May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
~ Numbers 6:24-26

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

  • Suffering well - How? The consensus appears to be...


    IMG_3290a ... "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 -- That's it.

    Original note:

    I've been thinking about suffering lately... I am not suffering, but many friends are suffering -- personally, spiritually, physically. "Suffering" and what that means gnaws at me also because I've been reading Thomas a Kempis' The Imitaion of Christ, and just the other night read:

    "All our peace in this wretched world comes from our humble endurance of suffering and not from living a life without it. He who best knows how to suffer enjoys the greatest peace, and such a one is victor over himself, master of the world, friend of Christ, and heir of heaven."

    "He who best knows how to suffer" -- that's the part that hit me! It seems as if Kempis' statement has a similar meaning to "He who best know how to play the game enjoys the greatest success" -- but I stumble on this a bit. I can applaud someone's "great game" and cheer them to victory -- do we approach suffering the same way? What does "knows how to suffer" really mean? I've heard various comments on suffering lately -- too many composed of Christian mumbo-jumbo, intellectual mumbo-jumbo, or some combination of both.

    Precisely and concisely (as I always encouraged my students), what does this mean -- "to know how to suffer" or to suffer well -- what does that look like?

     

Friday, 03 July 2009

Thursday, 02 July 2009

  • Reflection...


    IMG_1037   

    God is faithful in all situations, to bring people into our lives to give us direction, to give us strength, to remind us of His promises; faithful to break down barriers within us and around us, to surround us with protection and peace; faithful to hold us when we're resisting, to hold us when we're just plain tired, to hold us when we just want to snuggle; faithful to provide new starts, new insights, new hope moment by moment according to His will.

Monday, 29 June 2009

  • The Roots of Endurance...


    Recommended - Non-fiction
     
     

     

     

     

     

    *****

    Jun 28, 2009

     

    Key Quotes:

    Referring to John Newton -- "Oh, how rare are the Christians who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel...whose might in the truth is matched by their meekness...whose relational warmth is matched by their rigor of study" p. 42,43

    Quoting John Newton -- "I had no apprehension of the hidden life of a Christian, as it consists in communion with God by Jesus Christ: a continual dependence on Him...I acknowledged the Lord's mercy in pardoning what was past, but depended chiefly upon my own resolution to do better for the time to come" p. 50 ----- (this is an interesting quote to come back to when I finish reading Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy which seems to be touching on related issues) -----

    Habitual tenderness -- John Newton describing the believer's life: "He believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him an habitual tenderness and gentleness of spirit" p. 53

    Ah, if I could grasp the importance of following Newton's advice --"before you set pen to paper against [an opponent], and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord's teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love...and will have a good influence upon every page you write" p. 63

    Speaking of Newton's ability to communicate with concreteness -- "We will never be tender toward our people if we merely communicate the heaviness of general concepts and theories rather than the specific stuff of the world in which they live" p. 69

    Piper on the need to look at the lives of these from the past -- "I need this inspiration from another century, because I know that I am, in great measure, a child of my times. And one of the pervasive marks of our times is emotional fragility. It hangs in the air we breathe. We are easily hurt. We pout and mope easily. We blame easily. We break easily...Our faith breaks easily. Our happiness breaks easily. And our commitment to the church breaks easily. We are easily disheartened, and it seems we have little capacity for surviving and thriving in the face of criticism and opposition" p. 79

    Wisdom from Charles Simeon -- "My rule is never to hear, or see, or know, what if heard, or seen, or known, would call for animadversion from me. Hence it is that I dwell in peace in the midst of lions" p. 100 ---- (living out Romans 12) ----

    Quoting Handley Moule re Simeon's life -- "he had been 'growing downwards' year by year under the stern discipline of difficulty met in the right way, the way of close and adoring communion with God" p 107 ---- ('growing downwards' = growing in humility which for Simeon was inseparable from adoring communion with God) ---

    Describing William Wilberforce mental and spiritual health -- "...self-forgetting joy...a joyful ability to see all the good in the world instead of being consumed by one's own problems" p. 148

    James Stephen's description of Wilberforce -- "Being himself amused and interested by everything, whatever he said became amusing or interesting...His presence was as fatal to dullness as to immorality. His mirth was as irresistable as the first laughter of childhood" p. 149

    Piper comments -- "So for Wilberforce, joy was both a means of survival and perseverance on the one hand, and a deep act of submission, obedience, and worship on the other hand. Joy in Christ was commanded. And joy in Christ was the only way to flourish fruitfully through decades of temporary defeat" p. 151

    Roots of endurance = knowing that I am sinner saved by grace, living joyfully in that grace, seeking peace as I live out that grace, holding fast to Jesus Christ my Lord.

    This book is available free online at John Piper's site!

     

Memories of...

Be Still...

Be still...
"That He loves us, and is powerful, is calming."
~ Geoffrey, my son

I want everything I do and say to reflect my desire to know and serve my Lord...I want to "be still and know that He is God" Ps. 46:10

I am Laurie, a wife, mom, and teacher living in Ventura County, CA. I love to talk with my husband and teen-age sons; I love to read; and most importantly, I love knowing that I am the Lord's creation and that He will complete the work that He has begun -- and perhaps more quickly than I will complete my cross-stitch projects (Phil. 1:6).

Occupation: Academic Success Counselor and Teacher

My other sites:

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    My Professional Journal, and

  • Outside the Box: ADHD/Special Needs/Attention Deficit Disorder and Related Learning Style Differences

    oh, and my favorite place -- the ocean -- on its shore, in its mist...

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