Valentine’s Day 2011 and assorted randomness

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Barbara Harper

We enjoyed a nice Valentine’s Day with the family, and I thought I’d share some assorted scenes.

I hadn’t really planned to do a Valentine-themed dinner, but I was planning on these Li’l Cheddar Meat Loaves at some point anyway and decided they could be made into heart shapes. (I had made this recipe once before, and the sauce was barbecue-y and cloyingly sweet. So this time I left out the mustard and used only a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, and it was just right.)

I also tried Texas Sheet Cake for my traditional heart-shaped cupcakes rather than the boxed devil’s food cake mix — but they didn’t convert very well and great chunks of them stuck in the pans. I don’t know if it was my pans or the recipe or what. We did salvage most of them, and they still tasted good except for being a little dry.

Jeremy was all by himself in RI, so we skyped during our meal. Wish I had thought to take a picture of him on the computer on a stool at the table. He commented recently that he’d love for us to have this video chat robot to take us to a new level of skyping. That would be nice in some ways, but a little creepy in others — I told him it reminded me of those old sc-fi movies where someone’s had a horrible accident resulting in only their brain surviving, which is then implanted into some kind of machine.

I had gone over to Jim’s mom’s earlier in the afternoon and brought her a card as well as a book and some mini cans of Sprite. She exclaimed that she had never had such a nice card and I must have looked really hard to find it, and she showed me a couple of cards that she had received from others. We talked a little bit about the family, and then as I was leaving, I said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” She said, “Oh, is that today?” 🙂

I told the family that I’m glad at least her forgetfulness is usually happy. I had just been reading yesterday of someone with Alzheimer’s who got angry and paranoid when confused. Mom doesn’t have Alzheimer’s or even full-blown dementia, but she’s having more and more “senior moments.” She gets a little dismayed sometimes, but usually she’s pretty upbeat and everything is a delightful rediscovery, and if we remind her of something she’s forgotten, she’ll just smile and say, “Well, when you get to be an 82-year old woman….”

Jesse is better though his stomach is still a little wobbly and his appetite isn’t completely back to normal. He was out of school yesterday due to a teacher’s clinic, and I think the extra day off really helped. So far no one else has gotten whatever it was — for which I am VERY thankful. That was a particularly nasty bug and lasted longer than usual. Wednesday afternoon was particular scary — he had not been able to keep anything down, even water, and he called me to come into his room. He was on the floor saying he couldn’t move — his hands were contracted and he said his hips were cramping. That happened once a few years before after a very hot outdoor August wedding — he got violently ill on the way home and said the same thing about not being able to move. Scary anyway, but especially with my TM background. I’m pretty sure he was dehydrated and at that time seemed to be fine once we got some fluid in him. But with any fluid coming right back up this time, I was really afraid we were going to have to take him to the hospital. Thankfully enough stayed down to get him over that hump. I am very glad to see whatever it was he had finally go.

Suzie, our dog, was having similar symptoms — I almost wondered if one of them caught it from the other, since Jesse is the one who feeds her twice a day and brings her in the garage at night when it’s cold outside. But then last night she was breathing really, really hard, and we were afraid she might be coming to an end. Jim took her to the vet this morning and found it would cost hundreds of dollars in x-rays and blood work just to see what was wrong, and much more than that, depending on the diagnosis, to treat, and at this point in her life — she’s about 14 — we felt it would probably be better to put her out of her suffering. But we decided to try an antibiotic just to see if it helped, and she seems to be doing a little better, so maybe she’s on the mend. Hopefully.

So, we had a very good day, except for the scare with Suzie. Now I need to get back into gear and figure out how to best use today — and how to resist all the chocolate that is calling to me…

The Week In Words

Posted on February 14, 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 instructed and inspired me this week:

I forgot to note where I saw this:

To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus . . . . It is our solemn conviction that where there can be no real spiritual communion there should be no pretense of fellowship. Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in sin. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

This isn’t saying we should never interact with people who don’t believe just as we do, for, as Paul said, “then must ye needs go out of the world.” The Bible has much to say about unity but it also has much to say about separation and in what circumstances we should pursue one or the other.

