Week 34

Here are mom and Baby Stock posing in front of our Christmas-card-collaged door. As she grows you can see she is blocking out a significant part of the cards! Baby Stock is weighing in at around 5 pounds now and measuring head to toe 19 inches!

She is still 6 weeks away from her due date but mom's body is apparently doing several labor test runs. Over Christmas Mandy experienced a few minutes of "false labor", which is a lovely combination of painful contractions and the baby seemingly trying to escape into mom's rib cage. No worries, say the pregnancy books and doctors...this is normal. Of course, I certainly wonder what anyone would consider abnormal for pregnancy. It seems this is a time of anything goes...swelling, skin changes, discomfort, more energy, less energy, sleeplessness, cravings, aversions, etc. Basically, I think the medical community concedes that anything weird that can happen to a woman's body may (or may not) happen during these 40 weeks.

Tomorrow we have our last every-other-week check-up and then we are in the home stretch of seeing the doctor each week! I know this doesn't sound fun to most people, but I suppose it seems like a milestone of sorts for me. Plus, you really can't have too many people telling you "yes, Mrs. Stock, that's completely normal". :)

InnerMission Girls' Night

By:Mandy

I had the joy a few weekends ago to attend our first STUDENT-LED gathering for the gals in our youth group. Two high-school senior girls, Kelsie and Magee, planned a great sleep-over encouraging the younger women to think about their identity in Christ. It's no secret most women young and old struggle with the conflicting pressures of the world to be promiscuous, aggressive, and to look like the latest airbrushed model on the cover of a magazine.

In the midst of facials and several fun games, we discussed what it means to be beautiful to God. We looked at the woman described in Proverbs 31. Her beauty stems from her fear of the Lord. We also encouraged these young women (and I was encouraged as well!) to remember that Jesus covers ALL our inadequacies and insecurities. We can strive to be like the perfect godly woman described in Scripture, but we will always fall short. Jesus picks us up when we fall and whispers to us, "you are beautiful...you are my beloved...I bought you with a price."

We also must work toward what God has outlined in Scripture in God's strength. When our identity and destiny are secure in Christ (aka: we are justified by faith alone and not by works) we are free to let that beauty shine before the world.

I pray these young women do just that. I pray they would know that if they are in Christ, they are secure and beautiful. I pray also that just like Kelsie and Magee they would take the command in Titus 2 seriously that calls older women (even HS seniors) to teach and minister to younger women...and do so in the freedom they have in Jesus Christ!

Seven Words...

for seven weeks left until my daughter enters into this world. These seven words are seven feelings that I have bouncing around my heart and mind daily:

Week 32

Just 8 more weeks! With the Christmas season upon us...and consequently the "baby shower season" for us, it seems like Baby Stock will be here before we realize it.

She is continuing to grow healthily and moves around her mom's belly freely, sometimes with a foot or two in the rib cage! Unlike her parents, this little girl seems most active at night now...perhaps because we eat dinner so late with Brian's work schedule. Hopefully she will adapt into our "morning person" household within the first few months of life...or maybe she'll just be different and love the nightlife like most of our extended family!

This weekend we have our debut baby shower at Mandy's mom's house in Sumter, SC. Baby and Mom are especially looking forward to a few hours at the spa which "Nana" slotted out for us before the shower. A prenatal massage sounds heavenly anytime!

Reading List for 2009

From elementary school through college, I could count the number of books I've read on one hand (maybe two). Then, God opened my eyes to the Reformed faith with the perspective that "All truth is God's truth" and "Everything was created by Him and for Him," so go and discover God's creation. This led me to seminary where I basically had to learn to read and write. Now at the end of my seminary career, my reading and writing have improved (though I have a long way to go). I had a goal to read 30 books this year. Well, by grace (and a little skimming), I've read 45.

Theology

A Primer on Postmodernism (Grenz , Stanley J.)

Christianity and the Postmodern Turn (ed. Penner, Myron)

The Israel of God in Prophecy (LaRondelle, H. K.)

Biblical Studies

Biblical Words and Their Meaning (Silva, Moises)

Four Views on the Book of Revelation (Pate, C. M.)

*Jesus and the Old Testament (France, R. T.)

Let’s Study Hebrews (Jones, H.)

*More Than Conquerors (Hendriksen, W.)

