No one understands like Jesus

Posted on February 15, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Psalm 139:2

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:15-16

No one understands like Jesus.
He’s a friend beyond compare;
Meet Him at the throne of mercy;
He is waiting for you there.

No one understands like Jesus;
Ev’ry woe He sees and feels;
Tenderly He whispers comfort,
And the broken heart He heals.

No one understands like Jesus
When the foes of life assail;
You should never be discouraged;
Jesus cares and will not fail!

No one understands like Jesus
When you falter on the way;
Tho’ you fail Him, sadly fail Him,
He will pardon you today.

CHORUS:
No one understands like Jesus
When the days are dark and grim;
No one is so near, so dear as Jesus–
Cast your ev’ry care on Him!

Words and music by John W. Peterson. The story behind the hymn here.

C. S. Lewis on love

Posted on February 14, 2009 by Barbara Harper

From Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis:

Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also many things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called “being in love” usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending “They lived happily ever after” is taken to mean “They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,” then it says what probably was never was or ever could be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be “in love” need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense — love as distinct from “being in love” is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be “in love” with someone else. “Being in love” first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

Friday’s Fave Fives and Show and Tell Friday

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details.

I’m also linking the first item to Kelli’s Show and Tell Friday. I know Kelli doesn’t want the Show and Tell combined with other memes, and I hope she’ll forgive me, but I just couldn’t see making a separate post, especially when I have another one and am thinking about one more already today.

1. Finally getting this done:

I bought this door decoration at an online shop (I am sorry to say I forget now which one) and showed it for a Show and Tell last September:

Then a few weeks ago Hobby Lobby had all their floral stems on sale, so I bought several stems. I just put them together this morning:

I can see I should have gone with the lavender hydrangea stems rather than the dark purple — I just loved the richness of the color when I bought them, but they get kind of lost against the dark door. I lightened the picture just so they’d show up. I am not entirely sure I am done fiddling with it, but so far I like it.

2. Talking to my future daughter-in-law. My son’s cell phone has about died, so his fiance called the home line last night, and I happened to answer the phone. I have missed her being able to come over on weekends (she has finished school and is back home for the semester), so I enjoyed chatting with her for a bit and hearing about wedding plans.

3. Jesse’s tip-off. Jesse got to do the initial tip-off for the last two basketball games, and he was excited. Melli asked earlier whether they won their last game that was to determine whether they’d be in the playoffs (thanks for asking!). No they didn’t, so I thought they were done, but evidently there is a tournament later this month they might be going to, so they’re still practicing. Jeremy videotaped parts of the last game since that was the only one Jim couldn’t attend due to work, so I may add video of the tip-off later on if I can.

4. Nice temperatures. Even though it is February and still winter, we have had some bright sunny days and springlike temperatures this past week. It’s chilly again this morning and I am sure we will have more winter-like weather before it is over, but I soak in those warmer (but not hot yet) days whenever I can.

5. Valentine’s day! OK, that is tomorrow and not from this last week, but it is one of my favorite holidays.

I’m going to add just a few more — it is hard to stop at five once you get started!! But I don’t want to make the post go on and on, either, so I’ll just list them: a good dentist’s visit with one filling I was concerned about being ok, a wonderful ladies’ meeting Monday night that I am still enjoying even days later, our cable coming back on after being out for six hours yesterday (and the fact that we even have cable! It’s one of those easily taken for granted things until it’s off for a while), and old movies — I just watched an old version of David Copperfield (the one with W. C. Fields as Micawber) recently and started watching A Tale of Two Cities — I taped it, so I will catch the rest tomorrow. Plus the fact that as Christians we don’t have to be superstitious about things like Friday the 13th!!

Have a great Valentine’s Day tomorrow!

Poetry Friday: St. Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Poetry Friday is hosted at Big A little a today.

St. Valentine’s Day

by Edgar Guest

Let loose the sails of love and let them fill
With breezes sweet with tenderness today;
Scorn not the praises youthful lovers say;
Romance is old, but it is lovely still.
Not he who shows his love deserves the jeer,
But he who speaks not what she longs to hear.
There is no shame in love’s devoted speech;
Man need not blush his tenderness to show.
‘Tis shame to love and never let her know,
TO keep his heart forever out of reach.
Not he the fool who lets his love go on,
But he who spurns it when his love is won.

Men proudly vaunt their love of gold and fame,
High station and accomplishments of skill,
Yet of life’s greatest conquests they are still,
And deem it weakness, or an act of shame
To seem to place high value on the love
Which first of all they should be proudest of.
Let loose the sails of love and let them take
The tender breezes till the day be spent;
Only the fool chokes out life’s sentiment.
She is a prize too lovely to forsake,
Be not ashamed to send your valentine;
She has your love, but needs its outward sign.

Even though this is directed to men, I think it is important for all of us to take the time to let our loved ones know we love them. We all need “the outward sign.” And even though this should be a year-round activity, I love that Valentine’s Day provides a special opportunity to do so. For me Valentine’s Day isn’t just about romantic love, but any kind of love. It has always been a special family day for us.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Quotes about love for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Barbara Harper

lacy 1. All you really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. ~ Lucy Van Pelt

2. I don’t understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine’s Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon.
~ Unknown

3. Impart unto me, O God, I pray Thee, the spirit of Thy Love, that I may be more anxious to give than to receive, more eager to understand than to be understood, more thoughtful for others, more forgetful of myself. ~ F. B. Meyer

4. We say that grace is “unmerited favor.” And we are instructed to love as Christ loves us. He shows us grace; we are to show each other grace. What does that mean? That means we are to be kinder to people than what we think they deserve. ~ Unknown

5. Respect is love in plain clothes. ~ Frankie Byrne

6. It is love in old age, no longer blind, that is true love. For love’s highest intensity doesn’t necessarily mean its highest quality. Glamour and jealousy are gone; and the ardent caress…is valueless compared to the reassuring touch of a trembling hand. Passersby commonly see little beauty in the embrace of young lovers on a park bench, but the understanding smile of an old wife to her husband is one of the loveliest things in the world. ~ Booth Tarkington

7. True love ennobles and dignifies the material labors of life; and homely services rendered for love’s sake have in them a poetry that is immortal.
~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

8. The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally; it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, April 30

9. The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal, how can you hope to find inward peace?
– A.W. Tozer

10. We should measure affection, not like youngers by the ardour of its passion, but by its strength and constancy.
– Cicero

11. The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
– Victor Hugo

12. Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life.
– Merie Shain

13. Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.
~ G K Chesterton

I am linking this to Thursday Thirteen today, now under new management.

Booking Through Thursday: Authors Talking

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Barbara Harper

The weekly Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

Do you read any author’s blogs? If so, are you looking for information on their next project? On the author personally? Something else?

I haven’t really gone searching through a list of favorite authors to see if they have blogs, but as I have come across links to a few I have subscribed to them. It seems to stand to reason that if I like the author’s writing, I would like something about their personality and their thoughts on other things. I do like hearing about their upcoming projects, but I don’t want too much revealed, like a commercial that tells you the whole plot line or major points of a program before it comes on.

Some of my favorite authors don’t really keep up too much with their blogs, though, and that is fine with me — if they have to choose between blogging and their next book, I’d rather they used the time to work on their next book.

I’m not really looking for information on their families or personal lives. They do deserve some privacy. But if they choose to write about their personal lives, I don’t mind. I guess I look for the same basic things in an author’s blog that I do in others: interesting writing first of all, whether funny or serious or matter of fact. I’d like to hear about what inspires them, what led to the things they write, their general thoughts on things not having to do with writing, etc. Some of them do have web sites rather than blogs with information about their books, “coming attractions,” and maybe a page or two of other thoughts.

The author’s blogs I read regularly are Sharon Hinck’s Stories For the Hero In All of Us, Patsy Clairmont‘s blog, Sheila Wray Gregoire’s To Love, Honor, and Vacuum (though I haven’t read any of her books yet. I found her through a link elsewhere and didn’t realize she was an author at first. I do enjoy her blog and have one of her books waiting on my TBR pile), and Writes of Passage, a group blog for Robin Lee Hatcher, Lori Copland, Tracie Peterson, Kim Vogel Sawyer, and Tamera Alexander (I haven’t actually read any of the books of Kim and Tamera yet, but I have of the others). A group blog where an author is only responsible for one post a week might work well for those who don’t feel they can keep up with a regular blog. I also read some of Robin Lee Hatcher’s Write Thinking through her reader’s group on Facebook. I also occasionally check the web sites of Terri Blackstock, Beverly Lewis, and Jamie Langston Turner.

I would probably search out more if the list of blogs I read weren’t already so long, but, who knows — maybe I will find some interesting ones through others’ answers to the BTT question today!

Melli’s ABC Challenge: G and H

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Melli is hosting an ABC photo challenge wherein we’re supposed to look for letters in common everyday things or in nature without actually manipulating anything to make the letter and without photographing the letter itself in a word or sign. We’re doing two letters a week, and this week it is G and H.

G was a pretty hard one, but I found it in the bicycle lock my husband had looped on his bicycle. Can you see it?

