On making a joyful noise

God's word commands us to make a joyful noise.   Churches debate how best to do that in corporate worship.  I appreciated this article:

The Difference between Congregational Worship & a Concert

A music teacher I know says that most Christian pop-radio songs are not meant to be sung by a congregation, which explains why in many churches you can hear the praise team more than you can hear the congregation.  Just because a song sounds good on the radio or CD or at a concert, doesn't mean that the congregation (especially the non-musical ones like me) can sing it.

A few years ago our nieces went with us to a Getty concert, which was more like a sing-a-long, and one niece leaned over to me, and, with surprised joy in her voice, said, "I can sing these, even though I've never heard them before." 

Just two anecdotes that show how helpful it is for the music of the Church to be sing-able!

What is the last song you remember learning in church ~ and enjoying it?

1000 Gifts, Vol. 4, #59

601.  tiny rabbits eating clover in our yard

602.  rows of soybeans in the man's field behind our house, growing and hiding the brown soil underneath, making a carpet of green

603.  the contentment that comes from being industrious & seeing progress in our creation mandate of subduing the earth (and the chaos and the dust and the dirty dishes & laundry)

604.  a new favorite summer recipe - I think I could eat it every day!!

605.  a shift in perspective from seeing our summer calendar as BUSY, to seeing it as FULL -- full of opportunities with people

606.  God's grace - and my husband's! - when I hit the wall because I put tasks in front of people

607.  a spontaneous - yet heart-to-heart - conversation that touched deep places in my soul - in the foyer after church

608.  2.5 hours around a table with 10 or so like-minded folk, as we strategized and dreamed and worked on details for our church's missions conference

609.  participating in that as a couple

610.  both of us being refreshed & energized by the opportunity to use our God-given gifts & passions

Honda

I glanced at the calendar to see what was going on that day.  The square was blank except for:

"Honda 3 PM,"

and I almost had a mental whiplash.

The church planting team I worked with in Japan has a piece of property (with a church building and educational building) in a neighborhood called "Honda."  (Unrelated to and not the same characters as the Honda car company characters.)  Although there is an entire community and tens of thousands of people who live in Honda, I used it as a place name for the two buildings on church/mission property.

In any given week, I taught English classes at Honda, led a Bible study or two at Honda, attended meetings at Honda, participated in outreach events at Honda, had appointments at Honda, e.g., to meet an English student there so we could ride somewhere together, and the list goes on.

My calendar (in Japan days) was full of "Honda 3 PM" or "Honda 8 AM!"

When I read "Honda 3 PM" on my kitchen calendar the other day, I was confused.  Honda?!?  What?!? 

In my mind, I was pronouncing it with a long o sound (as the Japanese would), so it didn't even translate that I really was supposed to go to what Americans call the /hahn' duh/ dealership in a nearby city (not in Japan) at 3 PM for an oil change and tire rotation. 

Given a few seconds, my mind realized that it couldn't be the Honda of my Japan days, and I proceeded to plan my day so that I would make my appointment.  Whew!

Trust for our trembling, and hope for our fear

Do you ever find yourself trembling or fearful, carrying a burden, needing comfort for your sorrows or answers for your prayers?

Meditate on the beautiful hymn, Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.  I was introduced to it in our church in Japan and love the haunting melody.

Even with halting Japanese (especially when it comes to reading the equivalent of "King James" Japanese in the old hymnal), I could tell that the words were powerful, and they touched my heart and drew me into worship.

I made quick work of finding the English translation on Cyberhymnal and wrote the English words in the back of my English hymnal, and they ministered to me this afternoon.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,
Bow down before Him, His glory proclaim;
Gold of obedience and incense of lowliness,
Bring and adore Him—the Lord is His Name.

Low at His feet lay Thy burden of carefulness,
High on His heart He will bear it for thee;
Comfort thy sorrows and answer thy prayerfulness,
Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.

Fear not to enter His courts in the slenderness
Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine;
Truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
These are the offerings to lay on His shrine.

These though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
He will accept for the Name that is dear,
Mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
Trust for our trembling, and hope for our fear.

Take a few minutes and read the words above while playing the video below?  (If you want to look at the Japanese words, it's Sanbika #7, which starts:

主のみいつとみさかえとを

こえのかぎりたたえて、

またき愛とひくさこころ

御座にそなえひれふす。

1000 Gifts, Vol. 4,. #58 ~ Father's Day Week

591.  a father & father-in-law who walk with God

592.  driving west at 8.30 PM into a gorgeous sunset with pinks, purples, & periwinkles galore

593.  the start of a new Bible study

594.  freedom to answer honestly when a lady asked how I'm doing

595.  the unbridled enthusiasm of a baby Christian in our group

596.  the testimony of God's goodness despite the amount of sorrow in the lives of the couple dozen women in the group

597.  the Lord's favor when I went to Goodwill ~ and found the exact brand of pants that fit me best (I used to have a good source at the consignment shop in TN)

598.  a successful couple hours of food prep after a long day in town (Bible study, lunch, errands, groceries)

599.  "happening" upon free First Aid case at Target (free when you buy 3 of the First Aid essentials on that endcap) ~ just days after I had put "assemble first aid kits" on my to-do list

600.  the Lord's mercies truly are new every morning!

Fasting from prayer

At prayer meeting a few weeks ago, the leader told of hearing a radio interview with someone who fasted from prayer.

Not someone who fasted and prayed.

Someone who fasted from prayer. 

Instead of praying verbose, flowery prayers with lots of repeated phrases, this person tried to pray three-word prayers. 

It is not as easy as it sounds!  We tried it for part of our prayer meeting.  In between prayers, we meditated on those three words.  I found it to be a good exercise for my soul.

Some examples were:

Search my heart.

Lord, forgive me.

Help my unbelief.

You are holy.

You are good.

What would be your three-word prayer?

Toothpaste & cooking oil

"Do you coupon?" she asked.  I really wanted her to think well of my ability to be a good homemaker and a good steward, but honesty is the best policy, and so my immediate reply was, "I'm a coupon failure."  She breathed a sigh of relief, because she is also a self-diagnosed coupon failure.

But, I do want to be a good homemaker and a good steward!  And that is why I have been so happy to find the following frugal tips that WORK!

Whenever I pack my overnight bag backpack for a quick trip to the lake or for small trips such as our overnight trip to our niece's graduation, I don't want to fill it up with full-sized bottles of shampoo, toothpaste, etc.  But neither do I want to pay an arm and a leg (per ounce) for the little travel tubes of toothpaste.

I recently discovered that you can squeeze toothpaste from a normal-sized tube into a used travel-size tube!!  {Insert happy dance!}

The next tip is one of those, "It isn't really necessary, but it's a nice extra" type of things.  My kitchen cupboards are stocked with glass jars filled with walnuts, craisins, lentils, rice, etc.  The glass jars once held applesauce or spaghetti sauce, but mostly salsa and peanut butter (staples in our life!).   When the peanut butter is gone, I run it through the dishwasher with the next load, and VOILA!  There it is ... a clean, empty jar with torn paper and residual glue on it.  I fill it with pantry items and put it on the shelf.

But I'm in the middle of a project which involves jars and lace and table decorations, so I decided to peel off all the salsa labels and get rid of the gummy, gluey mess.   After soaking in a sink of warm water, Magic Erasers work, or steel wool, but the best thing I've found is a little bit of cooking oil scrubbed on and in and around with steel wool.  Now, that is a true VOILA!!

What new tips have you discovered lately?

Why "Naught But Good"?

When I opened Blogger to start this blog, the steps were very simple (even for one who doesn't do technology!) ... until I got to the step asking me for the name of my blog.

Hmmmm.  I flipped through some papers in my Bible, and there were my notes from listening to a John Piper biography message:  "George Mueller's Strategy for Showing God."
 
Piper says:

He was sustained in this extraordinary life by his deep convictions that God is sovereign over the human heart and can turn it where he wills in answer to prayer; and that God is sovereign over life and death; and that God is good in his sovereignty and withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly. He strengthened himself continually in his wife's final illness with the hymn:

Best of blessings he'll provide us
Nought but good shall e'er betide us,
Safe to glory He will guide us,
Oh how He loves!

Naught but good shall e'er betide us ... Oh how He loves!

Stars & stripes

sugar cookie flag

I have made a patriotic dessert for 4th of July once, and I have a blue and red table runner (and candle holders) that take us through from Memorial Day (May 27th this year) to D-Day (June 6th) to Flag Day (June 14th) and on to the 4th of July. 

