As promised, pics of the birthday boy! Note: these are not actual pics from his birthday, as we are not celebrating until Saturday. But these are all recent…

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been one year today since I made the following post:

Atticus James Kubecki was born January 31, 2007, at 4:17 PM EST. He weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz. at birth, and measured 20 inches. Mom and baby (and Dad, too!) are doing fine. Please pray for the continued health of the baby and Mom, as well as for his big sister McKaylyn, who spent the day in bed sick. (And praise God for friends like Chad and Jenny who are taking care of Mc during the delivery and hospital stay!)

We are all so very thankful to the Lord that He has blessed our family for the past year. We love you so much, Atticus, and we can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

(Note 1: I’ll post a recent picture later this evening, but I don’t have it with me.)

(Note 2: Yes, McKaylyn got better. She came and saw us at the hospital later that evening.)

Pulpit Magazine has a new post (from an old article) on pastors being shepherds. And while the article is written primarily toward pastors, there are also lessons here for all men, who are called to shepherd their wives and children.

Some points from the article:

• Shepherds are Rescuers: “A pastor does that by pointing the lost toward Jesus, the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.”
• Shepherds are Feeders: “The pastor’s goal is not to please the sheep, but to feed them—not to tickle their ears, but to nourish their souls. He is not to offer merely light snacks of spiritual milk, but the substantial meat of biblical truth.”
• Shepherds are Leaders: “An effective pastor does not herd his sheep from the rear but leads them from the front. They see him and imitate his actions.”
• Shepherds are Protectors: “Christians need similar protection from error and those who spread it. Pastors guard their spiritual sheep from going astray and defend them against the savage wolves that would ravage them”
• Shepherds are Comforters: “A faithful pastor adjusts his counsel to fit the need of the person to whom he ministers.”

Men, how are you shepherding your wife? Your children?

Shepherding the flock of God is an enormous task, but to faithful pastors it brings the rich reward of the unfading crown of glory, which will be awarded by the Chief Shepherd Himself at His appearing (1 Peter 5:4).

Dr. Doug Bookman has just completed an excellent series on his new blog, The Rabbit Trail, on “Ten Important Insights Basic to the Proper Understanding of the Life of Christ.” As Dr. Bookman puts it,

The child of God is much advantaged to come to grips with the life lived by his Savior.  I would suggest that the insights to be listed here are essential to a proper understanding of that most wonderful of all lives, and thus that the believer is well advised to consciously and deliberately include these realities in his conception of that life.

You can read the entire series here.

The US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalizes abortion in the United States, is 35 years old today.

I myself am about 35 1/2 years old. Which means that had I been conceived about 7 months later than I was, my mother could have marched off to the doctor today and legally ended her 9-month pregnancy.

There’s an excellent article from Baptist Press which quizzes you on some of the essentials of Roe v. Wade – what it allowed and what it did not. Check it out – you might be surprised.

Between Two Worlds, Justin Taylor’s blog, has collected a couple of resources for this date which far exceed any that I could put together:

• Roe v. Wade, 35 Years Later: An Interview with Robert P. George – “Robert P. George is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and is the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton. His most recent book, coauthored with Christopher Tollefsen, is entitled Embryo: A Defense of Human Life”
• This is Abortion – WARNING: This is a video which includes very graphic images of aborted fetuses.

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch, the day before the 2008 Iowa Caucus: “I’ll confess now that I will be silently praying to God that Hillary wins tomorrow and thereafter, even though I know it is foolish to think the Almighty – in whom I believe – intervenes in elections. Ridiculous, but who knows?” (Emphasis added)

The Apostle Paul, Romans 13:1: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (ESV. Again, emphasis added.)

As my friend Matt pointed out, “I love that the guy feels comfortable enough to say ‘I pray’ and not sound crazy… but not comfortable enough to say ‘I believe in prayer.’ Guess what… Doing something you don’t believe works sounds crazier than believing in it.”

This statistic made Joe Carter feel old:

…based on U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 25 percent of all Americans alive at this moment have never known a world without the Internet and Internet access. That represents 75 million Americans who consider going online as natural as turning on the TV or cooking something in the microwave oven.

I suppose, then, it makes me feel doubly old, because of the comparison they use… I can remember a time when my family, growing up, did not have a microwave. In fact, I remember that at that time, “TV dinners” were not something you microwaved, you cooked them in the oven. And you couldn’t have cooked them in the microwave even if you’d wanted to – the packaging was all made of aluminum foil… (And it tasted like it, too!)

I read this news story and couldn’t help but think of 2 Corinthians 7:10, especially when I read the bolded part:

A woman apologized Friday for a “bad decision” in helping her 6-year-old daughter win tickets to a Hannah Montana concert with an essay that falsely claimed the girl’s father died in Iraq.

A false essay won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a sold-out Hannah Montana concert.

Priscilla Ceballos said she hadn’t intended to mislead the contest sponsor but got caught up in helping her daughter “realize her dream of seeing Hannah Montana.”

“Instead I brought so much negative attention to my family,” Ceballos said, reading a statement on NBC’s “Today” show. “Please accept my heartfelt apology and please do not punish my child for my mistake.“

It is truly heartbreaking that someone in this situation considers the worst part of their sin to be not the sin itself – lying, and causing her daughter to lie. Rather, she considers the worst part her sin to be one of the just consequences – negative attention. Isn’t that simply replacing a sin of lying, with one of pride?

It is also very telling that she does not consider her child, who wrote and submitted the essay, to have also made a mistake.

Proverbs 22:6

6 Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it. (ESV)

It’s the morning after the Iowa caucuses, the first “official” step toward choosing the next leader of the free world.

The #3 most popular news story on CNN this morning, according to their “Most Popular” sidebar, is a story on the caucus titled Obama, Huckabee win in Iowa. When did we stop capitalizing titles? But I digress…

The #2 most popular story on the same site? An analysis of the election titled Huckabee up, Clinton down.

And the #1 most popular story on CNN the morning after the Iowa caucuses? The story that the most people are reading? Britney Spears taken to hospital.

It’s all about priorities.