain from listing their names], I have had no less than three experiences in as many days wherein the vehicles have begged, "James! PLEASE!  For the love of OPEC, for the conservation of dear Texas Tea and Black Gold, for the cause of There Will Be Blood the movie--please take me to the over-priced, over-taxed gas pump!"  It's a crying shame. 

Why is this a "deadly sin"?  <begin rant:>Because: the next time I find that [she and he who will not be named] have failed to keep more than fumes in the gas tanks of the two vehicles in question, really, there will be blood.<end rant>

2. Not being captivated by my teaching and reading of the Bible during "Hussey's love to listen to their Daddy's preaching and teaching" family Bible study time.

I mean, really, don't Jamesyn and Jones see that this is the very staff of life?  Does being 2 and 3 actually mean they have to "act their age"?  Do I have to employ Mickey Mouse references and do a dance and song from The Wiggles to reach them?  Must I carve idols from Play-Doh in order to reach the little balls of fun? Doesn't the 8-year-old cherish his limbs (I say that because Jake is a candidate for the straightjacket: he will NOT hold still.  Ever see the ending scenes of Over The Hedge with Hammy the squirrel, hopped up on caffeine?  Well: that's our Jake.  I've imagined placing him in a device called 'The Rack'--a medeival torture device designed by parents to teach their 8-year-olds to hold still and adopt a look of utter captivation and awe at learning life-saving truth from God's Word.)?  Only Julienne, Jordyn and Jessica understand that this is sacred time.  (Or: they cherish their limbs...?)

Why is this a "deadly sin"?  Well...for fear that Child Protection Services reads this rant blog, I can't elaborate...

3. Four-way-stop knuckleheads.  I mean, it's as simple as this: when you come to a 4-way stop, if you arrive at the same time as the driver straight ahead of you, and you are turning left (across the middle of the intersection), then the dude who's goin' straight has the right of way.  Or: if you arrive at the same time as the dude on your right, then dude on your right has the right of way (if dude's on your left, this means you go).

Got that?

There is no room to "be nice" or "be LDS (as we have it in Idaho, same thing as bein' nice)" at a 4-way stop.  Just take your turn when it's yours!  Don't SIT THERE AND PLAY THE WAITING GAME WITH ME--IF THERE'S A PAUSE, IT'S YOU!  play nice/LDS and simply wait for (me) to figure it out.  Why?  Because, invariably, we both get tired of waiting and then go at the same time.

Why is this deadly?  Well, I don't have a history of actual road rage that you may know about, but believe me, I'm saying "You Fool! Raca!" when I'm on the road.  Deadly.  One day, I may actually meet the Lord (a.k.a. my demise) by crashing into someone who doesn't obey the simple stop-sign-calculus.  It may be a physically deadly sin.

Darn Raca drivers...

More deadly sins to be listed in the future.  Stay tuned (all two of you). 

At All Saint's Presby here in Boise, seeing Christ in Exodus was today's sermon.  The beauty that is the infallible Word of God is jaw-dropping, especially in the hands of a preacher so concerned with such beauty as God's Truth.  Simple things like the manifold ways that it's all Christ, and Christ everywhere.  Things like the surpassing glory of Jesus even compared to the amazing story of Moses.

Walking away from church today, I was again reminded of this timeless truth:

Jesus is the source of all joys.  Idols, however, everywhere abound, to distract our eyes from the beauty that is our Saviour.

And a great diagnostic tool:

If you were to lose or to be limited access to [insert idol here], would you be mad?  Excited?  Depressed?  Do you find joy in someone or thing that is to be seen, touched, or apprehended in some way?

I ask this question knowing what a factory of idols, as John Calvin put it, the human heart is.  My heart has manufactured more idols since I met Christ 10 short years ago than Ford has produced Mustangs (gotta love the new GT!  Hold the phone...that's another idol, ain't it?!)

The idol I'm currently wrestling with: Nintendo Game Cube...  Actually, the fever ain't as bad as I thought it'd be, but I'd be embarassed if either John Piper or R.C. Sproul, two of my hands-down all-time fave and influential teachers of the faith, were to come by and see me playing the thing...See what I mean?  Even mentioning Piper and Sproul exposes yet two more idols: notice I didn't say I'd be embarassed if Jesus saw me playing (which He does, most every day)...

sheesh...

In all honesty, though in times past I have had an uncommonly strong love and adoration for all things Nintendo, I don't have the cash money for the machine of machines, the Nintendo Wii, and thank the Lord for that, nor do I play the machine I own as much as my twitchy fingers are wanting to do, but the fact is this: I am always in a struggle to find enjoyment more in the gifts and trinkets of God's grace than I am in finding enjoyment in God Himself.

This is the crux and curse of the matter: who do you love most, James?

My pastor hit me with that today, and the story was that age-old story of our brother, Moe. (To his friends, that is: "Moe.") 

Ouch.

We Hussey's are water drinkers. We rarely drink anything else. With all of our meals, all of us drink water. In fact, I rarely buy juice or soda and my babies should probably get more milk than they do. But, with all of this water drinking we still don't get enough. In fact, there are times when I realize that I am pretty dehydrated. Usually when I realize this, it isn't because I feel desperately thirsty or overly parched. It is simply because I start to drink water and realize that I want more and more. In fact, the more I drink the thirstier I feel. It is weird how you can go for a long period and not even realize that your body is craving water until you drink a glass and realize how much you needed it.

I have been given the opportunity to have multiple hours of time to listen to God's Word preached. How, you may be asking, does a homeschool mom of 6, with a nursing newborn have multiple hours to do any one thing? Well, it is funny. Because in God's Providence, part of the reason we Hussey's drink so much water is because it is free. In other words, we are broke and beyond. Because of this, I have started working part time for my brother and Mariah delivering dry cleaning for their business in order to help out my husband's calling of providing for the family. While James may feel that it is a shame to him that we are in such low circumstances that I must work to help provide our daily bread, like all things in God's economy, He is working it for good in many ways. One of which is this: It gives me a good three solid hours, three times a week to hear Truth uninterrupted, which is a rare thing in my life. What I have realized, in the past few weeks is how utterly dry and parched I have been this past year for water, Living Water. What started out as a desire to have something to sip on while I drive, has turned out to be a thirst like I haven't experienced in my walk in years. 

The pattern in our marriage has been that James and I experience growth in our walk during different seasons. When one is up, the other is usually faltering. But, surprisingly we are both thirsting after the same thing, both keeping pace with each other, both wanting to drink deeper of Christ and His water that satisfies. And, it is a wonderful thing to walk alongside each other towards Christ instead of dragging the other to the well which usually ends with one of us holding the other's head under in an attempt to drown them with truth, or well, just drown them, if you know what I mean.

So, my recommendation is to drink more Water. You may be parched and not even know it. One thing is certain: Jesus is the Living Water, drink of Him and you will never thirst again.

 John 4:13-14

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Here's a link to Phil Johnson's conclusion on an argument of how Paul (the apostle) presented truth in a straightforward, don't mince words or play pussy-foot with rebukes, sort of way.  Good readin'.

Phil Johnson and others blog at Pyromaniacs.  You may recall he was the fella behind the Intelligent Design arguments?  Wait, no, this isn't that Phil!  Phil Johnson is another cat altogether, actually in league with Grace to You (broadcast ministry of John MacArthur), been bloggin' since 1995.

I discovered him on Purgatorio just this morning.  I love his straightforward, manly approach to truth, and wish that we weren't in an age where it's so out of step to live this out:

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Yesterday I wrote about a book I shuddered at and dismissed out of hand.  Though I don't think that the point of the story (i.e.: God's love, especially during our suffering) is moot (actually, those who know the Hussey's could make a case that's all we ever talk about!), I still maintain that introducing the masses to an idol and misrepresentation of God to do so is inherently wrong.

The cool part: my kids got to see their daddy spontaneously combust before their very eyes during Family Bible reading time (a.k.a. "lunch").  I think I did that while bloggin, too...

I also had the great pleasure of listening to four of my pastor's sermons on our MP3 playa yesterday at work.  During one sermon on Exodus, he (Brad Chaney) preached on a bit of how, after 400 years of living in pagan Egypt, the Israelites were still distinct from Egyptian culture.

In other words: they didn't believe in syncretism.  Their identity was so Jewish that Pharoah wanted to commit "ethnic cleansing" and kill them off.  The Egyptian leadership was uncomfortable with their distinct Hebrew culture.

Why do I mention that?  Simply: I lament the "melting pot theory" of American culture.  Christians: we are not free to "melt" and "blur" so as to become indistinguishable from the culture.  We have to walk the line and be Christians: deliberately different.

(I think of a dear friend of mine, and our conversations about this topic: we both struggle in this area.  If I'm preaching, I preach to myself first.)

