If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.
A broken person is a much more attractive leader to God, than one who doesn’t know that he is broken.
What you do today is shaped by what you believe about tomorrow.
One of the reasons I say that it is good for American Christianity to no longer think of itself as a “moral majority” is that such a mentality obscures the strangeness of the gospel. When a vision of Christian political engagement hinges on building a politically viable network of ideologically united voters, Christ and him crucified will tend to be a stumbling block, not a rallying point.
If you want to read the context of the quote, it is found in an article entitled “Why Politics Can’t Drive the Gospel.” Check it out HERE.
“To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blind-sided by it.”
This quote has a lot of spiritual applications to it – but if you want to see the context of this recent quote then you can click the link below ….
Four critical truths the President & candidates need to understand in the debate over Radical Islam
Since today is my birthday I thought I would share a song/poem I wrote a few years ago as I was pondering my own mortality. As I get more advanced in age I find that I am doing this more and more often. But I also have noticed that this was something the Apostle Paul did a lot of in his letters as he reminded himself often of the gospel and of the hope that we as believers have for the coming day of salvation. The crazier that our world gets the more we need to hold out the hope that is ours to a world that is more and more becoming hopeless and despairing. And while I am indeed looking forward to THAT DAY, I also echo what Paul said in Philippians 1:
22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
I hope you enjoy the song. Be glad that I am writing it and not singing it for you.
That Day
I’m longing for that day when I’ll be crowned with my reward
But more than that I cannot wait to see my precious Lord
For He has done so much for me
So much to set me free
And that is why I’m waiting for that day.
(chorus)
On that day He’ll come again
Or on that day I’ll go to Him
That day when this old journey is complete.
On that day my heart will sing
On that day I’ll see my king
On that day I’ll wake and know it’s not a dream.
I know it won’t be long before I enter heaven’s door
And then I’ll know just what my life of faith has all been for
I’ll see my savior face to face
I’ll feel the love of His embrace
And that is why I’m waiting for that day.
(chorus)
One day all the pain that comes with this life will be done
And I will cross the finish line and know the race is won
The victor will be on His throne
And I’ll see my eternal home
And that is why I’m waiting for that day.
(chorus)
I usually post my Quotes Worth Pondering on Tuesday. But today is a much more appropriate day for this quote. I was at Normandy last August and was emotionally overwhelmed by the experience. I loved this quote as seen at the entrance to the cemetery. Reflect and remember…
“To these we owe the high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live.”
If you want to know what people really believe, the philosopher Roger Scruton once explained, listen to them pray. It is one thing to ask a person what he believes, but it is another thing to listen to him pray. Prayers reveal the underlying theology. As the old Latin formula reminds us, Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi — As we pray, so we believe.
To read the context of this quote click HERE.
“Preaching the gospel to myself each day mounts a powerful assault against my pride and serves to establish humility in its place. Nothing suffocates my pride more than daily reminders regarding the glory of my God, the gravity of my sins, and the crucifixion of God’s own Son in my place. Also, the gracious love of God, lavished on me because of Christ’s death, is always humbling to remember, especially when viewed against the backdrop of the Hell I deserve.” (from A Gospel Primer for Christians)
I think we should spend most of our creative energies on constructing in our minds and in our hearts and in our families great and beautiful and glorious alternative visions of reality than the ones we are being offered by the world. If we give most of our time to bemoaning and criticizing the world for acting like the world, our vision of God and his glorious future for his people will become smaller and smaller, and that could be a greater tragedy than the one we are living in.
“The health of the church has always been in proportion to the extent to which the difference between Christian and non-Christian has been kept sharp and clear. Once the line is blurred spiritual decline is a certainty, and the blurring of the line has been the main cause of the decline of the English speaking churches of the past century.”
Grace calls us to examine ourselves in the perfect mirror of God’s Word and then blesses us with divine help for everything we see.
Grace calls us to confess that our greatest problem exists inside not outside us and then blesses us with forgiving and transforming mercy.
Grace calls us to humbly admit the foolish desires of our sinful hearts while it faithfully works with divine power to rescue us from us.
