Crazy Love

Tonight I went to dinner at Nabeel's.  It's almost becoming a weekly tradition.  The food is delicious, and the atmosphere takes you to somewhere else.  Somewhere in the Mediterranean.  I like it, though, because I can simply bring a book or two and read while eating something fantastic.

So, I brought my One Year KJV Bible and the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  I have not followed the "days" at all, so I'm reading somewhere in June.  Before reading, I asked God to reveal whatever I needed in his Word.  And He did.  Of course He did.  I read 1 Kings 19:1-21.  It tells the story of Elijah, who after defeating the prophets of Baal, runs away from Jezebel.  He tells the Lord how hard he has worked and that only he is left among his servants.  And God reveals himself to Elijah in a small voice.  Elijah repeats the same words, and God tells him to go anoint Elisha.  Usually the focus of this story is that God had 7,000 others who had not bowed down to Baal.  But, tonight I focused in on the fact that God sent Elijah to anoint Elisha.  At one of Elijah's weakest moments, God reminds him that he is raising up servants to serve the Lord.  He is not the only one right now, nor will the ministry die with him.  What a comforting thought!

Then, I started the 2nd chapter of my book, Crazy Love.  I can already tell that it is going to be a perfect accompaniment to the Bible Study I started on Tuesday night.  The first chapter was all about re-discovering God.  Realizing just how awesome He is.  If you haven't seen this, you should really take a few minutes to watch the video below:

Pretty amazing, right?  That doesn't even do it justice.

The 2nd chapter, then, is all about death.  That may seem strange, but Chan points you to the fact that the "Movie of Life" is not about you.  It's about God.  He makes this parallel.  If you were an extra in a movie, and only your head was seen for about a second, yet you rented the entire movie theater out so people could see it, they would think you were crazy.  The movie obviously isn't about you.  And so it is with life.  We are here for a fraction of a second, and our entire purpose is to glorify God.  That's what it's all about (not the hokey pokey...sorry, I couldn't resist).  Let us be about our Father's business.

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."


"And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."


Colossians 3:2,17

Women's History Month

Did you know that March is Women's History Month?  I didn't.  Maybe I did, and it had gotten lost in my brain somewhere.  But, now it knows.  So, what can I offer to honor this month?  A book recommendation, of course.  :-)

Many years ago a dear friend of mine recommended I read 5 books by one of my now-favorite authors, Francine Rivers.  These 5 books comprised the Lineage in Grace series.  Each book tells the story of one of the women listed in the lineage of Christ - Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.  First, if you haven't already, go read each of these women's stories in the KJV Bible.  What better way could you kick off Women's History Month than to read about the amazing women in the Bible?  They are a few of several examples for us, for good and bad, after all.  Then, when you are finished, go buy, borrow, etc. these books.  If I remember correctly, they are written from a 1st person perspective, giving you an idea of what it may have been like to have been each of these women - what they might have been thinking, feeling, circumstances, etc.  These are things we should think about each time we read the Bible, but we rarely do.  Put yourself in their shoes.  What would your thoughts have been?  The Bible isn't outdated.  We are just like each of them.  What a wonderful blessing to be able to learn from them.

It's a new day, it's a new dawn

I started reading My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers on Jan. 1st of this year. Each day has a short, one-page devotional with an excerpt from scripture included. A friend gave me this book several years ago, and I have read several passages from it, but I have never read it all the way through, each day for a whole year. I hope to shares passages as they inspire me, encourage me, convict me...as they teach me. The very first one of these was on Jan. 4th:

"When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you..."

This devotion spoke specifically to waiting on God. Do not try to rush God or act before He would have you to act. If you are uncertain, wait. God may be trying to teach you something. Mr. Chambers gave the example of Peter in the Bible. Peter said he was ready to give his life for Christ, and Christ told him he would deny him three times that night - because God knew Peter better than Peter knew himself. Peter needed to be converted first.

I have been thinking over these words, and particulary the phrase "blank space", for several days now. (I guess 14 days to be exact!) When it seems like you have been sitting on the bench game after game (can I use a sports analogy as a female?), it's reassuring to read that God knows exactly where you are and who you are, and try to learn in the blank space.

Conversations with Pooh

They had come to a stream which twisted and tumbled between high rocky banks, and Christopher Robin saw at once how dangerous it was.

