Quote from "Gospel Centered Life"

"Forgiving others really isn't possible unless we are living in light of God's forgiveness ourselves... When we say, "I just can't forgive that person for what he did to me, " we are essentially saying, "that person's sin is greater than mine." Our awareness of our own sin is very small, while our awareness of another's sin is very big. Our underlying feeling is that we deserve to be forgiven but the person who offended us does not. We are living with a small view of God's holiness, a small view of our own sin, and a small view of the cross of Jesus.

But when we embrace a gospel perspective on our own sin, we recognize that the sin debt God has forgiven on our behalf is greater than any sin that has been committed against us. And as we grow in our awareness of God's holiness, we begin to see more clearly the distance between his perfection and our imperfection. As the significance of Jesus' work on the cross grown in our consciousness, our willingness and ability to seek restoration with others will also grown. After all, if God forgave the massive offense of our sin against Him, how could we not forgive the sin of others--which, though it my be severe, pales in comparison with our own guilt before a holy and righteous God?"

The Gospel Centered Life- Bob Thune and Will Walker

Driscoll Quote

"If we say Jesus that died for sin, but we don't talk about our sin, what we are really saying is that we don't really believe that his death was for us and we don't believe that his resurrection is the hope for our life together." Mark Driscoll- Real Marriage Series

Heart Idols

"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:43-45

Our sinful behavior reflects the sin in our hearts. Every sinful action and negative emotion reveals a problem in our hearts. Our struggles and temptations often trigger sin but they never cause it. The root cause is always the heart and its sinful desires... We choose how we respond to circumstances, and what determines our choices are the thinking and desires of our hearts... Sin happens when we believe lies about God instead of God's word and when we worship idols instead of worshiping God."

2 Things are happening in our hearts: As humans we are always interpreters and always worshipers.
*We think, interpret, believe, trust.
*We desire, worship, want, treasure.

Sin happens when we don't trust God above everything (when we interpret in the wrong way) and when we don't desire God above everything (when we worship the wrong thing.) Tim Chester- You Can Change

Spurgeon Quote

"God has not forgotten to be gracious, nor shut up His tender mercies," Spurgeon reminds us, "it may be night in the soul, but there need be no terror, for the God of love changes not."

Luther Quote

Reflecting on Jesus' words "I am the way," Martin Luther wrote:

Christ is not only the way on which we must begin our journey, but He is also the right and the safe way we must walk to the end. We dare not be deflected from this. Here Christ wants to say: 'When you have apprehended Me in faith, you are on the right way, which is reliable. But only see that you remain and continue on it.' Christ wants to tear and turn our hearts from all trust in anything else and pin them to Himself alone.

I needed this today...

"We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come." A.W. Tozer

John Flavel 8.4.11

John Flavel (English Puritan – 1630-1691), was one of the main influences in Charles Spurgeon’s spiritual formation in the gospel. This quote will let you know why.

“Ecstasy and delight are essential to the believer’s soul and they promote sanctification. We were not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration, and the Christian who goes for a long time without the experience of heart-warming will soon find himself tempted to have his emotions satisfied from earthly things and not, as he ought, from the Spirit of God. The soul is so constituted that it craves fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for satisfaction when it cannot reach spiritual ones. The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior’s presence. When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent search of other lovers. By the enjoyment of the love of Christ in the heart of a believer, we mean an experience of the “love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us” (Rom. 5:5). Because the Lord has made himself accessible to us in the means of grace, it is our duty and privilege to seek this experience from Him in these means till we are made the joyful partakers of it.”

