Author: Sarah Joy Albrecht

Colombian roast
Beep! A thunderstorm begins
Steamy happiness

HT to Douglas Wilson:

Present Your Bodies as Spiritual Worship (Exhortation)

Over the years we have emphasized the importance of ritual. Rituals are significant in the Bible, and they ought to be significant to us. We have also emphasized the importance of worshipping God with our bodies and not just with our minds. We have sought to resist the temptation that many Reformed Christians deal with, which is the idea that God gave us bodies as carrying cases to get our brains to church.

And of course, it would be better to have your mind at church and your body elsewhere, than to have your body at church and your mind elsewhere. But fortunately, we don’t have to choose, and under ordinary circumstances, we must not choose. And so here is a brief reminder of the doctrinal reasons for some of the very physical things we do in our worship of God.

We sing throughout the service, which should be strenuous, we kneel in confession, we eat bread and drink wine, and we raise our hands in the Gloria Patri. We worship God physically for three reasons.

First, we believe that Scripture requires this kind of thing of us. Continue reading “Wake Up! A New Perspective on Sleeping During Church”

I’ve been going back and reading some of my favorite posts. Some of them have been especially convicting and encouraging to read, remaining true even in hindsight.

Here are three posts to whet your appetite for reading through archives. Enjoy!

God is Awake (Also published online at Nolan Chart)

The Great Physician’s Nurse

Nipping Biting

Some huge changes are in the works here at the Albrecht house – job/move and health related.

However, in my heart, I haven’t quite come to terms with them yet.

Even though I have a lot to write, I’m reluctant to “make them real” by posting them to my blog. Perhaps once these changes have corresponding calendar dates, I’ll be ready to write about them publicly.

One thing to note – I did turn in my Academic Package to become a Bradley Method instructor today. I will find out in about six weeks if it passed inspection :)

Stay tuned, and please pray.

Much love,
SJA

My friend Sally is letting me borrow The Red Tent.

Despite all my interest in childbirth, I have never read it!

Now, I’m about halfway through the book.

Here’s a beautifully-written description of the burial of an infant who died after being a prematurely born:

“I held my sister, who was never given a name, and who never opened her eyes, and who died in my arms.

I was not afraid to hold that small death. Her face was peaceful, her hands perfectly clean. It seemed she would wake at any moment. The tears from my eyes fell upon her alabaster cheek, and it appeared that she mourned the passing of her own life. My mother came to take my sister from me, but seeing my sorrow, permitted me to carry her to burial. She was shrouded in a scrap of fine cloth and laid beneath the strongest, oldest tree within sight of my mother’s tent. No offerings were made, but as the bundle was covered with earth the sighs that poured from my mothers’ mouths were as eloquent as any psalm.”

Photo Credit: Joiseyshowaa via Flickr

I love how, within a few short moments, it seems like he was never gone.