Oh Jesus I Have Promised

Posted on May 3, 2009 by Barbara Harper

O Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend;
I shall not fear the battle if Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway if Thou wilt be my Guide.

O let me feel Thee near me! The world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear;
My foes are ever near me, around me and within;
But Jesus, draw Thou nearer, and shield my soul from sin.

O let me hear Thee speaking in accents clear and still,
Above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self will.
O speak to reassure me, to hasten or control;
O speak, and make me listen, Thou Guardian of my soul.

O Jesus, Thou hast promised to all who follow Thee
That where Thou art in glory there shall Thy servant be.
And Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end;
O give me grace to follow, my Master and my Friend.

O let me see Thy footprints, and in them plant mine own;
My hope to follow duly is in Thy strength alone.
O guide me, call me, draw me, uphold me to the end;
And then in Heaven receive me, my Savior and my Friend.

~ John E. Bode, 1868

Catching up with awards and tags

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Barbara Harper

A very long time ago, Alice gave me this Sisterhood award. Alice, forgive me for taking so long to acknowledge it!

She also gave me this Everyday Supplements Award even longer ago. 😳 This one has rules:

Pass this award on to the blogs that are in your daily “must read” list.
Name the blog/owners and tell us why the blog(s) is/are like your “everyday supplements”.
The blogs that are awarded are automatically tagged to do the meme. So this keeps the circle going and hopefully, we will be able to introduce one another with some life-enriching reads.
Optional: You can also include public blogs that are updated weekly/monthly but one(s) that you religiously follow during every update.

Alice said of me: Barbara is a godly woman and a blogger friend whom I respect. She is also an avid reader and is into crafts. Married to her husband for 26 years, she is an inspiration to me and I know that marriage does work when you partner with the right person. Being a “middle-aged” stay-at-home mom (as she calls herself), she keeps busy with various interesting projects. Her blog is indeed an everyday supplement to me.

Thanks so much, Alice! That’s very sweet.

I’m just going to refer you to my Blogroll for this one instead of copying the great majority of that here. There are many listed there, but the great majority don’t post everyday (if they did, I’d never be able to keep up with this many!!), and some are even inactive, but I keep them listed both for their content and so I’ll know when they start posting again. But each one has something worthwhile about it. I don’t keep up with my Blogroll quite as well as I do Google Reader, but I did just add and delete a few and repaired some links.

If you are a regular reader and commenter here, chances are I read you, too, so feel free to take the Everyday Supplement Award and name your Everyday Supplements as well.

Alice also tagged me with this Kreativ Blogger award which also comes with some rules:

This award deals with the values we deem important in others. Here are the six values that are important to me, six things I don’t support, and my nomination of six bloggers:

Six values that are important to me:

1. Honesty
2. Compassion
3. Generosity
4. Love
5. Faith
6. Grace

Six things I don’t support:

1. Arrogance
2. Cruelty
3. Injustice
4. Selfishness
5. Deceit
6. Stubbornness

My nomination of six bloggers:

1. Thom
2, Quilly
3. Smiling Sally
4. Melli
5. Cyndi
6. Janet

Thom gave me the 2009 Friendly Blogger Award. Thanks Thom!

Thom also gave me the Honest Scrapper award. It includes rules to tell ten random things about yourself.

I’ve done a 7 and an 8 random thing before…I’m not going to try to dig them up to make sure I don’t repeat myself (if I can’t remember what I said maybe you don’t either. 🙂 )

1. I am a sinner saved by grace.

2. I am the oldest of 6 children and a pretty classic firstborn child personality.

3. I once dated a mannequin. Well, not a real one. He was a real guy, but he worked as a fake mannequin. There was an article in the newspaper with a picture of people trying to get him to laugh while he was working.

4. I like pink, slate blue, and sage green.

5. I don’t like red, orange, most yellows, or peach, even though I have peach-colored roses. The label said pink when we bought them! Exceptions: I like these colors on fall leaves or in sunsets.

6. I don’t like weedy-looking salads. Somehow the more gourmet the salad, the more it looks like someone picked weeds for it out of their yard.

7. I like heart-shaped things.

8. Tap, tap, tap, tap…three more, eh? I have more books than bookshelves. Some shelves hold a double row.

9. I like a variety of music: sacred, classical, Irish and Scottish folk songs, many Broadway-type show tunes.

10.If something is out of place on the grocery store shelves, I don’t take it, even if it is the last one. If it is out of place someone has moved it or taken it and put it back, and I know 99.999% of the time that’s all it is — but for a while there “tampered” items in the stores were making big news, and now I just have this mental thing about the possibility. Weird, huh?