"It's just the place," he explained, "for an Ambush."

"What sort of bush?" whispered Pooh to Piglet. "A gorse-bush?"

"My dear Pooh," said Owl in his superior way, "don't you know what an Ambush is?"

"Owl," said Piglet, looking round at him severly, "Pooh's whisper was a perfectly private whisper, and there was no need--"

"An Ambush," said Owl, "is a sort of Surprise,"

"So is a gorse-bush sometimes," said Pooh.

"An Ambush, as I was about to explain to Pooh," said Piglet, "is a sort of Surprise."

"If people jump out at you suddenly, that's an Ambush," said Owl.

"It's an Ambush, Pooh, when people jump at you suddenly," explained Piglet.

Pooh, who now knew what an Ambush was, said that a gorse-bush had sprung at him suddenly one day when he fell off a tree, and he had taken six days to get all the prickles out of himself.

"We are not talking about gorse-bushes," said Owl a little crossly.

"I am," said Pooh.


Taken from A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, "Expotition to the North Pole".

Book Review

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Several years ago, a dear friend of mine recommended a set of five books to me and graciously loaned them to me to read. It was called The Lineage of Grace Series and was written by Francine Rivers. Each book told the story of a different woman within Christ's genealogy. These five women are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheeba, and Mary. I was instantly hooked. She had taken characters and stories from the Bible, and written a work of "fiction", which gave me the opportunity to discover what these people had possibly felt, experienced, etc. It's easy to forget that these people were real, or that they had emotions, and all the circumstances surrounding their particular situation. She had taken these real people, and put them in perspective, if you will. It gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation for these women, and Mrs. Rivers instantly became a favorite author of mine.

This past spring, I finally got around to reading The Scarlet Thread, which I devoured in about a week. And, over vacation, I read Redeeming Love in about three days. (Seriously, I must warn you. You cannot put these books down. They pull you in and you will find yourself staying up til the wee hours of the morning to finish one more chapter. Okay, consider yourself warned.)

My sister had previously read Redeeming Love as had several college friends. Many said, "It will change your life." Now, I can't say it "changed my life", but I did thoroughly enjoy it, and it paints a BEAUTIFUL picture of God's amazing grace and the work He does in His children's lives. It is a powerful retelling of the story of Hosea from the Bible, set in the 1800s, I believe. If you are unfamiliar with the Book of Hosea, I'll give you a short summary. Hosea is a prophet who was instructed to marry a prostitute. God talks to Hosea about what he goes through each time the children of Israel rebel against him. If you think of it this way, we are the bridegroom of Christ, and we continually turn our back on him to run to our other idols and things of this world. To put it plainly, we go whoring after the world, when we have been redeemed completely from it. Yet, he continues to love us, and always will love us. He wants us to find complete fulfillment in Him, and not in anything else. God talks to Hosea about how Israel has valued the things of this world and runs to those things, when he is offering something so much better. In Redeeming Love we get to know Angel, who has been mistreated since she was young, and sold into prostitution at a young age. We travel West with her, where Michael Hosea meets her, and takes her from the brothel to come and be his wife. And from there, well, you'll have to read it!

When you finish it, you will continue to think about it for some time. It's just one of those books. I highly recommend it, along with any of Francine Rivers' other books. Next on my list... And the Shofar Blew.

Emily Dickinson Quotes

I love poetry. Absolutly love it. It stirs my soul in a way that I almost don't understand myself. It can make me feel about ten different things at once. This year I want to read and write more poetry...simply because I enjoy it so much.


A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

Anger as soon as fed is dead - 'Tis starving makes it fat.

Beauty is not caused. It is.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.

There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.

~Emily Dickinson

Books, books, and books!

On the first Saturday of the month I went to the Friends of the Library Bookstore. On the first Saturday of each month, one can "stuff a sack" for $8.00. As many books as you can fit in the large brown paper bag. I managed 17, plus a few for Mr. Rogers that he couldn't fit in his own sack. I got the following:

-Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette (1958)
-The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
-Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
-Decline and Fall by Gibbon
-Third Girl by Agatha Christie
-And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
-Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
-What Maisie Knew by Henry James
-All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque
-Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Farago
-Hitler's Guard by Weingartner
-Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
-Outland by Foster
-Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
-The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
-A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe
-Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy

I plan on beginning And Then There Were None this Friday! I have wanted to read it for a long time!