Be Thou My Vision

                                                   Beautiful Abilene countryside.            The lane leading to the farmhouse.    Mimosa tree. I always think of Amy Carmichael's book about a girl called Mimosa, when I see these trees.                 My Grandpa grew up in this farmhouse with his one brother and three sisters. I am the 5th generation to have slept in this house. It is right in the middle of wheat fields in rural Kansas.                           We were there for the 122nd Birthday of Dwight Eisenhower. Dwight D. Eisenhower's 122nd birthday will be marked this year with a number of activities at the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home...

…as dying, and, behold, we live.” (2 Cor. 6:9) The Bible is full of paradoxes, that is, truths that seem contrary to what we would normally suppose or truths that seem to contradict one another. G. K. Chesterton maintained that paradox is truth standing on its head to attract attention. Here are a few of the paradoxes trying to attract our attention. We save our lives by losing them; we lose our lives by loving them (Mark 8:35). We are strong when we are weak (2 Cor. 12:10), and powerless in our own strength (John 15:5). We find perfect freedom in being Christ’s slave, and bondage when we are free from His yoke (Rom. 6:17-20). We find more joy in sharing what we have than we do in getting more. Or, in the words of our Lord, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). We increase what we have through scattering it, and experience poverty through hoarding it (Prov. 11:24). We have a new nature that cannot sin (1 John 3:9), yet everything we d...