"Discipline is the disciple's "career." It defines the very shape of the disciple's life."
"Discipline is the wholehearted yes to the call of God."
"There are truths that cannot be known except by doing them." (p.38)
"A young woman asked the great preacher Charles Spurgeon if it was possible to reconcile God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, "Young woman," said he, "You don't reconcile friends." (p.41)
"We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves." (p.44)
"The natural mind prefers argument to obedience, solutions to truth. Its immediate response, when the truth is presented, is no. No way. It refused to be nailed by truth." (p.63)
"Maturity is the ability to carry the unanswered question in faith, holding to the Word by which we live." (p-66)
"The disciplined Christian will be very careful what sort of counsel he seeks from others. Counsel that contradicts the written Word is ungodly counsel. Blessed is the man that walketh not in that." (p.69)
"The disciple steps forward through the narrow gate." (p.75)
"There is always enough time to do the will of God. For that we can never say, "I don't have time."" (p.99)
"Frustration is not the will of God. Of that we can be quite certain. There is time to anything and everything that God wants us to do. Obedience fits smoothly into His given framework. One thing that most certainly will not fit into it is worry." (p.101)
"People wish they had more leisure time. The problem is not too little, but too much of it poorly spent." (p.102)
"If the work is soaked in prayer, the beauty will be there, the work will be established." (p.126)
"Feelings, like thought, must be brought into captivity. No one whose first concern is feeling good can be a disciple." (p.133)
"Choices will continually be necessary and -let us not forget- possible. Obedience to God is always possible." (p.142)
"Do not try to fortify yourself against emotions... The discipline of emotions is the training of responses." (p.145)
This is an interesting book (and so beautifully written!) that proposes a different perspective -for the most part- of food and faith than the one I h...moreThis is an interesting book (and so beautifully written!) that proposes a different perspective -for the most part- of food and faith than the one I hold. I learned, however, some good things and was once more challenged to see the meals we share -each one of them- as gifts from the hand of a Trinitarian God.
The weakest point in the author's argument in favor of a more "ecological life" is that it seems that he sees men only as part of the creation order, as "members" of it, as part of the ecosystem; but fails to emphasize the Creation Mandate given to men at the beginning to exercise dominion over the created world.
Some lines and paragraphs I kept in my commonplace because they are worth re-visiting later.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the cover! I love it!(less)
My favorite thing about this book was see how much Stephen King values his wife and marriage. He makes at least three references in which he makes it...moreMy favorite thing about this book was see how much Stephen King values his wife and marriage. He makes at least three references in which he makes it clear how much of the success in his writing career has to do with his wife's support.
Some of the essays in this book are very good, convicting, and thought provoking. Worth reading it.
The one that I found most interesting is entitled,...moreSome of the essays in this book are very good, convicting, and thought provoking. Worth reading it.
The one that I found most interesting is entitled, "Housework and High-Flown Ideas." If you want to "know" the wonderful and loving Elisabeth Elliot "mad", read this one. In this essay she challenges, with poignant sarcasm, the new ideas (this book was published in 1976) of feminism and equality of roles between men and women that were finding their way into the church. Here are a few excerpts:
Thus she starts her essay, "I had made up my mind several weeks ago that I would probably have to write something sometime about women's liberation. I wouldn't be able to endure it in silence much longer."
"Recently I learned that one of the more sensible and clear-eyed Presbyterian ministers of my acquaintances is "swinging over to the 'woman-elder' side because of the weirdos pushing against ordination." Reasoning like that makes me want to shriek, rend my garments and throw dust in the air. I would be sorry in any case to learn that this particular minister favors the ordination of women -he was one of the few left that I was counting on to swim against the tide- but if he favors it in order not to have to keep company with weirdos he's probably jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Which side has more weirdos?"
"I must confess I had no idea how weird I was myself until I read a book which has been enthusiastically welcomed among Christians...They answer some questions I have been too obtuse to ask, such as why God did not choose to send a female Messiah...how the word "head" carries no connotation of authority, and why we ought not to limit our references to God almighty as he -for does not God refer to himself (there I go -my sexism is showing- why I didn't I write "herself"?)as like a woman in travail, a mother, a hen, a woman sweeping her house? The authors suggest, in fact, that the pronoun "Thou" ought perhaps to be substituted for he/she..."
"Another question was where in the world everybody has got the notion that sexes have different functions? Nonsense, we are told. There's no such thing as separate spheres or different functions. All the myths, all the poetry, all the history of the world have led us down the garden path and it certainly isn't the Garden of Eden. Let's go back to reality and common sense, and stop thinking of men as different from women they say."
"I found out, for example, that as a traditionalist I am also sexist, whatever that means. Nobody has told me exactly, but it is a very bad word which seems to imply that I insist on recognizing and perpetuating "la difference."
