Thankful Thursday

Let’s see: The antibiotics I’m taking after dental surgery are doing a number on my digestion. That means (Should I even say this?) that I’m getting no long sleeps. I have to keep on eating anyway because all my post surgery meds have to be taken with food, but the thought of food makes me queasy, or more precisely, queasier.

It won’t stop snowing, either. I shoveled yesterday; I shoveled to day; and I’m pretty sure I’ll be shoveling tomorrow. 

Can you tell I’m not exactly in a mood of thanksgiving? Should I, perhaps, start over?

I’m thankful that I’ve no infection at the site of my dental surgery. I’m thankful that I have indoor plumbing. I’m thankful for coffee to keep me awake during the days after sleepless nights.

I’m thankful for the invention (or is it discovery) of painkillers, and that with them I’m pain free after surgery. I’m thankful for the man who performed my oral surgery competently. I’m thankful that I’m almost done with the antibiotics. Three left and woohoo for that!

I’m thankful for yogurt: It sits well in my stomach with the pills and it might help with the digestive issues while it’s there. Besides, it tastes good.

I’m thankful that I can shovel. I’m thankful that with all this ibuprofen I’m taking, I won’t even know if it makes me sore. I’m thankful that everything looks better and brighter with a coating of clean snow.

I’m thankful that God forgives repentant grumblers. 

What about you? What are you thankful for?

Book Review: 18 Words

The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know by J. I. Packer.

Did you know someone gave Carl Trueman a copy of 18 Words (first published as God’s Words) when he started university, and he read it and came to faith? I was halfway through this gem of a book when I heard this interview in which Trueman mentions J. I. Packer and God’s Words as pivotal in his early Christian faith.

So what is 18 Words? How does it work? It’s a collection of essays on keywords from the Bible, words like scripture, the devil, reconciliation, and holiness. That descriptions makes it sound like a book of word studies, but it isn’t quite, at least not in the way we usually think of word studies. Rather, 18 Words looks at biblical words not as mere words, but as pointers to biblical themes with the purpose of “spelling out the gospel which is the Bible’s central message.” It’s one way, and an effective one, to get at the core of true Christianity. 

I’d not heard of this book, not as God’s Words or 18 Words, before I saw it at Amazon and decided to order it.1 It isn’t as well-known as Packer’s classic Knowing God and that’s too bad, because it’s similar in quality, style and value, full of sentences and paragraphs to underline, or quotes and clever phrases to remember. Now that I think about it, I’d say it would make a perfect companion for Knowing God, with Knowing God expounding who God is, and 18 Words explaining the biblical themes that ultimately point us to Christ. Together they’d make an excellent two volume Christian Doctrine 101. 

J. I. Packer is the Board of Governor’s Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver, BC, Canada. You’ll find a list of some of his books and articles here.

If you haven’t read 18 Words, you should. I’ve already posted several quotes to give you a glimpse of how delightful this book is and how much it can teach you.

• Made to Rule Creation
• Walking on a Knife Edge
• Only He, As the God-Man
• A Steady Blaze
• Safeguarding the Glory of Christ
• Safeguarding the Genuineness of Faith Itself
• Counted as Righteous
• Regeneration in the Old Testament? Oh Yes!
• The Salutary Tendency of the Doctrine of Election
• Somewhat Unnerving Company
• One Bosom Friend

What’s more, you can read the introduction here (pdf). And while you’re ordering one for yourself, why not buy a copy for your favorite college student, pairing it, perhaps, with Knowing God? Who knows what might happen? 

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1Something I did twice, as it turns out. My daughter’s dog chewed my first copy to bits when I left him in the car alone for ten minutes. I like him anyway and he’s a good skijorer.

Round the Sphere Again: Bits of History

Timing is Everything
Never heard of Harriet Quimby? There’s a reason for that (mental_floss Blog).

Discipline with a Gentle Hand
Lucy Thurston, early missionary to Hawaii, endured a mastectomy done without any anaesthetic. Later, she wrote a letter to her daughter describing it (Letters of Note). (Be forewarned: Her description is realistic, but worth reading unless you are very sensitive.)

Learning from the Puritans
Who they were (Heritage Booktalk). 

Doctrinally, Puritanism was a kind of vigorous Calvinism; experientially, it was warm and contagious; evangelistically, it was aggressive, yet tender; ecclesiastically, it was theocentric and worshipful; politically, it aimed to be scriptural, balanced, and bound by conscience before God in the relations of king, Parliament, and subjects.

Why you might want to read them (Heritage Booktalk).

With the Spirit’s blessing, Puritan writings can enrich your life as a Christian in many ways as they open the Scriptures and apply them practically, probing your conscience, indicting your sins, leading you to repentance, shaping your faith, guiding your conduct, comforting you in Christ and conforming you to Him, and bringing you into full assurance of salvation and a lifestyle of gratitude to the triune God for His great salvation.

How they viewed wealth (The Upward Call).