Seeing the Psalms: The Theology of Metaphor (Brown, William)

The Art of Biblical Narrative (Alter, Robert)

The Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts? (ed. Beale, G. K.)

Church Ministry

*A Better Way (Horton, Michael)

Advanced Strategic Planning: A New Model for Church and Ministry Leaders (Malphurs, Aubrey)

*Brothers, We Are Not Professionals (Piper, John)

Foundations of Christian education: Addresses to Christian teachers by Louis Berkhof and Cornelius Van Til. (ed. Johnston, Dennis)

Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures (Johnson, Dennis)

In the Splendor of Holiness: Rediscovering the Beauty of Reformed Worship for the 21st Century (Payne, Jon D.)

*Preaching Christ in All of Scripture (Clowney, Edmund P.)

Preaching & Preachers (Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn)

Spiritual Leadership (Sanders, J. Oswald)

Shepherding God’s Flock (Adams, Jay)

The Making of a Leader (Clinton, J. Robert)

The Reading And Preaching Of The Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Volume 4: The Age of the Reformation (Old, Hughes Oliphant)

*The Reformed Pastor (Baxter, Richard)

The Work of the Pastor (Still, William)

Who Runs the Church: Four Views on Church Polity (ed. Cowan, Steven)

Why Johnny Can’t Preach (Gordon, T. David)

Christian Life

*A Quest for Godliness (Packer, J. I.)

Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification (ed. Alexander, Donald)

Eschol: A Cluster of the Fruit of Canaan (Owen, John)

*How People Change (Tim Lane and Paul David Tripp)

How do I Change? (C. J. Mahaney)

John Owen on the Christian Life (Ferguson, Sinclair B.)

*John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Aitken, Jonathan)

*Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers: The Necessity, Nature, and Means of It (Owen, John)

*The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith (Keller, Tim)

Transforming Grace (Jerry Bridges)

The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, with an Introduction by J. I. Packer (Owen, John)

The Duty of Pastors and People Distinguished (Owen, John)

The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification: Growing in Holiness by Living in Union with Christ (Marshall, Walter)

*The Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan, John)

*When Sinners Say "I Do": Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage (Harvey, Dave)

Worldly Saints (Ryken, Leland)

Missions

*A History of Christian Missions (Neill, Stephen)

The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith (Walls, Andrew F.)

(* recommended)

Giving Thanks Together

Fourteen adults and one toddler...in our little townhome!

At first I (Mandy) didn't think this feat possible for a sit-down pre-Thanksgiving dinner we hosted for our Bible studies. Somehow, with a little maneuvering and a lot of "excuse me"s it worked. These brothers and sisters in Christ pictured here really made our house feel like a home to start off the holiday season a few weeks ago.

We are grateful for the influence, encouragement and accountability they all have provided us this past year. We look forward to growing together as a church family for 2010.

(Pictured from left to right: Jeff, Jennifer, Amy, Ben, Erika, Michael, David, Rachel, Brian, Mandy, Amanda, Dana, John, Amy, and Stacy)

Prayer for Ben in the War Zone

We just got news from our brother-in-law, Ben. He is stationed with the US Navy in Spain until March working with the construction battalion. Even though this area of the world is not a literal war zone (like Iraq or Afghanistan) Ben is facing a "war zone" of his own. He is going through some very difficult circumstances basically alone and away from family. We ask our friends to pray for Ben and his wife, Becky (Mandy's sister). Pray he would be encouraged, that he would know that he is loved and not alone. We truly appreciate his service to our country, his love for our sister, and his heart for justice.

Week 30

Just 10 more weeks until we meet our little Baby Stock. According to our pregnancy books, she is about 3 pounds right now and if she stretched all the way out (and Mandy is praying she doesn't for the sake of her rib cage) she would measure 17 inches in length! Her movements now can be SEEN if you watch Mandy's abdominal area closely. She is either getting restless or just enjoying a little swim. Either way it's pretty phenomenal to watch and feel our little girl move around.
We have also decorated our house for Christmas (notice our little Christmas shrub in the picture here). We certainly look forward to next year, celebrating Christ's birth with our little 10 month old girl. This year we rejoice in this wonderful gift of a little life given to us and the greatest gift of all: God's son, Jesus Christ who is God but made Himself nothing in order to save His people from our sins.