And I failed to note where I saw this as well:

There may be genuine grievances; but what makes us bitter is that we ponder them and meditate upon them and stay with them; in other words, we nurse our grievances, we dwell on them, we pay great attention to them, and if we are tending to forget them we deliberately bring them back and allow them to work us up again into a state of bitterness. ~David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

That is so true. I read someone once who said that every time an incident comes to mind in which someone wronged us, we need to forgive them all over again, but I think rather, once we do forgive them, we need to remind ourselves that that transaction has already taken place and move on to verses about forbearance and loving the brethren.

There are two quotes from an Elisabeth Elliot devotional titled “Not One Thing Has Failed,” taken originally from her book Love Has a Price Tag:

Here she quotes from David Brainard’s diary:

“I visited Indians at Crossweeksung,” Brainard 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.”

And in the same article she writes:

Jessie Penn-Lewis’s book Thy Hidden Ones showed me God’s purpose in my isolation and helplessness. It was her words I sent in a letter to Jim: “In the Holy Spirit’s leading of the soul through the stripping of what may be called ‘consecrated self,’ and its activity, it is important that there should be a fulfillment of all outward duty, that the believer may learn to act on principle rather than on pleasant impulse.” It was a spiritual lesson that was to fortify me through countless later experiences when feelings or impulses contributed nothing to an inclination toward obedience. God allows the absence of feeling or, more often, the presence of strong negative feeling that we may simply follow, simply obey, simply trust.

God’s work and will are often so little related to how we feel — yet how often we tend to go by our feelings.

I shared a whole lot of quotes from the book 50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning From Spiritual Giants of the Faith by author Warren Wiersbe here last week.

And you’d think I’d have something about love for Valentine’s Day! But I don’t have anything new. I posted some in past years here and here. And, just for fun, here are some Valentine’s jokes I posted a few years back.

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!

Awake, my soul, and with the sun

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Barbara Harper

(Photo taken by my husband at Folly Beach in Charleston, SC)

Most of us are very familiar with the last stanza of this, the Doxology, but the rest is quite rich as well:

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.

Thy precious time misspent, redeem,
Each present day thy last esteem,
Improve thy talent with due care;
For the great day thyself prepare.

By influence of the Light divine
Let thy own light to others shine.
Reflect all Heaven’s propitious ways
In ardent love, and cheerful praise.

In conversation be sincere;
Keep conscience as the noontide clear;
Think how all seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

All praise to Thee, who safe has kept
And hast refreshed me while I slept
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake
I may of endless light partake.

Heav’n is, dear Lord, where’er Thou art,
O never then from me depart;
For to my soul ’tis hell to be
But for one moment void of Thee.

Lord, I my vows to Thee renew;
Disperse my sins as morning dew.
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with Thyself my spirit fill.

Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say,
That all my powers, with all their might,
In Thy sole glory may unite.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

~ Thomas Ken, Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, 1674.

(A bit of interesting background information on this hymn can be found here.)

Book Review: Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic by Irene Gammel is not so much a biography, at least not a full-fledged one, as I had first thought. Concentrating on the years just before, during, and after the writing of Anne of Green Gables, the author mainly looks at Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life and times for clues about how Anne came to be, asserting that Maud’s published comments about Anne’s origins were not the complete story.

The author extensively researched Maud’s published and unpublished journals, scrapbooks, letters, other writings about her life and work as well as the magazines Maud would have had in her home and other sources about the culture in which she lived.

Many parts of the book were very interesting. There are photos from ads of the time for dresses with puffed sleeves so dear to Anne’s heart, LMM’s home, and various places she names as inspiration for her book. There are literary allusions I had missed in my reading, and the discovery of those enriched my enjoyment of Anne. There is much background detail, such as the search for the face that inspired Anne: Maud had cut out a photo that she liked from a magazine and said later that this was what Anne looked like in her mind, but the author spends what feels to me an inordinate amount of time researching the model’s life and wondering how much Maud knew of her. Diana’s name was first going to be Laura, and then Gertrude (Gertrude?). The author brings up some elements of Anne that appeared in Maud’s earlier short stories.

Anne is not an autobiographical representation of Maud (Emily is said to be), but there are many parallels, among them: Maud’s mother died when she was young and her father was away most of her childhood, and Maud was raised by her grandmother (similar to Elisabeth in Anne of Windy Poplars). When she was writing of Marilla perhaps needing to sell Green Gables after Matthew died, Maud’s grandmother was facing the loss of her home due to a family situation.

