Thank You, Heavenly Father, for...

1. My family's new camera which brings Your wondrous works of creation into sharper, closer focus -- and for the excellent price we purchased it at. It is a superior tool and I am so grateful for it! May it be used for Your glory alone.

2. The warm home you have given us -- it is a refuge from this evil world, and shelter from last weekend's blizzard, besides.

 

3. My hardworking dad and brother; they shoulder the heaviest loads with determination.

Growing a Grateful Heart

During moments of impatience, or irritation, or discouragement, or injustice, what is it that can flood the obscurity with sunlight?

Praise.

"Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road." -- John Henry Jowett

Searching for good in the unpredictable and unfortunate circumstances of life is something even the lost can achieve; they call it optimism. But for the children of God, it is pure gratefulness. And it extends far beyond lightheartedness.

It is recognizing God's hand -- working in love, benevolence, and mercy -- in every minute detail... of every single day. It produces in the depths of the soul an unutterable joy because we realize fully that "every good gift and every perfect is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Seeing the joy of the LORD
in the boyish grin of my (big =) little brother.

Understanding that when others try my patience, 

it is an opportunity to respond as my Lord would...

to, in a small way, be gracious 

as He is unfathomably, tirelessly gracious to me!

The Self-Existence of God

Excerpt from The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer [online text]

By our effort to discover the origin of things we confess our belief that everything was made by Someone who was made by none.

The human mind, being created, has an understandable uneasiness about the Uncreated. We do not find it comfortable to allow for the presence of One who is wholly outside of the circle of our familiar knowledge.  We tend to be disquieted by the thought of One who does not account to us for His being, who is responsible to no one, who is self-existent, self-dependent, and self-sufficent.

Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself.  The philospher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.  To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our catergories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us posses, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him.  Yet how He eludes us!  For He is everywhere while He is nowhere, for "where" has to do with matter and space, and God is independent of both. He is unaffected by time or motion, is wholly self-dependent and owes nothing to the worlds His hands have made.

It is not a cheerful thought that millions of us who live in a land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without having once thought or tried to think seriously about the being of God.  Few of us have let our hearts gaze in wonder at the I AM, the self-existent Self back of which no creature can think.  Such thoughts are too painful for us. ... And for this we are now paying a too heavy price in the secularization of our religion and the decay of our inner lives.

We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is.  For this reason the self-existence of God is not a wisp of dry doctrine, academic and remote; it is a fact as near as our breath and as practical as the latest surgical technique.

Man is a created being, a derived and contingent self, who of himself posseses nothing but is dependent each moment for his existence upon One who created him after His own likeness.  The fact of God is necessary for the fact of man.  Think God away and man has no ground of existence.

Information concerning painting:

"Young Italian Girl by the Well" by Franz Winterhalter

Ironing Board Cover Tutorial

At last! The project I have long been anticipating is complete!

One becomes aware, suddenly or gradually, of the ill repair of certain items about the home. An ironing board cover is mayhap overlooked more than any other object, but -- oh! when at once one becomes aware of its drab and filthy state (yick!), one is determined to rectify the problem. And promptly.

A dear friend in a larger Alaskan city has been so gracious and faithful to shop for my family as we are able to buy few things in the village (at an exceptional price). However, when purchasing particular items, it is not possible to know exactly what we will be receiving as the specifics of the item is determined by another. =) Upon receiving the fabric in the mail, how happy was my surprise to see what our friend selected. Daisies I specified, but  the colors I did not. Yellow and green were exactly the colors I had hoped for! A blessing indeed.

This project was so fun and blissfully simple! After reaching a general understanding from online tutorials, I adapted the process to suit my preferences. I am sharing my instructions in hopes that they might be helpful to someone.

Continual Commitment

This is a brief biographical sketch which I was assigned to write for last semester’s Life of Paul class.  It is basically an overview of what I learned about three men of God, used greatly of God: the apostle Paul, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone.  I enjoyed every moment of the class.  I praise the Lord for the ready and willing vessel the professor was.  God used him to work in me.  The recurring theme of the class was Paul’s total commitment to God’s will.  He daily lived out his initial request--“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”  God’s will was everything to Paul!  Oh, may it be everything to this handmaid of the Lord.

I am now full swing into my next semester of Bible “homecollege.”  What a blessed opportunity and provision this is!  Presently, I am taking only two classes, Fear of the Lord and Old Testament Survey, as I need to be finished by mid-April; my family and I will be going on furlough early this summer.  I am expectant to learn rich new truths from God’s Holy Word as I continue my endless growing process in Christ Jesus my Lord!

~ ~ ~

Paul is referred to as the apostle to the Gentiles while Hudson Taylor is called the most widely used missionary in China’s history.  The efforts of David Livingstone opened up Africa, a country which was once dark and secluded from the Gospel and its bearers.  These three men were used tremendously by God to reach the world for Christ.

God was ready with an answer before Paul asked Him, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6)  Paul was chosen specifically by God for a specific work.  The only thing which stood between the fulfillment of God’s plan was Paul’s own will.  Because Paul faithfully bowed to God’s will, he was instrumental in reaching countless nations for Christ.

Praise from a Blessed Heart

Blessed be the Lord, 

who daily loadeth us with benefits, 

even the God of our salvation. Selah.

{ Psalms 68:19 }

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, 

and cometh down from the Father of lights, 

with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 

{ James 1:17 }

The Lord gave these simple, precious words to me within this hour. How good He is! I was humming and singing 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, and, as some other thoughts came together, this poem from my heart came into being. It can be sung appropriately to the tune of 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, or even What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

Oh, I ought to praise the Savior,
Dwell upon His boundless love,
Knowing ev'ry gift I'm given
Comes from God in Heav'n above.

Praise the Lord! Oh, I must bless Him!
How He's blessed me o'er and o'er!
Glory to my precious Savior!
Oh, I ought to praise Him more!

Oh, I ought to praise the Savior,
Lift His glorious Name on high.
He is great, and loves so greatly;
Ev'ry need He doth supply.

Yes, I ought to praise the Savior;
Why be downcast when He's near?
His joy fills the heart with music,
His love dries up ev'ry tear.

Bless His Name! How rich the goodness
Which He daily loads on me!
May His praises e'er be ringing,
E'en throughout eternity.

~ Naomi Ungry

February 2, 2010

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
and why art thou disquieted within me?
hope thou in God:
for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

{ Psalms 42:11 }

In the photos: Wildflowers from the Fairbanks, Alaska area