deTheos

‘Tis not that I did choose Thee

July 9th, 2008 Jeff

Jesus Storybook Bible

" ‘Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Three,
Hadst Thou not chosen me …

My heart owns none before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing, if I love Thee,
Thou must have loved me first."
– Josiah Conder, 1836

Found in the front matter of the Jesus Storybook Bible we bought Dutch. Wow, that’s the type of Christ-exalting humility and truth I hope our young son to grasp. We hope to swim with him in the deep end of God’s perfections and grace (even from this young age).

"We love becaus e he first loved us ." [ 1 John 4:19 ]

Posted in Blog, Books, Family, God-centered, Grace, Theology | No Comments »

55 reasons why I love my Sauce - on our 5th

June 28th, 2008 Jeff

Celebrating 5 glorious years of marriage

5 glorious years with my Sauce

Five years ago today Kari Zyp and I exchanged vows, and then I got to kiss the love of my life for the very first time. What an amazing time it has been, my Sauce. We’ve had our adventures: moving 7 times, living in two states, both following the call to seminary as students, raising Dutch, continuing to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and being able to know, love and enjoy Him oh so much more because of one another.

Sauce, I love you! I told you back then that I want to plunge the depths of who you are, and that passion has not and will not fade. You are cherished and loved!

Because 5 is not enough to convey how much my Sauce is worth (well, nor is 55!) …

  1. She loves Jesus
  2. She loves me
  3. She was created to be a wonderful Mommy and is more than our boy Dutch (and baby #2 on the way) could ask for
  4. She thinks
  5. When someone asks if I can share my wisdom with them, I respond, "No, I’m not sharing my wife."
  6. She is my best wisdom
  7. She searches and swims in the deep things of God
  8. She realizes that our pursuit of joy and God’s passion for His glory are not at odds — He is our Joy!
  9. Her identity is not wrapped up in what she does
  10. She is "in Christ" and walking in the Spirit in all of life
  11. She loathes the separation of the Sacred and the Secular
  12. She’s not afraid to say "No" to many good things
  13. Her words drip with wisdom and grace
  14. She waited for me, and gave me a second chance, even when I broke her heart 6.5 years ago
  15. She does something once, right, and then moves on
  16. She enjoys reading as the greatest form of entertainment
  17. She doesn’t waste words
  18. She is a woman of exceptional character
  19. She is so consistent and faithful that I often say I feel rebuked yet encouraged trying to catch up
  20. She has many young women "caught up in her wake"
  21. She loves to solve issues quickly with grace-filled resolutions
  22. She is God-centered in all her ways
  23. She is a far better djembe player than she will admit
  24. She is graceful and dancing, and patient with her clumsy husband
  25. She perseveres always
  26. She loves when I lead spiritually (yet is so strong in Christ that it seems like she doesn’t require my initiative)
  27. She’s willing to think and feel with God in the fullness of her being, all the appropriate emotions (as found in the Psalms)
  28. She’s quick to forgive
  29. She’s coached me through a few somewhat humiliating yet totally humorous public situations
  30. She likes it when I call her good nicknames and returns the favor (my Sauce!)
  31. She is a devoted friend
  32. She recycles
  33. She’s is an ever-grateful daughter to her parents
  34. She’s willing to do crazy thinks like live with them for over a year (this past year)
  35. She puts up with me, and the quirks I’ve managed to pass down to the Dutcher
  36. A better wife none could ever find
  37. She makes each day of marriage better than the previous
  38. She still has the joy and perspective of a newly marred bride, mingled with the wisdom of a mature woman beyond her years
  39. People of all ages listen to her (and ought to)
  40. She is a giver not a taker
  41. She makes me want to eat vegetables
  42. She is the greatest chef I’ve ever met (sorry Mom, you set the bar high!)
  43. She can turn nothing into something absolutely delicious
  44. She holds her finger below her nose in just a certain way while deep in thought
  45. She loves to take walks together
  46. She makes me happy
  47. More than that, she makes me holy
  48. She journeyed with me and lived in the windowless cave
  49. She never stops working and serving
  50. All of her hobbies are completely constructive and others-directed
  51. She is not a consumer
  52. She somehow manages every penny we have and stretches them every month
  53. She’s always up to mischief
  54. She lets me interrupt her
  55. Being with her is like being all by myself, only better :-)

(Had to cut off quite a few just to keep the list short.)

