2023 Reading List

January
Mrs Entwhistle: Once You're Over the Hill, You Pick Up Speed, by Reidy
Miss Budge in Love, by Simpkins

February
How Green Was My Valley, by Llewellyn

April
What Do You Think of Jesus? by Scaer 

May 
Mrs Miracle, by Macomber
Susannah’s Garden, by Macomber
A Martyr's Faith in a Faithless World, by Wolfmueller

June
When First They Met by Macomber
The Inn at Rose Harbor, by Macomber
Lost and Found in Cedar Cove, by Macmber
Rose Harbon in Bloom, by Macomber
Love Letters, by Macomber
Falling for Her, by Macomber

July-October
The Mission of Mildred Budge, by Simpkins
Belle, by Simpkins

November
Miss Budge Goes to Fountain City, by Simpkins
Kingdom Come, by Simpkins
Christmas in Fountain City, by Simpkins

December
Has American Christianity Failed? by Wolfmueller

2022 Reading List

January:  
Bright Valley of Love, by Edna Hong  ***
Dashing through the Snow, by Debbie Macomber
Mildred Budge in Cloverdale, by Daphne Simpkins *

February:
QuickBooks for Nonprofits and Churches, by Lisa London

March and April:
Faith Alone, by Bo Giertz *
Jayber Crow, by Wendell Barry *

May:
Mildred Budge in Embankment, by Daphne Simpkins *
Roommaid, by Sariah Wilson

June and July:
Flatland, a romance of many dimensions, by Abbott 
The Paid Bridesmaid, by Sariah Wilson

August:
Keeper of Happy Endings, by Davis 
Lifecycle of an Exempt Organization, by IRS

September and October:
The Highly Sensitive Person, by Aron  [Worst book of the year, and take note that I'm ranking an accounting book and an IRS manual higher than this book.  For a while I quit the book and said it was pointless to waste the time.  When I felt compelled to finish, my husband kept asking why I had gone back to it.  He was right: I shouldn't have.]

November:
The Mutual Admiration Society, by Kagen (not recommended)

December:
The Bride's Room: A Mildred Budge Story, by Simpkins *
Microsoft Publisher for Dummies
Microsoft Excel for Dummies

2021 Reading List

Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer -- finished April 2.

The Baritone Wore Chiffon, by M. Schweizer -- finished April 28.

The Tenor Wore Taps, by M. Schweizer -- finished in June.

Hannah Coulter, by W. Berry -- finished June 12.

Feeling Good, by Burns -- finished in July.

Redeeming Love, by F. Rivers -- finished in September.

The Magdeburg Confession -- finished in early December.

The Bass Wore Scales, by M. Schweizer -- finished in late December.

Dates of Easter

         Western Church        Eastern Church

2022:    April 17                April 24

2023:    April 9                  April 16

2024:    March 31              May 5

2025:    April 20                April 20

2026:    April 5                  April 12

2027:    March 28             May 2

2028:    April 16                April 16

2029:    April 1                  April 8

2030:    April 21                April 28

2020 Reading List

 

The Theology of the Cross, by H. Sasse (in We Confess Jesus Christ)

Richest Man in Babylon, by G. Clason

A Christian Guide to Mental Illness, volume 1, by S. Saunders

Time at the lake during summer:
        Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, by M. Sidney
        Shadow Among Sheaves, by N. Stephens
        The Alto Wore Tweed, by M. Schweizer

Autumn:
        Mamma's Boarding House, by J.D. Fitzgerald 

Proofreading review of 
        Lutheran Catechesis, Catechist Edition

2018-19 Reading List

2018
33 Going on Girlfriend, by Monson -- January 3
34 Going on Bride, by Monson -- May 27

He Remembers the Barren, by Schuermann -- Jan 15
Bringing the Oxford Tutorial to Your High School or Middle School Student, by R. Paul -- May 28



2019
audio books between here and Minneapolis:

    A Year Down Yonder, by Peck

    Around the World in 80 Days

    some Narnia

rereads:

    House of Living Stones

    The Choir Immortal

    and probably some others I forgot

How to Write a Hymn

Praying Psalm 135 this morning, I kept being distracted by the lines lifted from elsewhere in Scripture.