Fortunately I had read Carrie‘s reviews of some of Maud’s biographies and journals, so I already knew that she and her husband both suffered from depression and their marriage was not happy. “To read her as a rosy-hued optimist who only wrote romances with happy endings is to misread her profoundly” (p. 125). Maud wrote of another character in a short story titled “A Correspondence and a Climax,” “So I wrote instead of the life I wanted to live — the life I did live in imagination” (p. 51), and that seems to be what Maud herself did as well, righting wrongs and relationships, giving Anne the college degree she never achieved (though she did provide for a close friend to go to college), etc. If you’re not familiar with her personality and personal life, you might end up not liking her as much as you read of her, but she is a very complicated woman with many layers and facets of personality, and it was interesting to learn more of her. As I mentioned when I reread Anne of Green Gables last year, at first having learned of the unhappiness of her life shadowed my enjoyment of the book, but after a while the evident joy she found in writing took over, and I could rejoice that she found at least a measure of happiness there.

However, there were a few things that disturbed me. First, Gammel explains that paganism and the Druids were being widely discussed at the time, one such article appearing in a magazine in which one of Maud’s stories also appeared, and asserts that Diana’s name as well as Anne’s love of nature “belong to the irreverent world of wood nymphs and dryads. This pagan world poked fun at solemn Sunday School decorum” (p.84). I always felt that Anne’s mention of such creatures and her belief that plants had souls was more literary and imaginative than religious or “pagan.” Gammel uses the word a lot, in fact, almost every time nature is discusses, as if only pagans enjoyed nature or brought flowers and ferns into their homes and churches. The author does say that in a letter Maud “shared her pagan spiritualism, her belief that heaven was a rather boring place, and that Christ might have been a willful imposter” (p. 135), but she doesn’t quote the letter directly. I don’t know if paganism truly inspired Maud to a great degree or if this is conjecture on the author’s part.

Secondly, Gammel also asserts that some of Maud’s “bosom friendships” as well as that between Anne and Diana were more than just platonic. Though I’ve not read any of LMM’s other biographies (that I can remember — if I have it’s been decades and I’ve forgotten them), my feeling is that this is conjecture based partly on the fact that Maud’s friendships with women seemed closer and more intense than those with men, and girls and women in that time were “gushier” than we generally are today. I see no reason to read lesbian thought into any of those friendships.

Third, though there are places where LMM referred to certain things that inspired details of her Anne books, there seems to be a lot of conjecture as well based on what Maud would have been reading and what cultural references she knew. I have a lot of magazines in my home, or that have passed through my home, but it would be a mistake to think that I read everything in them or agreed with everything I did read, and I can’t help but feel the same would have been true with Maud. I think it’s fine to look at those sources and suggest that perhaps they went into Maud’s consciousness and perhaps even influenced her unawares, but I think that’s as far as you can go without a source where she says directly what influenced her. Many times Ms. Gammel does stop just there, but in my opinion many times she goes further.

I also disagreed with the quote that “It may be the ludicrous escapades of Anne that render the book so attractive to children, but it is the struggles of Marilla that give it resonance for adults” (pp. 188-189). Through Carrie’s LMM reading challenges, it seems several women “discovered” Anne when they were adults, as I did, and were attracted not only by her “escapades” but by her growth. Though understanding Marilla more than a child would, I think most readers still identify with and read for Anne. I disagreed as well that it was “the edgy and tempestuous Anne” readers fell in love with, “an Anne they did not want to grow up and become a polite society lady” (p. 126). Again, I enjoyed seeing her grow into maturity while keeping a lively spirit, learning control and socially acceptable ways to deal with others while still standing firm to her own convictions.

I’ve spent a little more time with what I’ve disagreed with mainly because people have told me they trust my judgment in reviews, and I wouldn’t want to let some of these things pass without comment. I have to defer to Ms. Gammel’s expertise and research, yet I do disagree with her conclusions in these areas where I believe conjecture is involved. Maybe some of you who have read more of LMM’s biography or journals can speak to some of these issues.

This book may be a bit academic for some, and those wanting a full biography may want to find another source (this book ends with the writing of Anne of Ingleside). But a dedicated Anne or LMM fan who wants to read most everything they can find on them might be interested.

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

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share 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 favorites from the past week:

1. Blue skies. It’s still been cold — in the 30s most days — but it has been so uplifting to see blue sky instead of gray overcast.

2. New uses for old things. We talk with my oldest son via “face time” on the iPod 4, but you get tired of holding it after a while, and it’s not easy to prop up. He sent us this business card holder, which works great to hold the iPod while we’re talking.

3. New, eagerly anticipated books —

— even though I already have a stack more than twice that high on my nightstand….

4. Finishing two non-fiction books. It’s unusual for me to have two non-fiction going at a time — they do usually take me a little longer to get through, and I’ve been reading a little here and there from one for months. I enjoyed it, but it felt great to get it finished. I reviewed it earlier this week and hope to have a review for the other one soon.

5. This, in light of Sunday’s big game.

And a bonus — peanut butter Rice Krispie treats with melted chocolate chips on top:

🙂 Hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for those who prayed for Jesse — he was doing better yesterday but was sick again this morning. I am praying he is back to normal soon — and that none of the rest of us gets it.

Flashback Friday: Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks.

The prompt for today is:

What was Valentine’s Day like when you were growing up? Did you have parties at school? Did you make or buy the valentines for your classmates? Was it a trend to attach candy to each valentine? Did your family acknowledge the day in any particular way? What about as you got older, in your teens? Was the day eagerly anticipated or dreaded? Did your school sell/allow carnations or other items? Do any Valentine’s Days from the past in particular stand out in your memory? What about now – is it a special time or just another day on the calendar? And of course, the all-important question: candy conversation hearts – yes or no?!

I love Valentine’s Day.

All that I remember about family Valentine’s celebrations from childhood is that my dad would buy those heart-shaped boxes of candy, and big one for my mom and smaller ones for us kids. Though I am not a big fan of the variety-box chocolates these days, I look on those a little nostalgically when I start to see them in stores each year. I don’t remember that we exchanged cards as a family or had special dinners.

I loved Valentine’s Day at school. We always decorated little boxes or bags to hold the Valentine’s we received. I searched for just the right Valentines and then carefully chose each one for each classmate…especially the boys. It seems like we could bring them in at any point during the week, because I can remember the eagerness of checking our boxes all through the week. We had a little party during the afternoon of Valentine’s Day and opened all our treasures…trying to guess if there was special meaning in the ones from the boys.

I don’t remember if it was a requirement every year, but I do remember one year our fourth grade teacher saying that if we were going to participate, we had to give a Valentine to every member of the class so no one would feel left out. One boy argued with her that that wasn’t…fair or genuine or something. That boy happened to be George K., whom I had a grand crush on…along with almost every other girl in class. And I was profoundly disappointed that I did not receive a Valentine from him — until he came up behind me and whispered something in my ear during the party. The only problem was I couldn’t understand what he said before he moved away. I fantasized that it was something along the lines of how I was more special in his eyes than the other girls, so he wanted to tell me how he felt rather than send me a paltry paper Valentine. But what he probably said was, “Will you stop staring at me, you freak?”

Can you tell I was a little too boy-crazy in my youth?

Ahem. 😳

I don’t remember there being any kind of acknowledgment of Valentine’s Day in high school. In college, one year the campus snack shop offered a special steak dinner for two during Valentine’s in a specially decorated side room, and the campus newspaper published some of the faculty members’ love stories — always enjoyed that.

With my own children, a lot of Valentines came with candy, though I don’t think we ever sent any like that. It was always a challenge to find Valentines that boys wanted to send, especially in the upper elementary years, but I can remember finding some for Jesse one year with a vehicle theme and another year with an Army and camouflage theme, so that was fun. With my older boys’ I seem to remember their Valentine’s receptacles just being a decorated paper bag at the request of teachers, but with my youngest at a different school, they had classroom contests for their Valentine’s boxes. I always liked trying to come up with something a little different, and there was a children’s magazine in stores that had great ideas (I don’t remember the name, but it was connected with Boy and Girl Scouts. My kids weren’t Scouts, and that was the only time of year I ever even noticed the magazine.) One year we did a space ship, another year a crocodile — I’d love to show pictures, but those are in boxes of photos taken after the last ones I put in albums and before digital cameras and I don’t want to search for them right now. 🙂 I think he did win the contest with the crocodile.

When they were in high school, the seniors would sell various things on Valentine’s Day to help make money for their senior trip, from “singing Valentine’s” one year to decorated balloons or cookies or some other treat.

It wasn’t until my oldest was in college that I heard the acronym S.A.D. in connection with the day — Single Awareness Day.

