Archive | July 2005

WAW

Let your mercies come also to me, O Lord–
Your salvation according to Your word.
So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me.
For I trust in Your word,
And take not the word of truth utterly our of my mouth.
For I have hoped in Your ordinances.
So shall I keep Your law continually,
Forever and ever.
And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.
I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings,
And will not be ashamed.
And I will delight myself in Your commandments,
Which I love.
My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments,
Which I love.
And I will meditate on Your statutes.

So where is the line between simply trusting in the mercies of God through Christ, speaking of God’s works before important people without shame, finding my hope in the word of God and not in the wisdom of men—-and simplistic trust which says “Jesus is the answer” before anyone gets a chance to ask the question? I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16); however, I am sometimes ashamed of the way that gospel is communicated. Following Jesus is not a formula: say a prayer, believe in Jesus, and go to heaven. Being a Christian is a lifetime of meditating on God’s statutes, delighting in His commandments, trusting in His word, and walking at liberty. Having been a Christian for more than forty years, I’m only beginning to understand how to do some of those things, but I keep stumbling in the right direction. I would invite anyone who’s interested to stumble along with me because even feeble progress in the direction of the Light is much better than standing around in the dark too proud to admit that I haven’t any light of my own.

The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson

Jul14

I just finished reading this book that I picked up at the library because of the author. I remember reading Mr. Dickinson’s scifi/fantasy trilogy, The Weathermonger, Heartsease, and The Devil’s Children, when I was a teenager. At the time, I really enjoyed those books. I also realized at some point that Peter Dickinson is married to one of my favorite YA authors, Robin McKinley, author of Beauty and Rose Daughter, separate retellings of the story of Beauty and the Beast.

The Ropemaker was OK, not fantastic, just OK. Mr. Dickinson tells a good story, but after I was done I felt . . . unsatisfied. It’s as if there were no substance to the story, no real reason for telling it. Some people go on a quest, manage to get through all the attendant dangers and pitfalls, evil is defeated, and everyone gets home in the end. The heroine comes to some kind of self-knowledge or self-realization, but I’m not sure what it is she realizes. The storyteller leaves a lot of loose ends. Who is The Ropemaker and what will he do next? What is the difference between The Ropemaker and the other magicians in the story? Why do we have any reason to believe that The Ropemaker will remain uncorrupted by the power of magic? Is the magic in the story ultimately good or evil? Are the people in the story able to wield magic for good purposes or not? Why did the world start to change at the particular time the story takes place? What is the meaning of all this sound and fury?

At any rate, I looked at a bibliography of children’s and young adult novels by Peter Dickinson, and I thought several of them looked worthy of addition to The List. The Ropemaker wasn’t on The List. Of course, that’s the problem with my list; I find books that look interesting at the library while I’m getting some of the books I planned to read, and The List just grows and grows.

Bastille Day

Jul14

Do French people wish each other a Joyeaux Bastille Day? I don’t know, but today is that day, the day that Parisian citizens stormed the Bastille, a prison and a fortress, captured the weapons stored there, and began the French Revolution. Ever since a few days before the Fourth of July, I have been reading several books that illuminate the French/American connection and the revolutions that made those two countries what they are today.

1. Great Improvisations: Franklin, France, and Birth of America by Stacy Schiff. I’m still not through with this one. Although it won a Pulkitzer Prize, I find the level of detail in this book a little more than I can take except in small doses. Still, it’s fascinating to see how human Benjamin Franklin and the other American revolutionaries were, how it was only by God’s grace that we were able to gain our independence from England. It was just as touch and go as Iraq is today. We could easily have been forced to make peace with the British on their terms–or been forced into an unfavorable alliance with France that made us practically French vassals. Although Schiff never mentions the hand of God in all the diplomacy that Franklin and John Adams carried on in France, I see it clearly. The founding of this country truly was a miracle, due to God’s mercy and the prayers of many Christians who lived in the colonies at the time. I do not believe in the demonstrably false idea that all our Founding Fathers were Christians (Franklin was certainly unorthodox, to say the least), but many were committed Christians and praying men.

2. Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini tells a good story set during the French Revolution; it reminds me of Star Wars, the “Luke, I am your father” motif. Why are young adventurers in swashbucklers always looking for their missing fathers?

3. The Glorious Cause: A Novel of the American Revolution by Jeff Shaara. I’m starting this one tonight. It’s fiction that covers the same time period as Great Improvisations.

