Book Review: A Sensible Arrangement

A Sensible Arrangement. Tracie Peterson. 2014. Bethany House. 336 pages. [Source: Library]

For readers who like marriage-of-convenience romances, A Sensible Arrangement is quite lovely. Marty Dandridge Olson is the heroine. She's a widow in her thirties who wants to leave Texas behind her because it holds too many painful memories. She loves her sister and brother-in-law very much. But staying where she is on her own ranch, the place she lived and loved with her husband is too hard on her. So she decides to respond to an ad from a Colorado banker.

Jacob Wythe is the hero. He is looking for a "Lone Star" bride. What he didn't mention in the ad is that it is his dream, his big, big dream, to move to Texas and own a ranch of his own. He is a banker in Denver. And he's somewhat successful at what he does. His boss seems to like him a good deal. But. He hates banking. He wants a simpler life. He's aware that it is financially risky and physically demanding, but, that is what he wants.

These two marry. She still is clueless that he wants to move to Texas. She thinks that Denver will be her long-term residence. She's unsure if she'll fit into society's elite circle. But she's willing to make the effort. He is clueless that his wife actually owns a ranch already.

A marriage of convenience. Yes, that's what it started out being, of course. But as you can expect, these two begin to fall in love with one another. But will her fear and anxiety and bitterness keep her from having a happily ever after? She's so afraid that her new husband will die if he becomes a rancher that she's determined to keep him right where he's at no matter what his dreams are.

A Sensible Arrangement is set in Denver, Colorado in the 1890s during an economic depression.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year With Spurgeon #27

Gospel Missions
Charles Spurgeon
1856
“And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.”—Acts 13:49.

Our doctrines, although they are supposed to lead to apathy and sloth, have always proved themselves to be eminently practical; the fathers of the mission were all zealous lovers of the doctrines of the grace of God; and we believe, the great supporters of missionary enterprise, if it is to be successful, must always come from those who hold God’s truth firmly and boldly, and yet have fire and zeal with it, and desire to spread it everywhere.

Oh! if you could have seen Paul preach, you would not have gone away as you do from some of us, with half a conviction, that we do not mean what we say. His eyes preached a sermon without his lips, and his lips preached it, not in a cold and frigid manner, but every word fell with an overwhelming power upon the hearts of his hearers. He preached with power, because he was in downright earnest. You had a conviction, when you saw him, that he was a man who felt he had a work to do and must do it, and could not contain himself unless he did do it. He was the kind of preacher whom you would expect to see walk down the pulpit stairs straight into his coffin, and then stand before his God, ready for his last account.

We have no eyes now like the eyes of the Saviour, which could weep over Jerusalem; we have few voices like that earnest impassioned voice which seemed perpetually to cry, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not.” If ministers of the gospel were more hearty in their work of preaching; if, instead of giving lectures and devoting a large part of their time to literary and political pursuits, they would preach the Word of God, and preach it as if they were pleading for their own lives, ah! then, my brethren, we might expect great success; but we cannot expect it while we go about our work in a half-hearted way, and have not that zeal, that earnestness, that deep purpose which characterized those men of old.

How many there are who preach gospel, which they are afraid will not save souls; and, therefore, they add little bits of their own to it in order, as they think, to win men to Christ! We have known men who believed Calvinistic doctrines, but who preached Calvinism in the morning and Arminianism in the evening, because they were afraid God’s gospel would not convert sinners, so they would manufacture one of their own. I hold that a man who does not believe his gospel to be able to save men’s souls, does not believe it all.

We want a deeper faith in our gospel; we want to be quite sure of what we preach.

Now, my brethren, we have power; we are God’s ministers; we preach God’s truth; the great Judge of heaven and earth has told us the truth, and what have we to do to dispute with worms of the dust? Why should we tremble and fear them? Let us stand out and say, “We are the servants of the living God; we tell unto you what God has told us, and we warn you, if you reject our testimony, it shall be better for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.” If the people cast that away we have done our work. We have nothing to do with making men believe; ours is to testify of Christ everywhere, to preach and to proclaim the gospel to all men.

I believe there is a great reason for some of us to suspect whether we believe our religion at all. An infidel once met a Christian. “Because,” said the other, “for years you have passed me on my way to my house of business. You believe, do you not, there is a hell, into which men’s spirit are cast?” “Yes, I do,” said the Christian. “And you believe that unless I believe in Christ I must be sent there?” “Yes.” “You do not, I am sure, because if you did you must be a most inhuman wretch to pass me, day by day, and never tell me about it or warn me of it.” I do hold that there are some Christians who are verily guilty in this matter; God will forgive them, the blood of Christ can even wash that out, but they are guilty. Did you ever think of the tremendous value of a single soul.

