Thankful Thursday 2010

It's February in Chicagoland.  We've had over 12 inches of snow this week. 

I'm thankful for my snow blower and bright sunshine and blue skies.

I'm thankful that Eve is having a pretty good week; she has played with Ivy twice in the past few days and she seems to be 'sharper' somehow. More alert.

I'm thankful that my grand daughter, Madelyn, will be here soon. 

I'm thankful for the beautiful Valentine flowers on my dining room table.  (I bought them for myself!)

I'm thankful that my former pastor's heart attack was mild and that he should make a full recovery.

I'm thankful that Americans are waking up and paying attention to what is going on in Washington.

I'm thankful for a quiet afternoon and time for a short nap.

I am thankful for time to reflect on this good day

I am thankful.

I've got some catching up to do!

R.C. Sproul’s Most Influential Books (books I've read in bold)

1. The Freedom of the Will, Edwards
2. The Bondage of the Will, Luther
3. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin
4. God in Modern Philosophy, Collins
5. A Time for Truth, Simons
6. Charity and Its Fruits, Edwards
7. The Person of Christ, Berkhouwer
8. Gospel Fear, Burroughs
9. Gospel Worship, Burroughs
10. Institutes of Elenctic Theology (3 Vol.), Turretin
11. Principles of Conduct, Murray
12. A Christian View of Men & Things, Clark
13. Thales to Dewey, Clark
14. Here I Stand, Bainton
15. A Simple Way to Pray, Luther*  (not sure; if this is a small pamphlet, then yes)
16. The Coming of the Kingdom, Ridderbos

My list is a little different.  It would include:

Jonathan Edwards, Vol I and II

Knowing God,  J. I. Packer

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God,  J. I. Packer

Chosen by God, R.C. Sproul

Christ of the Covenants,  O. Palmer Robertson

The Christian Life,  Sinclair Ferguson

Holiness, J. C. Ryle

Spiritual Depression,  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan

*I have to agree with Kim from On:  Sproul's Holiness of God definitely belongs on this list!!

What's on YOUR list?

Sunday Hymn: I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Come unto me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
Thy head upon my breast."
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad,
I found in him a resting place,
And he has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink, and live."
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"I am this dark world's Light;
Look unto me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy day be bright."
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In him my Star, my Sun;
And in that light of life I'll walk,
Till trav'ling days are done.

Trinity Hymnal #221

Quote of the Week: Calvin

[t]he Spirit of God shows to us hidden things, the knowledge of which cannot reach our senses: Promised to us is eternal life, but it is promised to the dead; we are assured of a happy resurrection, but we are as yet involved in corruption; we are pronounced just, as yet sin dwells in us; we hear that we are happy, but we are as yet in the midst of many miseries; an abundance of all good things is promised to us, but still we often hunger and thirst; God proclaims that he will come quickly, but he seems deaf when we cry to him. What would become of us were we not supported by hope, and did not our minds emerge out of the midst of darkness above the world through the light of God’s word and of his Spirit? Faith, then, is rightly said to be the subsistence or substance of things which are as yet the objects of hope and the evidence of things not seen.

John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries, Hebrews 11

This is just too weird

I made this lentil soup last week.  It was thoroughly cooked and even reheated twice previously.  Today I heated up the last bowl for lunch and discovered that some of the lentils had SPROUTED in the refrigerator.

Weird, huh?  Has that ever happened to anyone else?

Update on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 03:18PM by Kim from Hiraeth

Because I am a curious girl:

Lentils contain high levels of proteins, including the essential amino acids isoleucine and lysine, and are an essential source of inexpensive protein in many parts of the world for those who adhere to a vegetarian diet or cannot afford meat. Lentils are deficient in two essential amino acids, methionine and cystine.  However, sprouted lentils contain sufficient levels of all essential amino acids, including methionine and cystine.

[Wow!  Who knew my soup would get healthier while it waited in the fridge?]

