From the Pastor's Heart

Gillian was preparing her four-year-olds in preparation for attending their first “big church.” They learned the words of the hymns. They practiced how to be respectful during prayer. Gillian said, “I was born with one arm that ends just below my elbow. When I showed my youngsters how to put their hands together when they prayed, I demonstrated by putting my one hand against my elbow, assuming they would realize I would have put it against my other hand if I had one.”

The next Sunday during the pastor’s prayer, Gillian looked around at her children. Sure enough. There was every one of them praying, eyes squeezed shut and one hand sweetly pressed against a bent elbow. (from ‘Flowers from God’ by Marlene LeFever)

God bless us all as we learn to pray. As we practice coming before God in reverence and worship, bending, bowing, kneeling, standing, hands folded, arms extended, laying prostrate, sitting erect. No matter what physical posture we assume. God bless our spiritual posture of centeredness and humility, as we learn to pray with an open heart, and a listening spirit.

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.
He that minds a body and not a soul has not the better part of that relation,
and will consequently want the noblest comfort of a married life.

Between a man and his wife nothing ought rule but love. As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way to keep them well together.

A husband and wife that love and value one another show their children and servants that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their authority in their families by their contempt of one another, and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples.

Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment, affection;
it being the basest of passions to like when we have not, what we slight when we possess.

Here it is we ought to search out our pleasure, where the field is large and full of variety,
and of an enduring nature;

sickness, poverty or disgrace being not able to shake it because it is not under the moving influences of worldly contingencies.

Nothing can be more entire and without reserve;
nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere;
nothing more contented than such a couple,
nor greater temporal felicity than to be one of them.

William Penn (1693)

From the Library

COMING TO YOUR LIBRARY SOON---

1. JESUS: A NOVEL by Walter Wangerin, Jr. "...a magnum opus of image and emotion, portraying the drama that would change the world forever."

2. HAVING a MARY HEART in a MARTHA WORLD by Joanna Weaver. "An invitation to anyone who's ever felt they aren't godly enough, aren't loving enough, aren't doing enough."

3. THE RAGAMUFFIN GOSPEL by Brennan Manning. Manning's now classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it-simple honesty-has changed thousands of lives.

4. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C. S. Lewis. "A timeless classic on 'Hell's latest novelties and Heaven's unanswerable answer.”

5. FRESH WIND, FRESH FIRE by Jim Cymbala. Jim Cymbala has a passion and purity that brings force and clarity to the grand old gospel-bringing it alive with contemporary vitality."

6. QUAKER SUMMER by Lisa Samson. "What's wrong with a woman who has everything yet stillfeels miserable inside?"

7. NO SHAME, NO FEAR by Ann Turnbull. This"...is a story that speaks across the centuries, telling of love and the fight to stay true to what is most important, in spite of parents, society, and even the law.”

8. ALMOST FRIENDS by Phillip Gulley. "Gulley's stories get at the heart of the simple joys,...humor, and day-to day drama of small town life."

9. CHOOSING PEACE; A HANDBOOK ON WAR, PEACE, AND YOUR CONSCIENCE by Robert A. Seeley. "In clear language, without telling you what to do, (this book) explains the choices you face."

10. THE BACK BENCH by Margaret Hope Bacon. Fourteen-year-old Myra tells of the year she spends with her Orthodox Quaker aunt and uncle after having been raised as a Hicksite Quaker, while also trying to adjust to the loss of her mother.

11. THE MAN WHO NAMED THE CLOUDS by Julie Hannah and Joan Holub. This is an illustrated children's biography of Luke Howard, early meteorologist.

12. AMAZING GRACE DVD. Based on the true story of William Wilberforce and his quest to end the British slave trade.

---Grace Davis