Week in Review: January 6-12

This week I read in the RSV:

• Genesis 6-14
• Joshua 7-19
• Psalms 42-72
• Isaiah 14-33
• Joel
• Mark
• Luke 1-10
• 2 Corinthians
• Galatians
• Titus
• Philemon

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Peace

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

O LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works. (Isaiah 26:12)

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalms 4:8)

Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. (Psalm 119:165)

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." (Isaiah 52:7)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:13; Ephesians 2:14-22 ESV)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-6; Philippians 4:7-9 ESV)

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:19; Colossians 1:20 ESV)

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. (2 Thessalonians 3:16)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Love Comes Softly (1979)

Love Comes Softly. Janette Oke. 1979. 240 pages.

The morning sun shone brightly on the canvas of the covered wagon, promising an unseasonably warm day for mid-October. Marty fought for wakefulness, coming out of a troubled and fitful sleep. Why did she feel so heavy and ill at ease--she who usually woke with enthusiasm and readiness for each new day's adventure? Then it all came flooding back, and she fell in a heap on the quilt from which she had just emerged. Sobs shook her body, and she pressed the covering to her face to muffle the sound.

Love Comes Softly is one of my comfort reads; it has been for decades. It is about a marriage of convenience or necessity. Clark, the hero, is a widower with a two-year-old daughter, Missy. Mary, the heroine, is a pregnant widow who is forced to bury her first husband and marry her second on the same day. (The preacher only comes around about two or at most three times a year.) She's young; she's grieving; she has no experience in the home. But Clark--who's grief is only a few months older than Marty's own--is patient, kind, understanding. He has a way of knowing when to speak, when to act, and when to be silent and appear not to notice whatever would bring her pain or embarrassment. But even though Clark is such a dear, pioneering life can be exhausting. AS she is preparing for the birth of her first child, the Lord is preparing her heart to love again...

I absolutely love and adore Love Comes Softly. There are plenty of memorable scenes in this one. I love the chapters leading up to Christmas. The chapter on Christmas day itself--and how they choose to celebrate it despite initial disappointments is sweet. There's also a great Easter chapter. There's so much to love about this one. It can be sweet and romantic (especially towards the end), but it can be funny as well, like when Marty makes her first batch of biscuits!

Do you have a favorite scene from Love Comes Softly?

“The truth of God's love is not that He allows bad things to happen, it's his promise that he will be there with us--when they do.”   

“Sometimes love isn't fireworks, sometimes love just comes softly.”

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Spring for Susannah (2011)

Spring for Susannah. Catherine Richmond. 2011. Thomas Nelson. 352 pages.

After her parents deaths, Susannah feels she has no choice but to become a mail-order bride. She begins corresponding with her pastor's brother, Jesse. After a proxy marriage ceremony, she travels to Dakota territory to meet her husband. He is thrilled to meet his wife. But. If he could change just one thing about his new wife, he would make her more talkative. He likes--or loves--so many things about her, but, she's so very, very shy and hesitant and reserved. Like she's afraid to talk to anyone. Still, the two try their best to make their marriage real and loving.

Spring for Susannah reveals just how hard it was to be a pioneer, to live so far away from civilization, to be at the mercy of nature. (Fires, storms, grasshoppers, locusts, etc. The list of potential devastators is long.) One truly has to rely on God and God alone.

Spring for Susannah had a few surprises for me. I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did. I was expecting it to be a bit more predictable. Still, it was an interesting historical romance.

While some historical romances are safe to give younger readers (middle grade on up), this is NOT one of them. (For example, all of Janette Oke's historical novels are good and safe reads for 8+) Spring for Susannah definitely has more mature content. It is more mature in content and presentation than most of the christian fiction I typically read, perhaps with the exception of Julie Lessman's novels. I think some readers will like this openness about intimacy. Others perhaps not as much.

I didn't love Spring for Susannah. Instead I just liked it.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Becky's Cloud of Witnesses 2013 List

Host: Operation Actually Read Bible
Name: Clouds of Witnesses Reading Challenge
Dates: Jan-Dec
# of Books: +6

What I read:

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3.
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5.
6.

What I hope to read:

• Preparing for Jesus' Return by A.W. Tozer
• God's Power For Your Life: How The Holy Spirit Transforms You Through God's Word by A.W. Tozer (NOT RELEASED YET)
• The Holy Spirit by R.A. Torrey
• The Attributes of God, vol. 1 by A.W. Tozer
• The Attributes of God, vol. 2 by A.W. Tozer
• The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon
• Discovering the Power of Christ's Prayer Life by Charles Spurgeon
• Sermons of Jonathan Edwards
• The Sermons of George Whitfield
• Our Accountability to God by A.W. Pink
• The Ability of God by A.W. Pink
• Life in Christ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Assurance of Salvation by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Tozer Speaks, vol 1. by A.W. Tozer
• Tozer Speaks, vol. 2. by A.W. Tozer
• Old Paths by J.C. Ryle
• The Gospel of Matthew by J.C. Ryle
• The Gospel of Mark by J.C. Ryle
• The Gospel of Luke by J.C. Ryle
• The Gospel of John by J.C. Ryle

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year With Spurgeon, Week 1

These are the Spurgeon quotes I'm sharing this week:

He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Morning, January 4

Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession, and in His future royal advent. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Morning, January 4

O Lord, since light is so good, give us more of it, and more of Thyself, the true light. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Morning, January 5

