Category Archives: Thoughts From Scripture

Books to read before you die

Posted on by

Our main family e-mail account is with AOL, and one of the AOL headlines that caught my eye yesterday was “10 Books to Read Before You Die” based on a popular opinion poll conducted by Netscape. Their list included:

1, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

I really have no desire to read this. Though there were parts of the movie I liked, overall it was the story of a spoiled immature girl growing up into a spoiled immature woman. Not terribly inspiring, to me anyway. But it was cited for the historical accuracy of the era, so that might be worth exploring.

2. Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

This I would agree with. There is a richness to the story itself, the vocabulary, the imaginativeness, the quest of good vs. evil.

3. Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling.

I’ve never had an interest in this. I suppose if my boys had been interested I would have explored it. I’ve read many debates by Christians about whether we should read it or not. I’ve got too many other things I am interested in reading to get involved with this, and I am not inclined to read things dealing with the occult, even in fun. That may seem inconsistent with having read Lord of the Rings with its wizards and magic, but the wizards in LOTR were more like superheroes of Middle Earth — I don’t think they did what real witches would do.

4. The Stand by Stephen King.

I am not a Stephen King fan.

5. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

I was amazed at how the public flocked to this. I’d recommend The Da Vinci Deception by Erwin Lutzer.

6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

On my TBR list.

7. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

This precedes The Da Vinci Code. I’m not really interested in exploring it.

8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I had never heard of this one. It’s described as “a hymn of praise to the concept of rugged individualism…[the] polemic for Rand’s philosophy of ‘rational self-interest.'” Doesn’t sound like anything I’d be interested in.

9. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.

Since it cites “liberal use of profanity, its frank conversations about sex,” I don’t think I’d explore this, either.

10. The Holy Bible.

I was surprised to see this on their list. The reason the site lists is “No book has had more influence on the world. Its pages tell the story of the creation, fall, and redemption of mankind and the coming of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. The Bible contains epic stories of history, heroism, and hope.” I once wrote of reasons to read the Bible here.

My own list of classic “Books To Read Before You Die” would include the following:

1. The Bible.

For reasons mentioned above.

2. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

Classic picturesque allegory of the Christian life.

3. Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Classic picture of early American homesteading, homemaking, and family values.

4. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Classic English waif in the industrial era, tale of a boy overcoming many odds against him to grow up into a decent human being.

5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Riveting example of “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

6. Something by Jane Austen.

My favorite Austen book is Persuasion (my review is here), but probably most people would list Pride and Prejudice as quintessential Austen and the quintessential novel of classic English society and romance.

7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Besides a painful picture of the cruelty of slavery, it also represents Uncle Tom, as one former pastor put it, as “the kind of Christian you always wanted to be.”

8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

For many reasons mentioned in an earlier review.

9. At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon.

The Mitford series is a sweet and poignant picture of small town American life. This first book in the series is my favorite.

10. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Classic, beauitful tale of redemption.

I had originally meant to include both Christian books and classics on one list, but I am discovering I have more than enough for two separate lists. So here would be my top ten Christian books to read before you die. The first two in the above list, of course, could also go on this list, but I will leave them where they are:

1. Hudson Taylor: Growth of a Soul by Mr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor.

This is one of the classic missionary biographies. It includes many of Hudson taylor’s own writings as well as the story of his life and faith.

2. Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton.

Life story of a remarkable missionary to India.

3. Goforth of China and Climbing by Rosalind Goforth

I can’t begin to express ways in which my heart was touched or lessons learned by reading these books.

4. By Searching and In the Arena by Isobel Kuhn.

I have probably given away more copies of these books than any others. the first is Isobel’s own journey from doubt into faith; the second details certain experiences of her life in which God’s grace and power were on display.

5. To the Golden Shore by Courtney Anderson.

Biography of Adoniram Judson, America’s first missionary. I admire his conviction, his passion, his steadfastness in the face of persecution, his overcoming in the face of loss, pain, and doubts.

6. Winning the Inner War: How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit by Erwin Lutzer, reviewed here.

I’ve read this two or three times, maybe more. It’s a great help in learning to overcome temptation.

7, Changed Into His Image by Jim Berg.

Great resource on how to live the Christian life.

8. The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot.

Not a “how-to” guide, but the story of her own family. Wonderful, inspirational examples.

9 Through Gates of Splendour by Elisabeth Elliot.

The first and classic story of the five missionaries speared to death in the early 1960s by what was known then as the Auca Indians, and the subsequent reaching of that tribe with the gospel.

10. Not My Will by Francena Arnold.

One of the first examples of Christian fiction I am aware of and one of the best.

