le mélange

Occasionally I clean out my bookmarks and post random links and thoughts. This series is “le mélange”, a mixture of all manner of things.

~ We thought Caroline had healed up from her bout with a bad sore throat last week, but it looks like she’s now down with the flu — fever, aches, general misery.

~ I’m reading two books for school that annoy me — one of which I’ve wanted to hurl across the room:

I’ll let you know which book I’m feeling violent towards after I finish it, and I’ll give more details about just what’s bothering me.

~ So far I’ve read over 500 chapters of Scripture as I work through the 3650 Challenge. I can’t adequately express how much this is changing me and stirring me up to read more and more. Just about every day I’m amazed at the connections between 10 different passages of Scripture (Why I’m amazed I have no idea — of course there will be connections since it’s all breathed from the same Author!). It’s not to late to take part in the Challenge; there’s no fixed starting date for this project. Interested in joining me?

~ In light of our current political season, here’s a thought-provoking article (Well, it won’t provoke thought in everyone.): 15 Questions the Mainstream Media Would Ask Barack Obama If He Were a Republican. (Hat tip: DJP) Here’s a peek at #1:

1) Numerous Mexican citizens and an American citizen have been murdered with weapons knowingly provided to criminals by our own government during Operation Fast and Furious. If Eric Holder was aware that was going on, do you think he should step down as Attorney General? Were you aware of Fast and Furious and if so, shouldn’t you resign?

Maybe I’m cynical, but I suspect the folks who roll their eyes at and dismiss posts like this one know precious little about Fast and Furious.

~ I’ve been reading through several booklets by Lou Priolo. So far I’ve read Fear: Breaking Its Grip, Selfishness: From Loving Yourself to Loving Your Neighbor, and Bitterness: The Root That Pollutes. I recommend them all, but the Bitterness booklet is especially instructive for its explanation of biblical forgiveness. Even if you don’t think you are bitter, it would be a good resource for instructing others, particularly children. Here’s one of the lines I underlined:

Forgiveness is not a feeling; forgiveness is a promise.

~ I’m trying to find some new chicken recipes, and this week I tried this very simple recipe for Lemon Garlic Chicken. I threw some breasts in the mix, as well, but left out about half the garlic called for. It was really tasty, and the juices were soooo good spooned over rice.

~ I think this might be why my blood pressure is so low.

~ Oh, Downton Abbey, how I’ll miss you! It’s so unfair that we have to wait months for Season 3. “I know it’s not ladylike to say so, but I’m not a lady and I don’t pretend to be.” Which character uttered that line?

~ Speaking of Downton Abbey, here are some quotes from Lady Grantham, Dowager Countess, a character who has really grown on me.

~ I liked Kevin DeYoung’s post on why he prefers “real” books over electronic ones. Oh, I do enjoy my Kindle, especially for traveling. But I find that I like to read only certain books that way. For books I suspect will change me in some way or that I’ll want to refer to again and again, there’s no substitute for a paper copy that can be held in my hands, marked up, given a place on my shelves. DeYoung says it well:

Old books are like old friends. They love to be revisited. They stick around to give advice. They remind you of days gone by. Books, like friends, hang around.

And they prefer not to be invisible.

I can’t tell you how many often I sit at my desk, push back my seat, and allow my eyes to drift around the room full of bookshelves. I’m not procrastinating, not exactly. I’m scanning the room to see my friends. Their covers jog my memories. They remind me of what I learned once. More than that, they remind me of my life–where I was when I first read Lloyd-Jones on the couch, how I knelt by the bed with tears when I read Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, how my life was so different 15 years ago when I read my dad’s copy of the Institutes as a college student. If all my books disappeared on to a microchip I might have less to lug around and I might be able to search my notes more easily, but I’d lose memory; I’d lose history; I’d lose a little bit of myself.

~ Along that line, George Grant lists some good reading habits.

~ Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what I just linked to above about ebooks, but here’s a great deal: free ebooks on prayer from Andrew Case! I’m working through his Prayers of an Excellent Wife now on my Kindle, and I highly recommend that one. The prayers are based on Scripture.

~ Caroline and I are reading Rushdoony and North this year as we study biblical law. (Don’t get worried that we’re becoming disciples of those two.) They’ve given us much food for thought as we grapple with what the Bible teaches and how our society lives today, even as we disagree with them on some points and their tone. We’ve seen the wisdom of the Bible in the way it deals with criminal law and punishment, and we’ve looked at the way the U.S. government, along with most of the West, fails to live up to it. The State is big, and the victim is small, to paraphrase Dennis Prager. Speaking of Dennis Prager, he gave us something to think about in his recent column If You’re Ever Murdered… He proposes that those who are opposed to or in favor of the death penalty be allowed to make their views known in the way we can commit to (or not) donating our organs at our death. Here’s what he says:

In order to make this as clear as possible, here is my proposal: Americans should be able to declare what they want the state to do on their behalf if they are murdered. Those who wish the state to keep their murderer alive for all his natural years should wear, let us say, a green bracelet and/or place a green dot on their driver’s license or license plate. And those who want their convicted murderer put to death can wear a red bracelet and/or have a red dot on their license. Just as I have a pink “donor” circle on my driver’s license signifying that, in case I die, I wish to provide my organs to help keep some other person alive, so I wish to make it known that if I am murdered, I do not want my murderer kept alive a day longer than legally necessary.

As he explains, in our society, offense are considered to be against the State and not the victim. His proposal would give back, rightly in my opinion, some rights, input, and, indeed, power, to the victim. What do you think? If you’re against the death penalty, how would you argue against his proposal?

~ Yikes! Over the past two years, the cost of living in Belgium has risen 31%.

~ Here are some words that have made me think this week:

A Lenten Meditation for Meat Lovers

Charitable Judgments: An Antidote to Judging Others

Damn All False Antitheses to Hell

A.I.M.S — A New Acronym for Living My Life

I’m off now to nurse my pitiful patient.

~ Au revoir,

“…therefore sit down at this fire, and be warmed…”

 On believing God’s promises from Heaven on Earth by Thomas Brooks:

In your looking upon the promises, mind most, eye most, spiritual promises, absolute promises, such as Jeremiah 32:40-41, Ezekiel 11: 19-20, Ezekiel 36:25-27, Isaiah 42:1, Ezekiel 20:41-43, Psalm 91:15, Isaiah 65:24, Jeremiah 33:3, Isaiah 32:15, Ezekiel 34:30-31, with many others of the like import. These spiritual and absolute promises are of nearest and greatest concernment to you; these carry in them most of the heart of Christ, the love of Christ, the good-will of Christ; these are of greatest use to satisfy you, and to settle you when you are wavering; to support you when you are falling; to recall you when you are wandering; to comfort you when you are fainting; and to counsel you when you are staggering. Therefore make these your choicest and your chiefest companions, especially when it is night within your souls, when you are sensible of much sin and but a little grace, of much corruption but of little consolation, of much deadness but of little quickness, of much hardness but of little tenderness, of many fears but a little faith. The Jews under the law had more temporal promises than spiritual, but we under the gospel have far more spiritual promises than temporal; therefore sit down at this fire, and be warmed; drink of these springs, and be satisfied; taste of these delicacies, and be cheered. Let the eye of faith be cast upon all the promises, but fixed upon spiritual promises, upon absolute promises; they will have the greatest influence upon the heart to holiness, and to prepare it for everlasting happiness.

Here are those promises Brooks directs us to:

Jeremiah 32:40-41

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

Ezekiel 11:19-20

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Isaiah 42:1

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Ezekiel 20:41-43

As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed.

Psalm 91:15

When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.

Isaiah 65:24

Before they call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.

Jeremiah 33:3

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Isaiah 32:15

until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

Ezekiel 34:30-31

And they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.”

le mélange

Occasionally I clean out my bookmarks and post random links and thoughts. This series is “le mélange”, a mixture of all manner of things.

~ It’s been a week to catch up after being away so long: catching up on time with my husband, laundry, cleaning, ironing, grocery shopping, cooking, school work, reading, and sleep. I’ve also committed to exercising six days a week again, and my sister and I are accountability partners for that.

~ Caroline has almost entirely lost her voice and has camped out on the living room sofa during the days this week to do her schoolwork while lying down, huddled under a blanket.

~ I’ve written before about what an important book I think Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions is. Justin Taylor recently wrote about it, too.

~ This one’s for Caroline, who has struggled with unwanted looks and comments from men on buses here in Brussels and in Rome.  There’s some good advice here. I’ve mastered the “look serious” strategy  (“an aura of business announces very clearly that you are off limits”)  for avoiding trouble. It’s that “ten-thousand yard” stare that I noticed the women in Rome using to keep from being bothered.

~ Here’s a fascinating read from a man who has found himself ostracized and blacklisted for getting off the politically message about Islam. Here’s a peek:

Things got even stranger from there. Robert Spencer himself wrote me an email and we had a rather interesting dialogue. It became apparent almost immediately that there was nothing about this man that was even remotely hateful. So when Robert Spencer asked if I minded if he reprint my email in response to his on Jihad Watch, I said “sure, why not?” Once that surfaced, the friend count on my Facebook fan page dropped suddenly. Friends and acquaintances told me I had become a hatemonger, a fear monger and an Islamophobe. I pointed out that an Islamophobe is someone with an irrational fear of Islam but there was no reasoning with anyone so deeply indoctrinated into the tyranny of political correctness.

~ Ed Driscoll shares a bit of insight from, among others, Peter Hitchens on celebrity and pop culture. It’s worth a look.

~ I’ve long loved this John Newton hymn, and its words are truer to me now than ever.

~ My Fernando Ortega playlist has been the soundtrack of my days this week.

Here’s a list of some posts that have given me plenty to think about:

Nine Good Purposes in Our Suffering

Psalm 103: Learning How to Talk (to Yourself)

A Passing Thought on Receiving Criticism

Sacred, “Silly” Moments of Marriage

~ I’m hoping to see The Iron Lady tonight. I have a feeling I’m going to come home with the urge to read this Claire Berlinski book I got for Christmas sooner rather than later.

~ The jet lag is still kicking my fanny, so I’m signing off for a little nap on this gray wintry day.

Bon weekend,

“February is just plain malicious.”

From Katherine Paterson’s Jacob Have I Loved:

I used to try to decide which was the worst month of the year. In the winter I would choose February. I had it figured out that the reason God made February short a few days was because he knew that by the time people came to the end of it they would die if they had to stand one more blasted day. December and January are cold and wet, but, somehow, that’s their right. February is just plain malicious. It knows your defenses are down. Christmas is over and spring seems years away. So February sneaks in a couple of beautiful days early on, and just when you’re stretching out like a cat waking up, bang! February hits you right in the stomach. And not with a lightning strike like a September hurricane, but punch after punch after punch. February is a mean bully. Nothing could be worse–except August.

“…just as though it were an ordinary day.”

Now in my tenth year of homeschooling, I’m still glad for the opportunity to read books I’ve missed along the way. I received an excellent education (Thanks, Mom & Dad!), but, still, there have been and remain holes to be filled. Truthfully, I hope my children feel the same way when they’re my age — both about having had a good education and wanting to fill in the gaps.

Somehow I’ve lived over 43 years without ever having read or seen the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. (If I did read it in high school, I’ve completely forgotten it, along with why I ever thought blue eye shadow was a good idea. And if my teachers are reading this, I’m so sorry about that — the eye shadow, too,) That oversight has now been corrected because Caroline will be reading the play as part of her American literature curriculum. I finished it today, and I now I really want to see it performed. Am I the last to read it? If, like me, you’ve missed it, here are a few morsels to encourage you to read it:

Oh, I’m sorry I mentioned it. Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don’t talk in English and don’t even want to.

Well, I dunno….I guess we’re all hunting like everybody else for a way the diligent and sensible can rise to the top and the lazy and quarrelsome can sink to the bottom. But it ain’t easy to find. Meanwhile, we do all we can to help those that can’t help themselves and those that can we leave alone.

And there’s Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb come down to make breakfast, just as though it were an ordinary day. I don’t have to point out to the women in my audience that those ladies they see before them, both of those ladies cooked three meals a day — one of ‘em for twenty years, the other for forty — and no summer vacation. They brought up two children apiece, washed, cleaned the house, — and never a nervous breakdown.

It’s like what one of those Middle West poets said: You’ve got to love life to have life, and you’ve got to have life to love life…. It’s what they call a vicious circle.

Now there are some things we all know, but we don’t take’m out and look at’m very often. We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars…everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.

There’s more I’d like to share from Act III, but I don’t want to spoil anything if you haven’t read it. It’s short, and you could read it in an afternoon. This play full of common graces has me thinking. I love it when that happens.

grace

From Holiness Day by Day: Transformational Thoughts for Your Spiritual Journey by Jerry Bridges:

Your worst days are never so bad that you’re beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you’re beyond the need of God’s grace.

And from my reading in 2 Corinthians this morning as part of the 3650 Challenge:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

le mélange

Occasionally I clean out my bookmarks and post random links and thoughts. This series is “le mélange”, a mixture of all manner of things.

~ I’ve been in the U.S. for the past few weeks to visit family and for Caroline to attend Scholarship Weekend at Covenant College. I was due to fly back to Brussels last week, but I was diagnosed with shingles of the eye and advised not to fly as scheduled. That gave me more time to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather in South Georgia. The azaleas are so confused and are already blooming. That made it really hard to return to this:

We’re experiencing the longest cold wave in Belgium since 1941. I’m really glad I escaped most of it.

~ On Friday Caroline was informed that she didn’t get the scholarship she’d applied for and that we’d been praying for. Instead, she was awarded even more than that amount — much more than we’d dared to hope or pray for! We were stunned, and as I reflect on it and give thanks, I’m proud of her and her achievement and utterly amazed by God’s lavishness.

~ Even though we’d already seen it, we watched Midnight in Paris again last month, looking for places we recognized from our recent trip. We were surprised when we saw the steps where Gill waited each night — they were right around the corner from our hotel! Here’s an interesting article about the characters in the movie.

~ I’m a little over 40 days into the 3650 Challenge, and so far it’s my favorite way to read through the Bible.  I like the variety of reading in 10 different places each day, and it doesn’t take as long as I thought it would. Anyone want to join me? You can start on any day, so you’re not behind! Here’s more info and a link to the Facebook group.

~ I read as usual in December, but didn’t finish a single book. But suddenly after the New Year began, I finished several books I’d been working on for weeks. I received quite a few books for Christmas, and I feel overwhelmed by the books I want and need to read. You know the saying: so many books, so little time.

~ Seriously, do they have nothing better to do?

Lawmakers in the nation’s capital have floated a plan to require high school students to apply to college or trade school — even if the students have no interest in attending.
The proposal is a bid to ensure students in the troubled Washington, D.C., school system at least have the know-how to navigate the admissions process.

~ It sure seems like there’s a chocolate shop every few yards here in Brussels. This blogger has gone to the “trouble” (checking out chocolate shops can’t be work, can it?) of mapping those in and around Grand Place.

~ I’m already feeling behind again in learning French, so I’m always on the lookout for tips and encouragement.  Here’s a good post at Visual Latin on becoming fluent in a foreign language. And Lifehacker suggests watching movies in the language you’re trying to learn.

~ I found a couple of recipes in my hometown newspaper that I just had to share. You know you want to try these:

What’s really funny is that shortly after posting these recipes on my Facebook page, my dad trapped a ‘possum that has been lurking in their yard. No, we didn’t run out to the store for sweet potatoes; he released it into some woods away from their house. But I had to wonder at the timing. Doesn’t he just make your mouth water?

~ I’m really jet-lagged; my days and nights are completely turned around. So without commentary, I’m going to close with a list of some things ’round the web that I’ve been thinking about:

Masking Anger as Justice

8 Profitable Ways to Read the Bible

Moving Towards People

Do Not Be Surprised at Trials and Afflictions

Peace Be Still: Learning Psalm 131 By Heart (Thanks to Tara for linking to this.)

Don’t Give Up

Au revoir,

“We have too many distorted lenses.”

From The World-Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips:

We are not born thinking in terms of God’s truth. We do not come out of the chute (as it were) with a God-honoring worldview. It does not naturally bubble up from within a God-hating sinner. What does bubble up is the compulsion to suppress the truth of God we see in nature and elsewhere (Rom. l:18ff.), to resist the law of God (Rom. 8:7), and to create a worldview that serves our own twisted interests (Prov. 12:15; 14:12; 16:2, 25; Jer. 17:9). So we need to hear what we do not know and could not figure out. We need to hear the Word of God. The truth will not unearth itself from the tomb of our deceitful, blind, darkened, self-serving hearts. We have too many distorted lenses. The truth has to shine down on us from heaven. This is precisely what has happened. God took the initiative. He was the first speaker (Gen. 1:3).

And that’s why we need to be saturating ourselves with God’s Word.

3650

I’m trying a new Bible-reading plan this year, and I confess that I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying it. Following Professor Grant Horner’s 3650 plan (via Challies’ challenge), I read 310 chapters of Scripture in January (10 chapters a day). The readings are in ten different places so there’s no getting bogged down in Numbers or Leviticus. I can usually finish each day’s reading in about half an hour, which is very doable for me. Almost every day I’ve done it first thing in the morning, but this week I’ve read it mostly at bedtime. I love that the readings aren’t tied to a date. You can start any day of the year, and if you miss a day, just resume your reading. You can’t get behind schedule.

Don’t take just my word for it. Here is Bob Kauflin on why he reads the Bible in ten places.

I’m encountering God in his Word more often.

You might think that reading so much of the Bible at one time doesn’t allow time for reflection and engaging with God. That hasn’t been my experience. It usually takes me between 30-45 minutes to read 14 [He's doubling up on some of the readings.] chapters. I read at a normal pace, but still have time to meditate on, cross-reference, or memorize a passage. And frequently I’m aware of God’s Spirit speaking to me, working on my heart, molding my will to his own.

Obviously, Prof. Horner’s plan isn’t for everyone. Meditating on smaller portions of Scripture has great value as well. But if you’ve been wanting to experience more of God in his Word and to grow in your knowledge of Scripture as a whole, I’d encourage you to try it for a month.

I agree.

God has been showing me the importance of saturating myself in His Word lately, and reading in this way is really helpful to that end. I’ve joined Challies’ 3650 Challenge Facebook group, and I printed out these bookmarks to keep my place. Here are more resources if you’re interested in starting the plan.

As I’m reading, I’m looking for what John Piper calls “specific, tailor-made, blood-bought” promises to use to fight temptations to anxiety, worry, and fear.

So all of this is to encourage you to read your Bible, and if this 3650 plan inspires you, great! I’ll leave you with another quote from John Piper:

Don’t rest on past reading. Read your Bible more and more every year. Read it whether you feel like reading it or not. And pray without ceasing that the joy return and pleasures increase.

Grateful,

What I’m Reading in 2012

Once again, I’m keeping a list of books I’ve completed this year. And I really like to see what you’re reading, as well. Please leave a comment here and let me know if you keep a book list or have any recommendations. Here’s what I’m reading this year, with books posted in the month in which I finish them.

JANUARY

~ The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
~ Never Before in History: America’s Inspired Birth – Gary Amos & Richard Gardiner
~ Money, Possessions, and Eternity – Randy Alcorn
~ Moby-Dick or, The Whale – Herman Melville
~ Too Late the Phalarope – Alan Paton
~ This Momentary Marriage – John Piper
~ Fear: Breaking Its Grip – Lou Priolo
~ Strangers and Sojourners – Michael D. O’Brien

FEBRUARY

~ Our Town: A Play in Three Acts – Thornton Wilder
~ Selfishness: From Loving Yourself to Loving Your Neighbor – Lou Priolo
~ Jacob Have I Loved – Katherine Paterson