Homeschooling Tip of the Week #1

Jul14

Here’s the first post in a new weekly feature at Semicolon. I’m planning to post these tips on Thursdays since the Weekly Slump hits about then in this house/homeschool. This week Molly at My Three Pennies Worth gives a long and detailed answer to this question:

“Help–I have a housefull of little children, my house is a wreck, I am totally overwhelmed–so what curruculum do you use to homeschool when you hardly have time to implement anything as it is?”

Her answer (which I have learned by experience): Focus on the three R’s, Readin’, Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic.

Make sure younger children do some reading, some writing, and some math every day, and add in the “extras” as you have time, energy, and inspiration. Really, it works, and the inspiration will come eventually.

HE

Jul13

Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law.
Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
Incline my heart to Your testimonies,
And not to covetousness.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,
And revive me in Your way.
Establish Your word to your servant,
Who is devoted to fearing You.
Turn away my reproach which I dread,
For Your judgements are good.
Behold, I long for Your precepts;
Revive me in Your righteousness.

Teach me . . . the way. So how does God teach me? I used to wish God would speak to me in an audible voice. I wanted Him to tell me exactly what to do next. “Now it’s time to wash a load of clothes. OK, now you need a a little rest and relaxation. Read that book you got from the library. You’ve read long enough. It’s time to start cooking supper.” Well, I don’t get those kinds of instructions. The teaching God gives is more challenging; He requires me to think and to apply what I read in His word and to follow the example of Christ as I make both large and small decisions about what to do next and how to do it. It’s the same way I teach my children, really. I give them general instructions, but I leave the decisions about how to implement those instructions more and more up to them as they become older and more responsible. I’m aiming for children who know how to take the initiative to do what is right even when I’m not stnding right behind them. Still I make them walk in the path sometimes when they stray. I try to incline their hearts to listen to me and, ultimately, to God. I turn their eyes away from worthless things. I “feed” them God’s word to “revive them in righteousness.”

Give me understanding. ‘Splain, please. Make it clear to me what I should do, and I will do it–with my whole heart.

Make me walk in the path . . . for I delight in it. Isn’t there a contradiction here? If I delighted in God’s path, wouldn’t I walk in it without having to be forced? Well, no. As Paul said, “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. . . . O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15b, 24-25)

Incline my heart Tip the scales in the direction of obedience to You, God. I need Your help to even want to do what’s right.

Turn away my eyes from worthless things. “I count all things loss . . . that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Phillipians 3:8, 10-11) Blogs, worthless. TV and movies, worthless. Books, worthless. Stuff, worthless. If I can’t turn my eyes away from any of them, I am in danger of idolatry. All these things and more are gifts that God gave us to enjoy, but all must assume their proper place in submission to the Lordship of Christ.

Your judgements are good. Do I really believe that God is good all the time? That He knows what He is doing when my friend’s husband dies leaving five children behind to be cared for by a single parent? That He is good and merciful when He allows evil terrorists to murder thousands on September 11 or fifty on July 7? That His judgements are good in allowing children to suffer and die in Sudan and in Zimbabwe and in tsunamis in Asia and in hospitals here in the U.S.? When I see these things and ask why, I need to be revived in righteousness. I need Him to give me understanding.

Born July 12

Jul12

Johanna Spyri was born July 12, 1827 at Hirzel, Switzerland. She wrote the children’s classic, Heidi. Does anyone else remember reading Heidi Grows Up and Heidi’s Children, sequels to Heidi? I read both sequels as a child, and I remember that Heidi marries Peter the goatherd and that they have twins. I think there was some kind of mystery associated with Heidi’s ancestry, too, and something hidden under some tiles on the floor. I’d enjoy reading all three books again, just to see if they’re as good as I thought they were.

Other birthdays today:

Henry David Thoreau, b. 1817.

Bill Cosby, b. 1938. “In dealing with kids, no matter how little we understand their explanations, we must always remember that we’re the adults. What this means I have no idea. It certainly means nothing to the kids, who instinctively seem to know that adults are merely strange people who have dopey ideas like “Stop throwing peas at your sister.”

Pablo Neruda, b. 1904. Chilean poet whose real name was Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Il Postino, an Italian movie that won a couple of Oscars in 1996, features the story of a postman who learns to appreciate poetry while delivering the mail to Pablo Neruda’s country home. Unfortunately, both the real Pablo Neruda and the fictional postman in the movie ended up embracing Communism as a cure for all the world’s problems.

DALETH

Jul11

My soul clings to the dust;
Revive me according to Your word.
I have declared my ways, and You answered me;
Teach me Your statutes.
Make me understand the way of your precepts;
So I shall meditate on Your wonderful works.
My soul melts from heaviness;
Strengthen me according to Your word.
Remove from me the way of lying,
And grant me Your law graciously.
I have chosen the way of truth;
Your judgements I have laid before me.
I cling to Your testimonies;
O LORD, do not put me to shame!
I will run the course of Your commandments,
For You shall enlarge my heart.

This whole Christian life is a cooperative effort, only He gets to do most of the work:
I feel like dirt; He revives me.
I declare my intentions; He answers.
I meditate; He makes me understand and teaches me.
I choose the way of truth; He removes the way of lying.
I cling to His testimonies; He keeps me from being put to shame.
I run the course, keep the commandments; He enlarges my heart in order that I may finish the race.

“I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
II Timothy 4:7-8

Again, I am reminded of how dependent I am on the grace of God. I couldn’t fight or finish or keep the faith apart from Him. And it is fitting the old hymnns picture us “casting our crowns before Him” since any crown that I receive belongs to Him in the first place. (By the way I couldn’t find in Scripture anywhere this idea of our giving back to Jesus whatever reward or gift He has enabled us to earn, but it seems right. After all we offer Him the firstfruits of our labor and the products of our God-given creativity as worship.)
In Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

Picture Book Preschool: Week 29

Jul11

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

WEEK 29 (July) THE OCEAN/THE BEACH
Character Trait: Wonder and Awe
Bible Verse: The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Psalm 95:5

1. Brown, Margaret Wise. The Seashore Noisy Book. HarperCollins, 1941. OP
2. MacDonald, Golden and Leonard Wisegard. The Little Island. Doubleday, 1946.
3. Zion, Gene. Harry by the Sea. Harper, 1965.
4. Ardizzone, Edward. Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain. Oxford, 1978.
5. Crews, Donald. Harbor. Greenwillow, 1982.
6. McCloskey, Robert. Time of Wonder. Viking, 1957.
7. McCloskey, Robert. One Morning in Maine. Viking, 1952.

Activities: Visit the beach, if possible. If not, make a pretend beach. Use a sandbox or an old swimming pool filled with sand. Dampen the sand and turn on the yard sprinkler. Have fun in the water and sand; then hose everybody down afterwards.
Start a seashell collection if you live near the ocean. If not, try to get a few seashells to show your child. Talk about what seashells are (homes for beach animals).

Happy Birthday, Mr. White

Jul11

Today is the birthday of E.B. White, author of two very different and useful books: Charlotte’s Web and The Elements of Style.

An admonition to bloggers from Elements of Style:

It is now necessary to warn you that your concern for the reader must be pure: you must sympathize with the reader’s plight (most readers are in trouble about half the time) but never seek to know the reader’s wants. Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one. Start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and you are as good as dead, although you may make a nice living.

For bloggers, you can forget about the nice living and substitute “blog stats” for “the air.”

charlotte's web Oh, and by the way Charlotte’s Web is one of the few books that should be read aloud to every English-speaking child before he grows up. Can you name any other books that would be included on that very short list?

GIMEL

Jul10

Deal bountifully with your servant,
That I may live and keep Your word.
Open my eyes, that I may see
Wondrous things from Your law.
I am a stranger in the earth;
Do not hide Your commandments from me.
My soul breaks with longing
For Your judgements at all times.
You rebuke the proud–the cursed
Who stray from Your commandments.
Remove from me reproach and contempt,
For I have kept Your testimonies.
Princes also sit and speak against me,
But Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
Your testimonies also are my delight
And my counselors.

Jesus said many times, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” God told Isaiah to say to the people of Israel: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand! Keep on seeing, but do not perceive! Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes. Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.”

I’m an Arminocalvinist myself, firmly on the fence, but as the Calvinists teach, we truly are dependent on the grace of God to open our eyes and deal bountifully with us. His testimonies are not naturally my delight, but I ask Him to make them so. I am just a poor wayfaring stranger; this world is not my home. And if I have no real home here, I am more than ever dependent on the Lord to give me an eternal home with Him.

So I pray that the same Jesus who made the deaf to hear and the blind to see will also give me vision and hearing and make my soul break with longing for His judgements. For ‘in Him is Life, and that Life is the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.” (John 1:4-5)