Christmas 2014

Wishing you a very merry and a happy happy.

…that old human urge for revenge has continued to plague humanity for our entire history. Indeed, the Old Testament is full of ongoing sin—faithlessness, wars, revolutions, betrayal, intrigue, etc.

In order to escape the historic momentum of human sin, betrayal, and revenge, God needed a particular archetype to represent a new humanity who did not bring the baggage of sin and revenge with him, someone apart from the baggage of human history. But there was no one on earth or in earth’s history who could serve such a role. So God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who had no previous history on earth as a human being—which is the significance of His virgin birth. In Christ, humanity could begin again with a clean slate. Jesus Christ would serve as the new human archetype for a new humanity-in-Christ.

Christ, then, came to provide a new human archetype that was worthy of God’s salvation. The incarnation of Christ brought that archetype into human flesh and human history as a reality. And Christ’s obedience unto death on the cross provided the evidence that this archetype could be manifest as a reality in the world.  – from Ephesians—Recovering The Vision….

In January Phil published Ephesians—Recovering The Vision of a Sustainable Church, 416 pages, having worked on it most of 2013. The purpose of this book is neither dogmatic nor academic, but is systemic in that it endeavors to provide a reading of Ephesians and a biblical perspective that issue out of the wholeness of the Bible. It labors to hold various themes, lessons, and aspects together in order to display the Bible’s sustainable depth and breadth in the light of Christ in the twenty-first century.

The highlight of our year was when we went to St. Louis in March for the birth of Clark Hosea Ross, to Justin & Leah. We stayed with our friends, Ron & Nancy Varley, who we know from our St. Louis days. Nancy used to babysit Austin & Justin in the last century. Then we went back for a long weekend in September, again staying with Ron & Nancy.

Phil also edited and published a book by Mark Hamilton, who teaches philosophy at Ashland University, Ohio. It’s his notes for his class on Christian Ethics.

In November Phil reworked his mother’s poetry and published it as Inside Out Woman—Collected Poetry. The previous edition was done in 1986 on a dot matrix printer. Enough said. He cleaned up the errors and added some photos. It is actually a real book now.

Stephanie continues to enjoy her work as a grantwriter. When Stephanie and Phil were in St. Louis for Clark’s birth they were able to reconnect with some other friends from St. Louis days.
Our health is still good. Stephanie will be on Medicare as of April, so we’ve been revisiting all that. Ugh! But mostly things are pretty much the same. We like it that way.

Adam—E-mail: atross01@gmail.com
Adam continued to write a lot this year and published The Mirror of Life, book two in The Word and the Sword series. He writes under the name A. T. Ross – http://www.amazon.com/A.-T.-Ross/e/B00EAYPGT2/
Austin & Audrey—E-mail: austin.ross@gmail.com

Justin & Leah—E-mail: jay.tee.ross@gmail.com
Justin attends Covenant Seminary (Presbyterian Church in America), and is also a Production Assistant at Lami Wood Products in St Louis. Brielle and Clark are growing nicely. Address: Justin and Leah Ross, 1443 Lyndale Ave., St. Louis, Mo 63130.

Clark 3-10-2014
Clark Hosea Ross – Born 3/10 at 10:47a.m. 9lbs10oz

J-L-2014
Clark, Leah, Justin, Brielle

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Austin, Audrey, Adam, Stephanie, Phil — Thanksgiving 2014

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