My cup runneth over. Relax and enjoy the Mimosas, the parades, the food, the family, Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), a fire in the fireplace, living in America, and all the blessings of this life.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Everyone arrived yesterday on schedule and without much ado. We all settled in for some good times.
Okay, we may have gotten a little silly, but par for the course.
I hope you all are enjoying family time this week and counting your blessings.
Come, ye thankful people, come, Raise the song of harvest home; All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storms begin; God our Maker doth provide For our wants to be supplied; Come to God’s own temple, come, Raise the song of harvest home.
How was your weekend? I hope it was peaceful and quiet. I spent the weekend getting ready for a houseful of visitors this week. Daughter #1 arrived yesterday and daughter #2 arrives today with DN and Katie. We are ready for some super fun. Unfortunately, everyone has some form of this dread cold (including the boy’s family) and so we will be coughing a lot while having super fun.
C’est la vie.
If only it was that easy.
Have a good week. Keep your focus on the rock of our salvation!
For wherever the soul of man may turn, unless it turns to you, it clasps sorrow to itself…Why do you still choose to travel by this hard and arduous path? There is no rest to be found where you seek it. In the land of death you try to find a happy life: it is not there. How can life be happy where there is no life at all?
Christ is my saviour. He is my life. He is everything to me in heaven and earth. Once while traveling in a sandy region I was tired and thirsty. Standing on the top of a mound I looked for water. The sight of a lake at a distance brought joy to me, for now I hoped to quench my thirst. I walked toward it for a long time, but I could never reach it. Afterwards I found out it was a mirage, only a mere appearance of water caused by the refracted rays of the sun. In reality there was none. In a like manner I was moving about the world in search of the water of life. The things of this world – wealth, position, honour and luxury – looked like a lake by drinking of whose waters I hoped to quench my spiritual thirst. But I could never find a drop of water to quench the thirst of my heart. I was dying of thirst. When my spiritual eyes were opened I saw the rivers of living water flowing from his pierced side. I drank of it and was satisfied. Thirst was no more. Ever since I have always drunk of that water of life, and have never been athirst in the sandy desert of this world. My heart is full of praise.
–Sadhu Sundar Singh
Oh-o-oh, sinner,
When you’re mingling with the crowd in Babylon—
Drinking the wine of Babylon—
Running with the women of Babylon—
You forget about God, and you laugh at Death.
Today you’ve got the strength of a bull in your neck
And the strength of a bear in your arms,
But some o’these days, some o’ these days,
You’ll have a hand-to-hand struggle with bony Death,
And Death is bound to win.
Young man, come away from Babylon,
That hell-border city of Babylon,
Leave the dancing and gambling of Babylon,
The wine and whiskey of Babylon,
The hot-mouthed women of Babylon;
Fall down on your knees,
And say in your heart:
“I will arise and go to my Father.”
–James Weldon Johnson, from “Prodigal Son”
Have a good weekend!
(The painting is “The Prodigal Son” by N.C. Wyeth)
This article got me thinking about babies and our children and how frivolously we speak of them in and out of the womb.
Indeed, “there is clearly more going on than just a remarkable natural process. It is mysterious and miraculous that a creature would be able to reproduce itself.” Entirely new beings! As a grandmother I have relished watching my three grandchildren grow and change and progress. I paid attention to this with my own kids, but I was always so busy and distracted that I probably didn’t notice all that I should. A grandmother can focus more.
It is amazing to see Katie’s vocabulary expand and her ability to express herself increase daily. She is so similar to her mother and her aunt in looks and demeanor, and yet, she is her own little person.
Of course, our twins, born three months prematurely and spending three full months in the NICU, really are modern-day miracles. Even at a pound and a half, they were fearfully and wonderfully made. The fact that they are bright, healthy, normal kindergartners blows my mind every day.
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16)
The other day I quoted from an article where the author said that we live in an age marked by infantile ingratitude. Don’t fall into the trap of being ungrateful. Be grateful for your parents who bore you and to the God who created you. As Walt Whitman wrote, “As to me I know of nothing else but miracles.”
“He had already had morning prayer and studied the challenging message of Luke 12: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?”
There was not one man in a thousand who considered these words more than poetical vapor, he thought as he dressed. Don’t be anxious? Most mortals considered anxiety, and plenty of it, an absolute requirement for getting the job done. Yet, over and over again, the believer was cautioned to abandon anxiety, and look only to God.
