By Searching

This is that latest book that I have completed. It is a warm, honest account of how Isobel came to believe in God and be sanctified by Him, by searching.

Isobel was raised in a Christian home that was not entirely on the straight and narrow. Her parents taught her the things that she should do and believe in, but did not give her Christ Himself. She became an antagonist at university. While still at university she met and fell in love with an ex-WWI soldier and became engaged to him. A good friend of Isobel's came to her one day to inform her that Ben was dating another girl behind Isobel's back. She was shattered. She confronted Ben about it and his response was: "Isobel, you're a softy. You don't suppose, do you, that after we are married, I'm not going to take other women out sometimes?" "Then we part," Isobel replied.

She was grief stricken, especially because she had given him her whole heart. Her father had warned her to give her heart entirely only after marriage, but she had refused to listen to him, and now reeled with agony. After some time, she decided on suicide. But the thought of her father's grief stopped her from doing so. She sat down on her bed and prayed that if there really was a God that he would send her peace. She was filled with peace immediately, and slept that night for the first time in many weeks.

After that day, Isobel continued searching. She was sanctified and taught by the Spirit (often through godly Christian's, and His Word). She went to Bible college after she graduated from university (as a teacher), only being able to afford to be there through rich gifts (unasked of humans, only asked of God) and a lot of hard work as a waitress (sometimes with the promise of pay unfulfilled by employers). She met John Kuhn at Bible college and after both their graduations became engaged to him. He went to China first to preach to the Lisu tribe, she followed about six months after, doing missionary work at home with working girls, as part of the Vancouver Girls Corner Club. The Kuhn's were missionaries to the Lisu's for 35 years. They had two children, Kathryn and Daniel. Isobel died in 1957 from cancer at the age of 55.

Book Giveaway---Prayer by C. H. Spurgeon

I am giving away this wonderful book! It is open to all readers who want to enter. Just leave a comment and share about a spiritual/devotional book that has led you to come closer to God.

Here are some sentences from the back of Prayer:

"You feel like you don't know how to pray--you can't find the right words, or just can't seem to get God's attention. You will be encouraged by this treasury of devotional expressions for Charles Spurgeon."

His elegant prayers, beautiful in their simplicity, will invite you to be vulnerable before your Creator.

His profound trust in God will set an example for your own pursuit of peaceful spirit.

His persistence in intercession will motivate you to pursue God in prayer.

Also, part of one of the prayers from within Prayer:

You who are King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we worship You. "Before Jehovah's awful throne, we bow with sacred joy." We can truly that we delight in God. There was a time when we feared You with the fear of bondage. Now we reverence You, but we love as much as we reverence. The thought of Your omnipresence was once horrible to us. We said, "Whither shall [we] flee from thy presence?" (Psalm 139:7). It seemed to make hell itself more dreadful, because we heard, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (v. 8).

But now, O Lord, we desire to find You. Our longing is to feel Your presence, and it is heavenly that You are there. The sick bed is soft when You are there. The furnace of affliction grows cool when You are there. The house of prayer when You are present is none other than the house of God, the very gate of heaven.

Shirley

I just completed a Charlotte Bronte book that I have never read before. It was lovely to read a fresh, "new" book, turning every page just wondering what I would find out next. This book is no ordinary Bronte either. Charlotte Bronte's other three books: Jane Eyre, Villette, and The Professor (which I have yet to read), are all, more or less, autobiographies of her life, and histories of the world as Bronte knew it (England, France and Belgium).

"Shirley" is the only book Charlotte Bronte wrote that endeavours to bring to her reader's attention the condition of a society, including both the lower and upper classes. In her other books, Bronte teaches about particular social positions and particular social evils. In "Jane Eyre" she portrays the life led in the charity schools; the life of a governess; the life of a rich gentleman. In "Villette" she portrays the life of a poverty stricken young woman who must journey to France to become a school teacher in order to live. Of all C. Bronte's books, this is the least known. Literature analysts have misunderstood it, the public has misunderstood it. Many go to this book thinking to read in it an account of C. Bronte's life. But it is nothing of the sort.

"Shirley" is a similar book to Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" and "Mary Barton". It is an account of the merchant's/tradesman's struggles during the Napoleonic wars (when trade with any country outside of the Commonwealth was prohibited, and both sides would take possession of any merchant ship of the opposition that they could). Trade suffers, so the merchants are going bankrupt. Therefore they are obliged to lay off hands, and the workers, and their families starve. It is a truly moving book, that is bound to grab you from the first page, and not let you put it down until the final sentence. It is an account of strife between the tradesmen and lower class, of attempted murder, of love, of loneliness, of longing, of patience, of reward and fulfillment in the end.

Two more books that I have completed

I read these to Lily every night. So have finished them many times, but I will only count them once each : )

The "Baby's first Bible" is a rhyming book. This really helps the children to remember what they have heard. I have had Lily make some pretty funny observations on the part where Peter walks on water. Jesus says to Peter when he sinks, "You must walf faithfully." Lily inevitably asks, "Karli, why faithfully?" and "That man [Jesus] is walking faithfully."

"More Baby Bible Stories" has some easy actions that accompany each bible story (which, by the way, I have never done with Lily), and a short prayer at the end of each story.

I have finished three books!

This isn't quite as impressive as it could be, because they are children's books that I read out loud to Lily before bed.

These three books are very cute, and definitely worth reading to your kids!

"Dogs Never Climb Trees" is about adventurous Schnitzel, who chases a cat all around, then with perseverance climbs a tree to catch it.

"Basketwork" is about Schnitzel's adored bed, that his owners hate and wish to replace. But Schnitzel is so upset about this that they finally give him back his favourite bed.

"Forget-Me-Not" is about a family vacation where Schnitzel gets left behind, but is found by a neighbour and reunited with his family (owners).

Banjo Patterson

Any Other Time

All of us play our very best game--
Any other time.
Golf or billiards, it's all the same--
Any other time.
Lose a match and you always say,
"just my luck! I was 'off' today!
I could have beaten him quite halfway--
Any other time!"

After a fiver you ought to go--
Any other time.
Every man you ask says "Oh,
Any other time.
Lend you a fiver! I'd lend you two,
But I'm overdrawn and my bills are due,
Wish you'd ask me--now mind you do--
Any other time!"

Fellows will ask you out to dine--
Any other time.
"Not tonight, for we're twenty-nine--
Any other time.
Not tomorrow, for cook's on strike--
Not next day, I'll be out on the bike--
Just drop in whenever you like--
Any other time!"

Seasick passengers like the sea--
Any other time.
"Something...I ate...disagreed...with me!
Any other time
Ocean-trav'lling is...simply bliss,
Must be my...liver...has gone amiss...
Why, I would laugh...at a sea...like this--
Any other time."

Most of us mean to be better men--
Any other time:
Regular upright characters then--
Any other time.
Yet somehow as the years go by
Still we gamble and drink and lie,
When it comes to the last we'll want to die--
Any other time!

Banjo Patterson

Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry that I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then I took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Poetry!

I thought that, while waiting to post about a book finished, I would share some poetry. So here is the first poem.


Perfect Peace

Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace;
Over all victorious in it's bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day;
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love,
We may trust Him fully, all for us to do;
They who trust Him, wholly, find Him wholly true.

Frances Ridley Havergal