1986 September/October issue Part 2

Regrets

When my father was twelve years old he lost his left eye through disobedience. He had been forbidden to have firecrackers, so he sneaked out early in the morning of July 4, 1910, and, with the help of a neighboring farmer, set off some dynamite caps. A piece of copper penetrated his eye. Four years later my grandfather wrote this letter to my grandmother:

1986 September/October issue Part 1

Family Prayers

When I was a child my father and mother gathered the six of us in the living room after breakfast every morning for family prayers. First we sang a hymn, omitting none of the stanzas, accompanied on the piano by one of our parents. It was in this way that we learned a good bit of solid theology without any conscious effort. I must emphasize that it was hymns and old gospel songs we sang, not choruses or gospel ditties.

  There are some young families who still do this today. Judy Palpant of Spokane, who had heard me tell about our family prayers, writes, "Our children know that you were the inspiration for our three-year-old tradition of singing a hymn with our family devotions. We sing the same one each morning for a month. Tonight was the first time we tabulated the number of hymns we learned. The children were impressed! Let me assure you that many new words and truths have been impressed upon their hearts and minds as we have discussed the themes and words of our chosen hymn. Our many guests at breakfast (especially when we were in Africa) were often blessed by the singing of a hymn. My husband's parents were visiting us when we were singing 'Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.' That hymn was sung at their wedding. During the Easter season one year we were learning 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross on Which the Prince of Glory Died.' A missionary from Kenya underlined the words 'Prince of Glory' for us by sharing some insights with us. Thank you for this idea which has enriched our family as well as our guests."

1986 July/August issue Part 6

From My Journal

February 21, 1986, Autaugaville, Alabama. Beautiful guest cottage on the vast farm (cotton, pecans, hogs, cattle, etc.) of Buzz and Diane Wendland. Walt and Val (my daughter) and the four children are given another guest house. Lovely arrangement-all of us together, since Walt, Val, and I are speakers in the same conference.

  Walter (8) prayed last night as I was tucking him in, "Help Christiana (4) to have a sweet heart, and help Jim (22 months) to have an obedient heart, and thank you for Elisabeth (6)." (I'm quite sure I didn't think of my brothers as cause for thanskgiving when I was that age.) I asked Walter if he had read George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind. "Oh yes! It was so good- but I need to be more like Diamond. He was so kind."

1986 July/August issue Part 5

How to Read the Bible
"It shall greatly help thee to understand Scripture if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but
of whom
to whom
with what words
at what time
where
to what intent
with what circumstances
considering what goeth before and followeth."

1986 July/August issue Part 4

How Things Go in the Carpentry Business

Jeff Becraft of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes writes, "In trying to recruit college athletes to serve as 'huddle leaders' at our summer camps I get a lot of responses such as,'Well, I'd like to go, but it depends on my job, and I'd like to do some traveling this summer ... etc.' "Jesus didn't say,'Well, I'm going to see how things go in the carpentry business and if things don't work out ... well, I might go save the world or something.' No.'We are going to Jerusalem.' This is no seeking of adventure. This is no wim. This is the will of God. That's all that matters."

1986 July/August issue Part 3

Jewels on the Sidewalk

My dear friend Katherine Morgan (the spiritual mother I wrote about in the May/June'85 issue) writes from Colombia:

"I have long felt that most of the family and social problems today can be traced directly to the fact of woman being out of her God-given place and consequently forcing man out of his. Most women cannot see the slightest thing wrong with it, and neither can their short-sighted husbands. Their argument here is that even with two salaries coming in, they can hardly scrape by. When one points out that half of the things they have they don't need, and that what they call their 'needs' are not nearly so great as their children's need of them as parents, they just look at one and look blank. I often ask mothers if they ever leave their color television set or their jewel box with the jewels in it out on the sidewalk when they go to work. They look astonished at the silly question. Then comes the query, 'Do your children compare in value with those things? Yet you leave them out all day on the street to have their morals, their culture, and their souls stolen by thieves who play in the neighborhood."'

1986 July/August issue Part 2

The Master's Will

Years ago I spent a night with a Welsh shepherd and his wife in a place called Llany-mawddwy. In that short time I saw many spiritual lessons enacted in the relationship between the shepherd, his dog, and his sheep. Mari, the shepherd's wife, told me many others.'

The following is from her book, In the Shelter of

the Fold.

  "A farmer from Peebles, Scotland, had bought some sheep from another farm a good way off. All by herself, his faithful dog started out to drive the sheep to her home on the other side of the mountain. Her master was tempted to linger awhile, over his pint, perhaps, with the vendor. When he returned home later that night, he realized to his consternation that the sheep and the dog had not arrived. In real anxiety he and his son set out in different directions to look for them. But what did the farmer see almost immediately coming to meet him but the flock of sheep with the dog behind them, and in her mouth a new-born puppy, still wet from the womb.

1986 July/August issue Part 1

Who Will Speak to My Husband?

(The following is an article by R.C. Sproul, first published in his magazine Tabletalk in February, 1986. Reprinted with permission.)

  “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands” – this Biblical admonition is one of the most abused exhortations of Scripture. It is abused on two sides, twisted and distorted beyond recognition by both parties in the dispute.

1986 May/June issue Part 8

Passion and Purity

A twenty-six-year-old man preparing to be a missionary writes, "I wish someone had given me this book about six months ago because it would have saved me a lot of pain and anguish of heart. The principles you wrote about

1986 May/June issue Part 7

Question and Answer

Q. Is it a sin to ask God why?

A. It is always best to go first for our answers to Jesus Himself. He cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" It was a human

1986 May/June issue Part 6

He Is Able

For more than a century thousands of Christians have used a little book called Daily Light, a collection of scripture verses arranged for morning and evening reading, without commentary. The story of how it was put together perhaps gives us a clue as to why so many can testify to the amazing relevance of the selected passages to the needs of the very days for which they are given. The Bagster family of London collected the scripture passages and "prayed them into" the dates. Sometimes it did not seem clear which passages were to be used on a given date, so they proceeded to the next and later returned to fill in the page in question. The evening selection for March 8 is this:

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able.

Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Able to make all grace abound toward you;

that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.