Gloria

Sometimes...
our efforts to praise Him fall so far short.

Someday...
we'll see Him face to face and be able to - finally! - express fully the depth of our love.

Meanwhile...
this song helps me to worship.

Prayer to Live By

It's been a good week so far.  Even though we've gone without Internet access and I haven't been able to blog each day, I have been enjoying my times with God.  I've even been successful at getting up early for quiet times every morning this week.  So far.  That would be yesterday and today.  Two days isn't much, but it's a start; and when facing a challenge as difficult as the get-up-early one is for me, it's important to celebrate each victory!  :)

This evening, while sorting through some books to take to the thrift store, I came upon a slip of paper in one that had this inspirational message written on it:

This is the beginning of a new day.  God has given me this day to use as I will.  I can waste it or use it for good.  What I do today is important, because I'm exchanging a day of my life for it.  When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving me in its place something that I have traded for it.  I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.
~ author unknown

As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
~ 1 Peter 4:2

Back on Track

I've gotten off track, derailed this week by Internet connectivity issues, a busy schedule, and a lack of focus.  But rather than bemoan my temporary derailment, I'm ready to put that aside and jump back in.  I'm so grateful for fresh starts and new beginnings, eagerness and hope, and the promise of abundant manna to feed my soul!

Tonight these verses from The Message are ministering to me:
What a God we have!  And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus!  Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven--and the future starts now!
~ 1 Peter 1:3-4

What We So Keenly Long For

Heaven is not here; it's There.  If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next.  God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.
~ Elisabeth Elliot

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
~ Philippians 3:20

Simplicity

Our life is frittered away by detail...simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
~ Henry David Thoreau


Speaking to the people, he [Jesus] went on, "Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot."


Then he told them this story: "The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: 'What can I do? My barn isn't big enough for this harvest.' Then he said, 'Here's what I'll do: I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll gather in all my grain and goods, and I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well! You've got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!'


"Just then God showed up and said, 'Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?'


"That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God."
~ Luke 12:15-21 (The Message)

What Grace Teaches Us

Last evening, we had a wonderfully lively discussion during Bible study here in our home.  We started in Galatians 2, then branched out from there as various people brought up different verses.  One that stood out to me from that discussion--and from an earlier talk around our supper table--was Titus 2:11-12...

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

Today's manna is here at Life on Sylvan Drive.  I'm so grateful, not only for the physical blessing of our house, but the blessing of the spiritual family God is building us into!

Thoughts after Spending Time on FaceBook

I poured out my heart in a lengthy post on Life on Sylvan Drive.

Lamentations 3:22 is especially comforting to me tonight.  Your love, O God, is great!

A Challenge from Keith Green

I grew up with the music of Keith Green being part of the soundtrack of my life.  Even now, his clarion voice continues to challenge me.

The Path of Right

The best things in life are nearest:  Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.  Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson,

as seen on my thoughtful blogging friend Polly's blog

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

~ Ecclesiastes 2:24-25

The first time I read this quote, I loved it...but I didn't notice the phrase that is particularly jumping out at me tonight:  "the path of right just before you."  Recently I've noticed how each day is made up of countless moments of deciding whether or not to do what is right.  I want to be quick to follow "the path of right."

Why Didn't I Think of That?

A great parenting insight from a bulletin insert from Grace Covenant Church:


One of the roadblocks to sibling harmony is selfishness.  Children want to be first or best.  Teaching kids to serve others is an important way for them to learn honor.  A servant gives more than half, considers others' needs, and looks for ways to benefit those around him.  Children who learn to be servants make better employees, develop meaningful friendships, and enjoy relationships more.


One fun way to teach children to be servants is the "I Cut, You Pick" rule.  It helps children who both want the last piece of cake, or plan to split a chocolate bar.  It simply goes like this.  When children must divide something between the two of them, ask one child if he would rather cut or pick.  The other task goes to the second child.  This plan motivates the person cutting to be as equal as possible.


