That Good Part

I shared here that I had been reading Emily P. Freeman’s book Simply Tuesday and what I was discovering. I thought I’d share over here in the living room some other thoughts this book and similar books have inspired. In about the first 45 pages of Simply Tuesday she quotes a number of authors I’ve never heard of and this makes me nervous. I don’t find any fault with the quotes, they help illuminate her point and settle into my biblical grid of soundness. After over 15 years in the ministry of pointing people to what is helpful and avoiding things that are harmful, I am naturally inquisitive of the new; ministry, author, church, movement, conference. I’m not looking for a problem, I’m just naturally and vocationally curious. I am also that person who comes across a quote and says, “I wonder what the book is like?” Maybe you don’t follow those thoughts down the rabbit trail to the bookshelf, but I often do. I worry that references might point you were I wouldn’t want you to g...

"If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads but what he rereads.” Francois Mauriac I know people who will only read a book one time. I have certainly read my fair share of books that didn’t deserve to be read even once, but there are some that deserve a second, third or even annual read. Warren Wiersbe was the person who introduced me to the concept of planned recurring reading. He mentions it in his book “Living with the Giants: The Lives of Great Men of Faith”, a must-read compilation of influential Christians. In it he gives suggestions for reading the material penned by his subjects, and he mentions several titles he reads either yearly or every few years. This has proven to be a profitable practice for me. I have several books that I try to read every year or so, and each time I am amazed to discover something new, be convicted by something neglected, and refreshed by something familiar. I’ve blogged about the benefit that I have received by using “My ...

From “A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23”. This classic book is a must read for all Christians, and especially for those in ministry. Whether you are a truck driver, pastor, (or his wife), a children’s ministry teacher, home group leader or housewife, you will learn much about ministry and the Christian life from this excellent book. I excerpted this from chapter eleven, bear with the long post, it’s worth it. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” This to me is the supreme portrait of my Shepherd. Continually there flows out to me His goodness and His mercy, which, even though I do not deserve them, come unremittingly from their source of supply-His own great heart of love. Herein is the essence of all that has gone before in this Psalm. All the care, all the work, all the alert watchfulness, all the skill, all the concern, all the self sacrifice are born of His love-the love of One who loves His sheep, loves H...

I read this book once a year. From Christ Indwelling and Enthroned , J. Oswald Sanders on God’s command to Joshua: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night….for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua 1:8 & 9 The written Word of God was henceforth to be his hand-book, his manual of instruction in warfare. Obedience to it would constitute the secret of his success. This, not the might of his sword, was Joshua’s only equipment, even as it was Christ’s in His conflict in the Wilderness. If he did not literally soak himself in the Word, his strength and courage would ooze out of his fingertips when he came to meet the foe. In it he was to find his marching-orders, the science of warfare and the plan of his campaign. Had Joshua lived in our day, he would not, like so many professing Christians today, have saturated himself in magazines and tasty novels, but in the Word of God, of...

From Elisabeth Elliot: There are dry, fruitless, lonely places in each of our lives, where we seem to travel alone, sometimes feeling as though we must surely have lost the way. What am I doing here? How did this happen? Lord, get me out of this! He does not get us out. Not when we ask for it, at any rate, because it was He all along who brought us to this place. He has been here before--it is no wilderness to Him, and He walks with us. There are things to be seen and learned in these apparent wastelands which cannot be seen and learned in the "city"--in places of comfort, convenience, and company. God does not intend to make it no wasteland. He intends rather to keep us--to hold us with his strength, to sustain us with his sure words--in a place where there is nothing else we can count on. "God did not guide them by the road towards the Philistines, although that was the shortest...God made them go round by way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea" (Ex 13:17,18 NE...

"Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all." --1 Chronicles 29:11 Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Saviour of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which, while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarrassing terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man the star of the show. Man: The Dwelling Place o...

From “Edges of His Ways “by Amy Carmichael. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? All of us who have tried to remember these three sieves, and have used them, know what a help they are. We are sorry when we ever forget them, and we are very grateful when we are reminded of them in time to keep us from saying something untrue, unkind or unnecessary. Sometimes when I listen to hymn-singing I think of the words about the fig tree and the vine and the fountain. (James 3:12) “Can the fig tree….bear olive berries? Either a vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” Can the lips which have sung these beautiful, loving words speak those other words? But they sometimes do. Perhaps these three sieves will help to keep some words from being spoken that would grieve the Spirit of love and hurt someone whom our Lord loves. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?