Category Archives: Books

A Gift For You -A Good Book-

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One of my favorite things to do, is to sit and enjoy a good cup of coffee with good friends. I love when my friends encourage me to good works, when they share how they win their battles, and how much they love their families.

Friends like these are a gift from God. I am forever grateful for each one of you!

Dear friends, I am glad to say that the winner of my first giveaway is:

I am very excited to read again the book, The Fruit of Her Hands, by Nancy Wilson, along with you. And if you are just jumping in, and would like to join us, read our reading schedule here.

I pray that God will help me be more sensitive to my husband and children’s needs as I read; I want to be the kind of woman that my children and husband call “blessed”.


Have a most joyous weekend!

What About Coffee, Cookies and a Good Book? -and a little gift-

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There are some books  I like to read and re-read several times, big books and little books, all kinds of books;  Theology books (my favorite ones) and books about family, homeschooling, homemaking, and being a Christian woman are the ones I most enjoy.

I have been thinking that I want to read again this book, The Fruit of Her Hands. Respect and the Christian Woman, by Nancy Wilson. Every time I read it, I am blessed and  renewed. I love to go through all my notes and jot new ones.

This time, however, I want to invite you to read along and then bring your cup of coffee or tea, some cookies or scones (Petra…) and join the conversation every Tuesday (4 Tuesdays).

This would be our schedule:

Tuesday, October 12, Chapters 1 and 2
Tuesday, October 19, Chapters 3 and 4
Tuesday, October 26, Chapters 5 and 6
Tuesday, November 2, Chapters 7 and 8

If you don’t have the book, you can order it through Canon Press, Amazon, and Monergism. I am pretty sure that if you decide to order it this weekend, you will have plenty of time to read the first two chapters before October 12.

If you don’t have the book, and would like to join me, I will be giving away one book (only USA and Canada); just leave your name and contact information and I will let you know this coming Saturday who the winner is. (I feel so odd doing this, I have never done it before!) The invitation to the giveaway will be closed Friday, October 1st before midnight ET.

Well I must go now, have a most joyous day!

This entry is linked to 5 Minutes for Books.com

When Light Meets Daily Life -III- and The Bruised Reed Ch. 3

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The pictures on this post are from Claire B.
Aren't they great? Thank you, Claire for letting me use them.
 

This is the second Thursday I share about the book we are reading together at Challies.com The book is The Bruised Reed by the Puritan author Richard Sibbes.
My comments on chapters 1 and 2 are here.

 
 
 
 

Chapter 3. The Smoking Flax

This is not an easy chapter, this is a chapter that brought tears to my eyes. Its words are like spades, they reached deep within my soul.

Sibbes, reminded me on how my spiritual life started, with little faith, with a “small beginning of grace” . And I just can’t but think how even that little portion of faith was given to me as an undeserved gift by my Father in Heaven, and was enough to save my life from an eternity far from Him.

So broken, so bruised, so dirty was my life, but He reached and gave me His saving Grace to “strive to perfection, and to keep me in a low opinion of myself“

He saw me; He reached to me, a bruised reed, and did not break me forever, He did not despise me.

Little beginnings full of grace. That is all we need.

Grace upon grace.

Grace for every day.

Small changes soaked in His grace.

Grace came and changed me, it gave me eternal life, but “grace does not do away with corruption all at once, but some is left for believers to fight with. The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and this is his office.”

The thorns of my flesh, are there, every day, to remind me of my desperate need of Him. To remind me that I am a bruised reed , to “preserve me from those two dangerous rocks which our natures are prone to dash upon, security and pride…”

I am in a daily journey to heaven…and “even as a candle in the socket shows its light, and sometimes the show of light is lost; so sometimes “I am” well persuaded of myself, sometimes at a loss.”
So here too, I see His light shining on this bruised reed, which is my own life.

A repost from the archives 

 

From my Reading Corner -On Marriage-

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I am reading, Sacred Marriage a book by Gary Thomas; my heart is being fed and my soul challenged: What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy? This is the question the author addresses through the book.

So here, I want to share some quotes with you.

“How can I tell my children that God’s promise of reconciliation is secure when they see that my own promise doesn’t mean a thing?” (p.35)

“If my marriage contradicts my message {of reconciliation}, I have  sabotaged the goal of my life: to be pleasing to Christ and to faithfully fulfill the ministry of reconciliation, proclaiming to the world the good news that we can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ” (p.34)

“Yes, it is difficult to love your spouse. But if you truly want to love God, look right now at the ring on your left hand, commit yourself to exploring anew what that ring represents, and love passionately, crazily, enduringly the fleshy person who put it there. 
It just may be  one of the most spiritual things you can do”         (p.51)

So I close this post here, I will now go and write my Man a letter; I want to tell him all that this ring on my left hand still means to me.

Only God can empower us to love passionately, crazily, enduringly. Only He has loved us that way!

Why not shut down your computer right now and gaze at the ring on your left hand and write a love letter to your man?

If you no longer have a ring on your hand go to Jesus and gaze at His love, and write a prayer to the One who is the author of love.

On Prayer and C.H Spurgeon

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I have been reading Spurgeon; A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore, as a response to an invitation by Challies.

C.H. Spurgeon, by Robert Bucknell

It has been a great thing to read this book, because even though, I have always read Spurgeon’s sermons, this is the first time I am reading about his life.

If you have been following this blog, you know that we have been studying about prayer in our home during this summer, and reading this book has challenged my prayer life in so many ways.

Spurgeon’s childhood was full of memories of his mom praying for him. He knew his mom was praying for him at all times, and  she was a great influence in his spiritual life; now the question is, do my children know I am fervently praying for them?; am I doing so?

We, moms, need not to forget our duties before the Lord. He listens to our prayers, let’s come before the Throne of Grace and bring our children daily before the only One who can take care of their souls.

As he grew up, his life as a minister was  deeply rooted in a life of prayer. Dallimore says, “In view of the spiritual warfare in which the Christian is placed, he was concerned first of all that his people learn truly to pray”

Let us not forget to teach our children how to pray, praying will be an anchor to their souls when storms come; let us not forget to teach them the riches hidden in the prayer closet. Let us never start our day without a family prayer. We cannot call ourselves Christians if we do not live by prayer.

A minister once said of Spurgeon’s prayer life, “Prayer was the instinct of his soul and the atmosphere of his life. It was his ‘vital breath’ and ‘native air’. He sped on eagle’s wings into the heaven of God”. If we truly are on our way to Heaven, prayer should be our ‘vital breath’; either we live by prayer in communion with God, or we are fooling ourselves and are not on our way to Heaven.

Tomorrow my friend, Lisa, will be my guest blogger. Every time I sit and listen to her, my  heart is filled and she always encourages me to grow in my prayer life. She is a woman of prayer. I have stayed as a guest in her home and in there you can breath the ‘native air’ of the Christian.