just a random post...

I have been a horrible blogger lately.  Oh well.  I just really didn't feel like posting, and I didn't have anything to post about.  But now I do!

First off, I wanted to ask you all to pray for the family of Bob Jennings, a pastor in Missouri who died this past week.  Bob had been ill for quite some time; I believe he had cancer, but I'm not positive.  I've really enjoyed reading Bob's posts over the past months updating on his deteriorating health and how he was basically preparing to die.  You can find two of his posts that I found most encouraging here and here.  Please keep his family and friends in your prayers.

Look at this baby praying mantis!  I found him about a week ago on our counter and almost swept him onto the floor before I even saw he was there.  It was just incredible to see God's handiwork in such a tiny creature as this!

This past weekend I went to Juarez, Mexico with Rachel, my dad, and some people from our church and Church of the Redeemer.  Rachel and I spent the whole time at Rivers of Mercy Children's Home.  We helped out with laundry, made breakfast, and just spent a lot of time loving on the kids.  I had such a fantastic time; I could have spent days with those kids!  I speak about a thimblefull of Spanish, but I actually got along pretty well.  Sadly, I only took four pictures the entire time. :)

 This little cutie pie was Rubi. :)

Rubi and Rachel

Visiting the orphanage helped confirm for me that that's what I want to do with my life--minister to children, specifically orphans; through teaching, but also through just caring for them.  It was awesome!

Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #37

* photos from weheartit.com

I'm thankful for:

0721. people who smile genuinely

0722. being SO close to being done with my freshman year of college!

0723. going to the botanic gardens with my family on Wednesday

0724. Reese's

0725. cubic art; it's weird, but interesting

0726. salad

0727. smores

0728. finding new, fun places to shop at

0729. a take-home math exam!

0730. this quote:

Do not regret growing older.  It is a privilege denied to many.

-- Unknown

 0731. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.  I'm going through this book right now, and I think it's just so interesting.  It's really gotten me thinking about how I treat people, and I like what I've read so far!

0731. reading other people's blogs.  I have such a great time.

0732. hashbrowns

0733. journaling

0734. duct tape roses and wallets

0735. Bill Crosby talking about dentists. ;D

0736. getting to visit with my aunt and her mom this week

0737. cleaning out and getting rid of junk

0738. Chloe's artwork...

0739. ...especially the art she makes for me

0740. laughter

attributes of God - goodness

This month in "The Attributes of God" we were talking about the goodness of God.  I really enjoyed it.  God's goodness is one of those attributes I love thinking about, but just don't think about enough.

One of the quotes I like by Tozer is one where he defines the word "magnify".

   The psalmist said, "O magnify the LORD with me" (34:3).  "Magnify" may mean one of two things: "make it look bigger than it is," or "see it as big as it is."  The latter is what "magnify" means as the psalmist used it.
   If you want to examine a very small amount of matter, you put if under a microscope and magnify it to make it look bigger than it is.  But it is impossible to make God look bigger than He is.  When we say "magnify the Lord," we mean try to see God somewhere near as big as He is.  This is what I want to do.  This is what, by His help, I have dedicated myself to do.

Tozer also pointed out that God isn't ever "partway" anything.  He's always wholly good, wholly awesome, wholly loving, etc.  What an amazing thought!

In the chapter there was another quote I liked:

   The goodness of God is the only valid reason for existence, the only reason underlying all things.  Do you imagine that you deserve to be born, that you deserve to be alive?  The unbelieving poet Omar Khayyam said,

Into this universe and why
not knowing nor whence
like water willy-nilly flowing
and out of it like wind along the waste,
whither I know not,
willy-nilly blowing.

Tonight we were watching a bit of the old Moses movie, "The Ten Commandments".  As we were watching I got to thinking about God's goodness in the lives of Moses and his parents.  I can't imagine how Moses' mother must have felt as she set her baby boy adrift in the Nile in a basket, knowing the water was full of snakes and crocodiles and all other kinds of dangers, as well as boats and any number of other things that could have brought his young life to an end.  But she trusted in God, and how He showed His goodness through Moses' life!  I just thought it was really neat to think about.

