THUNDROUS

recent prayer meeting over the unbearable compliment of God: “Be perfect, therefore, as your...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:55:00 -0800

recent prayer meeting over the unbearable compliment of God:

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:48)

God is not safe.. he is not nice. he is not my doting grandfather or a nebulous force. HE is the LORD. and He is HOLY and PERFECT.

———————

“I find a good many people have been bothered by what I said in the last chapter about Our Lord’s words, “Be ye perfect.” Some people seem to think this means “Unless you are perfect, I will not help you”; and as we cannot be perfect, then, if He meant that, our position is hopeless. But I do not think He did mean that. I think He meant “The only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less.”

Let me explain. When I was a child I often had toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother—at least, not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else.

I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain: but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie; if you gave them an inch they took an ell.

Now, if I may put it that way, Our Lord is like the dentists. If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell. Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of (like masturbation or physical cowardice) or which is obviously spoiling daily life (like bad temper or drunkenness). Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment.

That is why He warned people to “count the cost” before becoming Christians. “Make no mistake,” He says, “if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect—until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.”

- C S LEWIS, Mere Christianity

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Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:17:07 -0800

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Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:02:48 -0800

Luke 12:22-34

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:51:09 -0800

Luke 12:22-34

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Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:43:50 -0800

"Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is..."

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:38:11 -0800

“Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.”

- Isaiah 40:27-41

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he..."

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:37:12 -0800

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”

- Psalm 62:5-8

IF ONLY — but the Lord tells me to be content when compared with calvary, or just compared...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:08:17 -0800

IF ONLY —

but the Lord tells me to be content

when compared with calvary, or just compared with the lives of most people in the world, i don’t have anything to complain about.

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Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:24:18 -0800

what in the world is God doing with my life? in-between everything and feeling stuck. i really,...

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:47:43 -0800

what in the world is God doing with my life?

in-between everything and feeling stuck.

i really, really wish i could stop working and go to school again

or do something less meaningless

or learn to be more long-suffering

…something.

something i miss: staying up late with tea and reading Saki or Shirley Jackson. their words bite and...

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:56:30 -0700

something i miss:

staying up late with tea and reading Saki or Shirley Jackson. their words bite and made my throat tighten with surprise and the special recognition that is usually reserved for a sardonic joke between old friends.

now time is passing by so fast its all a blur.

temporarily working in SF for the next six months

i need some waterproof shoes.

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Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:40:49 -0700

"Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily..."

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:18:51 -0700

“Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject. But when we are securely rooted in a personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without be relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.”

- Henri J. M. Nouwen In The Name Of Jesus

via sds: thecommoncup

(via christianity)

"Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may..."

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:56:32 -0700

“Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.”

- Psalm 19:12-13

GOD first, life second. =): The Master's Hand

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:22:00 -0700

GOD first, life second. =): The Master's Hand: The Master’s Hand

‘Twas battered and scarred and the auctioneer

Thought it scarcely worth his while

To waste much time on the old violin,

But he held it up with a smile.

“What am I bid, good folk?” he cried.

“Who’ll start the bidding for me?

A dollar, a dollar … now two … only two …

Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?

“Three dollars once, three dollars twice,

Going for three” … but no!

From the room far back a gray-haired man

Came forward and picked up the bow.

Then wiping the dust from the old violin

And tightening up the strings,

He played a melody pure and sweet,

As sweet as an angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,

With a voice that was quiet and low,

Said, “What am I bid for the old violin?”

As he held it up with the bow.

“A thousand dollars … and who’ll make it two?

Two…two thousand, and who’ll make it three?

Three thousand once and three thousand twice …

Three thousand and gone!” said he.

The people cheered, but some exclaimed

“We do not quite understand …

What changed it’s worth?” and the answer came:

” ‘Twas the touch of the master’s hand.”

And many a man with soul out of tune

And battered and scarred by sin

Is auctioned cheap by the thoughtless crowd

Just like the old violin.

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd

Never can quite understand

The worth of a soul, and the change that is wrought

By the touch of the master’s hand.

O Master! I am the tuneless one

Lay, lay Thy hand on me,

Transform me now, put a song in my heart

Of melody, Lord, to Thee!

Myra Brooks Welch

theworldwelivein: Landscape / Italy / Amalfi (by ►CubaGallery)

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:36:57 -0700

theworldwelivein:

Landscape / Italy / Amalfi (by ►CubaGallery)

sitting at a table with a missionary to my left and to my right. they probably wouldn’t call...

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:02:00 -0700

sitting at a table with a missionary to my left and to my right. they probably wouldn’t call themselves missionaries, but since they are going to do cross-cultural gospel work for the next year, i guess that makes them missionaries. we happen to be the same age, and that means we are pretty young.

don’t have anything profound to say about it; i think truth is terribly ego bruising, and God only gives it to us a bit at a time alongside large helpings of his blessings and peace. so being given the great privilege of ministering to people is overshadowed by a small, dark morsel of truth, that is, our complete inadequacy and inability to love people who don’t care a whole lot about us

i am thinking about Samuel when he is pretty young. lying in the dark, and being woken three times by a voice callling his name. three times going readily to Eli, saying “Here I am.” and he thinks he is answering the call from a dying prophet only to find out it is an entirely other thing.

learning to discern the truth through other’s wisdom and then through his own acquired understanding. these things take time.

"Transformation is not optional but mandatory for Christians. This was Lewis’s consistent position...."

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:43:07 -0700

“Transformation is not optional but mandatory for Christians. This was Lewis’s consistent position. After all, he had undergone his own transformation, discovering “depth under depth of self-love and self admiration” (as he told Arthur right at the beginning of his Christian pilgrimage) and submitting to the lifelong discipline of being purged of such sin. We must die in order to live, lose our lives in order to find them, give up what we think of as ourselves in order to gain our true selves. And this is the most difficult of tasks: as Eustace discovers, our best efforts at self-understanding and self-correction are but feeble; the revelation of who we really are must come from without, and when it does come it devastates us. Then the sin and folly of even our noblest labors and wisest words appear before us with a heartbreaking clarity. For Lewis, Christian unity begins with the recognition that we have all, like Eustace, through our pride and selfishness, made ourselves into dragons. We must then understand that we cannot undragon ourselves—we lack the strength—and after that we must accept that God is ready and willing to undragon us, if we will but allow Him to do so. For Lewis, only those who share this picture of the human predicament and its cure can join together in true unity—can really, and not just nominally, become members of one another in a single Body.”

- Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis (p 219)

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Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:59:31 -0700

fishforpeople: Job 42:5

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:42:08 -0700

fishforpeople:

Job 42:5