Thoughts on Habakkuk

Make the Vision Plain, the name of my  website, comes  from a verse in Habakkuk: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2:2 I’ll have to admit that I chose this theme verse because it was about writing, which seemed a natural...
2019 Best Books I’ve Read

2019 Best Books I’ve Read

This year, my reading was affected by two knee replacements and the accompanying medication that made it hard to concentrate. But I still managed to squeeze in over 100 books. I already wrote about the Chronicles of Narnia that I listened to and reread after my first...
A Month of Healing in Narnia

A Month of Healing in Narnia

On March 1, I had knee replacement surgery and began the process of recovery. For most of the month of March, I slept only a few hours at a time and in between, I would ice my leg, get comfortable on the couch, and listen to the Harper Audio version of the Chronicles...
Wise words on Prayer

Wise words on Prayer

Lilias Trotter served her Lord in Algeria from 1888 to her death in 1926.  Lilias, born to a wealthy family in England, first applied to a missions organization but was  rejected because of poor health. So she went on her own as a single woman of 34 with two friends,...
2019 Best Books I’ve Read

2018 Best Books I’ve read

This has been an interesting year for me in reading, with books ranging from spiritual themes to cultural contrasts to biographies, with a few mysteries thrown in. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered a recent  article on the Gospel Coalition titled Why J. I....
Try Tears

Try Tears

Sometimes a simple story captures such a profound truth it is unforgettable. The story below, as told by Leonard Ravenhill, is recorded in his biography In Light of Eternity by Mack Tomlinson. I think Ravenhill remembered it so clearly because it touched him deeply...
Did Elijah have a secret?

Did Elijah have a secret?

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. James 5:17-18 Even though James is telling...
First and Last

First and Last

I have always found great comfort from Revelations 22:13. It reminds us that God existed in the beginning: nothing exits apart from his plan. And it reminds us that he will triumph in the end: all the sorrows we don’t understand now will be forgotten. Recently,...
Defeating the D Words

Defeating the D Words

It may be an anomaly of English, but it seems like many of the distressing words in English start with the letter D. The dictionary informs us that de (and the closely related di and dis) is a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin used to indicate privation,...