light.

ak and tm.

it's one of those days where everything sort of hurts, and my mind is rather foggy, and concentration is vastly too difficult to muster. but the sunshine pouring through my window is bright and warm, and the leaves are swirling by the window on the breeze, and the wispy clouds can't hold back the blueness of the sky. the Lord is so very good. He likes days of rest too.

balance.

"Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon." Nehemiah 4:17

"The battling of the Christian must never replace the building. We must be armed for our warfare ... [but] the wall has got to go up; the final answer of the Christian to the world is that the wall is being built, that the temple of the Holy Spirit is visible."

-excerpts from Alan Redpath's Victorious Christian Service: Studies in the Book of Nehemiah.
i am currently reading this book, and by it being immensely blessed. if you haven't read it, please put it on your to-read list!

suggestion.

don't run over your toe with the vaccuum cleaner!
if anything hurts like billy-oh, it's that.
but if you need your nail polish removed in a hurry, it'll help.
[why is it that this sort of thing only happens to me?]

roots.

last night our family went out to our country garden and picked the last of the summer harvest.
part of that harvest was a bumper crop of carrots, and several bucketsfull of potatoes.
but in order to remove those root vegetables, you have to dig- it's hard, dirty, work.
yet it wasn't without reward- we'll be eating carrots and potatoes until they come out our ears. [which would definitely incur more digging]

in the past days the Lord has been doing an awful lot of digging in my own heart. there's been bitterness left unheeded in the deep recesses of my heart. did i like to admit it? of course not. but in praying and preparing my heart for future ministry, the Lord has placed His finger upon that root, and has revealed the ugliness of it. it is not a pleasant experience to be dug into, but it is a necessary one if we are to be Useful For Every Good Work.

my friends, having learned this lesson the hard way, i humbly ask you to not let the root of bitterness go unchecked in your heart. may the God who dwells in unapproachable light shine into our hearts and cleanse us, that He may receive all the glory.

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. Heb. 12:14-15.

hymn.

More holiness give me, more striving within
More patience in suff'ring, more sorrow for sin
More faith in my Savior, more sense of His care
More joy in His service, more purpose in prayer.

More gratitude give me, more trust in the Lord
More pride in His glory, more hope in His Word
More tears for His sorrows, more pain at His grief
More meekness in trial, more praise for relief.

More purity give me, more strength to o'ercome
More freedom from earth-stains, more longings for home
More fit for the kingdom, more used would I be
More blessed and holy, more, Savior, like Thee.

Philip Bliss, 1873

barmherzigkeit.

The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy.
ps. 145:8

home-coming.

schönster Deutschland, ich vermisse dich. du bist mein Liebling!
weniger als vier Monate, und ich gehen zurück!
..
[translation: less than four months till i'm back!]

le voyage plein d'espoir.

well today i did it. i hopped in the car and sped down the road.
but only an hour and a half.
you know, it's really lovely, driving on a 2-lane highway across the prairie, passing through towns of population 61, named Ihlen or Holland or Woodstock, seeing the sun set over abandoned farmhouses, catching an undisturbed moon and stars and some fresh prairie air on the deserted road home.
but we're not all wilderness forever! oh, no.
in fact, this very evening i was inside a MALL, in the largest south dakotan city [which would perhaps seem miniscule compared to the average 'small town' on either coast]. but it's ok. the kindly caribou man sympathized with my overwhelmedness over such a spree.
[so if a half-horse/half-man is called a centaur, what is a half-man/half-caribou called? just wondering.]
he made good coffee too.

..
oh home, you're such a drag sometimes, but so comfortable to return to. you're really not that bad.
truly the Lord gives grace to His children, whether near or far, in that He is ever our steadfast Keeper.
..

grow-up + build-up
this has nothing to do with the post's previous thoughts, but the Lord has really been teaching me lately from ephesians and 1 corinthians about growing up in Christ. everything is to be done for the edification of the Body [His Body, no less], and although we shall be His children eternally, we are always growing up in Him. just like in The Last Battle [i just finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia- CS Lewis], where Aslan and all the creatures keep urging the children on- "Further Up and Further In!"
there should never be a plateau in our walk, for we are sojourners here. every step taken upon our Word-enlightened paths grows lovelier, because each step takes us nearer to the heart of God. this whole Growing Up business has often left me quite baffled- but the Savior, has comforted my heart, and shown me that it is not merely outwardly that we have to grow up, but it is His delight that we should grow up into Him, and thereby be more thoroughly equipped to edify the Body also.
[see ephesians 4-5; 1 corinthians 14-15]

in memory.

[beware of somewhat gory content]








it has come to my remembrance that a certain calamitous event occured one year ago this week.
oh yes, it was a memorable day: the day the Danger Brigade inaugurated its first permanent member, who happens to be myself.

on September 22nd, we shall celebrate this joyous [and somewhat less bloody] anniversary, perhaps by an Impromptu Crash Course in Bicycle Safety!

dedicated to Anja Kell, my faithful and beloved Krankenhaus sister. let's eat some CAKE! :)

endeavor.

my attempts at creating a heartfelt, personal post this evening have been disastrous.
consequently, i shall forbear.

it is c-o-l-d! not long now till the crispening leaves transform from commonplace to exquisitely ablaze!

favourite artist of the art show attended today:
jean haefele [hay-flee], for her magnificent collages!

tomorrow we shall have an orchard romp, and lovely carameled apples.

at right:
Colour-Striped Bag hot off the press [for sister-in-law],
and its predecessor, Green Pumpkin-Lantern Bag.
[they're actually rather large]

hoorah!

un-dragoned.

..."And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
"Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke - 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it.
"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it IS such fun to see it coming away. ...
"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass; only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there I was as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why.

I'd turned into a boy again."

-Eustace Clarence Scrubb, after Aslan un-dragoned him in the land of Narnia, and changed him forevermore.
[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis: pp. 115-116]


An apt description of redemption, is it not? Not by works of righteousness which we have done..


Titus 3:4-7
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

truckload.

at a stop-light today i sat 2 cars behind a smallish truck, quite loaded down.
it's cargo? dirt, but not simply dirt- dirt with grass still attached, and rather jumbled at that.
so i chuckled as i saw a lumpy pile of grass-covered dirt, streaking round the corner.
looked like a hobbit house on wheels.

advice.

weekly favourites.

my original Moz-art.


colours!


china and textiles, how lovely!


the old apron: light pink, liberally sprinkled with fanciful shells and fish.


jingle, jingle, little star.

le module de fenêtre

gifts.

"Why, oh why," he cried in his heart as he listened, "has the world's great treasure of song been so often held far from the poor because the personal possessor of voice or fingers, capable of stirring divinest melody, has so often regarded the gift as something with which to make money? Shall there be no martyrs among the gifted ones of the earth? Shall there be no giving of this great gift as well as of others?"
[In His Steps, Sheldon, p. 231]


Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord
By the power of grace divine
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope
And my will be lost in Thine

Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord
To the cross where Thou hast died
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord
To Thy precious, bleeding side.

imagination realized.

someday it'll become a reality in my storyland.

sacrifice.

"Night after night the Bishop and Dr. Bruce with their helpers went out and helped save men and women and children from the torture of physical privation. Vast quantities of food and clothing and large sums of money were donated by the churches, the charitable societies, the civic authorities and the benevolent associations.
But the personal touch of the Christian disciple was very hard to secure for personal work.
Where was the discipleship that was obeying the Master's command to go itself to the suffering and give itself with its gift in order to make the gift of value in time to come?
The Bishop found his heart sink within him as he faced this fact more than any other.

Men would give money who would not think of giving themselves.

And the money they gave did not represent any real sacrifice because they did not miss it. They gave what was the easiest to give, what hurt them the least.
Where did the sacrifice come in? Was this following Jesus? Was this going with Him all the way? He had been to members of his own aristocratic, splendidly wealthy congregations, and was appalled to find how few men and women of that luxurious class in the churches would really suffer any genuine inconvenience for the sake of suffering humanity.
Is charity the giving of worn-out garments? Is it a ten-dollar bill given to a paid visitor or secretary of some benevolent organization in the church? Shall the man never go and give his gift himself? Shall the woman never deny herself her reception or her party or her musicale, and go and actually touch, herself, the foul, sinful sore of diseased humanity as it festers in the great metropolis? Shall charity be conveniently and easily done through some organization? Is it possible to organize the affections so that love shall work disagreeable things by proxy?"
[Excerpt taken from Charles Sheldon, "In His Steps," pp. 211-212.]

For hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps.
1 Peter 2:21

priceless.

the look in a little boy's eyes when the greatness and holiness of God is explained via isaiah 6.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.
Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one cried to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!"