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

I Have Made Prayer Too Much of a Luxury

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss...

A conversation between Katy and her husband Ernest:

Ernest begins...

"Instead of fancying that our ordinary daily work was one thing and our religion quite another thing, we should transmute our drudgery into acts of worship. Instead of going to prayer meetings to get into a 'good frame,' we should live in a good frame from morning till night, from night till morning; and prayer and praise would be only another form for expressing the love and faith and obedience we had been exercising amid the pressure of business."

"I only wish I had understood this years ago," I said. "I have made prayer too much of a luxury and have often inwardly chafed and fretted when the care of my children, at times, made it utterly impossible to leave them for private devotion--when they have been sick, for instance, or in other like emergencies. I reasoned this way: 'Here is a special demand on my patience, and I am naturally impatient. I must have time to go away and entreat the Lord to equip me for this conflict.' But I see now that the simple act of cheerful acceptance of the duty imposed and the solace and support withdrawn would have united me more fully to Christ than the highest enjoyment of His presence in prayer could."

"Yes, every act of obedience is an act of worship," he said.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

~ 1 Corinthians 10:31

I Corinthians 13 for Mothers

I posted this on my main blog some months ago; but today I was so glad to read it again, and I thought it would be helpful to post it here as well. The truth contained in this needs to be repeated periodically so that it will really sink into my head and heart.

I Corinthians 13 for Mothers

adapted by Jim Fowler

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place,

but have not love,

I am a housekeeper, not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements,

but have not love,

my children learn cleanliness, not godliness.

If I scream at my children for every infraction,

and fault them for every mess they make,

but have not love,

my children become people-pleasers, not obedient children.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh.

Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.

Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.

Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love accepts the fact that I am the ever-present "mommy,"

the taxi-driver to every childhood event,

the counselor when my children fail or are hurt.

Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, and runs with the child,

then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.

Before I became a mother, I took glory in my house of perfection.

Now I glory in God's perfection of my child.

All the projections I had for my house and my children

have faded away into insignificance,

and what remain are the memories of my kids.

Now there abide in my home scratches on most of the furniture,

dishes with missing place settings,

and bedroom walls full of stickers, posters, and markings.

But the greatest of all is the Love

that permeates my relationships with my children.

What I Learned from My Little Toe

My little toe--the one I injured at the conference last week--still hurts. Tonight over supper, I asked my dad how long he thought it would hurt, and he said, "It could be six weeks." Six weeks?! I don't want to be in pain that long!! I don't have much of a choice, do I?

The spiritual principle this has taught me--one of them, anyway--is what Paul so convincingly describes in 1 Corinthians. He writes:

...The head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable...If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.

~ 1 Corinthians 12:21,22,26

The Empty Tomb

The idea that the women could not find Jesus' body because they went to the wrong tomb was popularized by Kirsopp Lake in 1907. While Lake's proposition was creative, the explanation didn't generate any following because the Jewish authorities knew the site of Jesus' tomb (see Matthew 27:62-66; 28:11-15). Even if Jesus' followers had made this mistake, the authorities would have been very happy to point out the tomb and correct the disciples' error when they began to proclaim that Jesus had risen from the dead.

This and other theories by skeptics of the empty tomb are far too improbable. Obviously, the disciples had no motive to steal the body and then die for a lie, and certainly the Jewish authorities wouldn't have removed the body. Could the empty tomb merely be a legend that developed so long after the death of Jesus that the location of the tomb had been forgotten? This is equally unlikely because we have an extremely early account of the resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15:3-8) that clearly implies an empty tomb and which goes back to within a few years of the event itself, rendering the legend theory worthless. Even if there were some differences in the secondary details of the story, the historical core of the empty tomb remains securely established.

Upon analysis, the option supported best by the evidence is that the crucified Jesus returned to life--a conclusion some people find simply too extraordinary to swallow and thus rule out because of their philosophical presuppositions.

~ From The Case for Christ Study Bible

adapted from an interview with Dr. William Lane Craig

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

~ I Corinthians 15:3-4

There Is Manna in Narnia

In The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis, the lovable, simple but profound Cabby says some wise things. Like when Aslan is creating Narnia (but they don't yet understand anything about Aslan or Narnia), Uncle Andrew is ranting and raving about the perceived injustices that Jadis has done to him; but Digory, Polly, and the Cabby are awestruck by the majesty of what is happening all around them.

"Oh stow it, Guv'nor, do stow it," said the Cabby. "Watchin' and listenin's the thing at present; not talking."

It made me think of these verses:

Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

~ Zechariah 2:13

But I have stilled and quieted my soul;

like a weaned child with its mother,

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

~ Psalm 131:2

And another quote from the Cabby that made me smile:

"Glory be!" said the Cabby. "I'd ha' been a better man all my life if I'd known there were things like this."

However, as it is written:

"No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him."

~ 1 Corinthians 2:9