Another year...

Most of my blogs are somebody else's thoughts. You know - quotes from stuff I am reading. But this time it is my thoughts.

It won't be profound but it will be true.

DeeDee and I are about to say "Bye" to our son. This "Bye" will begin a year of separation. He will be in the "sandbox" serving his country, again.

(By the way he has been back less than a year from his last deployment. Is this "change I can believe in?")

A year. Wow, that is such a long time to not see someone. I have my beautiful wife, my baby daughter and son-in-law, my two precious grandchildren. Even every now and then my oldest daughter and son-in-law, come around.

But a year with out seeing "my boy". That was tough last time and it will be hard this time.

If I told you the stuff we have done over the years you would probably look at me strange and say, "The two of you did what?"

But many of those things are the things that are going through my mind

and my heart hurts

and I have a big lump in my throat.

So if you really want to help, pray first for Jonathan's precious wife, Brantley. I can't imagine how she is feeling. Then pray for DeeDee. (see her blog here) Then before you finish - mention me.

I would appreciate it.

I am so glad I am...
Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Some Quotes...

Recently I was looking back through a book I read several years ago and saw some of the thoughts I highlighted. I wanted to share them here so I am placing them both for you to read on this blog even though they are not related, directly.


They are from, "Recapturing the Wonder" by Ravi Zacharias.

"Like a child who suddenly stops sobbing when he is clasped in the arms of his mother, Such will be the grip of heaven on our souls."


"Thinking is a dying discipline in a society that throbs with activity."

Gripped by Grace
Hal

"What do you think?" or "What?... Do You Think?"

I am in the process of reading two great books. (I gave John Calvin a break.)

One is "The Christian Mind" by a British author, Harry Blamires. The other "Running on Empty" by Fil Anderson.

The first is, I believe, sermon preparation. The second one is definitely for me, but that is a story, maybe for another time.

In "The Christian Mind" I read the following quote which I have thought but could not have worded it in such a grand way. The British have a very "to the point" way of talking.

If Christians cannot communicate as thinking beings,
they are reduced to encountering one another only at
the shallow level of gossip and small talk. Hence the
perhaps peculiarly modern problem --- the loneliness of
the thinking Christian.

Very true Mr. Blamires. Very true.

So if you find yourself in a time of "small talk" or worse - "gossip"...think about this quote.

Gripped by Grace
Hal

IRONY...

"And the health, wealth and prosperity gospel folks say, what?"

I found this picture here.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Loving Each Other...

Below is an excerpt from a talk given by John Piper to his staff. It actually is good for us all. It is part of a longer article by Piper.

I hope you do as I did, read and learn.


Six Biblical Guidelines for Loving Each Other Amid Differences

1. Let’s avoid gossiping.

2. Let’s identify evidences of grace in each other and speak them to each other and about each other.

3. Let’s speak criticism directly to each other if we feel the need to speak to
others about it.

4. Let’s look for, and assume, the best motive in the other’s viewpoint, especially when we disagree.

5. Think often of the magnificent things we hold in common.

6. Let’s be more amazed that we are forgiven than that we are right. And in that way, let’s shape our relationships by the gospel.

The entire article can be read here.


Gripped By Grace,
Hal

A Good Friday Thought...

John Piper at Desiring God blog had the following quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is very applicable to this Easter Season, and is appropriate, as Piper points out, that sixty-four years ago today Bonhoeffer was hanged for his part in and assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler.

"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death.

Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. "
(The Cost of Discipleship, 99)

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Great Thought at EASTER...

Work through the old English and you will say "Wow!" when you read this quote, concerning a believer and not returning to sin.

"Now go on reader, and according to the order of Paul's writing, even so do though...Remember that Christ made not this atonement that thou shouldst anger God again; neither died he for thy sins, that thou shouldst live still in them; neither cleansed he thee, that thou shouldst return, as a swine, unto thine old puddle again; but that thou shouldst be a new creature, and live a new life after the will of God, and not of the flesh." William Tyndale


Gripped by Grace,
Hal