66 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-11-15”

  1. Morning all. It is beginning to get cold again tonight. I best head under the covers. I leave this day to you. Oh, a plumber came today and I again have hot water in my kitchen after a month without. So.. I also had him put in water lines and move my washing machine from under the house to in my entryway. Now I can do laundry whenever I like instead of waiting for daylight hours. I do need to run an extension cord or get an electrician.

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  4. Good morning Aj. And sweet dreams Jo.

    😦 I got 0.1 inch rain last night. I was hoping for an inch or more. We have a drought here in NC. Not like Donna, but we are under a “voluntary” ten percent reduction of use advisory.

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  6. I don’t know who saw it last night but Mr Brown died. Mass of Christian Burial will be Friday morning with full military honors to follow. There are many family members who will be traveling. As you know things can sometimes get dicey when one child has done most of the “heavy lifting” and siblings come in from far away wither own ideas of what should be done. He would have been 91 in September so it isn’t sad. He is no longer in pain. Last week he couldn’t stand being touched. He is the Catholic I mentioned ed yesterday morning.

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  7. 😦 I saw your post yesterday abut losing your sailor man, Kim. Just let the children sort it out.
    A couple of weeks and nothing will matter. (Unless he left a substantial legacy. Then it could get dicey.

    Elvera and I are very specific in our wills.

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  8. Oh I don’t have a dog in that fight. I asked for and received what I wanted from them when they moved into asister living. I asked for something small that they no longer wanted or needed to remember what a lively home they always had. Their choice of what it was. It is a Snow Angel. Mrs B collected them. I have a silver bracelet from one lady. I have a crystal bell from another. I j u st want something that when I see it I smile.

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  10. Good morning. It is shaping up to be a busy week. Yesterday we were gone for a good chunk of the day, visiting my parents. Today I’m getting back to work on the KonMari method of home organizing I’d read about some months ago, started, but have not completed yet. Hoping to get a lot accomplished on that this week, as well as get organized with planning 3rd Arrow’s graduation party for Labor Day weekend.

    No piano students this week — I take off two weeks in the summer, and this is the second of the two — but I have upped 5th Arrow’s school time — so there is that to keep me busy, as well.

    And there’s a sale on a new (to me) homeschool curriculum I am thinking of using, which only lasts for two more days, so I’ve been perusing the resources online, comparing them to what I already have that is similar, and trying to make a decision on what parts, if any, of the new method I will use.

    Time for me to get off the computer for a few days, or longer…

    Blessings to all.

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  12. With all the negative viewpoints on Jesus Calling yesterday, I did not want to say that I did buy that devotional Bible that was on closeout. I buy a lot of different Bibles when they are deeply discounted to donate to the prison ministry or use in the church library. I need to be familiar personally with what is available. I have only read a few pages in the Bible. I will reserve judgement, and not just base my opinion on what others say without reading at least some of it myself. I have friends who have been long time Christians who have felt helped by the writings, but as I said before, maybe they are gleaning the best and neglecting the rest. Like Mumsee said, I would not want a new young believer to engage with it before they have a firm foundation. The few pages I have read so far have not been offensive or contradictory to what God says. It has been more like a repeating of God’s word in a personal way as if it is being said to her for what she is going through. For those who believe God is out there and not involved personally in lives would greatly be offended by this approach. It felt weird to me to read it as if Jesus spoke it, but if it does stick with the Scriptural truth then I can see how it might have goodness within to help certain people.

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  13. We had a terrible thunderstorm yesterday that knocked out our power for awhile. I was glad I was home to keep Miss Bosley feeling safe. She did not run under the bed.

    I went with a group of lady friends for a birthday luncheon at Outback yesterday. These ladies brought a human size teddy bear named Bear, and two smaller bears, Cookie and Cupcake to dine wirh us. It was funny to see the looks we got. It’s great to be with ladies in their seventies and eighties who engage in fun and sometimes even giggle like a bunch of teenagers. 🙂 Two of the ladies were former missionaries. ♡

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  14. I feel sadness over your loss, Kim, and relate in basic ways as we have been losing so many of our vets and their wives at church lately. We are a few blocks away from the VA hospital so maybe that is one reason we have been blessed with so many older vets. They have all been wonderful role models. I know you feel very blessed to have had a long relationship with your beloved vet. May the good memories overwhelm the sadness you feel over his passing.

