“For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to and then are never spoken to. Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself.”
—Anis Mojgani (Shake the Dust)
February 2013
1 post
January 2013
3 posts
“Sometimes you’re 23 and standing in the kitchen of your house making breakfast and brewing coffee and listening to music that for some reason is really getting to your heart. You’re just standing there thinking about going to work and picking up your dry cleaning. And also more exciting things like books you’re reading and trips you plan on taking and relationships that are springing into existence. Or fading from your memory, which is far less exciting. And suddenly you just don’t feel at home in your skin or in your house and you just want home but “Mom’s” probably wouldn’t feel like home anymore either. There used to be the comfort of a number in your phone and ears that listened everyday and arms that were never for anyone else. But just to calm you down when you started feeling trapped in a five-minute period where nostalgia is too much and thoughts of this person you are feel foreign. When you realize that you’ll never be this young again but this is the first time you’ve ever been this old. When you can’t remember how you got from sixteen to here and all the same feel like sixteen is just as much of a stranger to you now. The song is over. The coffee’s done. You’re going to breathe in and out. You’re going to be fine in about five minutes.”
—The Winter of the Air (via theriverjordyn)
23.
October 2012
1 post
July 2012
5 posts
“One of the coolest things about basically every single letter Paul wrote in the New Testament is he never tells you about what to do as a Christian until after he has told you who you are as a Christian.
The parts where he is telling you what to do, and how to be, and how to act, always follow a couple of chapters at the beginning of the book where he tells you how Jesus feels about you, how God looks at you, what’s been accomplished on your behalf. When you know who you are, then you can know how to be.” —
The parts where he is telling you what to do, and how to be, and how to act, always follow a couple of chapters at the beginning of the book where he tells you how Jesus feels about you, how God looks at you, what’s been accomplished on your behalf. When you know who you are, then you can know how to be.” —
Lee Younger on episode 23 of the Say That podcast
Get it Free on iTunes (or non iTunes-users can listen on the website)
Tullian Tchivijian pointed out this fact in Jesus + Nothing = Everything.
Love this*
“Instead of trying to love people more I must run to the gospel more. If I am not loving people it is because I am not understanding the gospel fully.”
—Trey Van Camp (via earthstranger)
Such rich truth!
“Talking about others in secret is not allowed even under the pretense of help and goodwill. For it is precisely in this guise that the spirit of hatred between believers always creeps in, seeking to cause trouble.”
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (via craigtowens)
#danghesright
Sharing Poetry: Rudyard Kipling, "If" →
sharingpoetry.tumblr.com
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t…
This is a poem I had to memorize in elementary school. Until now, I’ve forgotten how charming it is.
June 2012
3 posts
May 2012
11 posts
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
—Nick Carraway, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the center of our lives.”
—Francis Chan, Crazy Love (via radquotes)
what is the gospel about? well, what's God about?
gospel.
creation. fall. redemption.
in many ways, this sums things up rather nicely, but what is missing from this equation is an obvious indication of the end goal. the “why” behind it all.
why was everything created?
why was there a fall and why is sin bad?
why did God choose to bring about redemption?
apart from making this end goal very clear, we can take our creation fall redemption gospel and end up with something rather God-belittling and blasphemous. how so? by making the gospel about us, our comforts, and taking the focus away from what it is ultimately about.
so what is the “why” behind it all, what is the ultimate purpose of the Gospel? simply put, everything God does is to showcase His glory.
everything was created to bring Him glory and to show how glorious He is.
the fall showcases His glory and sin is bad because it takes glory away from Him.
God chose to bring about redemption to make His name great - so we would know how glorious He is and turn around and showcase that glory to everyone we encounter.
the “big picture” is always about God and His glory. always.
the gospel is about creation fall redemption all pointing to God’s glory.
in this first chapter of matt chandler’s book, “explicit gospel”, he cites a snapshot of verses that highlights the fact that God is ultimately about His glory in everything He does. Here they are:
- ezekiel 20:5-9
- psalms 106:8
- exodus 14:4, 18
- 1 samuel 12:19-23
- 1 kings 8
- 2 samuel 7:23
- isaiah 48:9-11
- malachi 2:2
- john 7:18; 17:4
- john 12:27, 28
- ephesians 1:3-6
- matthew 5:16
- 1 corinthians 10:31
- 1 peter 4:11
- 2 thessalonians 1:9, 10
- revelations 21:23
i always appreciate time spent digging deeper into who God is. He is so much greater, self-sufficient, and more after His glory than i will ever fully understand. praise God for being a God that is beyond my complete comprehension, who chooses to draw near to me.
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