Three poems

I wanted to share these poems with you all:

Epiphanytide

Trembling before Thee we fall down to adore Thee,

   Shamefaced and trembling we lift our eyes to Thee:

O First and with the last! annul our ruined past,

   Rebuild us to Thy glory, set us free

   From sin and from sorrow to fall down and worship Thee.

Full of pity view us, stretch Thy secptre to us,

   Bid us live that we may give ourselves to Thee:

O faithful Lord and True! stand up for us and do,

   Make us lovely, make us new, set us free—

   Heart and soul and spirit—to bring all and worship Thee.

-- Christina Rossetti

Jerusalem the Golden

Jerusalem the golden

With milk and honey blest!

Beneath thy contemplation

Sink heart and voice oppressed;

I know not, oh, I know not

What joys await me there;

What radiancy of glory,

What bliss beyond compare.

They stand, those halls of Zion,

All jubilant with song,

And bright with many an angel,

And all the martyr throng;

The Prince is ever in them,

The daylight is serene;

The pastures of the blessed

Are decked in glorious sheen.

There is the throne of David;

And there, from care released,

The song of them that triumph,

The shout of them that feast;

And they, who with their Leader

Have conquered in the fight,

Forever and forever

Are clad in robes of white.

O sweet and blessed country,

The home of God’s elect!

O sweet and blessed country

That eager hearts expect!

Jesus, in mercy bring us

To that dear land of rest;

Who art, with God the Father,

And Spirit, ever blest.

-- Bernard of Cluny

To the Infant Martyrs

Go smiling souls, your new built cages break,

In Heaven you’ll learn to sing ere here to speak,

Nor let the milky fonts that bathe your thirst,

      Be your delay;

The place that calls you hence, is at the worst

      Milk all the way.

-- Richard Crashaw

I thought this last one was really interesting.  Apparently Crashaw wrote it in remembrance of the children Herod slew in his attempt to kill Christ.  If Crashaw had lived today, perhaps he would have dedicated this instead to the millions of children killed by abortion?

5 years old!

Yesterday was Chloe's 5th birthday.  Here's some pictures to "document" the event!

She kept telling us that her feet were now "five-year-old feet".

Licking the icing off her "five-year-old" candle.

Voices of the Faithful

Two years ago I went on my first missions trip to Denver.  My group was led by two amazing young women, 'B' and 'M', and at the end of the week M suggested this book, Voices of the Faithful, to me before we said our goodbyes.  She had impressed me over that week, and so I was really interested in whatever books she could recommend that had impacted her life.  However, Voices of the Faithful is one popular book!  I was on a waiting list for about six months before I found out that I could get a copy on BookSneeze for free!  Of course, I ordered it right away.

Voices of the Faithful wasn't really what I had expected.  I didn't know it was a devotional for a whole year.  I expected it to be longer stories about martyrs and missionaries.  While it was about such people, the stories were significantly shorter than I had hoped.

Each month had a different theme, such as 'Compassion' or 'God Working'.  I enjoyed how the book was set up like that.  On the whole, I would have preferred if the stories were longer and more informative.  I know it's difficult to do that in a 366-day devotional, but perhaps a half-year devotional would have been better in allowing more room for the stories?  In the end I did enjoy the book, but not so much that I'll be ordering its sequel, Voices of the Faithful - Book 2, anytime soon.

Thanks for reading!

1-1-11!

2011...

Like I said yesterday, I love beginnings!  Today is the first day of 364 more beautiful days like it!

I also love making resolutions.  Usually I don't do very well with them, but in 2010 I think I did the best I ever had!  A few resolutions that I actually followed through with were reading through my Bible again, learning to knit (finger knit at least), and continuing to blog.  This year I want to learn how to cook some more (I'm basically awful at it), read through my Bible with a new plan (that's still under development), and write more.  We'll see how it goes!

One of the scary things of 2011 is that if you look down on my sidebar you'll see that I'm entering into my fourth year of blogging!(!!!)  Unbelievable!  Thank you so much to all my followers, basically Hannah and my parents, for still reading this!  I love blogging, so I think I'd keep it up even if I only had one follower.

Happy New Year, everybody!  It's going to be great!

By the way, treasure this as the only 1-1-11 you'll ever see!

My best books in 2010

In 2010 I read a total of 91 books.  A lot of them were a waste of time to read, but I wanted to share my favorites from 2010 with you, along with a little bit (a very little bit) of what I liked about them.  Here we go!

* these are in no particular order; they're not listed from best to least, etc.

1. The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers - At first glance I didn't think this would be a very good, but I was surprised in the end.  The author was brave in approaching the difficult subjects contained in this book, and in my opinion it was well written too.

2. The Heart-Reader by Terri Blackstock - This is the kind of book that plunges right into the middle of the story rather than giving a basis at first.  In this case, that was a good thing.  This book reminded me of why we're here on earth--to share of Christ and tell people of the hope He brings.  I really enjoyed it!

3. Holiness by J. C. Ryle - I spent about a year trying to make my way through this book.  It was really good, but it was hard to read.  I ended up enjoying the last chapters better than the beginning, which was a nice surprise.  It was an extremely challenging book, and I would recommend it to anybody!

4. Boy Meets Girl: Saying Hello to Courtship by Joshua Harris - This was an excellent book.  I'd heard a lot of good stuff about I Kissed Dating Goodbye and ended up reading it in 2010, but was really disappointed by it.  I felt like Joshua Harris didn't approach the subject of dating very well in that book, and kind of just left people wondering "Well, how else are we supposed to get to know each other?"  In contrast, Boy Meets Girl was excellent.  It was funny and very insightful.  It had a lot of great stories about relationships throughout the book, and on the whole it was probably one of my favorite books of the entire year.

5. Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot - No matter how many times I read this book, it just never gets old.  I re-read it in 2010, and enjoyed it even more than I had before.  Elisabeth Elliot is such a no-nonsense sort of person.  She presents the facts as they are and doesn't leave any wiggle room.  People like that are incredibly rare these days.  Even if you've read this before, read it again!

6. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom - This is one of those extremely popular books in the Christian community that everyone loves but that I had never read.  I was thrilled to finally be able to read it in 2010, and I wasn't disappointed.  Corrie ten Boom is a lot like Elisabeth Elliot in her straight forwardness and blunt nature.  She was honest about the difficulties of being persecuted for helping the Jews, and the book on the whole was just amazing.  Read it when you get a chance!

7. In My Father's House by Corrie ten Boom - I loved this book.  I had never heard of it until 2010, but I was thrilled to be able to read it.  It's a prequel to Corrie ten Boom's The Hiding Place, and tells about her life growing up.  In some ways I liked it even better than The Hiding Place!

8. Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss - This is another book that everyone talks about but I'd never read.  I expected this to be a book about dealing with sin and preparing for Heaven, etc.; and it was, but it was in a format that I didn't expect.  Stepping Heavenward is the fictional journal of Katherine and tells of her life as a believer.  An excellent book!

9. Plague Maker by Tim Downs - I really only started reading this book because I thought the front cover looked cool.  Not much to go on, I know, but I was really glad I read it.  Tim Downs must have had to do an amazing amount of research to write such an informative and articulate book.  The ending was a bit disappointing, but the book on the whole was good.

10. The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges - My dad recommended this book to me in September of 2010, and it was one of the best books I've ever read.  I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but it was just really good in that it gave techniques for fighting sin, but it focused most of all on the gospel and the freedom we have in Christ, freedom from condemnation and shame as well as freedom from sin.  I really liked it!

11. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - This book is long, but it has become my favorite book by Jane Austen.  She gives you a great look into the lives of each person, and this book was funny too, unlike with Pride and Prejudice.

12. Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy - I'd heard a lot of good about this book, and after months of being on a waiting list I finally got it!  I was not disappointed.  Leslie Ludy reminded me of Elisabeth Elliot in her no-nonsense approaching to finding sin in our lives and ripping it out.  I had to read it twice, and hope to read it again soon!

13. Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot - I am a champion worrier, so I really enjoyed this book that talking about resting in God, and trusting quietly in Him.  I'm going to try and read it again in 2011!

14. Then Sings My Soul by Robert Morgan - I already wrote a review about this, and you can read it here.  It was great!

15. Quest for Love by Elisabeth Elliot - This book is kind of a sequel to Passion and Purity, and while I didn't enjoy it as much as that book, this was good too.  In it were contained a bunch of stories about relationships, and throughout the book Elisabeth Elliot challenges the reader to ask questions like "What did these people do wrong?"  "Was God really at the center of their relationship from the beginning?"  "Was it right for them to think that they could finally be content with each other, rather than being content in Christ first?"  It was very good, and I would suggest that other people read it, but only after they've read Passion and Purity because that's just the way the books go together.

And, that's it!  Throughout 2011 I hope to start posting more reviews of books.  Check these ones out when you get a chance!