Could we preach carelessly, could we pray coldly, if we knew what a precious thing it is about which we are concerned? No, surely we should be doubly in earnest that God will please to save sinners.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: A Match Made in Texas

A Match Made in Texas: A Novella Collection. Karen Witemeyer, Regina Jennings, Carol Cox, and Mary Connealy. 2014. Bethany House. 384 pages. [Source: Library]

A Match Made in Texas is probably the best novella collection I've read in years. I absolutely loved it. It contains four novellas--all historical romances set in Texas. The novellas are "A Cowboy Unmatched," "An Unforeseen Match," "No Match for Love," and "Meeting Her Match."

The first novella was A Cowboy Unmatched by Karen Witemeyer. The hero of A Cowboy Unmatched is one of the Archer brothers. (Witemeyer has a whole series of historical romances starring the Archer brothers!) Neill Archer has left home wanting some independence. He is desperately in need of a job. He arrives in Dry Gulch, Texas, and does some initial asking around with no luck. While attending church, he is surprised that an ad from the newspaper has been slipped into his Bible. It looks like a widow in town needs a new roof. He takes the job. But the widow is NOT the one who placed the ad. The widow, to his surprise but not exactly to readers surprise, is young and beautiful. Also pregnant. Her name is Clara. This romance is lovely. It is. As he works for her, the two fall in love.

The second novella was An Unforeseen Match by Regina Jennings. I knew without a doubt that I would love, love, love, LOVE A Cowboy Unmatched by Karen Witemeyer. I had no idea that I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this novella by Regina Jennings. It took me completely by surprise. I found it giddy-making. Grace O'Malley is a school teacher who has slowly but surely been going blind. It's only a matter of time before she loses all her vision. The town dismisses her from her teaching position. But they offer her Clara Danver's old homestead. (I should probably mention that all four novellas begin in Dry Gulch). Grace jokes in front of her friends that she should place an ad in the newspaper for a husband. She thinks her homestead would provide incentive enough for land-hungry men with big dreams. She really does want a husband. But she was only half-serious about placing an advertisement! So she is SHOCKED when a man shows up at her place saying he's come in response to the ad. Clayton Weber is responding to an ad, but, it's an advertisement for chores and such! Again romance blossoms as work is done! Clayton helps Grace adjust to her new life in more ways than one! This is just a sweet and lovely story!!! I adored it!

The third novella was No Match for Love by Carol Cox. Lucy Benson is looking to make some changes in her life. Her pastor comes to her with a suggestion. He's got a friend in another part of Texas (near North Fork) who is looking for a young woman to be a companion to his aunt. His aunt lives on her own on the family ranch. Lucy is excited to take the job. The nephew is surprised by the woman the pastor selected for the job! These two definitely are attracted to one another…

The fourth novella was Meeting Her Match by Mary Connealy. Hannah Taylor is a school teacher. As if teaching wasn't a full time job, she is also primarily responsible for raising her younger brothers, doing all the cooking, cleaning, mending, etc. Responsibilities weigh heavily with her, but, she is accustomed to it in a way. She has a secret admirer who is waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for an opportune time to make his move. But he is beyond shy. Mark Whitfield. When her father remarries suddenly and kicks her out, Hannah has a lot to think about! How did this happen? Will Mark make his move?

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Week in Review: June 29-July 5

REB (Revised English Bible)

• Psalms 1-41
• Luke 1-20

HCSB

• Ezra
• Nehemiah
• Esther
• Daniel
• Hosea
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micah
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malichi
• 1 Corinthians

NIrV (New International Reader's Version)

• Ezekiel 34-48

NKJV

• Psalms 119-150

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: God's Double Agent

God's Double Agent: The True Story of A Chinese Christian's Fight for Freedom. Bob Fu. Baker Books. 2013. 336 pages. [Source: Bought]

It was midnight. I placed my fingers on the bottom of the window and gently, quietly tried to pull it open. But years of paint had cemented it shut, so I held my breath and gave it a sharp yank. It opened at last—but not as silently as I’d hoped. I prayed that none of the police officers stationed by my building’s door had decided to take a cigarette walk around the block and that none of my neighbors were awake. If I was going to do this—and survive—there could be no witnesses...My chances of survival would increase with every floor I could safely descend without being detected. I quietly slipped out of the restroom and back into the stairwell, watching the numbers decrease. Fourth floor. Third floor. Second floor. That’s where I stopped. The agents were on the first floor, and at this point there was no turning back...After our experience of prison and house arrest, death wasn’t the worst option, but now Heidi and I had reason to fight for life. She was pregnant.