"I, this book tells me, have been forced into playing a role-conforming to a stereotype...I was supposed to to be "cramped," "restrained," and to feel like a "crushed automaton" with no identity. Alas! I did poorly at feeling that way."
"Miss Hardesty and Mrs. Scanzoni inform me that nobody's in charge of my marriage except God. There is no other "head," the apostle Paul notwithstanding. It's a partnership, both parties exactly equal, accountable only to God, and that as a relationship or "companionship" or "covenant" neither can possibly have any authority over the other. (I thought that in my "relationship" or "companionship" or "covenant" with God he had authority. Are this ideas mutually exclusive?) Marriage was never a fifty-fifty proposition for me. I didn't want it to be because I understood that woman was made for man, but now it is claimed that nobody was made for anybody but God."
"The "traditional" view of marriage, it is alleged, is characterized by fear and reluctant submission while by sharp contrast the "new" is characterized by love. That gives me an identity crisis. I don't know where I belong anymore. I had the impression during the few years I was a wife that I was living in love, that the whole thing was an "adventure of growth," a "continuous exchange," an "experience of self-actualization," a "direct participation in the world," and that we as a couple were "on the move." But I was way off. Only the "new" marriage, the "equal partnership," works that way..."
This a book that helped me see how the story of Job is about silence, prayer, sea dragons, wind, and whirlwinds. How it is a story about storms of wor...moreThis a book that helped me see how the story of Job is about silence, prayer, sea dragons, wind, and whirlwinds. How it is a story about storms of words and prayers that cry not numb to pain to God who brings peace to our storms. It is a book about discerning friends and their words, and one that teaches us how to be good friends who use well the Scriptures to encourage others and not to tear them down. It is a book of humble repentance and restoration, a book of hope. It is a story of a loving God pursuing in love his children. (less)
An edifying walk through Malachi in the quest of "the delights and demands of God's love."
I cannot forget to praise John Luke who made the interior d...moreAn edifying walk through Malachi in the quest of "the delights and demands of God's love."
I cannot forget to praise John Luke who made the interior design of this book. The paper, the font, the spaces, all beautiful. (less)
"Meet him first in the day, before you meet other people."
"The first moments of the new day are not the time for our own plans and worries, not even f...more"Meet him first in the day, before you meet other people."
"The first moments of the new day are not the time for our own plans and worries, not even for our zeal to accomplish our own work, but for God’s liberating grace, God’s sanctifying presence."
"Before our daily bread should be the daily Word. Only thus will the bread be received with thanksgiving."
"I can be certain that there is no life situation for which God’s Word will not speak the necessary direction. But it requires earnest attentiveness, tireless questioning and study in order to perceive the right commandment and thus be able to recognize the inexhaustible goodness of God in all his commandments."
"Do I forget to eat and drink and sleep? Why do I forget God’s Word? Because I am not yet able to say with the psalmist: “My delight is in your statutes.” I never forget that in which I delight. To forget or not is a matter not only of the mind but of the whole person, including the heart. That on which my life and soul depend I cannot forget."
"The giving of thanks can only begin when the gift of the divine Word is acknowledged; indeed, only when I am immersed in the study of the divine Word. How could one begin to give thanks to God and not concern oneself with his Word? What kind of thanks would it be to receive the gifts but refuse the required obedience to the giver? It would be a pagan thanksgiving, which is indeed widely practiced. That is not a giving of thanks to the Lord God, but rather to an impersonal fate or fortune to which I am in no way obligated. Thanks to God that does not proceed from an obedient heart is presumption and falsehood. Only when God’s revealed Word has made our heart want to obey him can we thank God for earthly and heavenly gifts..."
"I thank God because I want to learn and know what he requires of me, but I thank him as one who is still only learning, who still lacks everything when measured by God’s righteous judgments. So thanksgiving leads me back to the giving God and then forward to the commanding God, in order finally to find in him his righteousness, which I experience anew as righteousness given to me. “Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me; but to those who keep in my way will I show the salvation of God” (Ps. 50:24)."
Good book. But I definitely enjoyed more The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, a book in which she tells the story of Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Ri...moreGood book. But I definitely enjoyed more The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, a book in which she tells the story of Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson (as well as many of the incidents that are somehow told in The Sun Also Rises). It is interesting to note that while Hemingway's first marriage was falling apart, he wrote The Sun Also Rises. (less)
Just wonderful! The kind of story that only God can write, one full of true hope and redemption.
And as Carl Truman says, "I cannot recommend this book...moreJust wonderful! The kind of story that only God can write, one full of true hope and redemption.
And as Carl Truman says, "I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I do not agree with everything she says; but I did learn from everything she wrote. It deserves the widest possible readership."
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