My mind is swirling now with book titles, many more that I could recommend. But these are the best of the best.

How about you? Would your list include any of these? What would you list differently?

“Why am I still here?”

Posted on by

Last night Jim’s mom was thinking back through all the people in her life who had passed on — parents, husband, sister, cousins — and wondering why the Lord left her here. I tried to reassure her that if God had her here, He had a purpose for her. She grinned and said, “To be an example in suffering?” Then she reassured me that though she had had some tough spots in her life, she wasn’t really suffering, especially as compared to some others.

The conversation reminded me of an article years ago in Frontline magazine called “A Psalm for Old Age” by Esther Talbert. We knew the Talberts: we attended church with them for several years before we moved out of state. Esther’s mother-in-law, Jean, had been one of the sweetest, merriest hearts I had ever known. Then she got Alzheimer’s, and it was so sad to see her standing away from everyone looking confused and uncertain. She was one whose situation caused me to wonder why the Lord let some of His children go through such things instead of taking them on Home. Part of Esther’s article addresses that:

Verse 18 of Psalm 71 says, “Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not, until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to every one that is to come.” As a nursing instructor cherished by her students (of whom I was one), Mom imparted to her young charges far more than nursing skills. To many she was a surrogate mother and spiritual counselor who showed the strength and sweetness, the love and faithfulness of the Lord. Now God is using her to show His strength and power—perfected through weakness—to my husband and me.

There is a reason God leaves the elderly and infirm among us, and it is often not for their benefit but for ours. If we are not too busy and self-absorbed, we may learn the qualities of Christ that we lack and that He desires to mold in us, the transformation of character He intends to accomplish in us, by confronting us with their presence and needs. By the time something like Alzheimer’s strikes, God is about done with His earthly work in someone like Mom. “Why, then, does He leave someone to linger like that?” we wonder. His earthly work in Mom is done, but much of His earthly work in us and others, through Mom, is just beginning. He strengthens us daily to love and care for her. In the gentle rebuke of His mercy, He is molding and changing us—revealing our selfishness, unfolding His fifth commandment in new ways. Only as I myself am moldable will God’s power, in my turn, shine through me to “this generation and . . . to every one that is to come.”

Romans 8:17-18 says, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Some day that glory will outshine everything else, even the trials of this life that loomed so large at the time.

One of the best messages I have ever heard

Posted on by

Last night I got to bed way too late, for various reasons, and as I turned on the radio after getting in bed I heard one of the best messages I have ever heard by Dan Olinger. I found it online here. It basically has to do with dealing with doubts. I appreciate not only what he said but how he said it.

I like that he says “God is able to handle our questions.” He doesn’t always answer them the way we’d like. But He’s not intimidated by them.

I also like the understanding that it is good to make the faith one has grown up hearing one’s own. I know as my own children have asked questions as they’ve gotten older it can be scary, yet I think it is a necessary process for them to think through and accept the Word of God and the truths of Christianity for themselves. I think, sadly, that there are too many people who grew up with a kind of positive peer pressure who go along with the flow but who haven’t internalized what they’ve heard all their lives.

I’m not saying you have to question in order to believe. But I think most people do to some extent at some times.

Sometimes when those kinds of thoughts come, I’ve prayed that the Lord would lead me to the answer if there is one and to acceptance it if there is not one I would understand. After a while you develop enough knowledge of and experience with the Lord that you can trust Him with all those things you don’t understand without it shaking up your faith, but it’s amazing how often, after I’ve prayed that way, He will lead me to a sermon of book or chance remark that exactly answers what I had a question about.

I hope you’ll give that sermon a listen. I plan to listen to it again soon.

Tone makes a difference

Posted on by

Recently I came across something written by a woman for women for the purpose of helping women, the content of which was excellent, but the tone was quite harsh.

I don’t know about other people, but a harsh tone tends to put me off and make the message hard to receive even when I know it is good. What does tend to draw me in is a coming-alongside, desiring-to-help attitude.

I don’t mean that we should be namby-pamby, cowardly, and spineless, or sacrifice truth under the guise of “love.” I know some of the prophets in Scripture could seem pretty harsh in their denunciations. But some of the tenderest expressions of God’s love and care are also found in those messages from the prophets. “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3) and “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:20) are just a couple.

I know in my own life, before salvation, realizing that I deserved hell all made me see my need. And though perhaps it was the fear of hell that drove me to seek deliverance, it was the grace and love of God that drew me to Him. Since then, holding up the standard of God’s Word and the realization that I have missed the mark and that I need to get something right with Him convicts me, but the knowledge that “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” and the invitation to therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 15:16) draws me.

