Enjoying the Snow

Even though we still have huge piles of snow left, it IS melting very quickly and so the kids were outside today playing in it. Sam and Chloe were out most of the afternoon and they were having fun throwing snow balls and building snowmen. I couldn’t resist and so Lydia and I decided to go out and join them. I can’t remember the last time I made a snowman. It was a lot of fun and we made good memories. If you can’t tell from the pictures—they pretended it was each of them. They wanted to do the whole family but we ran out of time and energy to do “Daddy and Mommy”. :-)

Men of Prayer

I was up to the hospital to visit our dear brother Frank today. He was expecting to be released--but I have not heard yet whether that happened.

Frank is a prayer warrior. I owe much to the hours He has spent before the Lord in prayer for me and my family.

If you think of Frank, please remember to pray for him--and for Carolyn and the extended family.

After seeing him this morning, I was reminded of another segment from Horatius Bonar's True Revival and the Men God Uses entitled "Men of Prayer":

It is true that they laboured much, visited much, studied much, but they also prayed much. In this they abounded. They were much alone with God, replenishing their own souls out of the living fountain that out of them might flow to their people rivers of living water. In our day there is doubtless among many a grievous mistake upon this point. Some who are really seeking to feed the flock, and to save souls, are led to exhaust their energies upon external duties and labours, overlooking the absolute necessity of enriching, ripening, filling, elevating their own souls by prayer and fasting. On this account there is much time wasted and labour thrown away. A single word, coming fresh from lips that have been kindled into heavenly warmth, by near fellowship with God, will avail more than a thousand others.

Did Christ's faithful ministers act more on this principle, they would soon learn what an increased fruitfulness and power are thereby imparted to all their labours. Were more of each returning Saturday spent in fellowship with God, in solemn intercession for the people, in humiliation for sin, and supplication for the outpouring of the Spirit our Sabbaths would be far more blest, our sermons would be far more successful, our faces would shine as did the face of Moses, a more solemn awe and reverence would be over all our assemblies, and there would be fewer complaints of labouring in vain, or spending strength for nought. What might be lost in elaborate composition, or critical exactness of style or argument, would be far more than compensated for by the "double portion of the Spirit" we might then expect to receive.

The BIG Dig Out!

Yes--it's March 11th and we are trying to dig out from underneath a TON of snow. I think over 2 days we got a total of 10 inches--but when it blows around like it did, it looks more like 10x that. I think this is one of the worst blizzards I can remember in my 13 winters here.

My wonderful husband is out there now in the driveway trying to get through drifts that are taller than the tractor. Thanks, Jeremy, for doing that for us in the freezing cold. I am REALLY ready for spring! Anyone else agree?


View out of the front Door

Yes....the drift is higher than our car

You can't see our neighbor's house or the road out in front of the house

This is what it looks like when Jeremy was finally able to get through it

Hudson River Landing

And Let Us Not Grow Weary

"We are made partaker of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end" Hebrews 3:14.

From The Streams in the Desert daily devotional by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman:

It is the last step that wins; and there is no place in the pilgrim's progress where so many dangers lurk as the region that lies hard by the portals of the Celestial City. It was there that Doubting Castle stood. It was there that the enchanted ground lured the tired traveler to fatal slumber. It is when Heaven's heights are full in view that hell's gate is most persistent and full of deadly peril. "Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." "So run, that ye may obtain."

In the bitter waves of woe

Beaten and tossed about

By the sullen winds that blow

From the desolate shores of doubt,

Where the anchors that faith has cast

Are dragging in the gale,

I am quietly holding fast

To the things that cannot fail.

And fierce though the fiends may fight,

And long though the angels hide,

I know that truth and right

Have the universe on their side;

And that somewhere beyond the stars

Is a love that is better than fate.

When the night unlocks her bars

I shall see Him--and I will wait.

--Washington Gladden

Disclaimer: I don't know much of anything about Washington Gladden--apart from what I can read on Wikipedia. 