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  15. 6 Arrows, if you are still around, please let me know what new homeschool program you are talking about in case anyone at the church library asks for recommendations. Thanks, if you are here!

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  17. Janice, and others, some deaths are filled with sorrow and some are more peaceful. He would have been 91 in September. He was married to the same bride for 70+ years. I personally think that to his last he was thinking of her. He didn’t want to go home from the hospital. I think he wanted to die there so that she would not see him suffer.
    He was the Catholic I was thinking of when I posted yesterday morning. He remained in the Navy after the war. He was not raised Catholic, he was a convert. I remember the story being told of him being home for Easter, the family attended Mass and he went forward with them to receive communion. He had kept his conversion a secret and that is how his wife and children found out. He was the better Catholic than they were. He retired from the Navy. Retired from the another government job (Postal Service?) and then spent 20 years volunteering at the Catholic Elementary School. I imagine there will be lots of former students there to celebrate his life. One of the family wrote this about him:
    “He was truly a remarkable man. He was a highly decorated Navy Veteran that met many Presidents and other famous and important people in the world. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, & great great grandfather. He will be greatly missed by all who met, knew him, & loved him. ”
    Oh, and when he and his wife danced…it was a sight to behold. Think Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
    I am more blessed to have known him.

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  18. You folks had a discussion yesterday abut translations. I have a KJV that I am reading. In it, there are word corrections. e.g.. Where KJV says “Holy Ghost”, it says “Holy |Spirit| with a notation in the border “KJV Ghost” I say that, to say this:
    I was reading this morning, Peter says “I Peter 1:6 “”ye are in heaviness through manifold |trials|. In the border, it says “KJV temptations
    In August, Pastor Steve is preaching “5 verses everyone should know”. These are:
    I John 5:11-12
    I Corinthians 10:13
    I John 1:9
    John 16:24
    Proverbs 3:5-6
    Well! Pastor Steve was preaching I Cor. 10:13 last Sunday and pointed out the significant difference between “trial” and “temptation” which the KJV often uses interchangeably.
    A trial is something that comes on everyone. Not much can be done about it. Sickness, loss of job, etc. Temptation comes from a lust for something.. An advancement, pleasure, etc. A trial can lead to temptation, but it is not the temptation.
    It’s important to differentiate the two.
    An important fact I learned years ago. The Bible never says “resist temptation” It says “flee temptation”. (No, it doesn’t use those words, but that’s what it means.)

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  19. Janice, just so you know, back in the day I bought a copy of The Message and actually gave as gifts copies of The Purpose Driven Life. Both thoroughly disdained by a lot of people. But, I do believe God can use many things. Though I need to be very careful with daughter. She has a young person’s Bible because I thought it would help her with reading and understanding, but she definitely reads the side notes as Scripture and I am constantly trying to get her to see that is just the person’s view.

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  21. Thanks for sharing that about your Mr. Brown, Kim.

    Janice, I am considering using curriculum from Simply Charlotte Mason. I’ve done a lot of reading over the past few years on Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education, and have thought of how I can implement some of her principles in our homeschool. This website has resources that can be ordered as e-books or print books to support a CM-style education: https://simplycharlottemason.com/

    I just finished reading one of their free e-books, Education Is. I downloaded a few other free items, too, and plan on reading those today and tomorrow to get a better idea of how I want to approach this new (old) way of education. (Charlotte Mason was a 19th century British educator, and considered education “an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.”)

    I like that idea of a holistic education that goes far beyond academics, but need some help implementing it, so I was hoping the SCM website would assist in that endeavor. And, so far, it is. I’m enjoying perusing what they have there, thinking of how I will use some of the resources in our own family’s situation.

    Thanks for asking. 🙂

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  22. The Jesus Calling Devotional Bible I got is the New King James Version and it is genuine leather, originally $129.00 but reduced to $19.00 at Christianbook.com People could skip over her writings and just read the Bible if they choose.

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  23. On translations and head coverings: I have before me a six version parallel. Three state in 1 Cor 11:16, that they have no such custom and neither do the others. The other three state that they all have the custom and so do all the other churches around. That is in regard to the woman wearing a head covering. Particularly, the KjV and the NASV hold opposing statements. I tend to use the NASV.

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  24. 6 Arrows, I had some of Charlotte Mason’s books a long time back and really liked her approach. Glad to see you like her ways, too. I found the book, The Well Trained Mind, to be helpful in the upper years with its focus on a classical education. I tried to use some of it in what we did. Ses like I recall son was writing some papers on the historical context of the classical books he read. Have you looked at that book and their method?

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  26. $129! That is more than what my genuine leather Cambridge KJV Bible cost.

    6 Arrows, eldest sibling uses Charlotte Mason methods with her children. It works very well, and had I any children, I think I would try it.

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  27. Sin results from the giving into the lust produced in the heart that has encountered temptation. The cycle of temptation~>lust~>sin can be broken by inserting thoughts of Jesus and His words at any point, but its probably best to nip it in the bud by avoiding temptation at the start if possible. Flee it as the Bible warns, and Chas reminded.

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  28. Just a little more background on why I even considered Jesus Calling. Several years back I had been to a conference and during down time a woman and I had been browsing the Christian books. They had one copy of the Jesus Calling Bible that the woman was considering buying for her daughter. I told her it was not a good book to buy based on what I had heard. So she did not buy it. So when I saw the great sale I was reminded of her and how I dissuaded her without me even having looked in the book. Little did I know the book held special meaning as it had helped her family in grief processing over a terrible tragedy. So I felt good telling her about the beautiful copy of the Bible avaiable at that price.

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  30. On the difference between trials and temptations, I don’t have a problem with the KJV’s interchangeable use of the words. I don’t know of a trial which doesn’t contain temptations, the temptation to doubt God’s goodness, the temptation to take fleshly shortcuts for relief, the temptation to be impatient, angry, bitter, and so on. As Cheryl pointed out, temptations do not come only from within, but also from without; and those that come from without are trials of our faith and obedience.

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  31. I guess I thought that the temptations are always originated outside in the first place, but once given into, I suppose we temp ourselves from within by dwelling on what was originally outside and easily fleeable?

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  32. Janice, that sounds about right. Temptations from inside are described in this way in James 1: “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then, when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.” I was watching a discussion on same sex attraction, and the question about how Christ “was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin” was brought up. One of the panelists pointed out that Christ did not have the inward lusts to sinful things that we have, but he did have all the outward temptations to sin that we have.

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  33. Russell Moore wrote a good book on temptation — “Tempted and Tried”

    The first chapter is called: “Wrestling with Demons: Why Temptation Matters” — good book on the topic, very readable and not overly long.

    It’s been a few years since I read it, but the discussion here reminded me of it.

    I’m very sorry to hear about the passing of your friend, Kim, but as you said, at 91 it was a good run. We’re here on earth for exactly the amount of time God ordains, no more no less.

    And having mementos from the people who have been important to us in our own journeys through life is so sweet.

    I have a birdhouse from my old neighbor (in my former neighborhood — when she died, her sister had asked if there was anything of Maxine’s that I’d like and, since Maxine always enjoyed showing me her wooden birdhouses in the backyard so much after I moved and would visit, I asked for one). From another very dear friend who died probably 10 years ago now I have a wind up “amazing grace” brass church that sits on a shelf (she’d given it to me for Christmas one year). She lamented at the time (she ordered it from a catalogue) that it was much smaller than she thought it would be, but it’s just the perfect size — and I think of her every time I look at it.

    From Norma, of course, I have this amazing bookcase 🙂 But also a couple little things. She had maybe 500 ceramic cats, I kid you not — many given to her as gifts through the years, I’m sure, but many also hand-painted by her sister who was born with a congenital heart condition and died fairly young. I took 2 black-and-white cats along with a little ceramic angel as these were items that wouldn’t have been worth money, really, but were sweet and personal. I suspect at least one of the cats was one her sister may have painted as a child.

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  34. I’m working late today, have to cover a 6:30 p.m. meeting that will go at least a couple hours, I’m sure. Before that, I need to stop by and try to interview a couple of our homeless folks as the story I’ll be doing from the meeting has to do with an effort to built “tiny” houses for them (which has drawn mixed reviews from residents, many of whom complain they look like dog houses lined up in the streets). It’s a movement that started in LA and I think there’s a church involved in our local effort that so far has produced 2 houses but is planning more.

    We continue to have a lot of folks living on the streets in our area (and I read where California now has 22% of the nation’s total homeless population). It’s especially bad as you drive through downtown LA, every overpass, every tunnel is lined shoulder-to-shoulder with people in tents, with all their belongings stacked up.

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  35. I have seen more on the streets here just lately, Donna. Tiny houses are better than none in my opinion, especially for those reluctant to get other help. Is it considered enabling to make them a little less uncomfortable?

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  36. I just put on a “head covering” bandana while I dealt with the litter box. I have in the past considered changing the litter on a Sunday morning and thought, “No! Not before church.” That made me think how long hair can accumulate less than deirable smells from the air and how we don’t want to carry the scents especially to church. So in some cases that may have been even more incentive to wear a fresh head covering to church.

    When I was young, my brother would pitch a fit if he had to sleep on a pillow I had slept on. He said my head sweated and made pillows stink. He always had a nice cool crew cut so I guess that was true about the pillows, but it did hurt my feelings.

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  37. I think the criticism is probably centered both on visual blight and on something that could make the encampments more of a permanent fixture. The houses aren’t supposed to be on public streets and/or must be moved every 72 hours (they’re constructed so they can be moved on wheels).

    Currently tents are the preferred shelter among most of the homeless here.

    The encampments have become a bigger issue in the past year as they tend to set up in public parks and on public sidewalks.

    Frankly, the houses look so hot and, yes, tiny (as in really claustrophobic) & uncomfortable to me, I’d think a roomy tent or sleeping outdoors would be preferable for most (except in rainy weather, of course).

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  38. I don’t know how well the tiny-house idea would work, simply because very few homeless people have lack of a home as their underlying issue. Many of them choose panhandling as their job, for example, since they can make far more money at it than a real job, and some of those aren’t actually homeless at all. But many are mentally ill and/or addicts. They are unlikely to value or care for houses that are given to them for free. (Who sweeps? Who mows the yards? Do they have electricity and water, and if so, who pays for them? Who pays for any roof repairs and so on?)

    I would rather expect that the “block” might end up a bit like the projects do, with beer bottles and broken bottles, the smell of urine, drug deals gone bad and murder and theft.

    In other words, I personally would be more inclined to find those willing and able to work toward a place of their own, and subsidize that as necessary, than to give a free house that probably won’t be well cared for. If they’re willing and able to work and just can’t get work, that is a factor. I suspect Habitat for Humanity might be able to do the tiny-home thing and do it well, because among other things they would require the residents to help build their own homes. Perhaps they aren’t being given them free, but if they are, I don’t expect the plan to work.

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  39. I was not thinking of tiny houses as living spaces but as shelter in the night to keep safe while asleep. Pretty much like a dog house with locking door and maybe a fan to move the heat out and bring in cool evening air and maybe some system for heating in winter.

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  40. Janice, did you read the reviews? I think you’re misunderstanding the argument people are making. It isn’t that there are all sorts of obvious errors within the book. It’s far more nuanced than that. Would you buy a study Bible with notes by Joseph Smith? From what I understand, most of the Book of Mormon looks like it could be from the King James Bible–that in fact a lot of it is copied from the King James Bible. The problem with the Book of Mormon (and with Jesus Calling) is that it claims to be new revelation from God. Now, this author may be more subtle than Joseph Smith. She isn’t trying to start a new religion. But she too is saying “The Bible is not enough.” Also, it isn’t what she says (entirely) but what she leaves out: apparently there are lots of nice words in there about how much Jesus loves you, but nothing about sin or God’s justice, or the way to peace with God (through the crucifixion and resurrection). So it is dangerous. It isn’t words from God, but it is meant to sound like it is.

    The Bible warns us that even Satan can appear as an angel of light. It actually wouldn’t surprise me at all if it was the same fallen angel who appeared to Joseph Smith and to this author. The results of the two books are a bit different; one is written to get people to go into a false religion, and one is written to make people think that the words in the Bible aren’t enough, that we need something newer and better, but both have a “new word from Jesus.”

    If you want words from God, read the Bible. That is what He has given us. Anything else that claims to be from Him is false, and it is dangerous. Please read the reviews that were linked yesterday, because they explain it more thoroughly.

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  41. I haven’t read (I haven’t even heard about.) the book in question. However, whatever it says, the admonition from Cheryl is well taken.
    “If you want words from God, read the Bible”
    I read commentaries as such. And I disagree with some. Commentaries are just that.
    commentaries

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  42. There is a Tiny House movement in Idaho … But their *tiny* houses look much bigger than those being built here.

    http://www.meetup.com/Idaho-Tiny-House-Building-Tiny-Houses-for-the-Homeless/

    I agree with Cheryl on the book issue, obviously, but also her comment on the homeless and how a lack of housing isn’t the real problem — homelessness is more of a symptom (of many different issues) which is what makes it so hard to “fix.”

    But there has been some success in what’s commonly known as the “housing first” movement — which is more permanent housing than ‘tiny’ houses, which are meant to be only temporary/emergency shelter — and as long as it is done on a model that includes intense follow-up counseling and job assistance services.

    One of the best examples where this was done was in Salt Lake City, but their situation was much different than ours in LA, for example. They had a much smaller homeless population and the Mormon Church pitched in much of the funding that was needed to build the homes and apartments.

    Trying to get something workable on a much bigger scale in our large metropolitan cities is a more difficult challenge.

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  43. Well, my comment vanished.

    But as I was saying …

    There is a tiny house movement in Idaho — http://www.meetup.com/Idaho-Tiny-House-Building-Tiny-Houses-for-the-Homeless/ — though their houses appear to be much bigger than the ones being constructed here.

    And I agree with Cheryl that a lack of homes isn’t the *real* problem — Homelessness really is a symptom of so many other real causes, and that’s what makes it so hard to “fix.”

    But that said, there has been some success in what’s known as the “housing first” movement in which permanent (not tiny) houses are found for people who then are enrolled in an intensive counseling (job and personal) program. Relieving the issues brought on by being without shelter seems to put people in a better frame of mind and health to embark on the bigger changes needed to get themselves back on track.

    One notable success has been Salt Lake City — but their situation was much less challenging that ours in L.A., for example (or in any other large city). They had fewer homeless and the Mormon Church chipped in most of the large amounts of funding it took to build the homes and apartments that were needed in the program.

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  44. And ditto to cheryl’s comments again on the book concerns. I suspect the author isn’t claiming what she’s written is infallible per se, but she certainly implies as much by saying these were words somehow directly streamed to her by Jesus.

    And that’s exactly where we always start getting into trouble — adding to, subtracting from what is God’s infallible Word (the Bible). “Did God really say?”

    So in this case, it’s the author’s premise itself that is troublesome.

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  45. On Utah’s homeless program:

    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free

    ________________________________

    The old model assumed that before you could put people into permanent homes you had to deal with their underlying issues—get them to stop drinking, take their medication, and so on. Otherwise, it was thought, they’d end up back on the streets. But it’s ridiculously hard to get people to make such changes while they’re living in a shelter or on the street. “If you move people into permanent supportive housing first, and then give them help, it seems to work better,” Nan Roman, the president and C.E.O. of the National Alliance for Homelessness, told me. “It’s intuitive, in a way. People do better when they have stability.” Utah’s first pilot program placed seventeen people in homes scattered around Salt Lake City, and after twenty-two months not one of them was back on the streets. In the years since, the number of Utah’s chronically homeless has fallen by seventy-four per cent.
    __________________________________

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  46. When I first moved here, I could spread a yard of mulch with no problem
    I got three quarters, maybe 2/3 done, but I had to stop.
    It bugs me that I can’t do all of it, but I’m happy that I can still do it.
    And I’m happy that I have the smarts to stop. There are some who won’t.
    Some my age can’t.

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  52. Nice to hear the positive Charlotte Mason reports, Janice and Roscuro.

    Janice, I’ve heard of The Well Trained Mind, but have not read the book. I have a little familiarity with the classical education approach, though, and did purchase once from the Veritas Press catalog (a source for classical education resources) a number of years ago.

    They carry a series of books entitled Classical Math to Classical Music, with four separate books for each of the four basic functions in math: “Addition to Music,” “Subtraction to Music,” “Multiplication…” and “Division…”. There are also four corresponding CDs where the math facts are sung to the tunes of famous classical pieces.

    The books also contain a biographical feature for each classical composer whose music appears on the coordinating CD, and there is a crossword puzzle for each composer, reviewing some of those biographical facts.

    You won’t be surprised to learn that I enjoy this resource. 🙂

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  53. “four separate books for each of the four basic functions…”

    That sounds like 16 different books, doesn’t it? There are actually only four books total.

    Goof up my writing, and I get a wrong math answer as a result. 😛

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  54. From page viii of thr front pages of the Jesus Calling Devotional Bible:

    “How to use the Jesus Calling Devotional Bible

    These intimate expressions are written as prayers to Jesus, describing various life situations men and women face every day. Read the personalized prayer first; then read the devotional on the facing page, written by Sarah Young, who uses the words of Scripture to provide Jesus’ possible answer and guidance in that situation.”

    I have not read much except for one or two of the devotions. I have not done a good sampling much less thorough study or deep thought about it. I may come to the exact conclusions you have quoted in other reviews. I just appreciate being given credit to be able to discern for myself. Too many people quote the experts without reading for themselves. I read part of The Shack and could not read the whole thing. It may turn out like that with this. Perhaps we should only have stand alone Bibles with no study notes, devotionals, etc. added. I don’t see any comparison between this and being under the teachings of Joseph Smith. I do not see, at least so far, that she is setting herself up as an authority equal to God. I do feel concern that in Christian publishing that for whatever reason sometimes people want to smear the reputation of authors and nasty things get written that may not be true or on the opposite end wonderful things may be said about undeserving material. That is one reason I like to read that about which I talk. I hope this makes sense. I have so much other reading to do that I have really not gotten to this yet.

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  55. That does raise legitimate questions about how we are to use devotionals & commentaries. I don’t know enough more about “Jesus Calling” beyond the reviews and summaries I’ve read, so I’ll stop. 🙂

    Tiny houses have exploded today, it’s turned into a major issue and I’ve already posted 3 versions of a story, with more to come after tonight’s meeting.

    Unfortunately, I was unable to interview the inhabitants as there was a very loud domestic dispute going on when I arrived. I figured it was a bad time. 🙂

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  56. Janice, we’re trying to give you tools for discernment. When someone says she is quoting words from Jesus, there is good reason for a huge red flag. I have no problem with study notes–I have in fact written (and published) some myself; it’s “these words come from Jesus” that makes this different. I too like to make up my own mind about something, if there is at least a possibility there is some good in it. (I haven’t formed any solid opinions on The Shack, for example, and waited to read 90 Minutes in Heaven before I said much about it.) On the other hand, when someone recently tried to encourage me to read Seventh-Day Adventist propaganda material, I refused. I’ve refused to read one book by Debi Pearl because I know of serious doctrinal issues she and her husband hold (and I have read a different one). Not everything “deserves” a personal reading, if we know of serious problems before we even start to read it, and in my opinion the warnings on this one are enough to put it in that category. (Did you read the reviews, BTW? I am curious.)

    But my supper is ready–no offense is intended, and I hope none has been taken.

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  57. Jo, I would like to sympathize with you, but you’re on about the same latitude as Brazil.
    I know you have lots of elevation but I can’t get out of my head the WW II pictures of guys trekking through the jungles of New Gunea.

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  58. Janice, I agree with this statement you made in your 7:07 comment.

    I do feel concern that in Christian publishing that for whatever reason sometimes people want to smear the reputation of authors and nasty things get written that may not be true…

    Unfortunately, that does happen. But I appreciate the warning Tim Challies sounded about Jesus Calling in the article I linked to yesterday. (Here it is again, if you didn’t read it):

    http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/jesus-calling

    Two big reasons I appreciated his critique is that, first of all, for purposes of review, he did read the book himself, and it was on that basis, not another’s word, that he could say it was a dangerous book, and he could see no reason to recommend it.

