Recent Top Posts
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Recent Posts
- for now, over coffee
- church isn’t a class you go to
- the places doors take us
- though I oft left Thee
- I love teaching children
- Buckets that leak
- Who is the Holy Spirit?
- Are you walking at a distance from God?
- no matter when or where you’ve lived
- Why do we respond to beauty like we do?
- self-hate, or what God says about you
- if you haven’t read it…
- Depression: an embarrassment to be hidden, or a door for grace to enter through?
- when I need an attitude check
- Were you hired at the eleventh hour?
Top Posts & Pages
Tag Archives: grace
Depression: an embarrassment to be hidden, or a door for grace to enter through?
Depression, or inability, or any sort of lack are not embarrassments to be hidden, but are means of grace and teaching, doors to a deeper faith, doors through which grace enters. “…the experiences of anxiety and depression make a lot … Continue reading
Were you hired at the eleventh hour?
“…And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they … Continue reading
on shaky-foundation days
“When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be your supply; the flame shall not hurt you; I only design your dross to consume and your gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus has leaned … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity
Tagged dross to consume, fiery trials, gold to refine, grace, How Firm a Foundation, never forsaken
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Parenting dyed with the most powerful force
“If you allow yourself to forget the daily mercies you receive from your Father’s hands, mercies you could never earn, it will become easier for you not to parent your children with mercy. Mercy is tenderness and compassion toward someone … Continue reading
God’s love rubbed into your grief
“The love and hope of God…has to be rubbed into our grief, the way you have to rub salt into meat in warm climates…Your grief is going to make you bleaker and weaker or it could make you far more … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity
Tagged 9/11, anger, grace, grief, hope, hope and love of God, how to deal with grief, John 11, love, made tender, tears, Tim Keller
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the dazzling display of sovereignty in creation (meant as a primer)
“Why did God create?…God was not inwardly lonely or personally empty; He was entirely self-satisfied, self-content, and self-contained. So God did not create because of some limitation within Himself… He created everything out of nothing in order to put His … Continue reading
skilled at seeing other’s weaknesses
“Why is it that we’re so skilled at remembering the other’s weakness, failure, and sin and so adept at forgetting our own? Why are we so good at seeing all the ways that another needs to be forgiven but forget … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity
Tagged appreciation, forgiveness, God's love, grace, gratitude, grief over sin, Paul Tripp, ready to forgive, remember, ridicule, self-righteousness, Tim Keller, unforgiveness
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moving heaven and earth
“…grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves…drawing us sinners closer and closer to Himself…Grace … Continue reading
Is a different set of circumstances the answer?
“The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.” Elisabeth Elliot wasn’t just fiddling with phrases hoping to create quotable sentences. She was combining for us words from our Lord. Words that redirect our faulty … Continue reading
clear vision in a dark valley
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” Psalm 23:4 “Lord, you have brought us to the valley of vision, where we live in the depths but see you in the heights; hemmed in by mountains … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Faith, God
Tagged Albert Bierstadt, Christianity, darkness, depths, grace, heights, light, paradox, Psalm 23:4, puritan prayer, Valley of Vision
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Does God know what you need Him to withhold?
The sentence is there, tucked into Ryle’s explanation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. It’s a short sentence. But the statement comes to mind when I’m in a conversation with someone who yearns for beautiful earthly goods, or when a … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Faith, God, Jesus
Tagged glory, God gives better, God withholds, grace, greater plan, health, money, peace, prosperity, Ryle
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Why don’t they have toes?
“Why don’t they have toes, mommy?” “Because they’re mannequins, honey. They aren’t real.” “They look real. Do they hide their funny feet under their shoes?” “Yes, honey, something like that.” “Or masks. They could use masks. Lots of people hide … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Faith, God
Tagged average child, below average, children, fear in parenting, grace, parenting, parenting goal, posing, rejection, value, vulnerable
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carrying home the water of grace
Enigma. Mystery. Puzzles and conundrums. Scripture is full of what we interpret as paradox. We, fallen, with finite minds, are unable to grasp God’s ways apart from the Spirit’s illumination. We are but dust, after all. And so when God … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Faith, God
Tagged confession, confession of sin, grace, Isaiah 57:15, Matthew 5:3, paradox, Prayer, puritan prayers, repentance, Romans 7, The Valley of Vision
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dissolved by His goodness
Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song, The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue; Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last, Hath won my affections and bound my soul fast. … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, God, Jesus
Tagged covenant love, free grace, free mercy, God's goodness, grace, hard heart, John Stocker, the goodness of God, the mercy of God, Thy mercy, Thy Mercy My God
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Even More Beautiful 