In God's Work of Redemption, we have Clear and Endearing Views of His Wisdom and Love

"In [Christ] we behold the wisdom, goodness, love, grace, mercy, and power of God acting themselves in the contrivance, constitution, and efficacious accomplishment of the great work of our redemption. This gives an unutterable luster to the native amiableness of the divine excellencies. The wisdom and love of God are in themselves infinitely glorious, infinitely amiable; nothing can be added to them; there can be no increase of their essential glory.

Howbeit, as they are eternally resident in the divine nature and absolutely the same with it, we cannot so comprehend them as to have an endearing, satiating view of their glory except as they are exerted in the work of the salvation of the Church; as they are expressed, communicating their blessed effects to the souls of them that believe, which is done only in Christ; so the beams of their glory shine unto us with unspeakable refreshment and joy (II Cor. 4:6). "

- from The Glory of Christ by John Owen (emphasis mine)

"The ancient lie is put into men's hearts again and again and again that the only way to attain a state higher than innocence is to have experience of sin in order to see what sin is like....
Do you know how that lie can best be shown to be the lie that it is? Well, my friends, I think it is by the example of Jesus Christ. Do you despise innocence? Do you think that it is weak and childish not to have personal experience of evil? Do you think that if you do not obtain such experience of evil you must forever be a child?

If you have any such feeling, I just bid you contemplate Jesus of Nazareth. Does He make upon you any impression of immaturity or childishness? Was He lacking in some experience that is necessary to the highest manhood?... If that is the way you think of Jesus, even unbelievers, if they are at all thoughtful, will correct you. No, Jesus makes upon all thoughtful persons the impression of complete maturity and tremendous strength. With unblinking eyes He contemplates the evil of the human heart. "He knew what was in man" (John 2:25), says the Gospel according to John. Yet He never had those experiences of sin which fools think to be necessary if innocence is to be transcended and the highest manhood to be attained. From His spotless purity and His all-conquering strength, that ancient lie that experience of evil is necessary if man is to attain the highest good recoils naked and ashamed."

- from "The Fall of Man" by J. Gresham Machen

"Dear Christian, in affliction abide in Christ.
When thou seest it coming, meet it in Christ;
when it is come feel that thou art more in Christ than in it,
for He is nearer thee than affliction ever can be;
when it is passing, still abide in Him.
And let the one thought of the Saviour, as He speaks of the pruning, and the one desire of the Father, as He does the pruning, be thine too:
"Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit."


So shall thy times of affliction becomes thy times of choicest blessing, - preparation for richest fruitfulness.
Led into closer fellowship with the Son of God, and deeper experience of his love and grace, -
established in the blessed confidence that He and thou entirely belong to each other, -
more completely satisfied with Him and more wholly given up to Him than ever before, -
with thine own will crucified afresh, and the heart brought into deeper harmony with God's will, - thou shalt be a vessel cleansed, meet for the Master's use, prepared for every good work."

- from Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

I'm at Bible College

More later! (I hope :o)

At Last!

The quilt is finally done! Basically, I did all the piecing and Mother did all the quilting. (just because she really likes to quilt). Here we are with it -

We're Back!

We returned last week from a full and interesting two-week trip/vacation. With college less than three weeks away now, life is busy. I sometimes wonder if I should still take the time to blog. But if my few readers have as little time to read blogs as I have, then they won't mind bi-weekly posts! :o)

A few pictures from the trip...

beautiful Michigan

Tahquamenon Falls

Lake Superior - sparkling and cold...

...but not too cold for the boys to take a swim.





By Clark Lake - a place that seemed like the hollow of God's hand

"Thou art, O God, the Life and Light

Of all this wondrous world we see;

Its glow by day, its smile by night,

Are but reflections caught from Thee;

Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine,

And all things fair and bright are Thine."

- Thomas Moore

A Good Way to Use Less than Modest Clothing

I almost threw this shirt away but found a better use for it in cutting out a square to cover a jar and create a cute vase!

For Father's Day

My Daddy is a thinking man
and likes to contemplate
And tries to do the best he can
to keep things neat and straight.

My Daddy is a witty guy
and likes to make things fun
If there's a twinkle in his eye
Be ready for a pun.

My Daddy is a man who prays
A child before God's throne
And seeks to know his Father's ways,
While caring for his own.

My Daddy does a lot of things
He walks, he talks, he plays
He preaches, washes dishes, sings
But best of all he prays.

And so today on Father's Day
Amidst the busyness
I want to stop and, thankful, say
Father, thanks for this.

"Strength of my heart, I need not fail

Not mine to fear, but to obey;

With such a Leader, who could quail?

Thou art as Thou wert yesterday.

Strength of my heart, I rest in Thee,

Fulfill Thy purposes through me!"

-Amy Carmichael

Reading "War of Words"

I'm currently reading the excellent book War of Words - Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles, by Paul David Tripp. I keep on being amazed at the things I'm learning about the words I say. Here are some excerpts that I wrote in my notebook.

"often our words reveal an attempt to control things for our own good. We are moved by a personal sense of what we want or what we think would be good, and so we speak in a way that guarantees we will get it. We defend, accuse, inflict guilt, manipulate, rationalize, argue, cajole, beg, plead, or threaten all for the purpose of controlling a person or situation. Sometimes we do this out of fear. It really does feel as if our lives are spinning out of control. It does seem as if the people around us are standing in the way of what is best. It seems right to take control. If we don't, then what will happen? But fear-driven talk forgets one of the post precious promises of the gospel: that Christ right now, at this moment, is ruling all things for our particular benefit as his children.
...our words often reveal that we are not so much trusting in the Lord as trying to be
Him."

"Our words are one of the ways we seek to gain, maintain and keep what is realliy important to us, what we really want and what we are living for."

wow.

"Only when I submit to the rule of God, who has a perfect plan and is in complete control, will I begin to live and speak as he has purposed."

I hope others find these things encouraging and inspiring. May the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be pleasing in God's sight.

I like the picturesque progression of this poem by Charles Spurgeon

All my soul was dry and dead
Till I learned that Jesus bled -
Bled and suffered in my place,
Bearing sin in matchless grace.

Then a drop of heavenly love
Fell upon me from above,
And by secret mystic art
Reached the center of my heart.

Glad the story I recount,
How that drop became a fount,
Bubbling up a living well,
Made my heart begin to swell.

All within my soul was praise,
Praise increasing all my days;
Praise which could not silent be,
Floods were struggling to be free.

More and more the waters grew,
Open wide the floodgates flew,
Leaping forth in streams of song
Flowed my happy life along.

Lo, a river clear and sweet
Laved my glad, obedient feet!
Soon it rose up to my knees,
And I praised and prayed ith ease.

Now my soul in praises swims,
Bathes in songs and psalms and hymns;
Plunges down into the deeps,
All her powers in worship steeps.

Hallelujah! Oh my Lord,
Torrents from my heart are poured!
I am carried clean away,
Praising, praising all the day.

In an ocean of delight,
Praising God with all my might,
Self is drowned. So let it be
Only Christ remains to me."

A Recipe - Fiesta Sloppy Joes:

Brown in heavy skillet, keeping meat in chunks:
1 lb. ground turkey

Drain if necessary; add
1 c. chopped onion
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup cream of rice cereal (we use Bob's Red Mill Creamy Brown Rice cereal, but regular "white" stuff would work too)
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 t. sugar
1 t. salt
1/4 t. chili powder
1/4 t. celery seed
1/4 t. dry mustard, optional
2 c. cooked (canned) tomatoes

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover, and cook 25 minutes. Stir and serve hot in whole grain buns.

"This cruel self, oh how it strives

And works within my breast

How many subtle forms it takes

As if it were not safe to rest

And venture all on Thee."

- from Chinese Diamonds for the King of Kings by Rosalynd Goforth

The Mark of Wisdom

The Mark of Wisdom

The highest mark of wisdom is not the ability to speak of great and lofty things, or to eloquently tell others the things I know. No, the highest mark of wisdom is humility; it is submissiveness of spirit to God and others, that seeks advice, heeds good counsel and takes to heart reproof.

"Hear instruction and be wise
and do not neglect it."
- Proverbs 8:33 ESV

"The wise of heart will receive commandments..."
-Proverbs 10:8 ESV

"Nothing is trivial for the Lord"

A preacher once found himself advertised to preach in an obscure village, the storm was terrible, and, therefore, though he kept his appointment, he found only one person present in the place of meeting. He preached a sermon to that one hearer with as much earnestness as if the church had been crowded. Years after he found churches all over the district, and he discovered that his audience of one had been converted on that day, and had become the evangelist of the whole region. Had he declined to preach to one, what blessings might have been withheld.

Brethren, never neglect the loosing of the shoe-latchet for Christ, since you do not know what may hang upon it...Never say within yourself, 'This is trivial' - nothing is trivial for the Lord.

- from C.H. Spurgeon's sermon, "Loosing the Shoe Latchet"

He made it.

Yesterday I was listening to one of my favorite radio programs - Revive our Hearts with Nancy Demoss. At the end of the program, Nancy read a poem called "A Little Place". It really encouraged me, so I decided to share it here:

Where should I work today, dear Lord,
and my love flowed warm and free.
He answered and said, “See that little place?
Tend that place for me.”
I answered and I said, “Oh no, not there!
No one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that place for me.”

His voice, when He spoke, was soft and kind.
He answered me tenderly,
“Little one, search thy heart of thine.
Are you working for them or me?
Nazareth was a little place
and so was Galilee.”


Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
- Colossians 3:23-24 ESV

Read the entire transcript of the ROH program here.

"Nothing is more powerful to engage our affections than to find that we are beloved. Expressions of kindness are always pleasing and acceptable unto us, though the person should be otherwise mean and contemptible: but, to have the love of one who is altogether lovely, to know that the glorious Majesty of heaven hath any regard unto us, how must it astonish and delight us, how must it overcome our spirits, and melt our hearts and put our whole soul into a flame!"

- Henry Scougal - from his book The Life of God in the Soul of Man

Farewell Guyana; hello Pennsylvania!

In the first week of January, we left Guyana where we'd ministered for two four-year terms and flew back to the United States. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some!

Everything had to go.

A few last tunes on the piano.
If the picture had sound, you'd hear Daddy and Mother's improvised "The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost" duet.

Goodbye Squirt!

A warm welcome to Pennsylvania. It's been surprisingly - providentially! - warm for January. Not a flake of snow! But it's still cold!



A man from our home church has kindly let us stay in his home until the missionary house is open. This is just one instance of God's faithful provision for us.

Mr. N-'s two German shorthairs,"Jo" and "Rose", waiting for crumbs. They are fun dogs, and having them around helps us not to miss as greatly the dogs we left behind.

Visiting the PA state Farm Show was an interesting experience - an annual tradition we hadn't observed for four years. :o)

Dairy cow competition - best of each breed.

Daddy (John), Christopher and Benjamin - JCB :o)

It's been wonderful to see and be with old friends.

A happy reunion with Katie - I hadn't seen her in four years, but I used to see her almost every day when both our families were in Guyana.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Though pictures are worth a thousand words, no words or pictures can describe the great faithfulness of our Lord who has led us safe thus far. But as all the details continued to come together and all the miles went by, I thought of these words:

" 'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far,
And Grace will lead me home."