a deeper security

"Trouble can take anything away from you except God. Therefore, if God is to you a greater safety, a deeper security, and a more powerful hope than anything else in the world, you fear no trouble."

[Tim Keller]

playing with the photo editor

I have been using a photo editing program called Affinity, and I've been experimenting with the many different features. I had to share this photo of my husband with his deformed hand. Doesn't it look real?* 😂

* He has two normal hands.

Also, I am going to have so much fun with this editing program.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

[John Donne]

without anger or quarreling

"I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling." 1 Timothy 2:8

At home, at work, in Congress...

what's it worth

"The sunlight claps the earth, and the moonbeams kiss the sea: what are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?"

[Percy Bysshe Shelley]

a lump in the throat

"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness."

[Robert Frost]

a thousand times

"I have to see a thing a thousand times before I see it once."

[Thomas Wolfe]

July 9, 1937: On this day, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a letter to Thomas Wolfe, advising his fellow author to write shorter novels. Wolfe responded with a letter eight times as long as Fitzgerald's.

in search of a bird

"I am a cage in search of a bird."

[Franz Kafka]

I love him.

spinning

This week, the world is spinning.

He will hurt deeply

"Whom God would use greatly, He will hurt deeply." 

[A. W. Tozer]

Jesus wasn't omni-liked

"When we crave being liked by all, we desire something God doesn’t even possess. Jesus certainly wasn’t omni-liked. In fact, omni-acceptance goes against the grain of the provocative message of Jesus." - Rusty McKie

perpetual conflict

“We cannot imagine any certainty that is not tinged with doubt, or any assurance that is not assailed by some anxiety. . . . Believers are in perpetual conflict with their own unbelief." [John Calvin]

Kidisms

Frances (age 6): "My favorite color is green...and turquoise and magenta."
Madeline (age 4): "My favorite colors are all the colors of the rainbow."

Sermon Notes | Colossians 1:1-8 | Your location is in Christ.

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit."

[Colossians 1:1-8]

* faith, hope, love = trifecta of the gospel

Colossians cuts through the noise and tells us what everything's really all about.

The phrase "in Christ" is used 38 times in Colossians.

What are you centering your life on? Jesus is the only worthwhile one we should orbit around.

The truest thing about you is that you're in Christ. This changes everything.

How much can others see that the gospel is changing you? Are you a hopeful person? Do you find yourself distrusting Jesus and others? The gospel frees us to hope, to love, to trust, to have faith.

Jesus might call you to give up certain comforts.
Hospitality means you might give up your comfort to make others feel more comfortable.

The good life is a Person.
Your location is in Christ.

my strength of soul

"On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased."

[Psalm 138:3]

the truth shall make you mad

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad."

[Aldous Huxley]

on the way to the cross

"Even if our own troubles are great, we should still serve. Jesus washed His disciples feet on the way to the cross.”

[Tim Keller]

On the Paucity of Pat Answers

Many people think Christianity gives a lot of pat answers. It really does the opposite. Lately, I've noticed how cryptic some of Jesus' sayings are and how his sermons seem to be a series of non sequiturs. He doesn't use the three-point sermon model; no, He is not that clear. The paucity of pat answers in the Bible complicates things and challenges my thinking. It is mysterious, confusing, and complex. And there are no simple answers, as much as I would like there to be. By faith, I believe the Bible is divinely inspired, which is why I haven't given up trying to understand difficult passages or uncomfortable ideas. In between the famous Judge Not paragraph and the Golden Rule paragraph sits something just as powerful but more often neglected. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Asking, seeking, and knocking involve much more proactivity than simple pat answers do. It takes effort to wrestle with God, with questions, and with truth.

beautiful Russian Orthodox choral music