Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Book Review

I have joined Book Sneeze a site which sends you free books to review in exchange for a book review posted on your blog and consumer website. The following book was a complimentary copy from Thomas Nelson to read and review.

Essentials for Life: Your Back-to-Basics Guide to What Matters Most by Marcia Ford

The first and biggest disappointment of this book was the heavy use of many different “versions of the Bible.” Of the seven different versions, hardly any, if even one, were KJV. Throughout the whole book these slaughtered translations were so different it was hard to tell if it was just a quote or something supposed to be from the Bible without looking at the reference.

Other than that, at first the book seemed too basic. For someone used to deep reading, the book can appear shallow. Further progressing in the book it became a bit more interesting. It gave some good simple reminders of basic principles. There are fifty short topics in the book and some are more interesting than others. Overall it would not make it on my list of great books to read, but if it happened to fall into your hands, something can be gleaned from it.

The book is laid out with side note of interests, “scripture verses,” and quotes. I generally greatly like quotes though the ones in this book were not amongst the best. There were a couple of gems worth finding though.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

If We Knew

If we knew the woe and heartache
Waiting for us down the road,
If our lips could taste the wormwood,
If our backs could feel the load,
Would we waste the day in wishing
For a time that ne’er can be?
Would we wait in such impatience
For our ships to come from sea?


If we knew the baby fingers
Pressed against the windowpane
Would be cold and stiff tomorrow-
Never trouble us again-
Would the bright eyes of our darling
Catch the frown upon our brow?
Would the print of rosy fingers
Vex us then as they do now?


Ah! These little ice-cold fingers-
How they point our memories back
To the hasty words and actions
Strewn along our backwards track!
How these little hands remind us,
As in snowy grace they lie,
Not to scatter thorns-but roses-
For our reaping by and by.


Strange we never prize the music
Till the sweet-voiced bird has flown;
Strange that we should slight the violets
Till the lovely flowers are gone;
Strange that summer skies and sunshine
Never seem one half so fair
As when winter’s snowy pinions
Shake their white down in the air!


Lips from which the seal of silence
None but God can roll away,
Never blossomed in such beauty
As adorns the mouth today;
And sweet words that freight our memory
With their beautiful perfume,
Come to us in sweeter accents
Through the portals of the tomb.


Let us gather up the sunbeams
Lying all around our path;
Let us keep the wheat and roses,
Casting out the thorns and chaff;
Let us find our sweetest comfort
In the blessings of today,
With a patient hand removing
All the briars from the way.

- May Riley Smith

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Rest, in Meekness

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”--Matthew 11:28-30.


“. . . If I actively labor for Christ I can only find rest in the labor by possessing the meek spirit of my Lord; for if I go forth to labor for Christ without a meek spirit, I shall very soon find that there is no rest in it, for the yoke will gall my shoulder. Somebody will begin objecting that I do not perform my work according to his liking. If I am not meek I shall find my proud spirit rising at once, and shall be for defending myself; I shall be irritated, or I shall be discouraged and inclined to do no more, because I am not appreciated as I should be. A meek spirit is not apt to be angry, and does not soon take offence, therefore if others find fault, the meek spirit goes working on, and is not offended; it will not hear the sharp word, nor reply to the severe criticism. If the meek spirit be grieved by some cutting censure and suffers for a moment, it is always ready to forgive and blot out the past, and go on again. The meek spirit in working only seeks to do good to others; it denies itself; it never expected to be well treated; it did not aim at being honored; it never sought itself, but purposed only to do good to others. The meek spirit bowed its shoulder to the yoke, and expected to have to continue bowing in order to keep the yoke in the right place for labor. It did not look to be exalted by yoke-bearing; it is fully contented if it can exalt Christ and do good to his chosen ones. . . .Your labor will become very easy if your spirits are very meek. It is the proud spirit that gets tired of doing good if it finds its labors not appreciated; but the brave, meek spirit, finds the yoke to be easy. . .”

Rest, Rest by C. H. Spurgeon

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A Psalm of Life

*
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
*
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”
Was not spoken of the soul.
*
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way,
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

*
Art is long, and Time is fleeting;
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
*
In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle;
Be a hero in the strife!
*
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant;
Let the dead Past bury its dead;
Act, act in the living Present,
Heart within and God o’erhead!
*
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
*
Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
*
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

*
- H. W. Longfellow

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sausage Swirls


I found this recipe from the Tomato Soup Cake blog. It is fun and easy to make and best of all, freezes well. I like to freeze the whole roll slightly, then cut them into slices and tray freeze. That way, I can take out just the number needed on any given morning when there is not much time for cooking. The key to this being good, is good sausage. Make it with sausage that is not good and they will be awful; make it with sausage that is good, and they will be good. . . Don’t ask me how I know.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Hymn of Trust

*
O Love Divine, that stooped to share
Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,
On Thee we cast each earth-born care,
We smile at pain while Thou art near.
*
Though long the weary way we tread
And sorrow crown each lingering year,
No path we shun, no darkness dread,
Our hearts still whispering Thou art near.
*
When drooping pleasure turns to grief
And trembling faith is changed to fear,
The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf
Shall softly tell us Thou art near.
*
On Thee we fling our burdening woe,
O Love Divine, forever dear,
Content to suffer while we know,
Living and dying, Thou art near.
*
- Oliver W. Holmes

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Job 13:15a