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Category: Book quotes
Elisabeth and Lilias
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Elisabeth Elliot
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No Promises But Lots of Guidance
Did you become a Christian thinking that your life would now become easier? Had you heard promises from the Bible and thought pledging allegiance to the Lord would bring all those promises to you immediately? Down the road a few years were you disillusioned and weakened in your faith when the things you hoped for did not come true?
I try to remind myself that we are never promised anything, and that what control we can exert is not over the events that befall us but how we address ourselves to them.
Jeanne Duprau
Welcome to Humanity 101. We are told to give our lives to Jesus and He will exchange them for something greater. The something greater rarely means material things.
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
Isaiah 61:3
How do you control your thoughts, your behaviors, your emotions?
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Proverbs 25:28 RSV
Self-control is mentioned many times in the Bible. It is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit alive and active in our lives. We are taught in the New Testament to walk in the Spirit and put to death the things of the flesh. We are to long for the fruit of the Spirit.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:22-24 RSV
The most difficult thing to control is myself and my response to events in life. The only thing I can possibly hope to control is myself and my reactions. We have mistakenly thought that we need to control others, but not so, my friend, not so!
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
2 Peter 1:5-7 ESV
Yes, God has given us promises, but we need to read those promises carefully and ask for wisdom regarding them lest we misunderstand and go bumbling about accusing God of being untrue or unfaithful to His word.
Self-control is the best answer to most of my troubles. How about yours?
David Adam
In “Cry of the Deer” chapter on the Communion of Saints, he wrote
We all have minds that are hard to control! But ways have been discovered of helping to keep us reasonably on the right track. If the mind records everything we experience, we should be careful what we record on it. We can to some extent choose. There will always be a mixture of good and evil, of life and destruction, but we can influence the mixture by deliberate choice. Quite often, our attitude to what we do will influence our attitude in the future. It is with this insight that the writer to the Philippians says
4 May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice!
5 Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. 7 And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus.
8 In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. 9 Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.
Good News Bible Philippians 4:4-9
One of the great illnesses of modern society is our efforts to control others. This often develops unconsciously in homes where alcoholism is rampant. I spent several years in Adult Children of Alcoholics doing workbooks and learning about this insidious coping mechanism. It can grow into a monster that can become as destructive as the alcoholism itself. Between ACoA and my study of Christian historical writers I learned that the only one I can hope to control is myself. Even that, is a lifelong arduous task!
When Paul wrote to the Philippians he knew the work of taking charge over our thoughts and what we allow to dwell there. So as David Adam wrote, what is your attitude toward what you do, the attitude that will influence your attitude in the future? Weighty topic but so worth exploring.
25 three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water. 26 In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from my own people and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. 27 There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing. 28 And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress.
2 Corinthians 11:25-29 GNT
Most of us are unlikely to experience being stoned, shipwrecked and many of the other things he lists. Many of us work and toil, have had dangers from false friends. Without food, shelter, or clothing not to mention thirsty? not so much for most Americans. But can we with Paul focus our busy, busy minds on those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable? David Adam agrees with Paul that ways have been discovered to help us do that. Have you even tried them? Are you willing to challenge yourself to do these things from the Philippians list and then return quarterly to check up on how you are doing at the new ways of thinking?
There is a book about the challenge of a “Grumble-free year.”
USA Today bestselling author Tricia Goyer and her family of eleven embark on a yearlong quest to eliminate grumbling from their home and discover a healthier, more thankful approach to life together. The Goyer home–with two parents, eight kids, and one eighty-eight-year-old grandmother with dementia–is never without noise, mess, activity, and, often, complaining. And it’s not just the kids grumbling. After adding seven children in less than six years through adoption, the Goyer family decided to move out of survival-mode and into unity- and growth-mode. They decided to tackle the a grumble-free year. With grade-schoolers, teenagers, and a grandmother who believes children should be seen and not heard, plenty of room exists for flunking the challenge. Add to that seven children being homeschooled together in close quarters, and what could possibly go awry? In The Grumble-Free Year , the Goyers invite readers into their journey as they go complaint-free and discover what it looks like to develop hearts of gratitude. They share their plans, successes, failures, and all the lessons they learn along the way, offering real-life action steps based in scripture so that readers get not just a front-row seat to the action but also an opportunity to take the challenge themselves and uncover hearts that are truly thankful.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44442009-the-grumble-free-year
Whew! Makes me tired just reading the review. And I read the book! My life is nowhere as complicated as theirs. Is yours? Might you be able to tackle just 3 months of Paul’s admonition to think on whatever is true, noble, right, lovely, pure, honorable, praiseworthy – those kinds of things. Thought control, because your attitude today will influence your attitude in the future.
