Quotable: Worship & faith

"The object of our faith is a Person, not a proposition. We do not place our lives in an idea or a doctrine or a system or a set of values. We place ourselves in the personal God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Proclaiming the creed, then, is an act of worship, not a recitation of doctrine. Faith, after all, is not simple agreement or the acknowledgment of certain propositions or hypotheses. Faith is the placing of your whole life within God, the only One who is faithful enough to hold your life, redeem it, and save it. There is no worship without faith, and there is no faith without worship. It is faith that leads us to worship and worship that enlarges our faith."

From Discover the Mystery of Faith by Glenn Packiam

Quotable: The benefits of loneliness

"If we took time to examine our loneliness—standing still for a moment, instead of running after activity or recoiling in apathy—perhaps we could see how our loneliness isn’t something to automatically avoid. We might discover its transcendence, meaning we might see how it can carry us through our own worries and gloom and bring us closer to God. This doesn’t mean that the gnawing goes away, but that the gnawing can be a reminder of what is good, just as a cut on our finger makes us all the more aware of the importance of that finger, or just as a broken window makes us appreciate the warmth of a home. Indeed, sometimes it takes the lack of something to reveal what we actually value."

From Altared by Claire and Eli

Quotable: God's glory in our mess

"My internal messiness is a thin place for me where I realize God loves messy. He delights in my raggedy ways. Why? Because He redeems my messes. Cleans them up. Polishes them until they shine so bright the reflection of Jesus smiles back. Paul affirms this. He says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NASB). Clean shiny folks don’t have the sacred privilege of understanding God’s greatness or power because they’re so full of their own beauty. Messy folks understand the metaphor of an earthen vessel, a clay pot, a canister that holds refuse. And, in that humble state of mess-dom, we welcome the beauty of Jesus within. So, yeah, I’m a raggedy mess. But God loves the socks off me anyway. I’m a cracked pot, a vessel God shines His loveliness through. Thank goodness for the cracks; otherwise how would God’s glory shine out?"

From Thin Places: A Memoir by Mary DeMuth

Quotable: The victorious Christian life

"There is nothing wrong with affirming that a Christian can live victoriously in a fallen world-unless the understanding of victory is more secular than it is biblical. Unfortunately, this "victorious Christian life" is often presented as a Christianized version of the American dream. The victory granted us in the world, however, is not escape from pain and suffering, but strength to endure pain and suffering. The victorious Christian is not someone who has made a lot of money, found a "hot" spouse, and evaded disease and injury. The victorious Christian is one who is clinging so tightly to Christ as the highest treasure that he or she can be "content" in "whatever situation" (Philippians 4:11). We love to quote "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13), but we easily forget that those words came from someone in a prison cell, and God had strengthened him to learn "the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need" (Philippians 4:12, emphasis added)."

From Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint by Andrew Byers

Quotable: The blessing of discipline

"Perhaps you've secretly wished you, too, could live with such a pleasure-based, unexamined attitude toward life. You've wondered why God seems so relentless in keeping the pressure on you, why every minor lack of surrender is met with biblical admonishment, why you can't just not care about being so spiritually responsible all the time, like when you're out to dinner, out of town, or otherwise off duty. Well, there's a very good reason: because you're His child. And our Father disciplines His children (see Heb. 12:7). His involvement in your affairs is a revelation of His affection and relationship with you. And if you'll listen and respond to it, not only will you stop considering His correction a curse to be endured, but you'll see Him turn it into a blessing before He's through. The sight of storm clouds in your life is an indication of His love for you, His desire to see you steered back in the direction of His will. Because, let's face it, His will is always our best place to be—not free of challenge, necessarily, but free of those discouraging nights and weekends when we feel like we've wasted our lives on nothing. Being true to His purpose sets us up for a life of lasting meaning. You may feel like God is spoiling your fun, but He's actually saving your skin. The worst thing in the world He could do to you (and me) is to do nothing while we're out there doing our dead-level best to get away from His will. So "do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrongdoers" (Ps. 37:1). He's on to you because you're His beloved."

