Soul Enrichment

God loves much those whom He trusts with sorrow, and designs some precious soul enrichment which comes only through the channel of suffering. There are things which even God cannot do for us unless He allows us to suffer. He cannot have the result of the process without the process. If you are among "them that love God," all things are yours! God does not test worthless souls!

Springs In The Valley, Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Gratitude toward God during the hard times

There is no denying that times are tough. Many people are out of work, cannot find a job and are struggling financially. The unemployment rate is still up around 10% and food stamps and umeployment benefits are being distributed at record levels. 

When times are good, it is easy to be grateful to God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon us. But during hard times, it is often difficult to be grateful to God. Whatever our personal circumstances, God is still God and he is still good. So, when we feel like we have struggled enough or lost more than our fair share, how do we remain thankful and maintain a grateful spirit toward God? 

Read More Here.

Be Still

Souls are heated in the furnace of affliction, plunged into the cold waters of tribulation, and ground between the upper and nether stones of adversity and disaster... Be still in the hands of God until He tempers you... Be still and let God temper and polish you and you will be worth something, too. Allow yourself to be prepared for usefulness. He will give you a post of holy renown if you will let Him fit your for it.

Springs In The Valley

Jesus And The Loaves

Remember the story where Jesus fed thousands of people with one boy's small lunch? In that story, according to Matthew, Jesus gave the loaves to his disciples and then the disciples passed them out to the crowd. Imagine if the disciples had simply held onto the food Jesus gave them, continually thanking Him for providing lunch for them. That would've been stupid when there was enough food to feed the thousands who were gathered and hungry. But that is exactly what we do when we fail to give freely and joyfully.

Crazy Love, Francis Chan

Summer Reading

I know I have been relatively MIA lately. I keep intending to write, but honestly I haven't had many topics that have peaked my interest long enough for me to sit down for several hours and put my pen to them. That being said, I have been doing a good bit of reading in attempt to fill my ink well. 

One topic that has peaked my interest lately is Israel. I became more curious about Israel after reading Daniel Silva's book series about Israeli spy Gabriel Allon. Although they are fiction, his books contain a great deal of historical detail about Jews in the 20th century and after reading them, I realized how little I know about Jewish history outside of 1935-1945. 

I found several good books on the topic that I am looking forward to reading. One is The History Of The Jews by Paul Johnson which is where I will start. Another is Israel by Martin Gilbert. I read Gilbert's biography of Churchill, which was excellent, so this book will probably be good too. He and Paul Johnson are both great historians and authors. There are a lot more books out there on Israel, but I think these two volumes are about as much as I can handle for now.

If you have book recommendations, let me know. I am always up for more books and more reading.

Fellowship With God

If fellowship with God is our first concern, then we can have fellowship with Him in the kitchen, in sickness, in any kind of trying and difficult situation. Whatever lies across our path to be done, even the most irksome chore, is there to be done for God and for his glory. Gone will be the former striving, bondage, and frustration. We shall be at peace with God and ourselves.

We Would See Jesus, Roy and Revel Hession

Dying To Self

To die to self is to live to others and to God. In my experience that sort of daily dying makes two requirements on you. One, that you come to your brothers and sisters accepting your own brokenness. Not fearless and tearless, not unscarred and unshaken. Quite the contrary: you are a wounded healer, dreadfully vulnerable. In giving life to others, you die a little each time, each day. Two, you have to destroy the smallness in you, the narrowness that plagues human living - where you are all wrapped up in yourself, where all that matters is what you want and what you need, your own little hurts and secret joys. No! The drama of Holy Week cries No. If you are risen with Christ, then for the love of Christ, live a risen life! Think big and love lots. Against all the odds, you will even feel better. 

The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, Brennan Manning

Why I Am A Tea Partier

There has been a great deal of talk about the who’s and why's of the Tea Party movement. Much of the discussion, particularly by pundits and politicians, is speculative and insulting to the people of the Tea Party movement. The tea partiers have been called everything from astroturfers to Nazis.

The people doing the name-calling do so with an appalling detached disdain. It is the same disdain they display when they decry the Iraq war, or any “Republican” war for that matter, and the unfair burden it places on soldiers, families and the innocent civilians caught in the crosshairs. They are so anguished and so disgusted about war and its effects and yet, despite their great display of concern, I always wonder if they actually know any soldiers...

Read More Here.

Jesus As Master

Many Christians think that they receive Jesus as someone who can save and help them, but virtually they deny Him as Master. They think they have a right to have their own will in a thousand things. They speak very much what they like, they do very much what they like, they use their property and possessions as they like; they are their own masters, and they have never dreamed of saying: Jesus, I just forsake all to follow Thee.

