Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for my living room windows, five big ones, (and a windowed, door, too). Sitting in here is like being outdoors, light-wise, and that saves my sanity during the winter.

I’m thankful that the young adult offspring who live with me like jigsaw puzzles as much—maybe more—than I do. Since Christmas, we’ve spent many evening hours at the dining room table puzzling and it’s been good.

I’m thankful that with God, nothing is impossible, so it’s not silly to ask him for things that seem impossible to me.

On Thursdays throughout this year, I plan to post a few thoughts of thanksgiving along with Kim at the Upward Call and others.

Drawn by Irresistable Love

While cataloguing books for the church library, I found one with daily devotionals written by Frances Ridley Havergal, better known to me as a hymn writer. I’ve decided to work on little biographical sketch of Miss Havergal, which I’ll be posting soon. Meanwhile, here’s the devotional for today from the little book Opened Treasures.

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No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. (John 6:65)

Do not shrink from the words; do not dare to explain them away; the faithful and true Witness spoke them, the Holy Ghost has recorded them forever. There it stands; reiterated and strengthened instead of softened, because many even of His disciples murmured at it. So our coming to Jesus was not our of ourselves; it was the gift of God. How did this gift operate? Not by driving but by drawing. “No man can come to Me, except the father which hath sent Me draw him.” Here comes in the great “whosoever will.” For unless and until the Father draw us, no mortal born of Adam ever wanted to come to Jesus. There was nothing else for it, He had to draw us or we never should have thought of wishing to come, nay, we should have gone on distinctly willing not to come, remaining aliens and enemies. Oh, the terrible depth of depravity revealed by that keen sword-word, “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.” Settle it then that you never wanted to come till He drew you, and praise Him for thus beginning at the very beginning with you.

Round the Sphere Again

A church history—or maybe not—edition.

See update below!

Octavius Winslow
You may have read many Winslow quotes, but I bet you don’t know much about the man, do you? Here’s good news, then: There’s a new blog dedicated to placing “in one site all information known about Octavius Winslow” where you’ll find biographical information, quotes, and more.

Irish Puritans
Kim Shay explains some of the reasons why spreading the gospel in Ireland was so difficult for the Puritans.

The Puritans, at the very core of their beliefs, wanted to promote the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.  This was hard to do in Ireland given not only the mix of individuals, but also given the animosity that was directed against the English.

Now go read the whole post.

Jonathan Edward
Someone’s been having even more fun than Karl Malden at JE’s expense. (Justin Taylor)

Update on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 12:13PM by rebecca

Extra! Extra!
Because church history has late-breaking news, too: Monergism.com just added a link to S. M. Houghton’s Sketches in Church History, which has very readable—short and with pictures—articles on the early church down through the 19th century. This book was intended for “those who, approaching church history for the first time, wished for a general coverage of the subject before they proceeded to works of greater detail.” Here’s the table of contents.