Whatever else that might be, it certainly wasn’t common sense.
But “common sense is not faith,” Oswald Chambers had written, “and faith is not common sense.”
He was entering that part of the week in which his sermon was continually on his mind. “Let me say I believe God will supply all my need,” Chambers had written, “and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or … sink back to something lower.”
He put his handkerchief in his pocket, and looked into the full length mirror on the back of the guest room door.
In November we like to be especially aware of all for which we are thankful. It is good to start a list.
My Bible study group. It has been great to be in this group of ladies from my new church and a real entry therein. Because it is a sharing group, I have gotten to know so many of them and visa versa. I especially enjoy being with the young women. They are so engaged in the gospel and so intent on their prayer lives. I have never known women like this. It is a rarity in this world, no doubt. I have so much to learn. This is my last week until the new year. I will miss it.
The Bible. Since I began my search for a new denomination in earnest several years ago, and started listening to Tim Keller, R.C. Sproul et al, I have learned that to be immersed in the Bible and regular in study, is of the utmost importance. Daily Bible reading really does ground you. I have 47 days to go until I finish reading the entire Bible. And do you know what I’ll do on January 1, 2023? Start all over again.
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
–Psalm 119:105
The internet. It is the downfall of civilization (no exaggeration intended) as we know it, but it can be very helpful and enlightening. I especially appreciate writers who are much smarter and more articulate than I, like this guy. “We live in an age marked by infantile ingratitude. And if [he] is right, that means we live in an age when we do not really know how to live at all. Ingratitude has dehumanized us.” Truer words were never spoken.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
–Psalm 107:15
Also the internet provides this kind of diversion. (Thank you, Anne.)
My aging and increasingly creaking body. I am grateful that I am still able to go up and down stairs and do multiple loads of laundry. I can still vacuum my home and take out the trash. I can’t do some things, but I can still do a lot. I don’t mind asking for help when I need it.
I am still feeling the effects of the cold which has had me in its clutches for nearly three weeks. I am getting better, but man, I really take for granted how great it is to be healthy until I’m not.
Jesus Christ said to all Christians without exception, “Let him who would be my disciple carry his cross, and follow me.” The broad way leads to perdition. We must follow the narrow way which few enter. We must be born again, renounce ourselves, hate ourselves, become a child, be poor in spirit, weep to be comforted and not be of the world which is cursed because of its scandels.
These truths frighten people, and this is because they only know what religion exacts without knowing what it offers, and they ignore the spirit of love which makes everything easy. They do not know that it leads to the highest perfection by a feeling of peace and love which sweetens all the struggle.
Those who are wholly God’s are always happy. They know by experience that the yoke of the Lord is “easy and light,” that we find in him “rest for the soul,” and that he comforts those who are weary and overburdened, as he himself has said.
How was your weekend? Mine was a quiet one, despite the fact that daughter #1 was home. She was busy with Monon Bell festivities (DePauw vs. Wabash) on Saturday. On Sunday we went to the early service at church because we had tickets to see ToKill a Mockingbird (1962) on the big screen in the afternoon…so we didn’t see the wee twins or have brunch at our house.
It is always a good idea to see a classic movie on the big screen, because–wow–what a difference! I was too young to go see it at the movies when it came out in 1962. My mother took my older brother and I remember they both raved about it when they came home. I saw it a few years later on TV with my younger sister. We were still pretty young to see it, and as I recall, we were home alone on a stormy night. It was scary! But we understood it. It had quite an impact. Soon after that, I read the book and loved it. I think I was in the seventh grade.
Since then I have seen it many times on the small screen as it is one of my favorite movies. It is a rare movie where every aspect of it clicks. The screenplay, the casting/acting, the music. To Kill a Mockingbird is a miracle of moviemaking. Black and white, no special effects, no histrionics–just real people and a great story. But, wow, it was great to see it as it was meant to be seen on a big theatrical screen with the sound just right.
1962 was a great year for movies. The top money-makers were:
Other movies released that year included The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, How the West Was Won, The Days of Wine and Roses, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Miracle Worker, State Fair, and three Elvis Presley movies!
That’s a lot of good movies. Can you imagine?
Well, I do not go to the movies anymore except to see classics like this on the big screen. A good policy in my opinion.
Lottie drew a picture of going to the movies–she even got the red leather recliner seats right!
