http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZdoSG0IdNE

The perfect Calvinists country song ...  Also, some great tips for winning your Calvinist's wife's heart.

Favorite line, "If she wasn't a baptist preachers daughter, I think she'd be Presbyterian."  "She likes Spurgeon more than she likes me."  "That's okay, I didn't choose her, she chose me."

"Experience has taught me that it is wrong and cruel to suspend judgment, that nonjudgmentalism is at best indifference to the suffering of others, at worst a disguised form of sadism.  How can one respect people as members of the human race unless one holds them to a standard of conduct and truthfulness?  How can people learn from experience unless they are told that they can and should change?  […]

In any case, nonjudgmentalism is not really nonjudgmental.  It is the judgment that, in the words of a bitter Argentinean tango, “todo es igual, nada es major”: everything is the same, nothing is better.  This is as barbaric and untruthful a doctrine as has yet emerged form the fertile mind of man.”

- Theodore Dalrymple, Life at the Bottom, page 194

Good news, great for Christians, and fantastic for the freedom of religion in Iraq.  Continue to pray for Iraq.

Article: For first time, Christmas official holiday in Iraq

The name of our newborn son is Jonathan Daniel Whitenack.  Names are part of any child's heritage.  What heritage do we seek to pass on to our new son?

First of all - Jonathan and Daniel are two of the two most courageous men who have ever lived.  Both lived with a conviction that the Lord their God was a powerful defender and someone they could trust with their lives.  Both men lived at extraordinary risk of their own lives to do what was right.  Conviction and courage describe both men and we want to see the Lord work this in His life giving great conviction and bravery.

We pray that as a Jonathan, he will speak for the glory and praise of God, defending the faith and drawing people into a relationship with Christ.

His life verse is Zechariah 4:6 - "'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts."  It is our prayer that Jonathan would know that by the Spirit of God that he can do all things.  Though his strength may fail him, as will the power of other people, we pray that he will always know that he can do all things by the Spirit of God.

We also liked the name Jonathan because of the way the Lord has used men named Jon and Jonathan in Sean's life.  Jon is the man who helped me learn what it meant to be a Christian and inspired me in the calling to the pastoral ministry.  I work with Jonathan Allison who is an example of love and commitment to Jesus Christ, and a good friend.  We are excited about Jonathan Powell and his call to do missions work in the Ukraine.  Indeed God has used these men significantly.  Plus, I need to mention that Jonathan Rumbaugh made us promise that if he was born on Jonathan's birthday (which is December 23), we would name him Jonathan!

We named him Daniel in honor of Julie's late brother.  The Lord brought him home on February 20, 2003 when Liam was just one year old.  We still miss him, and pray that Jonathan would have the same child-like trust in Christ.

I have previously described the naming process for my other three kids:
Number 1 - Liam
Number 2 - Grace
Number 3 - Madeleine