As a family, we usually have a special dinner that night finished with some heart-shaped cupcakes. Sometimes it has been a specially Valentine-themed dinner, like this Crescent Heart-Topped Lasagna Casserole. I don’t do tablecloths every day, but Valentine’s is one day I use them.

I get cards for the kids and Jim, and he gets a card for me. The kids used to give us cards from the ones they used for school, but they haven’t given cards in recent years, except that Jason and Mittu have since they’ve been dating and then married.

I also like to set out a few little Valentine decorations:

Linda’s post reminded me that one year I made a Valentine Scavenger hunt — I made heart shapes and cut them in half and wrote clues on them — the clue on one led to the other half which led to another clue, etc. I don’t remember what the prize at the end was — Valentine’s candy, I think. The boys asked for that again the next year, but I had a hard enough time coming up with clues the first time. Then another year I made a big poster board Valentine with candy taped on at appropriate places in the message (like, “You make me feel like $100,000 Grand” with the candy bar in place of the words.)

For a couple of years I hosted our ladies’ group’s refreshments in February, one of my favorite times to do it. One year I made these Sweetheart Jamwiches from Southern Living magazine.:

And Peanut Butter Kiss cookies, only substituting chocolate hearts instead of Hershey’s kisses.

One year we had a special session on how to love our husbands, but other years it was just a regular meeting with Valentine-themed decorations and food.

As for those candy hearts….I can take them or leave them. I prefer chocolate, but if someone offers me these, I’ll eat a few. This is a really neat card based on them:

A very happy Valentine’s Day to each of you!

Booking Through Thursday: Ground Floor

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme which poses a question or a thought for participants to discuss centering on the subject of books or reading. The question for this week is:

There’s something wonderful about getting in on the ground floor of an author’s career–about being one of the first people to read and admire them, before they became famous best-sellers.

Which authors have you been lucky enough to discover at the very beginning of their careers?

And, if you’ve never had that chance, which author do you WISH you’d been able to discover at the very beginning?

I “met” Laura Lee Groves at her blog, Outnumbered Mom, through Susanne‘s weekly meme Friday’s Fave Fives. We are at similar stages of life and both have all boys and I enjoyed her writing style. It was only after I had been reading her blog for a while that I discovered she was working on a book, and it was exciting to hear about the final stages and then see it come to fruition. I was happy to buy her book, I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys, and to review it here, and even gave away a copy on my blog and then again in in person to a friend. I also found out about The Book Lover’s Devotional: What We Learn About Life From 60 Great Works of Literature through her blog, which would have interested me anyway, but knowing she wrote for parts of it makes it even more appealing. I just received my copy yesterday and can’t wait to start it. Plus she has mentioned working on a fiction book now, and it’s fun to hear a little bit about its progress and to look forward to seeing it come out.

I discovered The Secret Life of Becky Miller, the first book by Sharon Hinck, while just walking around the Christian bookstore looking for something to read. I loved this book about a young mom who experiences Walter Mitty-like daydreams of heroism while trying to figure out how to do “great things for God” in real life. I think my review of Becky was my first on my blog — and Sharon’s response was the first time I ever heard from an author here. I’ve read and enjoyed (and I think reviewed) her six subsequent books since and hope the Lord allows her more. She’s been waylaid by illness the last couple of years and I pray God grants her healing. She also wrote part of the introduction for A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction.

I came across either Adam Blumer or his brother — or maybe both, I got them confused at first — at a Christian message board I sometimes frequent. When I heard he was writing a novel, I eagerly awaited it. His book Fatal Illusions was published in 2009 and was “keep you on the edge of your seat” good, and I am eagerly awaiting the sequel.

I didn’t know Jamie Langston Turner personally, but she teaches at my alma mater, so I also anticipated her first book, Suncatchers, from the time I first heard about it, and I have bought all of her books since.

There may be other authors I’ve followed since their first book or earlier, but these are the ones that come to mind. I enjoy following their careers and hearing about the progress of a book they’re working on.

Book Review: 50 People Every Christian Should Know

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Barbara Harper

In the preface to 50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning From Spiritual Giants of the Faith, author Warren Wiersbe states that he has been greatly helped by reading biographies. “The past is not an anchor to drag us back but a rudder to help guide us into the future.” I love to read biographies as well, and this book included some that were new to me.

I didn’t realize until I received the book that it was compiled from two former books by Wiersbe, Living With the Giants and Victorious Christians You Should Know, which in turn were originally columns in the magazines Moody Monthly and The Good News Broadcaster, which are no longer being published. I am glad these testimonies have been preserved in this book.

Of the 50 (51, actually: one chapter combines two men), I had previously read biographies of six; I knew something about or had read books by about fifteen others, and the rest were new to me except for just a few whose names I had heard. There are four women, a few missionaries, but most are preachers.

Wiersbe gives a brief history of each person as well as suggestions for books by that person or other biographies of them for further reading. Some of the chapters were a little drier to me than others, but often that occurred when I was trying to read too many of them at one time. The stories I already knew were a good refresher, and some of the others were a good springboard toward finding new biographies to read. Though most of the time Wiersbe tried to convey what the person was like rather than just what they did, there were a couple of chapters where I didn’t get that sense of personality. I did appreciate that the individuals were listed in chronological order, so that we could see the effect of the issues of the day or other people on each person.

A couple of the inclusions confused me, though, as Wiersbe said they “did not preach the atonement”: one, in fact, went from a grace-based faith to a works-based religion. I don’t see how such persons could be considered “giants of the faith,” though Wiersbe did say there were things he learned from them.

One of the overall lessons this books left with me was that God can use anybody. These 51 agreed on most core, fundamental doctrines yet were from various denominations, from opposite sides of the Calvinist/Arminian and other controversies, from differing viewpoints on end times and how ministry should be conducted, from widely different personalities and academic tendencies. and yet God used each one. Does that mean none of those issues matters? No, each individual is responsible to study the issue, the Bible, and in their own conscience before God determine what they believe and how to live it out. But seeing how God used varieties of people helps me to be a little less critical, though I trust no less analytical. We can even learn from the fact that some were gifted in one area but had faults in others, as we are all in the same state.

I marked more passages and quotes than I can possibly share in one post…

But here are a few that stood out to me:

Often, after hearing his father preach, Matthew [Henry] would hurry to his room and pray that God would seal the Word and the spiritual impressions made to his heart so that he might not lose them (p. 25).

An excellent exercise. Perhaps that’s part of what made him the commentator he was.

No place is like my study. No company like good books, especially the book of God. ~ Matthew Henry (p. 27).

My endeavor is to bring out of Scripture what is there and not to trust in what I think might be there ~ Charles Simeon (p. 49.)

Amen. Would that all preachers would so do.

“Tried this morning specially to pray against idols in the shape of my books and studies. These encroach upon my direct communion with God, and need to be watched” ~ Andrew Bonar (p. 77).

Books and studies are helpful but even they can take the wrong place in our hearts and minds.

“I can see a man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ’s sake, until he gives up striving to attract people to himself, and seeks only to attract them to Christ” ~ Robert Murray McCheyne (p. 82).

“To efface one’s self is one of a preacher’s first duties. The herald should be lost in the message” ~Alexander Maclaren (p. 109)

Surprisingly, Maclaren was haunted all his life by a sense of failure. Often he suffered ‘stage fright’ before a service, but in the pulpit he was perfectly controlled. He sometimes spoke of each Sunday’s demands as ‘a woe,’ and he was certain that his sermon was not good enough and that the meeting would be a failure” (p. 109).

Though I am not a preacher, I can identify with those feelings. In fact, I have felt that maybe they were an indication I should not be in the ministries I was in, but I guess that’s not always the case. Similarly, John Henry Jowett wrote of his Yale lectures, which I have heard reference to as a great help by more than one preacher:

The lectures are a nightmare to me, and I am glad of getting rid of them this week! (p. 284).

And later,

Preaching that costs nothing accomplishes nothing (p. 284).

We could say that is true of much service, not just preaching. What the Lord uses in our lives may not always be the incidents where we “feel” spiritual or feel like we’re accomplishing something for Him. This next quote is a help:

“All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them” ~ J. Hudson Taylor (p. 133).

“Don’t go about the world with your fist doubled up, carrying a theological revolver in the leg of your trousers.” ~ Charles Spurgeon (p. 143).

I’m smiling because this reminds me of my friend from yesterday’s post. On the other hand,

[Alexander] Whyte was so much of an encourager that he forgot that Christians cannot accept every doctrine men preach, though the men may be fine people (p. 169).

