Memento Mori

Book 50: Humility, the Journey Toward Holiness, Andrew Murray. 110pp

This is an updated-for-modern-readers edition. This is something I have mixed feelings about. On one hand I'm glad that such versions are available for those with less literary minds, because they can still reap the benefits; on the other hand, I loathe the dumbing-down of anything.

Still, despite the fact that this is an updated-for-modern-readers edition, I enjoyed it very much. It is VERY deep and would require many readings for the truths in it to really sink in. My brain would shut off every once in a while from overload, so it's taken me several sittings to get through it although it's a very little book. It made me think about humility in a way I have never thought of it before and made me think of how really important it is to be nothing so God can be all. Something definitely to be working on in my walk with Him, moving from "All of me, and none of Thee" to "None of me, and all of Thee!" as one old hymn puts it. (I'm paraphrasing, because I'm too lazy to go look up the hymn.)

( Some quotes from the book that stood out to me )

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures. - Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs From Plymouth Pulpit, 1887

Okay, I have to post the entire passage now, because I'm still laughing about it this morning.



It was not until [Psmith] had entered a florist's shop on the way to the tryst that it was borne in upon him that the adventure was going to have its drawbacks. The first of these was the chrysanthemum. Preoccupied with the rest of the communication, Psmith, when he had read the letter, had not given much thought to the decoration which it would be necessary for him to wear; and it was only when, in reply to his demand for a chrysanthemum, the florist came forward, almost hidden, like the army at Dunsinane, behind what looked like a small shrubbery, that he realised what he, a correct and fastidious dresser, was up against.

"Is that a chrysanthemum?"

"Yes, sir. Pink chrysanthemum."

"One?"

"Yes, sir. One pink chrysanthemum."

Psmith regarded the repellent object with disfavour through his eyeglass. Then, having placed it in his buttonhole, he proceeded on his way, feeling like some wild thing peering through the undergrowth. The distressing shrub completely spoiled his walk.

***

Okay, so what was going through my mind as I read this was something along these lines: "Chrysanthemum. Oh, those are pretty. Wait. They're kind of big."

I find this particularly fascinating. The whole thing can be read here.

Shouting No Evidence of Sanctification

The manner in which the meetings in Indiana have been carried on, with noise and confusion, does not commend them to thoughtful, intelligent minds. There is nothing in these demonstrations which will convince the world that we have the truth. Mere noise and shouting are no evidence of sanctification, or of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Your wild demonstrations create only disgust in the minds of unbelievers. The fewer of such demonstrations there are, the better it will be for the actors and for the people in general...

...The Lord desires to have in His service order and discipline, not excitement and confusion. We are not now able to describe with accuracy the scenes to be enacted in our world in the future; but this we do know, that this is a time when we must watch unto prayer; for the great day of the Lord is at hand. Satan is rallying his forces. We need to be thoughtful and still, and to contemplate the truths of revelation. Excitement is not favorable to growth in grace, to true purity and sanctification of the spirit.

Worship With a Bedlam of Noise

It is impossible to estimate too largely the work that the Lord will accomplish through His proposed vessels in carrying out His mind and purpose. The things you have described as taking place in Indiana, the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time. Better never have the worship of God blended with music than to use musical instruments to do the work which last January was represented to me would be brought into our camp meetings. The truth for this time needs nothing of this kind in its work of converting souls. A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing. The powers of satanic agencies blend with the din and noise, to have a carnival, and this is termed the Holy Spirit's working.

No encouragement should be given to this kind of worship...

...The Holy Spirit has nothing to do with such a confusion of noise and multitude of sounds as passed before me last January. Satan works amid the din and confusion of such music, which, properly conducted, would be a praise and glory to God. He makes its effect like the poison sting of the serpent.

Those things which have been in the past will be in the future. Satan will make music a snare by the way in which it is conducted. God calls upon His people, who have the light before them in the Word and in the Testimonies, to read and consider, and to take heed. Clear and definite instruction has been given in order that all may understand. But the itching desire to originate something new results in strange doctrines, and largely destroys the influence of those who would be a power for good if they held firm the beginning of their confidence in the truth the Lord had given them.

- Ellen White, Selected Messages, Volume 2

Book 28: Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Hanukkah: With Light, Latkes, and Dreidels (Holidays Around the World) by Deborah Heiligman. 31pp

A very brief book with a very long title. Another grab from the children's shelf - it is meant for a much younger audience than the previous one I read, but it is full of beautiful photographs of real children celebrating the holiday all over the world, with the story simply told. Great for early readers or reading to very young children.

