A published author

I'm excited to announce that John has just had an article published by Tyndale Bulletin! It's called 'May the Lord Make the Woman like Rachel': Comparing Michal and Rachel. Tyndale Bulletin happens to be one of Galilee's favourite reads--at least, she's always taking our old copies from the shelf! Once the new issue arrives, I can tell her "your daddy wrote this".

Here's the abstract:
"The portrayal of Michal in the book of Samuel is similar to that of Rachel in the book of Genesis. Both have an older sister who is their rival for the affections of their husband. Both have an erratic father who pursues their husband. Both possess household idols called teraphim, which feature in the story of their deceiving their father. Both have at least a period of barrenness. Yet there are also differences between the two women, which can be explained in terms of the portrayal of Michal as an even more tragic figure than Rachel. Careful consideration of the points of similarity and difference yields the conclusion that the allusions to the Rachel story in the book of Samuel are intentional."

The whole article can be read here.

Four weeks ago...

With thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Kara and John
are thrilled to announce the birth of
a baby daughter:
Galilee Lavender Dekker
Born on Saturday, 1st October at 5:28am (AEST)

Where my tastes lie at the moment

Or, what happens when a newly expectant mother goes to the library.

Some brief thoughts on the two books that stand out.

Better Birth was a helpful, balanced discussion of the varying philosophies of birth. The best chapter was filled with birth stories from mothers reflecting on what went well and what they would like to change about their experiences. The stories pretty much cover all the options of "place": hospital, birth centre, home, etc.

What to Expect has been the most useful on a daily basis. Any time I have a weird symptom, the book comes out and then I say, "ah, yes. this happens to other people, too." I especially like the week-by-week descriptions of what's happening with the baby.

I also recommend Sheila Kitzinger's books, but don't have anything to say about the specific titles above, other than that Rediscovering Birth is more of an anthropological study and I probably wouldn't leave it lying around the house 'cause of some of the photos.

Children's books in Tetun

John's sister, Jo, has been writing Christian children's books in Tetun (also known as Tetum), the language of East Timor. She has written and illustrated books on the Christmas story and the story of creation, and is currently working on a third book - Miguel Nia Jardin - looking at the story of the Fall. Actually, this current book is also in the Mambai language. Jo is working in partnership with a number of members of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Timor Leste, who do the translation.

Anyway, Jo is busy blogging under her imprint name, Grasa Mesak ("grace alone"). Why not visit her blog and encourage her?

Too Good To Miss!

Canon Press is running a great book sale through May 8th. There are 9 pages of books for 1, 2, or 3 dollars, including A Great Mystery, an excellent collection of wedding sermons which John and I recently finished reading together.

Check it out!

Our Story...

...and why I love the author of this blog.

My name is John Dekker. On the evening Tuesday January 20, I met Kara for the first time. Three and a half days later, on Saturday morning, I asked her to be my wife, and she accepted. How did these events come about, you may ask?

Internet relationships have been around for a while now, and in the last couple of years blog relationships seem to have taken off. I'm personally aware of Mike and Christine (read their story here), Adrian and Susan (read their story here) and Aaron and Jessica.

Well, I came across Biblio-File, and I liked what I saw. I came to it from Lydia's blog. I knew Lydia through Susan, whom I knew through Sherrin, whom I knew in real life.

Throughout 2008, I spent some time rethinking my approach to marriage. Possibly influenced by Debbie Maken's Getting Serious About Getting Married, I began to think about becoming more proactive about finding a wife. I also started to rethink what things were important to me in a future spouse. One of these was that I decided I was looking for a girl who wanted to get married – not merely one who thought she might want to get married someday.

And that's something I saw in Kara. She was happy to publicly state her belief that “desire for marriage is God-given and that intentional prayer and preparation are not wasted efforts.” She also quoted approvingly Jackie Kennedy's maxim, “I want to take such good care of my husband that whatever he is doing, he can do it better, because he has me.”

But most of all, I noticed that Kara shared my love of books. We had so many favourite authors in common: P. G. Wodehouse (which showed that she had a sense of humour), G. K. Chesterton (which showed that she wasn't afraid to draw on other theological traditions) and Douglas Wilson (which showed that she wouldn't be put off by my Federal Vision sympathies.)

And one of my most favourite books, Angels in the Architecture, appealed to her also. It's a book that I have, on occasions, given to people to explain what I am on about. It is one of the clearest statements of my worldview, and the sort of things I wish to encourage in my home. The fact that Kara rated the book with five stars on Facebook, told me that we had much in common.

Well, it does seem that one can find out a lot about an individual by reading his or her blog. This may particularly be the case with a book blog like Biblio-File. And I'm more convinced than ever that a person's books say a lot about them.

I don't think I had any explicit evidence that Kara was Reformed in her theology, but I certainly got that vibe. Similarly, I had the feeling from reading her blog that Kara wanted kids, which was really important to me also.