“Fathers and brethren,” Whyte cried, “the world of mind does not stand still! And the theological mind will stand still at its peril.” True. but the theological mind must still depend on the inspired Word of God for truth and direction. Once we lose that anchor, we drift (p. 169).

Religious sentiment, if it is worth anything, must be preceded by religious perception. ~ George Matheson on devotional writing (p. 200).

It is urgently needful that the Christian people of our charge should come to understand that they are not a company of invalids, to be wheeled about, or fed by hand, cosseted, nursed, and comforted, the minister being head physician and nurse — but a garrison in an enemy’s country, every soul of which should have some post of duty, at which he should be prepared to make any sacrifice rather than quit it. ~ F. B. Meyer (p. 216).

“Passion does not compensate for ignorance. ” ~ Samuel Chadwick (p. 249).

“We cannot make up for failure in our devotional life by redoubling energy in service.” ~ W. H. Griffith Thomas (p. 264).

“The Bible never yield itself to indolence.” G. Campbell Morgan (p. 278).

“The ‘soul-saving passion’ as an aim must cease and merge into the passion for Christ, revealing itself in holiness in all human relationships” [Oswald Chambers]. In other words, soul winning is not something we do, it is something we are…and we live for souls because we love Christ (pp. 324-325).

The applause of the crowd is not always the approval of the Lord (p. 370).

Christian leaders must realize that if they suffer from shallowness, the malady will spread throughout their entire organization (p. 370).

When a friend told William Whiting Borden that he was “throwing his life away as a missionary,” William calmly replied, “You have never seen heathenism” (p. 342).

Of Borden, who died at the age of 26 after just starting on the mission field:

Why should such a gifted life be cut short?…”A life abandoned to Christ cannot be cut short” ~ Sherwood Day (p. 345).

I think what he means is that that was what God appointed for him — that amount of time, that mission — and he fulfilled it well and God used him — and still does.

There is a very sweet poem written by Francis Ridley Havergal to Fanny Crosby — I don’t think I had realized they were contemporaries:

Dear blind sister over the sea
An English heart goes forth to thee.
We are linked by a cable of faith and song,
Flashing bright sympathy swift along;
One in the East and one in the West,
Singing for Him whom our souls love best,
“Singing for Jesus,” telling His love,
All the way to our home above.
Where the severing sea, with its restless tide,
Never shall hinder, and never divide.
Sister! what will our meeting be,
When our hearts shall sing and our eyes shall see!

The whole poem/hymn is here.

There were some amusing things in the “My how times have changed” department: D. L. Moody “felt that the bicycle, because of its popularity, was the greatest enemy of the Sabbath” (p. 291). I wonder, 100 years from now, what things people will shake their heads at in wonder that we thought “worldly.”

I imagine some of you who read here regularly will be glad to see this one done — it’s been appearing on my Nightstand posts for months. 🙂 It was neither hard nor tedious to read: it’s just best read a bit at a time rather than plowing straight through. With 50 chapters you could easily take one a week and finish it in a year — or one a day and finish it in a couple of months. Either of those or something between would give you a rich variety of people to learn from.

Though there were some names missing I would have liked to have seen here — Jim Elliot, Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth, J. O. Fraser, Henry Ward Beecher, Martyn-Lloyd Jones (he is referred to a few times), J. Oswald Sanders, Isobel Kuhn — I do understand that every author and book has its limits. 🙂 Overall I enjoyed the book very much.

I’ll close with something William Borden wrote in his notebook in college, something that many of these would echo:

“Lord Jesus, I take hands off, as far as my life is concerned. I put Thee on the throne in my heart. Change, cleanse, use me as Thou shalt choose. I take the full power of Thy Holy Spirit. I thank Thee.” Then he added this revealing sentence: “May never know a tithe of the result until Morning” (p. 345).

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

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Joyce From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge of questions for fun and for getting to know each other.

1. What is more important-doing what you love or loving what you do?

Well, we don’t always get to do what we love, though it’s nice if we enjoy our main job. But even if we do, there will be times we don’t enjoy it as much. And you can do what you have to do without actually loving it. So I am not sure how to answer this. My preference would be to love what I do, but as far as which is more important…I guess learning to love what you do because you have to go against natural inclinations to do it.

2. Do you like bleu cheese?

I’ve never actually tried it, but I don’t want to. It grosses me out.

3. What is the most difficult emotion for you to handle?

Handle as in control or just as in having it or in others? I guess either way the answer would be anger because of the harm it can do to others and even to one’s own body. But self-pity is pretty hard to deal with, too.

