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A Passion For Thee

Posted on April 22, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Set my heart, O dear Father,
On Thee, and Thee only,
Give me a thirst for Thy presence divine.
Lord, keep my focus on loving Thee wholly,
Purge me from earth; Turn my heart after Thine.

A passion for Thee;
O Lord, set a fire in my soul, and a thirst for my God.
Hear Thou my prayer, Lord, Thy power impart.
Not just to serve, but to love Thee with all of my heart.

Father fill with Thy Spirit, and fit me for service,
Let love for Christ every motive inspire,
Teach me to follow in selfless submission,
Be Thou my joy and my soul’s one desire.

A passion for Thee;
O Lord, set a fire in my soul, and a thirst for my God.
Hear Thou my prayer, Lord, Thy power impart.
Not just to serve, but to love Thee with all of my heart.

–Words and music by Joe Zichterman

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Steps

Posted on April 21, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Theme: Steps | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll

This was taken several years ago at the same state park where some of my pictures from the “water” theme from a few weeks ago were taken. We had lived in this area for the first fourteen years we were married and frequently went to this state park to have a picnic, feed the ducks, etc. We moved to another state for four years and then moved back to SC, but father away from this place. Once or twice we’ve made treks back there since then. I don’t know quite what his structure was for — it was bigger than what was needed just to climb up and go down the pole, and I never saw it used as a stage. But I have pictures from different years with the boys at the top with their hands straight up, like in the picture below from several years earlier. It was one of those things they did every time we were there.

On the back of this picture I have written, “TA-DA!”

Nice, but still a rebel

Posted on April 20, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Some weeks ago I finished Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis and started writing a review, but got distracted and busy and haven’t gotten back to it. I do intend to finish it soon: one difficulty is that there are a number of good quotes from the book I want to use, but if I use all of them it would make for an exceptionally long post.

One quote, however, has been on my mind, and I wanted to go ahead and post it separately. It’s from the chapter “Beyond Personality” in a section that discusses the dilemma of how you can sometimes have an unsaved person who is actually nicer than some Christians. Lewis goes into many reasons for that which I won’t reproduce here, but one reason has to do with general disposition. Person A may be a quieter, calmer person and generally nice and personable, yet unsaved. Person B may have a more excitable personality and a fiery temper which the Lord has been giving him grace to overcome, and he may be a lot better than he was, yet compared with Person A he doesn’t seem as nice. Lewis then goes on to say (emphasis mine):

If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is. “Why drag God into it?” you may ask. A certain level of good conduct comes fairly easily to you. You are not one of those wretched creatures who are always being tripped up by s*x, or dipsomania, or nervousness, or bad temper. Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness. Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness cannot be brought to recognize their need for Christ at all until, one day, the natural goodness lets them down and their self-satisfaction is shattered….

If you are a nice person — if virtue comes easily to you — beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are really God’s gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far above yours as your are above those of a chimpanzee.

….We must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world — and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is no redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.

If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, “So there’s your boasted new man! Give me the old kind.” But if you once have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people’s souls — of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anesthetic fog which we call “nature” or “the real world” fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?

Bloglines hiccuped

Posted on April 20, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Last night I fell asleep on the couch watching the news, and next thing I knew it was about 2 a.m. Everyone else was already in bed, so I got up to turn everything off and go on to bed. I had left my e-mail provider and Bloglines open earlier in the evening, and as I went to turn Bloglines off, I noticed it said there were over 11,000 new posts. I thought I was seeing things a little fuzzy from my sleepiness, so I squinted and looked closer, then saw that every blog I am subscribed to through Bloglines was bolded, indicating new posts, and the parentheses beside each blog had numbers in the 70-200 range rather than 1 or 2.

I clicked on the “Bloglines news,” and it said they had experienced a small hiccup during the night and they hoped it wouldn’t cause any problems.

That was some hiccup!

I clicked on a couple of blogs and saw that there were no new posts — a brief glance through what was listed showed they were all old posts.

I went ahead and closed everything down and figured this morning I would just mark everything read and then go back and check out the ones that do tend to have posts every day. Thankfully all was back to normal — I think there were 21 new posts from the 79 blogs I’m subscribed to.

I love you guys, but 11,000 posts would have been a bit much. 🙂

Helping, not hurting

Posted on April 19, 2007 by Barbara Harper

This post by Yekwana Man is an excellent answer to those who think missionaries are having a negative impact on indigenous peoples.

I have known two missionaries, one in person and one through books, who ministered to primitive tribes who were killing each other off, the first by cannibalism and headhunting, the second because that tribe’s only way of dealing with any wrong was murder. This latter tribe was the Waodani, formerly known as the Aucas (an outside name given to them, not their name for themselves) of Ecuador. In the documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor they told anthropologists that they had been almost down to two people before the missionaries came. Why would even any non-Christian want to see a whole people group extinguished due to infighting or disease? Especially these days when we clamor to save the spotted owl and other endangered species? Shouldn’t endangered people be at least equally as important as endangered animals?

Would anyone in their right minds really want such practices as burying a widow along with her husband or killing twins or deformed babies to continue? So many primitive tribes practice these kinds of things.

Why deny these people the choice of hearing that there are other ways? Why not allow them to hear the gospel and let them make their own choice? So many who bask in the multitudes of freedoms we have here in the US would rather keep people like this in darkness in the name of preserving their culture. Most missionaries I know of these days consciously and conscientiously try not to “Americanize” the native churches but rather try to respect their culture and form churches within that culture while introducing healthier ways of living and civil practices. Who could possibly have a problem with that?

Thursday Thirteen: Mixed Metaphors

Posted on April 19, 2007 by Barbara Harper

OK, so there are more than thirteen, but I didn’t want to eliminate any more than I already did. 🙂 I received these in an e-mail some time ago and thought they were funny. Enjoy!

1. “I don’t want anybody stepping on anybody else’s thunder.”
2. “You can’t pull the sheep over my eyes!”
3. “That guy’s a bullhead in a china shop.”
4. “We don’t want this project to snowball into a can of worms.”
5. “We were up the creek in a hand bag.”
6. “It’s best not to open that can of wax.”
7. “Let’s pair up into threes.”
8. “I just thought myself into a corner.”
9. “We really need to hang on to our coattails to ride the waves of change.”
10. “Once you open a can of worms, they always come home to roost.”
11. “She grabbed the bull by the horns, and ran with it.”
12. “They were up a tree without a paddle.”
13. “He’s got too many oars in the fire.”
14. “We’ll tackle that bridge when we come to it.”
15. “I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel.”
16. “You can beat a dead horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
17. “Those two get on like a horse on fire.”
18. “You’ve buttered your bread, now lie in it.”
19. “Grasping at the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
20. “Don’t burn your bridges till you come to them.”
21. “He’s been burning the midnight oil at both ends.”
22. “It’s as plain as the egg on your face.”

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Heather’s love offering

Posted on April 18, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Don’t forget, today starts the love offering BooMama has set up for Heather at Especially Heather. Heather is the mother of the Emma Grace whose “Pray for Emma Grace” buttons you may have seen around. Heather just recently found out she has a brain tumor. She had appointments at the Mayo Clinic and M. D. Anderson for further opinions. This love offering is to help defray the costs of those trips and whatever other expenses they might incur as a result of this finding. Details for participating are here. But whatever you do, please pray.

Book Review: Finding Your Path

Posted on April 18, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I met Mitch and D.K. Raymer through the Thursday Thirteen. They both seemed like kind and gracious people, were genuine Christians, and I noticed Mitch often posted helpful job tips. My husband is in business and my oldest son was a business management major in college, so these caught my eye. At some point I noticed that Mitch had written a book called Finding Your Path: Your Path to a Job. It looked like something that would be good to pass along to my sons, but I never got around to ordering it. Then came a Thursday Thirteen in which Mitch offered a free copy of his book to thirteen people who signed up for it, asking only for our thoughts about the book when we were done. So I signed up right away! I received my book in the mail, told my son about it and left it on his desk, but kept forgetting to pick it up myself. So I finally put it on my Spring Reading List and just finished it this morning.

According to Mitch’s blog:

This book introduces Christian principles that will not only help you find a job, but find Christ, too. It is not intended for degree-holding professionals – they’ve already found their career path. This book is written for you, the backbone of America’s workforce. If you are:

a high school student who is not going on to college

a college student looking for part-time work

a SAHM who wants to supplement your family’s income

a blue-collar or service worker looking for “an edge” before your next job interview

a middle-aged worker facing a career change

a retiree re-entering the workforce

anyone who wants to brush up on your job hunting skills

Mitch has been an administrator and Human Resources director, reading thousands of applications and interviewing thousands of job-seekers. This book grew out of some of his experiences, finding that some did not know the basics about preparing for a job interview. Mitch is imminently qualified to write this book” he has been on the other side of the desk and knows what employers are looking for.

The first few sections of the book establish some basic foundational principles: how to have a relationship with God and know your sins are forgiven, how to grow in Him and depend on Him and seek His wisdom in “finding your path,” several character issues such as honesty, self-esteem (not based on false flattery but in the security of knowing God created you and has a plan for you), fear, humility, integrity, patience, God’s love and provision. As I read this part, I thought, what a great way to start! These issues are helpful in all of life as well as in finding and keeping a job.

The next section helps determine which path to follow by asking questions and giving advice about interests, aptitude, skills, levels of responsibility one would be comfortable with, needs, wants, and priorities. Two of my favorite passages in this section are Exodus 31:1-5:

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

4 To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,

5 And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

and Exodus 36:1:

Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.