I loved, loved, loved God's Double Agent. This autobiography is compelling, fascinating, and inspirational. It was a very absorbing read. The autobiography begins intensely. He throws you into the heart of the action that's for sure. But that's just to pull you in. Soon enough he's gone back to the beginning, retracing his life. He tells of his mother and his father and his family life. He tells of his education, of learning English, of studying to become and English teacher, of his early years teaching in university. He tells of his courtship and marriage. He tells of his political struggles. His struggles with wanting to join and reform the Communist party. At one time he was both drawn to it and repelled by it. He had dreams of fixing what needed fixing and keeping what he saw as good. A time of disillusionment came,  of course, and his hope of life of a good life was crushed. The autobiography also focuses on his conversion experience, on his becoming a Christian, on his enthusiasm for evangelism, on his joy in telling everyone around him about Jesus, of the risks he took and the precautions he took as well. He tells of his time in prison. Of his fleeing his country and becoming a refugee. Of his work in America to help Chinese Christians. 

To be honest, I found this one interesting and informative throughout. It gives you plenty of context for understanding and appreciating his story. This is very much a history of China over half a century. It's a story that makes you think and consider. It's a story that makes you thankful. 

Quotes: 

In 1958, Mao performed a gigantic cultural and social experiment called the Great Leap Forward—so named because it was the “great leap” into communism. For close to four years, she [his mother] walked from one village to another, asking for food from people who couldn’t spare it. Millions of people were dying in the Great Leap Forward, some say close to thirty million. That is double the number of people killed in the holocaust. Although my mom and siblings were fighting for life each day, others had it worse. Some people boiled leather to soften it into edible strips. Many of them died as they tried to swallow the leather, and the ones who didn’t choke had to ask for help to pry the solid waste from their bodies. People ate mud. Even more shocking, some ate their elderly relatives and children who’d passed away, either from natural causes or murder. In Chinese history textbooks, this time period was known as “Three Years of Natural Disaster,” which, of course, hid the government’s role in starving its own people. My mother did everything she could to make sure she and her children didn’t become just another statistic, a number lost to history.

Why did people have to treat us with so little respect? We were already poor and without social status. Why, on top of that, did we also have to deal with such mockery? Poverty, I decided, was the reason we suffered. As long as I didn’t have money, people were going to bully me. On that walk home from the mobile movie, I made a decision. I needed to become a millionaire. The fact that I was a urine-soaked peasant didn’t deter me. Education was highly prized in China, and after Mao’s reign, could be a road out of poverty.

As I was leaving, I noticed one of my American teachers, a guy named Dan from San Francisco, sitting in the courtyard. “What are you doing?” I asked, sensing he was listless from being so far from home and without students to teach. “Just watching everyone skip town,” he said, smiling. “Why don’t you come with me? I can show you around my hometown and we can think about setting up a summer English camp for high school students there.” It didn’t take much to convince him. He threw some clothes in a bag and we jumped on a train. When we arrived, however, he caused quite a commotion. “Yang guizi!” the villagers called out, using the sarcastic and affectionate nickname Chinese people call all foreigners. It meant “foreign devil.” Dan was tall, had brown hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, and was very obviously not from around there. Because he was the first yang guizi to come to our peasant village, he was treated like a panda in the zoo. No matter where he went, he was encircled with villagers asking him the same three questions: Where are you from, how old are you, and are you married? “Let’s have some fun,” I said, pulling him aside after detecting this pattern. “Oh,” Dan said. “Suddenly, the student has become the teacher!” After a little coaching, Dan dazzled the villagers by preemptively telling everyone he met three pertinent facts. Every time someone came up to him, he said, “Wo shi meiguo ren” (I am an American), “San shi sui” (I’m thirty years old), and “Guang gun” (I am a bachelor). Actually, the last was a local saying that means, literally, “I am a piece of single stick,” but the notion was communicated: he was available. This caused quite a stir, because the villagers were amazed at the single foreign devil who could speak fluent Chinese and also read their minds! In spite of the grievous circumstances of our return home, his presence in my village was a fun—if temporary—distraction.

Welcome to my new life as a counterrevolutionary, I said to myself the next morning as I walked slowly through the campus to start yet another day of forced confessions. I wasn’t looking forward to sitting in that room again. I’d already written all that needed to be said. They were simply trying to wear me down, to get me to confess to things I didn’t do, to incriminate friends who weren’t guilty.

