CS Lewis Quote

Our Sunday School teacher read this quote during our class this morning. We were reading from the New Testament and discussing the need for Christians to show true, genuine, Christ-like love for each other and for our fellowmen. As an admirer of both CS Lewis and good quotes, I just had to share it here with you:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

-C.S. Lewis

Thought for This Season

In times of stress, in times when I am pressured to focus on "stuff", in times when I feel too rushed, these are the words that I try to remember:

The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone.
-Oswald Chambers

The devil gets us to focus on good things when what GOD wants for us are the best things.
-Bertha Smith (missionary to China for 40 years and a great pray-er who taught personal confession of sin as the basis for growing in the LORD)

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19-20
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" Mark 8:36

(This last verse is one that I got a sticker of when I was a teen and went to hear Miss Smith teach. I put it in the front of my Bible and unfortunately chose to ignore it (and most of the Bible) for almost 15 years! It is now my "life" verse that brings me back to reality every time I go astray - usually several times a day!) May you think about your "life" verse today and hold tight to its truths and promises as you go about this busy HOLYday season.
-F

Another favorite Quote

Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man.
- Oswald Chambers

The Whole Word of God

"The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian."
- A.W. Tozer

My 6yo is learning to read and he is doing it by reading about what was created on each day of creation. It struck me that even a 6yo can understand that the account in Genesis and the interpretation of "millions of years" just can't be reconciled. He said "But it says right here Mom 'the evening and the morning were the first day' so how can it be millions of years if it's just an evening and a morning?" Then later he said, "Don't plants need the sun to grow? Well, if God made the plants before he made the sun they couldn't live long without it and so it couldn't be millions of years between the plants being made and the sun." There are so many Christians trying to "reconcile" (aka compromise) between scientific theory and the Bible that it breaks my heart. Scientific fact never conflicts with the Bible, only man's theories do. And personally, I'll take the Word of the only One who was here at creation for the order in which He created it versus man's theories any day. For years I tried to reconcile the two, thinking it wasn't "intelligent" to accept the literal creation, that man's theories of radioisotope carbon dating and geological timetables were "proof". This led to my discounting the whole Word of God, even the Glory of the Gospel, and it took me years to come back around to recognizing that any "discrepancies" were only when I placed man's knowledge above that of the Living Lord. No, I cannot answer all of the scientific questions you or I may ask. No, I am not a world-class physicist or chemist or theologian. That's the beauty of the Word of God. Simple enough so that all can understand. Like being born in a stable so that no one could ever feel too lowly, or dying the most painful death imaginable so that no sufferer could feel left out. His marvelous, unfathomable message is made simple enough for anyone who seeks truth to understand the message even if our hearts cannot comprehend His love that produced the message. Even a 6yo beginner reader can understand it. Even me.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25

My favorite quote

"Jesus is something to you - but is He everything?"
-E.M. Bounds

Quote

"I'd like to be the ideal mother,
but I'm too busy raising my kids." -Unknown
(probably too busy to sign her name!)

Quote

"No man's life, liberty, or property
is safe while the legislature is in session."
- Mark Twain (1866)

(Sorry, couldn't resist passing this quote along!!)

Quote

“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.”
- Old African proverb

How wonderfully this speaks to me of the adoption of 3 precious African children by my friends Eileen and Jerry (and two from the US and now planning on another from Ethiopia!). If you don't know their amazing miracle story, go read it at Eileen's blog HERE - but start at the beginning and read to the current dates, you'll be glad you did! And if you want a book with more amazing stories, get out the tissues and go read A Treasury of Adoption Miracles by Karen Kingsbury. It only takes about as long as watching a movie and is much better than most!

A good thought in the election year

"How far would Moses have gone
if he had taken a poll in Egypt?
What would Jesus Christ have preached
if he had taken a poll in the land of Israel?
What would have happened to the Reformation
if Martin Luther had taken a poll?
It isn't polls or public opinion
of the moment that counts.
It's right and wrong and leadership."
- Harry Truman (1884 - 1972)

Quote of the Day

The leaves fall,
the wind blows,
and the farm country
slowly changes from
the summer cottons
into its winter wools.

-Henry Beston

(Photo by Matt Creech )

Quote of the Day

Night before last at dinner we were having a little wind storm and the lights were flickering. My hubby looked across the table at me and said "Oh, dim lights make me feel romantic!" Without skipping a beat my 8yo promptly replied "The only thing I like about romance is the chocolates!!" Gotta love her!!

Punishment??

From "Pastor Tim's CleanLaugh":
"We've come so far that community service is considered punishment."

From "Pastor Tim's Cleanlaugh" website

"Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind."

Quote of the Week

"Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it." - GK Chesterton - Autobiography, 1937

Quote of the day

From my 5yo with his eyes wide as saucers:
"Look, Mommy! This plant is having tomatoes!"