After reading a post on friend's blog about a certain book I won't plug here,

(O.K., that just won't do, I will refer to it, but will NOT plug/endorse it!!! here: it's called "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young...IMHO: Great book for starting the first BBQ grill fires this summer...but to read it?  Save your $crilla.  Fo' rilla.)

I began to read reviews of the book from two sites.  One site was the author's own site: go figure, I had to post the only negative comment on the site.  I think the author won't suffer it long, I'm pretty sure he's got a cleaning crew to man that one pretty well and scrub-a-dub-dub my post into obliteration.  Just in case you happen there, my post is under "just James," and it's done in my typical kind, generous and not-at-all sarcastic tone.  The link: http://www.windrumors.com/43/the-beauty-of-ambiguity-mystery/#comment-1102

My point is that I read the glowing reviews on the author's site, (funny bunny trail, but great sales tip: he entreats everyone to write a "5-star review on Amazon!"...shameless...but $mart, man, $$$mart!) and was saddened at the lack of discernment from the crowd.  Contrast that to the Proverbs take on flattery...well, you get the drift.

The other site I went to was Tim Challies' blog, where I read a not-so-flattering review of the book, but was told of the sacrificing of truth done in the book.  Personally: I won't bother reading the book.  Then again, I didn't read "The DaVinci Code" like the pundits required of me, and didn't want to bother with the movie, either.  Truth is: who has time to be trendy?  (I'm NOT saying this as a tongue-in-cheek way of pointing fingers at ANYONE, BTW.)  Seriously, life is a gift, and there are things I do to waste time here and there (call it "unwinding"), but to read a book like this would just give me an ulcer and incense me at the travesty of not portraying God as He has revealed Himself (good grief: I hope I don't entice anyone to read the thing!).

Honestly, if you haven't read or heard of Tim Challies, and you love books or thinking like a Christian or whatnot, then he's a good fella I'd recommend wholeheartedly.  The good news is that my wife brought up the book review idea, punched in Challies.com, and I read the review aloud to her and all 72 comments...by the time you read this post it may be more.  So, thanks to Paul Young for reuniting me with a long-lost friend, Mr. Challies!  Yay!  See?  It wasn't all bad news.  BTW: here's Challies link:

http://www.challies.com/

Interestingly, he's written a book on discernment entitled "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment."  Go figure.

All this to say:

I can't stand the "Emergent Church" movement, which the book has everything to do with, BTW (no, I told you: I didn't read it--just 150 reviews from those who have)--and it reminds me:

Has truth and discernment been rolled up like a scroll?  Has truth given way to the more fashionable "emotional experience" or specifically "relationship" with an amorphous and ambiguous 'god'?  Read the reviews on Amazon.com or even Eugene Peterson's glowing endorsement (the fella that penned "The Message" bible...more on that another time perhaps)--it's all about the experience of the reader when they weep through the book.  Don't get me wrong: I embrace that we're emotional critters.  I married Tasha and through living life, she's taught me more on that note than anyone could, so I respect emotions as a created phenomenon of our human expression.  Somehow, we reflect the glory of God in having emotions, being that we're created in His image.  However: when the question comes down to the false dichotomy (the logical fallacy or error that says either "A" is true or "B" is true, they cannot both be true, basically) that it's the truth of Scripture vs. a "real relationship with Christ."  It's an old, old ruse of the devil: on one "team" you have the experience, on the other "team" is the truth.  Read about it in the history of the Protestants' Reformation and the Roman Catholic's Counter-Reformation.  Guess what?  Back then Rome told their adherents that we crazy Protestants may have had the truth, but they had the "Spirit."  That translated into a fore-runner of the current Pentecostal movement with false miracles and signs and "wonders."  Small "m, s and w".

The book "The Shack" does in story form what the Gnostics did in polemic and rhetoric (forms of arguing) in the ancient period: it claims to offer a hidden or secret knowledge, a secret relationship with God that somehow the current mainline Christian traditions cannot offer their members.

Call me an old stick in the mud, but when you create a story, please don't re-create the Creator of THE Story, or at least have the decency to stick to the "old party line" of the God of the Bible as HE has revealed Himself (not "She/He" or some other egalitarian gobbledygook....). 

Honestly, I have to say I'm so thankful that the review (on a fellow Voxer's page) brought me to the bunny trail of truth-seeking, but I lament this is how the book is received (speaking of the Amazon reviews and other places where glowing endorsements are rampant).  It's almost as if some of the reviewers would use this book to trump the Bible, calling the novel a "one of a kind read" and "life changing--more than any other book I've read."

Funny thing is: I don't doubt that we all wish for a deeper relationship with Christ.  I just don't think that the Bible is somehow going to play second-fiddle to Young's or anyone else's come-lately fad, hot off the press or not.  Despite a longing for a deeper relationship with Christ, I think deep down the deeper truth is this:

The Bible is Sufficient for our Needs

In the doctrines of the Church (not the "Emergent Church," but THE Church universal), this is called the "Sufficiency of the Scripture."  In the history of the church, the heresy of Young's book is called "Gnosticism."  (Apparently it $ells.)

Here's a quote from former Christian giants on the subject of Truth:

Spurgeon said: “Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather, it is the difference between right and almost right.”

John Murray: “the difference between truth and error is not a chasm but a razor’s edge.”

James Hussey (a "giant" only in the flesh, but I'm losing weight, so there): "Dude.  For real, though!" 

Jordyn's 14th Birthday 035

Our girl has turned fourteen (yesterday, precisely at 7:25 am...I think...). 

?!!

Fourteen years ago I was 18 years old, and voting for the first time.  I was also smoking, and living with my girlfriend, Tasha Buck.  Actually, that's not right--we were living together after Jordyn was born.  Fourteen years ago, while Tasha was pregnant with Jordyn, I contracted the chicken pox, and for a few weeks couldn't even see my wife girlfriend. Back then, Jordyn was the only child of the family...wait, what family?  That's right!  We weren't married yet.

Fast forward to today, where Tasha and I were dumbstruck at how much has changed.  The best change is that we know and are known by Christ.  We live with purpose in mind: to glorify and enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have been blessed with 5 more healthy children.  We have grown up and continue to grow up in Christ.  We have also hiked through gloomy valleys filled with potholes and snares set by The Enemy.  We have enjoyed mountain-top experiences of unbridled and simple joys, and have lost family members to the Curse and end that awaits all mankind.

In the past fourteen years, our Jordyn has seen the worst and not yet the best of her parents.  Despite our shortcomings, however, our lovely daughter has grown into an example of Christianity that neither her mother nor myself would have dreamt to become at that age.  (Mainly because we were dead in sin, as Paul puts it in Romans 5:8 and 6:23.)  Though far from perfect, when I look at Jordyn I can see not the effect of my great parenting (don't let me fool you: I'm not a great parent), nor do I see that she is some perfect child without flaw, but I see quite clearly the marvelous hand of God at work: Almighty over all.

Almighty over the litany of foolish choices I've made as her earthly father.

Almighty over the circumstances of being uprooted...twice...in so many years from all that's familiar.

Almighty over the fact that I am such a clumsy and inconsistent example of what "Christ-like" looks like.

God is truly almighty over all, and if He wasn't, I'd have given up trying to raise Jordyn as a Christian long ago.  Almost to prove this point, the Lord has been pleased to bless, and I can't type that word big enough to communicate the emphatic way I mean it:

God has BLESSED this family with Jordyn (and all her siblings, both present and yet to come), to remind us that He alone has overcome all our shortcomings and sinfulness.  Looking at Jordyn in particular has reminded me of the manifold wisdom and grace and mercy and power and love of God, especially in thinking how God has been pleased to reveal how much of a difference His grace and Spirit have made in our daughter when compared to who we were at this tender age. 

I would be embarassed to meet the 18-year-old James and Tasha, new and clueless parents to a beautiful baby girl.  I would be embarassed and quite possibly would tell Tasha to "Run far from me!"  to save herself from future difficulty (to put things mildly), but at the same time: it's marvelous!  Thank God that He didn't leave me and Tash where we were: dead in sin.

Thank God that when I look at Jordyn, my wonderful daughter who is more mature now than I, my daughter who is going to raise up future sons and daughters of God (Lord willing), I can honestly say that she isn't me nor Tasha at 14!  She isn't who I was.  She won't make the same choices.  She is a living testimony of the Spirit of God alive and at work in this world, and I am so blessed to be her Daddy.

As time gallops forward, and "now" becomes a cherished and scrap-booked memory long gone, I'll remember the hand of the One and Only True God and how He has surrounded me with living, walking blessings I get to call "my children."

I am humbled and honored to be the undeserving head of this house.  When the Scripture describes children as a "blessing from the Lord," this is no exaggeration: they communicate the love of the Father loud and clear (even when they're not all speaking at once!).

I love you, Jordyn!  You make me so incredibly proud to be called your "Daddy."  Happy Birthday, and thank you for reminding me each day how the Lord has blessed even me.