Things sweet to taste
prove in digestion
sour.
-William Shakespeare

Art evokes the mystery
without which the world
would not exist.

-Rene Magritte

He leads me
in the paths
of righteousness
for his name's sake.
-Psalm 23:3

A thing of beauty
is joy forever;
its loveliness
increases.

-John Keats

Deep down
in his heart
no man much
respects himself.

-Mark Twain

There is no such thing
in any person's life
as an unimportant day.

-Alexander Woolcott

Think of all the beauty
still left around you
and be happy.

-Anne Frank

Capitalism is the unequal
sharing of blessings.
Socialism is the equal
sharing of misery.

-Winston Churchill

We do not err because
truth is difficult to see.
It is visible at a glance.
We err because this is
more comfortable.

-Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The lizard you can
take into your hands,
yet it is in kings'
palaces.
-Proverbs 30:28

The bird a nest,
the spider a web,
man friendship.

-William Blake

There is only
one difference
between a madman
and me.
I am not mad.

-Salvadore Dali

Art is the only way
to run away without
leaving home.
-Twyla Tharp

Failure is the
condiment
that gives success
its flavor.
-Truman Capote

I am not a member
of any organized
political party.
I am a Democrat.

-Will Rogers

"I like to focus on the future;
after all, that's where I'm going
to spend the rest of my life."

-George Burns

Fear not, little flock,
for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give
you the kingdom.
-Luke 12:32

Lobi-Wan Kenobi

out of all those
kinds of people
you got a face
with a view
-Talking Heads, This Must Be The Place

The first time ever I saw this face, my heart was softened,
my eyes were filled with tears of joy, love, wonder, and repentance.
Thank you Lord for the rich heritage you have given.
Happy 24th birthday Lowen Grey (my son, my son).

God keeps
an open house
for hungry sinners.
-Thomas Watson

I am going to be an artist!

-Georgia O'Keefe

Whatever you are,
be a good one.

-Abraham Lincoln

"Without Christ no one
can comfort himself."

-Martin Luther
Today I want to honor Martin Luther who, we might say,
kicked off the Protestant Reformation. On October 31st, 1517
he nailed a list of 95 indictments against the institutional Church
of his day on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
A movement throughout Europe was officialy born to return to the
teaching and authority of Scripture, and to recover the gospel
message of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men"

Oh No!

I wants to make your flesh creep.

-Charles Dickens
This is my Halloween post. Tomorrow I want to
celebrate Reformation Day by paying homage to
one of the great Protestant Reformers.

For whatever was written
in former days was written
for our instruction, that through
endurance and through the
encouragement of the Scriptures
we might have hope.
-Romans 15:4

4What did the Calvinist say
after he fell down the stairs?
4Glad that's over with.

-this is a real milk-out-the-nose crack up
for certain dorky theological types (like me).

holywrit

4Read, mark, learn,
and inwardly digest.

-Book of Common Prayer

There is no season when such pleasant
and sunny spots may be lighted on,
and produce such a pleasant effect
on the feelings as now in October.

-Nathaniel Hawthorne

A person's a person
no matter how small.

-Dr. Seuss

Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes,
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies.

-Van Morrison, Moondance

The face of a child can say it all,
especially the mouth part of the face.

-Jack Handey

Then Jesus told
his disciples a parable
to show them that they
should always pray
and not give up.

-Luke 18:1

"I might be in the basement.
I'll go upstairs and check."

-M. C. Escher

"Life is either
a daring adventure
or nothing."

-Helen Keller
A favorite quotation of my adventurous daughters. Again, the power of this thought is overwhelming as we reflect on who said it. Her senses of sight and sound were taken from her by acute illness at nineteen months. And yet, in her approach to living out her days, Helen Keller developed a robust love of life and wisdom. She was able and even eager to say, "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work, and my God."

4A minute's success
pays the failure of years.

-Robert Browning

4Just play,
have fun,
enjoy the game.

-Michael Jordan

4God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

-St. Augustine
This is such an important and reassuring truth to grasp. And yet I don't think our main struggle, in terms of our identity, has to do with our sense of individual importance. Culturally we emphasize self-esteem and individualism. It is vital for us, as followers of Christ, to view ourselves as God views us. We must approach Him on His terms. Therefore our links to Adam, to Christ, and to the Church are important and inescapable. We are part of a group. We need to spend time pondering and recognizing who we are corporately if we are to break out of the lopsided philosophical mold we've been squeezed into. The renewing of our minds to think God's thoughts after Him is true liberation.

4Money can't buy happiness,
but it can provide a more
pleasant form of misery.

-Spike Mulligan

No creature is
hidden from His sight,
but all are naked
and exposed to the eyes
of Him to whom we must
give an account.

-Hebrews 4:13

4One sees great things from the valley,
only small things from the peak.

-G. K. Chesterton

4It's hard to be brave
when you're only a
Very Small Animal.

-A. A. Milne

4Anything will give up its secrets
if you love it enough.

-George Washington Carver
This is my all time favorite quotation. It resonates because it contains the promise of discovery (in any realm) from a humble and brilliant man who proved the premise. George Washington Carver eagerly investigated the mysteries of "ordinary" things driven by a deep respect for the Maker of all things. His childlike sense of wonder and fascination with the natural world was accompanied by the dedication of a scientist. Peanut butter was one of about 300 discoveries and applications he developed in his investigation of the peanut. Soybeans, sweet potatoes, and pecans were also the subjects of his perpetual and zealous inquiry. Refusing to seek patents he made his inventions and the developments of his research available to all, willingly sharing what he was convinced God had revealed to him. On his tombstone is written: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."

photo by Brae Howard

4Pretty much all the honest
truth-telling there is in the world
is done by children.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

soyouthink

4We're fools whether we dance or not,
so we might as well dance.

-Japanese Proverb

4You know you're getting old when you
stoop down to tie your shoelaces and wonder
what else you can do while you're down here.

-George Burns

The secret things
belong to the Lord our God,
but the things revealed
belong to us and to
our children forever,
that we may do
all the words of this law.

-Deuteronomy 29:29

conquering lamb

4Muhammad established a religion
by putting his enemies to death;
Jesus Christ by commanding his followers
to lay down their lives.

-Blaise Pascal

4You can say any foolish thing to a dog,
and the dog will give you this look that says,
"My gosh, you're right!
I never would have thought of that!"

-Dave Barry

wax on

4We are what we repeatedly do.

-Aristotle

happy color

4There is not one blade of grass,
there is no color in this world that
is not intended to make us rejoice.

-John Calvin

zzzzz

4A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.

-W. H. Auden

4Always bear in mind that your own
resolution to succeed is more important
than any other one thing.

-Abraham Lincoln

Be swift to hear,
slow to speak,
slow to wrath.

-James 1:19

KyrieKyrie

4Kyrie eleison, down the road that I must travel,
Kyrie eleison, through the darkness of the night,
Kyrie eleison, where I'm going will you follow?
Kyrie eleison, on a highway in the light.

-refrain from #1 hit "Kyrie" by Mr. Mister in March, 1986.
"Kyrie eleison" is from the Greek for "Lord, have mercy."
Today Kyrie Anna Ruth Howard turns 18!

life&death

4Once a man is united to God, how could he not
live forever? Once a man is separated from God,
what can he do but wither and die?

-C. S. Lewis

chalice (turns sixteen)



4Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.

-Charles Baudelaire

bloggeth

4Either write something worth reading
or do something worth writing.

-Benjamin Franklin

palindrome (same forward and backward)

4Are we not drawn onward we few,
drawn onward to new era?

-unknown

lightness

4With money in your pocket you are wise, and you are handsome, and you sing well too.

-Yiddish proverb

He who did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things?

-Romans 8:32

unction

4I don't like cut-and-dried sermons. No, when I hear a man preach I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

-Abraham Lincoln

s'long

4Summer's lease hath all too short a date.

-Shakespeare

wealth

4To be content with what one has is the greatest and truest of riches.

-Cicero

poof

4Get men converted, and a thousand foolish ideas are destroyed.

-Charles Spurgeon

simple

4In character, in manner, in style, in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

go figure

4Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.

-Wallace Stevens

We demolish arguments
and every pretension
which sets itself up
against the knowledge of God.

-2 Corinthians 10:5

open shut

4The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

-G. K. Chesterton

can't touch this

4Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge.

-Thomas Edison

thanks

4A joyful and pleasant thing it is to be grateful.

-Book of Common Prayer

filled

4We must be emptied of that which fills us, that we may be filled with that of which we are empty.

-Augustine

complicated

4There's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another.

-E. B. White

Osama

4It's God's responsibility to punish Osama bin Laden. It's our responsibility to arrange the meeting.

-Wayne Newton

Exhort one another daily,
while it is still called "today,"
lest any of you be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin.

-Hebrews 3:13

ask

4A prudent question is one half of wisdom.

-Sir Francis Bacon

bleck

4I suppose half of writing is overcoming the revulsion you feel when you sit down to it.

-Flannery O'Connor

blurt

4A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

crikey

4Today we're going to visit the world's ten most venomous snakes. Conveniently they're all located right here in Australia.

-Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter)

insomnia

4Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a little voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."

-Charlie Brown

wonderfuller

4God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.

-Soren Kierkegaard

Jesus replied,
"Are you not in error
because you do not
know the Scriptures
or the power of God?"

-Mark 12:24

grace

4Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really need it.

-Swedish Proverb

lottery

4I figure you have about the same chance of winning the lottery whether you play or not.

-Fran Leibowitz

booklust

4Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

-Henry Ward Beecher

we

4Only God can slake the thirst of the soul for relationship.

-Tedd Tripp

test

4Seeing is deceiving. It's eating that's believing.

-James Thurber

moment

4Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

-The Princess Bride

Whatever you do,
work at it with all your heart,
as working for the Lord,
not for men.

-Colossians 3:23

she do

4My most brilliant achievement was to persuade my wife to marry me.

-Winston Churchill

gift

4To have peace and love in a marriage is a gift that is next to the knowledge of the gospel.

-Martin Luther

artistic

4I tell you, the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

-Vincent van Gogh

writer down

4The weakest ink is stronger than the best memory.

-John Blytheway

three chairs

4I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

-Henry David Thoreau

eye

4No photographer is as good as the simplest camera.

-Edward Steichen

deliverance

4I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined to me and heard my cry.

-Psalm 40:1

timeswirl

4How did it get to be so late so soon?
It's night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?

-Dr. Seuss

sojourn

4The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

-St. Augustine

summer days

4What dreadful hot weather we have. It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.

-Jane Austin

two gifts

4Two of the greatest gifts we give our children are roots and wings.

-Hodding Carter

on time

4Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late.

-William Shakespeare

Sprout

4Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

-Pablo Picasso