Archive | July 2005

BETH

Jul8

How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought you.
Oh, let me not wander from your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
Blessed are You, O LORD!
Teach me Your statutes.
With my lips I have declared
All the judgements of Your mouth.
I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts,,
And contemplate Your ways.
I will delight myself in your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.

This writer is really concerned about living God’s way. How do I cleanse my way? I wash myself daily, hourly, in God’s Word. I wash everything I read, everything I see, everything I hear, everything I do, in the cleansing Word of God. Specifically, I think about these things that make up my life in the light of Scriptural principles. How does this or that square with what God has said? I hide His word in my heart, memorize it; I declare it with my lips, speak truth in love; I meditate on God’s guidance, and I contemplate His ways. Then I can delight myself in God’s law and not forget His word.

Lest anyone think this joyful discipline of studying and applying God’s Word to our lives is optional, esoteric speculation, WORLD magazine’s blog gives this example of a man who did not cleanse his way:

And now it turns out that convicted child-molester Joseph Duncan, arrested for kidnapping that little girl in Idaho and the suspect in the murder of her family, talks about his struggle with demons on his blog. “God has shown me the right choice,” he wrote, “but my demons have me tied to a spit and the fire has already been lit.” And then, in one of his last entries, “The demons have taken over.”

“He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah 6:8

ALEPH

Jul7

Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the way of the LORD!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
You have commanded us
To keep your precepts diligently.
Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep your statutes!
Then I would not be ashamed
When I look into all Your commandments.
I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgements.
I will keep your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!

We’re studying Psalm 119 in our women’s Bible study this summer. Despite what some people think about small group Bible studies (and by extension, individual Bible study?), I believe in the old “priesthood of the believer” idea and that the Holy Spirit is given to all believers to “guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) Therefore, we can study the Scriptures under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and expect such study to be “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for in instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

Now that we’ve got that settled, and we’ve all come to a happy concensus :), I’ll return to Psalm 119. First the psalmist writes about how happy and blessed those who obey God’s law are. Then he inserts a verse that states that God has commanded us to obey. Then the psalmist wishes, prays, imagines the results, and finally determines to learn and then keep God’s statutes. Section Aleph ends with another prayer: “Oh, do not forsake me utterly!”

I echo that final prayer. My own prayer has often been, “God, please don’t give up on me.” Grace and repentance are big concepts, but at the very least those terms mean acepting forgiveness and setting my will to “walk in the way of the LORD” and “to do no iniquity”–again and again and again.

The State of Christian Fiction

Jul7

Phil who blogs at Brandywine Books and at Collected Miscellany sent me an email asking my opinion about Christian fiction in general and Levi’s Will by Dale Cramer in particular. Phil said I should post my reply, and since it’s the only coherent snippet of writing I’ve been able to do in the last couple of days, I will.

Yes, it’s (Levi’s Will) definitely Christian fiction. I don’t think a secular publisher would have published it, but I don’t know that much about the publishing world. I could be mistaken.

I do think Levi’s Will “breaks the mold” to some extent. First of all, it’s a male-centered book without being sci-fi or thriller. The female characters in the book are not well-developed and are not the focus of the book. It’s also Christ-centered without being preachy. It has different kinds of Christians with different understandings of their faith, including a rather legalistic father, a friend who doesn’t attend church but knows and lives the gospel nevertheless, and the main character who lives a life of lies and comes to see how destructive that kind of life can be.

I’ve read three good books so far this year that I would consider “Christian fiction” in the sense that they focus on characters who are struggling to live out some sort of orthodox Christian faith in a fallen world. One was Levi’s WIll; the other two were Peace Like a River by Leif Enger and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. The publication of the the latter two by secular mainstream publishers (and the Pulitzer Prize for Gilead) indicates to me that those publishers are open to Christian themes and characters in well-written books.

Oh, I forgot Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo. I don’t think a Christian publisher or imprint would have anything to do with that book, but it’s definitely exploring Christian ideals and how those ideals become compromised.

