wise words on wisdom

I just finished reading George MacDonald's short story "The Wise Woman" where there are indeed some beautifully wise thoughts and perspectives.  And what a strangely enjoyable read!  Who would have thought that a story about reforming two mean girls' characters would be so brilliant a fantasy to unfold?  What imagination, insight into people, and sparkling story-telling power that MacDonald had!  


MacDonald wrote well about the ways that parents can feed their kids conceit.  Here are a few of his words about how any of us might stoke our own conceited natures:  

"However strange it may well seem, to do one's duty will make any one conceited who only does it sometimes.  Those who do it always would as soon think of being conceited of eating their dinner as of doing their duty.  What honest boy would pride himself on not picking pockets?  A thief who was trying to reform would.  To be conceited of doing one's duty is then a sign of how little ones does it, and how little one sees what a contemptible thing it is not to do it.  Could any but a low creature be conceited of not being contemptible?  Until our duty becomes to us common as breathing, we are poor creatures."  (p 53).


Another book that has been a gem for our whole family lately is Sally Michael's God's Names. A precious friend- who we've never met!- mailed this book to us as a surprise. A gift for no reason!?  That alone makes it a special book, but what's inside makes it even better.  We've been reading through these names of God together in evening devotions with the kids and it's been such a great blessing to have this help.  We were really struggling to hold the kids attention with stories straight from the ESV.  Our younger ones were not tracking at all... but we're all learning these names together now.  Joy for all.   (I will say, there are some spots I wish were edited for the narratives to flow nicer but when a book is this good, no commenter really needs to bother with the minor room for improvement!)  Thank you, Dawn!


And best of all:  James, still piercing my heart.


James 3:13-18 



Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. ¹⁵ This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.


That list in verse 17?  ... Ahh...  If only I could soak myself in it and be stained to the core with that beauty.  Transform me with true wisdom from above, oh God!  More of Christ, the wisdom of God!  May your Word so saturate my heart that it would color all that I am with your wisdom!   And may I sow in peace and reap a harvest of righteousness, lasting fruit, bright to your glory, oh God!


Amen.

James

Grandma and Grandpa sent a snuggly owl toy for John for Christmas and right away it was very important to our boy that his owl be named.   Sweet John moved on quickly (he's far more easy to convince or to agree with mama than his big sister!) when I told him that Poo Poo Owl was not aacceptable.  He went with James Owl instead and I'm quite sure James Owl will be a keeper for the long haul.

But another James is ringing in my heart today.  In recent months, James has been the book the Lord is using to nail me down, pierce me through, and lay me in the light of his Son, in regards to my life as a mama.

2010 began a stretch of 1 Peter being the book that challenged me sharp and deep on my difficulty with submitting to culture battles here.  "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution.... be subject to your masters with all respect not only to the good and the gentle but also to the unjust" (1 Peter 2:13-25)....  I applied this in my heart to be:  Be subject for the Lord's sake to this human culture, not only when it's comfortable but even when it grates hard against all that I think is wise and decent and considerate and tolerable.

Back at that time, I tried to memorize 1 Peter.... then it became 1 Peter 1-3.... then 1 Peter 1..... and then, after meditating on the verses and soaking my brain and heart in it for months (no friends with me, I might add)  I still didn't know the words secure and firm by heart.  Meditating on it had been sweet indeed but I really did/do want the words locked down deep like seeds (Receive with meekness the implanted word).  Embarrassed and discouraged.... I moved on and no plan since (and there have been several) has been completed either.

Now, my dear Ann  is inviting others to join with her in Memorizing the Mount.  As I looked over her memory booklet I realized that a definitive plan was completely absent from my memory plan.  And so, again I'm beginning this journey that I still hope will become a fixed anchor in my life to hold me under the shaping, transforming truth-light of the Word of God.

1)  Memorizing James.  1 chapter a month Feb - June..... end of June, James is in there.

2)  Keep a notebook.  Exactly which verses this week?  Say it weekly to a friend.   Emily, thank you for your partnership in this!  I praise the Lord for you..... I'm eager to share verses, applications, prayer spots with you and others along the way too.

3)  Ann writes a bit about the A.R.T. of memorizing scripture and for now I'm just fixed on the Attending...  The Word in the morning, in the kitchen, at the table, while nursing, for a water break, before class, during their nap.... Her encouragement is so sweet, and Piper's challenge, and the recap of Dr. Andrew Davis' seven tips for memorizing (all at the post of Ann's).

I'm aiming for a pace of 7 (+/-) verses per week.... that way in 2012 I might be able to tuck James and the Sermon on the Mount into my heart for fruitbearing?  May it be Lord, by your grace, for your praise!

I'm a huge hungerer for community (most of us are, right?) and my community on the ground is very limited so please consider this the warmest invitation I can possibly deliver via blogger:  I would love if any of you dear friends want to join me on this journey?  Please come along.... Please let me know... it would be such a joy to journey with you.  (Your pace for the journey is just fine...)

Oh may our days be filled with and revolve around and be anchored deep in the truth of God's word..... without it I'll be that double-minded man unstable, unsteady, unsturdy driven by and towards whatever waves of the day happen to bring my way.  Lord steady me in you, your truth, your love, your promises.  

Ann ends her Mount Memory Cards with these words... and I echo them now:

"So this commitment...  
Committing our hearts to Him and His Word to our hearts."

a poor Jewish peasant & a prepositional phrase

"An evangelical believes that God humbled himself not only in the incarnation of the Son, but also in the inspiration of the Scriptures. The manger and the cross were not sensational. Neither are grammar and syntax. But that is how God chose to reveal himself. A poor Jewish peasant and a prepositional phrase have this in common; they are both human and both ordinary. That the poor peasant was God and prepositional phrase is the Word of God does not change this fact. Therefore, if God humbled himself to take on human flesh and to speak human language, woe to us if we arrogantly presume to ignore the humanity of Christ and the grammar of Scripture."

quoted from John Piper's writing on Biblical Exegesis, @ http://www.biblearc.com/web/learn/

from Psalm 90

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, 
or ever you had formed the earth and the world, 
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, 
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, 
and for as many years as we have seen evil.

Let your work be shown to your servants, 
and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, 
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!


verses 1, 2, 12, 13-17

more thanks

I've been really caught recently with my need for more of the Word of God in my life... If it is "living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword" why would I settle for so starving my heart or feeding on dead crumbs for my soul? I want that which the Creator and Author of all life calls "Living" and I want it pulsing it's Life in my fading frame.

~ I am so grateful that God has given us his Word,
~ revealed himself to us in it, through it,
~ allows us to chew it up and get it into our hearts, heads, bloodstream, soul,
~ changing us, transforming us by it into more of his image.

~ So grateful for the all-suprassing power of the Gospel
~ which is not a message of my own sufficiency or power
~ but is a boast in God who spoke light to shine out of darkness
~ and caused "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" to shine in our hearts. (2 Cor 4: 6.)

Man! Have we ever got it good!?

And grateful...

~ to be married to the funnest, most loving man I can imagine: my best friend, my dreamy love.

~ for kids growing big- Isaiah is almost an inch taller than last month- I must have measured goofy on our homemade growth chart!?

~ grateful for the opportunity to give to new kids, to include new friends in our home

~ for a super fantastic bagels recipe and bulk pricing on 4 pounds of cream cheese to take the edge off the end of this fourth first trimester

~ for the store that carries cream cheese (maybe the only store in our whole province? and it's only a 15 minute bike ride from us!)

~ for the other foreign groceries they sell: cheese, butter, corn flakes...

~ for a rainy day, refreshing to the soul

~ for a boy who is learning more about loving others

~ a girl who loves that her mom and dad love each other

~ for a little boy who is on the verge of running

~ for the little growing one inside me- pure gift!

~ for friends who wrote me such encouragement last week when I needed it

~ for a skype date with precious girlfriends all gathered together!

Piercing Me

From this morning's read... James 5

Come now,you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. ²Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. ⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

and from last week's read... 1 John 2: 28

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

I am pierced with these words. We are talking about changes we need and earnestly desire to make to give more. We certainly are fans of giving to westerners to be able to live and work among the poor doing all sorts of good works for them, but we also want a good portion of our giving to go straight to the poor and aim to not just give them fish but, as the saying goes, teach them to fish. One of the ways we are glad to get to give for this is through Kiva.

I just saw this article reviewing David Platt's new book Radical: Taking Back your Faith from the American Dream, that also hit me pretty hard... here's a quote:

Today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day …. Anyone wanting to proclaim the glory of Christ to the ends of the earth must consider not only how to declare the gospel verbally but also how to demonstrate the gospel visibly in a world where so many are urgently hungry.

What is the difference between someone who willfully indulges in sexual pleasures while ignoring the Bible on moral purity and someone who willfully indulges in the selfish pursuit of more and more material possessions while ignoring the Bible on caring for the poor? The difference is that one involves a social taboo in the church and the other involves the social norm in the church.

We look back on slave-owning churchgoers of 150 years ago and ask, "How could they have treated their fellow human beings that way?" I wonder if followers of Christ 150 years from now will look back at Christians in America today and ask, "How could they live in such big houses? How could they drive such nice cars and wear such nice clothes? How could they live in such affluence while thousands of children were dying because they didn't have food or water? How could they go on with their lives as though the billions of poor didn't even exist?"

I want to live streamlined for his kingdom and that will surely mean different things for each of us in the body of Christ. But a common theme between us all- wherever God has called us- will be humble service and sacrificial giving that extends to and reaches beyond the church.

Ouch.... I want to be wounded with and changed by the truth here so as not to stand ashamed at his coming... Thank you Lord for piercing me and piercing us with your Truth.

solid

Job 1:21-22 "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah. Our God is a God of salvation and to God, the Lord belong deliverances from death." Psalm 68:19

Isaiah 28:29 “And all this also comes from the Lord Almighty. He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.”

"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." 2 Cor. 4:8-9

"If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.... For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:19, 22

Praying this morning for more selah, peace- rest, in the midst of your suffering, Greg and Heather. Not that there should be less pain, because your pain displays your love for Maelee and your love is not small. But we are praying for rest and some lightening of the burden of your grief.... may your soul find rest in God alone, may your hope be found in him. Psalm 62:5. Even a small, flickering hope right now, because it's not the quality of your hope, it's where your hope is rooted. He keeps you...

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." Isaiah 26:3-4. Rock of Ages, let them hide in you now.

And so we hope with you, for you... though now, achingly. And we trust that the ache, just like death's sting, is not eternal, but will be exchanged for you, for us, because of Christ.

join me?

"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:1-2

I'm glad this is what we are commanded to do, because to have to fill our minds with the stuff of earth would lay me low- too low to live some days. Just in daily ordinary things, life can feel overwhelming. How much more so in times of hard loss?

So, in effort to SET my mind on the things of heaven, the things of God, I'm setting out a specific scripture memory- meditation aim. I'm going to be dwelling on 1 Peter 1 in the next few weeks. I look forward to soaking my brain and my heart in this great chunk of scripture. Hoping, trusting that it will become a filter for thoughts and a screen for the eyes of my heart.

from Titus

Christians, let us...

be hospitable,
love what is good,
be self-controlled,
upright,
holy and disciplined....
let us hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught,
so that we can encourage others by sound doctrine
and refute those who oppose it.

...Jesus Christ gave himself for us
to redeem us from all wickedness and
to purify for himself a people that are his very own,
eager (zealous- ESV) to do what is good.

Titus 1:8-9, 2:14