From Life Interrupted: Navigating the Unexpected by Priscilla Shirer

Quotable: Friendship

"Friendship is acting out God’s love for people in tangible ways. We were made to represent the love of God in each other’s lives, so that each person we walk through life with has a more profound sense of God’s love for them. Friendship is an opportunity to act on God’s behalf in the lives of the people that we’re close to, reminding each other who God is. When we do the hard, intimate work of friendship, we bring a little more of the divine into daily life. We get to remind one another about the bigger, more beautiful picture that we can’t always see from where we are."

From Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist

Quotable: Without the gospel

Without the gospel
everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel
we are not Christians;

without the gospel
all riches is poverty,
all wisdom, folly before God;
strength is weakness, and
all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made
children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ,

by whom
the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,
the fools wise,
the sinners justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure, and
slaves free.

The gospel is the Word of life.

- John Calvin

Quotable: Study as an act of love

"Careful study is necessary. Without study, spirituality becomes sappy. Without spirituality, study becomes self-indulgent. And without the two walking together, prayer ends up limping along in sighs and stutters. Exegesis is necessary because we have a written word to attend to. It's God's Word, or so we believe, and we had better get it right. Exegesis is foundational to Christian spirituality. Foundations disappear from view as a building is constructed, but if the builders don't build a solid foundation, the building doesn't last long. Too many Bible readers assume that exegesis is what you do after you've learned Greek and Hebrew. That's simply not true. Exegesis is nothing more than a careful and loving reading of the text in our mother tongue. Greek and Hebrew are well worth learning, but if you haven't had the privilege, settle for English. Once we learn to love this text and bring a disciplined intelligence to it, we won't be far behind the very best Greek and Hebrew scholars. Appreciate the learned Scripture scholars, but don't be intimidated by them. Exegesis is the furthest thing from an impersonal act of scholarship; it is an intensely personal act of love. It loves the one who speaks the words enough to want to get them right. Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what he says. It follows that we bring the leisure and attentiveness of lovers to this text, cherishing every comma and semicolon, relishing the oddness of this preposition, delighting in the surprising placement of this noun. Lovers don't take a quick look, get a "message" or a "meaning," and then run off and talk endlessly with their friends about how they feel."

From the book The Invitation: A Simple Guide to the Bible by by Eugene H. Peterson

Quotable: Lukewarm

To be lukewarm is to live as if what you presently know and experience of Christ is enough. No need or desire to press in further. No need or desire to seek after God. Little or no longing to pray and fast. Little or no longing to break free of sin. Satisfied with the current depth of delight in the Spirit. Satisfied with the current extent of knowledge of the Father.

from To the One Who Conquers: 50 Daily Meditations on the Seven Letters of Revelation 2-3 by Sam Storms

Quotable: Efficiency

"Efficiency is a dangerous mind-set to bring to our faith. We do not want to be efficient worshipers, driven by a desire to get more of God in a shorter amount of time. We do not want to be hurried worshipers who value speed over quality. And yet there are multitudes of One Minute Bibles and Two Minute Devotionals available for those of us who just can’t spare the time, for those who need a spiritual fix for the sake of conscience but aren’t willing to sacrifice more time. Despite our best efforts, we cannot escape the truth: quality time is quantity time. We need to be Christians who take time to give sustained focus to one thing—the worship of the living God. He does not call us to study his Word or to worship him more efficiently. God calls us to read his Word meditatively, to give it the time and attention it needs—the attention we need—if the Word is to pierce “to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12)"

Tim Challies in The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion

Quotable: Plan A

"If God is sovereign, then plan B is a myth. No matter how dark things look to us, or how big the mess we’re in, we’re in plan A. God’s plan for us is intact, proceeding exactly as he intended, neither behind nor ahead but right on schedule. Nothing—not our sins, failures, disappointments, bad decisions, nor the sins of others against us—can deter a sovereign God from accomplishing his purposes."

