A Sweet Fragrance

Fragrant Fragments # 13

Vanessa — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:37 +0000

1. Ten Ways to be Pro-Life. We can all do something to protect the lives of the unborn.

2. Dressing Up for Church. The Biblical case for dressing up & the new legalism.

3. Bring The Rain. This is Angie Smith’s blog, the author of I Will Carry You.

4. A Parody of Ourselves. Christian fads and the real Gospel.

5. Tornados and more tornados. Pictures taken by my (much) younger brother Ben.

6. Homeless People and the Image of God. Our responsibility to the homeless.

7. Persecution in Uzbekistan.

8. When you can’t quite figure out how to live your best life . . . “I want to end happy.”

9. Interview with Anais and Jordanne. All about urban homesteading.

10. Unto the Least of These. Ministering to special-needs children.

11. The Gift of Suffering for Christ.

12. The Fallacy of Syllogistic Assurance. Why praying the sinner’s prayer isn’t enough.

Thy Realities ~ George MacDonald

Vanessa — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:00:44 +0000

“Oh, let me live in Thy realities,
Nor substitute my notions for Thy facts.”

-George MacDonald, as quoted in
Walker of Tinnevelly
by Amy Carmichael

Picture from FreeFoto.com

All This Is Ours ~ Oswald Chambers

Vanessa — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:00:49 +0000

And all this is ours by the sheer might of the atonement of Jesus, who gave Himself for us to cleanse and recreate us, to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire, till looking at us as we tread this earth among the common round and tasks of human beings, Jesus will see of the travail of His soul, and being satisfied, will say, “Father, this have I done; here is another soul.” That soul incandescent with the Holy Spirit, walks and talks with God, as friend with friend, letting God do as He wills with him. This, and nothing less and nothing else, constitutes the suffering of the sanctified. Oh, the sublimity of the sufferings of the sanctified! Suffering according to the will of God, not so much for personal perfecting as to enable God to express His ideas in the life.

-From Christian Disciplines by Oswald Chambers

Broken To Be Mended ~ Elizabeth Prentiss

Vanessa — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:00:35 +0000

Broken to be Mended

Jesus, our tears with blessed smiles are blending,
For Thou who knowest how our hearts to break,
Knowest the happy secret of their mending,
And we rejoice in sorrow for Thy sake.

Yes, break us all to pieces, at Thy pleasure,
For the poor fragments can be joined by Thee;
Snatch from us, if Thou wilt, our every treasure!
Possessing Thee we never poor can be.

There is a sweetness in a spirit broken,
That lofty souls attain not – cannot know;
To such a heart Thy promises are spoken,
Thou hast a solace for its silent woe.

And when our weary days on earth are ended,
And from its agitations we are free,
We shall rejoice that we were broken, mended,
By Thine own skillful hand, dear Lord, by Thee.

-From Golden hours: Heart-hymns of the Christian life
by Elizabeth Prentiss

Why I Blog

Vanessa — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 11:00:56 +0000

Why do I blog? I suppose that’s a question that every blogger asks themselves after a while. Why am I doing this? Why do I feel this urge to write?

Perhaps the urge to write was a significant factor in my decision to start blogging. When I first created a blog back in 2006, I was entering a time in my life when I had more time to think and write. I originally started blogging to keep in touch with long-distance friends, but as I got further into nursing school, the nature of my blogging changed. I was spending the vast majority of my time surrounded by non-Christians and my poor ears were being subjected to every form of verbal evil you can imagine (and a lot I hope you can’t). I was surrounded by women who would sweetly tell me that God and prayer were very important to them, and then in the same breath boast about how much they drank over the weekend. I was surrounded by church-going women who had no issues with lying, immorality and any other form of vice. I was tired of hearing women talking happily about their latest affair. I was sick of small-town perversion.

So I began, in the little spare time I had, to search for another way of life. To reassure myself that I had something better to live for, something more than the merry-go-round of moral sickness I saw every day. I read books by Amy Carmichael, Elizabeth Prentiss, Hannah More, Leslie Ludy, and many others who showed me what a Christ-centered woman looks like. I would come home from class and post excerpts of what I was reading on my blog. The encouraging comments I received motivated me to keep reading and posting. Doing this was very therapeutic for me and helped to take my mind off the problems I was dealing with.

After I finished college, I had more time to write. Stories from the past came to my mind, and I decided to write them down before they were forgotten. This blog provides me a way to share these stories with others, rather than stashing them away somewhere to be forgotten. I have found that I enjoy writing (when it’s not a “have to” thing) and blogging has, I believe, enhanced my writing skills. It’s also a tremendous blessing to connect to other like-minded ladies from around the world through blogging.

So, why do you blog?

From The Archives: A Little Cowboy

Vanessa — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:00:05 +0000

My dad when he was young and restless .

The Secret Of Happiness ~ F. B. Meyer

Vanessa — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:00:41 +0000

It is a beautiful privilege to work along with Christ, but we shall not serve in that blessed apprenticeship long, without learning this lesson, that He has no pleasure in service rendered to Himself or others, that does not cost us blood! This is characteristic of His own service to the world, and you will find that He will soon drop you out unless you are prepared, in your measure, to surrender yourself to the blood-letting, which alone counts in the service of humanity. As we look out on society today we can understand why so many lives are unhappy. They have never learned that the one secret of happiness is to give to the point of self-denial and self-sacrifice.

-From Five Musts of the Christian life
by F. B. Meyer

Multitude Monday # 14

Vanessa — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:00:34 +0000

108. Fierce thunderstorms.

109. Knowing that Jesus is with me always.

110. Buying fresh vegetables at the farmer’s market.

111. Eyes that say “thank you”.

112. Eating ice cream in the middle of the night.

113. Books.

114. Lightening flashing in the night sky.

115. Being alone.

Judge Not! ~ Adelaide Anne Proctor

Vanessa — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:00:11 +0000

Judge not! the workings of his brain
And of his heart thou canst not see;
What looks to thy dim eyes a stain,
In God’s pure light may only be
A scar, brought from some well-won field-
Where thou wouldst only faint and yield.

The look, the air that frets thy sight,
May be a token, that below
The soul has closed in deadly fight
With some infernal fiery foe,
Whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace,
And cast thee shuddering on thy face!

The fall thou darest to despise,-
May be the Angel’s slackened hand
Has suffered it, that he may rise
And take a firmer, surer stand;
Or, trusting less to earthly things,
May henceforth learn to use his wings.

So judge none lost but wait and see,
With hopeful pity, not disdain!
The depth of the abyss may be
The measure of the height of pain,
And love and glory that may raise
This soul to God in after days.

-Adelaide Anne Proctor, as quoted in
Christian Disciplines by Oswald Chambers

I Am With You

Vanessa — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:00:55 +0000

I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

Jesus had just commissioned the apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. He had instructed them to teach His commandments. He had entrusted them with the sacred responsibility of feeding His sheep. And then He made a statement that no departing figurehead ever makes.

I am with you. Always.

I am with you. The apostles did not know Christ only as the Messiah. They also knew Him as a man. They knew Him as a carpenter, a fellow Jew, a friend. He had been constantly with them for a few years, daily teaching, exhorting, and helping them. His love had bonded them together. Their growing recognition of His deity only strengthened their relationship to Him as a man. His tenderness and sorrow on the night of His betrayal had branded into their hearts such a love for Him that would endure all manner of pain. And now His physical presence was leaving them.

Yet He said, I am with you always. He would be with them, but would not be seen. The apostles understood what He meant when the Holy Spirit came. The Spirit of Jesus, unlimited by a human body, would spread like fire throughout the world, convicting and enlightening the hearts of men.

I am with you. The relationship of Jesus to His disciples was not just corporate, it was also personal. They each had an individual relationship to Him and had had individual experiences with Him. This relationship did not cease, but continued through the Holy Spirit.

The power of the presence of Jesus has not waned over the centuries. He is still with us. He is with all of those who truthfully confess Him as Lord. He is with us, not just as a great teacher or helper, but with all the strength of the love of a Bridegroom who died for His Bride.

His presence is something that does not change. The only variable is my consciousness of it. Awareness of His presence makes muddled things clear. It clarifies the decisions I make today. It makes me willing to get rid of things that are not pleasing to Him.

If you are struggling to be aware of Jesus’ presence, or if you are not sure if He is really with you, I suggest immersing yourself in the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Learn for yourself why Jesus lived and died as a man and why He rose from the dead. Learn about His loves and hates. Let His words pierce the depths of your soul and reveal the reality that is you. Start doing what He has commanded.

I am with you.

This is not mystical, it is fact. Christians down through the centuries have often been aware of an unseen Presence with them. Jesus does not leave those who are truly His disciples.

I am with you. To the end.