Category: Uncategorized

Posted in discernment, Uncategorized

Biblical Doctrine: Ladies, Study along with Jessica Pickowicz, & #ReadWritePlan2017

Posted on by elizabethprata

Ladies, Jessica Pickowicz, wife of Nate Pickowicz, who authored Why We’re Protestant and Reviving New England, wrote a Bible study to go along with MacArthur’s and Mayhue’s tome, “Biblical Doctrine.”

I have a dear friend who is attending The Master’s University. He returned home for summer break and arrived at my door in July with a surprise gift of this wonderful book. Even more wonderful, it is signed by John MacArthur and a verse was selected to include with the signature!

readwriteplan 5

I can’t figure out if the verse is an encouragement or a warning to me. Hmmm. Likely both, since I need both!

I love that he did this and I put it proudly on my theological bookshelves. And there is sat, all 1000 plus pages of it. Once in a while I’d look at it as I passed my shelf, and mourned its size and how I was going to approach this study.

Providentially, Jess had been writing a study guide and lessons to go along with the book, and announced it about a month after I’d received the book! The study began this week.

Concurrently, an internet annual organization plan for writers is going on. It’s by Alexandra Haughton and it’s called #ReadWritePlan. What you do it post one photo a day for a month, according to their schedule, showing your favorite pens, planners, papers, highlighters, bulletin boards, desk area, etc. In other words, what does it look like where you write and study?

I love this stuff! But I missed the first week of ReadWritePlan2017 and decided to forgo it until next year. Then the Biblical Doctrine study came up, complete with its choice of binder covers (color, or B&W), papers to be printed, and pads and pens and highlighters suggested. So now I’m back in on ReadWritePlan.

Here is my first post, the preface to ongoing thoughts about the Biblical Doctrine Study I plan to post, combined with a ReadWritePlan once for all post. This is my place, the spot where I study the Bible, read the Bible, listen to sermons, and write my blog essays.

I live in a 425 sf apartment. Mainly it’s two rooms with a small kitchen and a tiny bathroom. I love it. My dining table was a garage sale find of one of those 1950s with formica top and metal legs. Since everything HAS to be both organized and available, yet fit into the tiny space, here is what I did. The dining table has become my office with the laptop prominently located. Next to the table is a bookcase containing a good light, speakers, and office supplies as normal. It is all within reach without me having to get up out of my office chair.

readwriteplan 2

Coffee, tea, or water is always on the coaster, out of the way of the cat who likes to jump on the table and curl up on his bed. Below, take a tour of my bookcase with me. Top shelf, printer, pencil and pen cup, brown leather notebook I take to church. Second shelf, MacArthur Study Bible and smaller Bible with Grant Horner bookmarks for my ongoing Reading Plan.

Next to that is the laminator and the scanner. Bottom shelf, notebooks, legal pads, printer paper, binders of ongoing studies, like the Biblical Doctrine textbook, and books I’m currently reading.

readwriteplan 1

The weekly Biblical Doctrine Pickowicz Study is issued on Thursdays but my Thursdays are straight out 14 hours, and I don’t arrive home until about 9:30pm. So I dedicate Friday evenings for delving into the week’s study. It’s perfect. I come home, take a nap, awake refreshed and settle in to the quietude with a cuppa and all the time in the world.

Below, doing the first week’s lesson, yay!

readwriteplan 6

Jessica offers tips on highlighting for various study-reasons. However, I never, ever, ever, ever write or highlight in any of my books. Ever. Instead, I buy thousands of transparent Post-It arrows in neon colors and put them happily all around. I love my Post-It arrows.

readwriteplan 3

readwriteplan 4

I encourage you to look into the Biblical Doctrine Bible Study. Jess has not only created a Study Guide but also a Facebook Group of like-minded women who are participating in the study, which is expected to last two years. Women from their 20s to their 70s have been added, women who are homeschooling or not, married and not, disabled and healthy, living rural or citified. We are all different but have Christ in common.

Here are the pertinent links for you.

Jess Pickowicz at Beautiful Thing: Biblical Doctrine study, articles

Beautiful Thing’s Biblical Doctrine Facebook Study Group

Biblical Doctrine the book for purchase at Grace To You

For purchase at Amazon, it’s $20 off right now.

