Out From Here We Roam

The Gardening Attempts, pt. 1

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:14:02 -0400

I have never really thought of myself as the killing type. Small spiders live in our house in peace(albeit, only the very small ones), misdirected ladybugs get sent back on their way through the front door, worms are rejoiced over and gently re-covered in the garden. But my latent killer has been found out by the discovery of a real enemy: slugs.

Perhaps I should have been for-warned that the killer was there, deep inside—did I not rejoice to discover, as a small child of three, that salting slugs resulted in their dried out death? But I had forgotten this enemy, until it came time to tend my own garden, and raise up my own family of plants.

I have rarely been fond of animals, and sometimes have wonder at this defect in myself. Perhaps my guilt is placated in discovering that any love that might have gone to dogs or sheep or parakeets was stored up for plants. As soon as their little sprouts struggle up through the earth, I know that I love them and will fight to protect them from the evils they will face.

Sunday morning, I am out to water “the plants” before a hot May day shines forth and my husband drinks his coffee on the front step.

I look over the rhubarb plant, full of slug holes, and find the tell-tale shine of a fresh slug trail. The perpetrator has yet to leave the scene of the crime.

“Ahg! Die!” The nearest rock is grabbed and one more plump slug, gorged on my plant, leaves this earth.

“Are you sure that’s the best way to prepare your heart for worship?” comes the question from the porch.

“They are slugs,” I shrug. It is as though I am simply carrying out the creation mandate.

There are many lessons to be learned in gardening; I have yet to discover what I am supposed to be learning about slugs.

"Purple is the liturgical color of Lent, a deep color of penitence, a lush color of royalty. Lent is..."

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:17:41 -0400

“Purple is the liturgical color of Lent, a deep color of penitence, a lush color of royalty. Lent is for training kings.”

- Peter Leithart-40+Reasons for Lent

The Gospel According to Trees

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 22:30:12 -0500

The Gospel According to Trees:

Happy Advent from Pastor Sumpter

Go Ahead and Squish It

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:13:16 -0400

Go Ahead and Squish It:

Something that keeps coming back to mind.

http://Godsfingerprints.net

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:31:50 -0400

http://Godsfingerprints.net

Cool stuff

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:00:31 -0400

Cool stuff

Because of Obamacare

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:54:37 -0400

Because of Obamacare

"You are … a royal priesthood … —1 Peter 2:9 By what right have we become “a royal..."

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:46:41 -0400

“

You are … a royal priesthood … —1 Peter 2:9

By what right have we become “a royal priesthood”? It is by the right of the atonement by the Cross of Christ that this has been accomplished. Are we prepared to purposely disregard ourselves and to launch out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual inner-searching we do in an effort to see if we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, sickly type of Christianity, not the vigorous and simple life of a child of God. Until we get into this right and proper relationship with God, it is simply a case of our “hanging on by the skin of our teeth,” although we say, “What a wonderful victory I have!” Yet there is nothing at all in that which indicates the miracle of redemption. Launch out in reckless, unrestrained belief that the redemption is complete. Then don’t worry anymore about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ has said, in essence, “Pray for the friend who comes to you at midnight, pray for the saints of God, and pray for all men.” Pray with the realization that you are perfect only in Christ Jesus, not on the basis of this argument: “Oh, Lord, I have done my best; please hear me now.”

How long is it going to take God to free us from the unhealthy habit of thinking only about ourselves? We must get to the point of being sick to death of ourselves, until there is no longer any surprise at anything God might tell us about ourselves. We cannot reach and understand the depths of our own meagerness. There is only one place where we are right with God, and that is in Christ Jesus. Once we are there, we have to pour out our lives for all we are worth in this ministry of the inner life.

”

- My Utmost For His Highest-http://utmost.org/

Good For Everyday

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:46:00 -0400

Good For Everyday:

“If you abandon everything to Jesus, and come when He says, “Come,” then He will continue to say, “Come,” through you. You will go out into the world reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come.” That is the result in every soul who has abandoned all and come to Jesus.” -June 13th

"After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first..."

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:07:12 -0400

“After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.”

- C.S. Lewis-Mere Christianity

godsfingerprints: Good truth.

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:56:02 -0400

godsfingerprints:

Good truth.

"I should admit that I, for one, feel considerable sympathy for Nietzsche’s plaint, “Nearly..."

Tue, 01 May 2012 19:52:28 -0400

“I should admit that I, for one, feel considerable sympathy for Nietzsche’s plaint, “Nearly two-thousand years and no new god” — and for Heidegger intoning his mournful oracle: “Only a god can save us.” But of course none will come. The Christian God has taken up everything into Himself; all the treasures of ancient wisdom, all the splendor of creation, every good thing has been assumed into the story of the incarnate God, and every stirring towards transcendence is soon recognized by the modern mind — weary of God — as leading back towards faith. Antique pieties cannot be restored, for we moderns know that the hungers they excite can be sated only by the gospel of Christ and him crucified. To be a Stoic today, for instance, is simply to be a soul in via to the Church; a Platonist, most of us understand, is only a Christian manqué; and a polytheist is merely a truant from the one God he hates and loves.”

- Christ and Nothing

David B. Hart

Prove Your Super Powers...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:37:00 -0400

Prove Your Super Powers...:

…because Christ is risen.

I like finding stuff like this.

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:16:49 -0400

I like finding stuff like this.

To life is Christ, yeah, that’s Paul, I recall, To die is...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:09:00 -0400

To life is Christ, yeah, that’s Paul, I recall,

To die is gain, so for Christ we give it all.

"When you are alone, pray. Love to throw yourself down on the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and..."

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:02:29 -0400

““When you are alone, pray. Love to throw yourself down on the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it, tirelessly, insatiable, love all men, love all things, seek this rapture and ecstasy. Water the earth with the tears of you joy, and love those tears.”

- Father Zosima, Dostoevsky-Brothers Karamazov

"Of the thirty or so herbs that may be used in the preparation of food, the following are more or..."

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:05:11 -0400

“Of the thirty or so herbs that may be used in the preparation of food, the following are more or less indispensable and should be grown in every garden: rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, tarragon, chives, basil, chervil, and parsley.”

- Angelo Pellegrini-The Unprejudiced Palate

"We were made to serve God and others. That means paradoxically that if we try to put our own..."

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:57:00 -0400

“We were made to serve God and others. That means paradoxically that if we try to put our own happiness ahead of obedience to God, we violate our own nature and become, ultimately, miserable. Jesus restates the principle when he says, “Whoever wants to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it””

- Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

More Ed Welch

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:26:28 -0400

More Ed Welch:

Hebrews 12: 5-6

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

"Don’t tell me you grew up in the church and you’ve always just pretty much believed. Show me your..."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:50:15 -0400

““Don’t tell me you grew up in the church and you’ve always just pretty much believed. Show me your scars, show me your wounds, show me that rascally Spirit-smile and those bold bright eyes that tell of battles and glories where the flesh was slain, where sin was crushed, where you chased the devil and laughed him back to hell.””

- Pastor Toby-How to Give Your Testimony