 

But I'm still working through what it means to be an American Christian rather than a Christian American.  (The difference is huge!  Am I a Christian who also happens to be an American or an American who also happens to be a Christian?)  When I was living outside of America, my identity seemed to focus more on my being a Christian.  Now that I live here, I'm surrounded by people whose identity (even believers') seems to focus on their being an American. It's confusing.

For now, I'll just say that I'm not sure I'll ever, ever, EVER get used to hearing, during a Sunday morning worship service, "In honor of Memorial Day tomorrow, would all our veterans please stand?"  (Talk about something that would never happen in a Japanese church service!)

To defend myself against those who claim I am not patriotic, I think it is completely possible to be grateful for the veterans who won and protected my (earthly) freedoms while at the same time being uncomfortable with the veterans being honored in a church service. 

::4th of July thoughts from last year::

FREE missions books!

As of this writing, these are all $0.00 on Amazon and at Project Gutenberg.  Prices may change.

If you don't have an e-reader, the ones from Project Gutenberg can be downloaded to your computer.  The ones from Amazon can be uploaded to the Amazon Cloud, and you can read them on your comptuer.


The Story of John G. Paton
An Amazon reviewer: "One of the very best stories about the "real" life of a missionary in the field."

Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary

Henry Martyn

Robert Moffat

A Retrospect, by J. Hudson Taylor
First published in 1894, this short book covers from Taylor's conversion in 1849 to the beginning of his second voyage to China in 1866.

George Leslie Mackay

The Book of Missionary Heroes 

Written in 1922, it has good reviews on Amazon.

 

I'm sure if I had spent a little bit more time exploring, I could have found more.  Leave a comment if you find one you recommend or can't wait to read!

I want it to count

Steve Saint, son of Auca martyr & mission aviation pioneer Nate Saint and author of End of the Spear, speaking on the video update below, one year after an accident that left him partially paralyzed from the neck down:

None of us knows what our life is going to be like.  I wouldn't mind dying.  But I'm going to stay here longer. I want it to count, and I want my grandchildren to see that life isn't good when everything is fitting together right.  Life is good because we know that we have a hope when this life is done.  My theme has been, "Let God write your story."

    For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
(Philippians 1:21-26 ESV)

On my end table

On the table next to my chair in the living room is a stack of books.

Kitchen Table Counseling  (review here) - Midway through this book, every page has lines and stars from my pen.  Only once every few years do I mark in a book; this is one!  "A practical and biblical guide for women helping others."

A Long Walk to Water      Jim's aunt recommended this YA book to me two years ago. I've recommended it to others in our book club, and they say it's great.  My goal is to finish it before I see Jim's aunt this weekend. :)

The next four books were loaned to me by a friend who teaches middle school. Most are Newberry or written by Newberry award winning authors.  They will be quick reads, but thoughtful commentary on big issues, it appears.  Have you read any of these?

The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

The Cay

The Teacher's Funeral

Number the Stars

The Lamb of God     (series)  One of my favorite authors because of how she ties everything back to Christ, even in the Old Testament!  I'm part way through Lesson 1.

Joni & Ken     (trailer)  I had read enough reviews so that I was not surprised by the back-and-forth of the chronology of events throughout the book.   A good encouraging reminder that marriage is work, but worth it.  I appreciated both Joni's and Ken's transparency and their testimony of the Lord's lovingkindness in their lives. 

A Garden Path to Mentoring This book came home with me from a library used book fair at a local small town festival.  I always have my eye out for mentoring books, and will be interested to see what this author's take is. 

Summer Bucket List

I'm not sure how we already got to the 1/4 mark of June!  For schools that start up again in early August, I'm sure the summer is flyING!

I've enjoyed forwarding samples of Summer Bucket Lists to my nieces and nephew ... and dreaming of how I'd fill out my own summer bucket list.  

Our summer bucket list is more of a list of invitations we have accepted for activities & events, rather than a proactive list of fun things we want to do during the summer months (not that those are mutually exclusive).

Extras in our life this summer include:

• a niece's graduation
• a niece's dance recital
• two family reunions
• several days of out-of-state relatives being in town
• a niece's graduation open house
• a sibling's retirement celebration
• a high school reunion
• Tuesday afternoon reading program / Bible club in an underprivileged neighborhood
• a 3-session book discussion at church
• a 6-week ladies' morning Bible study
• manning the Gideon booth at a small-town festival
• a special summertime Girls' Night Out (instead of four ladies going to a restaurant, we will accompany five children on a play date, and fellowship while they play), 
• and hopefully several weekends away at the lake that Jim (and his mother) have been going to all their lives.