...He made amends for us, "full, fair, and many," turning all our sin into endless worship.

attributes of God - immensity

Hey everyone!  I think I'm going to start a new kind of series that talks about certain attributes of God.  I thought it would be good for this season of my life because in the women's Bible study at my church, we're now going through The Attributes of God by A. W. Tozer.  Tozer is such an incredible author.  He's like Elisabeth Elliot (who, as I constantly rave about, is my favorite author) in his eye for the beauty in God's world, and joy in God and bluntness in bringing it forth.  I hope you enjoy this series!

Last Friday we had our second study going through The Attributes of God and were talking about God's immensity.  I love studies like that, where we're basically just talking about how amazing God truly is.  I especially love when creation is brought up and all that He has made.  To me, those are the things that most clearly tell of how immense God is.  As Tozer says in talking about this:

We think that the sun is very large with its planets circling around it. But if you study astronomy--even elementary astronomy--you will learn that there are suns so large that each one could absorb our sun, all of its planets, and all of the satellites that revolve around those planets into itself.  They say that there are suns that are so large you could put millions of our suns into them.  I give up.  I don't even try to understand it.
   Then there is space.  I don't think space is a thing; I think it is just a way we have of accounting for different positions in the vast universe.  We call it distance.  We know they don't measure it.  If it's the moon they say 250,000 miles or if it's the sun they say 93 million miles.  But after that they start talking in light years.  They say that there are bodies millions of light years away--say 10 million just to get a start.  So if you want to know how far it is from earth to that body I'm talking about, you multiply 5 trillion, 862 billion, 484 million by 10 million.  Doesn't that stun you?  It makes my head ache!  Seen over against this, you and I are terribly small.

I just loved learning about God's immensity this past week.  He is so incredible (Job 26:5-14).

Lastly, I want to include a poem that was in the chapter that really helps remind me how big God is.

O Fast and Gone,

How great is God,

How small am I,

A mote in the illimitable sky,

And lets the glory deep and wide and high

Of heaven's unclouded sun,

Ne'er to forget myself forevermore,

Lost, swallowed up in love's immensity.

The sea that knows no sounding and no shore,

God only there, not I,

Nor nearer than I am to myself can be

Art Thou to me.

So have I lost myself in finding Thee.

The boundless heaven of Thine eternal love

Around me and beneath me and above

In glory of that golden day,

The former things are passed away,

Aye, passed away.

-- Gerhard Tersteegen

built in Christ forever

I was blessed to receive this quote from Beth in an email today.  I wanted to share it.

O God, may Thy Spirit speak in me that I may speak to thee. I have no merit, let the merit of Jesus stand for me. I am undeserving, but I look to Thy tender mercy. I am full of infirmities, wants, sin; Thou art full of grace.

I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my wilful sin; all my powers of body and soul are defiled: a fountain of pollution is deep within my nature. There are chambers of foul images within my being; I have gone from one odious room to another, walked in a no-man's-land of dangerous imaginations, pried into the secrets of my fallen nature.

I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself; I have no green shoot in me nor fruit, but thorns and thistles; I am a fading leaf that the wind drives away; I live bare and barren as a winter tree, unprofitable, fit to be hewn down and burnt. Lord, dost Thou have mercy on me?

Thou hast struck a heavy blow at my pride, at the false god of self, and I lie in pieces before Thee. But Thou hast given me another master and lord, Thy Son, Jesus, and now my heart is turned towards holiness, my life speeds as an arrow from a bow towards complete obedience to Thee. Help me in all my doings to put down sin and to humble pride. Save me from the love of the world and the pride of life, from everything that is natural to fallen man, and let Christ's nature be seen in me day by day. Grant me grace to bear Thy will without repining, and delight to be not only chiselled, squared, or fashioned, but separated from the old rock where I have been embedded so long, and lifted from the quarry to the upper air, where I may be built in Christ forever.

