“ Truth always carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong.
Sir Francis Schaeffer (via thoughtpool (via theanswergirl)
Free Indeed
-John 8:36
“ If I can stop one heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one life the aching
Or cool one pain
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson (via thresca)
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one life the aching
Or cool one pain
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson (via thresca)
(via quote-book)
“ Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered for it.
R.C. Sproul Jr. (via desertmanian)
“And God not only delivered me, but He kept me, because when I was tested, I wasn’t even infected with HIV.”
Powerful truth.
The Terror of Love
“The One who came from heaven to earth for us and died on that cruel cross of shame on Calvary’s hill, who spared not Himself, who endured the contradiction of sinners; He bore that agony in the garden and on the cross. He will look at us and what He will look for is this: how we spent our time in this world after we realized what He had done for us. It is the terror of love, you see, not the fear of torment. You will look into that Beloved face and into those eyes and you will realize, as you have never done before, what He did for you. Then you will realize with shame what you did not do for Him. Oh, says Paul, buy up the opportunity; do not waste a second.”
-MLJ
FarFarAway: It is really interesting sometimes how God weaves together simple...
It is really interesting sometimes how God weaves together simple interactions throughout our days. This morning a man came in to do some work on my store and I got to talking to him about life. He informed me that his 8 year old daughter has leukemia and has had it since she was 3. He looked me…
“ A woman who fears the Lord will not run away from God to satisfy her longings and relieve her anxieties. She will wait for the Lord. She will hope in God. She will stay close to the heart of God and trust in his promises. The prospect of departing into the way of sin will be too fearful to pursue; and the benefits of abiding in the shadow of the Almighty too glorious to forsake.
John Piper
(Source: elisebyun, via alightforrevelation)
No Good Thing
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
-Psalm 84:11
“I believe if God doesn’t give you a miracle, you are a miracle of God for somebody else’s salvation. And I thank God that He didn’t answer my prayer when I was begging Him for arms and legs at age 8, because guess what… because I have no arms and no legs, He’s using me all around the world.” -Nick Vujicic
“There’s going to be a wedding.
It’s the reason that I’m living…
to marry the Lamb.”
- Mordecai: For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?
- Queen Esther: Go gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."
We are not saved
because of what a bunch of Roman soldiers decided to do to Jesus. We are not saved from our sins because Pilate handed him over to be crucified. We are not saved from our sins because they mocked him and beat him and spit on him and put a crown of thorns in his head and nailed him to a cross. That is not what saves us. Think about it. Jesus is in the garden later in the book of Luke, and he is sweating blood. Why is he sweating blood? Is it because he is afraid of what a bunch of Roman soldiers are about to do to him? I mean think about it. There have been numerous people, followers of Christ since that day who have died martyrs’ deaths. Some of them were hung on crosses upside down. Some of them were burned on crosses. Some of them experienced excruciating pain, and many of them went to their crosses and their executions singing about it. Did they have more courage than Jesus himself? One Indian man was being skinned alive, and he said to his tormentor, “Take off my outer garment, for today I put on a new garment of righteousness”. Christopher Love is about to head to the gallows, and he tells his wife, “Today they will sever me from my physical head, but they cannot sever me from my spiritual head, Christ,” and she applauds him as he sings on the way to his death. Did they have more courage than their Savior? Absolutely not. Jesus is not a coward in the garden about to face Roman soldiers, afraid of what they are going to do to him. He is a Savior who is choosing to endure divine wrath. Listen to his words in the garden, “Father if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” This cup, Isaiah 51:17&22: “The cup filled with the wine of God’s wrath”, Jeremiah 25:15 “The cup filled with the fury of God’s wrath due sin”… The reality is Jesus is choosing to embrace the cross, the cross where he is going to take all the infinitely Holy wrath of God due sin, due your sin and my sin upon himself. We glamorize so may facets of the cross. We emphasize all the different things and say, “Well when the Father looked down on His son, He could not bear to see what those soldiers were doing to His son, and so the Father turned away. Absolutely not. The Father turned away because He could not bear to see your sin and my sin upon His son. And in that moment, all the wrath of God was poured out on Christ, by his gracious choice poured out on him… Christ on the cross took all the wrath of God due our sin upon himself. He drank down every last drop, turned that cup over and cried out, “It is finished.”
-David Platt
Today and Forever
we praise the one who died to set us free.
“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to Him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds, you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray; but now you have been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” -1 Peter 2:23-25