Get a 3 x 5 card or 4 x 6 card, even a post-it note. Write out the Philippians verse for your own use. Put it on the bathroom mirror, in your wallet, on your phone screen, in your car, coat pocket IN OTHER WORDS before your eyes, heart and mind. Practice it. Challenge yourself to be more gentle, more peaceful, less worried, more trusting and joyful in your union with Christ. What a grand and glorious 2024 that will make! It is going to take practice but will result in a holy skill. They say it takes at least 21 days to learn a new habit. I plan to review this once a quarter and if I need to get a “do over” or “Mulligan” I will give myself the grace to try again and again. I pray you too will try this! Good luck!!
As One Year Ends and Another Begins
How do you worship God? Brandon Lake wrote a song with Benjamin William Hastings and Dante Brown entitled Gratitude. Part of it goes,
I’ve got one response
Gratitude
I’ve got just one move
With my arm stretched wide
I will worship You
So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
Hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah
When I awoke on the morning of December 27th in my heart I heard, “So I throw up my hands and praise You again and again.” As you might know by now if you follow this blog, the Holy Spirit often draws me and speaks to me through Christian music both contemporary and a century old. As I pondered how to complete this counting of days that we call a calendar year I realized the truth that our concept of time just folds and unfolds itself regardless of these numbers and monthly pages. So I will finish this year and begin the next praising the only One Who is going on forever.
When our son, Jeff, was little he did not always like to attend Sunday School. One week he did the Sunday School lesson as they requested, pasting arms on a cartoon child who was to be praying. The activity showed a paper child and the children were given arms that attached at the elbow. The teacher explained to me, “Oh he tried and it was so cute!” Jeff pasted the arms raised in praise instead of hands folded. There are many references in the Word about lifting our hands to God. Some say this is the highest form of prayer. Certainly a sign of surrender to the Almighty. I thought Jeff got the lesson perfectly!
Writing in Always We Begin Again John McQuiston II says
The adoption of an attitude of thankfulness to the sublime mystery that brought us into being and preserves us is at once means and end. It’s worth is beyond measure.
Remember that we are always in the presence of the sacred, but that the sacred nature of life is only apparent to these who are open to it. We are a part of the infinite which is in this moment expressing itself through us and in every facet of daily life.
Always We Begin Again
McQuiston calls this tiny booklet a paraphrase of the Benedictine Way of Living, the Benedictine rule. I did not live by the Benedictine Rule of Life, but I do return to this booklet repeatedly to regain focus on the most important.
How do you intend to spend your life in 2024? Obviously, we first have to learn to write the new number for the year! Beyond the mundane do you have a plan? Might you plan to renew your relationship with “the sublime mystery that preserves us”?
I am not one to make resolutions, but I do pursue the Living God who calls me. I pray you will be listening to the same still, small voice in your soul and follow unabashedly! I will not be posting the remainder of the week. Blessings to each of you. Thank you for taking the time to read what I write. I hope the Holy One touches you through something I write about. May you be blessed with an increased awareness of the Holy Presence.
John Main
When I was first exploring contemplative prayer and Christian meditation, I was told to read works by John Main, a Benedictine monk and teacher. He was born in 1920 in London, England and died in 1982 in Montreal, Quebec.
I have found his writings inspirational and challenging. In the introduction to his “Essential Writings” he is quoted as saying that his essential teaching could be written on the back of a postage stamp. The intro goes on to state:
Because his is a spiritual teaching, indeed a mystical one, it cannot be adequately described in the way we would explain a philosophy or theology. It asks to be understood at a personal level, where thought and experience, mind and heart, converge.
John Main Essential Writings, Introduction by Laurence Freeman
Why should we care about all this? Perhaps John stated it best himself!