Whew! If you’re still reading this far, pat yourself on the back for being such a good blog friend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Barbara Harper

My Poetry Friday post is below.

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites.

1. Our church’s annual ladies’ luncheon went very well. The Lord blessed in myriad ways. I enjoyed it…but it is a relief that it is over! 🙂

2. I’ve enjoyed listening to parts of a dramatic recording of the life of C. S. Lewis on a local radio station. I’ve been catching it mostly while in the car and forgetting about it when I am at home. Yesterday I heard the production information at the end and found it was a production of MoodyAudio.com, but I don’t see it listed under their Stories of Great Christians, though they have several others that look great. I’d love to find a recording of it to hear the whole thing.

3. My blog friend Lizzie at A Dusty Frame sent me a surprise package the other day! I had commented on a book she had reviewed, A Vote of Confidence by Robin Lee Hatcher, and she had my address from an order for a flower pin I had placed from her shop, so she sent it to me along with a lovely, almost too pretty to get messy dishcloth she knitted herself. I was so surprised and pleased! Thank you, Lizzie!

cimg2711

4. This Garfield comic strip. As Christian parents of boys, having tried to teach them that less physical contact before marriage is best, and having one getting married this summer, this struck us all funny.

5. My roses just started blooming this week!

I don’t know how they survive — I don’t do much with them besides occasionally cutting them back. But they sure brighten up the walk from the car to the house!

You can find more favorites from the week or link up to add your own at Susanne‘s.

Poetry Friday: Ode to Hay Fever

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Poetry Friday is hosted at Allegro today.

I have an original composition today. It was intended to be a tongue-in-cheek commiseration for those of us who suffer with allergies this time of year, but it ended up sounding a little depressing…maybe because the tune is depressing. But if you can imagine how someone like Carol Burnett would sing it, you’ll have it just about right.

Ode to Hay Fever

— To the tune of the Beatles’ “Yesterday”

Allergies…
cause my eyes to itch and make me sneeze
when the pollen floats in from the trees.
Oh, I’m not pleased with allergies.

Logically
I know pollen is good for the bees
And it helps create some other trees,
But it’s not good for me to breathe.

Why this yellow dust on my car, my house, my hair?
I am surrounded with this pollen everywhere!

I love spring,
Listening to all the birds sing,
Warmer days and blooms on everything.
Allergies are the only things
Negative about the spring.

Book Review: The Centurion’s Wife

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Barbara Harper

The Centurion’s Wife by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn is set in Israel immediately after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

Leah is the niece of Pilate, but due to a financial disaster in her family, she becomes a servant to Pilate’s wife, Procula, until a marriage can be arranged for her. Leah does not want to marry, but her pleadings avail little. Procula had had troubling dreams about Jesus during His trial which continue to plague her, and she sends Leah out to try to find the disciples of Christ and learn what she can about whether revolt is planned among them. She befriends some of the women who followed Christ and is drawn to them while at the same time she is increasingly troubled about her impending arranged marriage.

Pilate had thought he appeased the Jews by giving them the crucifixion of Christ which they had clamored for, but now with the news that Jesus’ grave is open and His body missing, Pilate is concerned that His followers are planning a revolt. One of his centurions, Alban, has a good relationship with the Jews in his area, so Pilate sends him to learn what is going on and to ferret out any information he can. Alban is the centurion whose servant Jesus healed and whose faith Jesus praised, yet in this story it is thought that the faith that his servant could be healed was not quite yet saving faith. Alban sets out first of all to find the soldiers assigned to guard Jesus’ tomb: something doesn’t quite add up, because if the disciples had broken into the tomb and stolen Jesus’ body, the soldiers on guard would have been killed for letting that happen. But they are alive, and Alban wants to hear their side of the story.

What Alban and Leah both find separately has profound implications for their future.

I have to admit I approach Biblically-based fiction somewhat warily. It has to be understood that the events and personalities beyond what the Bible delineates are products of the authors’ imaginations, and sometimes an author’s characterization can ring not quite true with one’s own summations. But I have read all of Janette Oke’s books and many of Davis Bunn’s, and I felt they wouldn’t go too far afield. I just happened to pick this book up just after Easter, the same time setting as the book, and it brought to mind what that time must have been like. Pilate thought he had closed a chapter in regard to Jesus but now finds he may have more trouble than before; the disciples are convinced at this point that Jesus has risen and they are waiting, at His command, but they don’t know what is next; other people don’t know what to make of the events. It’s easy to imagine the incredulity many experienced upon first hearing that Jesus is not just missing, but resurrected, yet for several reasons they can’t just dismiss the possibility.

It took me several chapters to really connect with the characters, but I can’t put my finger on exactly why: perhaps it was just that initial confusion and unrest conveyed by the times carrying over into my perceptions. But I did feel more drawn in as the story progressed. I enjoyed “meeting” some of the early disciples: my favorite was Martha. I felt her personality was the most well-developed and realistic. Every church kitchen has a lady like her: bustling, efficient, matter-of-fact, perhaps a little too blunt, yet she had learned well the lesson Christ taught her. Mary Magdalene seemed the least well-developed and almost a little too other-worldly to me.

Overall I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to the next in the series.

So what is this I’m eating?

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Barbara Harper

I noticed this “ad” on my egg carton one day and was a little taken aback. The eggs I was scrambling certainly looked natural! 🙂

It goes on to explain that the “natural” eggs came from hens fed a certain diet. Still, I am looking at these a little more suspectly…

What’s On Your Nightstand: April

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Barbara Harper

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

I was surprised at first to find that I had not participated in this since January, but then I remembered that was primarily because I was still in the unabridged Les Miserables and To the Golden Shore all those months and didn’t want to just keep listing the same books.

I did finally finish Les Miserables and reviewed it here. I am still working on classic missionary biography To the Golden Shore by Courtney Anderson about Americas’ first missionary, Adoniram Judson. I just recently started In Trouble and In Joy: Four Women Who Lived for God by Sharon James, a collection of short biographies and writing excerpts of four women: Margaret Baxter, wife of Puritan preacher Richard Baxter; Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards; Anne Steele and Frances Ridley Havergal, both hymn writers. Anne was the only one I knew nothing about before the book. I’ve only just started it within the last week or so, so it is too early to have much of an opinion on it yet.

I read The Centurion’s Wife by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn but haven’t had a chance to review it yet. It is set during the time just after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, about a young woman, Leah, who is a servant to Pilate’s wife, sent out by her mistress to find out more about Christ’s followers and their intentions. She is betrothed against her will to a centurion who is sent out by Pilate on the same mission. It took me a while to get into the book, but overall I enjoyed it. I hadn’t specifically planned to read it just after Easter, the same time frame as the book, but that’s when I happened to start it, and it added a nice dimension to enter into their experiences around the same season as the setting of the book.

I also completed Passionate Housewives Desperate For God by Jennie Chauncey and Stacy McDonald, a book primarily encouraging stay-at-home wives and mothers. Overall it was good, but there were a couple of things I wouldn’t agree with quite 100% the way they were presented. More on that when I am able to review it.

I also read the last of the Four Seasons of Marriage books by Palmer and Chapman, Winter Turns to Spring.

I am not sure which of the books on my Spring Reading Thing list I will pick up next, but I would like to go through some of the Christian fiction books I have listed there.

I have also been consistently reading a daily devotional book titled Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer. I am convinced it is the devotional book for me for this year. It has ministered to me greatly and I have quoted from it several times here.

You can join in sharing what’s on your nightstand or see others’ entries here.

Ladies’ Luncheon ’09

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Thanks to those who prayed for the ladies’ luncheon. Everything went very well!

I had mentioned before that a lady in my church knew of someone who did a one-woman dramatic interpretation of one of my all-time favorite books, Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose. It is about a young missionary wife in the Philippines at the time the Japanese took over during WWII. Her husband and most of the other men in their compound were taken captive, then later the women were sent to a separate prison camp. At one point she was accused of being a spy and put on death row. This might not sound like a cheery ladies’ luncheon topic — but the main emphasis in the book is the triumph of faith — how God met her needs, physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, through all that she experienced. As I told the ladies, I don’t think Darlene would have wanted anyone to exalt her, or even her faith, but she would have wanted them to see the One she had faith in and to know that He could meet all of their needs, too.

It would take too long to tell of the connections between people involved — and most of you wouldn’t know them, anyway — but the Lord did open doors for this young lady to come and present this drama for us. The same lady who told me of her volunteered to do the “leg work” for the program part, talking to the drama coach at school about using props, etc. That was a blessing to be able to just turn a major portion of the luncheon over to someone else! I’ve never been able to do that before.

The title of the book comes from Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I wrestled for a long time with whether to use that as our theme verse or I Peter 1:7: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” That verse was certainly manifested in Mrs. Rose’s life as well. But I went with Hebrews 11:1 since it really was the theme of her life.

I chose a rose as the motif, since the author’s new last name after she remarried after the events of this book was Rose, and pink, because I like pink roses, and gold to represent the I Peter 1:7 passage.

Here is one of the tables:

One of the centerpieces a little closer up:

This may sound silly — but one of the things I was most pleased about was the little gold curlicue things in the vase. I got the idea from some more extensive gold swirly things around a candle at a bridal shower recently. I was going to borrow the whole idea, but candles of the size I needed and amount I needed would have been too expensive. As I wandered around Hobby Lobby, I noticed the flower stems were on sale half price, so I went ahead and got the roses, then also found these curly things on stems in kind of an orange-red color. I tried spray-painting them gold, and thought they came out great.

At one of our ladies’ meetings we worked on these bookmarks as favors:

The base of it looks brown here, but it is gold. We decided they’d look best laminated. Our church has a laminating machine, but…it just didn’t work on these. The plastic peeled right off. The gold card stock was a little heavier than usual, and our machine is old. It has to warm up to 250 degrees to adhere, and it got there, but when I ran these through the temperature dropped to 245. I was kicking myself because I could have laminated these the week before, but I didn’t think there was any hurry — I figured it would only take me an hour or so to do. An hour and a half later with it still not done — and the day before we were to decorate — left me very frustrated. I took them to Office Max, and they were able to laminate them, and at not too bad a price, though one way they tried it didn’t work because of the thickness. But we finally got them done, and I loved how they turned out.

Moral of the story: do as much as you can as much ahead of time as you can even if you think you have plenty of time.

We often have a heavier, dinner-type meal (baked chicken or something similar), but I saw on the caterer’s menus an assortment of wraps, and decided to try that this time along with a broccoli salad (which I had never heard of, but it included bacon and shredded cheese, and you can’t go too far wrong with those 🙂 ) and a fresh fruit tray and brownies. I thought everything tasted great.

We had a lot more volunteer help to set up and clean up, so that was a blessing. I mentioned cheerful helpers as one of my five favorite things last week. I don’t know if people realize just how much of a blessing that is when they just pitch in, and then do so with a smile. And my dear husband and oldest son agreed to help in various ways, being there for the caterer to set up while we were in the program and then helping put the pulpit and chairs back on stage afterward.

I had stopped in at the rehearsal after we decorated the night before where the two sound men from church were working with getting the lights and sound cue recording all coordinated. Everything came together really well, and the young lady did a tremendous job with the program. I should have forewarned people to have tissues handy. 🙂 There were several things that spoke to my heart again even though I have read the book a number of times. I was really glad the banana story was included — if you’ve read the book, you know what I am talking about; if not, I’ll let you discover it. It’s one of my favorite parts.

Usually we have some type of little game and door prizes, but I really wanted to give away some copies of the book this time. We had enough in our budget to give away 20. I love getting good books, especially the kind that feed your soul, into other people’s hands.

On a personal note, we had invited my mother-in-law, but she is really uncomfortable in social settings. Whenever I would mention it, she would start out saying she didn’t think she would go, but I would gently try to reassure her that it was in the same building where we have church and we would eat where she had joined us for a church dinner once, so it wasn’t all unfamiliar territory. I also mentioned here last week that a lady at church had begun going to see her once a week or so, and my mother-in-law really likes her and communicates well with her. I asked this lady if she would mind sitting with my mother-in-law since I would have to be up and down and wouldn’t be able to be with her all the time, and she very graciously agreed. When my husband reminded his mom of the luncheon the night before, she almost went into a panic, but he reassured her again. I wasn’t going to try to insist that she go if it was really going to be traumatic for her, but I felt if she would step out of her comfort zone, everything would be ok and she would enjoy herself. And she did — step out and enjoy herself, both. I was very proud of her!