Prayer 7.31.11

"Prayer often avails where everything else fails." R.A. Torrey "How easily we convince ourselves that we are praying to the Lord when in reality we are locked in our own thoughts. We need to ask: If I'm happy, am I really rejoicing in Him, or am I rejoicing in my own self-satisfaction? If I'm worried or afraid, am I truly and humbly asking Him for help, or is my mind busy trying to work out some plan (however spiritual it my seem) for getting myself out of trouble." Mike Mason

Tullian Tchividjian-Resurgence 6.23.11

Sin: An Identity Crisis

The Puritans used to say that far too many Christians live beneath the level of their privileges. Therefore, I need to be told by those around me that every time I sin I’m momentarily suffering from an identity crisis: forgetting who I actually belong to, what I really want at my remade core, and all that is already mine in Christ. The only way to deal with remaining sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious riches we already possess in Christ. I need my real friends to remind me of this—every day. Please tell me again and again that God doesn’t love me more when I obey or less when I disobey. Knowing this actually enlarges my heart for God and therefore shrinks my hunger for sin. So, don’t let me forget it. My life depends on it!

“The only way to deal with remaining sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious riches we already possess in Christ.”

An Encouraging Article- 6.18.11

On a more serious note, in comparison to our "princess-earing daughter" as photographed on the left, my husband forwarded this to me and I thought it was very encouraging and convicting. Hope you do too!
Full article found Here

Here's some highlights:

"Sanctification is a grueling process. But it’s NOT the process of moving beyond the reality of our justification but rather moving deeper into the reality of our justification."

"the truest measure of our growth is not our behavior (otherwise the Pharisees would have been the godliest people on the planet); it’s our grasp of grace–a grasp which involves coming to deeper and deeper terms with the conditionality of God’s justifying grace. It’s also growth in “the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This doesn’t simply mean learning facts about Jesus. It means growing in our love for Christ because of what he has already earned and secured for us and then fighting to live in a more vital awareness of that grace."

"One reason we don’t grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we’ve got amnesia; we’ve forgotten that we are cleansed from our sins. In other words, ongoing failure in our growth is the direct result of failing to remember God’s love for us in the gospel. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we’ll struggle in our sanctification."

Our Greatest Need

"This means it is never enough to address people's felt needs. Felt needs can be a good point to start because the gospel addresses the human condition in all its complexity. But people do not as a rule express God's judgment as a felt need. People are blind to their rue plight. They do not see their greatest need, which is to be reconciled to God through the gospel. If we do not keep people's eternal plight in mind, then immediate needs will force their way to the top of our agenda, and we will betray the gospel and the people w profess to love. The most loving thing we can do for the poor is to proclaim the good news of eternal salivation through Christ. It is by no means the only loving thing we can do for them, but it is the most loving thing we can do. It would be a crime of monumental proportions knowingly to withhold such good news." Total Church, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

Oswald Quote

We all know people who have been much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person...the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.
Oswald Chambers

The God of Comfort

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

The past several months have led me to contemplate on these verses more than ever before. We have had several relationships in our lives be faced with trial, suffering, pain, sickness, disease, and even death. So how do we, as those who find salvation in Christ, find comfort and be a reflection of comfort to those in such peril times? The words of Paul to the church in Corinth say it oh so well. Paul's prayer for spiritual strength to the saints in Ephesus is also a means to encouraged for times of apparent dispare or trial:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is names, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through is Spirit n your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heats through faith-- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all what we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

Sometimes the pace is easy, sometimes the pace is wearisome and heavy, sometimes the pace feels impossible. But no matter what kind of race God calls us to, we are never alone; "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live." Jn 14:18-19

And in this race for Christ we have a Helper; "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." Jn 14:15-17

Also Jesus tells us we are called to a purpose in this race "to do His work"; Jn 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."

Tozer Quotes

"It is because of the hasty and superficial conversation with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have power to help you to hate and flee from sin as you should."

"We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come."

"Salvation is from our side a choice; from the divine side it is a seizing upon, an apprehending, a conquest by the Most High God. Our accepting and willing are reactions rather than actions."

