Dorothy Vandezande > Recent Status Updates

Running to the storm cellar for refuge from a tornado... They knew better than to take the time to put on shoes, but they did stop and grab iPads for the kids and fudge from the kitchen. Please.

I usually love Colleen Coble, but this is giving too many mushy heart eyes way too soon. "She was not only beautiful, but Strong, as well..." Gushhhhhhh

Still not done wow

Just now figured out that I've read this before 🤣

Oof I thought surely I was at 88% by now

"All the fascinating corrugations of history neatly smoothed flat, so that the students will be prepared to give the planned response to all questions. They will, to boot, be fooled into thinking that they are thinking, just because they will have adopted the correct position on matters they know absolutely nothing about."

"Self-expression is the finest antidote for a perky imagination ever invented."

"There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chooses, and that is his duty. Not by maneuvering and finessing, but by vigor and resolution."

"There is not a hope," replied Faria, "but no matter; God wills it that man whom He has created, and in whose heart He has so profoundly rooted the love of life, should do all in his power to preserve that existence, which, however painful it may be, is yet always so dear."

❤️❤️❤️

"You who are in power have only the means that money produces. We who are in expectation have those which devotion prompts."


"He, after the manner of meager minds, termed the coincidence a decree of Providence." 🤣

"Around the table remained that noisy hilarity which usually prevails at such a time among people sufficiently free from the demands of social position not to feel the trammels of etiquette."

😂😂

The reformers...did not intend for the primacy of the Word to eclipse the other elements of worship. Grace preached was to be the context for understanding grace expressed in liturgy and sacrament. The grace presented in these would then work synergistically with the gospel proclaimed in the pulpit to lead the heart to more profound levels of spiritual understanding and appreciation.

The primary reason we must preach the grace of God from all the Scripture is not so that we will master an interpretive skill...Biblical theology practiced merely as a science of interpretation encourages theological debate and spiritual pride... The true goal of redemptive preaching is to expand the ways in which God...shows...His mercy so that we will understand Christ's sacrifice more fully, and...love Him more.

While it is true that a cursory reading of a form prayer may circumvent serious heart consideration, it is also true that an off-the-cuff, whatever-comes-to-mind-first prayer may fail to minister the Spirit's truths.

"We need the gospel pattern of our liturgy...because we cannot truly worship Christ apart from the grace by which he has revealed himself to us. This realization makes now-familiar aspects of the gospel pattern of Christ-centered worship take on new significance. For now we must consider whether Christ can be truly known and worshiped if we neglect the grace-revealing aspects of the liturgy."

"We do not gather simply to extol some attribute of God or to reflect the relationships of the Trinity. Heaven's glories would only devastate us, if God's grace did not shelter us. We do not gather merely to confess our sin. Our shame would destroy us, if his grace did not provide our pardon. We also do not worship only to learn our obligations. God's law would be our death, if the Lamb had not been slain for us."

Finally feels like we're getting somewhere! 😅 So much hair-splitting defining of terms in the first half.

"The heresies of church history are not universally upside down depictions of Jesus but simply lopsided ones."

Took me a bit to get into but whoa hang on tight I did not see this coming and I am INVESTED

Chapter one: Got an email. And a phone call.(200 pages?)
Bent down on his knees in the hall and closed his left eye and looked with his right eye through the keyhole. The chair was in line with the keyhole. His grandmother was sitting in the chair. Her arms were on the arm rests. Her feet were on the (you'll never guess) foot rest.

Chapter two: Grandmother's health history. How and why MC is a smoker. (150 pages)

"There is something very rewarding in being a closet dogmatist while appearing to be the reverse. [This]...approach to conflict, throwing up our hands and then chiding those with deep convictions, leads to a dead end, and kills the adventure of orthodoxy. The church fathers were right to oppose that move and we are right to oppose the same tendency in our day."

"The claim of lack of clarity or ignorance allows one to pursue one's own position quite dogmatically, while appearing to be very un-dogmatic. The claim of ignorance looks as though it advances no position, but it tacitly asserts that one's opponent's position cannot be decisively certain. It is forever only a possibility, not a certainty on which one could base action or decision."

So witty.

"She gave me a look.
'What?'
'Nothing. That's just what my face does when I leave it unattended.'"

Already annoyed with the birth scene. It's a book about a midwife. You'd think she'd have a midwife proof read. 👎🏻👎🏻

"We all enjoy the anticipation of each new Christmas, and we all rejoice in the celebrations. But we don't ever want this celebration to drift off point--this is not the armistice day of a long-forgotten war. This war is ongoing, and we celebrate this decisive point in the war as a means of continuing the faithful battle."

2 long chapters in and I haven't gotten anything out of this book that I didn't read in a better written book 15-20 years ago.

I don't want to stop in the middle of a book or a series, but I'm bummed about this book. I thought maybe book 2 was a one off, but this one is not an improvement--by chapter 3 anyway. There were 7 (7!) places in one chapter where you're jarred out of the story line to read someone's inner monologue detailing their romantic interest's many phenomenal attributes. SEVEN TIMES. IN ONE CHAPTER.