One of my children in particular who seemed most to “need,” by his actions, scolding and reprimand, would just close up and withdraw when I “let him have it” verbally. It not only didn’t change his behavior, it put a wall between us. I had to learn to balance dealing with the issue and showing love, care and concern. Other times a harsh scolding produces a defensive reaction.

I also had to learn that exasperation (which can often lead to that kind of harsh attitude) is often a fleshly response: I’m irritated that this is still going on, that I have to deal with it again, that the child doesn’t “know better” and hasn’t “gotten” it by now. How unlike God, whose mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). How unlike the “wisdom that is from above” which “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).

We need to be careful, too, in any kind of mentoring situation that we don’t approach it with an eye-rolling, exasperated, “Young people these days!” kind of attitude. That is sure to turn others off to any good we might want to do them. And we need to remember the purpose: when we have to deal with an issue, whether with a child, an employee, a committee member, or the general public in a book, blog, or talk, the purpose for dealing with the issue is not just to “get it off our chests.” That’s one sure way to come across as “scolding.” The purpose is to get them to see the importance of the issue and to change, not for our personal satisfaction, but for the stake of the truth we’re presenting.

Once I was listening to a sermon on the radio from a local pastor. I knew of him, I had read his books, I agreed with what he was preaching…yet at the end of it, something bothered me, and I couldn’t figure out what at first. Then I realized his main message, hammered over and over, was, “You need to get right.” Nothing wrong with that message: we do. But my own pastor at the time, whose ministry I was under for over fourteen years, would have said, “We need to get right” and then “There’s hope: here’s how to get right.” Though my pastor was one of the godliest men I have ever known, he, like Daniel (Daniel 9:1-19) and Ezra (Ezra 9), though they had not participated in Israel’s sin, yet they took their place with Israel and confessed the sins of the nation as though they were their own. I think that attitude of a fellow sinner helping sinners will help our message come across more compassionately.

We’ve all been under different kinds of authority figure in our lives and know what is it to have an infraction dealt with in such a way that we’re left hurt, deflated, discouraged, or angry, or, on the other hand, inspired to want to do right and to make restoration.

Of course, we’re responsible for the truth we hear no matter what tone or form it comes in. When we stand before God to give account of our lives, the excuse that we didn’t like how so-and-so delivered the message won’t hold up as a reason for not obeying it. If we are on the receiving end of a message with a harsh or scolding attitude, we still need to hear and apply and respond to the truth in the way the Lord would have for us to. But when we are sharing truth in any venue, let us remember to “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colossians 4:5). The salt — the truth — is needed, but don’t forget the wisdom and the grace.

How to Do the Job You Don’t Really Want To Do

Posted on by

This is something I really needed to read and to ponder today. It is from Elisabeth Elliot’s book A Lamp For My Feet and was included in Saturday’s e-mail devotional made up of her writings, available from Back to the Bible.

Certain aspects of the job the Lord has given me to do are very easy to postpone. I make excuses, find other things that take precedence, and, when I finally get down to business to do it, it is not always with much grace. A new perspective has helped me recently:

The job has been given to me to do.
Therefore it is a gift.
Therefore it is a privilege.
Therefore it is an offering I may make to God.
Therefore it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him.
Therefore it is the route to sanctity.

Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness. The discipline of this job is, in fact, the chisel God has chosen to shape me with–into the image of Christ.

Thank you, Lord, for the work You have assigned me. I take it as your gift; I offer it back to you. With your help I will do it gladly, faithfully, and I will trust You to make me holy.

Oprah’s beliefs

Posted on by

I came across this video recently on a friend’s Facebook page that shows clips of different things Oprah has said about her beliefs.

I haven’t read the book mentioned at the end, and I am not sharing this clip to promote it: I am sharing it because is shows Oprah saying things I had only heard second-hand about her beliefs.

I just wanted to comment on a few of the things said.

1. It bothered Oprah when she heard a preacher say that God is a jealous God. I am not sure why that bothered her. I guess jealousy has negative connotations, but unless it is taken to harmful extremes, it is a perfectly natural trait. What husband or wife wouldn’t be jealous of their spouse to a certain degree? God has even more reason to be jealous: if we’re drawn away from Him to false doctrine, we’re drawn into darkness.

2. Oprah emphasizes determining truth by feeling rather than by believing. That’s dangerous on two grounds. One is that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 and say, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” We can’t trust our feelings. They fluctuate and can be affected by many things. The other danger with this thought is that “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). God does want us to believe, not just feel, and not to just believe anything about Him, but to believe what He has revealed.

