E. B. White writes about living in the country. “Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don’t have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty, and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace.”

Jim Martin has been blogging about what he has learned at 30 years of marriage. “During those years of being a family and being a married person, I probably tended to think that marriage was primarily about personal happiness. In particular, I wanted to make sure my spouse was happy. It would be many years before I realized that God was using our marriage to shape us into a certain kind of people.”

Scott Nehring gives a great tip on discerning a movie’s message. “All movies give the audience a message. This message can be, ‘crime never pays, ‘war is hell’, [etc.] … The way a film delivers this message is by posing a question at its opening and answering it at its very end. Within the first 3-7 minutes you will find a question, a conflict, is established – will the boy get the girl, will the treasure be found, will the hero learn to love, etc. At the end of the film, the last 3-7 minutes, you will find that question is answered.”

Sinclair Ferguson believes that the church is God’s greatest evangelistic tool to reach the lost. “That is perhaps the single greatest need we have as a community of God’s people. That there might be something about the very atmosphere of our fellowship together in the unity of the bonds of the Holy Spirit that makes people ask the question ‘Where on earth, or in heaven, did that come from?’ And if they’re not compelled to ask that question about our church, it’s an almost certain sign that there’s very little that’s heavenly about our community.”

J. C. Ryle asks the all important question, Do you pray? “It is essential to your soul’s health to make praying a part of the business of every twenty-four hours in your life. Just as you allot time to eating, sleeping, and business, so also allot time to prayer. Choose your own hours and seasons. At the very least, speak with God in the morning, before you speak with the world: and speak with God at night, after you have done with the world. But settle it in your minds, that prayer is one of the great things of every day. Do not drive it into a corner. Do not give it the scraps and parings of your duty. Whatever else you make a business of, make a business of prayer.”

Got an itchy back? Grab the nearest tree. This so reminds me of Baloo the Bear from the movie The Jungle Book. (Video length: 1:44)