Help me choose my books

I'm not in a fit state to make any choices right now, so, I subscribe to an audio book club, and this months just turned the time when I can choose two more books. Audible books and have just been looking through the books, and decisions aint' easy.

So, those that have an opinion on the four or five I list, if you can relist them in the comments in the order of preference of them, as I've never read (even audibly) any of these authors before, and figure some of you may have.

purpose driven life --Rick Warren

Confessions of St. Augustine

Knowing God-- J.I. Packer

Gettng to know Jesus. --George Macdonald. (a collection of sermons)

When God Weeps-- Joni Erickson Tada

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Almost like the Queen

Before I go to bed, it just occurred to me how we all have a little bit of the Queen of England in us. Tho she's not my favourite person. She has this public face that everyone sees. No one knows what's going on inside her heart. Sometimes ones public face, so to speak, can hide the fact you may be overwhelmed by grief, and almost dying inside.

So, I think that qualifies me for the job as the next Queen of England.


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Quote

"Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove." Ashleigh Brilliant

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Another Riddle

The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?

Answers in comments.
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Enigma of Liverpool's Labrynth

We have better things of note in Liverpool in the U.K than John, Paul, Ringo and whatever the fourth ones name was you know!

The Williamson tunnels which were discovered a year or two ago, are quite fascinating historically speaking. Its possible these tunnels were used to transport slaves around, or as the article said, its possible that Williamson thought Armageddon was eminent and so he constructed them to try and protect himself. But this kind of mystery historically speaking is the more enigmatic I think, simply because in part it will always remain to some extent a mystery. As most of Williamsons personal papers and documents were destroyed after his death.



Full story from BBC Williamson's Tunnel's in Pictures BBC
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Is This good stewardship of Time?

The 100 Worst Movies of 2004

Exhibit A: How one critic totally threw away 200 hours of his life at the movies

By PETER TRAVERS From the pages of Rolling Stone



Alexander: Worst of the worst

Click the above link for the full list. I saw one movie this year, at the cinema, spidey man, and tho it was okayish, I went under duress after a few years of not going, knowing how by enlarge movies do not appeal to me, boredom, lack of concentration etc, but think if I"d been the guy spending 200 hours inside the cinema in 2004, would need more than the funny farm by now!

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Ponderizing Riddle

I am a cow, but I'm not white or black.
I have 2 legs in front but no legs in back.
Look at my back end, you'll see it is round.
For long periods of time I can stay off the ground.
What am I?

Leave your guesses in the comments.
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A few things of Note

That's my new byline, owing to my new Improved blog roll.

Controlling computers with the brain a step closer: click here They make the presupposition here that folks have the brain to spare for this activity!

And I thought wearing slippers was something only old folks do!! Click Here I won't wear slippers cos of the previous connation I have with them with age, and certainly would NOT wear these!

The Invisible Library (I could've done with this library just over two years ago, when Susan, Beth and Jerry were my invisible friends! Would have co-ordinated methinks!) is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound Click Here
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Sometimes..tis hard being..

Genius has limitations; stupidity is boundless Anonymous

A Genius. Even one with limited brain capacity! I am moving on, from here. A thing I swored I'd never do in my life time. But needs must and all that. And you try to do what's right for everyone, and yet to do so is a struggle, especially when with limited brain capacity you find others who leave everything to fall onto your lap as far as getting things going goes. And when you know you've made the God given decision about some things, you hear the voice of opposition from unbelieving friends, who you know and even as you hear you know they are right in their asessment, yet you can't do the wordly thing, as much as it seems rationale.

So, I shall move to supported housing, probably within the next six months. And I don't really have a say or a choice into which area of the town I move to owing to waiting lists. And cos I am using privately owned rather than local govt owned housing associations to fix me up, theoretcially I could move anywhere in the country. This is tempting in some respects. I mean folks have seen my globe-trotting (or lackof) expeditions on the map below. But I likely won't move out of Birmingham. But cos it could be the other side to where I am now, it could well be out of travelling distance if ever I was able to go out anywhere again, from my church. I don't drive, and so as a wheelchair user being easily reachable is a priority for attending. But its really beyond my control. And all I can do is pray for a smooth transition with as little stress as possible. As stress next to the sun, being one of the chief triggers for setting my condition into worsening.

I sometimes wish I had the brains to be a real brainiac genius. But, I get there in the end, even if I have to bunny hop around the block to get to where other folks seem to get to straight away and in a quarter of the time. I dislike change in many ways, which is probably why this particular illness has been such a thorn in my side. As you can never tell practically from one hour to the next how things maybe.