Because I wasn’t familiar with Christianity, I didn’t understand the inherent dangers that came with being a Christian in China. I simply knew I’d been bitter, sad, and ready to commit murder. Then, after I believed in Jesus, I wasn’t.

“Quit delaying, and get in there to write your confession.” “Sure!” The deputy tilted his head, completely baffled at my quick agreement. I slipped into the room, got out my stack of paper, and began writing. I would have plenty of time to write my so-called apology for my time as a student protestor. But first, I had to write something else. “Last night, while reading a book, I believed in God,” I wrote. Even as I wrote the sentence, my heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest. My pencil flew over the paper, recording all of my many thoughts about my whole world, now that it had become more vibrant. Suddenly I had become aware there was a supernatural power, and that knowledge had miraculously replaced the hatred and anger I’d previously harbored against so many people. I smiled as I thought of the Communist special agent standing outside my door. He just doesn’t know about Jesus, I thought, as I continued to write. Even the animosity I had for President Ming disappeared. And I even felt compassion for my former friend Joseph, who had publicly advocated that I be killed. As I finished my first page, I realized I was humming. The guard knocked on my door and barked, “What are you doing in there?” “Sorry!” I said, and continued scrawling out my spiritual thoughts. Pretty soon, I’d need to continue my forced confession so my agent would have something to grade. I’d been under surveillance for three months now, but a joy bubbled in my soul that couldn’t be quenched by any government guard.

During the Cultural Revolution, the government destroyed any Bibles they could find, and imprisoned, tortured, or even killed the owners. Even after Mao died in 1976, Bibles were hard to find. And that was still true when I was in college and graduate school. Though it was legal to own one, Bibles couldn’t be purchased. Most Bibles and religious materials were smuggled over the border in suitcases by courageous Americans and Brits, and then passed secretly to house church leaders, who distributed them sparingly.

I made a pledge to God. “Before graduation,” I prayed, “I want every one of my seventeen classmates in my program to hear the gospel.” After two years, I’d not been able to pull off this endeavor. I needed an opportunity to have all of my friends in one place. What better way than to have a wedding? Frequently, people plan their weddings around the seasons, or meaningful dates, or commencement ceremonies. What about having a wedding ceremony that could not only marry us but also introduce the guests to their Savior?

“If you want to be a faithful minister and follower of Jesus in China,” he said, “you should learn prison theology.” I nodded, though I wasn’t quite sure what he meant. “In prison,” he explained, “you find out more about God and His faithfulness than anywhere else. Jail is where God prepares His church in China.”

During the day, I taught future Communist leaders. During the night, I trained the illegal house church. “I’m a double agent,” I said, and laughed. “It’s quite possible the people you teach during the day will one day arrest you and those you teach during the evenings,” she said.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: How Can I Develop a Christian Conscience?

How Can I Develop A Christian Conscience? R.C. Sproul. 2013. Reformation Trust. 76 pages. [Source: Bought]

It is vitally important for Christians to consider the issue of conscience. 

This short booklet addresses the subject of the conscience. It explores what a conscience is and isn't.

When we sin, the conscience is troubled. It accuses us. The conscience is the tool that God the Holy Spirit uses to convict us, bring us to repentance, and to receive the healing of forgiveness that flows from the gospel.

It stresses that the conscience can be cultivated or developed by the Spirit through the reading of the Word.

Whereas God’s principles don’t change, our consciences vacillate and develop.

At times this book is more philosophical than practical. Sproul has a tendency to go that path. He does. Some books it shows more than others. That being said, this one was easy enough to follow. It wasn't an overwhelming read. And at 76 pages, it would be a big surprise if it was intimidating. The book is complex enough. It has big ideas, big concepts. But it is an instructional guide. It is written to be understood. Its focus is clear throughout, and it defines and explains complex subjects concisely.

If you're looking for a quick read on morality and ethics, law and grace, then this one might be something that interests you.

The table of contents:

• The question of conscience
• The creation ordinances
• The razor's edge
• The legalist distortion
• The distortion of lawlessness
• The degrees of sin

Quotes:

The famous philosopher Immanuel Kant was agnostic with respect to man’s ability to reason from this world to the transcendence of God. Even so, he offered what he called a moral argument for the existence of God that was based on what he called a universal sense of oughtness implanted in the heart of every human being. Kant believed that everyone carried with them a genuine sense of what one ought to do in a given situation. He called this the categorical imperative. He believed there are two things that fill the soul with an ever-new and growing wonder and reverence: the starry heavens above and the moral law within.

This is indeed the age of relativism, where values and principles are considered to be mere expressions of the desires and interests of a given group of people at a given time in history. We repeatedly hear that there are no absolutes in our world today.

Spiritually speaking, the pain of guilt, can signal to us that something is wrong with our souls. There is a remedy for that and it’s the same one that the church has always offered, namely, forgiveness. Real guilt requires real forgiveness.

As humans, our ability to defend ourselves from moral culpability is quite developed and nuanced. We become a culture in trouble when we begin to call evil good and good evil. To do that, we must distort the conscience, and, in essence, make man the final authority in life. All one has to do is to adjust his conscience to suit his ethic.

We recognize that people can have highly sensitized consciences, not because they are being informed by the Word of God but because they have been informed by man-made rules and regulations.

The conscience can excuse when it ought to be accusing, and it also can accuse when it should be excusing.

For the Christian, the conscience is not the ultimate authority in life. We are called to have the mind of Christ, to know the good, and to have our minds and hearts trained by God’s truth so that when the moment of pressure comes, we will be able to stand with integrity.

All men, everywhere, are participants in a covenant relationship with God even if they never join the Christian church or the Jewish commonwealth. The first covenant that God made with mankind was with Adam, who represented the entire human race. In that covenant, the covenant of creation, God entered into a contractual relationship with all human beings. By nature, every descendant of Adam belongs to the covenant of creation. This may not be a relationship of grace, but it is a relationship nonetheless. The laws that God gave in creation remain binding on all men. It doesn’t matter if they are religious, members of the household of Israel, or members of a local church.

What kind of ordinances are included in the covenant of creation? We’ll look at a few of the precepts and principles that God built into human relationships in the very beginning… So, Christians are called upon to be voices in favor of maintaining and preserving the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of labor, and yes, even the sanctity of the Sabbath day. These are laws that apply to all men in every age, place, and culture.

The English word “ethic” or “ethics” comes from the Greek word ethos. The word “morals” or “morality” comes from the word mores. The difference is that the ethos of a society or culture deals with its foundational philosophy, its concept of values, and its system of understanding how the world fits together. There is a philosophical value system that is the ethos of every culture in the world. On the other hand, mores has to do with the customs, habits, and normal forms of behavior that are found within a given culture. In the first instance, ethics is called a normative science; it’s the study of norms or standards by which things are measured or evaluated. Morality, on the other hand, is what we would call a descriptive science. A descriptive science is a method to describe the way things operate or behave. Ethics are concerned with the imperative and morality is concerned with the indicative. What do we mean by that? It means that ethics is concerned with “ought-ness,” and morality is concerned with “is-ness.”

When it comes to every Christian’s duty to pursue righteousness—to pursue right ethics—there are two significant issues. The first issue is to know what the good is, to understand with the mind what God requires and what pleases Him. But let’s suppose that we have a clear and sharp understanding of God’s law and we know with certainty what He requires of us. Unfortunately, that’s only half the battle. The second issue we face as Christians is to have the ethical courage to do what we know to be right. 

The gospel calls men to repentance, holiness, and godliness. Because of this, the world finds the gospel offensive. But woe to us if we add unnecessarily to that offense by distorting the true nature of Christianity by combining it with legalism.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year With Spurgeon #26

A Willing People and an Immutable Leader
Charles Spurgeon
1856
“Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.”—Psalm 110:3.

The great anxiety we have is not whether Christ is king or not:—we know he is; he is the Lord of creation and of providence; our anxiety is about his subjects. Ofttimes do we ask, “O Lord, where shall we find thy subjects?” When we have preached to hard hearts, and prophesied to dry bones, our unbelief at times says, “Where shall we find children for Christ? Where shall we find people who will constitute the subjects of his empire?” Our fears are all put to rest by this passage: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning;” and by the second promise, “Thou hast the dew of thy youth.” These thoughts are placed here to allay the anxieties of God’s believing people, and to let them see how Christ shall indeed be king, and never lack a multitude of subjects.

Here is a promise that Christ shall always have a people. In the darkest ages Christ has always had a church; and if darker times shall come, he will have his church still.

Well, beloved, do you see what encouragement this is to us in the propagation of our Master’s kingdom, that we are not preaching an old thing that is out of date, but a religion which has the dew of its youth upon it. The same religion which could save three thousand at Pentecost, can save three thousand now. I preach old doctrine, but it is as new as when it first came from heaven’s mint. The gospel has the same spirit attending it now, that it had when it was a young gospel.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible