The Week In Words

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Barbara Harper

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 that spoke to me this week:

From a friend’s Facebook:

Some pursue happiness, others create it.

From another friend’s Facebook:

God doesn’t merely want a change of habit. He wants a change of heart, which will lead to a change of habit.

Seen at Challies:

Trials and tribulations are very good for us in that they help us to know ourselves better than we knew ourselves before. —D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Among the many purposes God has for suffering, this is one. Usually, for me anyway, I discover a deficiency in myself or some new way in which I need to trust in or yield to the Lord more.

And, actually, I heard this first rather than read it, but then I wrote it down and then read it. 🙂

God does not love us because we’re valuable; we’re valuable because God loves us. ~ Adrian Rogers

Also since last time I shared quotes about winter and quotes from Anne of Avonlea in different posts.

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it 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 do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

And please — feel free to comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!

Another year I enter

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Barbara Harper

The year still feels new to me! I saw this at Jewel‘s and thought it was a wonderful reminder for the year ahead.

Another year I enter,
Its history unknown;
Oh, how my feet would tremble
To tread its paths alone!

But I have heard God’s whisper –
I know I shall be blest –
“My presence shall go with you,
And I will give you rest.”

What will the New Year bring me?
I may not, must not know.
Will it be love and rapture,
Or loneliness and woe?

Hush! Hush! I hear His whisper –
I surely shall be blest –
“My presence shall go with you,
And I will give you rest.”

~Author unknown~

(Photo courtesy of the morgueFile)

The Week In Words

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Barbara Harper

A couple stood out to me from a Notable Quotes section of a recent issue of Frontline Magazine.

O what I owe to the furnace, fire, and hammer of the Lord. ~ Samuel Rutherford

So true — much as we resist them, there are things we can only learn via trials and tribulations.

Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home. ~ C. S. Lewis

There are cozy spots in this life, but I need to remember “This world is not my home — I’m just passing through.”

This was from an Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotional taken from a chapter titled “Spontaneity” from her book All That Was Ever Ours:

I wonder if spontaneity is not sometimes a euphemism for laziness… Isn’t it much easier not to prepare one’s mind and heart, not to premeditate, simply to have things (O, vacuous word!) “unstructured”?

If you leave a thing altogether alone in hopes that it will happen all by itself, the chances are it never will. Who learns to play the piano, wins an election, or loses weight spontaneously?

From the chapter “Some of My Best Friends Are Books” from the same book and author:

A reader understands what he reads in terms of what he is. As a Christian reader I bring to bear on the book I am reading the light of my faith.

Everything I read may not line up exactly with what I believe the Bible to be teaching, but I read it with Christian eyes and discernment and sometimes even see spiritual truth when the author hasn’t meant to share it. On the other hand, I don’t think that okays an “anything goes” mentality with reading. I’m still responsible for thinking on right things (which is hard to do if I am filling my mind with wrong things), and “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (I Corinthians 10:23.) In fact, I am a little concerned about a friend who swoons over romances while her marriage crumbles (and I have to wonder if there is a connection) and whose language is becoming increasingly less Christlike and more vulgar while she reads books with that I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with. We do bring our frame of reference to bear on our reading, but our reading does influence us as well.

I have a few marked from Anne of Avonlea, but I think I will wait to post them until I review the book.

And please — feel free to comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!

Have You Heard?

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Another lovely new-to-me song from the Steve Pettit Team CD So High the Price.

Have You Heard?

Have you heard about Jesus? Do you know who He is?
He’s the very Son of God, He’s the King of Kings.
Have you heard of the gospel? Do you know what it is?
It tells us Jesus died for us to save us from our sins.

This is the best news that we could ever hear;
More than amazing, it drives out every fear.
By trusting in Jesus Christ and His saving sacrifice
We can be made new, we can be made new.

