The Scarlet Letter

I loved this book. It gave me so many things to seriously think about.

The character of the minister moved me the most. I actually cried as I read the few pages that described his pain. How he struggled with his sin and how he felt that, physically harming himself, would purify him. This was a common practice among priests and ministers at that time. Even Martin Luther physically harmed himself thinking this would purify him, before God showed him that His grace is sufficient.

A.W. Tozer in his book, The Pursuit of God, talks about this here:

  "Faith is the least self-reguarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. 

The man who struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do."

Quote of the Week

"No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on the Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit he gives." Oswald Chambers

Janette Oke, Motherhood and Organization

When I was a teenager I devoured pretty much every book Janette Oke wrote. I loved the simplicity of the prairie life, the way the characters related to one another and of course the cleaning and organizing!

She wrote of everyday mundane things as meaningful tasks. I always loved it when one of her characters moved into a new home and how she described the simple things of organizing and cleaning.

Now that I'm older and have almost finished raising my kids I see how much she influenced me through her books. Her stories helped me take a greater joy in cleaning and organizing my home and spending quality time with my husband and kids. She truly honored women who spent their lives taking care of others.

Quote of the week

I love quotes from people who I respect and enjoy reading. So I thought I'd share some of them on my blog.  So here is the first one:

"The greatest discovery has been...that I could be saved by the grace of God."   Richard Wurmbrand

John Bunyan

A few years ago I read John Bunyan's autobiography "Grace abounding to the chief of sinners" It was one of the hardest books to get through, it took me forever but it was so worth it.

The book is more of a spiritual autobiography and is very intimate. His struggles are felt deeply as you read and I think that's why I had a hard time getting through it. It's hard to read someone elses struggles especially when they hit home.

When you truly seek God, life is not "your best life now" its a constant struggle against the enemy, who not only wants to keep you separated from God, but constantly accuses you and tries to convince you that what you've done is not forgivable. But the truth is when you put your trust in God He will never leave you or forsake you.

After years of struggle John Bunyan went on to be a great pastor and later thrown into prison for preaching the gospel. It's there that he wrote Pilgrim's Progress one of the most beloved christian books of all time.