God Jeweled This Tree

The Brazilian Grape Tree is a wonder in so many respects, including the stunning beauty of it.

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Everything You Need to Know About Frazil Ice

…or also, “What to Do With A Gigaton of Raspberry Syrup”

Frazil Ice: The Fascinating Forest Hazard

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The Amazing Survival Skills of the Ibex

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No, You and Your Schedule Are Not the Center of the Universe

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America the Really Beautiful

Here is a great photostory from this summer. It’s one photographer’s best photos for each day of his 100 days in Glacier Mountain Park.

The Story and Pictures

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It’s Been Doing This Since Creation, Now We Get to Enjoy It, Too

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Utter Math Ridiculosity

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“Thou Art Coming to a King…”

HT: Ortlund

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My Soul is Craving Hard After the Memory of a Smell

I asked my brother to send me a picture of some Michigan lilacs (they are sparse here).

"God's Glory in Grandma's Garden" - Ross Boomershine

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The Glory of Homemade Croutons

Christie makes bread sing when she makes croutons.

Sister #2  found this article online at Unexplained Bacon and knew I would find it tasty.

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Designed for His Glory

My brother, Ross, is a 16-year old junior in H.S.  Today his picture “Designed for His Glory” took first place in digital photography at the Michigan Association of Christian Schools Fine Arts Competition in Midland, MI.

© Ross Boomershine 2009

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He Did it Again!

God put the wind to our back and gave us a prime spot to tell our community about our new school. Fox News 17/Nashville called today and then told this story at the 10 p.m. time slot tonight. The story is first about Pioneer and then about JECA.

Big Changes for Pioneer Christian Academy

Thank YOU for continuing to pray for our continued success.

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Showing Himself Spectacular!

God did something amazing for JECA in January 2009–He gave us a school building! And it was all obviously Him at work.

In the very best spot on the north side of Nashville we could have imagined, God has given us 25 acres of land in a quiet country setting and a 33,000 square-foot school building full of desks, boards, supplies, a cafeteria, equipment, library, gymnasium, dozens of classrooms, and more!

We are beyond thrilled to have a place to call home–a place of brick and stone and carpet where we can bring this dream to a reality. It is an amazing story and you can read the whole thing here on our website. It was a furious and hectic month, but what a satisfying experience it has been to rest fully upon God and see Him show Himself big, true and good.

I hope that you will take the time to read the whole story, notice the ways listed that you can pray for us, and be encouraged in the God who can be trusted to the end. Also, we welcome you to forward this story to other friends who will delight in His provision with us.

…and here is a bird’s eye picture of the school.

This is the very tip of what God has in store for us all,

Ryan

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The End of the Beginning

JECA’s germ stage is over. Over the past 12 days God has wrought an amazing miracle. I can’t wait to tell you about it next Friday. (Sorry)

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The Truth About the Hudson River Miracle

Source

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The Case for Paying Attention

Man’s real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are. That is, after all, what God does, and man was not made in God’s image for nothing. The fruits of his attention can be seen in all the arts, crafts and sciences. It can cost him time and effort, but it pays handsomely. If an hour can be spent on one onion [which the author just finished doing in the book], think how much regarding it took on the part of that old Russian who looked at onions and church spires long enough to come up with St. Basil’s Cathedral. Or how much curious and loving attention was first expended by the first man who looked hard enough and the insides of trees, the entrails of cats, the hind ends of horses and the juice of pine trees to realize he could turn them all into the first fiddle. No doubt his wife urged him to get up and do something useful. I am sure that he was a stalwart enough lover of things to pay no attention at all to her nagging; but how wonderful it would have been if he had known what we know now about his dawdling. He could have silenced her with the greatest ripost of all time: Don’t bother me; I am creating the possibility of the Bach unaccompanied sonatas.

The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon – p. 19

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S.M. Lockridge – That’s My King

I was very fond of this recording of Lockridge during my high school and college years. The first few times, yes, it was quirky and novel. But each time that I hear the whole thing, (dozens and dozens of times since then) I would put this under a more serious heading.

I can’t find the whole original recording online, but this one is mostly complete. And I also can’t find a scripted version that gets all the words right–which has me shaking my head. This one is better than some of the others. This one has better graphics than the others too, though I probably should just prefer to post an audio file here–if I had one and if I knew how to post it.

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You Know By Now That Life is A Story, Right?

It is. And kudos and accolades to those who tell the story well. Some of them are pastors. Some are poets. Some write and sing music. Some are just regular old papas.

Last night we went to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to hear Andrew Peterson tell the story of the Old Testament and the incarnation in music form. We had already been introduced to it and iTunes says we have listened to it 60 times or so (since November). It was beautiful in so many ways, especially since we were with treasured friends.

Then during the night, Andrew Peterson explained why yesterday was such a wonderful day for him. He says, in part:

That Gospel draws us like the call of a jubilant voice deep in the woods.  We hear, and we follow, and though we scarcely know how we know, we believe the source of the voice is good and the only thing worth knowing.  All at once, we emerge from all sides in a clearing.  We are cut from the thorns and weary to the bone.  In the center of the clearing swirls a warm, symphonic light within which glows–depending on the tilt of the head–a patient eye, or an open hand, or the slender form of a man with his hands on his hips, laughing.  And you know that it’s Him.  Then the skill in your fingers, the ache in your heart, the talent in your soul–all of it–strains to do His work.  It strains like a warhorse pawing the ground in the moments before the charge.

Then comes the downbeat, and the crowd falls silent as the story is told.

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How to Get Rich Quick Scheme

It’s been a long time since I’ve read Jeremiah Burroughs. He said,

“The way to be rich is not by increasing wealth, but by diminishing our desires.”

HT: Justin Childers

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People Who Don’t Dream Often Try to Destroy the Dreams of Those Who Do

The last chorus from Andrew Peterson’s kid’s song Dreams:

Oh, and I’m just a kid with a head full of dreams

And a dream full of things to get done.

Yeah, but all of my life it’s the same old routine

And I’m ready to have me some fun.

Oh, I’ve never spelunked in the caves of the moon

Or stun-rayed a Zorbian fiend,

And I don’t have a tunnel dug under my room,

But who knows what tomorrow will bring.

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It’s Finally Here

Tomorrow night (hopefully) the nation will have made it’s choice and we will have a new President-elect. The Christian blogs are bursting with all their last minute reminders and pulling out all the stops to remind you what they want to remind you. That’s not bad.

I didn’t make time to vote early so I’m going to go pull the lever tomorrow, too. And when I do, I will remember that I did my duty AND God is going to do whatever He wants to do tomorrow (Psalm 75:5-6). It is my job to vote, but it’s God’s role to place and set up. God’s ways do not follow after the dictates and desires of my heart.

I can’t see or know or even guess [at least not for public consumption] why God will install who He wants to install. My role is simply to thank Him for his appointment, to pray for our new President, to plead that righteousness will prevail [and most-assuredly it will -- we know how this whole world ends].

This election is part of a big, long story that is still just a small part of who and what God is. Let us not be concerned about our pocketbooks. Let us be concerned about our response to God’s choice. God is still sovereign and happy and holy and good if your good guy wins or your bad guy wins.

Elections DO matter, but our duty as Christians is the same whether Obama, McCain, Lincoln, Roosevelt, or Reagan is in office. I hope you know what your biggest, most important duties are in this world. I hope that you can write them with a pencil in two minutes. I hope that you will do them today and do them again in joy, hope and faith still on Wednesday.

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Christ Commanded You To Consider the Lilies

Do so now.

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I Am A Family Man

Maybe the best video I’ve posted.

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The Latest Update is Sweet News

Since it isn’t on their website yet, I’m posting their full email here. This is the latest in the story of Jonathan and Sarah Farmer’s infant Zoe:

In the last few days, God has continued to show His kindness to us in special ways. On Friday, the evening after Zoe’s surgery, we asked that you pray for her bowels to wake up and that she would start eating quickly. By Sunday morning, Zoe had her first poopy diaper! After a day of drinking pedialyte (something like Gatorade for newborns), the doctors said she was ready to start on milk Monday morning. Throughout the day, she continued to increase her milk intake and showed signs of good recovery from surgery. As the doctors did their normal rounds on Tuesday morning, they shared some very unexpected, but sweet news–Zoe was ready to go home! Praise the Lord! Her recovery from surgery was much faster than anticipated, she was eating very well, and her intestines appeared to be fully awake. After a long discharge process, the new and improved Farmer family has arrived back in Greenville!