-- The Valley of Vision

new year's resolutions

I love making new year's resolutions.  I'm always sad about the previous year ending, but it's nice to have resolutions sort of be a "plan" for how I want the next year to go.  Here's a few of the most important ones:

~ finish reading through my Bible (I didn't quite finish last year) and try and read through it again

~ I want this next year to be one in which I spend more and more time in God's Word, trying to make it a habit for the rest of my life.  It's really hard to do that with school and work and everything else, but I want to try and "fast" from the other things in my life that aren't necessary and take up so much time, and fill that extra time with the Bible.  The day after I decided this I read an interesting part of a book by Amy Carmichael that seemed to fit exactly what I was thinking about.  I wanted to include it here.

*Note on Prayer and Fasting

   This note is to those to whom the idea of “prayer and fasting” is new, and who are rather puzzled about it.
   First, what does it mean?
   It means a determined effort to put first things first, even at the cost of some inconvenience to oneself. It means a setting of the will towards God. It means shutting out as much as possible all interrupting things. For the thing that matters is that one cares enough to have time with God, and to say no to that in oneself which clamors for a good meal and perhaps conversation. It is that which is of value to our Lord. Such a setting of the will Godward is never a vain thing. “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain.”
   But we must be in earnest. “When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

   A few simple Don’ts:

   1. Don’t get into bondage about place, or position of the body. Where did our Lord spend His hours of prayer? We know how crowded and stuffy Eastern houses are; we know that sometimes, at least, He went out into the open air to a hillside; to a garden. Where did Elijah spend the long time of waiting on his God? Again, out in the open air. I have known some who could kneel for hours by a chair. I have known others who could not. David “sat before the Lord.” Some find help in going out of doors and walking up and down; this was Bishop Moule’s way. Some go into their room and shut their door. Do not be in bondage. Let the leaning of your mind lead you; a God-directed mind leans to what helps the spirit most.

   2. Don’t be discouraged if at first you seem to get nowhere. I think there is no command in the whole Bible so difficult to obey and so penetrating in power as the command to be still—“Be still, and know that I am God.” Many have found this so.

Ah, dearest Lord! I cannot pray,
   My fancy is not free;
Unmannerly distractions come,
   And force my thoughts from Thee.

The world that looks so dull all day
   Glows bright on me at prayer,
And plans that ask no thought but then
   Wake up and meet me there.

All nature one full fountain seems
   Of dreamy sight and sound,
Which, when I kneel, breaks up its deeps,
   And makes a deluge round.

My very flesh has restless fits;
   My changeful limbs conspire
With all these phantoms of the mind
   My inner self to tire.

Faber

   This is true. Let the tender understanding of your God enfold you. He knows the desire of your heart. Sooner or later He will fulfill it. It is written, “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him.” “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain.” (Thank God, for using the poor name Jacob there. Do you not often feel very much like the seed of Jacob? I do. “Surely, shall one say, In the lord have I righteousness and strength.” There is none of either in the seed of Jacob.”

   3. Don’t feel it necessary to pray all the time; listen. Solomon asked for a hearing heart. It may be that the Lord wants to search the ground of your heart, not the top layer, but the ground. Give Him time to do this. And read the Words of Life. Let them enter into you.

   4. Don’t forget there is one other person interested in you—extremely interested; he will talk, probably quite vehemently, for there is no truer word than the old couplet,

**Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

As far as I know the only way to silence his talk is to read or say aloud (or recall to mind) counter-words, “It is written, . . . It is written, . . . It is writing”; or to sing, for the devil detests song. “Singing . . . in your heart,” “singing . . . to the Lord”—either or both are too much for him.
   But let the Spirit lead as to what to read. “Let Thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness.”

   5. Don’t give up in despair if no thoughts and no words come, but only distractions and inward confusions. Often it helps to use the words of others, making them one’s own. Psalm, hymn, song—use what helps most.