In contemplative prayer we seek to become the person we are called to be, not by thinking of God but by being with God
John Main
In a selection entitled Word and Silence he writes,
It is better to be silent and real that to talk and be unreal, wrote St. Ignatius of Antioch in the first century, and our contemporary situation must surely bear this out. Authority, conviction, personal verification, which are the indispensable qualities of the Christian witness, are not to be found in books, in discussion, or on cassettes {I would add or on podcasts}, but rather in an encounter with ourselves in the silence of our own spirit.
If modern people have lost their experience of spirit, pneuma, or essence, in which their own irreducible and absolute being consists, it is because they have lost their experience of and capacity for silence. There are few statements about spiritual reality that can claim a universal agreement. But this one has received the same formulation in almost all traditions, namely, that it is only in accepting silence that people can come to know their own spirit, and only in abandonment to an infinite depth of silence that they can be revealed to the source of their spirit in which multiplicity and division disappear. Modern people are often threatened by silence, what T. S. Eliot called ‘the growing terror of nothing to think about,” and everyone has to face this fear when they begin to meditate.
First, we must confront with some shame the chaotic din of a mind ravaged by so much exposure to trivia and distraction.
Word and Silence, John Main
I think it is no wonder that if we attend a candlelight service and sing Silent Night we are in awe and amazement. We need more silence and we need the Light of Christ, especially in this season that can so very chaotic. I pray you will allow yourself a period of silence this December. Time just to be with God, to listen, to learn about your heart and His.
As you give yourself as the gift that Jesus asks for this year, I pray you will spend some time in silence with Him. Be with Him. Listen, learn and experience His Presence. His light will illuminate your darkness and show you a bright path into 2024.
Sunday, December 17
In the Monday zoom group we are reading and discussing Richard Rohr’s book entitled Eager to Love, The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi. Reading Chapter 6, “An Alternative Orthodoxy” I came across this statement by Rohr.
For example, I often change the wording of many of the official orations of the Catholic Mass, after I find myself praying for my or our own salvation 65 percent of the time (Count them yourself.)
Page 90, Eager to Love by R. Rohr
If you have ever attended a liturgical church this might be true of you, also. I know there are things I added to my prayer book when we regularly attended the Episcopal church. I will give you an example.
A portion of The General Thanksgiving
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
Morning Prayer 2, Page 101
I prayed this most every morning when I was a Third Order Franciscan. I eventually added:
…but above all for the means of grace, for the hope of glory and for the glory of hope.
Hope can be elusive and I find it glorious when I can grasp it! These are the things I often ponder with my prayers.
How about you? The hope of glory is a wondrous, majestic thing that only the Holy One can pull off for us. What about the glory of hope? Have you found holding on to it difficult in your life, too?
I have a clear blown-glass woman which I just love. Yes, I could live without it, but she reminds me of how I am to live before the Father as stated in the beginning of the Holy Eucharist.
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your Holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
BCP, Holy Eucharist: Rite Two, Page 355
Many people think they have to clean themselves up before they come to God. We each know we have fallen short of his calling. What we often fail to realize is that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is sent to show us how to get cleaned up!
Christian society has decided that certain sins are worse than others, though no where in Scripture is one stated as being worse than others. Rohr wrote, “Organized religion has paid much attention to some things that Jesus never once mentioned and rather totally ignored others that he stated with utter clarity.” (God help us all!) “No pope, priest, or parishioner has ever been excommunicated for living too rich a lifestyle, or for being ambitious, greedy or prideful, even though Jesus condemned these things much more directly and openly than for what most (religions) usually excommunicate people.” Just like we sometimes try to clean ourselves up in our own strength, the Holy Spirit can show us the actual root of our unrighteousness and help us cleanse the thoughts of our hearts. “That we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name.”
As some of you know, I collect handmade cotton washcloths for Empower Youth, a ministry to underprivileged children in our county. Each year they hold a “Winterfest” where the kids get various blessings, a gift, a stocking and breakfast. This blog opens with a photo of some of the washcloths. We wrap them around a bar of soap and tie them with leftover yarn. The kids can use them in the bathtub or moms and grandmas can use them in the kitchen sink. Generous volunteers donated 300 this year! Cleansing is the idea.
So this Advent season leading into Christmas I pray you will let the Holy Spirit inspire you to stay open to God and learn how to let him cleanse the thoughts of your hearts that, indeed, “we may perfectly love God and worthily magnify His holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” To God be the glory!