• Verse 1 comes from Psalm 113.
• Verse 5 comes from Psalm 95.
• Verse 13 comes from Psalm 72.
• Verse 14 comes from Deut 32.
• Verses 15-18 repeat a section of Psalm 115.
• Verses 19-20 are a slight twist on a section of Psalm 118.

And that list doesn’t even include the other lines that I know show up in other biblical hymns but for which my memory doesn’t have a ready-reference of the citation ... nor does this list include the other places these lines appear.

The most important thing in hymn-writing is not to have some theological acumen plus some writing ability.  The most important thing is to be steeped in God’s word, to have His hymns and His stories and His catechism so deeply entrenched in your soul and your mind that His Word (not yours) spills out whenever your mouth or pen gets to movin’.

Cleaving

"Cleaving" is like "flammable."  It can mean the opposite of itself.

Sometimes cleaving means clinging, hanging on, being right there, attached.
Sometimes cleaving means splitting or cutting or dividing.

Someone blogged recently about cloves of garlic, and discovering the difference between a "head" and a "clove."  So I asked Maggie if she knew the difference.  And it got me to thinking: why is a clove called a clove?

"Clove" is past tense of "cleave."

A cloven hoof is a hoof with two parts.  One part that's split into two, but not really two, because it's still one hoof.

Even when we use the word "cleave" to mean "split," it still indicates the closeness of what was being split, such as the bow of the ship cleaving the waves.

(This sheds some light on marriage.  "A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one."  They're one.  But they're not.  They're two parts of one.  So they're one.)

Back to the garlic.  One head.  Eight or nine cloves.  The cloves can be separated.  So they're their own thing.  But they're not.  They're joined in the one head of garlic.

Once upon a time, I was scolded for falling into a "basic meaning fallacy."  The longer I live, the more I discover that "basic meaning" really does explain connections almost all the time.  It's not a fallacy.  It's usually enlightening and fun to figure out.

Moses

We always think of Moses as the Law-giver.  It's true.  The law did come to us from God through Moses.  But what else did Moses do?

He was a savior to the people.
He was a deliverer.
He interceded for them when the Lord said He should wipe 'em out because of their rebellion.

That's not law.
That's mercy.
That's rescue.

And all of that (the law and the rescue) is why Jesus is the prophet greater than Moses (Acts 3:22).

Healing the Lame Man

Peter and John got themselves arrested when they healed the paralytic (Acts 3) and preached to the people about the forgiveness of sins.  It seems the religious establishment was not fond of this message.

Funny.  Same thing happened to Jesus when He healed a lame man and preached the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 9). 

Christian "Culture" in Different Lands

Sometimes we look at the way Christians worship in other lands and think, "That's African Christian culture" or "That's Indian Christian culture" or "That's middle-Eastern Christian culture."  We think it's different from "American Christian culture."

Why?

Christianity is counter-cultural.  It doesn't fit in American society or African society or European society or any other society.  The Church is its own oddball thing.  There was a reason St Peter called us a "peculiar people."  The Church forgives people who don't deserve forgiveness.  The Church calls people to repent of their selfish desires, and not just the crass selfishness but even the selfishness which is extolled by the world.  Using His words and His rites, the Church worships a God who humiliated Himself.  What kind of weirdness is all this? 

This isn't popular in any culture.

When Pentecostal ideas infiltrate the Church, (even though part of the message is still about Christ's mercy toward sinners) too much of the teaching is about us and how we make decisions for God and how we follow Him.  The worship becomes more about our feelings for God than about His action for us.   It doesn't matter whether the congregation is in American suburbia or African villages, Pentecostal doctrine (even in Lutheran churches) manifests itself with certain worship styles. 

Why do Missouri-Synod Lutherans think that the doctrine and worship they hold dear is "American"?  Or "German"?  Why do we not recognize it simply as Christian?

Is it because we did pollute the Church's doctrine in past decades with viewpoints that were uniquely American?

Is it because we did, in our mission work in the past century, export lousy doctrine to other lands?

Is it because of "white guilt" and arrogance, thinking that whatever we have known is thus "ours," ... and not wanting to impose our culture on another people?  That would be a good attitude IF our worship and doctrine were "ours."  But it's not.  It belongs to the Lord.  And He wants us and people in other lands to be blessed by His word, His doctrine, His worship.

Stodgy old Lutherans do not want to make other people to be "like ourselves."  We want for others (and for ourselves!) to be made like Christ, to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.