Happy anniversary my Saucy Sauce!

Posted in Blog, Family, Holidays, Jeff, Joy, Kari, Love | No Comments »

Here’s looking at you, Kid

May 29th, 2008 Jeff

Dutch doesn’t feel good today. But he is real sweet. Here’s a pic of him last weekend enjoying the old Jeep.

Dutch in the Jeep

Posted in Blog, Dutch, Family, Pics | No Comments »

Failing seminary for the glory of God?

May 12th, 2008 Jeff

No worries — Kari and I are not failing seminary :-)

Instead, the title refers to a good reminder posted a while back at Goingtoseminary.com: "Failing Seminary for the Glory of God ."

I left a comment about the article, and recently Timothy Paul Jones, Assistant Professor of Leadership and Church Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, commented:

I may be wrong, but I do believe that some seminary professors are beginning to glimpse the truth in what you’re saying here—especially with reference to refusing to neglect your family. As a seminary prof, my students probably hear this statement in every class I teach: “What you do for God beyond your home will typically never be greater than what you’re practicing with God within your home. If this class keeps you from being the spiritual leader in your home that you need to be, drop the class and finish later. This seminary has been here 150 years and will probably be here another century or two—but your family, at the stage of life they’re at right now, will not be here forever. Do what they need you to do before you do what I ask you to do.”

Good words.

—

Here’s the list of seven given in the full article :

  1. Transformation, not information
  2. Give the wrong answer
  3. Read the important stuff (the Bible)
  4. Stop listening
  5. Put your family first
  6. Ignore your GPA
  7. Love the Church

And a concluding word from the author, "Just a Guy":

Note: I love seminary and I love my seminary. However, I am willing to do poorly in my classes in order that I might excel in the things listed above. These two things are not mutually exclusive, but I’d argue that focusing on the above will very likely result in lower grades (maybe not failing, but would you be willing to fail in order to do the above?)

What do you think?

Posted in Blog, Family, Multnomah Seminary | No Comments »

Happy Mother’s Day, Kari

May 11th, 2008 Jeff

My Love,

You are the best mother ever and the joy of our home. Dutch can take a nap in peace right now because of your untiring labor of love. God’s grace is evident in every facet of your character and personality. Thank you for pouring out your life for us.

Happy Mother’s Day!

"But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us." [1 Thess. 2:7-8]

Mother + son

Posted in Blog, Family, Holidays, Kari | 2 Comments »

Dilly-dallying on a morning hike

May 10th, 2008 Jeff

Hiking Yesterday we three ventured out for our first ‘08 hike in the woods. The single track trails were closed due to winter erosion but the old logging roads provided a good and wide path for us to let Dutch loose on the trails. We set out to go about 4 miles round trip, but that was cut short by an impatient little 16-month-old. In Kari’s words :

We did do our hike, although it is now confirmed that Dutch does NOT like hiking. That is, he loves hiking, as long as he’s the one hiking. He doesn’t like being stuffed into a backpack. So, our hike was significantly truncated because about 1/2 through we had to let him hike on his own. That meant going as fast as his little 16-month-old legs could carry him. It went something like this: step step step (stop to pick up a stick and wave it around) step step step (stop to pick up a bug, mom grabs it before it goes in the mouth) step step step-TRIP, BOOM, WAHHHHHHH!!!!! (tears, hugs, scraped hands…sniffs, whining to be put down) step step step (veers over toward cliff, daddy scoops him up and plops him in middle of trail). Anyway, you get the picture. But it was fun nonetheless. We just need to plan to hike one mile in three hours.

