Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on April 5, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Every week seems to have up and down weather lately, but we hit extremes of 80s one day and 30s the next this week. I’m glad we can adjust heating and air conditioning inside so easily, but I am really ready for cold weather to be done til next fall. We’ll get there eventually.

Meanwhile, it helps to stop and count one’s blessings. That doesn’t usually happen unless we deliberately look for them, so I make it a point to do so on Fridays with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Easter. I enjoyed meditating on Christ’s death and resurrection the past few weeks by rereading Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter complied by Nancy Guthrie. We had a good church service, great dinner with the family, and a fun Easter egg hunt.

2. Camping. Jim, Jason, Mittu, and Timothy camped out a few days at a state park about half an hour from here. Jesse and I drove up to join them for lunch and dinner Friday. Mittu had made these neat foil packets with fish and vegetables, and Jim grilled his yummy burgers.

3. Time alone. If you’ve read here for long, you know I love my family. But I do love time alone sometimes as well. Camping is not my favorite thing for a number of reasons, some of them due to physical issues. Going for a few hours one afternoon gave me some of the camping experience while getting to sleep in my own bed at night. 🙂 While everyone was away, I got Mexican food take-out one night, watched a movie, and got a good chunk of writing done.

4. April Fool’s Day is not something we’ve ever done much with as a family. But I was amused to hear that Timothy pulled his first April Fool’s Day prank. Jason opened the egg carton one morning to find that Timothy had replaced the eggs with confetti eggs he had gotten for Easter. Jason said Timothy was pretty proud of himself. 🙂

I also smiled, after some initial confusion, when the Connections word game showed pictures that day instead of words.

5. Getting an appointment over with. I have mild sleep apnea. The only reason I sought treatment for it was that one doctor told me sleep apnea could cause atrial fibrillation (which I have, even after having an ablation), and any number of ablations wouldn’t help unless the sleep apnea was treated. Using the CPAP machine requires a once-a-year in-person visit to the sleep center. That visit really could be phoned in. In fact, one year they had a telehealth visit on the phone because they were moving to a new office the day of my appointment. I asked if we couldn’t do that all the time–it only took about ten minutes whereas the in-person appointment takes about an hour by the time I drive there and back. They said no, insurance requires that it be in-person unless they have extenuating circumstances like they did that year. This year it had to be rescheduled a couple of times. So it was good to be done with it for another year. Also, as appointments go, it wasn’t bad: the people were very pleasant, their new building was much more spacious than the cramped, maze-like building they used to have. Their bathrooms were right outside the waiting area instead of being back in the maze somewhere. My only problem with it was the hour it took. But since I have to do it, I need to have a better attitude about it.

I hope you’ve had a good week as well.

Review: Always On My Mind

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Always On My Mind is the fourth novel in the Christiansen family series by Susan May Warren.

Casper is the fourth child and middle son of the family. The previous book, When I Fall in Love, focused on his older sister, Grace, but also shared Casper’s budding relationship with a new girl in town, Raina.

After a big blow-up near the end of that book, Casper, an archeology major, accepted an invitation to a dig in Honduras. He’s always felt overshadowed by his brothers and wants to do something to stand out on his own. But this dig is going nowhere. Even a side project yields no results. He can’t get Raina off his mind. He decides to forgive the past, go home, and tell Raina he loves her.

But when he gets home, he is surprised to discover that Raina is pregnant and shocked to learn who the father is. Further, Raina wants him to go away and leave her alone.

Raina still loves Caspar, but feels she is damaged and no good for him.

Casper goes back to Deep Haven to help at his family’s resort and work in town until he can decide what to do next. He also helps out at the town Historical Society, where he’s surprised to discover that Raina has come back to Deep Haven, too. Their work throws them together, so they form a tentative friendship.

Caspar is dismayed when Raina starts dating Monty, a bully he knew from high school. But Monty turns on the charm with Raina, and she delights in feeling special in his eyes.

