"God’s goodness is not mitigated by our circumstances"
— remind me, remind me, dear Lord.
May 21, 2012
May 18, 2012
Living as children of the light
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put offyour old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:17-24
April 16, 2012
Funny how we can go from being as elated as a kid with an ice cream cone to one who just dropped it flat on the floor in just a matter of seconds. They’ve always said greater hopes eventually lead to greater disappoints, heck that was my class’s mantra during college days just to get us out of the emotional rut that was a-levels. But I’ve honestly never wanted to adhere to that thinking. If you never hope you’re never going to achieve. And besides, it’s really the Person you’re placing your hope in that matters more than the end result anyway. At least when disappoints strike I know who’s got me covered for the rest of my life. BEST LIFETIME INSURANCE EVER. #thankYouGod
April 16, 2012
"
22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
— Lamentations 3:22-26
April 9, 2012
"Be joyful. Love beyond what is reasonable. Be bold. And endure. You are not like those who have no hope. You live on the other side of the Resurrection."
— Happy Easter, Christ is RISEN :)
(Source: crosswalk.com)
April 1, 2012
![davified:
Here’s an excerpt, from a book about the church being the messy crossroad of sinners, hurting people, believers, doubters, cynics, hopefuls, basically a roomful of humans. It’s titled Faith in Real Life. Author really keeps it real, and this excerpt does the same ;)
[So the author just started a church-plant, and his ideal plans fell flat on its face, and now he’s taking in $500 a month for a family of three.]
“Before long, I ended up in a room full of immigrants and high school dropouts applying for food stamps. Walking through the doors of that government office made me feel like more than just a financial letdown; I was becoming bankrupt in dignity. My self-reliance was stripped away and my motives were exposed. I was angry and thought I was more deserving than anyone else in that room. After all, I had a job (just now a paycheck). I was convinced that everyone else in the room was a deadbeat devoted to abusing the system. In that moment, I was captivated by God’s whisper in my heart: “If you are going to pastor this church, then you will have to learn what it means to truly love and not see yourself as better than the ones I am calling you to reach.”
Mark Driscoll: “As long as Christians fail to repent of self-righteousness, we will continue to speak of evangelism in terms such as outreach, which implies that we will not embrace lost people but will keep them at least an arm’s length away.”
Makes so much sense…the irony.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1qwiqtFxI1qdu51go1_1280.jpg)
Here’s an excerpt, from a book about the church being the messy crossroad of sinners, hurting people, believers, doubters, cynics, hopefuls, basically a roomful of humans. It’s titled Faith in Real Life. Author really keeps it real, and this excerpt does the same ;)
[So the author just started a church-plant, and his ideal plans fell flat on its face, and now he’s taking in $500 a month for a family of three.]
“Before long, I ended up in a room full of immigrants and high school dropouts applying for food stamps. Walking through the doors of that government office made me feel like more than just a financial letdown; I was becoming bankrupt in dignity. My self-reliance was stripped away and my motives were exposed. I was angry and thought I was more deserving than anyone else in that room. After all, I had a job (just now a paycheck). I was convinced that everyone else in the room was a deadbeat devoted to abusing the system. In that moment, I was captivated by God’s whisper in my heart: “If you are going to pastor this church, then you will have to learn what it means to truly love and not see yourself as better than the ones I am calling you to reach.”
Mark Driscoll: “As long as Christians fail to repent of self-righteousness, we will continue to speak of evangelism in terms such as outreach, which implies that we will not embrace lost people but will keep them at least an arm’s length away.”
Makes so much sense…the irony.
March 18, 2012
Maturity
1. when we believe we are right yet remember what would Jesus do anyway.
2. when we start making decisions to honor others and not just satisfy ourselves.
3. when we can say sorry even when we aren’t exactly in the wrong.
4. when we can find compassion for the most unlovable, unrighteous people.
5. when we run to Jesus to pray in the face of trouble, rather than complain to others.
definitely still working on all. 23 years old and still maturing slowly.
Learning too, steep curve. Right next to ya ;)
March 5, 2012
"God loves us into submission. He will hug us while we’re kicking and screaming, loving us, when to humans, it’s the most counter-intuitive thing to love a person who keeps pushing you away. God will FIGHT to love us."
— Desmond, (from a much needed and appropriately timed conversation we had tonight)
March 1, 2012
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
—
James 1:17
He does not change like shifting shadows.
February 20, 2012
This is Love
Been feeling so much inertia in my bones…from the minute I wake up to even typing this paragraph because I just simply need to get out of this languid and unappealing state. I think exercise does help, or maybe I’m tired of doing so much of it. (So much is relative but to be fair I did run 3 times and swim once the past week). Everyone’s applying for jobs and going for interviews too. Feeling kinda ambivalent about the whole thing. On one hand I can’t seem to locate a job whose description and scope doesn’t do anything other than bore me. On the other I NEED to get one secured (hopefully and ideally) before I head off to the US of A and have a whale of a time before I come back and settle down in the stark and slightly painful but necessary reality that is work. ‘Welcome to the real world, she said to me condescendingly’ - I must admit John Mayer says/sings it well.
Got reminded from a dear friend’s blog about this(Hi Deb lol):
2 Timothy 2:22
“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
I wonder what God is thinking when He sees me and looks at my life; what I’m doing with it, or rather what I’m not. If I were Him I’d be rather displeased. I will never fully understand Him (who ever will?). How He can love someone, even be JEALOUS for someone like me. And all this time I am loving other things, other people, other desires. To pray for a heart aligned with His is scary. And I say this in all honesty. We sing ‘Break my heart for what breaks Yours’, and more often than not we forget we are the ones breaking His heart. They say the gospel speaks a simple message: God so loved us that He sent His one and only son to die for our sins, that we may believe and become children of God, but the older I get and the longer I believe, the more I start to realise the depth of this love and the meaning of this sacrifice, and how much it doesn’t.make.sense. We don’t deserve this but He still gives it to us. I guess this is what it means to sing ‘I stand in awe of You’. (Sorry I keep speaking in song lyrics but they do help in times like these.)
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
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