And I finally get my genes inspected come Monday. So, that should after 6-8 weeks waiting for results of the gene tests, get me well on the way to seeing a specialist in this area. tho the success it is and can be treated with seems to be very variable, and the outlook not great. I've also wondered since my liver pain is so unrelenting last while, if I may have hepatitis, as how would I know? As this is a common complication and have heard of several folks with the condtion who did have it and were unaware. So, when everything hangs in the balance on so many ifs and ands, it makes me glad for a Good, Gracious, merciful, Holy, Righteous, Long-Suffering God. As it helps keep the stress down, to knwo that wherever the ball ends up in the end, the final decision is not mine, in as to how far it rolls and where it stops.

(blogger seems to be having problems, and that includes with recognizing audio files)

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Unpathetic Great Explorer

X Marks the Spot! Or that little red bit somewhere on the edge of the sea does!

Well, since my fellow Bloggers Jerry and Gogh Gurl were both feeling pathetic for various reasons in the last 24 hours. I just thought I would say, if you want to have all the fun, come to England! I am NOT amongst the "pathetic" I liked it here, so stayed put! But as folks can see, am, sooo well travelled! Create your own Visited map



And now, are going to bed, Evenin' All!

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A Mystery in the Making

Can anyone tell me what happened to this Doctor? I mean, I know we all come and go in the online world, but he created a blog, and the last and I think only blag on his blog was almost a year ago. I hate mysteries!! James Thomas

I'm sure google and me could solve this and other online mysteries given time.


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Ponderization for today

Anyone who may dispute how we give Worship to God, and I know lots of people think if you sincere that's all it takes. Well, we can all be sincere, as well as sincerely wrong.

But for anyone who thinks God's is not jealous of how He is worshipped, and the manner of which, its interesting to ponderize that in Exodus, and the commands of God laying out His exact requirements for the Tabernacle, the Bible has 243 verses devoted to that. And in Genesis on the whole of creation of the world as we know it, it has just 31 verses devoted to it.


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Talented Pet

May take a little while to start, depending on connection speed after clicking play button:

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Putting away Pride

Well, as I've been posting now and again... I have been so much sicker of late and some of it is ongoing still..and yet at least as far as the deep depressive state that reached the last week or so... you ever know you've been visited by God? In as much as He has been renewing or regenerating you through whatever our affliction maybe? One thing about my illness, it brings out the worst of the worst bits of me that have always been there. Moods, short-fuse, frustration, impatience etc. And it seems the very things that have always given me and often those around me problems, get pushed to the forefront simply cos being sick, those kind of tendencies would likely be there if not already prone to them.

Yet you know God has been speaking to you through your affliction. And over the last two years its become hugely important to me to only have people in my life in any major way whom I can trust. as if you give a neighbor some money to pick some stuff up for you, and you can't remember if you gave them the money or not, if you ask them, you need someone who is going to give you an honest answer and you know it will be honest without having to worry about it. Same as people who on a level of discernment often do better than I do... and the trust is there which has been built over a long time. Yet also, none of us likes to feel we are struggling to keep up with our peers in how we deal with life or manage our lives or other things. And when one always feels left behind in this way, it often makes way for pride to give way. In that you would like to be able to think the same and discern the same and make judgments and decisions the same as those who are your equal. And yet you also know your judgment and thought processes are severely hampered at times. So those habits of anger, frustration and impatience get worse, as you feel you are losing any battle to survive in a real level or in a normal way.. and so you assert yourself to seem equal..and often with impaired judgment you assert wrongly or incorrectly. And the still small voice you feel certain is that yes your illness makes you weak and vulnerable in many ways. Whether it be mind or body. But if you put away your pride, and know that others who may be your equal may have an opinion or thought that is more glorifying to me than your is.. .by listening I can be glorified through your weakness. And in the end, it will make you more dependant on Me, than yourself. By learning to putting away your opinion and your will.. and to know that I am Lord. That doesn't mean I will follow anyone blindly, just to know that in my weakened state, that my judgments are often not sound, and learn to not trust myself and be open to hearing others. And though not about to follow anyone blindly, I know that through the mess that often passes for my mind, I am normally able to discern if something is a God given opinion or not. And putting down my often hampered misfiring thoughts that lead to chaos, and away from God, rather than taking me nearer.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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Bean there, done that

Never Judge a book by its cover!

The guy's a genius! And probably a close relative maybe!

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Time for dinner

What to have is the problem. Last few days have existed entirly on bags of crisps/potatoe chips cos they are safe and don't cause me any additoinal problems normally.. but tonite, I think I should try to eat more.... am beginning to look like I escaped from a concentration camp! So, not sure what is in the freezer. Maybe a pizza.. or maybe some fried chicken... and just to be different, I found this little song, about chicken pie, (which is something I don't actually like so have no i dea why its getting posted here..but it is!) or maybe cheese omleette seems good.. decisions, decisions...I hate 'em. Oh, I think I just settled on fish fingers and chips and beans!! Don't be jealous now!!

Well, if you want to see a brother made happy, I'll tell you what to do,
Trip over to the neighbor's yard, there take down a chicken or two,
Why you slip around a dark night, when the chickens cannot see,
Gwine see that the bulldog's tied up, then peek up to the tree,
For you take a pole just to knock 'em off, then slap him like a goat,
Well if he hollers loudly, want shove 'em up under your coat,

Chorus: Bake that chicken, Lord put on lots of smiles,
Oh, Lord how I'd like to have just a piece of that chicken pie.

Well the pullets that flop their wings and crow, When the brother passes by,
Seems to say that they can't be caught, and there ain't no use for to try,
And worse than all that happens, yes that you ever hear like be- fore,
Whenever you go to travel you find, there's a lock on the chicken coop door.

Chorus

This country am gwine to the dogs at last, when the farmers sit and watch,
Big bull dog and a big steel trap in the watermelon patch,
And worse than all that happens, yes that you ever hear like be- fore,
Whenever you hear that er-e-er-er, there's a lock on the chicken coop door.

Chorus [twice]

RECORDING INFO: Jackson County Barn Owls. Home in West Virginia: West Virginia Project, Vol. 2, Old Homestead OHCS 177, LP (1987), cut# 8; Macon, Uncle Dave; & the/his Fruit Jar Drinkers. Nashville Early String Bands, Vol. 2, County 542, LP, cut# 13; County 542, Uncle Dave Macon & His Fruit Jar Drinkers - "Nashville: the Early String Bands, Vol. 2".

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Doncha hate b'days?

Mine is nowhere about I hasten to add, some things are good in life.. I stopped counting when I was 15 and that was soo l ong ago I no longer want to remember. But b'days for me are often a time of lowness and of the clock ticking by, and nothing achieved... and so in a day totally unrelated to my b'day, I thought I would post a cartoon pic that amused me.

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Mesmerizing

Check out this kewl animation. (not one of mine I hasten to add) Bewitched

Its quite mesmerizing.
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Hard Days...

Today's been tough, physically. I'm at one of those points in time, and don't recall if there's been any more, when on a phyiscal level, that I feel that getting through the week may not be something I do.

The Lord's Day is generally hard on a spiritual level anyway. As I am here, within these four walls, with the only other humanity about me tho dear to me are in the world of unbelief. I see them for abuot ten minutes any day mostly. Soap operas creeep up through the levels of the home, and I get them up here even with my TV off. The only other way I know I belong in Christendom at all, even on the Lord's Day, is cause the Lord Himself tells me so.

I don't belong here, I know that. And won't be missed if and when I go on any real level. The world has everything in it, that I once longed for to keep me happy. Now it still has the same stuff, but its totally inaccessible to me, and want the world to stop so I can get off, and want to go Home, where I will belong. Yet the sicker I feel and closer it seems possible, I can't also say that in these circumstances, there's no fear with this longing either of if or when it happens.

If I obsess about death so much, its cos I genuinely feel too sick to be here. And coping with it alone on a human level, totally, brings its own sets of fears.

The Lord's Day. God and I is my evidence of Christendom. And it maybe the biggest evidence, yet you still feel a pauper and on the outside. And its not always very much different any day, yet knowing its the Lord's Day with a direct commandment from God to be in the assembly of God's people, it seems tougher.
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Suffering

My life may feel pretty meaningless to me alot of the time. But the day I know someone else, who maybe under severe affliction and I get so used to them being under it, that I no longer bother or care, they can tell me if its illness that's wrong with them long term, they are struggling worse right now, and I say nothing cos it completely passes me by as not noticable, or if someone is suffering in any other way and I harden to it in a simialr way, then, after knowing how it feels personally for that to become the case so often, that your suffering is normal to other people, and if you said you are iller or even on ones death bed, you don'tl think becuse its become so normal so usual for you, that it passes by without a word, or a blink of an eye, if I become hardened in that way, after knowng what it is to live like that, then I shall know I"ve wasted my time here completely.

Me not noticing another persons affliction because it is a permenant part of their life, doesn't make it easier fo them to bear. There suffering goes on even if I choose to ignore or not acknolwldge it in any way. And can only make them feel their suffering doesn't matter in the least, because its them, and not anyone else, and their life has probably never mattered a lot anyway, to anyone at all. So, why should now be any different? But, if it was someone else, anyone else, it would matter. It may not matter very much on the scale of things, I may only be at the bottom of the rung of mattering, but I still have to get through this, and worthless or not, its real, its hard, its lonely. So, others afflictions should never be common place or normal to us, cos they will never be common place or normal to them.
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Ponderization...

Question: Do you [we] make much of God and glorify Him and praise Him, cos He makes much of us, and fills our lives with blessings?

or:

Question: Do you [we] make much of God because He gave Himself to us, sent His son to die for us, and we are part of His chosen people?

Answer:

10Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;[g]
when his soul makes[h] an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see[i] and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,[j]
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,[k]
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors. [Is 53] Also Is 43

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