I woke up to hollering. The kids are acting especially, well, like kids today. My body feels wrong. It hurts all over going from merely sore to sharp, knife like pain (from a large cyst that hasn’t been responding to treatment). I’m exhausted because I haven’t been sleeping well, the pain keeps me awake. We are changing some of my medications so I am in the midst of withdrawal. I can’t think clearly and it feels hopeless to carry on,... Read more
“Instead of using your insights into other people’s issues as a spiritual hammer, Jesus wants you to take these insights and deepen your own repentance (Matthew 7:1-5).” -Paul Miller in A Praying Life (pg 159) Read more
“The sacrificial building up of one another — this is what makes Christian friendship, well, Christian. It’s Christian both in the adjective (sacrificial) and in the verb (building up).” –Excerpt from Putting the “Christian” in Christian Friendship by Jonathan Parnell The article (linked above) is really good! When I rededicated my life to Christ in 2014, I was literally left speechless when several of my Christian friends essentially broke up with me because they didn’t like the person I was becoming. God brought... Read more
“Redemption communicates, in a sense, an ongoing state or effect. In Christ, we not only have been, but are continually being brought back to our new status in Christ. He takes our ashes, and makes them beautiful. He takes the prostitute, and makes her a pure virgin. He takes the one who feels dirty, and continually declares them white as snow. He takes Rahab the harlot, and makes her the great-great grandmother of King David. He takes David, the repentant... Read more
“Our pride is killing us as much as all of those things we haughtily refrain from doing would. But, somehow we consider it righteous to be proud of ourselves. I would never read that book, we say. I would never spend that kind of money, we boast. I would never think that way, we post on Facebook. And, before we know it, we look back at our social media activity, and we see it. We are so very proud... Read more
“[h]ere is the solution to the practical dilemma of exhaustion, the place where exhaustion becomes a steering wheel that drives us toward God in a different way than sleep does. Sleeplessness causes us to look away from ourselves — our capacity, our resources, our energy reserve, our mental acumen, our physical strength, and our careful planning and scheming — and it causes us to rely solely on him who “does not faint or grow weary” (Isaiah 40:28). It is there,... Read more
I had my first BFF when I was 5 or 6 years old. One day, I unintentionally sinned against her. She forgave me, but I felt the weight of my sin so acutely that I couldn’t be around her anymore without feeling shame. In retrospect, I realize it was probably my fault that our friendship failed. I didn’t understand friendship or forgiveness. All I felt was guilt and that ruined my ability to fellowship with her anymore. The first time (yep,... Read more
Please welcome my friend, Alli, today as she shares some reflections on the good work God is actively accomplishing in her life. ✧✧✧ It took five years to get to this place. “This place” is where I can come to God, open, vulnerable, all of my prideful walls torn down, standing before Him and being able to implore Him through the only way I know how to reach Him. By calling out, by praying to my Heavenly, perfect Father. My idols all let... Read more
I’ve been reading a lot. I’m in the middle of A Praying Life and it is ministering to me greatly. Yesterday I finished Sacred Marriage, which reminds me of a lite version of Keller’s The Meaning of Marriage. Sacred Marriage has less academic appeal and works with material that is more easily absorbed by those of us who don’t have extraordinary educations. Today I began reading The Rage Against God and it is proving to be equally interesting as Peter Hitchins’... Read more
After we’ve been in the church for a while, I think it is easy to forget how ugly our sins are and to see other’s sins as bigger then our own. But the truth is, if our hearts are really sitting at the foot of the cross — the opposite would be happening. You see, when we think the other guy needs Jesus more in this moment then we do, we are missing the point completely – we aren’t seeing... Read more
Mere Breath
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