I did read a couple of other fiction books published by Christian publishers this year, and I do know exactly what the complaint is. The plots are thin and kind of boring, and the Christian characters are too good to be true–and too preachy to be very likeable. Or some of the novels are poor imitations of books and genres that were/are popular in the secular world.

The List

Jul6

The List of books I want to read has grown at an alarming rate. Here’s the list from the beginning of this year, with additions; the ones in bold print or with links are the ones I’ve actually read so far. I also graded them. I’m rather stingy with the A’s.

84 Charing Cross Road–Hanff
A Mango-Shaped Space–Mass
Acts of Faith–Caputo A-
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn–Twain
After the Ball–Beard
Airborn–Oppel B+
Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Grace–Norris
Another Place at the Table–Harrison
Armey’s Axioms–Armey
Bad Ground by W. Dale Cramer B
Balkan Trilogy–Manning C-
Behind the Burqa–Yasgur
Beyond Stateliest Marble: The Passionate Femininity of Anne Bradstreet by Douglas Wilson C
Beyond the Summerland–Graham.
Black as Night–Doman
Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation that’s Changing Your World–Hewitt B-
Book of Seven Truths–Miller
Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity–Gold
Canterbury Papers–Healey
Captains from Castile–Shellabarger
Case Histories–Atkinson C
Chamomile Mourning–Childs C-
Chasing Hepburn–Lee
Children of Men–PD James A-
Christianity for Modern Pagans–Kreeft
Cold Mountain–Frazier
Covenant Child–Blackstock
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Haddon
Cut and Run–Pearson C+
Disappearing Duke–Freeman-Keel
Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do About It by Phillip Longman
Enna Burning–Hale
Eragon–Paolini B+
Erling’s World–Walker
Facing East: A Pilgrim’s Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy–Mathewes-Green A
Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future by Ben J. Wattenberg
Flame Tree–Lewis B+
Game of Kings–Dunnett
Gilead–Robinson A
Girl Meets God–Winner
Glimpses of Truth–Cavanaugh
God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada B+
The Goose Girl–Hale B+
The Great Gatsby–Fitzgerald
Great Improvisation–Schiff
Growing Pains: Diaries and Drawings from the Years 1908-1917–Gag
Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age–Schultz
Heartbreaker–Garwood
Home Fires Burning–Stokes
Home Invasion–Hagelin
Housekeeping–Robinson
The Idiot-Dostoevsky
Improbable–Fawer B+
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies–McCall Smith A-
Invisible Child: On Reading and Writing Books for Children–Paterson B
Ireland–Delaney
John Halifax, Gentleman–Dinah Mulock Craik
Jonathan Edwards, A New Biography–Murray
Kalahari Typing School for Men–McCall Smith A
The Keeper’s Son–Hickam C
The Kite Runner–Hosseini A
Kitty, My Rib–Mall
Kristen Lavransdatter–Undset
Lamb in Love–Brown
Last Storyteller–Noble
Levi’s Will–Cramer B+
Lord Vanity–Shellabarger
Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum Peril and Romance–Jocelyn
Mad Mary Lamb–Hitchcock
Magnus–Brouwer
Mark of the Lion Trilogy–Rivers
Maul and the Pear Tree-P.D. James
Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling–King
Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen–Leithart
Miss Marjoribanks–Margaret Oliphant
Monkeywrench–Tracy
Mystic Rose–Lawhead
Nectar in a Sieve–Markandaya A-
Never Let Me Go–Ishiguro
New Way to Be Human–Peacock
Nightbringer-Huggins
No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.-McCall Smith A
Oceans Apart by Karen Kingsbury C+
Once Upon a Marigold–Jean Ferris B
Ordeal by Innocence–Christie
Paris to the Moon–Gopnik
Peace Like a River–Enger A
Plain Truth–Picoult
Please Stop Laughing At Me–Blanco
Power of the Powerless–De Vinck
The Princess Academy–Hale
Prophetic Untimeliness–Guinness
Rating the First Ladies–Johnson
Riding the Bus with my Sister–Simon B+
Right Turns–Medved B
Sacred Way–Jones
Safely Home–Alcorn
Sailing the Wine Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter–Cahill
Scaramouche–Sabatini
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrandt A
Sea of Trolls–Farmer B
Secret Radio–Massi
Shackleton’s Stowaway–McKernan
Shadow of the Bear–Doman
Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor B
Silent Speaker–Stout B+
Strangers on a Train–Highsmith
Switherby Pilgrims–Spence
Tathea–Perry.
Tears of the Giraffe–McCall Smith A-
Tenant of Wildfell Hall–Ann Bronte
Testimonies–O’Brian B
The Eight–Neville
The Singer–Calvin Miller
Thief Lord–Funke
This Vast Land–Ambrose
Thirteenth Juror–Lescroart
Time Lottery–Moser D
The Time Traveler’s Wife–Niffenegger C-
Twilight Children–Hayden
Wide as the Waters–Bobrick
Wild Strawberries–Thirkell
Word Freaks–Fatsis
Year of the Warrior–Walker
Year of Wonders–Brooks B+

