I Can Relate
I came across the following quote by Rose Marie Miller in Alan Kraft’s Good News for Those Trying Harder (great book):
“I love to be in control. I am addicted to duty, order, my rights, my ways, and to outward performance. I am outwardly moral, yet inside I am full of anxieties, fears and guilt. For years, I heard the words of the gospel, but I never heard the music.”
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I’ve barely heard the music, but the little music of the gospel that I have heard blows me away. The gospel sets me free from the need to control and my addictions to duty, order, rights, performance. I crave this music and yet my hearing comes only by grace.
I try so hard to hear it but am coming to understand that my efforts don’t tune my ears. God’s mercy does.
Trust Baby, Trust
This is a pic of a college friend with his daughter. We are to rest in God as this little girl is resting on her daddy. Trust baby, trust.
Jesus Wants the Rose
This video is amazing. It’s an excerpt from a sermon by Matt Chandler.
United with Beauty
Per C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory:
What more, you may ask, do we want? … We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.
My Hope is Built on Nothing Less
Words by Edward Mote (1834); Music by William Bradbury (1863)
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.
Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
Refrain
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
Refrain
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
To Do Lists Are Never Done
Per CJ Mahaney’s Blog (Click link to see the whole post):
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No matter how much planning, scheduling, and discipline is present in my life, I will never completely redeem the time. I am a finite creature, limited in what I can accomplish, and further limited by my sin. So it should surprise nobody that I leave to-dos undone each and every day.
My joy is not derived from the flawless execution of my goals. My joy each day is derived from the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Only God gets his to-do list done each day. I need the cross of Christ each day.
Free Men Living in an Oppresive Land
Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones gave an illustration at the climax of his exposition of Rom 6-8 that is very helpful.
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Suppose there was a city that was in captivity for hundreds of years. If one of the nationals told a slave to do something in particular, he’d better do it or else he’d be beaten to death. Now, a new King conquered the land and set the people free! They no longer were subject to the powers that once held them. Yet, something interesting happened once this freedom was declared, the free men often times still lived as slaves! Due to their extended experience of captivity and a lack of understanding of their new nature, they would often capitulate to the commands of those who no longer had authority over them. If they simply stood when challenged, their oppressors would flee, but instead they bought the lies.
This paints a beautiful picture of our situation in light of Christ’s victory! We are free people, there is no condemnation, Christ finished the work… yet we often forget this. We are accused daily of our sin, of our inability, seduced continually into trying harder and to be our own saviors and lords. These lies of satan continually come at us and we forget that we are Sons of the Most High! We need to remember who we are, remind one another and pray for God’s grace to continually open our eyes and ears and we will be able to stand in our freedom!