    The second reason I appreciated his article was that he did not engage in smearing the reputation of the author of Jesus Calling. He knows better than to do that, as he has been on the receiving end of nasty and unfounded comments made about him, so he is careful not to do the same when critiquing writings he has personally examined.

    This is an excellent article by Challies that tells of his experience being ripped apart by people who think they’re doing other people a favor “exposing” him, when their analysis bears little resemblance to who he actually is.

    http://www.challies.com/articles/in-the-crosshairs-of-the-discernment-bloggers

    So you are right that some assessments of some Christian authors are off-base, slanderous, mean-spirited, you name it. But negative critiques of a person’s work are not necessarily attacks on the authors of those works, and in the case of Jesus Calling, my impression is that the negative reviews are about the book, and are not a smear of the author herself.

    I think this paragraph, from the first link, sums up well what Challies was trying to say:

    On this basis alone this book is very suspect and needs to be treated with the utmost care. Young offers us words that she insists come straight from the Lord. But she gives no proof that we should expect the Lord to speak to us this way; all she offers is her own experience of it. At this point we are left with a few options. We can stop reading altogether, we can continue to read while rejecting her claims that these are words from the Lord, or we can read and take her at her word. Personally, unless reviewing the book, I would abandon it immediately. If she claims to be speaking Jesus’ words, I am no longer interested. However, for the sake of reviewing it, I continued to read.

    Tread carefully, Janice, if you intend to read the book. satan is subtle, and, as was recently pointed out, masquerades as an angel of light.

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  60. As much as I like to travel …

    Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
    Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
    A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
    Which seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met elsewhere.
    Home! Home!
    Sweet, sweet home!
    There’s no place like home
    There’s no place like home!

    You can guess what we did for the last two-and-a-half days. Details to follow.

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  61. BTW, my timer was going off the second or third time while I was finishing that up. I know that there are some people on here who really like the Pearls and I would stop short of calling them heretics (except for the belief in sinful perfectionism–that is heresy). My point was more that sometimes there are reasons I’m fully convinced without reading a book that it isn’t for me.

    In the case of Created to Be His Helpmeet, I won’t bother to read a book that (1) has already been used as a weapon against my husband (I was told before I married him–by someone who had never met him–that he was a command man and would thus be a bad husband, which is laughably inaccurate); (2) is being recommended to me by someone whose own model of marriage is far from something I’d want to emulate; (3) is written by someone whose doctrine does have some serious errors; (4) is written by people whose child-training book and website I have read with quite a bit of care; (5) I know my husband disapproves.

    Actually, he doesn’t disapprove of me reading it to critique it (he suggested a way I might be able to get a copy without having to pay for it), but he would definitely disagree with my reading it to learn from it.

    But at any rate, I’m not just saying, “I haven’t read it, but I already know I dislike it.” And I know that other people have a different set of reasons for reading her books than I have for not doing so.

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  63. I made really good progress today on the book I’m editing (with some rewrites). Saturday I got badly stuck on the second edit in chapter 2, really got nowhere, and decided to skip it for now and move ahead to chapter 3. So yesterday I did chapter 3 . . . and today I did 4 and 5 and went back and did chapter 2 as well.

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  64. Sometimes it’s good to leave things for another time, Cheryl. Glad you made good progress today.

    I have five free ebooks from the Charlotte Mason site I linked to earlier, and read four of them today — a total of nearly 200 pages. The other is 84 pages, I think, and I will read that one tomorrow, then make my final ordering plans for the next year.

    Prayers for wisdom and clarity tomorrow on that decision are welcome. Sale ends on Thursday, and I’ve been chewing on this since I heard about the sale last week, so I’m hoping it will all culminate in wise choices now when it is more financially doable — if that is God’s will.

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  65. Ugh, what a night. I wrote the same “tiny house” story 4-5 different times today and tonight, the last version pounded out frantically on deadline at the meeting (I found a little table I could put my laptop on to work — and used the “hot spot” wifi feature on my phone to get access to the Internet, what a great invention).

    The story took so many twists and turns, and I had to juggle so many notes and rewrite the top of the story a couple times — too many angles, it was a real moving target — and I didn’t get out of there until 10 p.m. The meeting was still going on, but on another topic by then.

    I’m really tired. And the animals were quite hungry, Annie met me on the front steps (out way too late for her normally).

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