Author Archives: Barbara Harper

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About Barbara Harper

https://barbarah.wordpress.com

Poetry Friday: Dirge for Two Veterans

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I don’t remember now how I discovered “Dirge for Two Veterans” by Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass, but when I did a few weeks ago I knew I wanted to save it for the Poetry Friday before Veteran’s Day. Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Check It Out.

The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,
(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

Blogging for peace…

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I have been tagged by several bloggers to participate in a “Blog Blast for Peace.” I am afraid they might be a little disappointed, though, because I can’t do it exactly like what they have in mind.

There are two reasons. One, I don’t think world peace will come because bloggers or others write about how much we want it. And two, the conflicts between nations stem from the same conflicts in individual human hearts.

James 4:1-3 (NKJV) says,

1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Wars come, ultimately, because nations lust, primarily for power or property. Of course, sometimes nations go to war to defend against that lust of other nations as Great Britain and the USA did against the Nazi regime. I think in some cases like that war is justified though every diplomatic means should be employed first.

But the point is, wars occur for the same reason individual human conflicts occur, and they won’t cease until individual human conflict ceases. And human conflict will not cease until human hearts are changed.

Ephesians 2: 13-18 says:

13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Isaiah 9:6 says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” In John 16:33 He says, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

In studying Bible prophecy, it is only when Christ comes to reign that there will be peace on earth. In fact the passage that says “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” is in a prophetic section talking about the reign of Christ. As it gets closer to that time, He said, in Matthew 24:

5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

Until that time, though, individual believers can have peace with Him, first, and then peace with others. As the Ephesians 2 passage mentioned above, Christ Jesus made peace for those who will believe on Him by offering Himself, shedding His blood to suffer the punishment for those sins and redeem us.

Psalm 85:10 says, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” If a judge set free a guilty man out of mercy, we would say that wasn’t just — especially if we were the ones sinned against by the guilty man. But because Jesus took those sins on Himself and paid the penalty for them, He satisfied the demands for justice, and God is now able to grant mercy, and thereby peace, to those who believe on Christ as Lord and Savior.

Colossians 1 says,

19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

And then once we believe on Him, we have His peace in our hearts. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”

Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

And once we have His peace in our hearts, we can have peace with others. Galatians 5:22-23a says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance.” Colossians 3:14-15 says, “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (II Timothy 2:22). “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:6 says, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

Certainly we do need to speak up against unjust wars, and it is good to be a peacemaker, but total peace won’t come until the Prince of Peace reigns, in individual hearts and in nations.

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Romans 15:13.

“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” II Peter 3:14.

Booking Through Thursday: Presents!

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btt button

The weekly Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”

I receive a lot of books as presents. Our family likes to have ideas of what the recipient would like, so books are almost always on my list, specific books at that. Though I love and appreciate them, there is none that particularly stands out except my first Bible that I received some time during my elementary years from the church I was attending. I don’t remember if it was a general gift or a reward for Sunday School attendance or what. But my mother kept it put away and wouldn’t let me have it except for church. I’m sure she just didn’t want me to mess it up in some way, but I remember even then thinking, “It’s not going to do me much good to have it if I can’t read it!” Still, though, perhaps that experience as well as teaching about how special a book the Bible is taught me to respect it. I believe in respecting and taking care of all books, as we discussed last time, and I believe the Bible is meant to be studied rather than showcased, so I do highlight and underline and jot notes in it. But I hate to see it on the floor or under other books or stuffed with other papers or with food or drink on top of it.

“Above all theologies, and creeds, and catechisms, and books, and hymns, must the Word be meditated on, that we may grow in the knowledge of all its parts and in assimilation to its models. Our souls must be steeped in it; not in certain favorite parts of it, but the whole. We must know it, not from the report of others but from our own experience and vision,…Another cannot breathe the air for us, nor eat for us, nor drink for us.”
–Horatius Bonar from They Walked With God

Read the Bible, and it brings you into the association of the best people that ever lived. You stand beside Moses and learn of his meekness; beside Job and learn his patience; beside Abraham and learn of his faith; beside Daniel and learn of his courage to do right; beside Isaiah and learn his fiery indignation toward the evildoer; beside Paul and catch something of his enthusiasm; beside Christ, and you feel His love.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Paper-crafting Thursday: Fall card

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Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts Paper-Crafting Thursday where we can show cards, bookmarks, etc. that we have made — or, I would guess, that others have made and given us.

This card is one I stamped several years ago.

Fall card

It was stamped with a “rainbow” stamp of different colors side-by-side that were allowed to “bleed” into each other. I think I had made a few like this, and this was the last one, but I messed up the note I was writing inside — it just wasn’t coming out right. But I didn’t want to throw this away, so it has been sitting in a box for years. With all the card-making inspiration of the last few weeks, I decided to see what I could do with it.

By the way, the row of leaves was made with this stamp, turning it each time, so it looked like the leaves were being blown by.

Fall card

This is the new, remade card:

Fall card

Post-election blues

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Well, the election did not go the way some of us wanted, and there are varying degrees of feelings about that.

I’ve been heartened, though, to see on Facebook and various peoples’ blogs reminders that “promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Psalm 75:6-7) and “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:8-9). I wonder if we would be reminding ourselves of those things if the candidate that we wanted had won? I think as Christians we can fall into the trap of “trusting in man” when the “right” candidate wins. Perhaps the Lord will use this to call us to greater prayer and dependence on Him.

And we have to remember that just because Obama was elected doesn’t mean he will automatically be able to do everything he wants to do. Study the issues, be aware (maybe even more aware than you would otherwise have been), write to him and to your representatives, using your voice and influence in those issues which concern you. And above all else, as I mentioned yesterday, pray “for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (I Timothy 2:2). If I remember correctly, Paul wrote that while either Nero or one of the Herods was in power, neither of which was conducive to Christian values. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
~ Malt­bie D. Bab­cock

(Updated to add: Chris Anderson shared some similar thoughts but expanded to many more good ones today.)

A prayer for our leaders

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I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks,
be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority;
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

I Timothy 2:1-2

Election Eve

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(Image courtesy of stock.xpert)

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual–or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. — Samuel Adams

Tomorrow is election day in the USA. I encourage each to vote her conscience, to make whatever effort it takes to exercise this right and privilege we have to have a voice in our government.

You can find a voter’s guide here.

I normally don’t get too political here. I normally don’t care much for political discussions at all. I do believe in voting, in contacting our officials, in keeping up on issues, in researching our candidates’ positions beyond the ads and their records.

Personally, McCain was not my first choice as a Republican candidate, but the two I most liked canceled each other out by splitting the vote. But of the two major candidates he is closer to my views. And I do admire a lot about him though I don’t agree with him on every single little item.

If there were a third-party candidate that I strongly agreed with, my conscience might dictate that I vote that way, and I really wish we had three strong parties rather than two, but as it is I think a vote for a third-party candidate will ultimately be a vote for Obama, splitting votes away from McCain.

I don’t mean any offense, I have dear friends and family members for Obama, but. honestly, he scares me to death for mean reasons. He’s likable, personable, articulate…but scary. The two main reasons have to do with his views on abortion, extending even to the denying of aid for those babies who survive an abortion procedure, and his socialistic (if not Marxist) views on the economy and the “redistribution of wealth.” The Common Room has documented many of his views in interviews and such: I encourage you to go there and look around.

I know many feel he is more committed to ending the Iraq war as soon as possible. I agree that war is horrid, but it is important to finish well. I lived through the Viet Nam war era, and the worst thing we could do is pull out leaving the people worse off than when we came. We need to end it, but we need to end it right. There are many good things going on there that the press never seems to bring to light. The husband of a friend has spent many months there helping rebuild the infrastructure and sends back great reports. And this soldier is one of many who believes in the cause he fought for:

Whatever happens, I will be glad when tomorrow is over. And God will still be God and our hope will still be in Him no matter who is leading our nation.

Psalm 118: 8-9: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.  It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.”

Blue Monday: Me!

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Smiling Sally hosts a Blue Monday in which we can post about anything blue — pretty, ugly, serious or funny — and then link up to other Blue Monday participants.

I saw this quiz at Joyful Days last week, and when I took it and saw the results, I thought it would be perfect for Blue Monday. 🙂

You are most like:

You are Blue

You are cool and soothing, with a hidden spontanious side. You are deeper than most people percieve, and you care a lot for those whom you surround yourself with.
Take this quiz: Which Crayola Box of 8 Color Are You?

A prayer for home

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Lord, this humble house we’d keep
Sweet with play and calm with sleep.
Help us so that we may give
Beauty to the lives we live.
Let Thy love and let Thy grace
Shine upon our dwelling place.

-Edgar A. Guest

(Graphic courtesy of Graphic Garden)

Catching up

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My word, you all are prolific! I had to discipline myself not to even open Google Reader yesterday til I finished my task. After dinner I finally got to “play” a while — and there were over 120 posts! I read some last night and some this morning. Saturdays are typically slow in Blogland, so it is a good day to catch up.

I also missed out on Friday’s Fave Five, Show and Tell Friday, Saturday Photo Hunt, but it is my own fault.

The last week of the month finds me working on a newsletter/booklet for our ladies’ group at church. I never know quite what to call it. It started out as about eight pages with news of our group, our missionaries, and other little bits of interest to women, based on a similar booklet my mother-in-law’s church published. I took some of those to my pastor and asked if we could do the same, and he said, “Go for it!” This month marks my eighth year of doing it, and it has grown to 16 pages and includes a section on devotions, a book summary of a missionary book or biography or an anecdote from a missionary’s life, an “around the house” section of tips or encouragement for homemakers, a “Christian womanhood” section where I rotate topics related to different to women in different situations — single, married, mom, older, widowed, etc. Some of it I write myself, some of it I compile from other sources. It is a blessing to me — sometimes I would love to lay aside other ministry tasks and just do this.

Oh, there is also a “funny pages” section at the back. That is probably what I get the most comments on. 🙂

It seems that most bloggers love to write to some degree — you might ask your pastor about a similar ministry, and he just might say, “Go for it!”

Some months I know what I am going to put in the booklet, and it is just a matter of getting it down. Other times I am not so sure until I get started. This month was about half and half. I usually work on it the last week of the month to have out the first Sunday of the next month. I keep telling myself I should work on it earlier then let it “sit” and incubate for a while and edit it the last week — I would probably catch more mistakes that way and find better ways to word things. But I somehow end up not doing that. This particular week I ended up not getting the bulk of it done until the last two days!

I don’t work best under pressure — but I do get more done under pressure.

But my point in saying all of this is to testify that God is faithful to guide and direct and give ideas even to such small endeavors as this. There was one section I was drawing a blank on until He reminded me of an idea I considered last month, but then went another direction. I hadn’t made note of it and had forgotten it. Sometimes putting the clip art in can be the most time-consuming part of it, but He reminded me of a file I had downloaded some type back under an obscure title. Time after time I see Him faithfully helping things to come together, giving me ideas, etc. And I have seen that in other areas of ministry as well. So I just wanted to encourage you not to refrain from certain types of ministry because you don’t think you’d know what to do. If it is something the Lord wants you to do, He will work through you and help you to do it.

“In other news”… last night was Halloween, and somehow our neighborhood gets flooded with many more people than I ever see on the streets here at any other time. I think people from other neighborhoods, or maybe a nearby apartment complex, bring their kids here. I even saw one truck that hauled a lot of people around. We always get some kids’ tracts printed up for just such a purpose (our local Christian bookstore has them but they can also be ordered at Good News Publishing) to give out with the candy. I bought 114 tracts — about all our bookstore had that I liked — and those were gone within about 45 minutes. I scrambled around between my purse and desk and a cabinet and found maybe 40 or so more. Then we just gave out handfuls of candy but got tired after a while and went ahead and closed the door and shut off the lights. We have much more candy left over than any of us needs — I may send some to the dorms with Jason’s girlfriend.

I used to be very anti-Halloween, and I still think there is a darker side to it. I feel almost oppressed sometimes at the types of things in the stores and on TV — I don’t watch horror movies, but I do see them listed and advertised a lot this time of year. And I think a lot of the really gruesome costumes and decorations go too far. But I can see how it can also be an innocent, fun time of dressing up and having fun.

When my older boys were little, a friend used to host a fall party on a week apart from Halloween. Each year it was a different theme: one year it was clowns, one it was fairy-tale characters, one it was what you want to be when you grow up. The kids just loved that, and I loved the creativity of getting a costume together to fit the theme. If I had time today I’d scan in some of their costumes, but I don’t — and this post is too long already. My friend also had games and goodies, and those parties were some of my favorite memories from my kids’ childhood.

Speaking of going on too long, I need to get going, but I wanted to share one last thing. A few days ago I mentioned I was chuckling over a mom in a store calling to her little son, “Walker, don’t run!” Well, this morning there was a related headline in the paper that made me chuckle again:

Have a good weekend!