Peter had one of the most profound experiences of anyone: he saw the Lord glorified, talking with Moses and Elijah. Yet he says in II Peter 1:

16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

He is saying there that Scripture is more sure than any experience, even one like he had.

3. She says there are many paths to God, but Jesus said, ” am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). I Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

4. It is interesting that one of her favorite quotes from the book she mentions has to do with humans making God in our own image, but that is the very thing she is doing (as is Eckhart Tolle, the author of the book she promotes and follows) when she goes by what she thinks and feels more than what the revealed Word of God says about Him.

5. God is more than a “force” or a “consciousness.” He is a Being; He has personality.

6. Oprah said she was searching for “something more than doctrine.” It is true that we need to have a relationship with Him rather than just a list of beliefs: but our relationship with Him needs to be based on those beliefs or else we are worshiping Him falsely. Doctrine is vitally important.

In light of these things it really disturbs me when Christian women quote her, especially when they quote her as some kind of spiritual authority. She may be a nice person, have a winning personally, and do a lot of good and charitable deeds, and those are all good things as far as they go, but they don’t get a person to heaven and they don’t qualify anyone as a spiritual authority. Personally I wouldn’t quote her even on anything “neutral” without some qualifier lest someone think I was giving tacit approval to what she says in general.

Some will be miffed at the thought of saying what might seem to be unkind toward her. I am not at all meaning to be unkind, but I want to warn people that that she is advocating is a false gospel.

II John 1:9-11: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

Imperfect families

Posted on by

Someone said something the other day that got me to thinking. She mentioned the number of kids from broken homes in our school, and I think she was just lamenting the fact that so many families were broken, but something in what she said made it seem like having kids from broken homes was an undesirable element. That may not be what she meant — that part of the conversation was fleeting and I couldn’t get my thoughts together in time to ask about it before the tide of conversation turned to something else.

But it got me to thinking. I am from a broken home and an unsaved home. The Lord miraculously provided for me to go to a Christian school in my junior year of high school. I don’t really remember anybody treating me differently or seeming to look down on me or not wanting their children to associate too closely with me because I was from a broken family or wasn’t from a church family. Thank God! What was the starting point of my spiritual life might have had a vastly different outcome.

I’ve noticed in some Christian schools or churches that have bus ministries and such that there can be a disparity between the “church kids” and the others. Some of that is just the natural consequence that the church kids have known each other longer and spend more time together and therefore are closer than those who have not been coming long or who only come sporadically. But I would hope that the difference is not because the church families think their kids are somehow better and that they feel they need to be wary of spiritual contamination from the others.

I think many of us would have a hard time accepting the woman at the well (who had had five husbands), Rahab the harlot, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah into our church membership.

I don’t mean that we don’t need to be careful of our children’s associates. I have known kids from unsaved homes who have been an unstable element or who have tried to introduce unsavory elements. And I have also known church kids who walk the edge, who act one way around parents and teachers and another way among friends. I have been in Christian homes where the members act much differently than they do at church.

But I have also known some wonderful kids who come from horrible backgrounds for whom the grace of God has made a profound difference who have become wonderful, godly Christians.

The truth is we are all from imperfect families, and it’s God’s grace, not our church standing or family situation, that makes us acceptable in His eyes. Accepting His salvation and then obedience to His Word and being filled with His Holy Spirit are what make for Christian character, and that’s available to anyone. Though ideally we’d love for every child to come from a loving, godly, unfragmented Christian home, it just doesn’t happen that way. And if our Lord took special care to reach out to someone like a woman who had had five husbands and was currently living with a man who was not her husband, are we right to keep our distance from such people?

Elisabeth Elliot wrote in Keep a Quiet Heart:

While visiting [a] Bible College in South Carolina, I found in the library a little book called Father and Son, written by my grandfather, Philip E. Howard. He writes:

“Do you remember that encouraging word of Thomas Fuller’s, a chaplain of Oliver Cromwell’s time? It’s a good passage for a father in all humility and gratitude to tuck away in his memory treasures:

“’Lord, I find the genealogy of my Savior strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in four immediate generations.

Rehoboam begat Abijah; that is, a bad father begat a bad son.
Abijah begat Asa; that is, a bad father begat a good son.
Asa begat Jehoshaphat; that is, a good father begat a good son.
Jehoshaphat begat Joram; that is, a good father begat a bad son.

I see, Lord, from hence that my father’s piety cannot be entailed; that is bad news for me. But I see also that actual impiety is not always hereditary; that is good news for my son.’”

I Corinthians 6:9-11 says: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” I am so thankful for God’s washing, sancifying, and justifying!

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Ephesians 1:6-7.

During my freshman year in a Christian college one of my upperclassmen roommates was from a very similar background to mine. One of the best things that ever happened to me was the realization that if she could live for the Lord, then so could I. I used to think of my family as somewhat holding me back from being and doing all I could for the Lord. Instead I needed to see them as in need of the same grace I had received, and God placed me in that family to love them and tell them about Him. What a child from a broken and/or unsaved home needs most is grace and hope. II Peter 1:3-4 says, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” They need to know that in Christ and His Word they have everything they need to live for Him and to be and do all He wants them to.

Children of the Heavenly Father

Posted on by

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. I John 3:1a.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.

Children of the heav’nly Father
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in Heaven
Such a refuge e’er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish;
In His holy courts they flourish;
From all evil things He spares them;
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever;
Unto them His grace He showeth,
And their sorrows all He knoweth.

Though He giveth or He taketh,
God His children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

Lo, their very hairs He numbers,
And no daily care encumbers
Them that share His ev’ry blessing
And His help in woes distressing.

Praise the Lord in joyful numbers:
Your Protector never slumbers.
At the will of your Defender
Ev’ry foeman must surrender.

~ Kar­oli­na W. San­dell-Berg

I confess: I don’t really like to cook

Posted on by

That may sound strange coming from a SAHM who strongly believes the Bible teaches that married women are to be “keepers at home.” But many times I have chafed against this part of my job description.

Oh, I love to eat and I like good food prepared well. I just don’t particularly enjoy the process of doing it myself. There are any number of things I enjoy more, and I sometimes resent that I have to lay aside those things in order to go make dinner.

Yet, even if we were in a situation where I could hire a cook, I can’t foresee that I ever would, unless I wasn’t physically able to cook. It just wouldn’t seem right, and I don’t know if I could ever show someone else how to make things the way I like them (and I am particular about how my food tastes!) It would be easier and less stressful to do it myself.

On one Christian message board I was on, one of my most-commented on posts was something along the lines of “What do you cook when you don’t feel like cooking?” A lot of ladies said something like, “I am so glad to know someone else shares these feelings!”

Yet, cooking is part of my job and one my family probably appreciates and depends on the most. (By the way, I do know that in the Bible men cooked sometimes, but in our household division of duties, cooking is my lot. My husband works 50+ hours a week and I wouldn’t ask him to take this on, too [though he does grill the main dish on Sundays frequently.] I would rather stay home and make dinner than have to work outside the home.)

It does help if I remember everyone has to do things they don’t feel like doing. My husband probably doesn’t feel like going to work every weekday or having to cut the grass and make repairs on weekends.

It also helps if I actually do plan ahead for it: though I enjoy planning and shopping probably even less than cooking, if I do have some basic menu plans in mind it makes meal preparation much smoother and therefore less frustrating and time-consuming.

It also helps if I “get into it” more. When I am thumbing through recipe magazines I can get excited about trying new things.

But it helps most of all to remember that it is an act of service. There are many examples of preparing and serving food in the Bible. The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 “riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens” (verse 15). Sarah prepared food for Abraham’s unusual visitors (Gen. 18). Even the Lord Jesus prepared food for some of His disciples (at least, fish were being cooked when they came to Him in John 22:9). There is a larger sense in which He prepares and provides for us spiritually, calling Himself the bread of life (John 6:35, 48). Food provides strength; it is part of hospitality, which we’re commanded to; serving in His name brings promise of reward; giving food and drink to His brethren is as serving Him.

Lord of all pots and pans and things
Since I’ve no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things
Or watching late with Thee
Or dreaming in the sweet dawn light
Or storming Heaven’s gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up the plates.

Although I must have Martha’s hands,
I have a Mary mind,
And when I black the boots and shoes,
Thy sandals, Lord, I find.
I think of how they trod the earth,
What time I scrub the floor:
Accept this meditation, Lord.
I haven’t time for more.

Warm all the kitchen with Thy love
And light it with Thy peace;
Forgive me all my worrying,
And make all grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give men food,
In room or by the sea,
Accept this service that I do–
I do it unto Thee.

~ Author unknown

(Graphic from Creative Ladies Ministries)

He who would valiant be

Posted on by

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Hebrews 11:13

He who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.

Who so beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound—his strength the more is.
No foes shall stay his might; though he with giants fight,
He will make good his right to be a pilgrim.

Since, Lord, Thou dost defend us with Thy Spirit,
We know we at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away! I’ll fear not what men say,
I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.

~ John Bunyan

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. I Peter 2:11-12.