What is interesting to me in learning about Hanukkah is that it has a very rich layering of meanings, the least important of which is the concept of it being Another Winter Festival. I think the most powerful and beautiful message is one that any believer should embrace, whether they celebrate the holiday or not, and that is this:

God does not need great numbers to work His purposes and preserve His faithful people (think of Gideon with his 300 men against thousands). We may be few in number, but with God on our side, what can't we accomplish? (Assuming it's something He wants accomplished, that is.)

Also, this quote from the book I read yesterday is beautiful:

Hanukkah candles stand for spirit, courage, justice, and hope. A candle gives off a tiny light, but it has the power to light another candle. And when it does, its own light increases at the moment of contact.

With that thought in mind, this song, already a favourite of mine, seems now a perfect embodiment of the Hanukkah spirit.

"...the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct."

"Of course I know that the Enemy also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. Remember, always, that He really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever."

"We should not take the testimony of any man as to what the Scriptures teach, but should study the words of God for ourselves. If we allow others to do our thinking, we shall have crippled energies and contracted abilities. The noble powers of the mind may be so dwarfed by lack of exercise on themes worthy of their concentration as to lose their ability to grasp the deep meaning of the word of God. The mind will enlarge if it is employed in tracing out the relation of the subjects of the Bible, comparing scripture with scripture and spiritual things with spiritual."

"...Angels are ever engaged in working for the happiness of others. This is their joy. That which selfish hearts would regard as humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched and in every way inferior in character and rank, is the work of sinless angels. The spirit of Christ's self-sacrificing love is the spirit that pervades heaven ans is the very essence of its bliss. This is the spirit that Christ's followers will possess, the work that they will do.

"Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him."

BOOK TEN: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Excellent. I would say this was my favourite so far. Whether this is due to the fact that I suspect "At World's End" stole some of the ideas for their depiction of the edge of the world or not I cannot say, but anyway. Eustace is hilarious. He adds a liveliness to the scenario and keeps it from being boring at the beginning while the not overly exciting things are happening yet.

My favourite quote?

"He was a very humane killer too, for he could dispatch a beast with one blow of his tail so that it didn't know (and presumably still doesn't know) that it had been killed."

And I am feeling very introspective.

I love the Bible. I love its simplicity and its truth and how very, very easy it is to understand now that God has led me to a place where people teach the Bible, and the Bible alone. I believe I've said before that coming to the Adventist church from the kind of Christian I was before is like switching from a PC to a Mac. Suddenly everything is so plain, so simple, so uncluttered, that I have to ask myself why I didn't see through to it sooner.

Someone on Facebook believes that on May 21, 2011 the Christians will be raptured. She sent me to a very long-winded writeup about her beliefs, and I read through part of it and read some of it to Dan and we both were like... okay, first of all, the Bible clearly states that no man knows the day nor hour of Christ's return (at which time the Bible says the rapture will take place, in 1 Thess. 5). We have only the signs pointing to its approach to give us our indicators. So that's just straight-out unBiblical.

I haven't read through all of the writeup by any means. It looks so complicated and confusing and, to be honest, deceptive. I do want to go over it more because I feel I should at least know where she's coming from. I'm not going to just dismiss it without looking at it more.

But for me, I'll take simplicity. I'll take the Bible for just what it says, and no more, and only accept a doctrine if the entire Bible backs it up. The time prophecies in Daniel are not hard to understand at all... and they don't end in 2011. The "time of the end" began in 1844, according to the Scriptures. I agree with this girl 100% that time is almost up, but not for the same reason. We are in the final days of earth. It could all end in five years or five months. We don't know (although once the Sunday law is passed, I believe that's a pretty good indicator that Jesus will be showing up at any moment - and until it happens, He won't show up).

I've spent much of my life being told what to believe, and this is the first time I'm not Being Told. I was just shown what God says, left to decide for myself, and because I love God, I want to keep His commandments only, and not man's - and certainly not some strange, twisted doctrine that is not of God. Satan is very busy. He is trying to deceive people in these last days to believe almost-correct doctrines, and he's doing a good job of it. As Shawn Boonstra puts it, "If the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense or you'll wind up with nonsense."

Good article on The Abomination of Desolation

The husband is out on a run to get some Wal-Born (or the Rite-Aid equivalent thereto) before sundown, and I never did audio or washed the floor. I did finish the doll dresses, though.

He still has a cold, so we'll forego Bible study with the Richardses tonight and possibly church tomorrow. This will be okay if we have to do that because it will give me an opportunity to work more on my Satan study. That sounds really bad. We should know our adversary, though, right - and what we're up against?