“God is always coming to you in the sacrament of “God is always coming to you in the sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude.” Evelyn Underhill 

Such brokenness we see, such pain, such fear. Attend to Jesus — Lord, Savior, King — with all your honest thoughts and feelings, and let His power and love change you. Let Him form and re-form you into a help for the hurting, a bright spot for those in the dark, a presence for others to rest in. A ‘little Christ’ on the earth.

 ^ what I’m rehearsing to myself
Living life with the Holy Spirit — “you fulfil Living life with the Holy Spirit — “you fulfill the will of God through the inner influence of His Spirit instead of the outer influence of the law of God” (David Guzik).

This took me probably 15 years of following Jesus to grasp. It felt too easy, my willpower was my measuring stick, and the freedom was terrifying. 

But alas, God’s way is the best way, and there is no substitute for the Holy Spirit. I can’t muster spiritual fruit, but His goal, thankfully and marvelously, is vineyards and vineyards.

May we surrender this work to Him.
“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must en “The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.” Parker J. Palmer
I pose to you what the Holy Spirit posed to me rec I pose to you what the Holy Spirit posed to me recently: What if you made choices out of fear of missing out on God instead of fear of missing out on what others deem significant?

In all honesty, FOMO sneaks up on me not along paths of a friend’s travel adventures or home decor or even if friends hang out without me. My FOMO animal comes in the form of popular and effective Christian voices. Because of technology and social media, I have access, though not complete (because we’re not actual friends), to their lives and ministry, their work and the personality they choose to share online. While a good thing in many ways, it stops being good when it becomes an avalanche I can’t keep up with but am afraid to stop.

// new blog post: FOMO on God //
zoom zoom zoom zoom
Like Anna plays in my presence, like she comes to Like Anna plays in my presence, 
like she comes to me when she gets hurt,
like she wants to be held when she’s sick,
like she unashamedly + honestly feels any and every range of emotion with me, 
like she never corrects or censors or judges herself before coming to me, 
like she trusts me to love and care and accept her always... 
so it can be and is for me with God my Father. 

What a delightful way to be with Him! Don’t hold back — disappointment, confusion, happiness, sadness, longings. Give Him access to you, as you are right now, and find rest and love for your soul.
Just a girl bumping her New Years’ goal of wakin Just a girl bumping her New Years’ goal of waking up early to February as she reaches her 10th day of coronavirus quarantine.

I’ll keep the details to myself, but I do have to acknowledge the generosity and availability and kindness of our family and friends. They’ve brought us meals, groceries, medicine, and @maghjohnson, IN MICHIGAN, sent us a Door Dash gift card for a pizza. I could cry over the love. @audreyhealy5 @kgmartin521 @ansley.c.evans @nm_wilson @klb418

Also, even though today was the first day I had the energy to walk it, I’ve never been more thankful for our long driveway. Sunshine is the JAM. 

To everyone who has had COVID or will get it, our experience will of course be different, but— solitary, friends, solidarity. And grace upon grace.
Supplies of water, sustenance and shade in the wil Supplies of water, sustenance and shade in the wilderness are impossible without God. Miracles of change and help.

“The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I will answer them. I am the Lord, the God of Israel. 

I will not abandon them. I will open rivers on the barren heights, and springs in the middle of the plains. I will turn the desert into a pool and dry land into springs. I will plant cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees in the wilderness. I will put juniper, elm, and cypress trees together in the desert. 

So that all may see and know, consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” Isaiah‬ ‭41:17-20‬ ‭CSB 

It is the Spirit of God who changes hearts.
It is the truth of God that transforms + renews minds.
It is the Son of God who leads the way.
It is the love of God that heals and calls. 
It is the power of God that does the impossible.
It is the presence of God that makes a difference.

So I pray. Faithful to what + who He puts before me. Trusting Him to be faithful in being God.

So we pray.
Ruth Haley Barton writes that in silence we come t Ruth Haley Barton writes that in silence we come to God with what is true about us and let Him be in control. 

This is my personal prayer for this year and honestly for the rest of my life — that I would accept what comes, and what is. That I would welcome what God gives and allows for me. That I would grow comfortable in His presence with what is true about me, not what I feel *should* be true, or even what I wish was true. 

Not defending, not comparing, not berating, not promoting, not criticizing, not earning... being with Jesus with what IS, and receiving Him. Letting Him form and grow what is there, the real me. 

Accepting with joy. Because God is God, sovereign, wise, almighty, good and merciful, and I am His.
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faith · 10/31/2013

Misunderstood grace.

I recently read an article written by Tullian Tchividjian about God’s inexhaustable grace, and it may or may not have revolutionized my perspective on law and grace. In an effort to not quote the entire article, I’m going summarize what stuck out to me and how it altered my attitude.

Misunderstood grace. As much as I hate to admit it, I think in some ways I am a victim of this. In what ways is grace misunderstood? One way that Tullian described it is ‘cheapened law.’ For some Christians, grace is the reduction of God’s expectations of us. Because of grace, many times we think we just need to try hard. Grace becomes this law-cheapening agent, attempting to make the law easier to follow.

“A low view of law always produces legalism; a high view of law makes a person a seeker after grace.”  J. Gresham Machen

I think what I’ve grown to think is that having a high view of the law caused me to be legalist, when in actuality, maybe it’s the opposite. A low view of the law causes me to live as if I can do it — as if the standards are attainable, and demands doable. And I think I have lived that way, trying to find the ‘balance’ between having a high view of the law and a low view. But there really is no balance. A high view of the law reminds me that God accepts me on the basis of Christ’s perfection, not my progress. We fight sin, not because our sin blocks God’s love for us, but because our sin blocks our love for God, and others. Tullian said this, “Grace, properly understood, is the movement of a Holy God toward an unholy people. He doesn’t cheapen the law or ease its requirements. He fulfills them in His Son, who then gives his righteousness to us. That’s the Gospel.” Cheapened law, dulled and watered down, is the idea that God accepts anything less than the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

Only when we see that the way of God’s law is absolutely inflexible will we see that God’s grace is absolutely indispensable. I need to have a high view of the law, so I remember that I could not save myself nor can I add to my salvation by my performance, but that I am in desperate need of God’s grace, continually.

