Author Archives: Barbara Harper

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About Barbara Harper

https://barbarah.wordpress.com

Songs in the night

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Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com

Somehow over the last several months (years?) I’ve developed a tendency to wake up once or twice during the night. Friends tell me it’s part of “middle age.” I always have to get up and go to the bathroom when I wake up, and often I stumble back to bed and fall right back to sleep. But other times I’m awake for an hour or so. That’s not too much of a problem these days since at this point in my life I can catch a nap during the day if I need to, unless I need to be up at a certain time, or it’s a Saturday night and I really want to get back to sleep so I can stay awake in church the next day.

But I have learned that stewing over being awake is no way to get back to sleep. Sometimes I think, often I pray, and if my husband is not in bed I’ll turn the radio on with the “sleep” button that lets it play for an hour.

Recently when I turned the radio on in the night, the station was playing the old Unshackled program featuring stories of people whose lives had been changed through the ministry of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago.

That really took me back. When I was a new Christian in the 70s, I’d often turn the radio on when I first went to bed. Unshackled played, as well as The Quiet Time with Albert H, Salter, Joseph Barclay as the soloist, and Lorin Whitney at the organ, Nightsounds with Bill Pearce, and the Haven of Rest Quartet program.

At that time we had just moved to Houston and away from familiar places and friends, my parents had just divorced, I had recently been saved and my family was not particularly interested, and these programs met a deep need in my life. Maybe Albert Salter and Bill Pearce just had particularly soothing voices, or maybe because these program were on late at night they were designed to be soothing and peaceful, but they definitely poured balm on my troubled soul. I’m so grateful they were there for me and for others. The Quiet Time was still on until fairly recently, and it always warmed my heart to hear those familiar voices.

I know the Bible wasn’t primarily referring to Christian radio or recorded music when it said “God my maker…giveth songs in the night” (Job 35:10) or “Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life” (Psalm 42:8), but He certainly used them to minister to me.

I still love those programs though they’re considered old-fashioned now. And I love a lot of new music that is being produced now and has been since then.

I hope my children and loved ones know that in their deepest needs, in the “night,” literally or figuratively, they can find His songs, His peace, His comfort and instruction. And of course there is music for life’s highest joys as well, and everything inbetween.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. Psalm 63:5-8

Psalm 77:1-14:

1 I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.

2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.

7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?

8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?

9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

10 And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

11 I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.

12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

14 Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

Laudable Linkage

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

Forsaken By God: When Our Fears Become Our Reality. “Psalms 22 ministers to us when we struggle with a God who didn’t move for us as we expected, who didn’t save us from a painful road of life that we prayerfully tried to avoid.”

Pacifying Lies and the Sympathizing Truth. Too often we want to comfort someone in trouble with trite phrases that aren’t even really true. “It is only in looking to Christ that my friend can find comfort. Only in pointing to Christ that I can be a comforter.”

I Don’t Wait Anymore. Excellent. “A lot of girls were sold on a deal and not on a Savior….What if we as girls had learned early on that having Him was everything, not a means to the life we think He would want us to have.”

It Matters Whom You Marry. In ways you might not think about.

SuperMom vs. Abiding Mom…not just for moms.

Upcycled Dressers: Painted, Wallpapered, and Decoupaged. Some creative ideas if you need to refinish furniture.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Friday’s Fave Five

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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.

Some weeks I have to stop and think to remember five favorite things about the week, but this week I’ll have a hard time keeping it down to five.

1. My new swing/bench for the patio. Jim got it for my birthday a few weeks ago but was just able to assemble it Monday.

It was a key factor in…

2. Sprucing up the patio, our Labor Day weekend project. Another favorite element in that was planting a new hydrangea bush.

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I had been sorely wanting one because I loved the one at our old house, but there really wasn’t room for one in the front. But we found the perfect bare spot for it in the back next to the patio.

3. Labor Day is kind of an odd holiday: there aren’t any traditions associated with it other than grilling, there are no colors or symbols or decorations. It’s just a day off to celebrate workers. Yay us! I’ll take it! We went to Jason and Mittu’s new apartment for lunch and got to see what they’d done with it since unpacking moving boxes, and then they came here for dinner.

4. Closet shelves. We have a few storage closets, and I had been wanting shelves put into one of them, actually a double closet. Poor Jim — I have all these projects in mind that I can’t do myself. 🙂 But he was able to get them installed this weekend. It had one already and he added 4 that were 6′ long. It makes such a difference to have boxes and bags on shelves rather than stacked up to eye level. I sorted through, labeled, and organized them this week, and I even have room to spare, so soon some of the things tucked away in other spots will find a home here as well.

5. Checking things off the list, besides some of the above, like getting a haircut (I don’t know why I wait so long to do it that I am about to rip it out. It doesn’t take that long, but I keep putting it off), getting a mammogram and bone density test done (one of those over-50 things doctors like for women to do), and getting some lab work done to see if a an adjusted dosage is helping my thyroid levels (it is). It was nice to get all those things taken care of so I don’t have to keep thinking about them.

And I was able to cram everything into a list of five. 😀 I hope you’ve had a good week, and if you haven’t…I hope the weekend will be better! Happy Friday!

Disciplined by Grace

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“Disciplined by Grace” is the fifth chapter in the book The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, which we’re discussing every Thursday in the “Reading Classics Together” challenge at Challies‘ place.

“Disciplined by Grace” seems an oxymoron to many who don’t associate the two together, but Bridges asserts that that’s because of a misunderstanding of both concepts.

The epigraph for this chapter is Titus 2:11-12: “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”The word for “teach” there “means much more than…imparting knowledge. Originally it was used as a term for the rearing of children and included not only instruction, but also admonition, reproof, and punishment, all administered in love and for the benefit of the child” (p. 80).

Spiritually, “discipline includes all instruction, all reproof and correction, and all providentially directed hardships in our lives that are aimed at cultivating spiritual growth” (p. 80). But, “all of God’s disciplinary processes are grounded in His grace – His unmerited and unconditional favor toward us (p. 80).

It’s so important to keep these two concepts in balance. With a heavier leaning towards discipline, even good spiritual practices designed to grow us can become performance-based (thinking we earn God’s favor by doing them), while a heavier leaning toward grace can lead to laxity.

Bridges points out from the verse above that grace teaches us to say “No” to some things — ungodliness and worldly passions (and he points out that ungodliness is basically “disregarding God, ignoring Him,  or not taking Him into account in one’s life. It is a lack of fear and reverence for Him”[(p. 85]) — and “Yes” to others — self control, uprightness, and godliness. This is the basic “put off/put on” scenario of Ephesians 4:20-32.

But we need to always remember “With all this emphasis on practical Christian living…we must lose sight of the fact that it is grace — not law — that teaches us” (p. 92). The law “commanded but gave no ability to obey” and then “condemned me for my failure to obey” (p. 92).  But “where the law condemns, grace forgives through the Lord Jesus Christ. Where the law commands but gives no power, grace commands but does give power through the Holy Spirit who lives and works in us” (p. 93).

I appreciated, too, what Bridges pointed out about the fact that while our acceptance before God is on the basis of grace rather than our “performance,” on the other hand, there are many admonitions about the importance of our testimony before unbelievers and the harm that can be done to the cause of Christ by a poor example in ourselves (pp. 89-90).

More discussion on this chapter is here.

Previous chapters discussed from The Discipline of Grace are:

1) How Good Is Good Enough?
2) The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
3) Preach the Gospel to Yourself
4) We Died to Sin.

More stray thoughts…

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  • I love Monday holidays, but the whole rest of the week I keep having to ask myself, “What day is this?”
  • I don’t get the fascination with washed-out photos from Instagram. I suppose there are other ways to edit photos there, but the ones I’ve seen are a washed-out look.
  • I wonder why high schools don’t keep graduation caps and gowns on hand for students to use and return like colleges do. For each student we’ve had to buy them, and then store them in the closet or attic forever after.
  • Am I the only one who wishes books had a rating system like movies? I hate to be “surprised” by what looks like a good book only to find out it has bad words or sensual scenes in it.
  • Even though I no longer have children in elementary or high school, I find my schedule is still affected by schools. I go through three school zones to get to my mother-in-law’s place, and there are certain times of day it can take twice as long to get there due to school traffic. On the other hand, it is nicer to go shopping or to restaurants during the day now that schools are back in session.
  • I’m beginning to think that a great deal of misunderstandings and hurt feelings come not from what other people said or did, but from how we interpreted the words or actions. I think sometimes they’d be surprised at what we thought they meant or why we thought they did what they did.

Patio re-do

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One of the house projects I’ve wanted to work on is our back patio. My husband likes to sit on our front porch some times when it is cool:

It is nice there, but I felt like the back area would be more private and I’d be more likely to go there if I wanted to sit outside for a while. Plus I thought it would be nice for everyone to be able to eat out there when he grills.

I didn’t take a “before” picture, but all we had out there was a table my husband found on sale somewhere a while back, a couple of lawn chairs, and the grill.

One of my birthday presents that he just had a chance to assemble this weekend was this swing:

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Recently he bought some chairs to go with the table, and he wants to paint the table to match the chairs.

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I’d like to replace the green umbrella, too, since it has some holes in it anyway, to match the canopy over the swing.

I didn’t take a “before” photo of this area, either, but the dog’s kennel had been partly on the patio and partly on the grass, so the grassy area was kind of scraggly. We sold the kennel after she died. I had been wanting to plant a hydrangea bush because I loved them at our old house, but there wasn’t a place in the front where one would really fit. Then it occurred to me it could go right here beside the patio and have plenty of room to grow. Jim planted it for me on Saturday.

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I think I might put some pansies there, too, and cover the dirt with mulch.

I also took an old planter that had been out by the shed, spray-painted it, and repotted a little rose plant that Jim had gotten me for my birthday. I also replanted a little plant that had been on my kitchen windowsill — I hope it perks up out here.

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And so we were able to put the patio to use for a Labor Day picnic yesterday:

It was a little buggy, but Jim defended us with his “magic wand,” the electric flyswatter. 🙂

I didn’t remember til we were half-way through eating that I had a citronella candle. Next time I’ll try to light that before we get out there.

You can see that our back yard is pretty small, and at first I was dismayed by that, but then realized that our stage of life we don’t really need a lot of space back there (plus the guys appreciate having less to mow. 🙂 )

And one thing really nice about the yard is that the back is lined by evergreen trees. Even though the fence of the neighbor behind us is just behind the trees, we still have a feeling of privacy (at our last house, once the leaves fell off in autumn, I could see from my kitchen window straight into the family room of the house behind us, where the man sat watching TV. I’m sure he was usually watching TV rather than our windows, but still, it felt creepy. I put a suncatcher there at eye level in the window, but I still felt like we were spying on each other. So I am VERY glad these trees are evergreens!)  So far I haven’t heard these neighbors right back there at the fence unless they are doing yard work.

It was especially nice last night when Jason remarked that it was so peaceful back there. I thought, “Yes! That’s exactly what I was going for!”

I’m glad to have this new area shaped up to minister not only to our family but to guests. I’m looking forward to spending some time on the swing with a good book, too. 🙂

Thanks, hon, for the hard work in putting it together! And thank you, Lord, for these gifts of peaceful spots.

Friday’s Fave Five

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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’s the last day of August! I’m looking forward to cooler fall weather, though it may be a while before we experience it here. Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. Jesse’s first week of college classes has gone well. He has been able to navigate the campus well, enjoys his classes and teachers so far, has found people to eat lunch with (I don’t know if that last one is as big a deal for guys as it is for girls. 🙂 ) All in all I think his first week has gone very well.

2. The Hope scholarship came through this week. It is not quite as much as the Life scholarship in SC was (that was one of many things that made it hard to leave SC!), but $1,000 per semester definitely helps.

3. Free audiobooks. My oldest son had an excess of Audible.com credits that he wanted to get rid of in order to go to a cheaper monthly plan. It didn’t look like it was possible to just send me the credits, but he found he could use them to send me a gift of an audiobook. There were a few I had been wanting, but they were smaller books, and I was reluctant to use my one monthly credit on a 6 hour book when I could use it on a 30 hour one. So he sent me four of those smaller books with his excess credits, a help to both of us.

4. Two events out of one housecleaning. 🙂 We had our “Dinner For Six” Friday night, and Jason and Mittu had asked if they could have theirs here Saturday night: they had eight people, one in a wheelchair, so our place worked better for them than their upstairs apartment. The nice thing about theirs, for me, was that the house was already clean for it and their group took care of the cooking. We had a fun game of Apples to Apples with their group as well.

5. An unscheduled weekend. The last few weekends have been filled with really good things, but it is nice to face this weekend with nothing on the calendar. Plus it is a long weekend as well, with everyone having Monday off.

Hope you have a great weekend!

“We Died to Sin”

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“We Died to Sin” is the fourth chapter in the book The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, which we’re discussing every Thursday in the “Reading Classics Together” challenge at Challies‘ place.

The first response might be something like, “If I died to sin, why do I still have trouble with it?” Bridges says there is a different between “putting sin to death (Romans 8:13),” which he will discuss in chapter 11, and having died to sin.

This chapter studies Romans 6:1-14, but to fully understand that, we have to back up to Romans 5, where we learn that “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” In Adam as our representative head, we all sinned, but “our old man is crucified with [Jesus], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6). It doesn’t say we won’t sin any more, because the next few verses instruct us not to yield to sin. But sin’s dominion over us has been broken. We’re able to resist it, through Christ. In Erwin Lutzer’s book How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit, he likened it to moving from one house to another, and having the old landlord come knocking on the door asking for our rent payment: we don’t owe him any more, and we don’t have to pay him.

Some have the reaction that, if we died to sin in Christ, if He paid for all of it, then we can relax and do whatever we want. Paul’s response in Romans 6:1-2: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Because in Him we died to sin, and now we’re united to Christ, such a thing is impossible.

Another resulting thought might be “‘Why…if we died to the reign of sin, do we need to be exhorted not to let sin reign in our bodies?’ Basically Paul was saying…’Live out your lives in the reality of the gospel. Take advantage of and put to use all the provisions of grace God has given to you in Christ'” (p. 75). A former pastor used to say of Philippians 2:12b, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” that that meant not to work for salvation (numerous other verses tell us it is by grace through faith, not out own efforts), but to work it out, like a math problem, to its logical conclusions: take those high and lofty principles and ideals and truths and work them out into your everyday life.

“The gospel is far more than ‘fire insurance’ from eternal punishment in hell. We will learn that through Christ’s death on the cross, we are given the ability to live lives that are both pleasing to God and fulfilling for ourselves” (p. 62).

In many ways, this is the most difficult chapter in the book so far, and these chapters and concepts in Scripture are difficult as well. I’m just scratching the surface here. They are not really hard to follow, exactly, but they do take concentration. But it is definitely worth the effort.

More discussion on this chapter is here.

What’s On Your Nightstand: August 2012

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What's On Your NightstandThe folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

It has been a busy month, but I’ve enjoyed getting some reading in.

Since last time I have finished (all links in this section are to my reviews):

The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis

Not By Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God by Layton Talbert. Excellent.

Roots by Alex Haley, audiobook, traces the boyhood and journey of Kunta Kinte and his descendants after he is brought to America as a slave. Gripping, fascinating, heartbreaking.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, audiobook. True story. Excellent.

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn. Two former college roommates, one in America and one in China, get reacquainted and are surprised at each other’s lives. Good.

With Every Letter by Sarah Sundin. A nurse and a soldier with reasons to want their identity hidden begin an anonymous correspondence and teach each other about faith, identity in Christ, openness, and forgiveness. Excellent.

Never Again Good-bye by Terri Blackstock, audiobook. A man observes a woman seeming to stalk his daughter, has her arrested, and finds out she’s the child’s biological mother. Good, though the rest of the plot is a bit unrealistic.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. Not reviewed. Beautiful, excellent writing, but a sordid, soap-operaish plot-line and an unnecessary vulgar word that I just will not tolerate in fiction.

I’m currently reading:

The Disciplines of Grace by Jerry Bridges with Challies‘ “Reading Classics Together” group.

Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing by Roger Rosenblatt

Rare Earth by Davis Bunn

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, audiobook, in preparation for Carrie‘s Book Club which I am hosting in October (feel free to join in!)

Next up:

The Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis, due out in September.

The Discovery by Dan Walsh

Audiobooks of C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy.

Thriving at College: Make Great Friends, Keep Your Faith, and Get Ready for the Real World! by Alex Chediak, since my youngest just started college yesterday!

What’s on your nightstand? Happy reading!

Book Review: With Every Letter

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Sarah Sundin was my favorite new author of 2010, and I eagerly awaited her new Wings of the Nightingale series. I pre-ordered the first book, With Every Letter, and was surprised and happy when it arrived a month before it was due!

In this book, Philomela “Mellie” Blake is a flight nurse during WWII. Her exceptional shyness is exacerbated by her unconventional (for that time) heritage and looks, making it extremely hard for her to find friends. When a morale-building program of writing anonymously to soldiers begins, she participates, at first because her supervisor wants her to, but later because of the freedom anonymity gives her.

Her corresponding soldier is a Lt. Tom MacGilliver, and anonymity appeals to him, too, because his name has been a burden to him most of his life: his father was a famous killer, and people are wary of him. He can’t let down and be real with anyone…except Mellie.

As friendship begins to blossom into something more, they both wonder whether breaking their anonymity would destroy the relationship they are building.

Though this is a romance, it isn’t just a romance. Susan has a way of integrating a lot of detail and research about the era, locale, planes, etc., without making it seem encyclopedic or dry. Her details enhance the story. But ultimately, the highlight of the story is what the characters have to learn spiritually: the willingness to open oneself up to being known and the risk of rejection and betrayal, the realization of their own faults and shortcomings, not letting those faults  keep them wallowing in the mire but letting them drive them to seek God’s mercy and grace and allowing them to work compassion for others into their hearts, and the need for forgiveness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next in the series.

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