Should I take any of these off my list? Dare I ask: should I add any books to my list?

Picture Book Preschool Week 27

Jul3

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 an updated, downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

WEEK 27 (June) THE UNITED STATES – TRAVEL
Character Trait: Courage
Bible Verse: . . . the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

1. Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno’s USA. Philomel, 1983.
2. Munro, Roxie. The Inside-Outside Book of Washington, D.C. Dutton, 1987.
3. Feeney, Stephanie. A Is for Aloha. University Press of Hawaii, 1980.
4. Sandin, Joan. The Long Way to a New Land. Harper and Row, 1981.
5. Turner, Ann. Dakota Dugout. Macmillan, 1985.
6. Sandin, Joan. The Long Way Westward. Harper and Row, 1981.
7. Crews, Donald. Parade. Greenwillow, 1983.

Activities: Look at a map of the U.S. Find the places you are reading about. Find your own home state. Find the place(s) you will visit on your vacation if you are planning one soon.

Read, White and Blue: Books and Links for the Fourth of July

Jul1

Calling all U.S. citizens, how will you celebrate the Fourth of July? We always have a full day: parade in the morning, home to cool off, and then the community get together and fireworks in the afternoon/evening. This year our church is handing out bottles of water for parade-goers and cards of encouragement to send to soldiers overseas at the parade. What will you be doing? How does your church family celebrate our nation’s founding? Should churches have patriotic music and special celebrations to mark the birthdate of our country? Or is this combination of patriotism and worship dishonoring to God?

As for me, I plan to attend a July 3rd Freedom Concert with (blast from the past) Dallas Holm at a local Methodist church. I remember Dallas Holm and Praise from way back when, and I would love to hear him sing Rise Again.

Some picture books for July 4th:
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Paul Revere’s Ride.Illustrated by Ted Rand. Dutton, 1990.
Dalgliesh, Alice.The 4th of July Story. Alladin, 1995. (reprint edition)
Spier, Peter. The Star-Spangled Banner. Dragonfly Books, 1992.
Bates, Katharine Lee. America the Beautiful. Illustrated by Neil Waldman. Atheneum, 1993.
Devlin, Wende. Cranberry Summer.

Also on July 4th:
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804. Advice from Nathaniel Hawthorne on Blogging.
Stephen Foster was born on July 4, 1826. The PBS series American Experience has an episode on the life of Stephen Foster, author of songs such as Beautiful Dreamer and Oh! Susanna.
Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872.
The poem “America the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates was first published on July 4, 1895.
On July 4, 1970 Casey Kasem hosted “American Top 40” on radio for the first time. I cannot tell a lie; in high school I spent every Sunday afternoon listening to Casey Kasem count down the Top 40.

James M. Kushner at Mere Comments recommends David McCullough’s book 1776 for Fourth of July reading. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll probably add it to The List. I plan a six month update on The List very soon, for those who are interested.

Last but not least, via Ivy’s Coloring Page Search Engine, I found this page of free coloring sheets for the 4th of July. We liked the fireworks page.

Go celebrate with your own fireworks–or watch some—or something. Happy Independence Day!