Now, instead of two children arguing about who got the biggest piece, they are both involved in the solution.  The "I Cut, You Pick" rule equips children with a tool they can use in many situations to bring peace instead of frustration in relationships.


The technique actually comes from a Bible story of Abraham and Lot.  They had too many herds and not enough food so they decided to divide the land between the two huge families.  Abraham, being a wise servant of God, said, "I'll cut the land into two pieces and you pick which one you'd like."  In the story, Lot chose what appeared to be the better piece but Abraham was rewarded in the end and, most importantly, their relationship was preserved.


~ Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN

* The whole story of Abraham and Lot's conversation is recorded in Genesis 13.

The Morning

Convicting (oh, SO convicting!) quotes from Oswald Chambers that I read on this blog:

* If you have ever prayed in the dawn you will ask yourself why you were so foolish as not to do it always:  it is difficult to get into communion with God in the midst of the hurly-burly of the day.


* It is by no haphazard chance that in every age men have risen early to pray.  The first thing that marks decline in spiritual life is our relationship to the early morning.


* Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything.  Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you 
and wait in expectation.
~ Psalm 5:3

Sanctuary

I really (really, REALLY) like Psalm 63, and today I posted on my other blog about my manna which was one of the wonderful verses from that psalm.

I have "seen" Jesus.

I long to see Him more and more.

Time

Place a high value upon your time; be more careful of not losing it than you would of losing your money.  Do not let worthless recreations, idle talk, unprofitable company, or sleep rob you of your precious time.  Be more careful to escape that person, action, or course of life that would rob you of your time than you would be to escape thieves and robbers.
~ Richard Baxter,
quoted in Home Educating Family magazine

Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
~ Ephesians 5:15-16

What Were Peter's Prayers Like?

Tonight during our fellowship potluck, we were discussing Acts 10-11; and when we read Acts 10:9 (which says, "About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray."), I started thinking about what Peter's prayers might have been like.  Did they consist of the Jewish prayers:  prescribed prayers that were recited in a certain way at a certain time?  Or was he praying to Jesus:  in essence, talking to his best friend who had been killed not so very long before this?  Surely he must have learned a lot about prayer from watching the example of Jesus who prayed often (and long and intensely) while here on earth; maybe Peter's prayers were very similar to the conversations Jesus had with His Father during His years on earth?

I wish I could go back in time and be a fly on the roof of Simon the Tanner's house the day Peter prayed there, just so I could see what his prayers were like.  :)

Seed, Yeast

When we see things we believe need to be changed, most of us are impatient to see them done at once.  The kingdom of God does not operate spectacularly, with a sudden rush of irresistible force, but rather like seed and yeast.  These are small and wholly unimpressive and go to work only when buried.  They need an appropriate medium in which to generate change, but the life-principle is there, latent but powerful, ready to begin the slow and marvelous process of transformation.


Our prayers for change--in people, in situations--are summed up in the old petition, "Thy kingdom come"--but when we ask for that, we are asking for what may seem an excruciatingly drawn-out business.  We will need the patience of the farmer and the baker who, having done the one thing needful, then quietly (and with calm faith) wait for the thing to happen.
~ Elisabeth Elliot,
from A Lamp for My Feet

He told them another parable:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."


He told them still another parable:  "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."
~ Matthew 13:31-33

Under Construction

Obviously, design changes are happening here; and more work needs to be done.  But I don't have time to finish tonight.  Let me just quickly say that today's post on my regular blog includes my manna for today.  Lamentations 3:21-23 has been an encouragement during a day of discouragement.  I thank God that He never runs out of mercy!

Feet Up

God rules the universe with His feet up.
~ James MacDonald,
in a sermon I heard on the radio this past week

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
~ Isaiah 6:1

Expositional Preaching

From the latest issue of Home Educating Family magazine:

Expositional preaching in a nutshell is defined best by Mark Dever, founder of Nine Marks Ministries:
An expositional sermon is a sermon that takes the main point of a passage of Scripture, makes it the main point of the sermon, and applies it to life today.  In other words, an expositional sermon exposes the meaning of a passage of Scripture and shows its relevance to the lives of one's hearers.  That's it.