One subplot involves Casper’s discovery of clues from an old local legend about a missing gangster and the steel bonds he supposedly left hidden somewhere.

Another involves oldest brother Darek, featured in the first book in the series, who has taken over running his parents’ resort after they retired. But the responsibilities of repairs and projects and the lack of customers and therefore income weigh heavily on him. His long hours away from home start taking a toll on his family. He wonders if he should go back to firefighting.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not keen on romances. But I do like good stories where people learn, grow, and overcome. Susan’s stories don’t have the silliness and physicality that some romances do. Plus, I got invested in the family in the first book, and since the series was free at Audible for a time, I decided to follow through.

Susan had written here that part of her reason for writing this series was that she and her husband were in the season of parenting adult children, and she wanted to write about “watching, hoping, praying your adult children into a legacy of faith.” The Christiansen parents, John and Ingrid, are somewhat background characters in the books, but emerge to share a word of wisdom, guidance, or encouragement here and there.

Each story begins a beautiful letter that Ingrid has written to the child featured in that book.

Susan writes that part of her focus in this particular novel is “What do you do when you love someone who seems bent on self-destruction? Worse, when they seem incapable of listening to reason? Pray. Hope. Love anyway.”

There’s kind of an obvious symbolism between Casper’s hunt for lost treasure and Raina being a type of lost treasure.

My only difficulty with this story is that I didn’t care for Raina at first. I didn’t have a problem with the fact that she was a “broken soul,” had a lot of baggage, and needed redemption. I just didn’t see any qualities that would cause Casper to fall in love with her. But by the end of this story, I did.

On a side note, for some reason, the audiobook covers are different from the e-book and print covers. I like the book covers much better.

Review: A Noble Scheme

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Barbara Harper

A Noble Scheme is the second novel in Roseanna M. White’s Imposters series. The first book, A Beautiful Disguise, established that The Imposters were a private investigation firm in the early 1900s. Siblings Yates and Marigold Fairfax learned that their father’s spendthrift ways had left no money. One of his whimsical purchases had been an entire circus which stayed at the estate when not traveling. The circus performers and animals became close friends of the Fairfaxes. Yates and Marigold had learned acrobatics, theatrics, and other performance tricks from them. They decided to use these skills to support themselves and their circus friends by maintaining their place in society and secretively, in disguise, investigating matters for high-end clientele.

However, in A Nobel Scheme, a waiter comes to them–someone who could not afford them. Yet when they hear that his son has been kidnapped, mistaken for his almost identical wealthy cousin, the team accepts the case pro bono.

Gemma Parks is also part of the Imposters. She writes a society column as G. M. Parker and fills in however she can. She keeps her ears open in society functions and sometimes masquerades as Marigold so Marigold can look for clues.

Graham Wharton is the Fairfaxe’s distant cousin who came to live with them when his parents died. He’s an architect who can help the Fairfaxes find tunnels or keeps or hiding places in old houses.

Graham and Gemma had grown up together and fallen in love. But in the last book, they were estranged. Several references were made to what had happened between them, but that situation wasn’t explained until this book. It’s a pretty big reveal, so I won’t spoil it.

Gemma avoids Graham as much as she can, but they try to put aside their differences for the cases they are working on. This particular case throws them together more than normal. Graham hopes to win Gemma back, but she can’t forgive him. He, in turn, blames God. He acknowledges his foolishness in what happened, but God could have prevented it.

I love that this series is different from the usual historical fiction fare. The themes of faith and forgiveness are woven in naturally. Roseanna is one of my favorite authors, and this book didn’t disappoint.

Some of my favorite quotes:

The more she wrote for herself, the more herself she became.

Words were wily things—but they were miraculous too. They created, they shaped, they breathed life. God had used them to form the universe, and Christ had come as a living Word to write Himself onto the hearts of humankind. Was it any wonder, then, that words had pulled her from the brink of darkness and delivered her, however slowly, back to the Light?

I enjoyed the audiobook nicely read by Susan Lyons. Sadly, the audiobook didn’t include any author’s notes. But I found this interview in which Roseanna shares how she came to write about nobility hosting a circus and investigating in disguise.

The Tomb Is Empty that We Might Be Filled

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Some people only think about Jesus at Christmas. Perhaps they are inspired by sweet paintings of a mother and child and promises of peace on earth and good will to men.

But Jesus is no longer in the manger.

He grew up to be a man, led a righteous life, kept all of God’s law in our place, and died on the cross for our sins. His death on the cross canceled our sin debt, demonstrated His love, reconciled us to God, took the punishment for our sins, made it possible for us to be saved, and more.

But Jesus is no longer on the cross.

Some of His last words were “It is finished.” He had done everything necessary to make it possible for people to be saved.

He was taken down from the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb.

But Jesus is no longer in the tomb.

When friends came to care for His body, instead they found an angelic messenger declaring, “He is not here; He is risen, just as He said.” “God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death” (Acts 2:24, CSB).

Jesus’ resurrection testifies that Jesus is the Son of God, validates His claims, removes death’s sting, gives hope in sorrow, show’s God’s power, and so much more.

Now Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, praying for us, and preparing a place for us to be with Him. Yet He also dwells in our hearts through faith. “Christ in us” is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

The manger, the cross, and the tomb are all empty—that we might be filled with His presence, pardon, power, and peace.

Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me,
A clean vessel in Thy hand;
With no pow’r but as Thou givest
Graciously with each command.

Witnessing Thy pow’r to save me,
Setting free from self and sin;
Thou who boughtest to possess me,
In Thy fullness, Lord, come in.

Mary E. Maxwell, “Channels Only”

“If you come to seek His face, not in the empty sepulchre, but in the living power of His presence, as indeed realizing that He has finished His glorious work, and is alive for evermore, then your hearts will be full of true Easter joy, and that joy will shed itself abroad in your homes. And let your joy not end with the hymns and the prayers and the communions in His house. Take with you the joy of Easter to the home, and make that home bright with more unselfish love, more hearty service; take it into your work, and do all in the name of the Lord Jesus; take it to your heart, and let that heart rise anew on Easter wings to a higher, a gladder, a fuller life; take it to the dear grave-side and say there the two words ‘Jesus lives!’ and find in them the secret of calm expectation, the hope of eternal reunion.” —John Ellerton

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Him will live though he dies.

This post was inspired by a short piece written by Terry Rayburn.

I often link up with some of these bloggers.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 30, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here’s my weekly list of good reads:

Jesus Was No Victim. “It was physically dark, as the very sun refused to shine on the crucifixion of its Maker (Matthew 27:45). And it was morally dark, as a collection of bitter rivals joined to commit history’s most grotesque crime, the murder of the Son of God. Scripture holds Jesus’ murderers guilty for their crime (Acts 2:24, 36; 3:13-15; 4:10, 27). And yet, it would be wrong for us to see Jesus as the victim.”

The Silence of the Lamb. Adrian Rogers discusses why Jesus did not explain or defend Himself during His trials before crucifixion. One of my favorite parts of this: “If Jesus had risen up in his own defense during his trials, I believe that he would have been so powerful and irrefutable in making his defense that no governor, high priest, or other legal authority on earth could have stood against him! In other words, if Jesus had taken up his own defense with the intention of refuting his accusers and proving his innocence, he would have won! But we would have lost, and we would be lost for all eternity.”

How to Protect Your Kids from Sexual Abuse, HT to Challies. “Parents, educators, caring adults, and the church have grown more alert to the need to teach kids tangible ways to stay safe from abuse. Since concerned adults like you and me can’t always be with children, we must educate them in concrete, child-appropriate safety skills.”

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know, HT to the Story Warren. A mother reflects on what her son has taught her about Jesus’ love on World Down Syndrome Day.

On Whales, Menopause, and Thanks to God, HT to Challies. “In God’s good design, we humans share this somewhat rare life stage with only six other species on earth. Humans, however, are the only creatures who are able to reflect upon the experience of menopause, and even (stay with me here) thank God for it.”

Talk to God About What Hurts, HT to Challies. “When life is painful, God invites us to talk to Him about it. He wants us to cry out to him in humility–to talk to him about what hurts–that we might grow in our childlike trust in Him and His Word.”

Just Checking In: How’s Your Bible Reading Plan Going? HT to Challies. “I want to give a little encouragement for those who are trying to read through the Bible this year.”

Does God Care How You Cook Your Goat? The verses in the Old Testament about not boiling a baby goat in its mother’s milk are puzzling, both from the standpoint of why it was a law at the time and how it applies to us today. Tim Challies shares a couple of interpretations and applications.

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection,
not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime.
Martin Luther

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here we are at another Friday and the end of another month. Time just keeps marching on, doesn’t it? That’s why it’s good to pause occasionally and reflect on the blessings of the week before they pass out of memory. I’m joining with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story. You have a standing invitation to join in!

1. Ladies’ Brunch at church. This is the first ladies’ function I’ve been able to attend at this church. I love brunch foods. They played a variation of speed friending. I enjoyed getting to know the ladies at my table as well as talking with people I hadn’t crossed paths with yet during the game. Through the game, I found a number of other readers, as well as some who liked the classics!

2. A good visit with a new doctor. I was sad that my former gastroenterologist retired last year. He had done some testing and ruled a few things out, but hadn’t really figured out yet what my issues were. I wasn’t looking forward to starting over with someone new. But I was impressed that the new (to me) doctor actually read my file before coming in to see me. It seems like, usually, no matter what’s on file or what you’ve written in the multitude of forms you have to fill out, the doctor still wants you to start from the beginning. But we were able to jump right in. She recommended a couple of things to try that were non-prescription (which I was thankful for), and I am supposed to check back with her in six months.

3. My husband has done most of the grocery shopping since he retired in December. I was feeling guilty about that, but he assured me he doesn’t mind. Then this week he took some things to the post office for me and ran some other errands.

4. Family text threads. We have a group text for our immediate family where we share everything from family news to funny memes to pictures of weird things we see out and about. Then my siblings and I have a group thread on Messenger.

5. Sunshine. We’d had cold, overcast, rainy days, so it felt good to see the sun again.

I wish you all a blessed Easter remembering God’s great love in giving His Son to die for our sins so we could be forgiven and have a relationship with Him.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:21)

March Reflections

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Barbara Harper

We have a few days of March left, but this was the best time for me to post my monthly recap.

Spring and winter are still going back and forth, as they always do. Even though we’re past the first day of spring, we’re still having cold nights. I’ve been tempted to update our front planters, but thankfully I resisted.

Family

We enjoyed celebrating my husband’s birthday and Pi Day. We got Jesse moved into his new house, and he’s planning to have us all over for dinner soon. We got his fairly new washer and dryer since his new house had stackable units in a closet. That entailed Jim having to put in an electrical line since our previous dryer was gas, but he did a great job.

We had a couple of lovely quiet weeks, with no appointments or activities. It was nice to catch our breath after the last couple of months.

Creating

I only made one card this month, this one for Jim’s birthday.

The “Happy Birthday” and drawing were on the Cricut–evidently people can submit their designs to the Cricut Design Space. This was one sent in by a user. The Cricut sends the drawing part to the computer and then cuts around it. The original card was just the size of the drawing, with the “Happy Birthday” in the white space. But I wanted it a little bigger. I was happy to find the “camping” scrapbook paper in my files.

Then Mittu and Jason (mostly Mittu, he said) drew this card for Jim, which I thought was so cute.

We didn’t know the other was going with a fishing theme, so it was fun to find out we both did.

Watching

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit was a nice film, even though it was in another language and we had to rely on subtitles. I didn’t know til the end that it was based on a book which was based on a true situation. Judith Kerr wrote the book for children, telling about her family’s experiences as refugees from Germany from her viewpoint as a child. The title comes from a beloved stuffed bunny she had to leave behind. Then she learned later that the Nazis took everything left in their house. I want to read the book itself some day.

While looking up the trailer on YouTube, I also found this video with Kerr talking about this book as well as another she was working on for children about widowhood.

Reading

Since last time I finished (titles link to my reviews):

Be Skillful (Proverbs): God’s Guidebook to Wise Living by Warren Wiersbe.
Proverbs for Life for Women compiled by Lila Empson. A little lightweight, but it had some good spots.
Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life by Nick Vujicic, who was born without arms and legs. Very good, inspirational.
Dandelion Summer by Lisa Wingate, fiction, audiobook. An unlikely friendship forms between a retired, conservative, curmudgeonly white man and a streetwise black teenage girl. Very good.
It Had to Be You by Susan May Warren, fiction, audiobook. The second in Susan’s Christiansen family series. In this one. oldest sister Eden has been on the sidelines cheering everyone else’s accomplishments. But her dream of being a reporter hasn’t materialized: she’s stuck in the obits department. She clashes with Jace, her brother’s hockey team captain, for not being a better example. But she doesn’t know Jace has his own struggles between his health and what the team owners want from him.
When I Fall in Love by Susan May Warren, fiction, audiobook, the third Christiansen family story. Middle sister Grace is a homebody who loves cooking and wants to go to culinary school one day. Her family surprises her with a cooking school vacation in Hawaii. Besides all the fears involved with that, she’s humiliated that they’ve arranged for their brother’s hockey teammate, who is going to the same school, to help her out. She doesn’t want him to “babysit” her. He doesn’t want to, either. But when they meet, they hit it off. However, he’s promised not to get involved with anyone due to a health issue he doesn’t want to discuss.

I also finished rereading Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making by Andrew Peterson. I immediately started reading it again after finishing it earlier this year.

I’m currently reading:

Be Comforted (Isaiah): Feeling Secure in the Arms of God by Warren W. Wiersbe, nonfiction
Isaiah for You by Tim Chester, nonfiction
Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter compiled by Nancy Guthrie, nonfiction, a reread
Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes, fiction
A Noble Scheme by Roseanna M. White, fiction, audiobook

Blogging

Do You Have Access? The Old Testament emphasized how great a divide there was between the holy God and sinful people. But when Jesus died on the cross, the veil into the holiest part of the temple was torn in two, signifying that we can have access to God through Christ.
The Power of Words. Some say we don’t need words to show love or share the gospel. We do need actions as well as words, but not instead of words.
We Won’t Understand All, But We’ll Trust More. “I don’t know if we’ll ever understand all the mystery of God, even in heaven. But when we see Him, we’ll be ‘lost in wonder, love, and praise,’ as the hymn says. When we see Him, whatever doesn’t make sense to us here won’t matter. Our faith will be sight. Our trust will be perfect.”
What Did Jesus’ Death on the Cross Accomplish? We know He died for our sins, and that’s huge. But His death accomplished a number of wonderful things.

We’re looking forward to Easter this weekend and my grandson Timothy’s birthday next month.

How was your March?

Review: Proverbs for Life for Women

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Proverbs for Life for Women is a gift book compiled by Lila Empson for Zondervan in 2003.

The book looks very much like a gift book. It has a puffy hardback cover, lovely pages, and a ribbon bookmark. The size is a little under 6×7″.

There are about 46 readings grouped into several categories: the Righteous Woman, Virtuous Woman, Faithful Woman, Confident Woman, etc.

Each reading contains a verse from the book of Proverbs in the Bible, a story illustrating the proverb, a conclusion, a “Try this” action suggestion, and a few other proverbs or quotes.

This book mostly uses the Good News Translation of the Bible (formerly Good News or Modern Man, now often called Today’s English Version). This is not my favorite version, for a number of reasons. It translates the thought of a passage rather than the words. It succeeds in its goal of having an easily readable text, but it sacrifices some accuracy. I think a different Bible translation would have made this book a lot stronger.