--A. W. Tozer

John Piper Quote

"There are 2 ways Satan assaults the glory of God in our lives: pleasure and pain...he uses pain to make us feel that God is powerless and hostile ......and he uses pleasure to make us feel that God is unnecessary..." John Piper

This reminded me today of the importance to preach the gospel to ourselves... Through Christ our pain is made into righteousness as we endure through the pain in complete dependence of Him. And through Christ all pleasure and ultimate satisfaction can be truly known. Yes, I am thankful that Satan does not have to have a stronghold in our lives because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Praise be to Him.

Keep enduring saints!

Martin Luther Quote

"The gospel cannot be preached and heard enough, for it cannot be grasped well enough... Moreover, our greatest task is to keep you faithful to this article and to bequeath this treasure to you when we die. " Martin Luther

Schreiner Quote

Here’s a helpful word from Tom Schreiner giving a brief New Testament overview on the question of sin and responsibility:

"Even if some sins could be traced to our genetics, it would not exempt us from responsibility for such sins. The Scriptures teach that all human beings are born into this world as sons and daughters of Adam, and hence they are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). They are dead in trespasses in sins (Eph. 2:1, 5), and have no inclination to seek God or to do what is good (Rom. 3:10–11). We come into the world as those who are spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12, 15), so that death reigns over the whole human race (Rom. 5:17). Indeed, human beings are condemned by virtue of Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:16, 18). Such a radical view of sin in which we inherit a sinful nature from Adam means that sinful predispositions are part of our personalities from our inception. Hence, even if it were discovered that we are genetically predisposed to certain sinful behaviors like alcoholism or homosexuality, such discoveries would not eliminate our responsibility for our actions, nor would it suggest that such actions are no longer sinful. The Scriptures teach that we are born as sinners in Adam, while at the same time they insist we should not sin and are responsible for the sin we commit. We enter into the world as slaves of sin (Rom. 6:6, 17), but we are still morally blameworthy for capitulating to the sin that serves as our master."

Augustine Quotes

"Where I found truth, there I found my God, who is truth itself."
"God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow for your procrastination."
"He that loveth little prayeth little, he that loveth much prayeth much."

A Short Quote but Much Encouragement to This Mother Tonight

It's been a long day as I've strove to fulfill the role of 'mother'. And, as many of you know, during this season of life it is not only to my daughter but also to my niece and nephew as their own mother rests in the hospital on bed-rest with her third child. Which I must say, we love you and miss you Sharon!

Throughout these past few months while providing extra care for these children I have been reminded of the depths of forgiveness, patience, and grace the Lord bestows on me. Wow.

Tonight the quiet living room, warmth from a blanket, freshly popped popcorn, and a good book makes this momma thankful. The value of God's glory is infinitely beautiful, and ashamedly I too often mock His very glory with a foul attitude, an unforgiving spirit, or a jealous want.

This caused me to stop and thank the Lord...thank Him for His saving grace in my life, a sinner, a mother is DAILY in need of forgiveness and transformation of heart so that I can better love and display the gospel of Christ to these children.

I stopped my reading to reflect on these thoughts (and much more, but it's late and I need to go to bed!) when I read,

"The damage to God's glory by our sin is determined not by the severity of our sin but by the value of God's glory." Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins

Quote from Jim Elliot- Martyr for Christ

"Always seek peace between your heart and God, but in the world, always be careful to remain ever-restless, never satisfied, always abounding in the work of the Lord." Jim Elliot

Today my heart has been tempted toward impatience. Peace has not been my hearts song. I came across this quote as I sat reflecting on what my heart needed. Kids are sweetly sleeping, the sweet songs of worship play softly in the background, and my Savior is showing me peace.

Christ...

The One who brings me to my knees. The One who fills my cups 'til it overflows. The One who never fails. The One who's mercy is new every morning. The One whom I can know true peace. And for this I am thankful....

I now experience this true peace.

I will go forth through the rest of my day with a quiet, peaceful spirit.

Because of The One.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you." Jn 14:27
"--but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." 1 Pet 3:4