"Only when we turn away from looking at our sin to look at the face of God, to find his pardoning grace, do we begin to repent. Only by seeing that there is grace and forgiveness with him would we ever dare to repent and thus return to the fellowship and presence of the Father...Only when grace appears on the horizon offering forgiveness will the sunshine of the love of God melt our hearts and draw us back to him."
Sinclair Ferguson
"No sin can crucified in either heart or life unless it is first pardoned in conscience, because there will be a want of faith to recieve the strength of Jesus, by whom it alone can be crucified. If it be not mortified in it's guilt, it canot be subdued in it's power."
William Romaine
"We're changed when we look at Jesus, delight in Jesus, commune with Jesus." Tim Chester
Quotes from You Can Change by Tim Chester published by IVP 2008 page 56
Thursday 10 December 2009
Friday 13 November 2009
CS Lewis on Temptation
“I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious, provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience, etc. don’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the very sign of His presence.”
CS Lewis, Letters
CS Lewis, Letters
Thursday 29 October 2009
A day in the life of a GP registrar in Scotland.
Written for the YLCF "A day in the life of..." Carnival (http://www.ylcf.org/)
I have just got back from a 2 week holiday in India, so still in that strange state of having passed between 2 worlds. The journey took 30 hours from door to door with not enough sleep so passed 12 hours on Saturday night in deep slumber and slept very well on the Sunday night too. Today as yesterday the sun is shinning, and it is a beautiful autumn day with some trees already bare but others covered in glorious reds, oranges and browns.
But Monday morning sadly, it is grey, but not raining, with that coolness in the air, that is so very refreshing after the hot stickiness of South India (but I still miss it!).
I wake up at 7:15 am, wash my hair, get dressed, dry my hair, eat some breakfast, make sandwiches, put on a necklace and earrings and head out the door just after 8 am. I have a little second hand green Corsa with a lovely dent in the side and it makes all manner of funny noises but it gets me to work and it start thankfully despite the previous 2 weeks of non-use.
I listen to the Today programme as I drive, some politician being ruthlessly interviewed. Arriving, at work I have forgotten my password for the computer so phone the help desk and my first patient is seen 10 minutes late but I catch up. The morning is full of variety as it always is, different faces and problems, prescriptions and health advice leaflets, compromising and advising. I finish my surgery/clinic at 10:30 on the dot but not all the paper and computer work, but make a cup of tea before embarking on my dictation and case notes. I miss the doctor's coffee break partly because there is so much to do but so does everyone else as far as I can see. I am doing visits with my GP trainer, and so we jump in her car head first to the house of a 99 year old and then to a Nursing Home to see five of the residents. We discuss my holiday in India, and then on the way to the Nursing Home, a book based on the diary of a lady who was born in 1900 and died at the age of nearly 100 and all the changes she would of seen. The Filipina Nurse at the Home is full of the cold, but she directs us here and there and all is done by about 1:30 pm but we are still late for the doctors meeting arriving at 1:45 for the last 15 minutes. I eat my peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches and drink tea as talk shifts around the table.
I then have an hour to do more paperwork before a tutorial at 3 pm. I make a list of issues and questions I have, but before starting make more tea for us both. Later we set up a video camera that I will use later in the week for a video surgery. I dash out of the surgery leaving some things to be sorted the next day, as I drive to a friend's house prior for dinner to a missionary ( OMF) prayer meeting. The speaker works for OMF in Singapore advising parents and families in regard to home-schooling. The hostess and my other friend are both teachers so discussion focuses around this and other OMF chit-chat. We eat spaghetti bolognaise and a fruit flan and then Linda and I do the washing up and Sheila (the prayer group leader) and Moira (the speaker) set up in the living room. Everyone starts arriving, different voices mingling including that of Quest, Meryl's faithful guide dog.
Moira speaks in 20 minute sections, rewarding us with a prize for a question in each section, but they are all rather obscure. However I manage to win a batik cloth with Emmanuel in Chinese and English for pointing out Swine Flu to be the likely cause of a Giant Teddy Bear with a mask sitting on the pavement of Orchard Road, Singapore. Health Promotion Exercises in a country understandably frightened after SARS. And we pray for missionary kids and how they can be educated in the situations where their parents work.
I drive home as everyone starts to drink yet more tea as am still tired and jet lagged. I shower, watch some Spooks (a BBC drama about MI5)and then fall into bed with a John Simpson (BBC journalist) book but so tired read only a few pages and then fall quickly asleep.
I have just got back from a 2 week holiday in India, so still in that strange state of having passed between 2 worlds. The journey took 30 hours from door to door with not enough sleep so passed 12 hours on Saturday night in deep slumber and slept very well on the Sunday night too. Today as yesterday the sun is shinning, and it is a beautiful autumn day with some trees already bare but others covered in glorious reds, oranges and browns.
But Monday morning sadly, it is grey, but not raining, with that coolness in the air, that is so very refreshing after the hot stickiness of South India (but I still miss it!).
I wake up at 7:15 am, wash my hair, get dressed, dry my hair, eat some breakfast, make sandwiches, put on a necklace and earrings and head out the door just after 8 am. I have a little second hand green Corsa with a lovely dent in the side and it makes all manner of funny noises but it gets me to work and it start thankfully despite the previous 2 weeks of non-use.
I listen to the Today programme as I drive, some politician being ruthlessly interviewed. Arriving, at work I have forgotten my password for the computer so phone the help desk and my first patient is seen 10 minutes late but I catch up. The morning is full of variety as it always is, different faces and problems, prescriptions and health advice leaflets, compromising and advising. I finish my surgery/clinic at 10:30 on the dot but not all the paper and computer work, but make a cup of tea before embarking on my dictation and case notes. I miss the doctor's coffee break partly because there is so much to do but so does everyone else as far as I can see. I am doing visits with my GP trainer, and so we jump in her car head first to the house of a 99 year old and then to a Nursing Home to see five of the residents. We discuss my holiday in India, and then on the way to the Nursing Home, a book based on the diary of a lady who was born in 1900 and died at the age of nearly 100 and all the changes she would of seen. The Filipina Nurse at the Home is full of the cold, but she directs us here and there and all is done by about 1:30 pm but we are still late for the doctors meeting arriving at 1:45 for the last 15 minutes. I eat my peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches and drink tea as talk shifts around the table.
I then have an hour to do more paperwork before a tutorial at 3 pm. I make a list of issues and questions I have, but before starting make more tea for us both. Later we set up a video camera that I will use later in the week for a video surgery. I dash out of the surgery leaving some things to be sorted the next day, as I drive to a friend's house prior for dinner to a missionary ( OMF) prayer meeting. The speaker works for OMF in Singapore advising parents and families in regard to home-schooling. The hostess and my other friend are both teachers so discussion focuses around this and other OMF chit-chat. We eat spaghetti bolognaise and a fruit flan and then Linda and I do the washing up and Sheila (the prayer group leader) and Moira (the speaker) set up in the living room. Everyone starts arriving, different voices mingling including that of Quest, Meryl's faithful guide dog.
Moira speaks in 20 minute sections, rewarding us with a prize for a question in each section, but they are all rather obscure. However I manage to win a batik cloth with Emmanuel in Chinese and English for pointing out Swine Flu to be the likely cause of a Giant Teddy Bear with a mask sitting on the pavement of Orchard Road, Singapore. Health Promotion Exercises in a country understandably frightened after SARS. And we pray for missionary kids and how they can be educated in the situations where their parents work.
I drive home as everyone starts to drink yet more tea as am still tired and jet lagged. I shower, watch some Spooks (a BBC drama about MI5)and then fall into bed with a John Simpson (BBC journalist) book but so tired read only a few pages and then fall quickly asleep.
Thursday 17 September 2009
Inspired by CS Lewis and Esther Bhasme
I am the product of ...
humid hot weather
inventing of imaginary places
far too many notebooks
mango and sticky rice
inky fountain pens
musty libraries and
the smell of rain on hot concrete
Rebekah Dickinson 18 September 2009
humid hot weather
inventing of imaginary places
far too many notebooks
mango and sticky rice
inky fountain pens
musty libraries and
the smell of rain on hot concrete
Rebekah Dickinson 18 September 2009
A product of endless books
"I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books." -C.S. Lewis
Monday 31 August 2009
Ruth Myers
When I was at University, a friend gave me a copy of a prayer from Ruth Myer’s 31 Days of Praise. I have often come back to this over the years.
“I’m so grateful that the Christian life is not a rigorous self-improvement course or a do-it-yourself kit...that it is not a call to prove myself or improve myself by overcoming my own shortcomings and failures, in my own way, by my own resources. Thank You that, instead, You are at work in me and in my situation to break old patterns of thought and action, to create within me both the desire and the power to do your gracious will...and to make me a joy to You in new ways.
I praise You that “Jesus Christ is able to untangle all the snarls in my souls, to banish all my complexes, and to transform even my fixed habit patterns, no matter how deeply they are etched into my subconscious” (Corrie Ten Boom).Thank You for the many ways You use other people to counsel me and help me grow..and yet that Christ Himself is the Answer to my hangups, the one Source who can meet my deepest needs. How I rejoice that He is wonderful in counsel and mighty in power, and that He heals from the inside out. Thank You, too, for the Holy Spirit-the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength. I praise You that He is in me to enlighten me through Your Word, to flush away my anxieties and fears, my resentement and hostilities, my guilt and regrets, as water flushes away dirt and trash..to keep me filled with Himself and to flood my heart with Your love..to produce through me that fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..and to enable me to give thanks for all things as the hours and days and weeks pass. I rejoice that You are able and do far more than all I ask or think, according to Your power that is at work within me-the same power that raised Jesus from the dead!” Ruth Myers 31 Days of Praise Page 74-75
“I’m so grateful that the Christian life is not a rigorous self-improvement course or a do-it-yourself kit...that it is not a call to prove myself or improve myself by overcoming my own shortcomings and failures, in my own way, by my own resources. Thank You that, instead, You are at work in me and in my situation to break old patterns of thought and action, to create within me both the desire and the power to do your gracious will...and to make me a joy to You in new ways.
I praise You that “Jesus Christ is able to untangle all the snarls in my souls, to banish all my complexes, and to transform even my fixed habit patterns, no matter how deeply they are etched into my subconscious” (Corrie Ten Boom).Thank You for the many ways You use other people to counsel me and help me grow..and yet that Christ Himself is the Answer to my hangups, the one Source who can meet my deepest needs. How I rejoice that He is wonderful in counsel and mighty in power, and that He heals from the inside out. Thank You, too, for the Holy Spirit-the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength. I praise You that He is in me to enlighten me through Your Word, to flush away my anxieties and fears, my resentement and hostilities, my guilt and regrets, as water flushes away dirt and trash..to keep me filled with Himself and to flood my heart with Your love..to produce through me that fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..and to enable me to give thanks for all things as the hours and days and weeks pass. I rejoice that You are able and do far more than all I ask or think, according to Your power that is at work within me-the same power that raised Jesus from the dead!” Ruth Myers 31 Days of Praise Page 74-75
Sunday 19 April 2009
Blotted out.
This was on Facebook daily bread and a great and timely reminder.
The Best Eraser
READ: Luke 16:19-31
“ I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions. —Isaiah 44:22 ”
What is memory? What is this faculty that enables us to recall past feelings, sights, sounds, and experiences? By what process are events recorded, stored, and preserved in our brain to be brought back again and again? Much is still mystery.
We do know that memories can be blessings—full of comfort, assurance, and joy. Old age can be happy and satisfying if we have stored up memories of purity, faith, fellowship, and love. If a saint looks back on a life of Christian service and remembers the faithfulness of Him who promised: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5), his or her sunset years can be the sweetest of all.
But memory can also be a curse and a tormentor. Many people as they approach the end of life would give all they possess to erase from their minds the past sins that haunt them. What can a person do who is plagued by such remembrances? Just one thing. He can take them to the One who is able to forgive them and blot them out forever. He’s the One who said, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:17).
You may not be able to forget your past. But the Lord offers to blot out, “like a thick cloud, your transgressions” (Isa. 44:22). — M.R. De Haan
The deep remorse that’s in the soul
No human eye may trace;
But Jesus sees the broken heart,
And can its woes erase. —Bosch
The best eraser is honest confession to God.
The Best Eraser
READ: Luke 16:19-31
“ I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions. —Isaiah 44:22 ”
What is memory? What is this faculty that enables us to recall past feelings, sights, sounds, and experiences? By what process are events recorded, stored, and preserved in our brain to be brought back again and again? Much is still mystery.
We do know that memories can be blessings—full of comfort, assurance, and joy. Old age can be happy and satisfying if we have stored up memories of purity, faith, fellowship, and love. If a saint looks back on a life of Christian service and remembers the faithfulness of Him who promised: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5), his or her sunset years can be the sweetest of all.
But memory can also be a curse and a tormentor. Many people as they approach the end of life would give all they possess to erase from their minds the past sins that haunt them. What can a person do who is plagued by such remembrances? Just one thing. He can take them to the One who is able to forgive them and blot them out forever. He’s the One who said, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:17).