So, we had common interests, common theology, and from the photos I had seen her blog and facebook (we had become facebook friends almost a year earlier) I thought she was attractive. At that particular moment in time, that was enough. So I told her that I had been admiring her for some time, and would like very much to get to know her better. I asked her if I could cultivate a friendship with her in order to prayerfully contemplate the possibility of marriage.

I hardly expected her to be interested. Internet courtships are not for everyone. Neither is getting married to a pastor. Neither is moving to Australia. I am the minister of Aspendale Presbyterian Church in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and expect to stay here for several years. I knew I would be asking Kara to leave friends and family behind.

I wasn't particularly surprised when I got an email back from Kara's father. What thrilled me most was that I was still in with a chance. Mike thanked me for my interest in his daughter, and said that he would like to correspond with me first. This process took two weeks, at the end of which he gave me permission to write to Kara.

The courtship process has been a wonderful one. It lasted right on three months. Perhaps a timeline would help: (these are the Australian dates!)

20^th October – I send my first email to Kara. We quickly begin to cover some important ground theologically, as well as sharing our personal histories.

12^th November – we begin to talk seriously about marriage, and about the possibility of marrying each other. We realize that we have similar perspectives and expectations.

14^th November – a significant moment for me: Kara asks me how I feel that she could help me in my ministry. I realize that I'd made a good choice, and we talk about companionship, hospitality and what being a pastor's wife might entail.

19^th November – we start chatting online. It was so helpful to wait until we had sorted through the serious philosophical issues before we started on this. It didn't take long before we both felt really comfortable with each other.

28^th November – I ask Kara if I can come and visit, and tell her that now would be a good time to break off the relationship if she thought it wasn't going to continue. But she seemed more than happy to meet me.

8^th December – we start reading through Isaiah together, a chapter a day, emailing our thoughts to each other. This has been such a blessing to both of us.

20^th January – we meet face to face, at Wichita airport.

24^th January – after talking with her Dad in the early hours of the morning and receiving his permission, I propose to Kara at about 10am, and she immediately accepts.

So – why do I love this girl? She's kind, intelligent, feminine and loving. She's full of discretion, wit, wisdom and courage. She has lovely eyes and a beautiful smile. And she admires, respects and loves me herself. Why wouldn't I want to spend the rest of my life with her?

Finally, I need to emphasize that we are still getting to know each other, and I feel like I know Kara so much better than I did when I asked her to marry me. And I could swear she's becoming more beautiful every day as well.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Just in case I didn't make myself clear in the last post...

...there will be a few changes coming to the Biblio-File. As my readers may have noticed, I have been quite lax in my posts of late. With the addition of a new writer to the blog, I hope that pattern of posts may become a bit more frequent. This new blog-team member is even more of a bibliophile than myself, and I anticipate the possibility of some thought-provoking book reviews! Or at least, a Good Story. :)

Please welcome John Dekker, pastor, avid reader, board-game enthusiast....and also, my fiancé!

With many thanks to God for answered prayer,

Kara A.

Browsing at Eighth Day Books

Currently Reading

Announcing a new blog

It's called Sewing Sisters. Not that my sister and I will write exclusively about sewing. It just seemed the right title at the time. :) I expect it won't be of "general interest" (as Father says in Cheaper by the Dozen), but if you like to work with your hands, appreciate beauty in the everyday things of life....or just want to see what two sisters could possibly come up with to write about, check us out! It's been fun so far.

And just so you know: I have absolutely no intention of letting this blog fall by the wayside. Anymore than it has already, anyway! Comforting, aren't I? But really, I do intend to write some more serious reviews. In a cheerful fashion. Soon.

New comments setting

Blogger now allows comments from Open ID users. I don't know exactly what this is; all I know is that if you have an account with Wordpress, AOL, Technorati or others, you'll be able to sign in with that ID when commenting on my blog. So, I hope it's a good thing! More information here.

The Blogger's Return

A bit of bad news for those who thought I might have, mercifully, slipped from the blogging scene: sorry, the Biblio-File is back. After an extended break from writing, and a lovely month in the land of Lewis, Shakespeare, Tolkien and Sayers (more about that later), I am back filled with ideas to scribble about. Dusting off my writing notebook having been accomplished, I now take up pencil again to tackle the literary wonders of the world.

Another chance for free books and more

UPDATED WITH WISH LISTS

Recently, my friend Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood Online has been having giveaway drawings quite frequently.
This week, the giveaway is a $25 gift certificate from Vision Forum, one of my favorite places to find good books. As a bonus, Crystal is also giving away some CD's of thought provoking messages by such excellent preachers as Voddie Baucham and Douglas Phillips.

Interested? Find more details here.