Posted in picture mixture, Uncategorized

Picture Mixture Saturday

Posted on by elizabethprata

Neat pictures from around the web for you. I plan to make this a regular feature.

From Dr Steven Lawson’s Instagram (drstevenjlawson):
“Here is a great picture of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preaching to a full congregation at the Westminster Chapel. I saw this picture yesterday at The Banner of Truth office in Edinburgh.”

MLJ’s sermons were recorded and can be heard here.

mlj

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Pixlr is one of my favorite free picture editing apps, and people submit their photos after having used the app. Gorgeous. I would love to go to Georgia’s Callaway Gardens Blue Morpho Month September event. Anyway, Pixlr said: “Such an exquisite photo of a butterfly. Thanks @tbisdd for sharing it with us!”

butterfly

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Photo from A Day in the Life of volcanologists seriesmoderated by Sandie Will. This is a lava flow in Hawaii, from Volcanologist Dr. Rebecca Williams @Volcanologist: A Day in the GeoLife Series #geolife #geology

Lava-flow-hawaii

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Speaking of fire, this is a non-photoshopped, real live picture of men finishing their golf game with the hills ablaze behind them. The person who took the shot explains how it happened and its context, which if possible, is even more crazy-surreal than the photo!

fire golf

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Hurricane Irma from space. Caption: “Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy took this photo of Hurricane Irma from orbit on Sept. 7, 2017 while he flew overhead aboard the International Space Station. A Soyuz crew capsule is visible at left. Credit: Roscosmos/Sergey Ryazanskiy”. At the time Irma was a category 5 storm.

I’m glad God is in control, yet, His we fear when it’s manifested and evident in seeing the scope of his power and the ease with which He ordains these events.

irma from space

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Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Andrew comparison. We traveled on our yacht to Florida after Andrew and Hugo and the devastation was still evident.

“Hurricane Andrew was a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the Bahamas and Florida in mid-August 1992, the most destructive hurricane to ever hit the state. Wikipedia.”

hurricane

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It’s Fall. I love this season. For many people the decorating motif changes with the seasons. Even if you don’t have a mantel, you can use these ideas for fall tablescapes or vignettes in and among your home, for your hospitality or your Bible study group.

40 Brilliant Mantel Decoration Ideas for Thanksgiving

fall

Blessings to you, all the readers.

Posted in discernment, Uncategorized

Lower pool of Solomon: ancient photo

Posted on by elizabethprata

Most of the changes that have occurred in the Middle East in Israel’s area occurred after the early 1900s when loads of immigrants resettled there subsequent to WWI. SO when you see photos of the area taken in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it’s isn’t like looking at a 100 year old photo, it’s like looking at a 1000 year old photo.

I like to look and think about when Jesus walked. The book Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee contain 384 Original Photographic Views and Descriptions of Places Connected with Earthly Life of Our Lord and His Apostles, Traced with Note Book and Camera. It was published in 1894.

lower pool of Solomon.png

Here is the caption given in the book Earthly Footsteps:

‎The above view of the lowest and most extensive of the Pools of Solomon gives one an idea of the masonry used in the structure of this remarkable reservoir. Our artist stood upon a hill to the north of this pool. You may see in the picture our horses and dragoman down in the valley, and the few people at the further corner of the pool look like Liliputians. To the south beyond we see one of the Judean hills. If this reservoir were full it would float one of the largest of ocean steamers. In the narrow valley a short distance below the pools is the little village of Urtâs, with ancient ruins, which is supposed to be the Etham where Josephus says were the Gardens of Solomon. There are gardens and fountains there at this day, and it is very probable that upon those fertile slopes running down to the green cup of the hills lay the vineyards, orchards and pleasure grounds of Solomon; and he, walking through his great plantations here, may have communed with his own spirit and arrived at the solution of the problem that “all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Perhaps here after the cares of state he “went down into the garden of nuts to see the green plants of the valley; to see whether the rose budded and the pomegranates were in flower.” Near by on the summit of her hill, “clothed with the olive, vine and figs,” sits “the little town of Bethlehem,” where in a low khan was born “a greater than Solomon,” who “opened a fountain in the house of David for sin and uncleaness.”

