The Perfect Wisdom

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Our church uses the same hymn for an opening for several weeks/months in a row, and just recently we started using the song “The Perfect Wisdom.” Around the same time the Galkin Evangelistic Team‘s CD, By Faith, came out with that song as its third track. I’ve about worn my CD out replaying that song. It is all wonderful, but the part that stood out to me the most at first was the last six lines.

The perfect wisdom of our God,
Revealed in all the universe:
All things created by His hand,
And held together at His command.
He knows the mysteries of the seas,
The secrets of the stars are His;
He guides the planets on their way,
And turns the earth through another day.

The matchless wisdom of His ways,
That mark the path of righteousness;
His word a lamp unto my feet,
His Spirit teaching and guiding me.
And oh, the mystery of the cross,
That God should suffer for the lost
So that the fool might shame the wise,
And all the glory might go to Christ!

Oh grant me wisdom from above,
To pray for peace and cling to love,
And teach me humbly to receive
The sun and rain of Your sovereignty.
Each strand of sorrow has a place
Within this tapestry of grace;
So through the trials I choose to say:
“Your perfect will in your perfect way.”

~ Words & Music by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

Laudable Linkage

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Here are some great reads from the last couple of weeks:

The Best Way to Be Radical. It’s not always the grandiose.

Touching the Untouchable: A Story of Aids. I came to this after John Piper tweeted “Joe Hallett did not waste his Aids” and linked to this article. Moving and convicting.

5 Problems With Unconditional Forgiveness, HT to Challies. It has always bothered me when a victim of a horrible crime publicly forgives the offender when there has been no sign of remorse, and this post explains very well why that is. We should make provision for forgiveness and be ready to offer it, just as God does, but He also does not grant it until repentance occurs.

10 Simple Ways Weary Mothers Can Abide in the Word. Most of these are good for anyone, not just moms.

Complementariansism for Dummies, by someone who helped coin the term, helps clears up some misconceptions.

“Meaningful Suspense” is author Adam Blumer‘s tagline, and he explains here that Christian fiction should be more than just entertainment.

Master Craftsmen by Randy Alcorn deftly defends Christian fiction against the charge of being “predictable, sugar-coated, preachy, and poorly written!” I’ve been enjoying Christian fiction for almost 40 years, and always wince at that kind of charge.

55 Favorite First Lines From Favorite Books. Sherry has devised a fun quiz. I got 20 right. How’d you do?

Since I was first deeply moved by reading Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot about her husband and four other missionaries who were speared to death by the Indians they were trying to reach, I’ve been fascinated and tried to read everything I could get my hands on in connection with this incident and these people. One of the earliest books was The Dayuma Story. Dayuma was a young woman who had escaped from the tribe then known as the Aucas, now the Waorani. She had helped the missionaries learn some Auca terms and eventually she and Rachel Saint (brother of Nate, one of the five) and Elisabeth went to live with the Aucas. I had read in this book about Rachel being honored on the old program This Is Your Life. I don’t think she had seen it before or knew quite what it was, and I remember she wrote something about her brother whispering in her ear during a commercial that she needed to watch the time and keep things moving because the host, Ralph Edwards, had a limited amount of time with a live show to try to get everything in. Of course, Rachel was also busy trying to translate what was going on to Dayuma, who was with her. Well….I don’t remember how I came across the blog Theology For Girls, but I saw a link to a post concerning this program and had to check it out. This lady’s uncle was one of the guests on that episode, and she had recently discovered the entire episode had been uploaded to YouTube! It was such a joy to watch. It’s amazing that the show was so favorable to the gospel and the work Rachel was doing. And the commercials are pretty funny, too. 🙂

This Is Your Life: Rachel Saint, Part 1:

This Is Your Life: Rachel Saint, Part 2:

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

It has been quite an eventful week! Here are some of my favorite parts of it:

1. Freon. Our AC wasn’t working correctly, and the AC guy was able to come out before the weekend to fill it up. We were about half empty, so he suspected a leak, but we decided to just wait and see. Well — by Wed. night the AC was acting up again, and he can’t come until Friday morning. So we’ve been trying to operate without AC. It’s not too bad if we stay still under a ceiling fan, but trying to get anything else done is hard. I think I might have a good reason to ask my dear hubby to take me out to dinner tonight 🙂 (I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon.)(Update: he did. :-)) I’m hoping it is just a leak in the AC but it is possible it might need to be replaced.