It’s a lower case G (sorry about my less than steady-handed drawing…):

The H I thought I had last week didn’t work — it had two crossbars. But I found H’s in several of the different types of flooring in the house. Here is one:

You can see the what other people found for the challenge at Melli‘s.

I have been wanting to do a post along with this challenge on other things I “see” in unlikely places, but I forgot to take a picture of one of the main ones, so maybe I will save that for next week.

Stray thoughts…

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Barbara Harper

I have a dentist’s appointment this morning (ugh!). It’s just a cleaning, but there is still a sense of unease. I am a little concerned about the root canal I had last time. A few days after it I was eating a little mixed fruit cup, of all things, and inadvertently bit down on something hard in a piece of peach — right on that tooth — and it left an indention there. So I am hoping they are not going to say I have to have anything done with that. (Back from the dentist — everything is fine with the tooth. 🙂 )

Jesse’s last regular basketball game is today. To be in the playoffs they have to win, and by a good margin. This team beat them at their last meeting by twice their score — 34-17, I think. So this will be a challenge! They have a good strategy, though, so there is some hope. Win or lose today, they’ve done a great job and pretty steadily improved.

We had a wonderful ladies’ meeting last night. A lady gave her testimony who is a very quiet lady — you’d never know she was such a dynamic speaker! Her husband is a pastor, but they are in between ministries right now, looking for the Lord’s leading. They’ve been in our church now for a year — much longer than they had ever thought they’d be in a state of waiting — but they are still actively serving however they can. At last year’s ladies’ luncheon, her mom told me it was so nice her daughter could just come and enjoy since she usually speaks at them. I thought, “Aha! Someone I can ask to speak some time!” Then I heard she was a real dynamo at VBS last summer. She kind of wove her testimony in with something the Lord had laid on her heart, and He wonderfully used it.

Plus…I have been thinking and praying about the upcoming ladies’ luncheon in April…but just wasn’t set on anything yet, and I was starting to get a little panicky and really hoping to have at least a theme this week. This lady suggested a lady she knew who does dramatic readings and did one recently based on Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose, a tremendous book. My first thought was that it might work better for a regular ladies’ meeting, since the luncheon doesn’t usually have a missionary focus. But then I thought, since we usually have more people at the luncheon than at a regular meeting, it would have a wider audience there. Then this morning, more ideas of how to incorporate this into the luncheon came to mind — so this might be what we do! Maybe that’s why the Lord hadn’t given me any other ideas yet. I’ll try to make contact later today and see if this lady has the date free and then go from there.

Normally when planning for the luncheon, I like to have the verse for it first. Usually just in the course of regular devotions or while praying about the theme, a verse will stand out, and after further prayer and thought, then theme ideas, favor ideas, special music, etc., all just flow forth, and that, to me, is kind of confirmation that that’s the way we should go. I like to have the spiritual emphasis first rather than a cute or clever theme that we then try to dream up a spiritual basis for.

Well, I was going to share some interesting links I’ve seen lately, but since I have rattled on thinking out loud and ended up with rather a long post already, I think I’ll save them for another time.

Happy Tuesday!

Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Barbara Harper

One of my all-time favorite hymns:

Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.

Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.

I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

~ Elizabeth C. Clephane

Full text here.

(Cross photo courtesy of the stock xchng.)

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Bridge(s)

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Barbara Harper

PhotoHunt

Theme: Bridge(s) | Become a Photo Hunter

When I saw this category months ago, I was excited because I had just the bridge in mind — one I had seen on the way to my son’s friend’s house, with a creek running over some rocks and a neat old shack. But when I passed that way last week — there was no bridge at all! Evidently my mind had just put one there! Too bad — it would have made a really nice picture!!

I didn’t have make the time to go bridge-hunting this week around town, so I went hunting through my photo archives.

It seems like I might have shown this before, but I couldn’t find it: this is a really pretty bridge at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, SC, from our visit there over 25 years ago.

A much nicer picture of it is here.

I know I have used this one before, I think for “lights,” but I like it 🙂 and it fits here as well. This is a footbridge from a hotel to a gazebo-like structure at the end of a pier on Folly Island in Charleston. This is from a second visit to Charleston maybe eight years ago.

These are from my oldest son’s wanderings downtown:

Here is a view from a bridge:

Though I like to look at “pretty” bridges, I am thankful for the many functional, utilitarian ones that greatly facilitate our travels.

Sometimes, though, bridges don’t just make life easier. There are some places we could not reach at all except for bridges. The most important place like that is heaven, and you can read more about the bridge that makes it possible to go there here.