goodness stored up

Both of my bandages are off now. It is a relief to have them off, they pressed against the cuts and caused more pain. But seeing the cuts is another thing. I am half tempted to post pictures. That might be gross though. The incisions are like 4 inches. I didn't realize they would be that big. Okay, enough of that.

I have to go to Duke again tomorrow. I will be getting my SCS programmed again. Pray that we find some good programs. The ones I have now do not help me. My pain was really high today. I fell asleep at 7pm. Now I probably won't be able to sleep tonight very much.

All things considered, I am doing pretty well. Pray for me that I would be able to finish some wedding music I'm writing. For me writing the music out takes a while. I know I can do it, but sitting up at a computer is not my idea of a good time right now.

One other thing, I finished God's Secretaries. It really was a great book on the Translators of the King James. I really wish I hadn't put it down for so long. I had no problem getting back into Nicolson's narrative because I like his writing style, but I had trouble remembering some of the facts from early on. I have been thinking about reading it again. But I want to finish Paradise Lost first. The problem is the book is so heavy, I'm not supposed to lift it. I will write more about Secretaries later. There were some interesting facts. And I'll mention more about the book in general. Maybe provide some quotes and links to some of the more interesting historical facts.

Here is a verse I've drawn comfort from recently.

Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!
Psalm 31:19

32341

I used Joy's referral code to enter the contest, but now I have my own code. So if you don't know Joy or if you are my family member please use this banner to enter the contest if you are interested. The prize is a Reformation Study Bible (ESV) and R.C. Sproul's The Holiness of God. My referral ID is 32341. The banner should automatically include it.

Counted Righteous in Christ

Wow. I read the first 80 pages of this book this morning. It is so good. The third chapter is the meat of the text. It is the exegetical response to the "new thought" that nixes the imputation of Christ's righteousness.

Anyway, I will write more about this book. I just couldn't keep quiet about it.

more to come...sooner or later

I already have an Interlinear KJV Parallel NT with the Textus Receptus. I have Nestle-Aland 27th ed. but only on my computer. It is pretty difficult to search, and I have had to print various passages to study. I think an interlinear translation will help me too. This is Nestle's 21st ed. but I think this will do fine for now. If you have thoughts or suggestions though, I'd be glad to hear them.

And I am seriously thinking about this. Although David and I talked briefly about my getting the introductory Greek books from Bob Jones.

Update: I just looked at the Campus Store and it looks like they offer BJU's Greek book right over the Internet. Pretty cool.

Coming soon to my study

Price: $29.23

Not Even a Hint

I finished Joshua Harris' book Not Even a Hint today.

Yes, it took my a while. I want to say in my defense that I read many books at one time. But in reality, I just left off reading it.

But it is a really good book with very practical advice. It was so encouraging to me because Harris really explained (1) that there is no quick fix for lust; (2) God's grace is sufficient; (3) God's command for us to find and participate in a local church; (4) the need for accountablity from close godly people in our lives.

I would recommend this book to be read...more than one time. I know I intend to look back over it. And read it as many times as I need.

Our Mutal Friend

I had the pleasure of watching the movie retelling of Our Mutal Friend last night. It was long, but well worth it, in my estimation. I have not read the Dickens book, but now after seeing the movie, hopefully the book will be better and not worse. Here is my revised list of movies and the post that provides explanation.

Movies to Watch

1. Our Mutal Friend. Charles Dickens.

suggested by Hillary
2. ROTK. J.R.R. Tolkien; and Second Hand Lions

suggested by Joy
3. Powaqqatsi

suggested by Kammer
4. Unbreakable

suggested by apelles
5. Shadowlands

suggested by Christa
6. LOTR extended verserions: Fellowship; Two Towers; Return of the King. The Recruit

suggested by Cruv
7. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

suggested by JRC
8. The Pianist

suggested by Valien

jbo: simon says

on rainy days

A rainy day is one 
where you don't run outside 
			to play
because you have forgotten how to be 
			a child.
So instead, you curl up by a window 
			with your tea
				and book
to imagine you are 
		someone else, 
in some other place, 
		outside of time.

come tune

I said that I would start looking at some hymn lyrics. I am going to paraphrase/reword the lyrics to help me better understand them. And I might only look at one line at a time. It depends on how well I feel or how late it is when I think about a certain song. Finally, I know that the Bible is our source of Truth, not the hymnal. But hopefully, our hymnals and certainly our lips should be filled with Truthful lyrics that praise the Lord (hallelujah Psalm 146). That's why I wanted to do this in the first place.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

You fountain of every blessing, come tune my heart to sing your grace;

It makes me wonder if I want God really to work in my heart to be "on key" with Him. This line suggests to me that the starting process is a sole work of God. He must do the work in the heart. He is the One who gave us a song (Psalm 40:3); and the natural result of our being filled with the Spirit is singing (Ephesians 5:18). The part we must play is presenting our members as slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:19) and not resisting the Spirit's work (1 Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 4:30; Acts 5:3 ff).

You know, a dictionary definition of fount can include the idea of one that initiates. So we have God, the Great Initiator of every blessing, as our Father (Luke 11:9-13; James 1:17).

lyrics

I love posting things (poems, articles, songs), but I haven't been writing as much as I would like. Therefore, I have decided to change that.

I played Come, Thou Fount at church tonight on the organ in what is referred to in our church as fellowship time. It is that time when many Baptists (and perhaps other denominations) sing a verse or chorus then make the rounds and shake hands and say, "how do you do?" or some such variation.

My friend Deborah came up to the organ as I played, and as I started the verse over again, we said almost simultaneously, "I love this song."

It really made me think. I wondered why "I love this song"? I consider my experience unique (which in fact seems redundant in that each person's experience is ultimately unique, no matter how much in common the experience). What I mean, and I realize I am rambling, is that I have been a pianist or organist in church from the time I was in 8th grade. The only time I was part of congregational singing was at Bob Jones for a few years.

I realize that one is not limited to singing in church, but even at home, I play, not necessarily sing.

My point, yes, I'll get to it. I don't know the words to hymns.

There...I've said it. I know some of them. But only very generally. I can tell you that Crown Him with Many Crowns is on the left side of the page, or that Blessed Assurance is hymn 157 (in our hymnal) and that Great God of Wonders is in E^b, but I only have a cursory knowledge of many of the hymn lyrics that we sing.

So...I am going to start studying some of the hymns from my church hymnal. I haven't decided what form this study will take, but I'll think about it.

~ Robert Robinson, 1758

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Favorite Poems 6

Pippa's Song ~ Robert Browning

The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God's in His Heaven—
All's right with the world!

dust

³The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.

~ Nahum 1:3 (NIV)

Favorite Poems 5

Trees ~ Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Favorite Poems 4

Who has seen the wind? ~ Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?
	Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
	The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
	Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
	The wind is passing by.

Word of the day

Don't forget folks February 2004 is bissextile. Enjoy it.

bis·sex·tile
Pronunciation Key (b^ī-s^ĕkʼst^ĭl', -st^īl', b^ĭ-) adjective
making a leap year: having the extra day in a year that makes it a leap year
* bissextile month

~ Encarta® World English Dictionary, North American Edition

reading wrinkles

I couldn't sleep more than a few hours last night and when I couldn't return to sleep I began reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I finished it. It was very interesting. I'm not sure what to make of it though. I will have to think about it some more.

Well, that certainly makes me think again about my question the other day. You can't deny that M. L'Engle is writing Science Fiction with as much physics as she packs, but she quoted Scripture quite a few times (in fact, even aliens were quoting it).

Hillary, did you say you had read these books?

I am curious enough to keep reading certainly.

greek lessons

...I have been going through the lessons at Learning New Testament Greek.

And thank you Ben for getting us Greek/special characters. I might have been kicked off bensfriends permanently without your special attention to jbo.

I've learned these verbs so far (present active indicative). Well, enough to notice a mistake in the Little Greeks flashcards. Anyway, I am excited. I have other tools from which I am learning. I'll put up some more links later.

λέγω - I say
βλέπω - I see
ἔχω - I have
ακούω - I hear
πιστεύω - I believe, I trust, I entrust
λαμβάνω - I accept, I receive, I take

P.S.
All you fans of Greek out there. If you notice mistakes, please let me know...so I don't embarrass myself too much.

word of the day

per·spi·cac·i·ty
Pronunciation Key (per'spĭ-kăs´ĭ-tē) n.

    Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.