Descriptive, Instructive, and Convictive

Frank Turk from the Pyromaniacs...Setting the World on Fire blog posted a review about a book called, "What He Must Be...If He Wants To Marry My Daughter". I haven't read the book yet--but I intend to order it tonight. But...all that aside, the point of this post has nothing to do with the book, really--but rather with one quote from the review itself. Mr. Turk writes (ephasis, mine):

There's nothing sort of subtle about this book, and that is a strong compliment. Let me put it this way: non-fiction comes in three categories, more or less -- the descriptive, the instructive, and the "convictive". A descriptive book tells you that something was done, or is being done -- like a history book, or a biography -- and can be entertaining or somewhat instructive. An instructive book tells you how something can be done -- one perspective on the tactics involved, like Joe Carter's book on how to argue persuasively -- and is totally useful and serviceable. The "convictive" book doesn't just tell you about what happens or has happened, and doesn't just talk about how to do it: it seeks to show you why this stuff it is talking about is important, and moves you from being an observer to being a practitioner because your heart is in it.

I have been thinking about these three types of non-fiction with relation to preaching and teaching the Word of God. There are occasions when a descriptive message is appropriate, for example when describing the person or character of the Lord Jesus. There are also times when an instructive message is proper--for example a study on a particular doctrine. But, oh to have the heart, passion, discernment, and steadfastness to preach with conviction. We dare not merely create hearers (or observers) of God's word--our goal ought to be creating doers. 

Men of Boldness and Determination

An excerpt from Horatius Bonar's True Revival and the Men God Uses.

Adversaries might contend and oppose, timid friends might hesitate, but they pressed forward, in nothing terrified by difficulty or opposition. Timidity shuts many a door of usefulness, and loses many a precious opportunity; it wins no friends, while it strengthens every enemy. Nothing is lost by boldness, nor gained by fear. It seems often as if there were a premium upon mere boldness and vigour, apart from other things. Even natural courage and resolution will accomplish much; how much more, courage created and upheld by faith and prayer. In regard, for instance, to the dense masses of ungodliness and profligacy in our large towns, what will ever be effected, if we timidly shrink back, or slothfully fold our hands, because the array is so terrific, and the apparent probabilities of success so slender? Let us be prepared to give battle, though it should be one against ten thousand, and who shall calculate the issues?

There is needed not merely natural courage in order to face natural danger or difficulty; there is, in our own day, a still greater need of moral boldness, in order to neutralise the fear of man, the dread of public opinion, that god of our idolatry in this last age, which boasts of superior enlightenment, and which would bring everything to the test of reason, or decide it by the votes of the majority. We need strength from above to be faithful in these days of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy--to set our faces like flint alike against the censure and applause of the multitude, and to dare to be singular for righteousness' sake, and to fight, single-handed, the battles of the faith. The sneer, the scoff, the contemptuous smile of superiority, the cold support, the cordial opposition, the timid friendship, the bold hostility, in private and public, from lips of companions, or neighbours, or fellow-citizens--often under pretext of reverence for religion--these are fitted to daunt the mind of common nerve, and to meet these nothing less than divine grace is needed. Never, perhaps, in any age has wickedness assumed a bolder front and attitude; and never, therefore, was Christian courage more required than now.

Men of the world, and mere professors, can tolerate, or perhaps commend the customary routine of ministerial duty; but to step beyond that--to break the regularity of well-beaten forms--to preach and labour in season and out of season--in churches, or barns, or school-houses, or streets, or highways--to deal faithfully and closely with men's consciences wherever they may happen to be brought into contact with them--to be always the minister, always the watchman, always the Christian, always the lover of souls--this is to turn the world upside down, to offend against every rule of good breeding, and to tear up the landmarks of civilised society. Ministers and Christians require more than ever to be "strong and of good courage", to be "steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord". This has ever been one of the great secrets of success. Them that honour God, God has never failed to honour and bless.