Now that we are home, we face a whole new set of challenges, but our requests are much the same as before.

1. Pray that Zoe will continue to eat well and grow stronger for her upcoming heart surgery (we go back to MUSC January 12 for a preliminary heart catherization).

2. Pray that we will have wisdom in monitoring her day-to-day needs in relation to her heart.

3. Pray that we would not fear the unknown or the future. That we would believe that God is with us, that He provides for us, and gives us all good things.

While the road ahead for Zoe will be quite an adventurous one, with checkups and heart procedures and surgeries marking the calendar over the next 3 years, we continue to seek to trust God. He has shown Himself strong in the past and we are confident He will continue to demonstrate His love toward us.

We give thanks to God for your continued prayers on our behalf.

Jonathan & Sarah Farmer

knowing Him and making Him known

www.treasureinafield.com

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I Recommend His Stuff

Karsten is using Saxon Math 2 text this year in our one year of homeschooling. Chrissy, Kar and I all really like it. John Saxon says that:

“Mathematics is not difficult. Mathematics is just different, and time is the elixir that turns things different into things familiar.”

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I Knew it Was Coming, But Then Someone Had to Go and Write About It

God was so good to lead me to eBay’s website in January 1999. It has made my family thousands and thousands of dollars over the years and led me to learn to trust Him more and more through the use of it. We have seen wonderful things and have been thrilled by the way He provides our daily bread through those means.

Though I have dozens of stories, I’ll just mention briefly how once my family and I were in SC waiting for Danielle to get out of graduation practice at BJU. While I was pacing the sidewalk with a fussy baby, I noticed a book in a trash can. I took it out, took it home to MI and sold it on eBay for more than $70. Perhaps I should list some other stories here sometime.

I have been a PowerSeller, and even have been trained to teach a eBay University class (and have taught it a couple of times at teacher’s conventions) and have felt the adrenaline of the final moments of a surprise item during a bidding war.

Practically, I haven’t really used eBay very much since my biggest client (I was a listing agent, too) and I parted last fall. I’ve made occasional sales and occassional purchases, but I don’t depend on it like I used to because it’s a different market now and it needs to be done differently than how I started doing it. I never think of it first anymore when I need to make a purchase. Now it’s really becoming a place for the big boy sellers, which is not on my agenda of things to do.

Today I came across this article. eBay still has a place, but things will get harder and harder when the small guys are forced out.

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Autumn is Upon Us

Check out another cool photoessay of photos taken this month from around the world.

I’ve always been intrigued by cranberry bogs when in Mass. Here is a harvest taking place in Tomah, WI just a few miles down the road from my sister and brother-in-law.

Grandfather Mtn. in NC

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What I’ve Missed Is Now Here

Every time I’ve been to New Haven, CT (four times, I think) to do a little drive around Yale, it’s been too late in the day or too Saturdayish to go to Yale Library’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to sit in a quiet spot and devour a book or page handled and handwritten by Jonathan Edwards.

Now they’ve brought some of those images to us online. We miss the smell of the building like this, but there are some pretty amazing things here. Here is what they have so far.

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Learn How to Swim So You’ll Know How When You Need To

John Piper on why the book of Job exists:

“Virtually everyone will experience a bitter calamity sooner or later. And you can mark this ahead of time: it will almost certainly seem absurd and meaningless and undeserved when it comes.

You may be shaving and singing a hymn when you feel the lump on your neck. You may be buying supper for your family at the grocery store when all of a sudden you realize your two-year-old is gone.

It will seem very absurd, and you will cry out, “Why?” a hundred times before the cloud passes over. Most of our grief and pain does not come as a clear punishment for sins. Most of it comes out of nowhere and baffles our sense of justice.

That’s why the book of Job is so relevant. Job’s suffering seems to come out of nowhere and have no connection to his character. His story is recorded for us so that we will have some help in living through these calamities—and not just help to keep a stiff upper lip but to bow reverently and trustingly before the sovereign goodness of God.”

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Never Fear the Storm

From The Valley of Vision:

“Nothing exceeds Thy power,

Nothing is too great for Thee to do,

Nothing to good for Thee to give.

Infinite is Thy might, boundless Thy love,

limitless Thy grace, glorious Thy saving name…

I ask great things of a great God.”

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