-from When Life and Beliefs Collide Carolyn Custis James

Quotable- Complaining

"Complaining isn’t just an insignificant, minor, everyday sin. It’s a slap in the face of God. When we complain, we’re saying that God hasn’t been good to us. We’re making a loud statement to ourselves and to the rest of the world that God hasn’t been a good master. As we step back and survey our lives and our circumstances, we come to the following conclusion: God did something wrong. Sure, he’s gotten us out of some jams. Sure, he did the whole salvation thing for us. He’s thrown us a bone every now and then. And yes, he’s given us a family and a house and a car and all that stuff. But overall we’re not too happy with the way God has run things. If it was up to us, things would be a lot different. And so we complain."

From The Greener Grass Conspiracy by Stephen Altrogge

Quotable- He knows where you dwell

Jesus knows where you dwell. Meditate on it. Rejoice in it! Whether you live in an isolated Midwestern town of five thousand or feel lost in a metropolis of five million, Jesus knows where you live. Whether you attend, or perhaps serve as pastor of, a congregation of fifty or a mega-church of five thousand, Jesus knows where you dwell. He knows the temptations you face, the pressures you feel, the fear that perhaps you’ve been misplaced or marginalized or lost in the shuffle of life and the countless concerns that our Lord must deal with on a daily basis. Fear not! Jesus knows where you dwell. You haven’t been abandoned, far less ignored. Your life and ministry are as important to Jesus as that of any Christian in any church in any city in any country. You may feel as if your community is a modern Pergamum, devoted to idolatry and immorality and the public ridicule of our glorious Savior. But of this you can rest assured: Jesus has sovereignly and strategically placed you there as his witness, to hold forth his name and to display his glory. That is why, contrary to the title of this meditation, every city is Christ’s City. Jesus knows where you dwell.

from To the One Who Conquers: 50 Daily Meditations on the Seven Letters of Revelation 2-3 by Sam Storms

Quotable- Undeserved grace

"Part of the message of Christ’s death, God’s sacrificing his own Son for humanity, is that even at our best and brightest, at our most spot-on and well-intentioned, we are incapable of being the people we would need to be in order to get to God. So I am more than just a person who sins; I am a sinful person. On my own I am fundamentally, unchangeably full of sin, no matter how good I try to get. My only hope for a future apart from my sin is to accept the one gift I can never deserve: Christ’s sacrifice."

Lisa Velthouse in Craving Grace

Quotable- Being different

God intends us, his people, to be different from the world around us. He does not mean for this to look arbitrary, such as having a special handshake or using odd language. No, of far greater significance, he means for us to reflect his character. It will look like a concern for justice, a willingness to give of our- selves, a love and care for our enemies and those who would hurt us. We should be marked as God’s people because we share in God’s character.

- Mark Dever in The Message of The Old Testament

Our greatest need

“If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.”

- D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation

Found on Of First Importance

Quotable: Our greatest criticism and affirmation

I read a great quote on buzzardblog.com that i think is worth pondering on

"The cross of Christ is simultaneously the greatest criticism and the greatest affirmation you could ever receive.


The great criticism of the cross is that you are so sinful that God had to sacrifice his Son on the cross for your sins. The great affirmation of the cross is that you are so loved that God sacrificed his Son on the cross for your sins."

Quotable: Christians and government

I've been meaning to write a blog for a while about our responsibilities towards the government as Christians. I read a blog today by Ginger Kolbaba of Today's Christian Woman that summed up most of what i was going to say a lot better than i would have been able to say it. I encourage you to read the full article

...........The way they talked, it was as if our lives depend on what happens in Washington D.C. As Christians, of course, we know that ultimately they don’t. Of course, in many ways the government affects our daily lives—how much money we keep and give away, where our sons and daughters are sent if they enter the military. But it certainly doesn’t determine our attitudes, joy, and health of our souls. Ultimately, we know that God is in control—regardless of the president’s political leanings or who dominates in Congress.
So where does that leave us—especially if “our side” didn’t win the election? What do we do now?
Read the rest