Thursday, March 30, 2023

As One Whom His Mother Comforts

Dear S_ and E_:

Your message by the devotional author “Prodigal God” is a very creative use of terms, indeed. Thank you. Like you, “prodigal” always has a negative connotation to me in our English language.

The etymology of the word “prodigal” is taken from Medieval Latin prōdigālis (wasteful). In turn, it originated from the Latin prōdigus (lavish), and from prōdigere (to squander). Undoubtably, the said devotion has the definition “lavish” as its topic for the day. It is cleverly appropriate of the author to use the word contrary to what we were taught on the word “prodigal”. The said devotion reminds me of an oxymoronic phrase Piper used in my 1997 devotional, “Christian Hedonism”.

By the way, I use a modified Cornell note taking method for my daily devotion. It has three sections:

📝Cornell Note
§ Telegraphic Sentence Note:
§ Thoughts, Words, or Questions:
§ Summary & Reflection:

As Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:1, I am to “stir you to wholesome thinking.” So then, to continue on this “prodigal” theme, let’s play a game. There are two parts to this game.

• What is the father first reaction when he sees the Prodigal Son coming home? How is this incident compare to Noah’s action when the dove returns to the ark?

• Rembrandt painted the “Prodigal Son”. In this painting the humbled and repentant son keels before the father. The father welcomes him back home. What do you see in this painting that appears so intriguing? (My hint: Isaiah 66:13)

L'

Monday, March 20, 2023

I’m in God’s Keeping Wherever I Go


If In God's Keeping

If the Lord didn't lead me beside the still water, 
Who then would satisfy my heart's need? 
If the Lord didn't make me lie down in green pastures, 
I would never know his perfect peace. 
I would never know his perfect peace

If the Lord didn't lead me thro' the dark valley 
How would I find the way on my own? 
If the Lord didn't give me the love for the Savior, 
I could never call heaven my home. 
I could never call heaven my home.

I will lie down and sleep though I'm lonely; 
I will lie down and find rest far from home. 
I will know peace though the dark night surrounds me; 
I'm in God's keeping wherever I go. 
I'm in God's keeping wherever I go.

You have declared me as perfect in your eyes. 
You always cared for me in my distress Lord, 
see in me a sacrifice pleasing. 
Send me contentment and perfect rest. 
Send me contentment and perfect rest.

I will lie down and sleep though I'm lonely; 
I will lie down and find rest far from home. 
I will know peace though the dark night surrounds me; 
I'm in God's keeping wherever I go. 
I'm in God's keeping wherever I go. Wherever I go.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Let Us Leave Him

  
Soothsayer: Beware the Ides of March.

Julius Caesar: He is a dreamer, let us leave him. Pass.

- Shakespeare


Ides=half-way point in a month
Pass=move on.

Wednesday, March 01, 2023

Love Make Anew This Throbbing Heart

Spring still makes spring in the mind,
When sixty years are told;
Love makes anew this throbbing heart,
And we are never old.
Over the winter glaciers,
I see the summer glow,
And through the wild-piled snowdrift
The warm rosebuds below.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson.