Happy Reformation Day!

Today marks exactly 492 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Catholic Church. Now THAT'S something worth celebrating! Here's one of my favorite scene from the movie Luther:

Happy Reformation Day!

posted by Lydia

Leaf Jumping

The view from our bedroom window.

Why climb down the latter when you can jump off?

Happy Fall everyone!

posted by: Caroline

Thinking...

My mind has been swirling with many thoughts and ideas over the past couple weeks. Shall I get your mind swirling too? :)

Caution: The following quotes are in no way related. I very much enjoy the element of unpredictable-ness.

Historically, controversies that have swirled around the meaning and implications of the Gospel, far from damaging the Church, have contributed to its vitality. Like a refiner's fire, intense theological debate has resulted in clarified belief, common vision, and invigorated ministry.

~Parker Williamson

It is safe to assume that no one is born an atheist...[atheism] is deliberately blind to and suppresses the most fundamental instinct of man, the deepest needs of the soul, the highest aspirations of the human spirit, and the longings of a heart that gropes after some higher Being.

~L. Berkhof

Missionaries are very human folks just doing what they're asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.

~Jim Elliot

What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands upon our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and He has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be.

~Sarah Edwards (After the death of her husband, Johnathan Edwards)

The Spirit knows what the Father's will is, and He guides us in our prayers. Even when words are inadequate, He helps us by prayer "too deep for words". Think about how willing God is to help you, to aid you, to draw you to Himself.

~Elyse Fitzpatrick

"Slave" was the title by which "the great ones" of the Old Testament were known- Moses, Joshua, Caleb, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Job, Isaiah, and the prophets. By choosing to take the title doulos, we set ourselves in the great succession of those who found their freedom and their peace and their glory in perfect submission to the will of God. The only greatness to which we Christians can ever aspire is that of being the slave of God.

~Elizabeth George

If one must choose between reading the new books and reading the old, one must choose the old: not because they are necessarily better but because they contain precisely those truths of which our own age is neglectful. The standard of permanent Christianity must be kept clear in our minds and it is against that standard that we must test all contemporary thought. In fact, we must at all costs not move with the times. We serve One who said, "Heaven and Earth shall move with the times, but My words shall not move with the times."

~C.S. Lewis

My Lord, I did not choose You,

For that could never be;

My heart would still refuse You,

Had You not chosen me.

My heart knows none above You;

For Your rich grace I thirst;

I know that if I love You,

You must have loved me first.

~Josiah Conder

Still with me? Good! Here's one more:

What soul that hath any acquaintance with these things falls not down with reverence and astonishment? How glorious is He that is the Beloved of our souls!...When...our life, our peace, our joy, our inheritance, our eternity, our all, lies herein, shall not the thoughts of it always dwell in our hearts, always refresh and delight our souls?

~John Owen

Hope you enjoyed that mish-mash of quotes as much as I have!

posted by Lydia

My Sewing Space Has Been a Little Messy

Making stuffed animals for Operation Christmas Child.

posted by: Caroilne

Lord's Day

In Christ alone my hope is found,

He is my light, my strength, my song;

This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My Comforter, my All in All,

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! who took on flesh

Fullness of God in helpless babe!

This gift of love and righteousness

Scorned by the ones he came to save:

Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied -

For every sin on Him was laid;

Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay

Light of the world by darkness slain:

Then bursting forth in glorious Day

Up from the grave he rose again!

And as He stands in victory

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,

For I am His and He is mine -

Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,

This is the power of Christ in me;

From life's first cry to final breath.

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

~Stuart Townend & Keith Getty

posted by Lydia

Musing

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

'But why doen't we learn that sooner? Why do we waste our lives before we learn how to live?'

'I am not sure,' he returned, 'that we do not learn as fast as we are willing to learn. God does not force instruction upon us, but when we say, as Luther did, "More light, Lord, more light," the light comes.'

I questioned myself after he had gone as to whether this could be true of me. Is there not in my heart some secret reluctance to know the truth, lest that knowledge should call to a higher and a holier life than I have yet lived?"

~From Stepping Heavenward by Mrs. E. Prentiss

posted by Lydia

Resolved

I ran across the following while reading a book by John Piper, and I was so excited to be able to find it again to share with you all! These were comments made by a man by the name of Dr. Clyde Kilby which he entitled "10 Resolutions for Mental Health":

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

posted by Lydia

Of Scriptures, Jefferson, and Traumatized Paramecium

I have some late-breaking news for you today.

We are blessed.

Why am I telling you this? Because it would appear, if my calculations are correct, that the span of a Christian’s memory is similar to that of a traumatized paramecium.

Very brief.

We have a thought…poof! It’s gone.

There are many ways in which I could go about proving this shamefully unoriginal thought, but I have one particular thing in mind. Get ready for some more bold unoriginal-ness.

The Bible.

When was the last time you pondered the extraordinary blessing of the scriptures? If you’re like me, not very often; more close to never. Why might this be? What has caused this loss of awe over God’s Word? For that is indeed what it is!

Have you ever envied the great giants of faith such as Abraham, Moses, and Samuel for having been able to hear the spoken word of the Living God? Well, there’s no need. We have God’s word given to us in a way that those men would never have been able to even fathom.

And yet…we take it for granted.

It has become the norm for the modern day church to preach heavily on the passages of scripture that give you the warm, pleasant, fuzzy feeling on the inside while tiptoeing around the difficult passages. The ones that may cause offence to the hearers. As James said in his epistle (one of those tough passages of scripture), “My brethren, these things ought not to be so!”

In a society where we want nothing more than comfort and convenience, can we really be surprised that this mentality has begun to creep into the church?

It reminds me uncomfortably of the Jefferson Bible. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, the Jefferson Bible is a book compiled by none other than Thomas Jefferson, and it consists of only what he wanted in the Holy Scriptures. Can you imagine? Yet when I picture Thomas Jefferson with a Bible in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, cutting here and tweaking there, the similarities between that and what is going on in our country today is shocking, disturbing at the very least.

Let me get on my soapbox for a minute.

Let’s take a very true and very over-used phrase: Jesus saves.

Now, is that true? Absolutely, and praise God that it is! And do we need to be reminded of this fact often? Oh my, yes (remember the traumatized paramecium). But what happens when that is one of the few preached doctrines in the church? Well, you have many church goers with the warm fuzzies, but how about defenders of the faith? You have children who are able to crank out an answer when asked what they learned in Sunday school, but how about being able to “give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15)?

What has happened to our priorities? When did the fear of the Lord and reverence for His Word give place to fear of offending?

Will you take the challenge with me to read God’s Word in its entirety? Will you read, “For God so loved the world” along side, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens”? It’s easier said than done, but I want to take this challenge.

Will you?

posted by Lydia