Won't It Be Worth Everything?

"My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I row east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not yet reached Aslan's Country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise...”
~ Reepicheep (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)

Is there a more poignant picture of, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ"? (Philippians 3:8)

Thanking God tonight for His all-surpassing worth and glory; for the genius he gave to C.S. Lewis; and for Reepicheep, most valiant of the talking beasts in Narnia.

Fab Deal!

On some top-notch books! J.C. Ryle's commentaries have helped me to see Jesus and the Cross ever more vividly throughout the Gospels. I love these books.

If you're an iPad (etc.) user, check this out: Monergism Books ... $9.95 special on Expository Thoughts on the Gospels.

Fellow Prisoners

Check out Voice of the Martyrs' website for a two-week prayer guide leading up to the IDOP for the Persecuted Churchon November 14.

Forgiveness

"Let us determine by God's grace to forgive, even as we hope to be forgiven. This is the nearest approach we can make to the mind of Christ Jesus. This is the character which is most suitable to a poor sinful child of Adam. God's free forgiveness of sins is our highest privilege in this world. God's free forgiveness will be our only title to eternal life in the world to come. Then let us be forgiving during the few years that we are here upon earth."

~J.C. Ryle

For Germophiles

Wonderful little site here:

Adopt a Microbe

Well, I suppose it's only wonderful if you've been trying to figure out ways to teach microbiology. Still, it's a fun way to memorize diseases, should you ever be inclined.

Another

"Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another's life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity."

~Horatius Bonar

Of Cancer and Nations

Here's a good bit by Doug Wilson on the oft-used concept of "taking America back." May we focus on sharing the glorious truth of "so great a salvation"--a truth which will produce repentance, holiness, changed lives, AND a changed country.

A (Bright) Lighthouse

"Settle it down in your mind that you will aim at the highest degree of holiness, and spiritual-mindedness, and consecration to God—that you will not be content with any low degree of sanctification. Resolve that, by the grace of God, you will make Christianity beautiful in the eyes of the world. Remember that the children of the world have but few patterns of true religion before them. Oh, that every true Christian would recollect that he is set as a lighthouse in the midst of a dark world, and would labor so to live that every part of him may reflect light, and no side be dim!"

--J.C. Ryle

Rejoicing Again Tonight

"Not because of who I am,
But because of what You've done.

Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are!"

--"Who Am I?" Casting Crowns

They Really Do Write the Best Books...

Well, or at least they write a lot of them...

"Melanin-challenged men who are no longer with us."

--Tongue-in-Cheek "Label" from The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature

The First Year!

I've been meaning to post this for months now. Here's the slideshow I put together for The Center for Pregnancy Choices' annual "birthday party." It's all about the adventure of starting a pregnancy center. Enjoy!

Grace Changes Everything

Beautiful grace! It frees us to share the Gospel like this:

1. We are compelled to share the gospel out of love.


2. We are freed from the fear of being ridiculed or hurt by others, since we already have the favor of God's grace.


3. There is humility in our dealings with others, because we know we are saved only by grace, not by our superior insight or character.


4. We are hopeful about anyone, even the "hard cases," because we are saved only by grace ourselves.


5. We are courteous and careful with people. We don't have to push or coerce them, for it is God's grace that opens hearts, not our eloquence or persistance or even their openeness.

(HT: Justin Taylor, Between Two Worlds)

Bones and Happiness

So this is me right now (contemplating my calcaneus apparently).

Yes, I took the "summer school" plunge and am now spending my days with microbes and bones. Well, at least some of them are fairly solid friends. Actually, classes are going well and I feel very blessed.

It's been a true privilege in this last year to be able to go back to school and be immersed in the intricacies of the human body. Truly, we are "fearfully and wonderfully made," and the more I learn, the more I praise God for His care and genius in creating us. From the molecular level on up, the design of this organism called "us" has astonished me again and again. I've sat there in complete awe while studying nerve action potentials, for example. Okay, so maybe I'm getting scarily geeky, but it thrilled me! All these molecules going here and going there, and depolarizing this and opening that ion channel and releasing this neurotransmitter....and it's all going on every second, all over the body! Wow.

Many of you know how I was dragging my feet about this summer semester. Let's just say that I was not "rejoicing always." But God's been so faithful!

I was concerned about being able to handle both microbiology and anatomy in a short semester, and then both classes turned out to have great professors. Anatomy especially is a riot! I didn't think that it was possible to lecture "interestingly" in a subject that you largely just have to memorize, but it's been fun. And microbiology has been easy ('nough said!). Oh, and cadavers are still to come! Yippee! Truly, I've been looking forward to cadaver lab since I started. :) (Just call me a weird nursing student.)

I was dreading all the time spent driving to Brigham City, but it's been a fabulous time of listening to books on CD, singing my heart out, soaking in the beauty of the daily-changing canyon, and....um, yeah, memorizing those bones.

I was also worried about becoming an absentee from the family and useless at the pregnancy center because of all the studying. Well, I know I'm less "there," but it's been better than I expected (probably people are just giving me lots of grace!). But still I'm thankful. I'd appreciate prayer for this area though---balance, always a bit of a tight-rope for me. :)

So bones and happiness? Well, I AM finding lots of happiness this summer! There really is a particular "species" of true delight in bones and microbes and action potentials. Also I have been finding, yet again, that the love and mercy of the Lord doesn't fail. Ever. At the height of my summer-school, pity-thyself grumpiness I read in Deuteronomy:

"The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you..." (7:6-7)

The Lord loves me because His nature and being is love, not because I'm at all lovable in and of myself. I had been very unthankful and unlovable about school and other things. But, man, really how can my soul be downcast? I have a Savior who is mighty and gracious and worthy of praise! And I get to spend some weeks immersed in fascinating subjects. So this summer... praising God for His character and for the bones He has made!

Verk, verk, verk!

So the pregnancy center needed a bit of spring sprucing up outside. And a bunch of hard-working teens came to the rescue! From raking the yard to shoveling muck (always a favorite, that one), from thoroughly stuffing the dumpster to some lovely new landscaping by our north entrance--a lot got accomplished in 3 hours! Thanks everyone. It looks wonderful! Here's the link to my facebook album documenting all that toil (with a bit of pizza thrown in for good measure):

"Verk, verk, verk!"

He's a Wonderful Savior!

Most Noise

And they began laughing at Jesus, knowing that she had died. He, however, took her by the hand and called, saying, "Child arise!" And her spirit returned, and she got up immediately; and He gave orders for something to be given her to eat. Her parents were amazed; but He instructed them to tell no one what had happened.

(Luke 8:53-56)

"Let us note here, as in many places, how little our Lord desired publicity. To do great works and say nothing about them -- to do work powerfully, and yet noiselessly and quietly walk -- is to walk in Christ's steps. The shallowest streams and emptiest vessels make the most noise."

--J.C. Ryle

Lord, please make me a noiseless vessel.