2. Ladies’ Birthday Party. Our church did this last year as well, having one celebration for all the ladies of the church. We signed up by month of birth and then had to get together with others at our table to make table settings, centerpieces, etc. The months that did not have as many people joined together (Jan. and Dec. were together, April and May, etc.). They had games, door prizes, and of course birthday cake.

Here are some of the tables (please forgive the picture quality — I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone).:

August had a nautical theme:

February’s table was sweet:

I loved the use of the little shoes for place card holders.

October/November went classy:

So did December/January:

The winners were April/May:

So cute! It was a fun time.

I probably should have made this section into a separate post…

3. Rain. We hadn’t had any for about two weeks.

4. Grandma’s 84th birthday. One time she thought she was 100, another time she thought she was turning 53. 🙂 Oh well — she enjoyed herself and her family got to show her some love in a special way.

5. Independence Day, for several reasons. I’m so thankful to live in a free country, even though it has its flaws. It was nice to have a day off — hubby grilled chicken, burgers, and turkey kielbasa and even went to the store for the food, and Mittu made potato salad, cookies, and chocolate covered strawberries. All I did was open a can of baked beans and rinse off some carrots. 🙂 And then there were fireworks. Last year we went and saw some professional ones, but when we came back we saw that our neighbors had shot off multitudes. So this year we decided to pull up lawn chairs out front and watch theirs. It was really neat for a good while there — until one of the fireworks fell over and started coming at us and caught the grass on fire in several places.

Thankfully that is by our shed rather than the house. Thankfully the neighbors with the fireworks had a fire extinguisher — I guess that would a bonus fave! We had hoped that the bit of rain we’d had earlier in the week would have relieved some of the dryness, but I guess it was not enough.

Hope you’ve had a great week and will have a good weekend!

Book Review: Beyond the Shadows

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Barbara Harper

In Beyond the Shadows by Robin Lee Hatcher, Deborah Haskins’ husband has just died in a farming accident, leaving her a young widow alone on a 40 acre farm. Unbeknownst to her, her husband Andy had offered his old Korean war buddy, Gideon Clermont, a job on the farm, and Gideon happens to arrive the day of Andy’s funeral. Gideon finds another job but wants to help Deborah out by volunteering his services at the farm on Saturdays.

Both Gideon and Deborah are Christians but not in close fellowship with the Lord. After several months they fall in love and elope. Some time later Deborah experiences a renewal of her faith, but Gideon is aloof spiritually. It takes a long while for Deborah to realize that Gideon has a drinking problem, and then longer to acknowledge that he is a full-blown alcoholic.

As the daughter of an alcoholic myself, I felt the actions and emotions of the characters rang true. Experience with alcoholism with a member of Robin’s family lends an authenticity to the story.

One of the things I most appreciated about this book was the realistic use of Scripture and Scriptural principles. Some Christian authors today seem to think they have to veil, to downplay, or to merely suggest spiritual truth, but it should be a normal part of a Christian’s life to read and be instructed and convicted by God’s Word. The book is not preachy at all, but the characters do grapple realistically with God’s Word and its claims on them.

In one instance, Deborah has come across the verse “‘I hate divorce,’ says the LORD God of Israel” in Malachi 2:16a. At first it seems like a promise that her marriage will be salvaged, but as Gideon’s initial denials that he has a problem turn into multiple relapses despite promises to quit all chisel away at Deborah’s love for him, the verse begins to feel more like a prison sentence. It reminded me of a quote from Jane Eyre: “Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor.”

And I also thought it was quite realistic that once both Deborah and Gideon came to a place of surrender and decision, it still wasn’t easy and they still had their ups and downs.

For all of that, though, the book is not dreary and gloomy. It’s meant as a story of hope.

The book is mostly told through Deborah’s voice, but there are occasional paragraphs of various other characters’ viewpoints.

I listened to it via audiobook and it was quite well done. It appears to be out of print right now, but used copies are available and it is also available for the Kindle and the Nook as well as audiobook. There is an interesting interview with Robin from a few years back that covers this book as well as other information.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Barbara Harper

“Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.” Ronald Reagan

Together on Tuesdays: Favorites Books and Films

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Annette at This Simple Home and Dorie at These Grace Filled Days have teamed up to create Together on Tuesdays as “a casual way to meet and connect with other women” over the summer. They’ve created a schedule of topics to discuss in order to get to know one another better, and the topic for this week is favorite books and films.

