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| The entrance of the pains and sorrows of the spiritual warfare with one's own flesh, the world, and the devil is what Newton had in view in his immortal poem which often goes by the name 'These inward Trials': I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face. I hoped that in some favoured hour
At once He'd answer my request,
And by His love's constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest. Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part. Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low. 'Lord, why is this?' I trembling cried,
'Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?'
''Tis in this way,' the Lord replied,
'I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may'st seek thy all in me.' What a wonderful expression of how the Lord purges us from too much of ourselves. Totally flies in the face of the message we heard several weeks ago at my daughters' Baccalaureate, where the minister who spoke said that we need to learn to love ourselves more before we can give that love to anyone else. And the greatest relationship we can have in this world is the one that we have with our own souls. *HUH????* | | |
| We have a cat (who adopted us by the way) that is not very smart, but has turned out to be quite the entertainment just because he is so laid back. Yesterday he cornered a little, tiny bunny on our patio and was just watching it shiver in fear. I thought the worst was about to happen so I went out there and saved said poor bunny. Pictured here: 
You can tell how small it is by the size of it in relation to my thumb. Cassie was out there too, thinking that she would need to hold Pumpkin (the not-so-smart cat) from getting the bunny. All Pumpkin did was rub against her legs and purr a whole bunch, he could have cared less about the little guy. Cassie took the bunny over to the neighbors field and let it go in some very tall grass. Its kind of wierd that Pumpkin didn't do anything to the bunny, as the next day he caught and killed a mouse that was easily as large as the bunny. Go figure. | | |
| I saw this quote on another Xanga site and thought I would share with anyone who reads my blog, even though I only update once every month, or two. (or three!) Here it is:
(It is taken from the book called A Dictionary of Thoughts by Tryon Edwards in the section called Temptation. To realize God's presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation. - Fenelon
And one more from the book. Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them. - Bunyon
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| So I've been reading this book for a LONG time now, because it is very deep and I want to absorb as much of it as I can by the time I finish it. The author is speaking about how the evangelical church has hung onto all the good words of the creeds, but the guardians of the substance of those words were banished, hence very much weak preaching in our churches today. He had a quote from, believe it or not, Moby Dick, by Herman Melville which really struck me. Here it is: "What could be more full of meaning? - for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is that the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is that the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."
Good stuff. On another note, we have been getting slammed with snow all last night and most of today so far. Here are a couple of pictures of it - complete with a few of the animals of the house enjoying it also.... 
Cassie's (very large) cat, Tom!
Sorry for the sideways picture of the dog, I can't figure out how to get it rotated on Xanga. 
Our dog just LOVES snow. What is wrong with her.....
Oh yeah! Another sideways photo. Just tilt your head left and you can get an idea of how much snow there is. | | |
| That is the title of the chapter of the book which my wife is reading at the moment - What We Can't Not Know - A Guide by J. Budziszewski (pronounced boojee-shef-skee). She read to us in the van on the way to church this morning, a very small portion of dialogue between he and another person. Here it is: I suppose you know the story about Friedrich Nietzsche and the dust of the earth. And the dust of the earth? No. Tell it to me. Nietzsche says to God, "I too can create a man." God says to Nietzsche, "Try." Nietzsche takes a fistful of dust and begins to mold it. God says, "Disqualified. Get your own dust." I don't see the point. It's just what I was saying. We can't really create. That's why, as C.S. Lewis explained, the so-called new moralities are never new. All they ever do is distort something they have borrowed from the old morality. Reminds me of the verse about the earth being the Lord's and the fullness thereof. | | |
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