“We cannot use the doctrine of sanctification to negotiate our acceptance with God.” Scott Clark

The law shows our need. The Gospel announces our provision. We’re in constant need of hearing both. 

To be completely honest, I think I’ve been looking at the law for the wrong motivation. For a long time, I was looking at it as a way to gauge my relationship with God, my love and obedience. Slightly wrong, I think. Since I am in Christ, the law directs me toward grace; the law makes me a seeker of the Gospel. Knowledge of the law should stir my heart to the reality of a good and merciful and faithful and loving God, instead of having a prideful heart and finding security in my performance.

“When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I beat my breast to think I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so and sought my good.” Charles Spurgeon

In: faith · Tagged: faith, grace

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“God is always coming to you in the sacrament of “God is always coming to you in the sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude.” Evelyn Underhill 

Such brokenness we see, such pain, such fear. Attend to Jesus — Lord, Savior, King — with all your honest thoughts and feelings, and let His power and love change you. Let Him form and re-form you into a help for the hurting, a bright spot for those in the dark, a presence for others to rest in. A ‘little Christ’ on the earth.

 ^ what I’m rehearsing to myself
Living life with the Holy Spirit — “you fulfil Living life with the Holy Spirit — “you fulfill the will of God through the inner influence of His Spirit instead of the outer influence of the law of God” (David Guzik).

This took me probably 15 years of following Jesus to grasp. It felt too easy, my willpower was my measuring stick, and the freedom was terrifying. 

But alas, God’s way is the best way, and there is no substitute for the Holy Spirit. I can’t muster spiritual fruit, but His goal, thankfully and marvelously, is vineyards and vineyards.

May we surrender this work to Him.
“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must en “The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.” Parker J. Palmer
I pose to you what the Holy Spirit posed to me rec I pose to you what the Holy Spirit posed to me recently: What if you made choices out of fear of missing out on God instead of fear of missing out on what others deem significant?

In all honesty, FOMO sneaks up on me not along paths of a friend’s travel adventures or home decor or even if friends hang out without me. My FOMO animal comes in the form of popular and effective Christian voices. Because of technology and social media, I have access, though not complete (because we’re not actual friends), to their lives and ministry, their work and the personality they choose to share online. While a good thing in many ways, it stops being good when it becomes an avalanche I can’t keep up with but am afraid to stop.

// new blog post: FOMO on God //
zoom zoom zoom zoom
Like Anna plays in my presence, like she comes to Like Anna plays in my presence, 
like she comes to me when she gets hurt,
like she wants to be held when she’s sick,
like she unashamedly + honestly feels any and every range of emotion with me, 
like she never corrects or censors or judges herself before coming to me, 
like she trusts me to love and care and accept her always... 
so it can be and is for me with God my Father. 

What a delightful way to be with Him! Don’t hold back — disappointment, confusion, happiness, sadness, longings. Give Him access to you, as you are right now, and find rest and love for your soul.
Just a girl bumping her New Years’ goal of wakin Just a girl bumping her New Years’ goal of waking up early to February as she reaches her 10th day of coronavirus quarantine.

I’ll keep the details to myself, but I do have to acknowledge the generosity and availability and kindness of our family and friends. They’ve brought us meals, groceries, medicine, and @maghjohnson, IN MICHIGAN, sent us a Door Dash gift card for a pizza. I could cry over the love. @audreyhealy5 @kgmartin521 @ansley.c.evans @nm_wilson @klb418

Also, even though today was the first day I had the energy to walk it, I’ve never been more thankful for our long driveway. Sunshine is the JAM. 

To everyone who has had COVID or will get it, our experience will of course be different, but— solitary, friends, solidarity. And grace upon grace.
Supplies of water, sustenance and shade in the wil Supplies of water, sustenance and shade in the wilderness are impossible without God. Miracles of change and help.

“The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I will answer them. I am the Lord, the God of Israel. 

I will not abandon them. I will open rivers on the barren heights, and springs in the middle of the plains. I will turn the desert into a pool and dry land into springs. I will plant cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees in the wilderness. I will put juniper, elm, and cypress trees together in the desert. 

So that all may see and know, consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” Isaiah‬ ‭41:17-20‬ ‭CSB 

It is the Spirit of God who changes hearts.
It is the truth of God that transforms + renews minds.
It is the Son of God who leads the way.
It is the love of God that heals and calls. 
It is the power of God that does the impossible.
It is the presence of God that makes a difference.

So I pray. Faithful to what + who He puts before me. Trusting Him to be faithful in being God.

So we pray.
Ruth Haley Barton writes that in silence we come t Ruth Haley Barton writes that in silence we come to God with what is true about us and let Him be in control. 

This is my personal prayer for this year and honestly for the rest of my life — that I would accept what comes, and what is. That I would welcome what God gives and allows for me. That I would grow comfortable in His presence with what is true about me, not what I feel *should* be true, or even what I wish was true. 

Not defending, not comparing, not berating, not promoting, not criticizing, not earning... being with Jesus with what IS, and receiving Him. Letting Him form and grow what is there, the real me. 

Accepting with joy. Because God is God, sovereign, wise, almighty, good and merciful, and I am His.
“May the urgency with which I approach my work n “May the urgency with which I approach my work never become anxiety. The world is not mine to save.” @justinmcroberts

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