~The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Favorite Poems 3

My Valentine ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird song at morning and starshine at night.
I will make a palace fit for you and me,
   Of green days in forests
   And blue days at sea.

Favorite Poems 2

The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet ~ Guy Wetmore Carryl

Little Miss Muffet discovered a tuffet,
   (Which never occurred to the rest of us)
And, as 'twas a June day, and just about noonday,
   She wanted to eat--like the best of us:
Her diet was whey, and I hasten to say
   It is wholesome and people grow fat on it.
The spot being lonely, the lady not only
   Discovered the tuffet, but sat on it.

A rivulet gabbled beside her and babbled, 
   As rivulets always are thought to do,
And dragon flies sported around and cavorted,
   As poets say dragon flies ought to do;
When, glancing aside for a moment, she spied
   A horrible sight that brought fear to her,
A hideous spider was sitting beside her,
   And most unavoidably near to her!

Albeit unsightly, this creature politely
   Said: "Madam, I earnestly vow to you,
I'm penitent that I did not bring my hat. I
   Should otherwise certainly bow to you."
Though anxious to please, he was so ill at ease
   That he lost all his sense of propriety,
And grew so inept that he clumsily stept
   In her plate--which is barred in Society.

This curious error completed her terror;
   She shuddered, and growing much paler, not
Only left tuffet, but dealt him a buffet
   Which doubled him up in a sailor knot.
It should be explained that at this he was pained:
   He cried: "I have vexed you, no doubt of it!
Your fist's like a truncheon." "You're still in my luncheon,"
   Was all that she answered. "Get out of it!"

And the Moral this: Be it madam or miss
   To whom you have something to say,
You are only absurd when you get in the curd
   But you're rude when you get in the whey!

Favorite Poems

Once A Big Molicepan

Once a big molicepan
Saw a blittle lum,
Sitting on the sturbcone
Chewing gubble bum.

"Hi!" said the molicepan.
"Better simmie gome."
"Tot on your nintype!"
Said the bittle lum.

Wheel of Time

I have been reading the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan again. A new book came out in January (which I got for my birthday, thank you Mrs. Sweede and Danielle). It is a prequel based on a short story. New Spring is fascinating. I don't remember the short story very well, so everything seems new to me.

Spoilers follow. I didn't really think about that fact until I was down with writing this entry. So...if you feel that you are going to read these books any time soon, you may wish to avoid this extended entry. Even though I want you to see my cool genealogy file.

Also, with my interest in genealogy renewed, I've been making charts again. I never realized that Galad, Gawyn and Elayne were Moiraine's nephews and neice. It hadn't occured to me that Taringail was her brother at all (half-brother). Furthermore, when Tigraine left Taringail, she remarried in the Waste and gave birth to the Dragon Reborn himself on the slopes of Dragonmount in sight of the Shining Walls of Tar Valon. So Galad and Rand are half-brothers.

Download file*

* This pictures works in IE, I have had some trouble with it in Mozilla because it is an .emf. If I can't get it to work cross-browser, I'll think of something else.

joshharris web team

Well, I wrote the josh harris website on February 2, thanks to David's announcement, and I got my book from the joshharris Web Team today. They are on the ball.

I'll let you know what I think of the book.

books

"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, then error will be. If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendency. If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will. If the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of this land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end."

~ Daniel Webster

conlangs are fun

I am a fan of constructed languages. No, I don't know Klingon or Esperanto. And my Sindarin isn't up to speed either. But I love language, and since the fifth grade I have been creating words and grammar and syntax for fun.

I don't do it all the time. I have to be in the mood. I hardly know what that means either. Sometimes I like to sit down and create something. And using language creatively is fun. The best page on the net (that I've found, and I've not looked in a while) is here. [I think there is one example with bad language. Just so you are forewarned.]

And so you don't feel left out, here is an example of the language I'm working on now:

[this needs to be updated; I'm working on it...]

A ireo in tedha* ete nimate, cès le peaneïri eti oncendà cide siaritde idarejuï!
A ireo in roscope in aron, re rebitaveneï licanate sil.
A ireo panvrineï di anorait lintýmès vereinès!

Translation:

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

I don't think I should have tried Shakespeare so soon, that was hard. I might have to change that when I work on my rules for poetry. But you get the idea.

*I didn't know how to translate Muse, so I went with "guide."