We do not doubt the loving union of all in the work of deliverance. We reverence the Father, without whom we had not been chosen or adopted: the Father who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We love and reverence the Son by whose most precious blood we have been redeemed, and with whom we are one in a mystic and everlasting union: and we adore and love the divine Spirit, for it is by him that we have been regenerated, illuminated, quickened, preserved, and sanctified; and it is through him that we receive the seal and witness within our hearts by which we are assured that we are indeed the sons of God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Adoption--The Spirit and the Cry

We have a sonship which does not come to us by nature, for we are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Our sonship comes by promise, by the operation of God as a special gift to a peculiar seed, set apart unto the Lord by his own sovereign grace, as Isaac was. This honour and privilege come to us, according to the connection of our text, by faith. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Adoption--The Spirit and the Cry

I never know which is the more wonderful, the incarnation of Christ or the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Jesus dwelt here for awhile in human flesh untainted by sin, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; but the Holy Ghost dwells continually in the hearts of all believers, though as yet they are imperfect and prone to evil. Year after year, century after century, he still abideth in the saints, and will do so till the elect are all in glory. While we adore the incarnate Son, let us adore also the indwelling Spirit whom the Father hath sent. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Adoption--The Spirit and The Cry

"Well," says one, "but I cannot be perfect." No, but you cannot find peace till you desire to be. Wherever you harbour a sin, there you harbour misery. One sin wilfully indulged in, and not forsaken by true repentance, will destroy the soul. Sins given up are like goods cast out at sea by the mariners in days of storm; they lighten the ship, and the ship will never float till you have thrown all your sins overboard. ~ Charles Spurgeon, The Sweet Uses of Adversity

The grace of God can keep the least and weakest of us; but apart from that heavenly power how dare any man hope to be preserved to the end? ~ Charles Spurgeon, Fallen Angels a Lesson to Fallen Men

To think that men should stand where angels fall! We are by sovereign grace called to be as near to God as the angels ever were, and in some respects we are nearer still. We are the body-guard of Christ, his chosen ones with whom he communes. We are the table companions of our Lord—we eat of his bread, and drink of his cup, and are made partakers with him. We are lifted up to be one with him, and are made to be "members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones;" yet God's eternal unbounded power keeps us in the day of temptation, and leads us so that if we go through the rivers we are not drowned, and when we pass through the fires we are not burned. O, the splendor of triumphant grace! Neither the glory of our calling, nor the unworthiness of our original, shall cause us to be traitors; we shall neither perish through pride nor lust; but the new nature within us shall overcome all sin, and abide faithful to the end. "Now, unto him that is able to keep us from falling, unto him be honor and glory, and dominion and power for ever and ever." ~ Charles Spurgeon, Fallen Angels a Lesson to Fallen Men

Grace shall reign unto eternal life. Redeemed men shall stand where angels fall, for God shall keep them. He is able to hold them up, and he will do it even to the end. ~ Charles Spurgeon, Fallen Angels A Lesson to Fallen Men

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Man Christ Jesus (2012)

The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ. Bruce A. Ware. 2012. Crossway. 156 pages.

I expected The Man Christ Jesus to be a difficult, challenging read. And it was. It was complex--very detailed, at times hypothetical, yet always analytical. This book tackles the humanity of Christ and makes some interesting arguments. For example, Ware argues that Jesus' obedience was perfected by his humanness. In other words, Jesus was sinless and perfectly obedient not because he was relying on his divinity to see him through, but instead Jesus was obedient in a very human way. Why was he sinless? Because he was filled with the Spirit, because through the Spirit he communed and prayed with God, because of his spiritually disciplined life of prayer, study, and worship. He used Scripture and prayer to fight temptation. Of course, that's just one of his arguments. A few seemed relatively easy to comprehend, others were more hypothetical. For example, in one chapter Ware decides to explore gender. Did the Savior have to be male, have to be "the Son" of God? Could the human-Savior-figure have been a woman, hypothetically speaking, and actually still have saved the world from its sins? Is maleness essential to the saving capabilities of God? Was Christ's gender arbitrary or planned? That chapter was so hypothetical and out there that I wish it hadn't been included at all.

The chapter titles:

• Taking on Human Nature
• Empowered by the Spirit
• Increasing in Wisdom
• Growing in Faith
• Resisting Temptation
• Living as a Man
• Dying in our Place
• Raised, Reigning, and Returning in Victory

It was interesting to read a book focused solely on Jesus' humanity. It was a good exploration of how Jesus' humanity was necessary then and now for our salvation. At its best, the book explained various passages of Scripture from both the Old and New Testament. It examined different arguments, as well, giving multiple points of view at times. Most of the chapters had a clear purpose and some degree of practicality to them. However, there were places in the text that were too complicated, too hypothetical, too analytical. (For example, the chapter "Living as a Man" and p. 111-113 of "Dying in Our Place.")

Quotes:

There are no "little obediences." Every opportunity given us by God, either to obey or to disobey, is an opportunity for that character formation and strengthening of faith that can prepare us for the greater challenges of faith God has in mind for us in the future. (69)

So while we can rightly look to Jesus with hope, seeing in him a true human who has faced and won the battle with temptation, we also must see in him a man who gave himself, with diligence and longing, to a life devoted to the Word of God, to prayer, and to reliance on the Spirit. In our longing to share in his victory over temptation, let us also share in his devotion to all that is needed to strengthen our minds and hearts and souls. (87)

Oh, how our obedience matters! So, how wrong it is of us to appeal to grace as license to disobey, just as it is equally wrong to appeal to our obedience as the basis for our right standing before God. (146)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible