Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Pride

C. S. Lewis writes that pride is the first and greatest sin of all because it seeks to elevate us above the One who gave us our gifts.

In the Book of Job God speaks of Satan. . . "He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride." (Job 41:34)

Passover

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
(I Corinthians 5:7,8)

The feast of Passover - Leviticus 23:4,5

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:" (I Peter 1:18, 19).

Monday, March 29, 2010

Why pray?

I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.
-C.S. Lewis

Me too.

Analysis of the Fifth Commandment . . .

“Honor your Father and your Mother” (5:16).

The word “honor” in the Biblical Hebrew comes from the word “Kabad”, meaning literally “to make heavy.”

We honor our parents not by loving them, but by making them “heavy”, i.e. making them people of substance and not “making light” of them.

The phrase “make light” of someone means a way of belittling or humiliating them.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Remorse

As Lady MacBeth spake on just such an occasion:
"Out Damned spot! Out, I say"
~ Macbeth, Act V. Scene I.

Stupak spelled backward is Kaputs.

Stupak's Original Sin:
Kathleen Parker

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Lives Of Others Soundtrack - Main Theme (Das Leben Der Anderen)

YouTube - The Lives Of Others Soundtrack - Main Theme (Das Leben Der Anderen)

♫ Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1 [piano] ♫

♫ Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1 [piano] ♫

Thad McCotter

Thad does it again

Salmagundi

Def: 1. A heterogeneous mixture. 2. A mixed salad of various ingredients.

For a fun spring party invite friends to a Salmagundi gathering.

In a very large mahogany salad bowl add green leafy things.

Each invitee is required to bring an unusual item to put into the huge salad.

What is dined on depended on the creativity and imagination of the guests, and each Salmagundi is always a new and surprisingly salad.

Bon appetit! and happy Salmagundi!

Things to think on. . .

Four things you can't recover:
  • The stone after the throw.
  • The word after it's said.
  • The occasion after it's missed.
  • The time after it's gone.

    God has a list of things also:

"These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him:

  • a proud look,
  • a lying tongue,
  • hands that shed innocent blood,
  • an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
  • feet that be swift in running to mischief,
  • a false witness that speaketh lies,
  • and he that soweth discord among brethren."

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

PROMINENCE OF THE SECOND COMING

Nothing is more prominently brought forward in the New Testament than the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

--John Nelson Darby (Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren)

Monday, March 15, 2010

Svenska Scripture

Luke 6:43-45 Ett bra träd kan aldrig bära dålig frukt, och ett dåligt träd kan aldrig bära bra frukt. Trädet känns igen på den frukt det bär. Man hittar inte fikon på tistlar eller vindruvor på törnbuskar. På samma sätt visar en god människas ord på den godhet som finns i hennes hjärta, medan en ond människas ord avslö...jar den ondska som finns inom henne. Munnen talar ju det som hjärtat är fullt av.

Love to try and figure out verses written in Swedish.

Isn't it amazing how God's Word is translated in different languages and more amazing that people are reading and God is working in them, through this Word in their language? God is good to all.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Nothing but Calvary

That I did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.
That I shall love always—
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality.
This—dost thou doubt, sweet?
Then have I Nothing to show But Calvary. - Emily Dickinson

The measure of God's love to us is the cross of Calvary. "...God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). And, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice to God) for our sins" (I John 4:9,10).

Blessed Calvary! Precious Calvary!
'Neath thy shadow I'll ever abide.
Blessed Calvary! Precious Calvary!
'Twas there Jesus suffered and died. - Christian B. Anson

Friday, March 12, 2010

Mendelssohn Songs without Words



YouTube - Sviatoslav Richter plays Mendelssohn Songs without Words Op.19 No.6

The Christian Witness

To those for whom the intellect alone has force, such a witness has little or no force. It bewilders and exasperates them. It challenges them to suppose that there is something greater about man than his ability to add and subtract. It submits that that something is the soul.

Plain men understood the witness easily. It speaks directly to their condition. For it is peculiarly the Christian witness. They still hear it, whenever it truly reaches their ears, the ring of those glad tidings that once stirred mankind with an immense hope. For it frees them from the trap of irreversible Fate at the point at which it whispers to them that each soul is individually responsible to God, that it has only to assert that responsibility, and out of man’s weakness will come strength, out of his corruption incorruption, out of his evil good, and out of what is false invulnerable truth.

Witness - Whittaker Chambers

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Good hope through grace. . .

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work." 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Psalm 144:1

"Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:"

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (Ephesians 6:10-12).

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Sonnet 94

"They that have power to hurt and will do none / That do not do the thing they most do show,"

Those who have the ability to hurt but choose not to, who do not use that power even though they look most certain of having it,

"Who, moving others, are themselves as stone / Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,"

Who, when moving others, are themselves still, unmoved, emotionally cold, and slow to temptation,

"They rightly do inherit heaven's graces / And husband nature's riches from expense;"


It is they who rightly inherit heaven's graces and spare nature's riches from ruin;

"They are the lords and owners of their faces / Others but stewards of their excellence."

They can control their facial expressions (thoughts and emotions), while others merely serve their emotions.

(A fool's wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covereth shame" (Proverbs 12:16).)

"The summer's flower is to the summer sweet / Though to itself it only live and die,"

The summer flower is sweet to the summer, though the flower lives and dies only for itself;

"But if that flower with base infection meet / The basest weed outbraves his dignity:"

But if that flower should develop an awful infection, the worst weed would outshine the flower in dignity:

"For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; / Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds."

For it is those things that are sweetest that can become sourest by their deeds; lilies that rot smell far worse than weeds.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Arizona

I'm here in Arizona with new granddaughter, helping as Mom & Dad are working spring training with the Cubs.

Everyone should visit Arizona after a long Michigan winter. It lifts the soul to breath in the warmer air, feel the sun with palm trees and cactus everywhere, and seeing the orange and lemon trees colorfully decorated with fruit. Outside our condo a tree has orange size fruit, but the fruit is yellow...maybe grapefruit? A bit sour, but good to eat if you avoid the rine.

God created Arizona. What are these hills and mountains seemingly pushed up from under the crust? Or were they dragged by the glacier of ages past? Do the residents of this place get used to seeing all this beauty? Maybe fresh eyes appreciate it best.

Like my new granddaughter...people call her a "fresh" one...she is seeing the world with all its wonder as new. Her and Amma.

Give me patience ...

by Esther Homoki (now at home with the Lord)

"…to never relax the self-watch. Never to indulge in unkind or thoughtless criticism of others. Never to utter the hasty word, or permit the sharp retorts; never to complain, except to God; never to permit hard and distrustful thoughts to lodge within the soul; to always be more thoughtful of others than of self; to detect the one blue spot in the clouded sky; to be on the alert to find an excuse for those who are forward and awkward; to suffer the aches and pains, the privations and trials of life sweetly, submissively, trustfully; to drink the bitter cup with the eyes fixed on the Father’s face, without a murmur or complaint. We cannot live such a life till we have learned to avail ourselves of the riches of the indwelling Christ."


I chose to print this in The Grace Messenger. My sister read it in her Bible study group and she said they all laughed incredulously that anyone could live up to such a high standard. I was convicted that maybe the statement was too lofty for mere mortals to aspire, but many times Esther’s words have come back to me.

The key I believe is the last line: We cannot live such a life till we have learned to avail ourselves of the riches of the indwelling Christ.

I love Esther’s words, and though I fail, they still ring true to what I want to attain to in my walk, in the Lord.

Monday, March 1, 2010

It's March...



spring is only weeks ahead!