Here’s a little video of the Dutcher hiking away…

And hiking with Mommy…

Posted in Adventures, Blog, Ekklesia, Exercise, Family, Pics, Video | No Comments »

Blessed family pictures

April 20th, 2008 Jeff

Here are some pics from this weekend

Dutch the hiding boy
Hide-and-seek

We woke up to Winter

Snow!

Came home and it was beautiful Spring again

Glorious sky

Dutch the preacherman; he likes the ESV

Preach the Word!

Mommy + Dutch playing …

Playing outside

Mother and son reading … (kept still for 45 minutes!)

Story time

Posted in Adventures, Blog, Dutch, Family, Pics | No Comments »

Missing my beloved wife + son

April 1st, 2008 Jeff

The house is quiet tonight. Just returned from teaching our Foundations class. Kari and Dutch are not here with me, as they hopped on a plane this morning bound of Salt Lake City to visit her brother and his family.

Dutch on the plane Kari took this picture of Dutch with her phone…

Kari started her one-year no-new-clothes fast today (read about her LiveDifferent challenge #1).

Truly, I married up (!), and miss Kari already. As much fun as Dutch is and as much as I love Him, I could not live without my Karina.

I think it was J.C. Ryle who wrote: “The great thing I always desired to find was a woman who was a Christian, who was a real lady, and who was not a fool. Whether I was successful or not, others must judge the better than I can, but I call God to witness these were the three points I always kept steadily in view.”

Before dropping her off at PDX I asked her to send me lots o’ pics, so I could at least "see" how they were. A whole bunch were waiting in my inbox tonight when I arrived home. Uncle Kris taught Dutch how to throw rocks, our precious boy giving cousin Jennika a kiss on the cheek, then giving her a little frightening, and then one of his beautiful blue eyes.

Dutch + Uncle Kris Dutch + Jennika
Help! Our blue-eyed boy

May God be the glory for all His mercy in our lives and the abundant ways He lavishes us with His love, in practical evidences of His grace.

Posted in Adventures, Blog, Dutch, Family, Pics | 2 Comments »

A word from Kari, beloved wifey and mommy

March 31st, 2008 Kari

Borrowed from Kari’s blog…

——————————–
Nothing deep here … I just wanted to reflect on the joy of mommyhood.  Yesterday Dutch got a new toy–a green John Deere truck from my dear friend Crystal.  Dutch flipped!  He loved it. Usually snack time is the most exciting part of the day and when I pull out the special Dutch muffin and start breaking off pieces and putting them on his high chair tray, he just about goes crazy.  He loves muffins. But yesterday, he totally ignored the muffin as soon as he saw the tractor!  Then later, the boy who hardly ever plays on his own, took his tractor over to the stairs and played for 30 minutes, all by himself, making the engine sounds and loading and unloading special imaginary bucket-fulls of dirt on the stairs.

Dutch’s other favorite thing right now is to sneak into our bedroom and go through Jeff’s nighstand drawer.  He usually goes for the “No More Fungus” bottle (yeah, gross) and hides things in our bed.  So last night, about 2am, I woke up and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t comfortable, the realized something hard was under my back.  I reached back and there was a deck of playing cards … from our special little boy.  Too tired to get up, I tossed them down to my feet and fell asleep smiling.  What a little boy.

Today at church, I was the proudest mommy ever because Dutch ran to Pastor Dale and jumped into his arms.  Then I said, “Dutch can you give Pastor Dale a kiss?”  And he leaned up and planted a huge kiss right on our pastor’s cheek.  Yeah, it was pretty sweet.  Of course he might be a terror at home for me, but at least he’s sweet at church. :-)

That’s all. Just savoring mommyhood. 

Posted in Adventures, Blog, Dutch, Family | No Comments »

Transitioning One’s Soul to Finish the Day Well

March 26th, 2008 Jeff

A short article/reflection of mine has been posted at Going to Seminary:

“Transitioning One’s Soul to Finish the Day Well”

Posted in Articles, Blog, Faithfulness, Family, Joy, Stories, deTheos moments, godly trajectory, humility | No Comments »

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