Read and Noted:

"The more we need to pray the less we want to. Not to pray is to lose the desire to pray, for prayerlessness is its own punishment. But pray we must. We cannot sit and wait for the desire to pray to suddenly come upon us like the tongues of fire at Pentecost. Just do it. The choices we make when we are not motivated are the most critical of our Christian walk."
Ben Patterson

Excerpt from Jim Elliot's Journal

"Oct 28 - One of the great blessings of Heaven is the
appreciation of heaven on earth - Ephesian truth.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain
that which he cannot lose. Lu 16:9 '...that whom it shall fail, they
may receive you into everlasting habitations.'
Scripture leaves so many stories untold. Think of the
calloused heart of the priest who stooped over, squinting in the
dimness of the sanctuary, looking for the 30 pcs. of silver Judas cast
there - pausing to see if he had found all 30. Too legal to put the
money in the treasury since it was blood-money, they wax very philanthropic
and buy with it a field to bury strangers in. How cold the heart of man!
How feelingless and obdurate!”

This can be found in the October 28, 1949 entry on page 174 (Chapter 4) of the 1978 hardback edition of the Journal and on page 108 (Chapter 11) of the 1958 hardback edition of Shadow of the Almighty. The quote is also used in the prologue of Shadow on page 15.
http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/faq/20.htm

"Everything difficult indicates something more than our theory of life yet embraces."
George MacDonald

"Thy name is as ointment poured forth." Song of Solomon 1:3

How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest.

Dear Name, the Rock on which I build, My Shield and Hiding Place,
My never failing treasury, filled
With boundless stores of grace!

By Thee my prayers acceptance gain,
Although with sin defiled;
Satan accuses me in vain,
And I am owned a child.

Jesus! my Shepherd, Husband, Friend,
O Prophet, Priest and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.

Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see Thee as Thou art,
I’ll praise Thee as I ought.

Till then I would Thy love proclaim
With every fleeting breath,
And may the music of Thy Name
Refresh my soul in death!

John Newton

Isaiah 40:6-8

The Word of God Stands Forever

A voice says, "Cry!"
And I said, "What shall I cry?"
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers,
the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.


I Peter 1:22-25

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,
through the living and enduring word of God.

For, "All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord stands forever."
And this is the word that was preached to you.

Isaiah 40:11

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.

Psalm 7:17

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness
and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.


Proverbs 7:2-4

Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.

Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.

Say to wisdom, "You are my sister,"
and call understanding your kinsman;

Read and Noted:

"...At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on."

It's 14 F° and sunny here...

But, I'd rather be on a warm porch - anywhere!

this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord

"Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega." - Clyde Kilby

We are beggars.

Wir sind Bettler. Das ist Wahr.
We are beggars. That's the truth.

"These are the last written words of Martin Luther. Mark Noll has a great section in his chapter on Luther and the reformation on Luther's theology of the cross. It is, by far, the most expressive and deeply felt part of Turning Points. Although justification by faith through grace is certainly at the heart of Luther's theology, it's the cross that was, for Luther, the only full picture of such justification, the only place where God came into the world in a real, humbling, miraculous, and touchable way."
Jared Olivetti

William Morris said it.

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”