This is a guest post from my daughter Charis (aged 9). We would do well to follow her example in listing things that she is grateful to God for.  I am sure you don’t need me to tell you how pleased I was to read this, especially to see a few of the items she listed.  Here is her list, written without any help:

1. God
2. the bible
3. church
4. the resurrection
5. food
6. water
7. play/fun
8. family
9. friends
10. shelter
11. toys/games
12. sports
13. school/education
14. art
15. music
16. drama/acting

I want you to take a good long look at your husband or wife today. Right now. Go look at them. Do the same for any children you have. And think of your closest friends too. Then thank God for them. You don’t know how long you will have them. They could be gone in an instant.

I could have lost my beautiful daughter Charis today. If the chicken bone that stuck in her throat had done so just a bit more aggressively . . . or, if when it finally dislodged, it had gone fully into her windpipe instead of being swallowed, then, well, she might not have made it. It was a scare. It was made better by knowing that my God is with me. I do thank God for the medics and the ambulance crew who helped. I am just so glad that I get to rejoice today that my family is all safe. May God make me more appreciative of them each day. And may he help me to be a better father and husband before anything else I do.

God please forgive me for ever taking them, and your care of them, for granted.

My lovely wife and I were both sitting here on our laptops next to each other in the lounge while the children were quietly doing things upstairs. It was a truly idyllic scene as my darling was editing the latest chapter of my book that I’ve been working on in some spare time over Christmas. I hope I haven’t neglected the family too much this Christmas—we have had some fun. Anyway, I must confess that, perhaps unsurprisingly, the scene hasn’t always been this peaceful this holiday, but it was about to get even better. All of a sudden we heard a patter of feet and my second daughter, Charis, presented Andrée and me with the following messages, which is certainly the nicest thing I’ve read so far this year!

DAD

My Dad has brown hair, as brown as chocolate that shines like the stars above. He has light blue eyes, as blue as the sky above me. They shine like the shimmering ocean down below me. His teeth are as white as mints. I just wanted to let all of these readers know that I love my Dad and I’m sure that he loves me too!

MUM

My Mum has brown silky hair that shines like the stars up above. Her eyes are as brown as chocolate and they are as delicate as a diamond and they shine like the ocean below. Her smile makes me feel safe and cosy. Her teeth are as white as mints. I just wanted all of you readers to know that my mum is my hero!

Tamasin—”Why did you come all the way from America to look at all these dead people when there are plenty of living ones in our country as well?”

Henry—”That statue over there is supposed to be an angel! More like a demon, showing off its breasts like that. Disgusting!”

Tamasin and Henry of Darwin’s tomb—”What’s he doing in a church? Surely he’s not welcome here?!?”

Charis—My legs are all shaky (after climbing up then down St. Paul’s 400+ stairs).

UPDATE

Henry Warnock has started a new website. Follow the link to visit it.

Over the last few days Charis, my younger daughter, has been writing stories all by herself. Here are the first two she has ever written:

Baby Plays

Babies are a gift from God. Thank you for baby laughing, baby crawling, baby bouncing, baby rolling, baby playing peekaboo hide your eyes!

This first one was, in fact it turns out, copied from a book. The second one was made up by Charis.

The Princess and the King

They lived in a big castle, where there lived a dragon. The dragon took the princess away to a big tower wot had no doors.

Over at TeamPyro, Dan has a four part response to my set of questions on tongues and gifts which I bashed out quickly before I left. I have read all of Dan’s posts and every one of the comments. Sadly, it seems that there are few, if any, charismatics who read TeamPyro, or if they do, they seem too frit of Dan to respond!

I want to say right at the outset that I respect and admire Dan for taking the time to take me to task so comprehensively. I have never read a better theological discussion on “the other side.” It is my opinion that theology should be written in community, and to be honest, this kind of interaction helps me to understand how and why people whom I respect come to different conclusions than I do. Perhaps blogging may eventually lead to some kind of theological convergence on these and other controversial issues. I love the fact that in Dan I can interact with someone who is no straw man of my creation. Dan does, at times, extend what I said in my post further than I would have wanted to go myself before demolishing the morphed viewpoint, but even in so doing, it is helpful for me to understand how I am perceived by others.

I loved the broadly generous nature of his comments, and the discussion that ensued — for example, the way in which one of his commenters, Centurion, said, “Unfortunately, Adrian is the other side right now.” It seems to me that behind that comment is a whole bunch of “other stuff” that could be said, and which would go something like this . . . “Adrian is someone who, most of the time, we’re happy to agree with — if only he didn’t have those crazy charismatic ideas!” If I have “interpreted” this comment correctly, well then guys . . . the feeling is mutual!

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, there have been a few other responses; here are the ones I’ve found — by all means use the comment box on this post to let me know of other posts on blogs you know about — you can use the following code within a comment: <a href=”http://yoururl.com/”>your link text </a>

Other posts on the tongues debate:

• TrueGrit

• Sam Storms

• Dan Phillips’ own blog, Biblical Christianity

• Wilderness Voice

• English Muffin (a fair few comments also here)

• Intellectuelle

• Centurion (over at TeamPyro)

• Lig Duncan (perhaps wisely) steers clear of the tongues issue, but has a definition of being filled with the Spirit with which I fully agree.

• Mathew Sims promises to join the fun too. (Incidentally, he is just TOO far ahead in his blogging through the T4G statement series — I will have to get back to that soon myself!)

• Charis doesn’t talk about the tongues issue, but has a great post on harsh words and gentle words which we would all do well to continue to remember as well . . . and as we have done so far in this debate!

I will, of course, have to find the time to answer Dan’s great posts. (As I have said before, I don’t have to agree with the conclusions of a post for me to think it’s a great one!). I can’t promise when I will get to them, however, as it is my intention (at least for the present) for this to be a relatively light week of blogging — sort of like easing my way back into “normal life” a bit slowly! I am sure that some of you will suspect that I will find the bait of these posts irresistible . . . but I plan to try!

Perhaps you, my readers, can help me resist the temptation — as of yet, the charismatic view does not seem to have been well represented in the discussions in Dan’s comment section or elsewhere in the blogosphere. I fear that many charismatics may have deserted TeamPyro whilst cessationists may have deserted this blog! So, my charismatic friends, now is your chance to show why I do not need to respond to Dan just yet! When I do get round to it, what should I say? How should I reply?

For that matter, any cessationist readers I have left are welcome to discuss any aspect of this matter here where I have none of the foibles of Dan about off-topic comments. Comment away — just keep it civil!