You may not be able to forget your past. But the Lord offers to blot out, “like a thick cloud, your transgressions” (Isa. 44:22). — M.R. De Haan
The deep remorse that’s in the soul
No human eye may trace;
But Jesus sees the broken heart,
And can its woes erase. —Bosch
The best eraser is honest confession to God.
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Ahl al-Kitāb Book Club
This is currently just a germ if an idea, but watch this space for further developments and watch out for more writing on new blog www.ahlal-kitabbookclub.blogspot.com (Ahl al-Kitāb means People of the Book in arabic).
Monday 2 February 2009
If you don't have this book then sell your coat to buy it!
"What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it- the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him, because he first knew me, and continues to know me.
He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment therefore, when his care falters.
This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort-the sort of comfort that energises, be is said, not enervates-in knowing God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good.There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point in prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion me about him, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself and quench his determination to bless me.
There is, certainly great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realise this purpose..."
Knowing God Ch 3 pg 45-46 J.I.Packer
He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment therefore, when his care falters.
This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort-the sort of comfort that energises, be is said, not enervates-in knowing God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good.There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point in prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion me about him, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself and quench his determination to bless me.
There is, certainly great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realise this purpose..."
Knowing God Ch 3 pg 45-46 J.I.Packer
Why I love Bookshops
"It is the most friendly vocation in the world,” he announced…“A bookseller is the link between mind and mind, the feeder of the hungry, very often the binder up of wounds. There he sits, your bookseller, surrounded by a thousand minds all done up neatly in cardboard cases; beautiful minds, courageous minds, strong minds, wise minds, all sorts of conditions. And there come into him other minds, hungry for beauty, for knowledge, for truth, for love, and to the best of his ability he satisfies them all…Yes…it’s a great vocation.”
“Greater than a writer’s?” asked Felicity.
“Immeasurably,” said Grandfather. “A writer has to spin his work out of himself and the effect upon the character is often disastrous. It inflates the ego. Now, your bookseller sinks his ego in the thousand different egos that he introduces one to the other…Yes…Moreover, his life is one of wide horizons. He deals in the stuff of eternity and there’s no death in a bookseller’s shop. Plato and Jane Austen and Keats sit side by side behind his back, Shakespeare is on his right hand and Shelley on his left.” He paused for a moment while Felicity took Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights gently away from him. “Yes. Writers, from what I’ve seen of them, are a very queer lot, but booksellers are the salt of the earth.” "
Elizabeth Goudge
“Greater than a writer’s?” asked Felicity.
“Immeasurably,” said Grandfather. “A writer has to spin his work out of himself and the effect upon the character is often disastrous. It inflates the ego. Now, your bookseller sinks his ego in the thousand different egos that he introduces one to the other…Yes…Moreover, his life is one of wide horizons. He deals in the stuff of eternity and there’s no death in a bookseller’s shop. Plato and Jane Austen and Keats sit side by side behind his back, Shakespeare is on his right hand and Shelley on his left.” He paused for a moment while Felicity took Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights gently away from him. “Yes. Writers, from what I’ve seen of them, are a very queer lot, but booksellers are the salt of the earth.” "
Elizabeth Goudge
The Homeliness Factor
There is some literature I love, because of the ordinariness it focuses on, the everyday grittiness, and gentle normality of it's content. When it also is combined with poetic and lyrical language, books like these are a real delight.
The books that I love the most and reread over and over again often fall into this category.
One example of this is A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. But I want to write about this another time.
Jane Eyre is the book I was thinking of today. I love the way it begins:
"There was no possibility of going for a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.
I was glad of it:I never liked long walks,especially on chilly afternoons:...."
Jane Eyre Ch1 pg1 Charlotte Bronte (1847)
You will have to read it if you want to know what happens next!
The books that I love the most and reread over and over again often fall into this category.
One example of this is A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. But I want to write about this another time.
Jane Eyre is the book I was thinking of today. I love the way it begins:
"There was no possibility of going for a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.
I was glad of it:I never liked long walks,especially on chilly afternoons:...."
Jane Eyre Ch1 pg1 Charlotte Bronte (1847)
You will have to read it if you want to know what happens next!
Sunday 1 February 2009
"...this amazing day..."
"i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)"
e.e. cummings
This is proving to be too much fun.
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)"
e.e. cummings
This is proving to be too much fun.
Reading Plan
I have read a number of times Luci Swindoll's book, "Wide my world, Narrow my bed". One particular chapter is entitled Academics and she outlines two different goals and reasons for reading and books that might fit into each category.
These are her goals and the suggested list of books for each goal.
"God-A knowledge of His Abilities. Suggested goal from the Bible:
1 Chronicles 28:9
....know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him;.."
"Suggested Reading List
1) The Confessions of St. Augustine
2) Ethics-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
3) Pilgrim's Progress-John Bunyan
4) Mere Christianity-C.S. Lewis
5) Knowing God-J.I. Packer
6) Man's Problems-God's Answers-Dwight Pentecost
7) Robust in faith-Oswald Saunders
8) The God Who is There-Francis Schaeffer
9) True Spirituality-Francis Schaeffer
10) Basic Christianity-John R.W. Stott
11) The Strong and the Weak -Paul Tournier
12) The Knowledge of the Holy-A.W. Tozer
Humanity-A Knowledge of Our Responsibilities
Suggested Goal, from Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis
"Nothing is certain. For that very reason, every individual, has a great responsibility in our amorphous uncertain age, a greater responsibility than every before. It is in such uncertain, possibility filled times that that the contribution of a people and of an individual can have incalculable value.
What, then, is our duty? It is to carefully distinguish the historic moment in which we live and to consciously assign our small energies to a specific battlefield."
Suggested Reading List
1) The Speeches of Winston Churchill
2) Civilisation-Kenneth Clark
3) Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevsky
4) An American Tragedy-Theodore Dreiser
5) Interpretations of Life-Will and Ariel Durant
6) Markings-Dag Hammarskjold
7) Scarlet Letter-Nathanial Hawthorne
8) Report to Greco-Nikos Kazantzakis
9) Orthello-William Shakespeare
10) Travels with Charley-John Steinbeck
11) Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy
12) The Power of Art-John Warbeke"
Wide my World, Narrow my Bed by Luci Swindoll (1960)
So there are the two lists. If you are reading this what would be your goals in reading? And if your goals were similar, what books would be on your list?
These are her goals and the suggested list of books for each goal.
"God-A knowledge of His Abilities. Suggested goal from the Bible:
1 Chronicles 28:9
....know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him;.."
"Suggested Reading List
1) The Confessions of St. Augustine
2) Ethics-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
3) Pilgrim's Progress-John Bunyan
4) Mere Christianity-C.S. Lewis
5) Knowing God-J.I. Packer
6) Man's Problems-God's Answers-Dwight Pentecost
7) Robust in faith-Oswald Saunders
8) The God Who is There-Francis Schaeffer
9) True Spirituality-Francis Schaeffer
10) Basic Christianity-John R.W. Stott
11) The Strong and the Weak -Paul Tournier
12) The Knowledge of the Holy-A.W. Tozer
Humanity-A Knowledge of Our Responsibilities
Suggested Goal, from Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis
"Nothing is certain. For that very reason, every individual, has a great responsibility in our amorphous uncertain age, a greater responsibility than every before. It is in such uncertain, possibility filled times that that the contribution of a people and of an individual can have incalculable value.
What, then, is our duty? It is to carefully distinguish the historic moment in which we live and to consciously assign our small energies to a specific battlefield."
Suggested Reading List
1) The Speeches of Winston Churchill
2) Civilisation-Kenneth Clark
3) Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevsky
4) An American Tragedy-Theodore Dreiser
5) Interpretations of Life-Will and Ariel Durant
6) Markings-Dag Hammarskjold
7) Scarlet Letter-Nathanial Hawthorne
8) Report to Greco-Nikos Kazantzakis
9) Orthello-William Shakespeare
10) Travels with Charley-John Steinbeck
11) Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy
12) The Power of Art-John Warbeke"
Wide my World, Narrow my Bed by Luci Swindoll (1960)
So there are the two lists. If you are reading this what would be your goals in reading? And if your goals were similar, what books would be on your list?
Saturday 31 January 2009
Emily Dickinson on Books (not a relative by the way!)
"He ate and drank the precious words,
His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings."
Emily Dickinson, Poems, pg 47 (1948)
His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings."
Emily Dickinson, Poems, pg 47 (1948)
Starting out
I have always admired those who blog and do it well and have resolved to begin myself. As I am such an incurable bookworm, this will be a definite theme. However I love to read books that describe the ordinary and everyday and I hope to write about this as well. One of my favourite passages in the bible is in Luke where he writes that Mary the Mother of Jesus pondered and treasured "all these things" in her heart. I wish to be a ponderer of the things that God shows to me of himself and a treasurer of his good gifts.
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