4. Fresh flowers or a box of chocolate?

Chocolate! Especially these:

5. What’s a song you love that has the word ‘love’ in its title? It doesn’t have to be a ‘love song’.

O Wondrous Love.

6. Are you the person you wanted to be when you grew up?

Um…I think so, more or less, though I still have a long way to go and am less kind and patient than I ought to and want to be.

7. Any special Valentines Day plans?

We usually have a family dinner — sometimes something “valentine-y,” sometimes not — and I make heart-shaped cupcakes and we exchange cards.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

It’s funny how all through the day things come to mind that I think about putting on my blog — until I get here, and my mind goes blank. I keep a pad on my desk to jot down ideas, but it seems a little eccentric to carry one around with me all day.

I have a sick boy at home today — throwing up since 1:30 a.m.. There’s nothing left, but his body keeps trying. Pray for us!

Where is the grace?

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Barbara Harper

My husband and I are not football fans, so we didn’t watch the Super Bowl. I only vaguely knew who was playing just from hearing it discussed by others. But a couple of events related to the Super Bowl have saddened and frustrated me this week.

One had to do with this commercial. It was rejected from being played during the Super Bowl, but news of its rejection spread around the Internet.

I’m not surprised that it was rejected, though it does make me sad that beer commercials and suggestive music are okay while the merest mention of a Bible verse is not.

But what particularly bothered me was one friend’s reaction to the web site the commercial referred to. He complained publicly about it, saying it didn’t emphasize sin and repentance.

Now, I know where he is coming from, and I do agree that a watered-down gospel that glosses over sin saves no one. If people don’t realize they are sinners, they don’t understand their need for salvation. And a quick, “You agree nobody’s perfect, right?” is hardly repentance. I think the shallowness that many lament in some aspects of modern Christianity stems from this lack of depth in understanding true sin and its offense to a holy God.

On the other hand, this site does mention wrongs done to God and man and the need for justice and the problem that creates for all of us who have done wrong. It doesn’t use the word “sin,” but it conveys the essence of it. The commercial is obviously aimed at people who don’t know anything about what John 3:16 is, much less what it means, and who may not even be familar with the word “sin” in a Biblical sense. The site is a very basic introductory explanation ending with an invitation to read the gospel of John. And, as my husband said, that can’t be a bad thing!

Look at the way Christ dealt with the woman at the well. He never mentioned the word “sin,” but He did put His finger on exactly her particular problem. And even then he didn’t bash her over the head with it. There were other times He did speak of sin directly, of course. There were other times He was harsher in His approach, particularly with the Pharisees who were familiar with the word of God and should have known better.

Jude says, “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Every presentation of the gospel does not have to be a fiery showdown a la Elijah on Mt. Carmel. There are times that kind of stand needs to be taken, but there are other times a gentle compassionate approach is needed. Walking closely with the Lord and being filled with and led by His Spirit will enable us to have the right approach at the right time, for only God knows what a particular person needs at a particular time.

And at least these people are doing something to try to get people to God’s word to find out more, which is more than many of us can say.

Paul said, “Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” I choose to rejoice, as well, that the gospel was introduced to many and pray they will be led to fuller understanding and true salvation.

The other incident that frustrated me was the reaction Christina Aguilera’s flubbing the National Anthem. Now, let me be quick to say I am not a fan of much pop music and I would not let my children listen to sexually suggestive music. I was flipping through TV stations one day and saw a bit of one of her music videos. I had heard the name and watched a few moments to see what she was all about — and was stunned that so many parents would let their kids watch something so overtly sexual. On the other hand, I don’t think attacking her as if she subversively messed up a couple of lines of the “Star-Spangled Banner” on purpose is justified. I want to say to these people, “Have YOU ever sung or spoken in front of people and flubbed the words?!” Where is the grace, people? Though defending the National anthem is not in itself a Christian issue, and though other people besides Christians have attacked her, I think Christian people should be the most gracious of all. If we were to have run into her personally after the game, assuming any of us could get close to her, which would probably be impossible, but, still, if we could talk to her, a hand on the shoulder and a compassionate, “Oh, I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m sure I would do far worse if I were trying to sing in front of so many people” would be more likely to open a door of further conversation and possible witness than lambasting her, don’t you think?

Let’s “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 4:5-6).