May 2013
21 posts
3 tags
“Someone asked me,” Benjamin Franklin once said, “what’s the...”
– NPR
This is one of the best articles I’ve read in a while.
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Questions
As is often the case after a catastrophic event or cataclysmic natural disaster, people come from under every rock and every mountain peak to offer questions, as well as answers. Christians tend to be the worst at it.
For some reason, we always sense the need to tell people the meaning of disasters—when in reality, we don’t know.
I know that Paul talks about the whole earth...
Loving
“As I have loved you, so you must love one another” — Jesus
There’s something remarkably poetic about laying down your life for someone who is taking it from you.
The paradox of love is that the moment we expect it—we lose it. Love reciprocated is payment. Love unearned is grace.
What if that’s the point of all of this? What if that’s what it means...
Irony
I can die, because I have life in Christ. I can be an utter failure, because Christ has won the cosmic victory for me. I can be unloved, because God so loved the world that He gave His son. I can feel ill-equipped because the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of me. I can be broken and fragmented and damaged because Christ...
heisincontrol:
Be careful little eyes what you see It’s the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go For it’s the little feet behind you that are sure to follow
Be careful little ears what you hear When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say For empty words and promises lead broken...
“The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to...”
– John Piper (via itsallaboutchrist)
“So long as there is some thought of personal advantage, some idea of acquiring...”
– Frederick B. Meyer
“Obviously God must guide us in a way that will develop spontaneity in us. The...”
– E. Stanley Jones
“Sometimes today it seems that our personal relationship with God is treated as...”
– Dallas Willard
“Idols give us a sense of being in control, and we can locate them by looking at...”
– Tim Keller
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Jesus
Reading in the Gospel of John today, I came across a familiar story about Jesus in Galilee, when he comes to a paralytic by the Pool at Bathesda (chapter 5).
Anyway, it says that there were many people there waiting by the water, but Jesus only went to one of them. That’s always such a strange thing—when Jesus goes to one out of a crowd, and ignores everyone else around them. Why did...
Dallas Willard
He is one of my favorite Christian authors. He passed away today—but I guess for me, that’s just an occassion to celebrate a Christian life well lived, and to honor him by glorifying the God who was at work through him.
His book The Spirit of the Disciplines, radically transformed my perception of the Christian life. It is one of the three books that I make a point to read every...
“Though the earth give way,
Though the mountains fall to the sea,
Though its...”
– Trinity Grace Church, “We Sing as One”
My jam right now.
April 2013
9 posts
One day
When I finally become a father, I really want to name at least one of my sons Luke….
Just so I can, in a really deep voice say, “Luke, I am your father.”
Is that poor motivation for naming a child something? I hope not.
Love
Oftentimes, people feel the need to share how much better they understand the love of God, when they look at their newborn baby, or when they are infatuated with their spouse—that the overwhelming sense of love they feel helps them to understand the love of God.
I would counter that very little could be closer to the truth. The reality is that we understand love in a very small way in...
6 tags
Faith
Satan wants us to:
1. regret our past
2. Worry about our future
3. Be comfortable in our present.
But faith allows us to have a hope and joy—which enables us to, in Christ:
1. Look back gratefully at our past
2. Have hope for our future
3. Live obediently and full of trust in our present.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us...
“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope...”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald (via bityybity)
Picture →
He guys, could you please like this picture on Facebook for me?
If we get the most likes, we win free tickets to “Fire in the Garden” for my youth group. It’s in Madison Square Gardens, and everyone’s excited for it!
Thanks for the help, y’all!
Following
A.W. Tozer said that “What we believe about God is as important in our Christian walk as a foundation is to a builder.” Who do we believe God is? You evaluate for yourself: how do you live your life? If you believe in a loving God, you love His creation. If you believe Jesus ascended, you will fast and mourn for His return. If you believe in a just and Holy God, you will seek reconciliation of the...
“If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you...”
– Mike Breen
March 2013
31 posts
“We talk about how Jesus went to the cross to forgive our sins. Yet, when...”
– Andrew Root
“A poem begins with a lump in the throat.”
– Robert Frost (via dulcetdecember)
Maxims
I have 12 maxims that I try to review almost weekly. They are basically a set of rules that I try to live by. I usually fail miserably, but they are nice, nonetheless. Lately, I’ve been thinking of writing a book on them, just because I think they are some powerful principles that help encapsulate a lot of truth into a few short sentences.
But anyway, while I’m working on attaching...
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Comfort vs. Jesus
“Then the demons begged him, ‘if you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.’ And he said, ‘Go!’ So they came out and went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake and drowned in the water. The herdsmen ran off, went into the town, and told everything that happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the entire town came out to meet...
The domineering fight, plot, scheme, take advantage, cheat, and sell their soul to gain the world. But the meek will inherit the earth.
I love Jesus so much.
Sometimes, it just feels nice to put that out there.
Books
I added 37 books to my Amazon Wishlist today for me to purchase this year…. I’ve already purchased 22 and we’re not even three months in…
I have a problem. Someone help me.
“Most of our complaints are owing to unbelief, and the remainder of a legal...”
– John Newton
Faith vs. Proof
“There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years. Therefore I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering and they have not known my ways.’” —Hebrews 3:9-10
Proof convinces your head, until something more worthwhile comes along. There are always better arguments, or maybe moments of doubt and...
“The only people who want to change the Gospel are those who are unchanged by it.”
– Leonard Ravenhill
Eating
In Genesis 2:16, God tells Adam and Eve that they may “freely eat of any tree in the orchard.” When the serpent asks Eve if she can eat of any tree, she responds, “we may eat.”
It is striking that she responds omitting the emphatic infinitive. She was notably stating that she was not eating to her heart’s content.
When you are blessed by God to be free, so you...
4 tags
Little Faith
I always think it’s funny reading the account of when Jesus is sleeping in the boat during a massive storm, and his disciples are freaking out… so when they wake up Jesus, saying, “We are perishing!” he says, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rebukes the wind and the waves.
I think sometimes we miss the point of the story, assuming that...
“Humiliy is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less”- C.S....”
– (via momosum)
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Sin
“Be sure your sins will find you out”—Numbers 32:23
Something interesting about human nature is that, while we are in sin, at first there is conviction, but that soon goes away when things don’t go wrong for us. We tend to think, “well, I guess this isn’t that big of a deal.”
But something I’ve learned by observation is that one way or another,...
