Good times

Charlie & Daddy

Bets

Washing dishes for Mommy

Glorious

"Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory." Psalm 73:23-24

Near

"The nearness of God is my good." Psalm 73:28

"Those who are far from You will perish." Psalm 73:27

Yes, it is very good to be near to God. But I never noticed before that the writer isn't talking about degrees of nearness (like "the nearer the better"). He says you're either near or far, and if you are far you will perish. Sobering.

Choosing Gratitude

Though I haven't finished this one yet, what I have read of this book has been tremendously helpful and life-changing for me. There are no "new" truths in this book--just a wonderful reminder of an absolutely basic truth...learning to give thanks for all things.

Picnic...in March!

Sweetness Wherever

Sweetness Wherever

(Young Amy's Madonna Lily)

She grew, a plant of fair renown,

Where other lilies be.

They saw her white and golden crown,

And nevermore was she

Among the lilies of the wood;

For they that plucked her thought it good

That in another kind of room

That lily flower should bloom.

And to that room one day there came

A little wild-bird child,

But lately caught, and nowise tame,

And all unreconciled

To cages and to careful bars

That seemed to ban the very stars.

The lily looked at her and smiled,

As though herself a child.

And their eyes met; no word was said

That man could hear or say;

But thus the child was comforted.

And after, flown away

To far, far lands, rememb'ring this--

A comfort it were loss to miss--

Would even in this later hour

Sing joy to some dear flower.

O whosoe'er ye be, and where,

However straitly bound,

Your ministry is as the air

That sails the whole world round.

Do ye but fill your present room

With sweetness as of heavenly bloom,

Ye know not where it may be found:

Is Christ within you bound?

-Amy Carmichael

Do you feel bound by your present circumstances today? Bound by lack of money, lack of time, lack of a large sphere of influence, bound by trials, etc.? Christ is not bound. Let us joyfully serve Him in the "cage" He has graciously placed us in today and trust Him that He and His supernatural influence, in and through us, are not bound.

A praying mother

". . . Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter." Mark 7:26

J. C. Ryle comments,

The woman who came to our Lord, in the history now before us, must doubtless have been in deep affliction. She saw a beloved child possessed by an unclean spirit. She saw her in a condition in which no teaching could reach the mind, and no medicine could heal the body — a condition only one degree better than death itself. She hears of Jesus, and beseeches him to “cast forth the devil out of her daughter.” She prays for one who could not pray for herself, and never rests till her prayer is granted.

By prayer she obtains the cure which no human means could obtain. Through the prayer of the mother, the daughter is healed. On her own behalf that daughter did not speak a word; but her mother spoke for her to the Lord, and did not speak in vain. Hopeless and desperate as her case appeared, she had a praying mother, and where there is a praying mother there is always hope.

Expository Thoughts on Mark (1859).

HT: John Piper