Category Archives: Christian Life

Almighty Father

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Almighty Father, You alone are holy.
You are my refuge, I will trust in You.
You are a tower, a mighty fortress,
You are my strength and shield.
You are God.

Almighty Father, You alone are holy.
You guide my footsteps that I may not fall.
In joy or sorrow, I will exalt You.
You are my righteousness,
You are God.

Almighty Father, You alone are holy.
You are Creator, You are all in all!
Yours is the power, Yours is the glory.
Yours is the majesty.
You are God.

~ Words: J. Paul Williams; Music: Benjamin Harlan

The Week in Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are a few quotes gleaned from last week’s reading:

From Diane‘s Facebook:

“Our divine Lord spent six times as long working at the carpenter’s bench as He did in His world-shaking ministry. He did not shrink from the hidden years of preparation.” ~ J. Oswald Sanders

It’s easy to balk at the “hidden years” while eager to serve, but it seems many, if not all, of the people God used most had some time hidden away — Moses in the desert before being called to Egypt, Paul between his conversion and first missionary journey, Joseph in prison, David with his sheep. Who knows why, in the mysteries of God, it’s that way, but we can trust Him even when “hidden” that He is preparing us and using us for His glory.

Seen at Mama Bear’s:

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Real love is essentially others-focused, not self-focused.

Janet penned this here:

Sometimes it’s our most deeply held ideals that seem to emerge most falteringly in our lives. (Why is that?) We need authors who breathe life into them by going before us and putting them into words more eloquent than any we could come up with ourselves, and taking them farther than we can currently see.

I’ve read good authors who have done just that for me.

You can share your family-friendly quotes in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below.

I hope you’ll visit the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And I hope you’ll leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share.

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness

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“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Philippians 3:9

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
’Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in Thy great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,
Who from the Father’s bosom came,
Who died for me, e’en me to atone,
Now for my Lord and God I own.

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me, e’en for my soul, was shed.

Lord, I believe were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full atonement made.

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
Ev’n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.

~ Nikolaus L. von Zin­zen­dorf

A few more stanzas are here. You can hear a clip of a newer tune here.

The Week in Words

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”"

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are a few quotes that spoke to me this week:

From a friend’s Facebook:

If infinite wisdom, omnipotent power, and paternal love, are engaged for our present and eternal welfare–then our fears must be groundless, and our anxiety folly. ~ James Smith

From another friend’s Facebook:

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Short and hopefully sweet today: I’m fighting off a cold and feeling blah. 🙂 But I look forward to seeing what you have to share.

You can share your family-friendly quotes in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below.

I hope you’ll visit the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And I hope you’ll leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share.

The Week in Words

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”"

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are a few quotes that spoke to me this week:

From Diane‘s Facebook:

“What would you expect? Sin will not come to you, saying, ‘I am sin.’ It would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems ‘good, pleasant, and desirable,’ at the time of arrival.” ~ J.C. Ryle

So very true.

From Chris Anderson‘s Twitter:

The inevitable fruit of any fleshly attempt to engineer unity apart from truth will be worse division than ever. ~ Phil Johnson

Unity just for unity’s sake usually involves a compromise of truth. There are multitudes of personal preferences it’s ok to compromise on, but we dare not compromise truth.

From the chapter “Not One Thing Has Failed” in Elisabeth’s Elliot‘s book Love Has a Price Tag, quoted in her e-mail devotional:

“I visited Indians at Crossweeksung,” [David] Brainerd records, “Apprehending that it was my indispensable duty…. I cannot say I had any hopes of success. I do not know that my hopes respecting the conversion of the Indians were ever reduced to so low an ebb … yet this was the very season that God saw fittest to begin His glorious work in! And thus He ordained strength out of weakness … whence I learn that it is good to follow the path of duty, though in the midst of darkness and discouragement.”

You can share your family-friendly quotes in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below.

I hope you’ll visit the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And I hope you’ll leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share.

Nearer My God to Thee

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This is a beautiful rendition of this familiar hymn.

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone.
Yet in my dreams I’d be nearer, my God to Thee.

Refrain

There let the way appear, steps unto Heav’n;
All that Thou sendest me, in mercy given;
Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

Then, with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs Bethel I’ll raise;
So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

Or, if on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I’ll fly,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

There in my Father’s home, safe and at rest,
There in my Savior’s love, perfectly blest;
Age after age to be, nearer my God to Thee.

Refrain

~ Verses 1-5, Sarah E. Adams; Verse 6, Edward H. Bickersteth, Jr.

The Week in Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are a few quotes that spoke to me this week:

From a friend’s Facebook:

To derive the fullest comfort and encouragement from Romans 8:28 we must realize that God is at work in a proactive, not reactive, fashion. That is, God does not just respond to an adversity in our lives to make the best of a bad situation. He knows before He initiates or permits the adversity exactly how He will use it for our good. – Jerry Bridges

Nothing takes Him by surprise. He is proactive, not reactive. He is wise and purposeful, not just responsive. What a blessing.

Quoted in Created for Work by Bob Schultz:

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. ~ Alexander Pope

Hopefully one can say that, if one has learned from mistakes!

From Carver of Tuskegee, quoted in Created for Work by Bob Schultz:

“Didn’t you plan to be an artist at one time, Professor?”

Carver smiled. “I am an artist…I make beauty instead of recording it. There is beauty in well-tilled fields, in healthy and happy people, beauty to living in harmony with others. With God helping me, I have tried to create beauty according to His directing.”

You can share your family-friendly quotes in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below.

I hope you’ll visit the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And I hope you’ll leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share.

The Week in Words

Posted on by

”"

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Before I share some of the quotes that I came across this week, I wanted to ask if those of you who pray might ask the Lord to heal my foot. A little raw place rubbed my new shoes somehow got infected and then developed cellulitis. We went to the ER Sat. night and I was given antibiotics and released to go home and keep my feet up. I’m supposed to go back to the ER if it gets worse, and they’ll start iv antibiotics. I’ve been debating all Sunday whether to go back or not, but I want to give the antibiotics I have a chance to kick in and work. I’d appreciate your prayers both for wisdom and healing.

Now, on to the quotes collected for this week:

From an Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotional:

Because a thing is unpleasant, it is folly to conclude it ought not to be. There are powers to be born, creations to be perfected, sinners to be redeemed, through the ministry of pain, to be born, perfected, redeemed, in no other way. ~ George MacDonald, What’s Mine’s Mine

Seen at Quill Cottage:

The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination. ~ Terri Guillemets

I like that on a number of levels.

And I think I saw this on John Piper’s Twitter feed:

New laws don’t make new hearts.

Very true. Only God’s grace can cause a true change of heart. Laws are good and necessary, but in a sense they just point up the need for a change of heart. If hearts were right, we wouldn’t need laws.

You can share your family-friendly quotes in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below.

I hope you’ll visit the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And I hope you’ll leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share.

My Song Is Love Unknown

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My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight,
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
Themselves displease, and ’gainst Him rise.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

~ Samuel Crossman, 1664
(Full version is here.)

Book Review: Serenity

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I picked Serenity by Harry Kraus, M. D., out of the clearance section of Christianbook.com for a couple of reasons: I have a little great-niece named Serenity, and I thought her mother (my niece) and grandmother (my sister) would get a kick out of a book with her name; and it’s set in North Carolina, and I love books set in the Carolinas, having lived in SC for 26 years. It turned out to be a really good, keep-the-pages-turning book!

It’s a little confusing at first because it is obvious that someone is impersonating a doctor, but the names of the two men are similar and it was hard to keep them straight initially, but after a while it doesn’t matter because the names are then referring to the same man. By the time they’re referring to two different men again, the reader has them straight.

Andy comes into the sleepy seaside town of Serenity, NC, impersonating Dr. Adam Tyson. We’re not sure why he is impersonating the doctor at first, but he chose Serenity because it was supposed to be an easy practice, primarily a tourist town, with major cases being sent elsewhere. But his first day on the job he is slammed with a number of challenging cases and quickly earns a reputation as a kind and excellent doctor.

Beth Carlson is the new director of nursing, having come to Serenity for a fresh start with her teen son. They’re living with her father, who has advancing dementia but is not so far gone that he can’t live at home.

Fairly soon it’s apparent that Dr. Tyson isn’t the only one with whom things aren’t as they seem as strange things start happening around town. I’d like to tell you more of the story — but I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Author Harry Kraus is an M.D. himself, so the technical areas of the story ring true, yet they’re not so technical that we average readers can’t follow along. He’s also an excellent story-teller, unfolding just enough of each character’s situation along the way to reveal more interesting information, yet not enough to give away what’s going on too soon, while weaving an underlying theme of identity throughout, especially one’s identity in Christ.

I’m so glad I came across this book, and I plan to look up more of Harry Kraus’s books as well.

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