A giveaway not related to books but nonetheless worth checking into if you're a young woman wanting to add something new, modest and fashionable to your wardrobe is over at Christa Taylor. The clothes aren't exactly my style...but then, I've never been one to be exceptionally "trendy". :) However, many of the outfits were right up my sister's alley.

I won't give the details here; my friend Lydia already has done an admirable job. Or, of course, you could go directly to the giveaway source.

My wishlist
Sister's wishlist

Calls to prayer

In light of the recent discussion on Getting Serious About Getting Married, I was interested to find two relevant calls to prayer.

The first is from a pastor, who calls fathers to fast and pray for their daughters on this day, that “God would bless them mightily by providing marriages for them for the glory of Jesus Christ.”

The second is from a single young woman, who encourages young women to pray as well:

“Dear sisters, I feel too many of us are sitting idly by, contentedly refining our homemaking skills while completely oblivious to the spiritual battles the young men of this generation are facing. Contentment is needful. Patient waiting on the Lord is needful. But it's not enough! If you honestly believe the Lord has called you to marriage and a godly family, there is a battle to be won right now on your knees for your future husband and home. The statistics of godly young men should be enough to show us that Satan is trying to destroy the home before it's even begun. Are we neglecting earnest interceedings for that man we will call our own someday? Are we sitting contentedly by in our single life, while our future husbands fight desperately against the countless things that seek to tear down their fervency for God?”

We are called to be “constant in prayer”. (Romans 12:12) Let us pray that God will raise up a generation of young men, exemplary in their youth (1 Timothy 4:12), sober-minded (Titus 2:6-8), and strong in the Lord (1 John 2:14).

Expanding the View

I’ve been rethinking my goals for this blog. I’ve enjoyed these past seven months of writing almost exclusively on the subject of literature, however, books are not always the first thing on my mind.

While being a bibliophile is a defining characteristic of my life, it is not the only or primary one. First and foremost, I am a Christian girl committed to learning more about God, growing in a deeper relationship with Him, and conforming every area of my life to His will.

I want to be able to share what I learn along this path and be an encouragement to others as I do so. I hope by becoming more personal and varied in my approach to more effectively reach this goal.

I find it an almost humorous evidence of a mind fond of clear-cut boundaries that before changing direction I must make a formal statement of my intentions! Yet there it is.

For those of you who enjoy book reviews, etc-- don’t worry! I doubt I’ll ever run dry on subject matter there. I like this quote by Elizabeth Goudge:

“…When people once begin to read they go on. They begin because they think they ought to and they go on because they must…. They find it widens life. We’re all greedy for life, you know, and our short span of existence can’t give us all that we hunger for, the time is short and our capacity not large enough. But in books we experience life vicariously.”

It’s true! I must be very greedy. ;-)

The focus here at the Biblio-File is not shrinking, but broadening.

Change in comments

I recently eliminated comment moderation on this blog--partly because there haven't been any comments to moderate! Also, maybe it will make it easier for those of you who don't like waiting for me to check my e-mail (which is usually at least once in a blue moon!) .

However, I still have "anonymous" comments disabled. I like to know who I'm talking to...even if it's a pseudonym. Being anonymous looks like the first step to being a snake in the grass, anyway!

How about suggestions for a more interactive blog? I don't mean to sound stand-offish--do I come across that way? It's hard for me to think of interesting questions to ask.

Comments, please?

Chance to win books and other goodies!

Kim is sponsoring a contest on her blog: Guess how many products will be in the new Vision Forum Catalog, and you could win over $700 worth of merchandise.

VF is a great place to get good books with a Christian worldview. So take a guess...it might be worth your while. :)

Click here for the details.

Posting Schedule...

...or why there isn't more to read on here.

I seem to have worked out a sort of schedule: if I have anything worth saying, it'll get written on Monday and posted on Tuesday. Didn't happen this week! However, I do have several rough drafts going at the moment, as well as a lot of ideas for future posts.

*****This just in*****

Little brother has a blog. Check it out here for the latest in adventure and mystery. ;-)

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this blog is to discuss, study, and comment on a subject near to my heart: the reading of good books. As I do this, I desire to speak, without apology, from an expressly Christian perspective.
As a Christian, every area of my life is subject to the rule of Christ, and I desire to continually grow in this direction. It is my hope that my readers will be inspired to explore more deeply the world of literature, and to learn to see all that they read through the eyes of sacred Scripture.

A corollary purpose of this blog is the improvement of my writing skills. Feeling the extra pressure of a public forum should be a good incentive towards achieving this goal.

This blog is not intended as a random catch-all for meaningless thoughts, or as a laundry-list description of my life. However, be forewarned that I may occasionally stray off-subject!

I welcome comments, (Preferring a dialogue to a monologue!) but of course reserve the right to delete them when the occasion requires.

As you can see, I have rather lofty aspirations for this new venture. But, being only human, and a rather reticent, reserved one at that, it will be an uphill climb. So please bear with me!

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10, English Standard Version