This reflection warns against misinterpreting Scripture to promote an “if-then” theology—doing good to get good. Citing Job, Psalms, and New Testament examples, it emphasizes that we cannot fully know God’s mind or assign specific blessings or trials to specific actions. God’s purposes are sovereign, mysterious, and beyond human judgment. We should be cautious not to claim such insight ourselves.
I recount life aboard a sailboat, enduring the elements as a metaphor for the emotional toll of living with a contentious spouse. Drawing on Proverbs and Matthew Henry’s Commentary, I urge wives to foster peace at home, emphasizing kindness, self-denial, and Christlike love as a sanctuary for their husbands.
I blogged earlier in the week that I enjoyed attending the annual Book Fair put on by a literacy organization where the public can enter the well-organized warehouse and browse for books and take up to 100 of them for free.
I found some books for the school library, friends, and some for my own shelves.
I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to live in a nice apartment that has two bedrooms. I don’t need two bedrooms- I live small. However, the second bedroom is a blessing because I’ve always wanted a personal, home library. And now I have one!
One of my hobbies is collecting books. Searching for books, reading books, and living with books are separate things. Related, but separate. As far as searching goes, I like the thrill of the hunt. I almost found a first edition of Dune. A 1st edition of that science fiction book would bring in five figures. It turned out to be a first ‘book club’ edition, which is worth significantly less, but still a thrill to find. Or when I found a first edition of CS Lewis “Till We Have Faces”, worth about $200-400.
It’s an ‘Antiques Roadhouse’ sort of thing, where you come across a book at a yard sale that has an original Dali sketch inside, or a valuable first edition, or just THE book you’ve been wanting to read.
The other pleasure with books is organizing them. I use LibraryThing as an inventory software so I know which books I have and by what author etc. Very helpful since even though I have a good memory, I can’t remember all of them. So before I add one to my library I double check. Or after I get a few books, I add them tot he inventory. If there are any duplicates, I know which ones to give away!
Once I’ve obtained a book, and once I’ve inventoried it, I enjoy organizing the shelves. I have mine arranged by genre. Of the theological portion of my library, I have them arranged by topic and the commentaries I arranged in order of the Bible’s order.
Thus, Commentaries on Genesis start off the shelf and Revelation commentaries are at the other end. Missionary biographies are together, and the topics of heaven, grace, fearing God, prayer, and so on are also all together. I have one bookcase dedicated to the commentaries by MacArthur and his authored books that GTY has sent me or that I’ve purchased, and another bookcase with a shelf dedicated to Sproul. One large section next to the Sproul shelf is my Puritans section.
So it’s enjoyable to place a recently obtained book where it should go, and to then sit in the library and be among all my books and look at them, which by now are like friends.
It has taken me 35 years to accumulate them. I was always a reader and enjoyed library book sales and yard sales and finding books even before I was saved. When I moved from Maine to Georgia, though, I halved my personal library, after calculating the weight and the cost of hiring the mover to haul them 1500 miles.
When I moved within Georgia from one apartment to another, I halved them again, for the same reason, and because I was moving from a 800 sf apartment to a 400 square foot apartment. By then I was saved and I had started looking for theological books, anyway. I didn’t mind abandoning the books I left behind because many were not acceptable reading for a Christian. Dream interpretation/New Age books, spiritual but not doctrinal books, romances, and the like…all went bye bye.
EPrata photo
This was a blessing because not only were my shelves cleaned and purified but now I had room to accumulate books about missionaries, commentaries, doctrinal books and so on. And for the last 21 years I have been doing just that.
With this last batch I’ve accumulated, inventoried, and placed lovingly on my shelves, I realized now my shelves are full! I realized I literally have no more room to put one more book. This is both a sadness and a joy.
I never really collected anything other than books. I like function, and books are functional. Early in my life, like when I was 10, 11 years old I began collecting glass figurines. In the Mall (when there were malls) there used to be glassblowers selling their wares at kiosks. I had bought a delicately glass-blown small tall ship, a ballerina, and several other figures. My brother in a fit smashed them all one day. I thought “Well, that’s that.” I decided not to collect ‘things’ as they might one day be destroyed and render the whole collecting endeavor pointless.
As an adult I don’t like collecting ‘things’ because you have to dust them, and they take up space. I prefer empty or nearly empty flat surfaces. But books are living, so to speak. They’re friends you can turn to for entertainment, for comfort, to learn from. I came from a family of readers, so it seemed like a natural fit to collect them.
I remember once in the mid 1990s when my husband and I were traveling from Maine across the southern tier of the US for a few months. We made it to Los Angeles. My cousin lived there, which seemed exotic to us New Englanders to have a family member living so far away. We got together and visited, and he took us to a taping of the Tonight show. At that time Jay Leno was the host, and old time comedian Jonathan Winters was the main guest.
We were standing in line to get the free tickets, and since this was pre-cell phone days, we each took out a book to read as we were waited, me from my purse, my husband and cousin from their back pockets. Reading was what we did at any spare moment. We always carried a book or had one nearby.
I know some people don’t mind books in piles, books laid down on top of standing books on the shelves, books everywhere. I am too structured for that and I’d decided not to have any book piles when my shelves became full. So if my shelves are full, that means no more books. I’ve winnowed down twice, and the books I have are the books I want, so I won’t be dispensing with any unless something changes in me, my apartment, or my circumstances.
I love my books and now I get to love the ones I have and there will be no more additions for the time being. There will be no more collecting. I am happy to be a reader, to live a live of books, and to own so many wonderful possibilities for picking one up and mentally journeying whenever I want.
panoramic shot of my library room
One of the bookcases in the living room. I took this a few months ago, the gaps in shelf 2 and 3 are gone now
This is the other bookcase in the living room. There is a small bookcase in the bedroom, and a very small one in thekitchen next to the fridge that holds cookbooks.
Whatever hobby you have, whatever leisure you choose, I pray it brings you enjoyment and comfort.
In this essay, I explore how earthquakes unsettle people, prompting people to seek meaning and divine answers. I reflect on humanity’s attempts to categorize nature, and to control the climate. I discuss biblical prophecies of the Tribulation, highlighting a time of uncreation when the ‘natural order’ will be anything but natural. God has ultimate authority over the Earth and its ‘natural’ order.
I spend a lot of time outside watching the birds. There is an Eastern Phoebe nest under the awning at the patio, a Carolina wren nest in the eaves, and another wren nest at the other side of the lawn in the big birdhouse.
I watched the mom of that one go back and forth constantly, bringing food to her babies. I’d hear the baby’s racket inside the birdhouse and I’d know that the mom was back with another bug. She always swooped around looking for a tasty insect and was never disappointed. She always had enough to feed her babies.
The mama would fly off, and soon return with a bug, but not fly directly to the birdhouse. She would pause in a nearby branch, presumably to ensure that no predators were nearby. Then she’d quickly light on the birdhouse. I wanted to snap a photo of this process. I soon learned I did not have to keep my eyes glued to the birdhouse because when the mom landed, the inside of the house would erupt with chirps, lol. I’d hear the racket. Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
The Lord takes care of them. They have food. Jesus was hungry often, (Mark 11:12, Mt 12:1), but God feeds the birds. Jesus had no place to lay His head but the birds have a nest.
And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20).
How He takes care of us! Not only meeting our physical needs but interceding for us in heaven and in prayer! We are so blessed to have been given the grace to repent. And being in Him, we are secure in knowledge that He will provide what He knows we need.
God clothes the grass with wildflowers
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:26-34)
The post discusses the need for rest as life seasons change, acknowledging shifting energy levels from youth to adulthood. I emphasize the importance of balancing rest with productivity, advocating for discipline in scheduling downtime. I encourage intentional rest practices, grounded in faith, to avoid burnout and maintain spiritual connection with God.
In his second letter to Timothy, Paul emphasizes the importance of remembering Christ, especially as he nears death. This act of remembering transcends mere recollection; it is a call to engage deeply with God’s promises.
“Girl, you are enough.” “Girl, you are beautiful.” “Girl, you’re a princess.” “Girl, you’re fine just the way you are.”
I suppose it was inevitable. The Jesus is my boyfriend trend naturally morphs into the “I am a beautiful princess of God and I’m enough” trend. Browse Pinterest on the ‘Christian’ side of things and you’ll see plenty of soft-filtered flowery photos with mottos declaring these kind of statements.
Now, it’s true that we are daughters of the King. Galatians 3:26, John 1:12 declare we are children of God. And taking it a step further, God is King. And further, that children of a King are Princes and Princesses. All true, as far as it goes.
But wait a minute, if we literally take the metaphor stretched that far, wouldn’t men as Princes compete with THE Prince!? Yes. That’s why you almost always only see women being called Princesses and not male Christians as Princes.
Doing so manipulates women in an area where many are emotionally weak and needy, which is sad.
I am reminded of a scene in Exodus. Moses had been dwelling in the wilderness of Midian for 40 years when God called Moses to his ordained task, leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Moses had just been instructed to remove his shoes at the Burning Bush because he was standing on holy ground. He is having a conversation with God. God told Moses he must speak to Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go.
Moses asked couple of questions which could be called legitimate. But as chapter 3 rolls into chapter 4 he crossed a line from earnest questioning to not-so-thinly disguised objections. By the time we read the conversation in chapter 4 verse 10, Moses has argued he is inadequate to the task. He is supposed to speak for God to Pharaoh but is ‘slow of speech,’ he complained.
Then Moses said to the LORD, Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. (Exodus 4:10)
In the “Girl, you’re enough, you magnificent princess” world, we would see scripture reassuring Moses that indeed he IS enough, right? We’d see God cooing over Moses, telling him, ‘Guy, don’t you know you are enough? You’re my Prince, my love, my cherished bouquet in the garden of God.”
Moses’s objections would be met with a thousand assurances six ways to Sunday of all the good things Moses is. God would assure Moses that he was…enough. Wouldn’t He?
But that didn’t happen. What happened was, God essentially said, ‘You’re NOT enough, Moses. You’re inadequate to the task. But I AM adequate. I AM enough.’
The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (Exodus 4:11).
The problem with the ‘you’re enough’ trend is that it downplays our weaknesses and dismisses God’s power to perfect us in our weakness.
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Moses wasn’t enough. And God considered Him a friend, and spoke to Moses face-to-face! (Exodus 33:11). But we are NOT enough. That is as it should be. The wider the gap in our abilities for the task, the more we praise God that He fills that gap with His strength, His power, His abilities.
If we were enough, we wouldn’t need God. If we were enough, we would be God.
I lived aboard a sailing yacht for two years and sailed up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Here is our boat.
At anchor in the Chesapeake
Upping anchor at dawn in a Georgia river
Looks peaceful, doesn’t it? Many days, it was.
But the sea can a capricious enchantress, and sometimes it kicked up wildly.
Sailing south of the FL keys. HUGE wave, photo doesn’t do it justice.
If we made an overnight offshore passage, it meant that when one of us was at the wheel, the other was resting or sleeping below. We did not have an automatic pilot (a yacht’s gizmo for cruise control). One of us just stood there in two hour shifts, hands on the wheel at all times. If the wind changed, we left the wheel and went forward to deal with changing the sails to adjust.
That was the most dangerous thing we had to do in the whole cruise. Leaving the cockpit and walking forward, at night, alone, with one of us sleeping below. You could easily get knocked overboard and the boat would sail on without you. Cries for help would be meager and immediately drowned out by the swish of the boat, the knocking of the sails and lines and anchor chain, the waves lashing against the boat, and the wind. When there is a storm the last thing the place is, is quiet. A human voice cannot compete.
My fear of falling overboard was palpable and never left me. Just thinking for a moment of the stern of the yacht sailing on and me in the cold, cold water probably to die, was a specter in front of my eyes all the time.
The way that small boat sailors dealt with that was to install jack lines. These are:
a rope or wire strung from a ship’s bow to stern to which a safety harness can be clipped, allowing a crew member to move about the deck safely when there is risk of falling or being swept overboard. At sea, falling overboard is one of the leading causes of death in boating; fastening oneself to the ship with a safety harness reduces this risk.
Many men in small yacht sailing avoid jack lines, something to do with machismo, I suppose. I’m glad my husband didn’t feel that way. He installed and actually used jack lines whenever we made an offshore passage. Insisted on it, actually.
I watched the PBS show Carrier, about sailors on a US Navy Carrier, and in one episode, a sailor fell off the ship. He was not found.
I often think about how hard it would be to spot a tiny dark head in the swishing ocean. What insignificance we would feel being a tiny bundle of flesh in the mighty and expansive sea.
God is like that ocean. Sometimes we might feel tiny and insignificant in the face of His majesty and power. He created the universe with a word, flooded the entire earth with His power, named all the billions of stars. Does He remember me, a small package of flesh yawping and lumbering about on the earth? Does He recall my name, see this forgiven sinner in the vast ocean of humanity?
Yes.
Yes, He remembers you (and me). (See Genesis 21:14-17). There is no fear that one lone person will get lost in the shuffle. He formed our soul, wrote our names in His Book since before the foundation of the world, anticipated us through His sovereign plan, formed us in the womb, and guarded us until the appointed day of salvation. Then-
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:28-30)
Moreover, his Son died for us, for each tiny bundle of flesh bouncing around in this world of sin and death and activity and humanity. Jesus died for us, each of us, the elect. We will not get lost in the shuffle. He will remember me.
The term “leaven” represents a small yet influential force, both positively in the growth of God’s kingdom and negatively as a corrupting influence. Biblical teachings warn against allowing these harmful influences to pervade one’s heart and mind, urging believers to maintain purity in thought and faith.
the-end-time.org 