Musings of a Snickerdoodle

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss is one of my favorite works of Christian fiction.  Written in the 1800s, it is still very interesting and relevant to people in our current day and very readable. Prentiss tells the story using the format of a diary written by a woman named Katherine, who records her life struggles, from young womanhood through much of her married life.  She gives the events of various days (sometimes skipping days, months or even years, but giving updates along the way), and writes down many of her inmost thoughts, questions and struggles with sin.  She has questions about her salvation and whether or not she is being sanctified.  God brings along many different people to teach her and to help her recognize that He really is working in her and making her more Christ like. God also brings along many different trials to grow her spiritually.  There are several interesting dialogues with others that are recounted by Katy, I give...

I keep hearing about, and seeing, books that imply(or directly state) that suffering in the life of a Christian is abnormal.    Actually, suffering is one of the most normal things in the life of a Christian.    That suffering may be physical(persecution, disease, handicap, etc...) or mental(caused by self-denial, struggles to keep focused, slaying of lusts..etc.), but it certainly isn't strange.    Peter writes to the Churches,   " Dear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. Instead, because you are participating in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that you may be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. " (1Pe 4:12-13 ISV)   And thus the title of Sproul's book, 'Surprised by Suffering', in which he strives to take away the element of 'surprise' and points out that we should not be surprised by suffering, but rather,...

Excerpt from a letter written bv Hudson Taylor, in China at the time, to a friend in England.  Taylor's wife and new-born son Noel had just died(their oldest son, Samuel, died earlier that year). Their second youngest child was staying with friends elsewhere in China and the other children had been sent to England not long before this event:   It is Sunday evening.  I am writing from Mr. White's bungalow.  The cool air, the mellow, autumnal beauty of the scene, the magnificent Yangtze - with Silver Island, beautifully wooded, reposing, as it were, on its bosom - combine to make one feel as if it were a vision of dreamland rather than actual reality.  And my feelings accord.  But a few months ago my home was full, now so silent and lonely - Samuel, Noel, my precious wife, with Jesus; the elder children far, far away, and even little T'ien-pao in Yang-chow.  Often, of late years, has duty called me from my loved ones, but I have returned, and s...