You can also learn more here about the Jerusalem aqueduct system.

When you study the Bible, it’s also good to look at maps, atlas, photos, and geography, as well as history so that when a verse describes activity at an aqueduct or pool, or stopping up a well, or the caves etc., you can really visualize it.

When we read the Bible we know it’s real, but sometimes tend to think that the events and people depicted are far away or even characters instead of living people. King David lived then and he lives now. Being able to have a picture in your head brings things more to mind and helps set events in context.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Who was Asaph?

Posted on by elizabethprata

We read the Psalms and think of David. Slayer of giants, musician, singer, King, David was a man after God’s own heart. He was multi-talented and wrote many of the Psalms, which are songs. But did you know that David wrote only half of the Psalms? Solomon, David’s son and successor wrote 2 of them. Moses is assigned authorship of Psalm 90, a prayer. The sons of Korah wrote 11 psalms while Psalm 88’s authorship is attributed to Heman, and one is assigned to Ethan the Ezrahite.

Another group of 21 psalms is ascribed to the Asaph and his descendants. Asaph is assigned authorship of Psalms 50 and 73-83. So, who was Asaph?

Asaph was a Levite music leader, leading the Tabernacle choir. (1 Chronicles 6:33, 39). His name means “to gather together” which is a great name for a congregational music leader. He is mentioned along with David as skilled in music, and of course not only did he write songs and play instruments but he was also a skilled singer. Interestingly, Asaph is also a seer, (2 Chronicles 29:30) which is a prophet who sees visions.

SEER (chozeh). Generally synonymous with the role of the prophet (e.g., 2 Sam 24:11; 1 Chr 21:9; Amos 7:12). However, at times, it is used as a distinct term from that of prophet (2 Kgs 17:13). Seer, by connotation of the Hebrew word affiliated with it being connected to the idea of receiving a vision (חֹזֶה, chozeh), may be more connected to the idea of visions than the prophetic word, although this is not necessarily the case in all usages. Barry, J. D. (2016). Seer. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

In Psalm 73, of Asaph, we read that the author was angry and discontent with the sleekness and seeming prosperity of the wicked. He mourned their health and prosperity, and wondered if his own efforts at a narrow walk and holiness were in vain. Then comes the turning point of the Psalm at verse 16-17-

But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end. (Psalm 73:16-17).

It is this way with us. Until you enter the prayer closet, or the sanctuary, and inquire of God, you will be disgruntled. Communing with God in prayer or song relieves the stormy heart and soothes the troubled mind.

We’re grateful that the Spirit inspired the Psalms and included them in the Bible for us to be refreshed by. We see that the human condition of faltering, wondering, coveting the wicked’s prosperous way are not new. We see also that our faithful God is always there, and can and does comfort us. As Asaph ended his Psalm,

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

Let us tell of Jesus’ works today.

old harp singing
EPrata photo

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

His Mercy is More

Posted on by elizabethprata

Our music leader introduced a new-to-us song this past Sunday. This is a new-ish contemporary hymn written by Matt Papa and Matt Boswell. I loved it. I am not a fan of new music, not because it is new, but because it is theologically light, theologically aberrant, or too hard to sing congregationally. The Boswell/Papa duo write songs that are the opposite of those negatives. This is one of the good new songs.

I positively like this song. I commend it to you.

Have a merciful day!

Live recording of “His Mercy is More”, a powerful new congregational worship song by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa. Filmed and recorded live at Providence Church in Frisco, Texas with worship leader Matt Boswell and Boyce College Choir.

 

 

VERSE 1
What love could remember no wrongs we have done
Omniscient, all knowing, He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more

VERSE 2
What patience would wait as we constantly roam
What Father, so tender, is calling us home
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more

VERSE 3
What riches of kindness he lavished on us
His blood was the payment, His life was the cost
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more

CHORUS
Praise the Lord
His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness, new every morn
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more

Posted in discernment, Uncategorized

Dancing at the Pour-off

Posted on by elizabethprata

Camping is fun … as long as I don’t have to sleep on the ground, lol. In the mid 1990s my husband and I bought a WV Westphalia pop-up Camper van and we traveled across the USA at the southern tier. We fell in love with Texas, and especially Big Bend National Park.

Here we are in the Chisos campground. Yes, we brought our cat. Hiking and exploring was part of the allure, and in examining the trail brochures, one day we decided one day to hike the Window trail.

The Window Trail is a 5.5 mile lightly trafficked out and back trail located near Terlinguo, Texas that features a waterfall and is rated as moderate. The Window Trail begins near the Chisos Basin lodge, descending 800 feet over about two miles through rolling hills and vertical rock walls to a narrow pouroff, which overlooks the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert. The trail is usually dry, but the pouroff area is very dangerous during flash-floods. Source

We were strongly warned, very strongly, not to step too close to The Window, which is an opening in the mountains to a view over the desert. Very high up. The continual water at what’s called The ‘pour-off’ had smoothed the rocks at the pour-off and it was slippierer than it looked, even in dry conditions. The drop is thousands of feet.

Not my photo.”The Window is a slit in Chisos Mountain Ranges where one could
glimpse the Chihauhuan Desert plain below. ” Source

I am a bit hesitant of heights and a scaredy cat in general, so I heeded the warnings and stayed back. My husband thought it was funny to go closer and do a dance. Ha. Ha.We were warned how fast the fall could happen, even if you’re wearing appropriate footwear. The rocks are smooth as glass, they provided no traction and no grip. It was pure luck he didn’t fall.

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When you’re saved, your eyes are opened and you realize there is no such thing as luck. The LORD has numbered the days of each person on earth. We are immortal until that day arrives. However, the walk is still slippery. Any Christian could fall at any time, me included. And unlike in other life experiences where the longer you go the easier it gets due to your accumulated experience, in Christian life, the longer you go the harder it gets.

This is because we increasingly mourn over our and others’ sin. Or we get casual and then comes Jesus’ chastisement in order to grow us. Or we love people more and become sensitive to their burdens. There are lots of reasons why life with Jesus grows sweeter, but harder.

The Bible warns of the way of the slip. He who thinks that apart from Jesus he has sure footing is likely due for a slip. These verses make it clear that our ultimate security in Christ is permanent, but our walk is fraught with temptations and dangers. Take care not to temporarily slip.

They will lift you up in their hands, so you will not slip and fall on a stone. (Psalm 91:12)

My steps have held fast to Your paths. My feet have not slipped. (Psalm 17:5)

He will not let your foot slip– he who watches over you will not slumber; (Psalm 121:3).

For all that, Paul warns the Christian,

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

I think of the dance at the edge of The Window where the pour-off was so slippery. Do we treat sin that way? Dance up to the edge of it, abusing God’s grace and tempting the devil?

We have to do our part. Resist sin, follow His commands. A true Christian can never irrevocably fall from grace, but we can slip and fall into sin. Over-confidence can be an enemy.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. (James 1:13-15).

I was listening to Martyn Lloyd Jones yesterday. He was talking about the simplicity of the Gospel and clarity of the Gospel life. Sometimes we over-complicate things, making them out to be more opaque than they are. Life in Christ is simple, very simple. Resist sin, do not tempt it, and heed the Bible’s commands.

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7).

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

The House on the Rock

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Ocean State is aptly named Growing up in Rhode Island in the 1960s was a fun experience. The nation’s smallest state is beautiful and the ocean and bay is never far from anyone who lives there. We happened to live just a few miles from the ocean and most Sundays we took a drive south to Saunderstown, crossed the Jamestown bridge, and then took the ferry to Newport. Dad would drive us around the island on Ocean Drive past all the mansions, and then we’d have a picnic by the sea at the Park.

There was no Newport Bridge at that time. On the bridge and the ferry, we passed boats, the islands with lighthouses, and other sights. One sight always captured my attention.

Clingstone.

Clingstone
Source. CC BY-SA 4.0

Clingstone is a house built in 1905, perched atop a small, rocky island in an island group called “The Dumplings” in Narragansett Bay, near Jamestown, Rhode Island. It withstood the devastating 1938 Hurricane, (though was damaged) faced other hurricanes, storms, decay, renovation, and more. The house is known by locals as “The House on a Rock”.

Even to my young eyes the house looked strong. I mean, it’s built on a rock! I often wondered what it was like to live there.

I don’t have to wonder any more what it is like to build my house on the rock. In His grace, He saved me and taught me to cling to the rock. I have my own Clingstone now. Isn’t it funny how life goes. Jesus, who was so far from my mind for over 40 years, is my All in All now. The little girl with big eyes looking at the House on a Rock, has one of her own now.

The verses below are familiar but please slow yourself and read them carefully. Then really think about it for a minute, before you go on to other things. The verses are soul-soothing. Be encouraged.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. (Matthew 7:24-25).

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

What Does Prayer Do?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Sometimes we pray and we feel energized and sense that the presence of the Lord is close by. Other times, we feel dry and cracked, parched. We feel that the Lord is distant.

He is always near, of course. (Psalm 145:168). How we feel about it or what we sense doesn’t matter much and doesn’t alter the fact that He is always near. (Psalm 34:18, Matthew 28:20).

However sometimes these feelings do tend to color and tinge our communion with Him. We’re human. That means we’re sinful and we have an inclination to follow our deceitful heart with its emotions, rather than in trust and knowledge of the faith in God and His promises.

rejoice in hope prayer

What does prayer do, actually? Whether we feel Him near or whether we don’t, prayer is prayer and it avails much when uttered from a righteous man. (James 5:16).

1. Prayer combats discouragement.

The conclusion is clear: therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other. A mutual concern for one another is the way to combat discouragement and downfall. The cure is in personal confession and prayerful concern. Source: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures

2. Prayer gives strength both spiritual and sometimes physical.

In times of affliction Christians are to pray to God for help and strength. In times of blessing believers are to praise God instead of congratulating themselves (5:13b). In instances of critical sickness the sick person was to summon the leaders of the church for prayer. Prayer for the sick could result in either physical healing or spiritual blessing. In times of sin and struggle mutual intercession could promote spiritual victory. Elijah prayed with such force that God withheld rain from the earth for three and a half years and gave it again at his request. Source: Holman concise Bible commentary

3. Prayer gives us good gifts.

Don’t shrink from this. We are told we have a Father who gives good gifts to His children. (Matthew 7:11). If we do not have good gifts it is because we do not ask. (James 4:2b).
Spurgeon spoke eloquently of Achsah, daughter of Caleb, who asked.

She was newly-married and she had an estate to go with her to her husband. She naturally wished that her husband should find in that estate all that was convenient and all that might be profitable. And looking it all over, she saw what was needed. Before you pray, know what you are needing. That man, who blunders down on his knees, with nothing in his mind, will blunder up, again, and get nothing for his pains. When this young woman goes to her father to ask for something, she knows what she is going to ask. She will not open her mouth till first her heart has been filled with knowledge as to what she requires.

4. Prayer is part of the process the Spirit uses to transform our minds. (Romans 12:2). People can externally exhibit morality as if they’d put it on as a garment, without having their minds transformed as the mind of Christ. The new creation is not just a new soul, but a new mind so that we can think in righteousness and in truth. Prayer helps this transformation along.

What then do we do in obedience to Romans 12:2, “Be transformed in the renewal of your mind”? We join the Holy Spirit in his precious and all-important work. We pursue Christ-exalting truth and we pray for truth-embracing humility. … And form the habit of meditating on the perfections of Christ. And in it all pray, pray, pray that the Holy Spirit will renew your mind, Piper, The Renewed Mind

5. Prayer nourishes us.

Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. Oswald Chambers, The Purpose of Prayer

6. Prayer is a love offering to Christ.

“But” someone says, “I don’t feel that I have any special things to pray about.” Ah! My dear friend, I don’t know who you are, or where you live, to not have any thing to pray about, for I find that every day brings either a need or trouble, and that I have every day something to ask of my God. But if we still insist that have no troubles, that we have attained to such a level of grace that we have nothing to ask for, then I ask, do we love Christ so much that we have no need to pray that we may love him more? Spurgeon, True Prayer-True Power

Of course there are many, many more ways that prayer works in us, in our lives, and as a method of communion with God. What are some ways you can think of?

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Further resources:

The Hidden Life of Prayer, free online book by David MacIntyre (1859-1938)

The Hidden Life of Prayer PLUS study guide and 8-week free course

4-part Sermon series, John MacArthur, Elements of True Prayer

Valley of Vision, excerpt from

The Prayer of Love
Grant me more and more
to prize the privilege of prayer,
to come to thee as a sin-soiled sinner,
to find pardon in thee,
to converse with thee;
to know thee in prayer as
the path in which my feet tread,
the latch upon the door of my lips,
the light that shines through my eyes,
the music of my ears,
the marrow of my understanding,
the strength of my will,
the power of my affection,
the sweetness of my memory.

Posted in potpourri, Uncategorized

Prata Potpourri: Kitchens, Books, Encouragement, Eclipse- more

Posted on by elizabethprata

I hope you all have had a really good week. We started school on July 31 and this is the first week I feel like I’ve got a handle on things, lol. My body has gotten used to the pace. I went from nearly 0 during summer to 1000 mph in one day and it doesn’t let up. I love it though. The kids make me laugh every day. I listen to their little conversations, like, is DC comics or Marvel better? Is there anybody who likes Aquaman? Who is going to live longer, Jesus or Santa Claus?

With school starting again church is also getting busier. Groups, Fellowship, discipling, all gearing up and getting busier. A large demographic of our church membership is college students (Univ. GA) and they have returned from their summer breaks, internships, and travels and missions abroad. I love being busy. I also look forward to the day when my glorified body will never be tired and the work I do will never have impure motivations or blots of sin associated with it.

With apologies to Do Not Be Surprised, who always does a popular news roundup on Fridays, here is Prata Potpourri. Sorry, Erin, this is just how the schedule fell this month! 🙂

Garret Kell muses on giving grace with our words, and writes about How and why to be encouraging:

Receiving the note led me to open up my Bible and dig around to see what the Lord says to us about encouragement. As I read passage after passage, I was struck by how vital this expression of love is for God’s people. In one sense, encouragement is like oxygen in the life of a church. It keeps hearts beating, minds clear, and hands inspired to serve.

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Should kids be on a Bible reading Plan? David Murray thinks yes. He says that,

Of the books I’ve written, Exploring the Bible is the one I’m most excited about. My hope and dream is that through it many children will learn the holy life-long habit of daily Bible reading.”

Got to start somewhere, sometime, right? Check this out: Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids

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Have you counseled someone, informally, trying to encourage them in their grief, depression, sadness? It’s hard to know what to say. Here, Suzanne Holland shares Three Things You’ll Never Hear Me Say in a Counseling Session and then shares things to say that might have more meaning and impact on the person instead.

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When I write about a certain teacher’s lifestyle, their moral character, or their personal behavior, and I’m not talking about homosexuality or lesbianism, I often receive negative criticism for it. I’m told that I can’t or shouldn’t comment on their life, or their morals, only on their teaching. I always reply that BOTH life and doctrine are part of the assessment we make on whether a teacher’s life and doctrine is appropriate in which to participate. (11 Timothy 4:16).

Here, Tim Challies writes Why We Must Emphasize A Pastor’s Character Over His Skill.

The New Testament clearly, repeatedly, and unapologetically lays out the qualifications of a pastor. What is so remarkable yet so often overlooked is this: Pastors are called and qualified to their ministry not first through their raw talent, their finely-honed skill, or their great accomplishments, but through their godly character.

In other words, character counts.

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The Thirsty Theologian has A Solar Saga. Loading up the family in the car and trundling off across America to see…what they would see!

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As a person interested in science and science books. Gavin has some interesting thoughts in reviewing and discussing Carl Sagan’s book Contact. Reflections on Carl Sagan’s Contact.

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Maine historian and writer Julie-Ann Baumer has some thoughts about a very good book set in Maine, about Maine people, by Louise Dickinson Rich, called The Peninsula.

The book, filled with wit and Down East humor, also has enough philosophy to lift one’s spirits during these dark days of August.

Dark, because when summer comes we often let our brain atrophy as we slow down and let things go!

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Interior designer and general kook and hijinks coordinator Victoria Elizabeth Barnes has a thing lately about kitchens … kitchen sinks … and luxury kitchens. I’m just glad mine works.

Have a wonderful long weekend and an enjoyable week!