This little number is already on my wish list at Urban Outfitters.com. Also available in black, if any one's interested.
Have a great weekend!
"I see the long quiet walk along the Underground Railroad
I see the slave awakening to the value of her soul
I see the young missionary and the end of the spear
I see his family returning with no trace of fear
I see the long hard shadows of Calcutta nights
I see the sisters standing by the lepers side
I see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor
I see the man with a passion coming, kicking down the door
I see the man of sorrows and his long troubled road
I see the world on his shoulders and my easy load
And when the saints go marching in, I want to be one of them"
It reminds me of all the ways in which the Church is carrying out our commission. Jesus actually told his followers it was better for him to depart and send the Spirit. (See John 16:7) Better? How can that be?!? I think Jesus meant that for the Church as a whole, having the Holy Spirit was even better than having His bodily presence because the Holy Spirit can be with many people in different places all the time. And, the Holy Spirit lives in us, can shape our innermost being. That means that Jesus can enable his followers to do his work all over the world, just like those who Sara Groves sings about. And anytime we want to talk with Him, worship him, or cry out for his help, we don't have to wait for a person to show up. He is already with us. I'm reminded of another song, "What a friend I've found, closer than a brother..."
My roommate (another single lady) and I have been watching Mark Driscoll's current teaching series on the Song of Songs called The Peasant Princess. Driscoll interprets this book of the Bible literally for the most part and does a fantastic job of approaching it with good exegesis, practical application, and of course, humor. Both my roommate and I look forward to watching the new segment each week, and we both feel that we've learned a lot! The topic of marriage is more immediately applicable for her since she's in a relationship that is moving steadily in that direction.
I think it's important for singles who would like to get married to learn all they can about marriage ahead of time. When I travel to a different country, I like to look through a guidebook before I go. I'll pick out specific locations I want to visit, make sure I have a basic understanding of the manners and customs, and try to learn a few helpful phrases in the local language or dialect. And that's when I only plan to spend a few days or weeks somewhere! I hope to spend years being married, so my preparation should be all the more intense. What qualities and disciplines do I want to cultivate? What traits should I snuff out? What should I be looking for in a husband? How should I dress and talk and relate to men? What aspects of marriage can I anticipate now and what should I be careful to avoid? These are questions I am seeking answers to.
You can watch video recordings of the series here.
The changing of seasons invigorates me. When fall waltzes in, I feel a light breeze blowing through my own soul, sweeping away the dead leaves and lifting the humid blanket of summer. I find the harvest ripe, the sun bright, and familiar paths, though often taken, have a new appeal for me. He [God] has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He gives them seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme.
Fri Aug 22, 2:51 AM ET ELKIN, N.C. - David Hayes' granddaughter just asked him to hold her Barbie rod and reel while she went to the bathroom. He did. And seconds later he landed the state record channel catfish at 21 pounds, 1 ounce. Alyssa's father had bought the pink Barbie fishing rod for Christmas and she had caught a few bluegill before her grandfather hauled in the catfish.
The Winston-Salem Journal reported the catch Aug. 5 in eastern Wilkes County has been certified as a record by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Hayes and his granddaughter have been fishing in the pond behind his house since she was big enough to hold a pole. Hayes said his granddaughter worried he would break her rod. He landed the 21-pound fish on a 6-pound test line. It was 32inches long, 2 inches longer than the rod.
"...I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.
For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon his precious word, was, to begin to meditate on the word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.
The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer but to meditation, it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation.
[Formerly,] ....I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result ? I often spent a quarter of an hour; or half an hour, or even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour; I only then began really to pray.
I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it) about the things that he has brought before me in his precious word.
As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.
How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!"
"No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze."
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6
William Cowper was born into a Christian family in England in the early 1700s. He was upper middle-class and well-educated, but from an early age, he suffered severe bouts of depression and anxiety. Some historians believe he was physically and sexually abused by a bully at boarding school. Although he experienced literary success as a popular poet, every other area of his life was a disaster. He had an estranged relationship with his father, several failed romances, and he tried to commit suicide repeatedly. In his thirties, Cowper was admitted to an insane asylum. No one knew what to do with him. But God's hand was guiding Cowper through this dark time.There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Loose all their guilty stains.
E'er since by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
(From "Praise for the Fountain Opened")
Though truly changed by Jesus and part of a loving community, Cowper still fought battles with his old demons. He went through periods of excruciating doubt concerning his salvation. At one point, he felt that he could no longer live and resolved again to commit suicide. He called a cab and ordered the driver to take him to the Thames River, intending to jump off the London Bridge. As the driver started toward the river, a thick fog descended and he got lost. He drove around for a while, attempting to get his bearings, but never did. Eventually, he dropped Cowper off, and to Cowper's surprise, he had been dropped off at his own doorstep. Again, God's sovereign hand held out life and grace to this man. Later, he wrote these words:
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
(From "God Works in a Mysterious Way")
Cowper never became what you might call a well-balanced Christian. Although there were periods of his life when he could think clearly and act rationally, his struggles with anxiety and depression were lifelong. Despite his flaws, faithlessness, and even insanity, God has used William Cowper to encourage the saints for hundreds of years.
Isn't it wonderful that even our worst parts display God's steadfast love, his never-ending kindness to his own? May the glory of God's grace be revealed in my smallness, too.
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. (1 Peter 3:3-5)The desire to make ourselves and our surroundings beautiful is feminine, God-given, and appropriate. But our Lord also wants us to know that there is an inward beauty which surpasses outward beauty. This inward beauty is the fruit of faith, and it is very lovely in His sight. Godly women of the past consistently found their sense of worth and security by hoping in God and not in their charms or abilities.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.... (1 Tim. 2:3–6)If you are interested in reading CJ's chapter on modesty, you can find his blog at http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/
"Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved....Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering."
God, I confess I am moody, irritable, impatient, short-sighted, ill-mannered, and I find it hard to say nice things about certain people. I am sorry that I am all of those things, and I am so thankful that your wonderful son, Jesus, went to the Cross, bore my shame, and paid my penalty. Thank you, Father, for sending your Son. Thank you, Jesus, for obeying perfectly. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for revealing these things to me. I have faith in your power to use me and change me. Make me a blessing to you and to the nations.
