My sentiments exactly

brianmolloy:

I’m on page 29 of this book and through the Holy Spirit’s leading it has already caused me to reevaluate and make some changes in my relationship with God. It’s one of those books that kills you to read only because you know your dead wrong about so much.

I own this book, but I haven’t read it yet. Perhaps it will be next.

I’m on page 29 of this book and through the Holy Spirit’s leading it has already caused me to reevaluate and make some changes in my relationship with God. It’s one of those books that kills you to read only because you know your dead wrong about so much.

I own this book, but I haven’t read it yet. Perhaps it will be next.

Most Americans believe that what their problem is is something that has happened to them, and their solution will be found within. They believe that they have an alien problem that is to be resolved with an inner solution. The Gospel says that we have an inner problem and the only solution is an alien righteousness.

“

—

R.C. Sproul, from his talk at T4G ‘06

Of all the Christian doctrines, this is the one that demonstrates itself to me most from what I see in the world around me. People are certainly capable of acts of selflessness and enlightenment, but I see that all people are also capable, in certain situations, of selfishness and evil. Being in God’s nature, our original light still shines through, but we have all been marred, dirtied, broken. We need Him to fix us, but before that, we need Christ’s own righteousness imparted to us to make us worthy of even stepping before His throne to be fixed.

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

“

—

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson

via itiswellwithmysoul: papertowngirl

This is one of my four favorite hymns. It is interesting to me that the original hymn has five stanzas; the first half of the second stanza and the second half of the third were removed and the remaining halves form the new second stanza (above). Having read the original, I think this change is an improvement.

The original fifth stanza is also often omitted in modern hymnals, although I am a fan of it:

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

i wish i had other spiritual gifts

philippians4:

Not that i don’t like mine. But i mean i would LOVE to have discernment or wisdom or mercy… Oh Lord help me to appreciate who i am and who You made me to be

whomshallifear:

These tests tell you what your major spiritual gifts are, but it doesn’t mean that just because you have those you can’t have others!

Good word, whomshallifear. In fact, John Piper goes so far to suggest that spiritual gifts aren’t necessarily for a whole lifetime; God can give some gifts in certain seasons, and others in other seasons. If you feel ill-equipped for what God has set before you, then pray and perhaps He will give you a miraculous gift for the task!

“You religious people.”

classyliving:

Somebody told me that my people had killed Galileo because he had different ideas.

I did not know what to say so I stood and awkwardly laughed and felt deeply offended.

I thought about all the things I could of replied with for awhile and stirred up some anger and I realized I was being silly so I just let it go. That is all you can do sometimes. Let it go.

Good work. And don’t forget 1 Corinthians 1:18; the state of the entire human race is such that God’s ultimate truth and redemptive plan will look like foolishness to every person until the Spirit does a divine work in their heart. Even if you’d had a quick and sly retort, classyliving, it would’ve likely done little to impact their views; witnessing the love of God within the body of Christ is usually what finally softens people’s hearts.

And, FYI, the Church did not kill Galileo, although they did imprison him and pressure him to recant his heliocentric views, which was indeed a travesty; sometimes a productive response to critics is to humbly own up to the Church’s failings in the past, and to try to guard ourselves against such un-Biblical acts in the future. Like the medieval Church, there are many viewpoints that we assume to be Biblical which really are not (such as geocentrism; you can take your pick of modern analogies).

The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him

“

—	Francis Chan via peacenotwar: shiningdefiance: derekthornton

The Lord does not look so much at the magnitude of anything we do as at the love with which we do it.

“

—	Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, pg 238

Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with His sign, which is the sign of the Cross, in token that they have given Him their freedom. Then He can sell them as slaves to the whole world, as He Himself was sold, and if He does this He will be doing them no wrong but showing them no slight favor. Unless they resolve to do this, they need not expect to make great progress [spiritually].

“

—

- St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, pg 234

“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness… But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Romans 6:20, 22

We are always slaves of something; either sin or God.

Many people are willing to be God-centered as long as they feel that God is man-centered. It’s a subtle danger.

“

—	- John Piper To further quote Piper, “God is not an idolater; He puts nothing before Himself.” via chrislazo: derekthornton: peacenotwar

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

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—	C.S. Lewis via christ-follower

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

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—	Romans 8:31 This was my favorite verse during high school. It meant a lot to me to know that, ultimately, no one could take me down. via dailybibleverse

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned to outright disgust.

“

—	- Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” via shiningdefiance

via dennywenny: krisdoesthemacarena

If I were to say ‘God, why me?’ about the bad things, then I should have said ‘God, why me?’ about the good things that happened in my life.

“

—	- Arthur Ashe, explaining how he coped with being diagnosed with HIV, the result of a tainted blood transfusion sunnynsassy: Going to stop with the “Why me?s” on all the bad stuff. Today was the beginning.

FML

fmylife:

Today, my boyfriend of 5 years broke up with me. Why? Our one-month-old’s hair is growing in blonde, and we both have dark hair. Did I cheat? No. I had blonde hair as a child until I was 4… As did every one else born in my family. I guess this factor doesn’t count when you’re paranoid. FML

In case any of you are wondering, this is a fine example of why we Christians get “worked up” (not my words) about pre-marital sex. God ordained sex in the confines of a marriage so that no child would be brought into the world without accountable commitment of the two parents. Obviously, this dude had more issues going on than just his fornication, but the fact is that sex brings human beings into the world. No child should be born to a parent who is free to bail.