Have you heard of the promise God has made to us all?
That if we turn from our sinful ways and put our faith in His Son.
He will freely forgive us, He will wash us clean
And when we stand before His throne He will shout, “Welcome in!”

This is the best news that we could ever hear;
More than amazing, it drives out every fear.
By trusting in Jesus Christ and His saving sacrifice
We can be made new, we can be made new.

~ Words and music by Zach Jones

Laudable Linkage & Videos

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Oddly, after a couple of weeks of not sharing interesting links I’ve seen, I only have a few. You’d think I’d have multitudes, but much of the blogosphere was fairly quiet over the holidays, and perhaps my reading was distracted enough that I didn’t think to save many. But here are a few:

8 Amazing Blogging Lessons from Albert Einstein, HT to Lisa Notes. The author takes quotes from Einstein and cleverly applies them to blogging.

52 Ways to Read and Study the Bible compiled by Semicolon. So many ways, and with all our electronic devices so many venues — it should be easier than ever.

A couple of years ago I compiled a list of resources and reasons for reading the Bible in Planning to read the Bible more this year?

Katrina at Callapiddar Days told of her first successful attempt at reading the Bible through in Part 1 dealing why she wanted to do so and finding a plan and Part 2 concerning how she succeeded this time, what she learned, and a few resources.

Lisa shares Why I am NOT reading the Bible through in a year, though she is still reading and shares tips for making it more effective.

One area where I’ve fallen short is memorizing. I did a lot in college and then in a children’s ministry we worked with, and those verses have pretty much stayed with me all these years (except I have trouble remembering the references) but not much at all since then. I’ve never memorized a whole book of the Bible. Some ladies at church are memorizing Ephesians, but they meet at a time that isn’t best for me and they are already a good ways into it. Lisa Notes shared a plan for memorizing Philippians by Easter: Partnering to Remember The 2011 Philippians Memory Moleskin. Ann shares a plan for memorizing Colossians with 2 verses a week for a year with some more details and updates here. I am leaning toward the Colossians plan — 2 verses a week sounds very doable, and I have to admit the little booklet really appeals to me. They’ve set up a Facebook page as well.

Well, I guess I only thought I had just a few!

Just a couple more:

The worst gifts ever, HT to Challies. Though, I don’t know, that office chair looks good for a power nap. 🙂

How Critical Thinking Saves Faith HT again to Challies, on the need to talk with young people and wrestle through their questions with them rather than cutting them off for even asking.

I’ve shared this before, but here is some fun you can have with your Christmas tree when you’re done with it. My guys used to love shooting off model rockets, so this really appealed to them.

And I can’t remember if I shared this here or not, but it just makes me happy:

Packing up Christmas

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Even though I am kind of glad to get the house back in order and get back to routine, it always makes me a little sad when Christmas is over and the decorations are put away, not just in my home, but in the community. The special lights are taken down, the cheery decorations are removed, the whole air of festivity is gone, and everything is just…ordinary again. And not just ordinary, but dreary, drab, colorless winter for a few more months.

I was thinking this morning of the shepherds to whom the thrilling, stunning announcement of the Savior’s birth was revealed. What excitement! Bright lights, wonderful news, angels, a quick trip to Bethlehem, awe and wonder at the sight of the Christ child, the long-awaited Messiah. And then…it was back to the sheep and ordinary life. Dark nights, lonely days, smelly work, in all kinds of weather. And yet…they didn’t return quite the same. “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them” (Luke 2:17,20). I wonder how often they talked of that night, that promise. I wonder how many of them were still alive when word began to spread of a prophet and teacher doing miracles and saying the most incredible things. I wonder if any of them realized it was Him, the same baby they had seen thirty years before. I wonder if any of them saw Him die, or heard about it, and were mystified, and then astounded and joyful at the news of His resurrection. I like to think they continued “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” even in the midst of “ordinary” life.

And Mary. After the whirlwind of remarkable events — a visit from an angel, remarkable news, an unplanned pregnancy (unplanned originally by her, at least), almost losing her betrothed husband, an uncomfortable trip to Bethlehem and a birth in a stable, strange visitors — shepherds, and later, magi, then another couple of visits of angels to her husband, a flight into Egypt to protect her newborn Son, and finally, after all of that…back to the ordinary life of a wife and mother, everyday housework and cares, at least six more children. What must it have been like to raise one child who never sinned? Did she have to deal with sibling rivalry against Him of the other six who did? How many things did Jesus say that she did not understand? We don’t hear from much from her in the rest of the New Testament: there was the incident when Jesus was twelve, the wedding at Cana where she asked Jesus to help the host who ran out of wine, and where, incidentally, her last recorded words in Scripture are “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (John 2:5), a time when she tried to see Him but couldn’t get to Him, watching her Son die on the cross and arrange for her care as one of His last acts (Joseph must have passed away by then). And then in Acts we see her “continuing with one accord in prayer and supplication” with the disciples, women and Jesus’ brethren. Perhaps those quiet years from Jesus’ birth until He began His public ministry were the only ones anywhere near ordinary. We’re told just after the shepherds’ visit that “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). You can tell from what words of hers which we do know of that she was a thoughtful, faithful woman who loved God. From the birth of her Son for the next thirty years, she did not quite know how the promises concerning Him would be worked out, but she faithfully served and cared for Him, pondering all the while the things she had been told.

As we pack up and put away Christmas, may we keep the wonder, the love, peace, and joy, the pondering, the telling, the waiting in hope. May His light fill our ordinary days.

The Week In Words

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Here are a few that caught my eye:

I saw this at Bobbi‘s in a longer fictitious poem about what Joseph’s (Mary’s husband) point of view might have been at one point in his life. From what I could tell it is by John Piper from the Desiring God site.

There’s something worse than death,
And loss of faith, not loss of breath,
Is what he fights.

Seen at Challies:

I have taken my good deeds and bad deeds and thrown them together in a heap, and fled from them both to Christ, and in him I have peace. —David Dickson

I have trouble with the right perspective of both, and I am glad that my peace is in Christ and not my deeds.

This is the time of year when people make goals or resolutions. The following two might help with that. The first I saw at Simple Mom from a link at A Holy Experience:

“A goal without a plan is just a dream.” ~ Dave Ramsey

And I saw this at Semicolon’s from (From Donna at Quiet Life — I don’t know whether Donna is the one who originally said it or of she quoted someone else.

“A discipline won’t bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to His grace.”

So true. Sometimes we can get so caught up in setting up our disciplines as if so doing will make us right with God, when the disciple is a tool, not an end in itself.

I saw this at nikkipolani’s Friday’s Fave Five:

The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.”

That just really resonated with me with all the changes we’ve faced this year.

Lisa Notes recently shared a link to “Amazing Blogging Lessons From Albert Einstein.” This jumped out at me — Einstein’s words in quotes, the writer’s words following:

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” Don’t waste your time trying to create a successful blog, dedicate your time creating a valuable blog. If your blog is valuable to others, it will succeed.

And finally, a good hope for the new year, from a friend’s Facebook:

“What heavens are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite bliss have their source, ay, and every drop of their fullness in Him! Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, Thou art the present portion of Thy people, favor us this year with such a sense of Thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in Thee.” -Spurgeon (Morning and Evening)

And please — feel free to comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!

So High the Price

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Barbara Harper

One of my Christmas gifts that I’ve been nearly wearing out already is a CD by the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team titled So High the Price. I know some of you aren’t familiar with the Pettits, but some of you are. They find songs that have such depth in the words paired with wonderful melodies that bring out the message of the song, and the singing and orchestration just all meld together into music that almost always touches my heart and draws me into worship of God. The title song was new to me but the words engaged me on the first hearing. I was all prepared to tell you that since it is fairly new, there wasn’t a full version of the song online, just a snippet, but I was delighted to find the a video of the Pettit Team singing this song on YouTube. May you be blessed by it as much as I was and continue to be.

So High the Price

Lord of Glory, reigning in His Majesty,
Ruling long before the worlds formed.
Yet when darkness claimed His own,
He stepped from Heaven’s throne
To bear a cross, and wear a crown of thorns.

So high the price He paid, the nails the cross, the grave.
Such pardon He bestowed, such grace He showed.
No greater sacrifice, He gave His very life.
So deep His love, so high the Price.

Son of God so willingly He took our place,
Clothed in robes of frail humanity.
Fragile flesh and blood, priceless crimson blood
Offered up for sin at Calvary.

Buried, like a beggar in a borrowed tomb,
Everything for nothing, so it seemed.
But death could never stand
Against the nail-scarred hands,
And power of Heaven’s resurrected King!

So high the price He paid, the nails, the cross, the grave,
Such pardon He bestowed, such grace He showed.
No greater sacrifice, He gave His very life.
So deep the love, so high the price.
So deep the love, so high the price.

Words and music by Deborah Cruise Bailey and Marty Funderburk

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Barbara Harper

(Graphic courtesy of the Graphics Fairy)

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with Thee, O Father as my harbour,
Thee, O Son, at my helm,
Thee O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

From The Valley of Vision

Hoping for you all a wonderful 2011 with a knowledge of God’s love for you and a resting on Him for whatever He has in store.

★˛˚˛˛°.˛.˛°˛.★ .
˛°_██_.。./ ♥ \ .˛* .˛。.˛.HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011
˛. (´• ̮•).。/♫.♫\˛. ˛_Π_.♥Everyone♥ ˛* ˛*
.°( . • . ) ˛°./• ‘♫ ‘ •\.˛./__/~＼. ˛.。˛ ˛. 。
(…’•’.. ) ˛╬╬╬╬╬˛°.｜田田｜門｜╬╬╬╬╬˚ God bless

Retrospective Stray Thoughts

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Barbara Harper

At the end of December the first couple of years I blogged, I did a look back at the first post from each month. In the course of looking through old posts, I found several favorites that I wanted to note as well, so I began making a list of first posts of the month plus favorites. I think this year I’ll just list a couple or three favorites rather than the first post of each month. I don’t know if anyone gets anything out of this except me, but I enjoy it. 🙂

I hope you’ll forgive two retrospective posts in one day, with this and the look back at the top 10 books of 2010, but I wanted to get them both posted before the end of the year — which is tomorrow — and I already have the Friday’s Fave Five scheduled for tomorrow.

January:

Thankful in everything.

Finding God’s Will For Your Life.

February:

Spontaneity vs. scheduling.

Light Thoughts For a Dreary Day.

March:

God’s Help For God’s Assignment.

The Face of Jesus.

April:

Am I the only one who…?

May:

Wanting things to be “perfect.”

The blessing of hymns.

An original poem...

June:

Findings.

Big changes coming…

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers.”

July:

Spirit-lifters.

“What Keeps Us From Real Rest?”

A fond farewell from the ladies’ group.

August:

Do You Have the Son?

“David encouraged himself in the LORD his God”

September:

Exposing kids to evil.

In case he needs my prayers…

October:

Colorlessness.

Inner peace. (Not what you might think from the title. 🙂 )

98 books and book series that have enriched my life.

The Gospel and Christian Fiction.

November:

I guess it is time…

The ministry of showers.

December:

Christmas grief.

A Perfect Christmas.

“That’s just the way I am.“

I see I am woefully inconsistent in my capitalization…

I didn’t delve into Friday’s Fave Five posts — that has become kind of my round-up of what’s happened over the last week — or any other meme. I am sure I might have pulled a few favorites from there.

Sometimes it helps to go back and remind myself of things the Lord has taught me, and this look back through posts has been an exercise in that respect.