And for me…I tend to get so nervous the day or two before these things, even though everything is going well. I have asked the Lord to take that away, but I guess it is just part of the package, and I just try to ignore it and carry on. Once we get started I am more or less fine: it’s just the time previous that my body reacts nervously in ways I’ll spare you the details of. There were some problems along those lines, but everything turned out ok.

All in all, everything came together very nicely, and the Lord’s help was evident in every way, from the ideas to the people and things needed, to good health for all involved (especially during allergy season!) and most of all in the program itself . Thank you again to those who prayed!

And even though I immensely enjoyed it…I am glad it’s over. 🙂

My faith looks up to Thee

Posted on April 25, 2009 by Barbara Harper

This hymn is one of the earliest I remember learning as a child.

My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away,
O let me from this day be wholly Thine!

May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire!
As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee,
Pure warm, and changeless be, a living fire!

While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread, be Thou my Guide;
Bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.

When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold sullen stream over me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!

~ Ray Palmer

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Barbara Harper

My favorite moments from this week:

1. Getting a good start on getting the house painted. We’ve been wanting to get at that for a long time. I wrote more about it and showed pictures here, but this picture shows the old on the left and the new on the right.

cimg2691

2. Cheerful helpful people. Our church’s ladies’ luncheon is tomorrow, and a number of ladies volunteered to help set up beforehand and then clean up afterward. Then earlier this week, I was at the school office where one of those ladies was volunteering that day while talking with another lady about helping her with something else going on this week. She also regularly helps me put labels with our church contact information on tracts. She’s a little bit older, and all her kids are grown and on their own, and I just appreciate that she uses her time to help others and does it with such a cheerful spirit. Plus another older lady has, on her own initiative, starting visiting with my mother-in-law at her assisted living facility, which my mother-in-law really enjoys, and agreed to sit with her at the ladies’ luncheon tomorrow so that while I am up and down taking care of things, she won’t be alone. That is such a blessing.

3. I know I have mentioned spring before and the dogwoods in bloom before, but it is still such a joy to see things greening up after winter and to see the dogwoods and azaleas in bloom throughout the neighborhood. Plus, my kitchen window, unfortunately, faces right into a neighbor’s family room behind us, and when the trees put out their new leaves that view is blocked and I feel like we both have a little more privacy. 🙂

4. Funny comment of the week: Jeremy works from home, and one day in particular he was having trouble getting going mentally with his work. He had been just generally puttering around on the computer. When he was telling me all this, he said, “I don’t get paid to play games on the computer and watch You Tube videos at work like other people do.” Cracked me up.

5. The devotional book I am using this year, Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer, has been used of the Lord to speak to me often this year. The April 22nd reading had an application I had never thought of before concerning Jacob’s wrestling with a man the night before meeting his brother, Esau, who, the last Jacob knew, was after his life:

when the sense of loneliness steals over the spirit, and the starry hosts expand overhead, it is then that we may come into personal contact with One, whose delights from of old were with the sons of men. He is the Word of God, but He is also the Saviour, the Lover and Friend of man.

In our first meeting, He will wrestle with us to break down our stubbornness; He will touch the sinew of our strength till we can hold out no more; He will withdraw from us till we insist that we cannot let Him go; He will awaken a mysterious longing and urgency within us, which He alone can satisfy. And as the memorable interview ends, He will have taught us that we prevail best when we are at our weakest, and will have whispered in our ear, in response to our entreaty, His own sublime Name, Shiloh, the Giver of Eternal Peace!

I love how, after a busy week in which I didn’t think I would have five favorite things, after thinking about it, I can come up with more than five, and instead of thinking, “Wow, what a busy week,” I am left thinking, “Wow, it’s been a great week.” Thanks, Susanne, for spurring us on to do that!

You can see other favorites of this week at Susanne‘s.

Updated to add: Our ladies’ luncheon is tomorrow. Those of you who pray, I’d appreciate your prayers if you’re willing! Everything is going well (except for a laminating machine that wouldn’t laminate the bookmarks we made for favors. Unfortunately I had not done them last week, which would have given me more of a cushion to deal with it, because I thought it would only take an hour or so. It took an hour and 40 minutes — and still wasn’t done. What we did try to do, I had to peel the laminating plastic off of. I took them to an office supply store today, and they can do them this afternoon for around $20 — not bad, considering.) But even when everything is going well, there is still a little underlying pressure or nervousness til it is all over. I’ll post pictures either this weekend or early next week.