In other words, we're taking a "come what may" approach to planning our summer.  And, I think the activities listed above will keep us busy.

I have dreams of kayaking on the local river, going on a date night to an art exhibit, taking a riverboat cruise (with my 2 for 1 tickets which will expire at some point), reading some old books on Japan that a friend suggested, and going on a mule-pulled canal boat ride, and spending Sunday afternoons picnicking and reading at a lakeside park. 

And, of course, we'd love for this summer to be the summer of adopting. 

Our times are in His hands.

1000 Gifts, Vol. 4, #57

581.  73 degrees with only 57% humidity - bliss!

582.  a cup of caffeine in the middle of the afternoon on day two of "One cup of caffeine a day" (We'll see how that goes!)

583.  success on a months & months-long project that came with much anguish (& tantrums on my part)

584.  a long-suffering husband who doesn't say, "I told you so."

585.  a new (and delicious!) recipe - Greek Quinoa Salad

586.  a powerful missionary testimony at prayer meeting

587.  specific answered prayer when I asked God to help me get through a meeting I needed to go to

588.  being heard ~ and compassionately cared for ~ by medical professionals when I have nagging doubts & questions

589.  our library's e-book borrowing feature

590.  the anticipation of using my {new} sewing machine

Prayer meeting

Years ago I was asked, "Does your church have Wednesday night prayer meeting?"  The questioner seemed to be seeking data by which to judge how good my church was.

We attend a church of around 800.  Wednesday night usually finds 25-30 people gathered in room 171.  And that data sounds as if less than 3% of our church prays.

But Wednesday night prayer meeting is not the only indicator of our church's prayer life.  Beyond the individuals' personal prayer lives and the pastoral prayer from the pulpit each week, there are multiple prayer meetings!

On Sunday mornings, there are five prayer meetings ranging from 12 minutes to 75 minutes.  One is specifically to pray for the preaching of God's word.  Another focuses on praying for the spiritual nurture of children at our church. 

Even Wednesday evening prayer meeting is not confined to one meeting.  The 30-minute prayer meeting prays for evangelism and by name for the salvation of souls.  Even the more traditional hour-long prayer meeting isn't that traditional.  The guided prayer time focuses on kingdom progress and the advance of the gospel.  In other words, it's not the place to mention Aunt Mabel's broken toe.  (More on that next week.)

The more prayer meetings you have, the more people (total) will pray.  How many prayer meetings does your church have?

渋々 - On language learning

I'm afraid my Japanese language ability is declining at a rapid speed.  While I was in Japan, even if I did nothing to study, I had lots of environmental stimulation that kept me learning.

Living here, if I don't make a concerted effort to study, I will not be exposed to any spoken or written Japanese.

Since I tend to respond better to real life language (rather than textbook language), sometimes I listen to a Japanese podcast.  (But those tend to be sermons or Bible-language.)

The other day I realized that Facebook is a good way to keep learning.  Usually I can follow the meaning of my Japanese friends' posts, but sometimes I'm lost.  That's when I turn to Jim Breen, and copy and paste and hit "translate."

Recently a friend started her post with the word, "渋々." 

Hmmm.  I recognized the first character, because it is also the first in the name of a major train station in Tokyo - Shibuya. 

The word, "渋々," is pronounced "shibu-shibu" and means reluctantly or unwillingly.

And that was my new word for the day week month year (?!).

Meals

We spent the Memorial Day weekend in Wisconsin.  And ate out too much.  Since returning home, we've had a different-from-normal schedule, and eaten a lot of sandwiches.  I usually keep a big tub of (washed & cut) romaine lettuce in the fridge, so that salads twice a day are a breeze.  But this week, I've been doing good if I just get a few carrots & mini-peppers cut up for a fresh veggie plate. 

Finally, Thursday evening we had a real meal.  And we both were home at the same time to sit at the table together and eat it. 

A chicken divan from my freezer cooking stash was thawed enough to bake. 

And I finally overcome my fear of our new appliance and made healthy french fries, something Jim has been wanting me to do for a long time. 

And for the first time I made oven-baked kale chips (before the kale in my fridge went bad), something I have been wanting to do for a long time.

To top it off, I tried a new recipe for dessert, before the precious gift of rhubarb in our fridge went bad. 

If you had been here, we would have happily shared our table with you!