Apart from a high level of proteins, lentils also contain dietary fiber, folate, vitamin B1, and minerals. Red (or pink) lentils contain a lower concentration of fiber than green lentils (11% rather than 31%).  Health magazine has selected lentils as one of the five healthiest foods.  Lentils are often mixed with grains, such as rice, which results in a complete protein dish.

Lentils are one of the best vegetable sources of iron. This makes them an important part of a vegetarian diet, and useful for preventing iron deficiency.

Remembering Bobby

I learned yesterday that an old friend of ours from our days in Kentucky had died.  There is such a feeling of sadness and loss, especially since it has been many years since we last saw Bobby.

It wasn't that long ago that I reconnected with my dear friend, Madonna, Bobby's wife, and learned that for the last few years they had been coping with that dreadful thief--Alzheimer's Disease.  That relentless thief had been stealing Bobby away a little piece at a time.  Nancy Regan called it 'The Long Goodbye.'  I always think of it as a slow motion robbery.

The Bobby I remember was a fun loving, ornery, 'twinkle in the eye' man--always cheerful, always lively, always laughing.  I have a hard time thinking of him any other way.

But today, as I remember him and think about the dreadful thief that took his life, I am thankful that his treasures were laid up in heaven where thieves cannot break in and steal.

Oh, and one more thing

It's Groundhog Day and by all accounts, Woodstock Willie will NOT see his shadow.  An early spring.

We could use one.

Update on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 08:50AM by Kim from Hiraeth

I was right.  Spring is on the way.  Woodstock Willie says so.

Fresh and clean

It's been several weeks since we've had fresh snow, but we still had a solid covering of hard, sharp, icy, gritty, gray snow.  The whole world looked dirty and grimy and bad-tempered.

We awoke this morning to a fresh, clean, fluffy white blanket of snow.  I can't tell you how my heart rose to see the beauty of winter again!

I'm taking it as a harbinger of good things to come.  Today is our primary election and we have a chance to elect our candidates for this November's gubernatorial and senatorial races.  We live in Illinois The State of Corruption; the state that brought you Rob Blagojevich, Dick Durbin, Roland Burris, and Barrack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, and David Axelrod.  Six former governors have been charged with crimes of corruption either during or after their time in office.  Just yesterday, a Chicago Alderman was either charged, indicted, or convicted of an act of corruption (just like his Alderman father, who served time in the 70's for the same offense).  I couldn't remember his name, or how far he had gotten on his way to jail, (after a while it's like white noise--it barely registers) so I called up the Chicago Times online edition, thinking it would be on the front page.  But no, political corruption and the fate of another crooked politician didn't make it to the front page.  A minute or so on the Sun-Times website revealed that it was a man named Ike Carothers.  Headline:  Carothers cops plea, admits taking bribes. 

We need a miracle in Illinois like the one in Massachusetts. Come to think of it, we need more than a light snow cover to make the political climate of our state 'look better.'  We need a clean, fresh season of change.  Kinda like spring.

Dictionary Word of the Day: Mondegreen

mondegreen
\MON-di-green\ , noun;
1.
A word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard.

Quotes:

Mondegreens can be found in every area of the spoken word, from the record buyer who asks for a copy of the Queen single "Bohemian Rap City" to the schoolchild who is convinced that the Pledge of Allegiance begins "I led the pigeons to the flag."

-- Gavin Edwards, 'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy: And Other Misheard Lyrics

There is something consoling about Web pages that collect "mondegreens." Sites featuring these often hilarious examples of misheard song lyrics offer proof, at last, that botching the words to popular songs is a nearly universal human failing.

-- Pamela LiCalzi O'Connell, "Sweet Slips Of the Ear: Mondegreens", New York Times, April 9, 1998

Oh, I love this word!  We've all done it, haven't we?  We're going along, minding our own business, singing at the top of our lungs (Like this classic:)

I see the bad moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes* and lightnin'(FIGHTING).
I see bad times today.

Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon (BATHROOM) on the rise(RIGHT).

I hear hurricanes are blowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin(THAT RAISED THE ROOF).

Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon (BATHROOM) on the rise(RIGHT).
All right!

Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we're in for nasty weather.
One eye is taken for an eye.(ONE GUY IS DRINKING ALL THE RYE)

Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon (BATHROOM) on the rise(RIGHT).

Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.

Bad Moon on the Rise Credence Clearwater Revival

That's honestly how I sang it was for years.  I didn't know the line about earthquakes until I googled the lyrics this morning.  That's just the first mondegreen off the top of my head (John Fogarty is the muse of all mondegreen singers, after all)

Tom interpreted a David Bowie lyric 'sidewalk and trees' as 'cyborgs and cheese.'  We've never let him live that one down. 

I'll share one more and then I'll ask you to share one of your own mondegreens.

When Jake was just a little squirt he was memorizing his first Bible verse:  John 14:2

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare (REPAIR) a place for you.

Sunday Hymn: Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee

MIGHTY GOD, WHILE ANGELS BLESS THEE

Mighty God, while angels bless thee,
May a mortal sing thy name?
Lord of men as well as angels,
Thou art every creature's theme.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Lord of every land and nation,
Ancient of eternal days,
Sounded through the wide creation
Be thy just and lawful praise.

For the grandeur of thy nature,
Grand beyond the seraph's thought;
For created works of power,
Works with skill and kindness wrought.

But thy rich, thy free redemption,
Dark through brightness all along,
Thought is poor, and poor expression,
Who dare sing that awful song?

Brightness of the Father's glory,
Shall thy praise unuttered lie?
Fly, my tongue, such guilty silence,
Sing the Lord who came to die:

From the highest throne in glory,
To the cross of deepest woe,
All to ransom guilty captives,
Flow my praise, for ever flow.

Trinity Hymnal #5

Quote of the Week: Calvin

[W]herever there is a lively perception of heavenly things, the world with all its allurements is not so relished, that either poverty or shame can overwhelm our minds with grief. If then we wish to bear anything for Christ with patience and resigned minds, let us accustom ourselves to a frequent meditation on that felicity, in comparison with which all the good things of the world are nothing but refuse. 

John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews, Chapter 10

A big, fat goose egg

Zero degrees this morning.  Cold, dark, gritty snow.  That's January in Chicagoland.

But it's warm and cozy indoors and for the first time this week, I have a day all to my self.  No appointments, no errands--just a few house chores and the I'll be working at my drawing board, listening to the radio or my Ipod, ignoring the cold truth of winter and enjoying the bright winter sunshine and dreaming of spring, and my new granddaughter, and my niece's summer wedding.

And it's Friday.  I love Fridays because Tom comes home a half hour earlier and we have the whole weekend ahead of us--sleeping in on Saturday, sipping coffee and reading newspapers together, a late breakfast--we sort of roll into the day.

Happy Friday, friends! 

Thankful Thursdays 2010

Today I am so thankful that the sun is streaming into the house and the sun sets AFTER 5 pm now!

It's bitter cold and windy but the sunshine reminds me that spring is on the way!

'On the way' reminds me that my little grand daughter, Madelyn, is on the way!  Next week we turn the page to February--the month that Madelyn arrives.  The anticipation is growing each day!

Dictionary Word of the Day: Panjandrum

Today's Dictionary Word of the Day comes with a story:

panjandrum

pan-JAN-druhm\ , noun;

1.An important personage or pretentious official.

Origin:

Panjandrum was coined by Samuel Foote (1720-1777) in a piece of nonsense writing:

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! No soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber: and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top, and they all fell to playing the game of catch-as-catch-can till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.

It was composed on the spot to challenge actor Charles Macklin's claim that he could memorize anything. Macklin is said to have refused to repeat a word of it.

Note to Self

Sparrows are chattering in the trees outside the living room window!  I hadn't realized how much I've missed the sound of bird song!

To re-read or not to re-read. . .

. . .that is the questionl

My husband (who knows that I collect quotes and that I re-read books over and over) just sent me this quote:

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."
Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)

And of course, it got me thinking (good quotes always do!)  Do I really agree with Mr. Wilde?  I have my own opinion but I'm wondering. . .do YOU agree with Mr. Wilde?  Why or why not?

The Big Melt

We've had a heavy snow cover since right around Christmas.  It's been a bit warmer for the past few days and we've had some meltage, but today will be the big melt.  Forty-five degrees with a steady rain.

The gutters are still frozen and the downspouts are under snow and ice.  I hope the basement doesn't flood.

Sunday Hymn: Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word

BLESSED JESUS, AT THY WORD

Blessed Jesus, at thy word
We are gathered all to hear thee;
Let our hearts and souls be stirred
Now to seek and love and fear thee,
By thy teachings, sweet and holy,
Drawn from earth to love thee solely.

All our knowledge, sense, and sight
Lie in deepest darkness shrouded
Till thy Spirit breaks our night
With the beams of truth unclouded.
Thou alone to God canst win us;
Thou must work all good within us.

Glorious Lord, thyself impart,
Light of Light, from God proceeding;
Open thou our ears and heart,
Help us by thy Spirit's pleading;
Hear the cry thy people raises,
Hear and bless our prayers and praises.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Praise to thee and adoration!
Grant that we thy Word may trust
And obtain true consolation
While we here below must wander,
Till we sing thy praises yonder.

Trinity Hymnal #220

Quote of the Week: Thomas Reade and Calvin

I read this quote recently and it came to mind as I read Chapter 12 of Calvin's Institutes:

“If we are preferring any earthly object, of whatever kind to Jesus Christ, if our affections are placed on any other being in opposition to Him; or if we are seeking our delight in any created thing as distinct from Him and independent of Him, we are neglecting His great salvation; yes, setting up idols in our hearts. We must love the adorable Saviour with a supreme affection; and we must love other objects only for His sake. Our temporal blessings must be enjoyed as flowing from Him; our friends and domestic comforts must be received as gifts coming to us through His redeeming grace. All we possess must be held at His disposal and with a view to that account which we must one day give. Thus Christ must be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and ending, of all our desires and affections. “

THOMAS READE

Calvin was dealing more specifically with God as our sole object of worship, the difference between worship and service, and how the Law gives strict boundaries to reign in our human propensity to worship and serve men, but we are so prone to give our affections to earthly possessions and created things.  It was Calvin who said that the human heart is a factory of idols. This is true even for Christians and ought to drive us again and again back to the One who gave His life that we might be reconciled to God!

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Thankful Thursday 2010

Dorothy and I have the same thankful thoughts this Thursday.

This afternoon we gathered around Dorothy's kitchen table with our dear friend and Bible study buddy, Carol, and worked our way through Hebrews 10:26-31:

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

It was a very sobering passage.  I'm very thankful for the words of John Calvin:

This severity of God is indeed dreadful, but it is set forth for the purpose of inspiring terror. He cannot, however, be accused of cruelty; for as the death of Christ is the only remedy by which we can be delivered from eternal death, are not they who destroy as far as they can its virtue and benefit worthy of being left to despair? God invites to daily reconciliation those who abide in Christ; they are daily washed by the blood of Christ, their sins are daily expiated by his perpetual sacrifice. As salvation is not to be sought except in him, there is no need to wonder that all those who willfully forsake him are deprived of every hope of pardon: this is the import of the adverb ἔτι, more. But Christ’s sacrifice is efficacious to the godly even to death, though they often sin; nay, it retains ever its efficacy, for this very reason, because they cannot be free from sin as long as they dwell in the flesh. The Apostle then refers to those alone who wickedly forsake Christ, and thus deprive themselves of the benefit of his death.