Why is it important?  Expositional preaching is important because God's Word is what convicts, converts, builds up, and sanctifies God's people.  Preaching that makes the main point of the text the main point of their sermon makes God's agenda rule the church, not the preacher's...


A sermon about Jesus feeding the five thousand could be used to say, "God will provide for your needs."  But that would not be an expositional sermon, because that's not the primary point of the passage.  Rather, the point of the passage concerns who Jesus is.  "Jesus is someone with the authority of God himself, the authority to create and provide for his people."  One application of this text is that Jesus will provide for his people, but the text is most fundamentally about Jesus and who he is.  Therefore, an expositional sermon on this passage will make the question of who Jesus is its primary point.


Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
~ 2 Timothy 2:15

Results Are God's

Duty is ours; results are God's.
~ John Adams

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty."
~ Luke 17:10


So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
~ 1 Corinthians 3:7

Mixed Up and Muddled

[Feminism] is mixed up with a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands.
~ G. K. Chesterton,
The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, vol. 4, p. 440

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him"
~ Genesis 2:18

I Gave You to God

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Stepping Heavenward and have gleaned so much wisdom from its pages!  I sincerely hope that I have become (and will continue to become) a more loving, patient, peaceful, heaven-focused wife and mother as a result of this book.

Here is one more quote from it before I set this book aside and pick up another one.

Katy is talking to her son about his plans to go to the mission field, despite his father's desire for him to become a doctor:

"Dear Raymond," I went on, "I gave you to God long before you gave yourself to Him.  If He can make you useful in your own or in other lands, I bless His name.  Whether I live to see you a man or not, I hope you will work in the Lord's vineyard wherever He calls.  I never asked anything for you but usefulness in all my prayers for you; never once."

I echo this prayer for my sons.  What Katy says is true:  I gave them to God long before they gave themselves to Him, and my earnest prayer is that each one of them will work faithfully in the Lord's vineyard wherever He calls.

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.  So now I give him to the Lord.  For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.

~ 1 Samuel 1:27,28

Small Beginnings

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss...

Another Sunday and all at church except my darling Una, who keeps watch over her mother.  These Sundays, when I have had them each alone in turn, have been blessed days to them and to me.  Surely this is some compensation for what they lose in me of health and vigor.  I know the state of each soul, as far as it can be known, and have every reason to believe that my children all love my Savior and are trying to live for Him.  I have learned, at last, not to despise the day of small things, to cherish the tenderest blossom, and to expect my dear ones to be imperfect before they become perfect Christians.


Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
~ Zechariah 4:10


This verse has been one of my favorites in recent years.  It's such an encouragement at this stage of life!

Parenting and Marriage

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss...

People ask me how it happens that my children are all so promptly obedient and so happy.  As if it chanced that some parents have such children or chanced that some have not!  I am afraid it is only too true, as someone has remarked, that "this is the age of obedient parents!"  What then will be the future of their children?  How can they yield to God who have never been taught to yield to human authority?  And how well fitted will they be to rule their own households who have never learned to rule themselves?


Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
~ Ephesians 6:1


...


My married life has been a beautiful one.  It is true that sin and folly and sickness and sorrow have marred its perfection, but it has been adorned by a love that has never faltered.  My faults have never alienated Ernest; his faults, for like other human beings he has them, have never overcome my love to him.  This has been the gift of God in answer to our constant prayer, that whatever other bereavement we might have to suffer, we might never be bereft of this benediction.  It has been the glad secret of a happy marriage, and I wish I could teach it to every human being who enters upon a state that must bring with it the depth of misery or life's most sacred and mysterious joy.


So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
~ Ephesians 5:33