What’s On Your Nightstand: June

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Barbara Harper

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

This will overlap my Spring Reading Thing Wrap-Up a bit, but there is a little bit of difference, and different visitors.

Since last time I finished:

The Judgment by Beverly Lewis, second in The Rose Trilogy, reviewed here. Two Amish sisters make very different choices and then have to deal with the consequences.

Mine Is the Night by Liz Curtis Higgs, reviewed here. Second in a series based on the story of Ruth but set in 18th century Scotland.

The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh, based on a true story of a newlywed couple whose ship sunk on their honeymoon, reviewed here.

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, reviewed here.

Goforth of China by Rosalind Goforth (original version), a missionary classic, just finished, hope to review soon.

I’m now reading No Distance Too Far, Book 2 in the Home to Blessing series by Lauraine Snelling. This book is about a young female doctor in 1904 trying to discern where the Lord is calling her to use her talents. thinking perhaps it is Africa but not being quite settled about it.

Up next: Carrie is hosting a Narnia Reading Challenge in July and I am committing to reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll continue on in the Narnia series or go back to the stack of books waiting for me. I’ll have to see what I feel inclined to do when I get to that point. 🙂

The Week In Words

Posted on June 27, 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.

I just have a few this week, but they packed a pretty big punch for me.

Seen on Adam Blumer‘s Facebook status:

“Take care that you do not waste your sorrows; that you do not let the precious gifts of disappointment, pain, loss, loneliness, or similar afflictions … mar you instead of mending you…. There is no failure of life so terrible as to have the pain without the lesson, the sorrow without the softening.” (Hugh Black, early 20th-century pastor)

There is so much there: that our troubles can mar instead of mend us if we let them, that we can endure them without getting what we’re supposed to out of them and thereby “waste” them.

And seen on David McGuire‘s Facebook:

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” — Wilma Rudolph

One of the most heartening and enlightening sermons I ever heard was in college on the topic of how to deal with failure. I wasn’t failing classes, but I was doing worse than I ever had academically, and that was a serious blow that felt like failure.

Finally, this sobering thought from the June 22 reading of The Invitation by Derick Bingham:

The message that proclaims life to those who believe it is the same message which proclaims judgment to those who disobey it. At the end of the day it is what you do with the Saviour’s word that matters.

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 don’t forget to leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share!

Coming Home

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Barbara Harper

I love this new melody and arrangement of these old, dear words. May every heart reading come truly Home.

I’ve wandered far away from God,
Now I’m coming home;
The paths of sin too long I’ve trod,
Lord, I’m coming home.

I’ve wasted many precious years,
Now I’m coming home;
I now repent with bitter tears,
Lord, I’m coming home.

I’m tired of sin and straying, Lord,
Now I’m coming home;
I’ll trust Thy love, believe Thy Word,
Lord, I’m coming home.

My soul is sick, my heart is sore,
Now I’m coming home;
My strength renew, my hope restore,
Lord, I’m coming home.

My only hope, my only plea,
Now I’m coming home;
That Jesus died, and died for me.
Lord, I’m coming home.

I need His cleansing blood, I know,
Now I’m coming home;
O wash me whiter than the snow,
Lord, I’m coming home.

Refrain

Coming home, coming home,
Nevermore to roam,
Open wide Thine arms of love,
Lord, I’m coming home.

~ William J. Kirkpatrick

Sung by the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team.

Laudable Linkage and Funny Videos

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Just a few today:

Challies had a couple of good posts about The Christian and Assurance of Salvation and The Basis of a Christian’s Assurance. I appreciated these as I struggled for years with assurance.

Another HT to Challies, Dear Photograph is a really cool site, where participants “take a picture of a picture from the past in the present” and integrate it into the present. You’ll have to look at it to see what I mean.

Too funny:

Kids, don’t try this at home. Though I wish I could parallel park this way sometimes!

Happy Saturday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are a few faves from the past week:

1. Father’s Day and the opportunity to show some appreciation and love to my husband. Not that we need a special day to do that, of course, but we enjoy those special days.

2. A task completed. I finally got my TN driver’s license. (Shhh, it was supposed to be done within 30 days of moving here last August…) I kept forgetting — and I needed to send off for my birth certificate and kept forgetting that, too. Finally got it done, and without much wait once I was there — I took a book because usually anything of that nature takes a while, but I didn’t even crack it open. My DL photo is probably the worst ever, and no, I am not showing it to you. 🙂 But I am very glad that ‘s done with for the next six years.

