by MW Cook

Most people shouldn’t comment on how fat their wife is getting, but…

Check it out! That little lump in my wife’s belly is Matt’s (and Ruth’s) first kid! Those of you know my wife know how weird it is to see so much of her from the side like this. Her nickname at school was ‘chubby’ because, well, she’s not chubby. How exciting!

It gets more and more exciting as the days go by. It’s hard to believe that I made something that’s now growing in Ruth’s belly. God is so creative, eh?

I’ve been reading through Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. Those who suffer for righteousness’ sake seem to be given a glimpse in to heaven that the rest of us seem to miss. I suppose this is why/because God has ordained suffering to be one of the most powerful tools of sanctification. Some highlights thus far:


Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

[true grace] is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man his only true life.

Praise God for those who have gone on before us.