Category Archives: Quotes

TT #15 ~ Ben Franklin Resolutions

I nabbed this from my brother Steve’s blog The Temple…

Ben Franklin Resolutions – The Virtue Chart.  Ben Franklin regularly followed a plan to develop his character. Based on Philippians 4, Ben used the chart below as a tool to improve himself. Check out the site Flamebright for a brief explanation and DIY Planner for templates you can print out. His “Plan” was made up of 13 virtues, each with short descriptions:

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.

2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.

6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.

11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

For more TT click here.

HT: The Temple

Walking the Burke Gilman with My Friends

Today will be my last 6 mile walk with my buddies for a few months. I leave the Seattle Area for Southern California on New Year’s Day. Every Saturday for several years now we walk rain or shine or snow 6 miles on the trail. Usually 9am to 11 am. Of course when I’m in Cali the walk is with 2 instead of 3…

 

Don’t they look lonely without me??

 

We walk by Wayne Golf Course in Bothell. It’s a little under water from all our rain.

And when we are this old we hope to still be walking together on the trail.

I’ll miss you my friends. God knows the desires of our hearts and He is good to us. Blessings on the trail without me….

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12 ~“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Photobucket has blacked out all my photos and is holding them hostage. I’m slowly cleaning up my posts to remove the ugly black and grey blocks that photobucket has inserted instead of my photos.

Thankful Thursday ~ Ephesians 3: 14-20

 I am thankful today for all we have in Christ and for my friends and family.

My gift for you who visit here and all who participate in Thankful Thursday is this prayer from Ephesians. It is so rich and so full. Blessings on all of you at this wonderful Christmas time.

Ephesians 3:14-20 ~

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives it name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

For more Thankful Thursday visit Lynn.

Thursday Thirteen #13 ~ Handel’s Messiah

The Messiah, Handel’s most successful and best known oratorio, was composed in the 1741 in 24 days. It was first performed at a concert given at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, on April 13th, 1742, Handel conducting in person. For more history of this first performance click here.

Here are thirteen lines from this amazing work…

1. “And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed”

2. “For He is like a refiner’s fire”

3. “and shall call his name Emmanuel: God with us”

4. “arise, shine, for thy light is come”

5. “For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given”

6. “and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

7.  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

8. “He is the righteous Saviour and he shall speak peace unto the heathen”

9. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, and He shall gather the Lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom”

10. “Behold the Lamb of God, behold the lamb of God, That taketh away the sins of the world.”

11. “He was despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”

12. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory.”

13. “Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

I’ve only seen the Messiah performed twice in person. If you never have you should put it on your list of things to do. It was an amazing experience. I hope to be able to enjoy a live performance again…

For more TT click here.

Some Spurgeon from Of First Importance ~

 

“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother.”

“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by the thousands, by their myriads, e’er since that day when Christ first entered His glory.

They come and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them, trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them.”

– Charles Spurgeon

(Ht: Of First Importance)

Thankful Thursday ~ Heirs Because of Christ!

Galatians 4: 4-6

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

What a wonderful time of year to consider all the wonderful blessings that are available to us because of Christ’s coming to earth and ultimately his sacrifice for our sins. Amazing to consider that we are heirs with Christ, simply amazing thing to be thankful for! Blessings on all of you.

 

For more Thankful Thursday head over to Laurel Wreath’s Reflections.

I also have a post below this of 33 things about my marriage up today since today is my 33rd wedding anniversary…I’m thankful for my husband and the 33 years God has given us so far filled with life changing experiences, boring days, sad days, exciting days and all kinds of days filled with His joy!

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos I was storing on their site and they are holding them hostage. I am working on updating my more than 4000 posts.

Coffee and Devotions

 Come and have a cup of coffee with me and consider some thoughts…

I’ve got the gas stove burning

The coffee is brewing. Pick a Christmas cup for your “Joe”. I can also boil water for tea, you know…

I’ve got mine ready to go…

This morning I was reading from John Piper’s Taste and See and I found these thoughts something good to ponder. I’m not including the whole of meditation #5 but parts of it.

“If we would be wise people – people on the way to being “sages” – we must understand how our sinful human hearts and minds work. One profound biblical insight we need to embrace is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way tht will make the desires look right. It is an illusion to think that our hearts are neutral and incline in accordance with cool, rational observation of truth. On the contrary, we feel powerful desires or fears in our hearts, and then our minds bend reality to justify the desires and fears….

….It is an old tale. From Cain (Genesis 4:9) to American presidents, truth has been sacrificed to desire, and the mind has been shrewdly employed by the darkened heart to shroud its passions. This is the point of Romans 12:18: They suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Truth is held hostage by the unrighteous commitments of the heart. The unrighteous heart then employs the mind to distract and deceive. As Jesus says, “Everyone who does evil hates the Light” (John 3:20). Doing the evil we love makes us hostile to the light of truth which will expose the evil and rob us of its fleeting pleasures. In this condition the mind becomes a factory of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions, and lies – anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction.

[sophistry -unsound or misleading but clever, plausible, and subtle argument or reasoning; sophism] [I added this definition because this was a new word to me]

We are all given to this. Our only hope is the transforming work of God in our hearts to free us from the bondage of a hardened heart that produces a futile mind.

….we should pray for God to change hearts so that they can see the beauty of truth and love it.

…Romans 6:17, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were commited.” Obedience came from the heart. Thanks be to God. And if thanks be to God, then let prayers be to God. He is our only hope – to escape our own delusions and deliver others.”

I hope you find these thoughts something good to ponder and learn from today. Go into this new day with truth and grace. Blessings…

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos I was storing on their site and they are holding them hostage. I am working on updating my more than 4000 posts.

Thankful Thursday ~ God’s Response to Repentance

Today I am reminded of God’s response to our repentance and for this I am so thankful…

Lamentations 3: 22-23 ~ “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Micah 7: 18-19 ~ “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry long but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 ~ “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

I John 1:9 ~ “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I am also thankful to be in my home in Washington for a month to spend some extended time with my children and to get things ready for our Christmas celebrations. I love this time of year. Blessings on all of you.

For more Thankful Thursday Posts head on over to Laurel’s.

Tuesdays, In Other Words ~

 

“One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there.  Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete.  There is always time to do the will of God.  If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.”~ Elisabeth Elliott ~

We have been studying I Thessalonians during Sunday worship and some lessons from these studies will fit with this quote. As believers the will of God for our lives will be found in His Word. Some of the key thoughts for us as believers found in I Thessalonians are to live in love, live a quiet life that reflects Christ to people who don’t know him, do our part to strengthen the body by encouraging our leaders, use wisdom as we serve our brothers and sisters in Christ, and take responsibility for each other. In order to live this way we need the courage to say no to other things in our lives that just don’t matter for eternity. We need to say no to schedules that make us run all day without accomplishing anything and without having anything to do with building Christ’s kingdom.

This quote is so timely for this Christmas season that is upon us! What a great reminder that the God who created us has time for us and He will give us the strength to do everything we truly need to do. I think the key thought here is that we are taking our daily needs and lists to God. When we truly are centered in this way our strength and reliance will come from Him and the things that do not get accomplished will not beat us down.

I Thessalonians 4: 11 ~ “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,”

Mathew 6:34 ~ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

To read more thoughts on this quote go to Motherhood and Beyond.

Life in the Northwest ~

Life for me in the Northwest is very different from Southern California. In Southern California it is a lot simpler. I have myself and Dear to take care of and a very compact one bedroom condo. No yard, no plants, no children. I will be in the Northwest with my children and my house and yard until New Year’s Day! I will miss Dear and our companionship for 25 days! Yikes. I will be quite busy here though. Already this Monday morning I have a second load of wash in. The dishwasher is running. I have my list of last minute items to buy for Dear to take back to California before his 6 PM flight today. All of this happened before dawn. I was able to step outside and take the picture of this glorious sky that God created for us to enjoy this morning.

Before Dear returns to Washington on December 21st I hope to have finally memorized the following verses that have given my brain such a workout! Good ole Apostle Paul and his run on sentences. This section that I was suppose to memorize for my Bible Study in Southern California has been the most difficult for me, but I am determined to get my brain to remember it. I dare you to memorize it too….

II Peter 1:2-4 (ESV)

“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

 Have a wonderful Monday, I’m off and running….