Also, I wouldn’t endorse all the people the book quotes from.

Just about the time I thought this book seemed a little lightweight in content, I’d read a section that was particularly helpful and meaningful.

So, this book has a lot of good points, more good than bad. But it could have been much better with a little tweaking.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

What Did Jesus’ Death on the Cross Accomplish?

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Often we want to get right to the happy part of Easter: springy clothes, family get-togethers, church services with songs of triumph and victory.

But we shouldn’t rush too quickly past the cross. Without the cross, there would be no redemption; without death, there would be no resurrection.

I thought I’d take a little time to look up verses that share what Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished for us. We know Jesus died for our sins, but we don’t often think of other things that happened as a result of the cross.

I’m sure there’s much, much more that could be said. But here is some of what I found:

Expression of God’s love

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

The forgiveness of our sins

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6, 8

Reconciliation to God

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (Romans 5:10).

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him (Colossians 1:19-22).

Opportunity to become God’s children through faith and repentance

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Galatians 4:4-7).

Opportunity for Gentiles to become part of God’s family

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles . . . were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:11-19).

Canceled our debt of sin

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).

Fulfillment of God’s Law

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4).

Our holiness

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him (Colossians 1:21-22).

Change of life and focus

He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Corinthians 5:15).

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Victory over death and its fear

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2:14-15).

The new covenant

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant (Hebrews 9:15).

Assurance of His provision

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32).

Opportunity to live with Him

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him (1 Thessalonians 5:1).

Eternal Life

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Crucifixion was one of the most painful and humiliating deaths possible. In that sense, it seems strange to be thankful for it, despite all it accomplished for us. I love how Chris Anderson captured this in his song, “My Jesus Fair”:

O love divine, O matchless grace—
That God should die for men!
With joyful grief I lift my praise,
Abhorring all my sin,
Adoring only Him.

As we contemplate the cross this week and beyond, may we respond like Chris wrote above and like Isaac Watts wrote in “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed“:

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears.
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt mine eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
’Tis all that I can do.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I have a fairly short list of good reads to share with you this week:

In What Way Is Jesus the Way? “Jesus is the Way to God. You can’t get there by being kind, by being the church lady with all the casseroles, or even by teaching Sunday school for fifty years (as good as all those things are!) He is the way because he is also the truth and the life.”

One of the Most Urgent Biblical Commands for Our Day. “One of the most urgent biblical commands for our day—and perhaps for any day—is to speak the truth in love. Different people at different times tend to overemphasize one of the two factors and underemphasize the other so that some lean away from truth while others lean away from love. But the Lord expects that we will do both without competition or contradiction.”

Valiant and Virtuous: Celebrating Single Women of the Bible. “Singleness can be a challenging yet rewarding season in life. Society often emphasizes marriage and relationships, and navigating this path can sometimes feel isolating. However, the Bible offers a powerful message of hope and purpose for single Christian women.”

In flight, HT to Challies. “We have a long flight ahead. Fourteen hours or so. Beforehand, I’ve asked for a heart attentive to His prompting. And for willing availability, boldness to share the gospel. It’s not my first thought on airplanes lately, to be honest. I’d rather chill in my own little world. Enjoy the extended “pause” from daily tasks. But as he’s seated, I pray for wisdom. To listen and obey.”

The Introvert, HT to Challies.. “We live in a noisy world, do we not? Deafening, in fact. A chaotic culture with throngs of people highly uncomfortable with silence. It is considered prestigious to fill up one’s time indiscriminately, often to the neglect of one’s soul.”

G. Campbell Morgan quote about the cross of Christ

“The vulgarity of the cross is the vulgarity of the sin that erected it—but the cross flames with light, the light of the glory of the grace of God, Who took sin into His own heart and cancelled it by the shedding of blood.” —G. Campbell Morgan