   6. Don’t worry if you fall asleep. “He giveth unto His beloved in sleep.”

   7. And if the day ends in what seem failure, don’t fret. Tell Him about it. Tell Him you are sorry. Even so, don’t be discouraged. All discouragement is of the devil. It is true as Faber says again:

Had I, dear Lord, no pleasure found
   But in the thought of Thee,
Prayer would have come unsought, and been
   A truer liberty.

Yet Thou art oft most present, Lord,
   In weak distracted prayer;
A sinner out of heart with self
   Most often finds Thee there.

For prayer that humbles sets the soul
   From all illusions free,
And teaches it how utterly,
   Dear Lord, it hangs on Thee.

   Then let your soul hang on Him. “My soul hangeth upon Thee”—not upon my happiness in prayer, but just upon Thee. Tell Him you are sorry, and fall back on the old words: “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee”—unworthy as I am. Let these words comfort your heart: “The Lord . . . lifteth up all those that are down.” “Cast not away . . . your confidence,” there is a “great recompense of reward” waiting for you a little later on.

   But maybe it will be quite different. “Sometimes a light surprises the Christian when he sings,” or waits with his heart set upon access to his God; and he is bathed in wonder that to such dust of the earth such revelations of love can be given. If so it be, to Him be the praise. It is all of Him.
   “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

~  I want to try and read one good, edifying book every month.

~ Work hard at my job and do my best, even if I don't love it all the time.

~ Honor God through school and get good grades.

~ Nail down exactly what my plans for school are.

~ Write more poetry, fiction, music, etc.

~ Eat fruit regularly.  I make this resolution every year and never follow through with it, but I hope I can actually do it this year. :)

~ Write more actual letters to people.  I used to love doing this, and I think writing a good letter is a dying art.

~ Provide a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal for a family in need.

~ Learn how to pray.

~ Adore Him more and more.

~ Memorize more of the Word.  About halfway through this year I'd memorized quite a bit.  I've lost most of it now, though, and I'd like to try and get it back, along with memorizing more.  I've been so encouraged by the memorization group that was formed in my church this year.  We press on together!

~ Learn how to cook more, and try to actually enjoy it (I really just can't stand cooking).

~ Find a way to serve others consistently.

~ Work on my friendships.  I'm generally really terrible at this--I don't keep up on what's going on in people's lives, and then I don't like telling them about what going on in my life, but I know friendship is a gift from God, so I need to work on improving those.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer said something about this that encouraged me: "It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian [friends] is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed."

A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.
-- Anonymous

~ Give more than most would think is wise. By this I mean not only time and strength, but financially as well.  I read a quote sometime this year that said something like, "As soon as I have any money, I give it away, lest it makes its way into my heart."  Now if only I could find out who said that!

~ Cultivate a gentle, quiet spirit.

~ Get wisdom (Pro. 4:7).  My dad preached a great sermon on this today.

* excerpt taken from Edges of His Ways by Amy Carmichael, pages 247-250

** William Cowper

31 Days of Song, Day #25 - Merry Christmas!!!

It is here!  At last, it is Christmas! :) I think I've never enjoyed a Christmas as much as I am enjoying this one now.  There is something so special about having Christmas fall on a Sunday so that believers everywhere can gather together and have a church service that's both "normal" and special.  I enjoyed this so much today.  Now I get to spend the rest of the day with my family!

The song I specifically chose to post for today is one of the ones from Keith and Kristyn Getty's new CD.  I love this song, and thought it was perfect to save for today.

In this season of much singing I ask those who love our Lord Jesus to ask very specially for singing hearts.  It would be sad if the lovely Christmas hymns and carols sounded only like a noise--even a noise of music--to Him.  But if they are the glad and wondering adoration of our hearts, then I think they will give Him joy.  Do not forget what Christmas cost Him--Gethsemane and Calvary.

-- Amy Carmichael

Have a wonderful Christmas!  Make sure to take some time to read the story of how it all happened.  My favorite part of the Bible that talks about this is Luke 1:1-2:40.  Enjoy!

To grant to us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

Luke 1:74-75

A Tea Against Suffering

I looked out at the silent congregation. It was, for a moment, as if I were back in my church during the war on the day when the Iron Guard bullies filed in with their guns. Menace was around us, not only in the place where Rugojanu was taking notes.

I continued, “Don’t let suffering take you by surprise! Meditate on it often. Take the virtues of Christ and His saints into your life. The pastor I spoke of, my teacher who died for his faith, gave me a recipe for a tea against suffering, and I will give it to you.”

I told them the story of a doctor of early Christian times who was unjustly imprisoned by the emperor. After some weeks his family was allowed to see him, and at first they wept. His clothes were rags, his nourishment a slice of bread with a cup of water every day. His wife wondered and asked, “How is it that you look so well? You have the air of one who has just come from a wedding!” The doctor smilingly replied that he found a remedy for all troubles, and his family asked him what it was. The doctor told them, “I have discovered a tea that is good against all suffering and sorrow. It contains seven herbs, and I shall number them for you.”

“The first herb is called contentedness: be satisfied with what you have. I may shiver in my rags as I gnaw on a crust, but how much worse off I should be if the emperor had thrown me naked into a dungeon with nothing at all to eat!

“The second herb is common sense. Whether I rejoice or worry, I shall still be in prison, so why fret?

“The third is remembrance of past sins: count them, and on the supposition that every sin deserves a day in prison, reckon how many lives you would spend behind bars—you have been let off lightly!

“The fourth is the thought of the sorrows that Christ bore gladly for us. If the only Man who ever could choose His fate on earth chose pain, what great value He must have seen in it! So we observe that, borne with serenity and joy, suffering redeems.

“The fifth herb is the knowledge that suffering has been given to us by God as from a father, not to harm us, but to cleanse and sanctify us. The suffering through which we pass has the purpose of purifying us and preparing us for heaven.

“The sixth is the knowledge that no suffering can harm a Christian life. If the pleasures of the flesh are all, then pain and prison bring an end to a man’s aim in living; but if the core of life is truth, that is something which no prison cell can change. In prison or out of it two and two make four. Prison cannot stop me from loving; iron bars cannot exclude faith. If these ideals make up my life, I can be serene anywhere.

“The last herb in the recipe is hope. The wheel of life may put the emperor’s physician in prison, but it goes on turning. It may put me back into the palace, and even put me on the throne.”

I paused for a moment. The crowded church was still.

“I have drunk barrels of this tea since then,” I said, “and I can recommend it to you all. It has proved good.”
* excerpt taken from "In God's Underground" by Richard Wurmbrand, pages 194-195

Today is...

...a momentous day.  I've done my first guest post for another blog! (!!!)

Two weeks ago Compassion International posted a request for sponsors to submit possible entries for their blog.  So, half an hour before I headed off to Regeneration, I typed up an article and emailed it to them with the hope they'd publish, but not really thinking they would...

But they did!  As of today, you can read my post on their blog.  It's not anything incredible, but it is exciting for me, so I hope you'll go check it out and tell me what you think!  You can read it here.

I have but one passion--it is He, it is He alone.  The world is the field, and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.

-- Count Nikolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf

Beloved of that Great Being

They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that Great Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight; and that she hardly cares for any thing, except to meditate on Him--that she expects after a while to be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that He loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from Him always.  There she is to dwell with Him, and to be ravished with His love and delight for ever.  Therefore, if you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or affliction.  She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her conduct; and you could not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this Great Being.  She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind; especially after this Great God has manifested Himself to her mind.  She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure; and no knows for what.  She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible always conversing with her.

-- said of Sarah Edwards, by Jonathan Edwards, her future husband

Four Questions

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Philippians 3:10 (NASB)

This was the second group of leaders we had trained in two weeks.  The training had been going well even though many of the believers were young: some young in years and some in their faith.  A couple of them were only 15 and 16 years old.  Some had only been Christians for a few months.

The teaching for the morning was on baptism, and a 15-year-old girl wanted to be baptized.  She had been a believer from a young age but had never been immersed.

Four questions are asked during a baptism: (1) Do you believe in Jesus? (2) Has He forgiven your sins? (3) Do you promise to walk with Him always?  But there is one more question.

I watched and listened to the father, who would be performing the baptism.  Calmly, and with much joy, he asked the first, second and third questions.  Then I heard a surprising question.  The father asked the fourth question, “When they come into our house and take us away, when they beat us and try to get us to deny Him, will you still follow Jesus?”

There before my eyes, a father was asking his daughter to be willing to be persecuted for her faith in Christ and to be willing to see him persecuted for his faith.  With a sense of awe, I prayed that I might be more like them.  I think they understood more clearly what the Father felt when He sent His Son to die for us.

* excerpt taken from "Voices of the Faithful" by Beth Moore, page 192

WOW #5

I commit my soul to my gracious God and Saviour, who mercifully spared and preserved me, when I was an apostate, a blasphemer, and an infidel, and delivered me from that state of misery on the coast of Africa into which my obstinate wickedness had plunged me; and Who has been pleased to admit me, though most unworthy, to preach His glorious gospel.  I rely with humble confidence upon the atonement, and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, God and Man which I have often proposed to others, as the only foundation whereupon a sinner can build his hope, trusting that He will guard and guide me through the uncertain remainder of my life, and that He will then admit me into His presence in His heavenly kingdom. -- John Newton

And the face shines bright

With a glow of light

From His presence sent

Whom she loves to meet.

Yes, the face beams bright

With an inner light

As by day so by night,

In shade as in shine,

With a beauty fine,

That she wist not of,

From some source within,

      And above.

Still the face shines bright

With the glory-light

From the mountain height,

Where the resplendent sight

Of His face

Fills her view

And illumines in turn

First the few,

Then the wide race.

-- Unknown

Wherefore it is every profitable for us to have always before our eyes this sweet and comfortable sentence, and such-like, which sets out Christ truly and lively, that in our whole life, in all dangers, in the confessions of our faith before tyrants, and in the hour of death, we may boldly and with all confidence say: O law, thou hast no power over me, therefore dost thou accuse and condemn me in vain.  For I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom the Father sent into the world to redeem us miserable sinners oppressed with the tyranny of the law.  He gave His life, He shed His blood for me.  Therefore, feeling thy terrors and threatening, O law, I plunge my conscience in the wounds, blood, death, resurrection and victory of my Saviour, Christ.  Besides Him I will see nothing, hear nothing. -- Martin Luther

Upon Thy Word I rest

   Each pilgrim day.

This golden staff is best

   For all the way.

What Jesus Christ hath spoken,

   Cannot be broken!

Upon Thy Word I rest;

   So strong, so sure,

So full of comfort blest,

   So sweet, so pure:

The charter of salvation:

   Faith’s broad foundation.

Upon Thy Word I stand:

   That cannot die.

Christ seals it in my hand.

   He cannot lie.

Thy Word that faileth never:

   Abiding ever.

-- Frances Ridley Havergal

When there is real weakness, especially of the kind that surprises and humiliates us, it is our opportunity to learn what Paul had to learn through his “thorn”: the grace of God is all we need, for “…power comes to its full strength in weakness…” -- Elisabeth Elliot

If I am to love the Lord my God with all my mind, there will not be room in it for carnality, for pride, for anxiety, for the love of myself.  How can the mind be filled with the love of the Lord and have space left over for things like that? -- Elisabeth Elliot

To ask for the guidance of God is to make a choice, and this takes faith.  It must be faith of a far higher kind than the breezy “if I like what I see I’ll take it.”  It is the faith that has strength to wait for the rewards God holds, strength to believe they are worth waiting for, worth the price asked.  Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here: I trust Him.  This requires abandonment. We are no longer saying, “If I trust Him, He’ll give me such and such,” but, “I trust Him.  Let Him give me or withhold from me what He chooses.” -- Elisabeth Elliot

Lord, give to me a quiet heart

That does not ask to understand,

But confident steps forward in

The darkness guided by Thy hand.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

Jesus slept on a pillow in the midst of a raging storm. How could He?  The terrified disciples, sure that the next wave would send them straight to the bottom, shook Him awake with rebuke. How could He be so careless of their fate?

   He could because He slept in the calm assurance that His Father was in control.  His was a quiet heart.  We see Him move serenely through all the events of His life—when He was reviled, He did not revile in return.  When He knew that He would suffer many things and be killed in Jerusalem, He never deviated from His course.  He had set His face like flint. He sat at supper with one who would deny Him and another who would betray Him, yet He was able to eat with them, willing even to wash their feet.  Jesus in the unbroken intimacy of His Father’s love, kept a quiet heart. -- Elisabeth Elliot

Sin and despair like the sea waves cold

Threaten the soul with infinite loss;

Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold

Points to the refuge, the Mighty Cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.

What can avail to wash it away?

Look! there is flowing a crimson tide.

Whiter than snow you may be today.

-- Julia H. Johnston

None of us likes pain.  All of us wish at times we did not need to 'go through all this stuff.'  Let us settle it once and for all: we cannot know Christ and the power of His resurrection without the fellowship of His suffering. -- Elisabeth Elliot


A spirit of restlessness and resistance never waits, but one who believes he is loved with an everlasting love, and knows that underneath are the everlasting arms, will find strength and peace. -- Elisabeth Elliot


He is not all we would ask for (if we were honest), but it is precisely when we do not have what we would ask for, and only then, that we can clearly perceive His all-sufficiency.  It is when the sea is moonless that the Lord has become my Light. -- Elisabeth Elliot

The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Hymn 32

The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Where is this stupendous stranger,

   Swains of Solyma, advise,

Lead me to my Master’s manger,

   Show me where my Savior lies.

O MOST Mighty! O MOST HOLY!

   Far beyond the seraph’s thought,

Art Thou then so mean and lowly

   As unheeded prophets taught?

O the magnitude of meekness!

   Worth from worth immortal sprung;

O the strength of infant weakness,

   If eternal is so young!

If so young and thus eternal,

   Michael tune the shepherd’s reed,

Where the scenes are ever vernal,

   And the loves be love indeed!

See the God blasphem’d and doubted

   In the schools of Greece and Rome;

See the pow’rs of darkness routed,

   Taken at their utmost gloom.

Nature’s decorations glisten

   Far above their usual trim;

Birds on box and laurels listen,

   As so near the cherubs hymn.

Boreas now no longer winters

   On the desolated coast;

Oaks no more are riv’n in splinters

   By the whirlwind and his host.

Spinks and ouzles sing sublimely,

   ‘We too have a Saviour born,’

Whiter blossoms burst untimely

   On the blest Mosaic thorn.

God all-bounteous, all-creative,

   Whom no ills from good dissuade,

Is incarnate, and a native

   Of the very world He made.

-- Christopher Smart

A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior

A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior

I sing the birth, was born tonight,

The author both of life, and light;

   The angels so did sound it,

And like the ravished shepherds said,

Who saw the light, and were afraid,

   Yet searched, and true they found it.

The Son of God, th’ Eternal King,

That did us all salvation bring,

   And freed the soul from danger;

He whom the whole world could not take,

The Word, which heaven, and earth did make,

    Was now laid in a manger.

The Father’s wisdom willed it so,

The Son’s obedience knew no No,

   Both wills were in one stature,

And as that wisdom had decreed,

The Word was now made Flesh indeed,

   And took on Him our nature.

What comfort by Him do we win?

Who made Himself the prince of sin,

   To make us heirs of glory?

To see this babe, this innocence;

A martyr born in our defence;

   Can man forget this story?

-- Ben Jonson

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the bleak midwinter,

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him,

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign;

In the bleak midwinter

A stable place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty,

Jesus Christ.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But His mother only,

In her maiden bliss,

Worshiped the Beloved

With a kiss.

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd,

I would bring a lamb;

If I were a wise man,

I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him:

Give my heart.

-- Christian Rossetti

Prayer in Faith

It is good that we should have to submit to what we do not understand.  It teaches us the laws of faith and hope.

It is good that we should have to do what we should rather not, in circumstances not of our choice.

It is good that there should be always something to prick us no, something to remind us that we are in an enemy’s country, belong to a marching column.

It is good that we should meet with checks and failures in what we undertake, to keep us humble and prayerful.

All these things belong to sowing in tears.

God seems to have laid out the order of things in His Church, not for a general and brilliant triumph but for the hidden sanctification of the individual souls which compose it.

-- Janet Erskine Stuart

WOW #4

From moral weakness of spirit; from timidity; from hesitation; from fear of men and dread of responsibility, strengthen us with courage to speak the truth in love and self-control; and alike from the weakness of hasty violence and weakness of moral cowardice,

Save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

From weakness of judgment; from the indecision that can make no choice; from the irresolution that carries no choice into act; and from losing opportunities to serve Thee,

Save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

-- The Southwell Litany for the Personal Life

Holy friendship has no looks but what are simple and modest, no caresses but those that are pure and sincere, no sighs but for heaven, no familiarities but those of the soul, no complaints but that God is not loved, the infallible signs of purity.

Worldly friendship confuses the judgment…  Holy friendship has a clear light and does not seek to hide itself, appearing willingly before good men.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Stand Still and See

   I’m standing, Lord:

There is a mist that blinds my sight.

Steep, jagged rocks, front, left and right,

Lower, dim, gigantic, in the night.

   Where is the way?

   I’m standing, Lord:

The black rock hems me in behind,

Above my head a moaning wind

Chills and oppresses heart and mind.

   I am afraid!

   I’m standing, Lord:

The rock is hard beneath my feet;

I nearly slipped, Lord, on the sleet.

So weary, Lord! and where a seat?

   Still must I stand?

He answered me, and on His face

A look ineffable of grace,

Or perfect, understanding love,

Which all my murmuring did remove.

   I’m standing, Lord:

Since Thou hast spoken, Lord, I see

Thou hast beset—these rocks are Thee!

And since Thy love encloses me,

   I stand and sing.

-- Betty Stam

Always you renounce a lesser good for a greater; the opposite is what sin is . . . The struggle to submit . . . is not a struggle to submit but a struggle to accept with passion.  I mean, possibly, with joy.  Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy—fully armed too as it's a highly dangerous quest. -- Flannery O'Connor

For Christmas is not merely a day like any other day.
It is a day made holy and special by a sacred mystery.
It is not merely another day in the weary round of time.
Today, eternity enters into time, and time, sanctified,
is caught up into eternity.

-- Thomas Merton

The Carol of Seven Signs

The briar in a dry land grows;
Mary shall wear the blood red rose,
Her Son shall wear the thorn.

Saint Joseph cut the cherry tree
Whose fruit he gave to his lady.
then what was left? The stone.

Saint Joseph cut mahogany
To make the babe a crib—but He
Was to the manger born,
To wood already worn.

One father split the cedar tree
And made two beams: A house! cried he;
A cross, the other mourned.

Shepherds brought wool to the royal stall
For the mother a robe, for her darling a pall
for sleeping both cold and warm.

Three gentlemen offered three measures of myrrh,
A drop to perfume, a sponge to blur,
A tun to embalm the Lord.

And gold is lovely to the eye
But cold as stone to him who lies
Behind the golden door.

Now these—the briar and the cherry,
Wood and wool and gold—did Mary
Ponder when Christ was born.

Within her breast she kept it all,
A thorn, a cross, a stone, a pall,
And they herself adorned—

For the pain was His, but He was hers,
Her child, the treasure of her purse,
By whom her womb was torn:Et eius Salvator.

-- Walter Wangerin, Jr.