He Healeth all Thy Diseases

Brother Dennis Gillett wrote the book, He Healeth all Thy Diseases: Exhortations on spiritual health for the disciple, based upon real illnesses of the body. He compares physical and mental problems to spiritual ailments, providing the diagnosis and proper treatment of such. "It is sent forth in the hope that it may be a provocation to any who read it [the book] to seek spiritual health with the same fervour and the same anxiety that energises the search for bodily soundness." ~p.vi

"Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." ~Psalm 103:1-5

Buy it here

"If I spend every moment, for the rest of my days, thanking God for all His goodness to us, that still would not be enough." ~Heidi, p.280

Heidi sings this hymn:

"The golden sun
His course doth run,
And spreads his light,
So warm and bright,
Upon us all.

"We see God's power
From hour to hour.
His love is sure,
And will endure
For evermore.

"Sorrow and grief
Are only brief.
True joy we'll find,
And peace of mind,
In God's good time."
~Heidi, p.161

Grandmamma teaching Heidi more about prayer, "It isn't quite like that, Heidi. God is a loving Father to us all and knows what is good for us. If we ask for something that isn't right for us to have, He won't give it to us, but in His own good time, if we go on praying and trust in Him, He'll find us something better. You can be sure it's not that He didn't hear your prayer, for He can listen to everybody at once. That's part of the wonder of it. You must have asked for something He thought you ought not to have at present." ~Heidi, p.122

Grandmamma instructing Heidi about prayer, "Ah--and when you are sad, and have no one to turn to help, can't you see what a comfort it is to tell God all about it, knowing that He will help? Believe me, He always finds some way of making us happy again." ~Heidi, p.117

Heidi

Rarely do I recommend fiction, however Heidi by Johanna Spyri is an excellent exception. Filled with child-like faith, Heidi sparks love and life into her grandfather's worn out heart. She brings joy to everyone she meets and is a servant to all. There is much to learn in this classic about an orphaned girl in the Alps!

Buy it here
(would make a wonderful bed-time read aloud)

"People always ask me accusingly, 'Don't you want your children to watch Sesame Street?' But we're a very close family and we don't want any built-in separators cutting us off from each other. We read a lot, talk a lot, listen to music. ... But for us television is like junk food--a once-in-awhile thing." ~The Plug-in Drug, p.265

"With television... the important decision is whether to have television or not to have one, whether to expose children to almost all of television's offerings or none of them." ~The Plug-in Drug, p.265

Another great article: It's Never Just a Movie

"Not unlike drugs or alcohol, the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state. To be sure, other experiences, notably reading, also provide a temporary respite from reality. But it's much easier to stop reading and return to reality than to stop television watching. The entry into another world offered by reading includes an easily accessible return ticket. The entry via television does not. In this way television viewing, for those vulnerable to addiction, is more like drinking or taking drugs-- once you start it's hard to stop." p. 32

"Young children today have a sophistication that comes from all their contacts with the outside world via television, but sophistication and maturity are not the same thing. Children today are often less mature in their ability to endure small frustrations, or to realize that something takes a longer time to do, that it isn't instant. They're less tolerant of letting themselves become absorbed in something that seems a little hard at first, or in something that is not immediately interesting." p. 137

~The Plug-in Drug

Great article: Avert Thine Eyes, Life without tv

"To a certain extent children's early television experiences will serve to dehumanize, to mechanize, to make less real the realities and relationships they encounter in life. For them, real events will always carry subtle echoes of the television world." p. 13

"In spite of everything, the American family muddles on, dimly aware that something is amiss but distracted from an understanding of its plight by an endless stream of television images. As family ties grow weaker and vaguer, as children's lives become more separate from their parents', as parents' educational role in their children's lives is taken over by the media, the school, and the peer group, family life becomes increasingly more unsatisfying for both parents and children. All that seems to be left is love, an abstraction that family members know is necessary but find great difficulty in giving to each other since the traditional opportunities for expressing it is within the family have been reduced or eliminated." p. 162

~The Plug-in Drug

The Plug-in Drug

When my parents' television broke in the early 1980s they decided to save some money to purchase a better one. The better one never came and we grew up without a television in our house. I cannot express how huge a blessing this was and is still. The book, The Plug-in Drug, written by Marie Winn only convicted me further to avoid watching television because of it's addictive nature and fleshly views. If you struggle with watching television (even a little!) or are raising your children as viewers, I wholly recommend reading this book for better insight on the effects of television viewing.

"The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces--although there is danger there--as in the behavior it prevents: the talks, the games, the family festivities and arguments through which much of the child's learning takes place and through which his character is formed. Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people." p. 8

Buy it here
A similar book I have not yet read here

For those interested, you may listen to talks by Brother Dennis Gillett available online. His soft Oxfordshire brogue is as delightful as his words on paper. Listen here and here.

Solemn Moments of Remembrance

Early every Sunday morning for the past month I have been reading one exhortation out of the book, Solemn Moments of Remembrance by one of my favorite authors, Brother Dennis Gillett. His words prepare my mind for remembering Christ's life, death, and resurrection. This book is suggested to "be used for a personal memorial service based on the Daily Readings."

"For Brother Dennis, those memorial moments around the emblems of our Lord's sacrifice, those moments when spiritual awareness was at its height, were indeed solemn moments of sober reflection. Solemnity is the prevailing characteristic of these thoughts." ~Foreword, p.v

Can be bought here

"Here, finally, Jacob became Israel, the man who had learned at last that God, and God only, is the master of the destiny of His chosen ones, and that the only part they themselves can play with success in that destiny is through faith and prayer." ~Wrestling Jacob, p.91-92

"It took Jacob until now to realize that all the evil and adversity he had had to contend with in his life had come not from human adversaries (they were only the means, the instruments), but from unseen angelic control. Many a man takes more than Jacob's twenty years to learn the same lesson." ~Wrestling Jacob, p. 72

"The temptation to depend on one's own wit and contriving is always present, and must be met by a spirit of conscious dependence upon God. The gospel of self-reliance, which the world ever applauds as manly virtue, is close kin to the reprobated justification by works which the Almighty despises. Rugged self-dependence may be all very well for political climbers and go-getters in the world of business, but it is as remote as can be from the life of faith which God seeks." ~Wrestling Jacob, p.57