Back to Civilization...er, sort of.

Friday afternoon we returned from our trip to West Virginia. Most of this weekend was spent resting and cleaning up from what turned out to be a very exhausting and rewarding week. Most of my family is experiencing varying degree's of sickness ranging from a severe croup like cough in the 17 month old to a serious stomach bug which is plaguing my wife at the moment. The condition of my wife is of the most concern and I would like to request that prayer be made on her behalf. She has lost two children in the past, both precipitated by a similar stomach attack. Before, we were barely in the first trimester and now we are at the end of the pregnancy with only 10 weeks to go and in expectation of our second daughter. The Lord is good and has been faithful to us in all our experiences, and we are confident that He will continue to be so no matter what the outcome of our daily struggles are. We are very blessed in that we have been given a wonderful opportunity to know Him and raise up a quiver of arrows for His glory. As we overcome this series of bugs, I will be posting updates on the adventures that we faced in Wild Wonderful West Virginia, along with the continued reflections of my study on separation and reformation.

It has been a solemn return for us as we have found so much changed in the blogosphere while we were gone. With the cessation of Herrick Kimball's blog and the nasty turn of discussion concerning how best to proceed with a more family oriented economic system, (a.k.a. christian agrarianism in some circles), along with several changes in direction by many of our blogging friends, we are considering how best to proceed through a highly charged personal atmosphere in a charitable and Christ-like manner. It seems that there is a lot of name calling and anger out there and we do not want to be a part of such an atmosphere. Even so, we still have a desire to engage the discussion of how a christian can best proceed in their own particular place and station, to glorify God in the midst of an apostate era. I hope that we are able to add to the discussion out there and help those who are interested in learning more about God and more about why the current system of man is so antithetical to the aid of christian growth and happiness. As a hint, some of it is the economic system that we are in, and some of it is the 'paradigm' that modernism has created around us, and MOST of it is men and women who have trodden under foot the precious blood of the covenant, wherewith we were made holy and acceptable before God. For those of you who are now ardent enemies of 'agrarianism', I would ask that you stay tuned and not join those who are breaking fellowship with all of 'us' that might use the word to help define concepts. We are moving toward a unified theory of economics that will encompass some of what the more stringent agrarian writers advocate. And, along the way we will certainly learn and adapt to a more biblical pattern of economic theory. More importantly, we will be learning how we each can work to restore a christian vision for our own individual communities, whether they be separate, off-grid cloisters, or the attempted mass excursion of Christians to certain state's to 'reclaim' a certain belief in what Christian government should be. They are all similar attempts of fallen man trying to best work out the calling that we see in our own lives. We are brethren and should lift each other in prayer and love before the throne of our Lord daily. Most of this should be taking place internally and deliberately as acts of seeking to cast off the all 3 enemies that are listed in the bible...not just 1. The world, The Flesh, and the Devil, are our common enemies. I pray that we may find a way to move toward the desire of Christ, as recorded in John 17..."that they may be one, even as we are one..".