3. Electricity and safety. We’ve had a series of pretty severe thunderstorms every evening since Tuesday and we lost power for several hours Tuesday night. Unfortunately tens of thousands are still without power and a lot of people have trees down and parts of buildings damaged.

4. A repair instead of a replacement. A tooth in Grandma’s dentures came out a couple of times, and Jim found a denture repair kit and glued it back, but this week it came out again and got lost. We thought it was probably way past time to get her dentures checked out, anyway, and made an appointment. (Grandma, frugal as she is, protested, saying she wouldn’t live long enough to get use out of new ones…) But the dentist said it would actually be better to replace and fix the tooth rather than create a new set of dentures, and they cleaned and polished them while they had them. So that was nice in that it was a lot cheaper and it was much less of an ordeal for her (if they had made new dentures they would have had to make a new mold, etc.).

5. This guy:

That round thing is a little bird feeder that sticks onto the window via a suction cup. We have it on my mother-in-law’s window and another standing bird feeder in the grass. This guy was in this feeder when I came in, and Grandma was getting such a kick out of him, that she hardly paid attention when I said I had her new fixed dentures. I was afraid he was going to get stuck, but thankfully he got through. Personally, squirrels have kind of lost their cuteness to me over the years because they can be pests, but she got such enjoyment from his antics, and seeing him like this was pretty funny.

Have a great weekend!

“Learning the Father’s Love”

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Barbara Harper

(Photo courtesy of the morgueFile.)

This is an excerpt from a recent Elisabeth Elliot newsletter, which was in turn taken from a chapter titled “Learning the Father’s Love” from the book A Lamp For My Feet:

When my brother Dave was very small, we spent a week at the seaside in Belmar, New Jersey. In vain my father tried to persuade the little boy to come into the waves with him and jump, promising to hold him safely and not allow the waves to sweep over his head. He took me (only a year older) into the ocean and showed Dave how much fun it would be. Nothing doing. The ocean was terrifying. Dave was sure it would mean certain disaster, and he could not trust his father. On the last day of our vacation he gave in. He was not swept away, his father held him as promised, and he had far more fun than he could have imagined, whereupon he burst into tears and wailed, “Why didn’t you make me go in?”

An early lesson in prayer often comes through an ordeal of fear. We face impending adversity and we doubt the love, wisdom and power of our Father in heaven. We’ve tried everything else and in our desperation we turn to prayer–of the primitive sort: here’s Somebody who’s reputed to be able to do anything. The great question is, can I get Him to do what I want? How do I twist His arm, how persuade a remote and reluctant deity to change His mind?

Poor Dave! His father could have forced him to come into the water, but he could not have forced him to relax and enjoy it. As long as the child insisted on protecting himself, saving the life he was sure he would lose, he could not trust the strong love of his father. He refused to surrender. In this simple story we hear echoes of the most ancient story, of the two who, mistrusting the word of their Father, fearing that obedience to Him would ultimately bar them from happiness, chose to repudiate their dependence on Him. Sin, death, destruction for the whole race were the result.

Learning to pray is learning to trust the wisdom, the power, and the love of our Heavenly Father, always so far beyond our dreams. He knows our need and knows ways to meet it that have never entered our heads. Things we feel sure we need for happiness may often lead to our ruin. Things we think will ruin us … if we believe what the Father tells us and surrender ourselves into His strong arms, bring us deliverance and joy.

The only escape from self-love is self-surrender. “Whoever loses his life for Me will find it” (Matthew 16:25, NIV). “Dwell in my love. If you heed my commands, you will dwell in my love, as I have heeded my Father’s commands and dwell in His love. I have spoken thus to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete” (John 15:9-11, NEB). My father knew far better than his small, fearful, stubborn son what would give him joy. So does our Heavenly Father. Whenever I have resisted Him, I have cheated myself, as my little brother did. Whenever I have yielded, I have found joy.

Spring Reading Thing 2011 Wrap-Up

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Barbara Harper

It’s hard to fathom that summer is just now officially starting since life has been feeling pretty summery for a few weeks now. But the end of spring brings with it the end of Katrina‘s annual Spring Reading Thing! It’s time to share how we did with the goals we set back at the beginning of spring and link our wrap-up posts here.

Here is what I completed:

Fiction:

On my original list:

A Walk In the Park and A Long Walk Home by Barbara Andrews, reviewed here. Very sweet, tender story.

Faithful by Kim Cash Tate. Excellent! Three friends in different situations learn what it means to be faithful despite the serious problems they face, reviewed here.

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury, first in a new series with Bailey Flanigan from previous series. A short review is here.

The Judgment by Beverly Lewis, second in The Rose Trilogy, reviewed here. Two Amish sisters make very different choices and then have to deal with the consequences.

An Unlikely Blessing by Judy Baer, about a new pastor over two churches with eccentric characters who don’t always get along. Short review here.

Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna, cute romantic comedy about a city official who tries to save her town by putting on the musical of the same name, short review here.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, an all-time favorite, reviewed here.

Added:

Mine Is the Night by Liz Curtis Higgs, reviewed here. Based on the story of Ruth but set in 18th century Scotland.

The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh, based on a true story of a newlywed couple whose ship sunk on their honeymoon, reviewed here. Sounds depressing, but it wasn’t. 🙂

Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner, “a tale of two Janes,” a modern-day Jane who finds a ring in her antique store that may have belonged to Lady Jane Grey. One of my favorites from this year. Reviewed here.

Words by Ginny Yttrup excellent, one of my favorite books so far this year, reviewed here. The first pages grabbed me and the rest of the book held me. Though the subject of child abuse is a hard one to read, the redemptive story is excellent.

Non-fiction:

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter, compiled by Nancy Guthrie. Excellent.

A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction, reviewed here.

10 Gospel Promises For Later Life by Jane Marie Thibault, reviewed here. Sadly, I cannot recommend this due to serious theological errors. Greatly disappointing especially since the premise was good.

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, reviewed here.

I’m also about half-way through Goforth of China by Rosalind Goforth, not on my original list. I’ve read it multiple times but just wanted to read it again: this is one of my most highly recommended books.

So, in summary, I did finish my original goals plus I added in a few others. I know some people read way more than I do, but I am satisfied with my list. If I read faster I wouldn’t get as much out of what I read. I did enjoy discovering several new authors as well as visiting with familiar ones. My two favorites were Words by Ginny Yttrup and Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner. The least favorite was 10 Gospel Promises for Later Life by Jane Marie Thibault.

I always enjoy the opportunity to be a bit more purposeful in my reading goals through this challenge rather than just grabbing whatever I am in the mood for (though I enjoy doing that, too!) And I enjoy visiting with other readers to see what they read and what they thought about it. I almost always find new titles to add to my to-be-read list. Thanks to Katrina for hosting this fun challenge every year!

The Week In Words

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Here are some great thoughts gleaned during the past week:

Seen at Challies:

Did God not sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, we should be ruined at our own request. —Hannah More

This echoes Psalm 106:15. I am thankful God sometimes says, “No,” though it is hard to hear at the time.

Seen in You Are Responsible For Your Own Actions at the True Woman site:

At the end of the day, we have to leave it to God to right the wrongs in the universe and to deal with others about their issues. They are not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to respond in faith and in obedience to His Word, through the power of His Spirit. That’s what He will hold us accountable for. ~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss

This one really spoke to me because I can tend to fume about “the wrongs in the universe” and other people’s issues. This doesn’t mean we don’t ever speak to someone about something they need to get right or we don’t ever take a stand against injustice, etc. But we don’t need to speak out or take a stand in every little personal disagreement with someone else’s opinion or way of doing something. Sometimes we just have to let it go and let God deal with it in His time.

Quoted in Mine Is the Night by Liz Curtis Higgs, p. 312:

A day of worry is more exhausting than a day or work. ~ John Lubbock, Lord Avebury

Isn’t that the truth?!

And finally, this was from this post at Wrestling With the Angel:

“Everyone matters to God, so everyone matters.”

That takes care of just about everything, doesn’t it? And kind of prejudice, any kind of difference, every kind of person matters to God and therefore should to us as well. We never have the right to treat anyone as a lesser human being.