And yet this is the demand of Christ. Christ hath such infinite riches and glory that He deserves it, and Christ is such a heavenly, spiritual, divine gift that unless we give up everything, our hearts cannot be filled with Him. And so Jesus says: Forsake all and follow me.

Absolute Surrender, Andrew Murray.

Christ Is Available...

The glorious truth is that Christ is immediately available to us as we are and where we are. God has made Him as accessible to us as sinners as He possibly can... His blood has made Him available to the sinner as a sinner and to the failing saint as a failing saint, if he will only admit that that is what he is. The word we need in order to contact Him is right in our mouth and in our heart, the simple word of confession and faith.

We Would See Jesus, Roy and Revel Hession

The Way To Peace

The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the throne, and to look down from the glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed.

Streams In The Desert

Suffering With Christ

When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn. He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare complain of anything? He had enemies and defamers; do you want everyone to be your friend, your benefactor? How can your patience be rewarded if nor adversity tests it? How can you be a friend of Christ if you are not willing to suffer any hardship? Suffer with Christ and for Christ if you wish to reign with him.

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A Kempis 

The Least Of These

Even Jesus did not spend every waking hour helping the poor. He dined with the wealthy, celebrated at weddings and feasts, taught in the synagogue, and perhaps even did a bit of carpentry. Still, there is no question that His love for the poor found consistent and concrete expression in His life and ministry. The question for you and for me is this: will Christ find evidence of our genuine concern for His beloved poor when He looks at the fruit on that day? Further, what might He be calling you to do today? What new steps of faith might you take to demonstrate your own concern for "the least of these"?

The Hole In Our Gospel, Rich Stearns

The Good In Others

To live and think as Jesus did is to discover the sincerity, goodness, and truth often hidden behind the gross, coarse exteriors of our fellow human beings. It is to see the good in others that they don't see in themselves and to affirm this good in the face of powerful evidence to the contrary. It is not a blind optimism that ignores the reality of evil but a perspective that acknowledges the good so repeatedly and so insistently that the wayward must eventually respond in agreement. 

The Importance of Being Foolish, Brennan Manning

Habits

God never makes character; God puts into us the disposition of His Son, and on that basis we have to form character. As we form the habit of doing things in accordance with the disposition of Jesus Christ we are backed by inward supplies of God's grace. Every habit begins with difficulty. Habit is a mechanical process of which we have ceased to become conscious. A man who is right with God does the right thing instinctively.

Still Higher For His Highest, Oswald Chambers

For Now

My family has grown recently, so I will be on hiatus for awhile. I'll be back soon...

Gratitude toward God: A heart healthy way to live

Gratitude. It is a concept that is frequently overlooked in Christian circles. Believers hear a good deal about joy and the importance of returning thanks to God for all His many blessings. But there is a difference between saying thank you to God and actually being grateful to God. Gratitude is much more than that. Gratitude is a lifestyle. 

Read More Here.

God's Call

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. 

Fredrick Buechner

Surrender

To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness. Concern over our personal holiness causes us to focus our eyes on ourselves, and we become overly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, out of fear of offending God...We should quit asking ourselves, "Am I of any use?" and accept the truth that we really are not of much use to Him. The issue is never of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. Once we are totally surrendered to God, He will work through us all the time.

My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

The Way Things Are

Have faith that He knows all, sympathizes with all, can rectify what is amiss in all! Have faith in the outworking of His beneficent purpose: that the ruin will become a magnificent pile; the desert will blossom into a garden. Have faith in God. Keep close to Him - His side, His will - and He will teach us the true thing, the right way. Have faith that God knows, and we shall know by and by, why things are as they are.

Springs In The Valley, Mrs. Charles Cowman

The Best Place

With infinite care and forethought God has chosen the best place in which you can do your best work for the world. You may be lonely, but you have no more right to complain than the lamp has, which has been placed in a niche to illuminate a dark landing or a flight of dangerous stone steps. The master of the house may have put you in a very small corner and on a very humble stand; but it is enough if it be His blessed will. 

Springs In The Valley, Cowman

Successful Christianity

I hope that you are as profoundly disturbed as I am by this new definition of "successful" Christianity. Do you get the uncomfortable feeling that God is being used? The self-centeredness of our culture spawns a self-centered religion. The most common question in evangelism today is, "What can Jesus do for me?" Potential converts are told that Jesus can make them happier, better adjusted and more prosperous. Jesus quickly becomes the supreme product, attractively packaged and aggressively sold to a consuming public.

The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, Brennan Manning

Rescuing women from sexual exploitation in Atlanta

In the state of Georgia alone, approximately 250 girls are recruited into prostitution on a monthly basis. Many of these girls end up in Atlanta which has a significant sexual exploitation industry. But Redeemed Love, an Atlanta based organization, is working to stop all that. Dedicated to rescuing women and girls out of prostitution, their mission is to provide victims a new life free of sexual exploitation.

One driving force behind Atlanta's sexual exploitation industry lies in the transient nature of the city. As one of the busiest airports in the world, Hartsfield Jackson International Airport draws in many "buyers" of sexual services. Another factor contributing to the rise of sexual exploitation in Atlanta is the number of major events and conventions held in the area. 

Read More Here.

Rest

What is rest? To step out of self-life into Christ-life; to lie still, and let Him lift you out of it; to fold your hands close, and hide your face on the hem of His garment; to let Him lay his cooling, soothing, healing hands upon your soul, and draw all the hurry and fever from its veins; to realize that you are not a mighty messenger, an important worker of His, full of care and responsibility, but only a little child, with a Father's gentle bidding to heed and fulfill; to lay your busy plans and ambitions confidently in His hands, as a child brings its broken toys at its mother's call... to cease to hurry, so you may not lose sight of His face; to learn to follow Him, and not to run ahead of orders; to cease to live in self and for self, and to live in Him and for Him; to love His honor more than your own; to be a clear medium for His life-tide to shine and glow through. This is consecration, this is rest.

Springs In The Valley

Choosing Gratitude

Even in the most turbulent waters, choosing gratitude rescues me from myself and my runaway emotions. It buoys me on the grace of God and keeps me from drowning in what otherwise would be my natural bent toward doubt, negativity, discouragement, and anxiety.

Over time, choosing gratitude meanings choosing joy. But that choice doesn't come without effort and intentionality. It's a choice that requires constantly renewing my mind with the truth of God's Word, setting my heart to savor God and His gifts, and disciplining my tongue to speak words that reflect His goodness and grace - until a grateful spirit becomes my reflexive response to all of life. 

Choosing Gratitude, Nancy Leigh DeMoss

This Week

Try as I might to come up with something, I am fresh out of blog material. Or maybe I just don't have the energy to sit and write write write these days. There are a lot of things I am pondering over and meditating on that I could translate into article form, but I am just struggling with doing so right now.

I have been reading a lovely new book Choosing Gratitude that I would highly recommend. I will comment more on it later or post a review, but in the meantime, if you need something convicting or something to help you refocus, it is a great book.

The Journey of Our Lives

The journey of our lives is a double journey. There is an outward journey into external confrontations, discoveries, and relationships, and there is an inner journey into self-knowledge and the discovery of what constitutes my individual self-expression, self-fulfillment, freedom, and contentment within. For the Christian, the outward journey takes the form of learning to relate positively and purposefully to the world and other people (to all God's creatures) for God the Creator's sake, and the inward journey takes the form of gaining and deepening our acquaintance with God himself and with Jesus the Son.

In God's Presence, JI Packer

Finding Favor With Children

It is common these days to hear parents say that their children, especially during the teenage years, do not like them. It is considered normal for adolescents to be mad, huffy and rebellious toward their parents and often it is expected as a normal phase of family life.

With all the emotional and physical changes kids endure during their adolescent years, maybe bad attitudes or unhappiness from teenagers is inevitable, particularly when they do not get their way or what they want. But for some families, the teenage years are so difficult that it is hard for parents not to feel as though God has left them on their own to struggle through. 

I often wonder if this period of family life is at times worse than it needs to be. Is it just the way things are with teenagers or have parents missed something that could help prevent or dull their negativity and defiance? 

Read More Here.

On Duty

Every Christian is called to be on duty twenty - four hours every day in 'the king's business.' Your office, your school, your kitchen, your drawing room, your factory, all are a mission field. Jesus still says, "Give the hungry something to eat."

Plenty For Everyone, Corrie Ten Boom

God Weighs The Motive

Praise adds nothing to your holiness, nor does blame take anything from it. You are what you are, and you cannot be said to be better than you are in God's sight. If you consider well what you are within, you will not care what men say about you. They look to appearances, but God looks to the heart. They consider the deed, but God weighs the motive.

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A Kempis

Pat Robertson seems to have forgotten the verse "Do Unto Others."

During the Sunday evening service, my church asked for donations to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Turns out, my church has been involved for a number of years with ministries in Haiti and as a result already has relationships and partnerships in place that will be able to quickly bring aid to those in need.

I did not hear any words of condemnation or any insinuation that Haiti was being judged or punished by God at my church last night. The only thing that mattered was that there is a desperate need for aid in Haiti and the people sitting in the audience should help financially if they could. It was a far cry from the words spoken by Pat Robertson this past week about the devastation in Haiti.

Read More Here.

Fellowship With God

If fellowship with God is our first concern, then we can have fellowship with Him in the kitchen, in sickness, in any kind of trying and difficult situation. Whatever lies across our path to be done, even the most irksome chore, is there to be done for God and for His glory. Gone will be the former striving, bondage and frustration. We shall be at peace with our God and ourselves.

We Would See Jesus, Roy and Revel Hession

The Atlanta Examiner

My new article, "Listening to President Obama is like listening to an alcoholic," is up at the Atlanta Examiner if you want to check it out!

God Is Love

Every single thing that happens to the Christian expresses God's love and furthers God's purpose for him. Thus, so far as he is concerned, God is love to him - holy, omnipotent love - at every moment and in every event of everyday life. Even when he cannot see the why and wherefore of God's dealings, he knows that there is love in and behind them and so he can rejoice always; even when, humanly speaking, things are going wrong, he knows that the true story of his life, when known, will prove to be "mercy from first to last' - and he is content.

In God's Presence, JI Packer

Book Review: Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade

It is hard for many of us to imagine, but there is a slave trade that is alive and thriving all over the world. In almost every major country, human trafficking is occurring. The poor and vulnerable, widows and orphans, and at times entire families are being lured and trapped into a life of servitude and slavery. 

David Batstone, in his book Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade, chronicles the rise and return of the global slave trade as well as the hot beds for slavery around the world. The book is full of statistics, thoroughly researched, and includes real life accounts by former victims of their time in slavery as well as how they escaped in places such as Thailand, Uganda, Europe, and the USA.   

The victims stories are chilling and tragic, but Batstone also profiles the every day people and heros who have dedicated their lives to rescuing slaves. Not For Sale is an excellent resource for readers to learn about modern human trafficking and how they can help stop it. 

My Stack 2010

As I have stated in previous posts, I have a little bit of a book problem. Meaning, I love books, so I read a lot, particularly when I should be doing other things, like sleeping.

This is what my bedside table looks like.

These are some of the books I am looking forward to reading this year...

On Writing
The Israel Test
Deep Survival
Choosing Gratitude
Baby Wise
What's So Amazing About Grace
The Importance of Being Foolish
Patched Together
Superfreakonomics
Wrapped in Rain
The Mission Of Motherhood
Master And Commander
Master Your Metabolism
The Shaping Of A Christian Family
Homeschooling For Excellence
Experiencing God Through Prayer
Springs In The Valley
My Grandfather's Son
The Defector
Boundaries With Kids
HMS Surprise
Post Captain
The Mauritius Command
Desolation Island
The Fortune Of War
Praying
Dear John
Jayber Crow
Parenting by the Book
Not For Sale
Louder Than Words
The Road
Crazy Love
Moscow Rules
Potluck
Churchill
The King Must Die
Getting Out Of Our Kids Faces and Into Their Hearts
The Surgeon's Mate
The Ionian Mission
Treason's Harbor
The Far Side of the World
The Reverse of the Medal
The Letter of Marque
The Fat Smash Diet
The Remebrant Affair
Ragamuffin Gospel
The Ministry of Motherhood
What Is A Family
Toddler Wise
Child Wise
World War IV
Tinkers
Queen Elizabeth
Guilty
Damaged But Not Broken
Cool It
The Butterfly Garden
The Last Days Of The Romanovs
The Afghan Campaign
The Discipline of Grace
Raising Great Kids
The Bin Laden Family
Christ of the Indian Road
The Help
Traitor To His Class: The Story Of Franklin D Roosevelt
Twelve Christian Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy
Jesus Creed
The Scarlet Letter
The Second World War
The First World War
A History of the Jews
The 4:8 Principle
Grace Based Parenting
Ruthless Trust
Liberal Fascism
The History Of The American People

The Ministry of Small Things

The unglamorous and little publicized words of mercy, the ministry of small things, feeding and sheltering, visiting the sick and incarcerated, educating, correcting, speaking a healing word, bearing wrongs, listening creatively, counseling, washing dirty feet, praying with people, are all ways of living the life of compassion. This is no minor matter. When Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect... as your heavenly Father is perfect," the same commandment is translated in Luke 6:36: "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate."

The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, Brennan Manning