Sonnet 16: John Milton

On His Blindness-

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest He returning chide,

"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"

I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,

And post o'er land and ocean without rest;

They also serve who only stand and wait."

Desktop Wallpaper for October!

Tim Challies has a wonderful website, "Informing the Reforming", and if you haven't visited it yet, you should. He speaks on topics such as the 180 movie, spiritual life in this ungodly world, puritan fathers thoughts in this contemporary world, he reviews books and movies, and right now is holding a discussion on Thursdays on John Stott's book "The Cross of Christ".

All that to say- go check out his website.

And if that didn't convince you enough, at the beginning of each month he has free desktop backgrounds. Here's a taste of this month's:

Jeans to Skirt: a waste not, want not expedition

I have a drawer filled with jeans... and I only wear 3 pairs. All the others are worn out, have holes in the knee, what have you, and I'm too stingy to just throw them away. Now I am inspired thanks to these photos! :D

Banned Books Week

The burning and banning of books is not just a thing of the past with the Nazis, it still happens today! For those of you who are trying to figure out what Banned Books are, here is the American Library Associations definition for Challenged and Banned Books:

"A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenged do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom and speech and choice"

One example of what book banning looks like today, is the efforts of Laura Mallory. From 2005-2007 she unsuccessfully tried to ban the Harry Potter books from the libraries of Gwinnett County School System in Georgia. This seven-part series by J.K. Rowling ranks as the most challenged set of books since 2000. Mallory's efforts are among the more than 3,00 challenges against the book based on what opponents perceive to be Satanic undertones.

Statistics say that the largest group of challenged and banned books are children's books, mostly because of these three things:

1. the material was considered to be "sexually explicit"
2. the material contained "offensive language"
3. the materials was "unsuited to any age group"

Children's authors like A.A. Milne, Dr. Seuss, and Silverstein, classics like Tolkien, Hugo, Orwell, Dickens, London, and more would be banned from all libraries and classrooms. Sad day. I wouldn't be able to read any of these books from my library... and this is only one of three piles that would be considered banned!

Annihilation to Me and Identification with Him

When I was little- during my Awana days- I was always memorizing verses the fastest and could spit them out like watermelon seeds. I did like memorizing, but I think a big factor was because whoever memorized the most got to throw a pie in the Director's face; which, for me, was my Grandmother's face :) Now I'm a big advocate of memorizing sections, if not chapters and books of the Bible. The context is so important and so key to understanding what the Lord is trying to say! I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here.

One of the chapters I've memorized is Philippians 2 and lately I've been dwelling on '[Jesus] did not consider equality with God something to be grasped'. Jesus, Second Member of the Trinity, now with the human aspect, doesn't think about it. What's one of the first things we read in the Bible? The Serpent saying, "You will be like God" (Gen 3:5) and the people of Babel building a Tower to Heaven (Gen 6:3-7). We try so hard to be like God when Jesus gave up all that glory up to come down here to serve the people who would crucify Him.

Oswald Chambers touches on this a little in this devotion. We must not long to become like God- and when I say that I do not mean that it is wrong to long to imitate Him, for we are ordered to do so (Eph 5:1, I Pet 1:16), but wrong to think that we are perfect, omniscient, and eternal. What we must long for is to be like Him in character- and Jesus is the best example for us in that!!!

O. Chamber's words things so much better than I ever could, read what he has to say :)

The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself- a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but with the unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us know the absolute "go" of abandonment to Jesus.

"Then Jesus beholding him loved him." The look of Jesus will mean a heart broken forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. He Jesus ever looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are 'soft' with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.

"One thing thou lackest..." The only 'good thing' from Jesus Christ's point of view is union with Himself and nothing in between.

"Sell whatsoever thou hast..." I must reduce myself until I am a mere conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not to save my soul (only on thing saves a man- absolute reliance upon Jesus Christ), but in order to follow Jesus. "Come, and follow Me" and the road is the way He went.

~Mark 10:21

Banana Muffins

5:50am- Groan and moan as I roll out of bed.
6:00- 2mile walk/jog
6:30- MAKE BANANA MUFFINS!!!!!
6:45- ...wash all of yesterday's dinner dishes...
7:00- EAT BANANA MUFFINS!!!!
7:15- Sit down and answer emails while drinking Chai and munching muffin. Love.

This was a recipe that was off the top of my head- I didn't want to dig out a recipe or spend time online looking for one. I hope I remember all the ingredients and correct measurements! Next time I make these, I'll follow this recipe and make sure its right!

*Makes One Dozen*

Dry Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1 tsp nutmeg

- 1 tsp baking soda

- A Pinch or two of salt

Wet Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup canola or veggie oil

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1 cup mashed super ripe bananas

- 1/3 cup of whatever you want. Chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, etc

Method:

1. Set oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin tin.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
3. Mix all wet ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
5. Fill muffin tins half way, and if you want sprinkle some coconut on top to make them look like the ones in the picture.
6. Bake for 15 mins. They will be moist and semi-mushy inside. Its not that they aren't done baking, its just that the bananas make it that way
7. Eat hot with a glass of milk, warm with a cup o' tea, or cold with a mug of coffee!

Nothing Serious: P.G. Wodehouse

A compilation of short stories that P.G. Wodehouse wrote. The main reason I bought this book is because of one story in here: the Rodney Has a Relapse story. Yes folks, this is the story where is slams A.A. Milne!!! A father decides to go into writing children's book using his son as an inspiration and it affects his entire social group. The worst thing about his obsession with writing, they all say, is that he's given up golf. Ridiculously hilarious story.

Oh! and not that I have anything against Milne, but come on, you know it has to be funny when someone makes fun of Pooh Bear! The other stories in this book are all fine, but Rodney's is the best one :D

What I Liked:

It's Wodehouse- so far I've enjoyed everything of his that I have read. You can go and read my previous posts on his work, I'm not writing them again ;)

What I Didn't Like:

This book was a little harder to sit down and read for an extended amount of time because it was all short stories. Once you finished a story you would think, "Ah that was nice. next book" but no. Same book, next chapter, and no plot thickening or deepening of the characters personalities. Good book, but not for long reading.

Favorite Quote:

"Timothy Bobbin has a canary.

As regards to it's sex opinions vary.

If it just goes tweet-tweet,

we shall call it Pete,

but if it lays an egg, we shall switch to Mary."

~ excerpt from Rodney Has a Relapse