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

Honoring the Fathers In My Life

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Barbara Harper

My father passed away several years ago, but I want to honor his memory. He did not come to know the Lord until 6 years before he died, and though he had a lot of problems, I honor the position the Lord gave him as my father. He did love me in his own way and tried to do right as he knew it. One of the major things he taught me was to have respect for those in authority.

I want to honor my step-father. I honestly had problems with the idea of a step-father having any say in my activities when I was 15. I have written here and there that after I became a Christian, God had to teach me that honoring and obeying my parents was a matter of obedience to Him regardless of whether they were Christians or were doing what I thought best. After that I wondered how a step-father fit into the picture. Then one day I realized that Jesus had a step-father — Joseph. The Bible says Jesus was subject to both Mary and Joseph, even when they didn’t understand him (Luke 2:50-51). Over the years I have come to greatly respect my step-father as a steady, dependable man who cares for his family, is an extremely hard worker, and would do anything in the world to help those he cares about.

I wrote earlier about my “spiritual mom,” Mrs. C, and the godly influence she was in my life. Mr. C was a shining example of a Christian father to me, and I am so glad the Lord brought them into my life.

I honor my husband as a caring, thoughtful, sweet, fun, loving companion and father to our boys.

And I honor my heavenly Father who gave me life, loves me dearly, brought me to a saving belief in Christ, speaks to me through His Word, shows me His love and care in a hundreds of ways every day.

Here are a few other Father’s Day posts from the archives:

Dad’s Famous Sayings

Favorite Father’s Day poems here and here

Jokes for Father’s Day

Favorite quotes about fathers

Fathers and sons, good and bad

Paul Harvey on Fathers

A couple of memes about dads

From Rob at ivman, a job decription for dads that is both funny and poignant.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Here are a few posts that especially caught my attention this week:

A new normal. How does one ever get back to “normal” after something horrible has happened? “God shook the snow globe of my life, and some truths that were obscured by complacency have now taken a more prominent place in my thinking.”

What to do when the compliments don’t come. Excellent.

When You Take the Scraps of Lies and Make a Truth Quilt. Even if you don’t make a quilt, applying the truth counteracts the lies we’re prone to believe about ourselves.

The Great Awakening of the 21st Century, a renewed focus on grace. “I knew I was saved by grace, ‘To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.’ Eph 1:6 …but was I to be accepted in the body of Christ only when I did the right things? Were the only people approved by God the ones who kept The List too? And I noticed other people had different lists.”

Motherhood as a Mission Field. ” It is easy to become discouraged, thinking that the work you are doing does not matter much. If you were really doing something for Christ you would be out there, somewhere else, doing it. Even if you have a great perspective on your role in the kingdom, it is easy to lose sight of it in the mismatched socks, in the morning sickness, in the dirty dishes. It is easy to confuse intrigue with value, and begin viewing yourself as the least valuable part of the Church.”

It takes darkness and light to make a good book. Yes! I appreciate Sherry’s balance here.

A Faithful Man…Proverbs 20:6. This is a note on Facebook, but I think it is public so all can read. It’s a tribute to Justin Ridley, whom some of you knew or knew of, who died in an accident at a Christan camp a few years ago. My middle son happened to be at the camp that week, and many people were profoundly influenced by Justin’s life and death. Justin’s mom was the first person to reach out to us in our new church.

Thoughts on Simple Church (House Churches). Good analysis of the benefits as well as the concerns.

How to make a Bible notebook.

Ten Suggestions for Missionary Presentations. Unfortunately, the drive to compact speech into sound bytes affects even missionary presentations, but these are good tips to make them more concise and effective. On a side note, I’m so glad the churches I have been in have generally given a whole service to visiting missionaries rather than asking them to squeeze their life’s work into x number of minutes.

He would be what he wanted to be. Interesting that boys don’t generally dream of being daddies like girls dream of being mommies, but here is one sweet book about that dream.

When being silent can cost you in relation to blogging, HT to Laura Lee Groves. Balance is something most bloggers struggle with almost constantly, but it is true that the more time you invest in other people’s blogs, the more visitors and commenters you’ll have in return. Setting up a blog is not like moving into a new house where people know someone is there by the moving van in front of the house and the increased activity, lights on at night, etc. When you move into the blogosphere, no one knows you’re there unless you tell them or visit them first (or unless you write something unique that shows up on search engines). But of course we should visit and comment sincerely and not just to get return visitors.

And here’s a dose of funniness: