She touches the face of the infant-God. How long was your journey! This baby had overlooked the universe. These rags keeping him warm were the robes of eternity. His golden throne room had been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pen. And worshiping angels had been replaced with kind but bewildered shepherds. Meanwhile, the city hums. The merchants are unaware that God has visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold.
This is the loneliest point in history. The last moment of true abandonment. From here on, abandonment is nothing more than a myth. And loneliness? A choice.
Beneath the hard, painful surface of her recollection were layers of healing truth. God had never left her side, not even for a moment.
We have been taught that the Christian life is a life of peace, and when we don’t have peace, we assume the problem lies within us.
Find something you like to do, and do it so well that people pay you to do it.
A person can live a day without silver or gold, but coffee? No thanks.
Imagine Jesus today: He is leaning over, bending down close to someone who is hurt. He’s listening. His eyes fill with tears as He hears that person’s troubles. Then His hand gently brushes away a tear. He was hurt once too. He understands.
Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then enables us to yield to its transforming power. Grace matters because Jesus matters, and it works because he does.
Shame is a child of self-centeredness. Heaven’s occupants are not self-centered, they are Christ-centered. You will be in your sinless state. The sinless don’t protect a reputation or project an image. You won’t be ashamed. You’ll be happy to let God do in heaven what he did on earth – be honored in your weaknesses. Heads bowed in shame? No. Heads bowed in worship? No doubt.
The step between prudence and paranoia is short and steep. Prudence wears a seat belt. Paranoia avoids cars. Prudence washes with soap. Paranoia avoids human contact. Prudence saves for old age. Paranoia hoards even trash. Prudence prepares and plans. Paranoia panics. Prudence calculates the risk and takes the plunge. Paranoia never enters the water.
There is not a hint of one person who was afraid to draw near him. There were those who mocked him. There were those who were envious of him. There were those who misunderstood him. There were those who revered him. But there was not one person who considered him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected. Remember that. Remember.
Love extends an olive leaf to the loved one and says, “I have hope in you.” Love is just as quick to say, “I have hope for you.” You can say those words. You are a flood survivor. By God’s grace you have found your way to dry land. You know what it’s like to see the waters subside. And since you do, since you passed through a flood and lived to tell about it, you are qualified to give hope to someone else.
This season in which you find yourself may puzzle you, but it does not bewilder God. He can and will use it for his purpose.
Grace is everything Jesus. Grace lives because he does, works because he works, and matters because he matters. He placed a term limit on sin and danced a victory jig in a graveyard. To be saved by grace is to be saved by him – not by an idea, doctrine, creed, or church membership, but by Jesus himself, who will sweep into heaven anyone who so much as gives him the nod.
Like Joseph, you’ve been dumped into the pit. And, like Joseph, you choose to heed the call of God on your life. It’s not easy. You’re tempted to get even. But you choose instead to ponder your destiny.
But for me, I am anot afraid, because the worst thing that could happen is getting to see “my Father eye to eye.
For faith with no effort is no faith at all.
This is why he refused to close his fist. He saw the list! What kept him from resisting? This warrant, this tabulation of your failures. He knew the price of those sins was death. He knew the source of those sins was you, and since he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you, he chose the nails.
God seems less interested in talent and more interested in trust.
This much is sure: contagious calm will happen to the degree that we turn to him.