Inspiration From Amy Carmichael Again
I frequently read dated selections from the writings of Amy Carmichael collected in a little book entitled The Edges of His Ways. I even love the humility in her title. She has experienced just the edges of the ways of Christ.
I have been helped very much by some of the “Evens” that the Revised Version brings to light. You know how sometimes words take life for us. It is as if they were made known to us in an altogether new way, and we are conscious of the Touch of God. I think Proverbs 22:19 R.V. explains that: “I have made them [those words] known to thee this day, even to thee.” So every such experience is a definite act of the Lord, even to me.
The Edges of His Ways, December 5
Then in chapter 23:15 there is a lovely “Even.” It is all of Him if we are made aware of His Presence and listen when He speaks, and so receive wisdom; but in His extraordinary love He speaks as if it were all our doing: “If thine heart be wise, My heart shall be glad, even Mine.” Is that not an amazing word? Think of such as we being allowed to add to the gladness of God. It is an overwhelming thought.
And then there is the dear “Even mine” of 2 Sam. 22:2 R.V.: “The Lord is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer, even mine.” The comfort of that comes again and again.
I read my copy on my tablet and that is good because I likely would have worn out a paper copy by now!! I purchased it for a very minimal cost from Olive Tree. https://www.olivetree.com/store/search.php?q=Edges+of+his+ways They offer thousands of titles, Bibles, commentaries, audio and written.
Even is such a small word, with such powerful impact. Yes, let’s make the Lord’s heart glad this December with a wise heart (which He will direct us to).
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
James 1:5-6 RSV
This certainly not a gift you can wrap, yet one you can present to God daily!
My son, if thine heart be wise,
my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Proverbs 23:15 KJV
Puritan Prayers
My friend Dan gave me book entitled The Valley of Vision, Puritan Prayers and Devotions a few years ago. I pick it up occasionally, but regularly. While praying this morning about the blog posts for this week I came to this prayer. The editor, Arthur Bennett, has extracted the prayers and devotions from Puritan literature. The Preface says “The editor is thus responsible for the structure of the prayers as here printed.” First printed in 1975 the work is copyrighted by Arthur Bennett but says nothing about reproducing the prayers in other places. So, here is the one I read this morning and I pray I am not violating any laws by sharing it with you. I suggest you read it through to become acquainted with the older English and then read it again prayerfully, applying the phrases to your own life. I have even thought about adapting the prayers to modern English but have not done that so far!
O Christ,
All thy ways of mercy tend to and end in my delight.
Thou didst weep, sorrow, suffer that I might rejoice.
For my joy thou hast sent the Comforter,
multiplied thy promises,
shown me my future happiness,
given me a living fountain.
Thou art preparing joy for me and me for joy;
I pray for joy, wait for joy, long for joy;
give me more than I can hold, desire, or think of.
Measure out to me my times and degrees of joy,
at my work, business, duties.
If I weep at night, give me joy in the morning.
Let me rest in the thought of thy love,
pardon for sin, my title to heaven,
my future unspotted state.
I am an unworthy recipient of thy grace.
I often disesteem thy blood and slight thy love,
but can in repentance draw water
from the wells of thy forgiveness.
Let my heart leap towards the eternal sabbath,
where the work of redemption, sanctification,
preservation, glorification is finished
and perfected for ever,
where thou wilt rejoice over me with joy.
There is no joy like the joy of heaven,
for in that state are no sad divisions,
unchristian quarrels,
contentions, evil designs,
weariness, hunger, cold,
sadness, sin, suffering,
persecutions, toils of duty.
O healthful place where none are sick!
O happy land where all are kings!
O holy assembly where all are priests!
How free a state where none are servants except to thee!
Bring me speedily to the land of joy.
If you are Bible literate you likely recognize phrases in the prayer taken directly from Scripture. I began to look up some of the references for you and there were just too many to list. I did place a few of them in the tag line.
As the pressure of the holiday traditions crowd about you, I challenge you to pray this often in the remaining weeks of December. Remind yourself of joy and mercy Christ brought to us. Look forward to the new heaven and earth, the ‘land of joy’ where we are headed! Fill you bucket at the fountain of living water God offers you. May you be blessed with an increased awareness of His Presence with you!
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 