ByGrace

I just can't seem to forget Song of Solomon! Although I have advanced in my Bible reading into Isaiah this week, my thoughts have returned over and over to the things I read last week in Song of Solomon. This week I want to share another thought from chapter 7, concerning fellowship with our Beloved. "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves." Song of Solomon 7:11,12 Image Source: Photobucket   One of the comments on this chapter in With the Word suggested inviting the Lord to go to some special place with us to show Him our love. We usually think of the Lord inviting us to come to or with Him, but the thought of inviting Him to come with me was really intriguing! We know that He desires fellowship with us, so it makes sense that He would be pleased to have...

I’m joining my friend Barbara at Stray Thoughts for her Monday feature, The Week in Words . Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read . Last week I wrote this quote in my devotional journal from Warren Wiersbe’s With the Word , page 445, concerning Song of Solomon 1:4: “Christ calls us away from the trivial things of life that we might enjoy a deeper communion with Him. This communion is not without difficulties and disciplines, but it leads to a happier and holier life.” I wish I could constantly remember this quote! I truly want a deeper communion with Christ . . . but many times those difficulties and disciplines through which my relationship with Him would become deeper are the ...

I want to start a new feature on my blog: Wednesday in the Word, a short devotion taken from my personal devotions of the week before. These won’t be deep; they will just be some observations of my own that I’ve written down as I read. My thought is to take one thought from the previous week’s devotions and share it with you. I hope it’ll be a blessing in some way! This week I want to share what I read near the end of Song of Solomon. This isn’t all I got from this little book that is sometimes pretty hard to understand, and it isn’t an original thought with me. Some of you may remember that I use With the Word , the chapter-by-chapter devotional commentary by Warren Wiersbe, with my Bible reading. I don’t use it all the time, but for Song of Solomon I wanted to see what Mr. Wiersbe had to say. Song of Solomon is full of the unconditional love of the bridegroom for his bride, his admiration of her beauty (which is how he sees her, not how the rest of the city sees her – beautiful ima...

This is Andrew’s last segment about his trip to Japan. You can read the other two segments here and here. This last one is long, but if you’ve read the first two, I’m sure you’ll want to read this one. It’s about the days spent in the tsunami disaster area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most people I have talked to want to know most about this part of the trip, but in some ways it seems like the part of the trip about which the least can be said. The amount of destruction is incredible. It is not something that you can adequately describe, and you realize that as you are driving past it, but it does not really put you in the mood for taking pictures. You begin seeing damaged buildings, boats, and cars before you can even see the water. Piles of debris are everywhere you look. From clothing and toys to tires and splintered wood. After four months even the areas that were least impacted look like war zones. By the water we saw a six-story apartment building, compl...

Here is the second installment of the story of Andrew’s trip to Japan. The first entry can be found here . This entry is light-hearted, recounting his trip north to the tsunami area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday morning we went down to the Harris’ house for breakfast before taking off, and at my place was half of a grapefruit, among other things - including apple juice. I ate everything on my plate and then turned my attention to the grapefruit, my very first grapefruit. I watched as 6-year-old Josiah took a half-spoon-half-saw looking utensil and with surprising ease dug out slice after slice of grapefruit. I dug my saw into the grapefruit and all I got was grapefruit juice all over myself. I worked and worked on it and after a while I had eaten quite a bit of grapefruit, was wearing quite a bit of grapefruit, and still had quite a bit of grapefruit to be dug out. Since the table was being cleared I decided it was time to give up and proudly announced that...

Andrew is safely back home in Lancaster. He slept 16 hours the first night back! He texted me last night and said he’d written about his trip, if I’d like to post it on my blog. I’d planned to ask if he’d do that for me, so it was nice that he thought of it before I even asked. This is a little long, and I’ve included a few of his pictures pertaining to this portion of his trip, but I hope you’ll take the time to read it. There will be more to come, as this only covers his flight and first two days in Japan. I think you’ll enjoy it. He writes just as he speaks, so I think you’re really “meeting” Andrew through his words! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am not sure exactly where to start talking about a trip so packed with awesome . There is so much to tell, but I do not want to bore you. Let me first say “ thank you ” to all of those that invested their money into this trip. Without your help it would not have been possible. I could not be more literal and honest ...

I’ve stolen a few more pics from Andrew’s friend on Facebook who is on the same trip with him! She has posted some from the disaster area, so I wanted to share them with you, but I’m waiting till Andrew gets his pictures uploaded before I share a lot with you. I feel better about stealing them from my son than from his friend! Many of the buildings were literally hollowed out by the force of the tsunami . . . This ship was swept from the ocean into the center of this town . . . Rachel has a video on her Facebook page of the group’s first look at the damage, but I can’t figure out how to share it here. I’ll try to get it on here, though, because it has some good footage of the first area they came to.