It was an encouragement for me when I was a young person to learn that God didn’t just call people into “full-time Christian service,” but He also called and gifted all of us for the particular task He has for each of us. Mitch’s section here is very helpful for someone trying to determine just what skills God has gifted him with.

The next detailed and extremely practical section defines the tools one needs when job-hunting: resumes, cover letters, letters of reference, and examples of each. Then he moves into how to find job openings, how to proceed in applying for a job, what to expect from the interview process and how to present oneself during an interview, the best way to follow up an interview. Sprinkled throughout this section are helpful business etiquette tips.

I think Mitch did a wonderful job with this book. The words “practical” and “helpful” came to mind often as I read the different sections. There are many nuts-and-bolts tips and a foundation of faith: he not only starts out the book establishing Biblical principles, but all throughout the book he reminds the reader that God is in control and will guide and help him in this process.

This book would make a wonderful graduation gift or a great tool for anyone seeking to “find their path” in today’s job market. I highly recommend it.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Organizing quotes, jokes, poems, anecdotes

Posted on April 18, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I’ve collected a lot of quotes, jokes, poems, anecdotes, etc. on various topics over the years. I used to just save them in a folder with my saved e-mail, because most of them I received via e-mail. If I found something somewhere online that I wanted to keep, I’d copy and paste it, along with the source, and send it in an e-mail to myself to put into the folder.

But it was getting harder to find particular ones I wanted, plus all the saved mail was causing my e-mail provider to load slowly. So I have been working on taking all of these things and organizing them into Word documents.

Each member of our family has a folder with their name in “My Documents” on Microsoft Word. In my folder I created another folder called “Topic file.” I created several subfolders in my topic file for Holidays, Seasons, Marriage, Raising children, Trials and afflictions, Prayer, Missions, etc. — I add categories as I come across things in my files. Some of the folders are further subdivided into categories: Holidays, for instance, has subfolders for various holidays. In most of the folders I have a page for quotes; in some I have a page for jokes. There is a page for shorter poems but longer ones often have their own page as do anecdotes.

I use many of these things in personal correspondence, but I also use many both in my blog and in a newsletter for our church’s ladies group. When I use something, say, for instance, a poem about Easter, in parentheses after it I’ll put whether it was used on my blog or the newsletter and the date. This has been a great help because previously I’d have to leaf through past newsletters (all the May ones, for instance, to see if I had used a certain Mother’s Day poem yet).

This is a work in progress. So far as each holiday or season approaches, I go through my files and pull out everything on that holiday or season and then put them in Word documents and then create folders for them. That way it is not overwhelming trying to do all this at once. As I find new quotes, etc., I want to use, it is handy to find or create the file it needs to go in.

I thought about organizing it a little differently: making a folder for jokes, a folder for poems, etc., with topic categories within each folder, but organizing it by topic seems to work best for me. It has been a big help already in finding that certain story or quote I want without having to dig through a lot of files.

I don’t have many quotes from books in my files yet. I have a few books that I quote from often with little pieces of paper stuck in the places I like to quote. 🙂 That might be the next project after this one: getting some of those written out in a Word document and then into the right category. I also have things like this in paper files in a metal filing cabinet (from the days before computers 🙂 ) that I need to go through and transfer to the computer some day.

I’d be interested to hear if anyone has a different way to handle this kind of thing.

As always, visit the Works For Me Wednesday creator and hostess, Shannon, at Rocks In My Dryer for great tips on a variety of topics. We’d love to read any tips that you have as well!

Psalm Sunday: Psalm 14

Posted on April 17, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I am late with Psalm Sunday this week. We were busy til late Sunday evening, and I had fully planned to do this yesterday morning and just forgot, I guess because my Monday morning I usually already have it done.

Psalm 14

1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.

5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.

6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.

7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
This is another of those Psalms that seems pretty straightforward — there is not much to say about it — it says it all! 🙂

Verse 1 did remind me of Romans 1:16-32, which traces the progression of people who “do not like to retain God in their knowledge” (v. 28) and are then “given over to a reprobate mind.” I used to think “reprobate” meant “really sinful” unto it was explained to me that it meant “unable to make sound judgment.” That explains some of the weird and unreasonable views and decisions in this day and age, I think. Sometimes I hear and read things that make me shake my head in wonder at the blindness. I think when people do not acknowledge God, as the first verse of this Psalm says, that opens them up to corruption, abominable works, and a lack of doing good.

Romans 1 also says,

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Man tends to glorify himself and his own “reasoning” powers these days. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…” God showed evidence of Himself clearly, yet people refuse to see it, choosing rather to explain away God’s majestic and marvelous creation by contrived theories of evolution.

Is there no hope then? There is always hope until the Lord returns again. “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three…” (I Cor. 13:13a). There is hope in the mercy of God, shown to all of us. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9). And there is hope in His Word: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” (Psalm 119:130). May we faithfully share God’s Word, praying that it will give light to darkened hearts just as it did to ours.

More thoughts on this Psalm can be found at Butterfly Kisses.