I would have a hard time narrowing books down to a couple of favorites, as reading has been a lifelong favorite activity. But I’ll try to suggest a few from favorite genres (links are to my reviews).

Missionary biographies: probably my favorite category or at least the one that has most impacted my life: Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton, Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Diebler Rose, Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, To the Golden Shore about Adoniram Judson, By Searching and In the Arena by Isobel Kuhn, Goforth of China and Climbing by Rosalind Goforth, Mountain Rain by Eileen Crossman, Second-Mile People by Isobel Kuhn (an excerpt here), In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham, Green Leaf in Drought by Isobel Kuhn.

Non-fiction books: When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes, How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit by Erwin Lutzer, Changed Into His Image by Jim Berg, Spiritual Depression by D. Martin Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders, On Asking God Why by Elisabeth Elliot (just about anything by Elisabeth Elliot!), Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job by Layton Talbert, The Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer.

Classics: The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Christian fiction: the Mitford series by Jan Karon, A Quiet Strength by Janette Oke, The Secret Life of Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck, Francine Rivers’ Mark of the Lion series, The Princess and Sophie’s Heart by Lori Wick.

More are listed at 98 Books that Have Enriched my Life and Favorite Books: Non-Fiction and Favorite Fiction Books and Authors.

Favorite films: That would be a much shorter list. Newer films tend to have explicit scenes or bad words, so most of my favorites films are older. Some of my favorites are the Lord of the Rings series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Toy Story, the Toby Stephens/Ruth Wilson version of Jane Eyre. both the Gwynneth Paltrow and Romola Garai version of Emma, The Princess Bride, Camelot. Having boys, we’ve watched a lot of action/adventure type movies, and I really did like the Iron Man films, Captain America, and The Avengers even though I wouldn’t normally gravitate to those.

Sorry for such long lists — it is hard to narrow down favorites of these categories!

Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Carrie at Reading to Know is once again hosting the Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge and dovetailing it with her book club choice for July.

During last year’s Narnia challenge I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn-Treader, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Graphic Novel. and The Way Into Narnia (all links to my thoughts) plus I thought through the use of Narnian Magic.

I’m reading the books in publication order, so the next in the series are The Silver Chair and The Horse and His Boy. They do read rather quickly so I might be tempted to go ahead and read the last two books and finish the series, but I’d also like to hold something back for next year. So right now I am just planning on those two, but we’ll see. I also have the Focus on the Family’s dramatizations of the series, so I may listen to some of those.

Someday I’d also like to read The Narnian by Alan Jacobs and What I Learned in Narnia by Douglas Wilson — I heard good things about both books during last year’s challenge — but at this moment I am not planning to work them in this month…unless I change my mind. 🙂

(I’m revising. updating my goals: I just looked back over my review of The Way Into Narnia and realized I had skipped the chapters devoted to the books I hadn’t read yet, to wait until I had read them. So I’ll be reading those chapters pertaining to The Silver Chair and The Horse and His Boy.)

If you’ve never visited Narnia, or if you’ve visited many times, I invite you to make a journey back with us this month!

I Run to Christ

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Barbara Harper

I’ve posted this text before, but its inclusion on the new Wilds CD, A Living Sacrifice, has it in my mind again.

I run to Christ when chased by fear
And find a refuge sure.
“Believe in me,” His voice I hear;
His words and wounds secure.

I run to Christ when torn by grief
And find abundant peace.
“I too had tears,” He gently speaks;
Thus joy and sorrow meet.

_____

I run to Christ when worn by life
And find my soul refreshed.
“Come unto Me,” He calls through strife;
Fatigue gives way to rest.

I run to Christ when vexed by hell
And find a mighty arm.
“The Devil flees,” the Scriptures tell;
He roars, but cannot harm.

_____

I run to Christ when stalked by sin
And find a sure escape.
“Deliver me,” I cry to Him;
Temptation yields to grace.

I run to Christ when plagued by shame
And find my one defense.
“I bore God’s wrath,” He pleads my case—
My Advocate and Friend.

Words by Chris Anderson
Music by Greg Habeggar
Reprinted with permission

You can peruse more of Chris and Greg’s hymns at their web site, Church Works Media. Notes on the text to this hymn are here and you can listen to a choral version of it here.

May you run to Christ for any and every need, large or small.