Seeing

"May the Holy Spirit, who is the Divine Revealer and Interpreter of Christ and His truth, impart to your heart a sober, spiritual and sanctifying receptivity of His Word — abasing self, and exalting Christ! May you see Christ unveiled in glory, beauty, and perfect fullness. And may you be overwhelmed by the personal realization of what Christ is to you...and of what you are to Christ." ~ Octavius Winslow

Our Greatest Fear

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure,
but of succeeding at things in this life
that really don’t matter.”

~ Francis Chan

Persevering in Relationships

I've been pondering this from James MacDonald all morning...

Genuine fellowship requires commitment.

Philippians 1:5 tells us, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer... because of your partnership (or fellowship; it’s the same word) in the Gospel from the first day until now.”

Notice,“from the first day until now.” Starting in a relationship is easy; continuing in relationship is difficult. There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness. And that requires commitment.

The greater glory goes to Jesus Christ—not when we take our marbles and go home because something didn’t work out the way we wanted it. The greater glory goes to Jesus Christ when we pursue and persevere in relationships in spite of the shortcomings that we see in one another.

It’s not about you or about me. It’s about growing in love together for the glory of Jesus Christ.

If it is truly about His glory then in relationships as well as all other facets of our our walk with Christ we must pursue and persevere. By God's grace may that be true in my life.

Motherhood Is A Calling

I find this very thoughful and thought provoking. It was written by Rachel Jankovic, and I've included a link to the entire article at the end of this post.

Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.

Christian mothers carry their children in hostile territory. When you are in public with them, you are standing with, and defending, the objects of cultural dislike.

You are publicly testifying that you value what God values, and that you refuse to value what the world values. You stand with the defenseless and in front of the needy.

You represent everything that our culture hates, because you represent laying down your life for another—and laying down your life for another represents the gospel.

You can read the entire article here.

God and Man on the Scale

J. I. Packer:

“I think of the two pans of an old fashioned pair of scales. If one goes up, the other goes down.


Once upon a time folks new that God was great and that man by comparison was small. Each individual carried around a sense of his own smallness in the greatness of God’s world.

However, the scale pans are in a different relation today. Man has risen in his own estimation. He thinks of himself as great, grand and marvelously resourceful. This means inevitably that our thoughts about God have shrunk. As God goes down in our estimation, He gets smaller. He also exists now only for our pleasure, our convenience and our health, rather than we existing for His glory.

Now, I’m an old fashioned Christian and I believe that we exist for the glory of God. So the first thing I always want to do in any teaching of Christianity is to attempt to try and get those scale pans reversed.

I want to try and show folks that God is the one of central importance. We exist for His praise, to worship Him, and find our joy and fulfillment in Him; therefore He must have all the glory.

God is great and He must be acknowledged as great. I think there is a tremendous difference between the view that God saves us and the idea that we save ourselves with God’s help.

Formula number two fits the modern idea, while formula number one, as I read my Bible, is scriptural.

We do not see salvation straight until we recognize that from first to last it is God’s work. He didn’t need to save us. He owed us nothing but damnation after we sinned.

What he does, though, is to move in mercy. He sends us a Savior and His Holy Spirit into our hearts to bring us to faith in that Savior. Then He keeps us in that faith and brings us to His glory.

It is His work from beginning to end. God saves sinners.

It does, of course, put us down very low. It is that aspect of the gospel that presents the biggest challenge to the modern viewpoint. But we must not forget that it also sets God up very high.

It reveals to us a God who is very great, very gracious and very glorious. A God who is certainly worthy of our worship.”

Note To Self - Fear

By Joe Thorn

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! ~ Ps. 111:10

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ~ Ps. 10:28

Dear Self,

You often fear the wrong things.

For example, often you are fearful of conflict, suffering, or the loss of good things like respect or acceptance by certain kinds of people. It is understandable from a worldly perspective, for these things you are afraid of losing are themselves—worldly.

This does not mean they are bad, but they are temporal. So many of the things you value are good gifts from God; but they do not last, nor are they supposed to be something from which you find your identity and lasting hope.

The problem with this kind of worldly fear is that it will lead you to toe party lines instead of correcting and challenging the people you are close to.

It will compel you to try to live a safe life, free from risk or danger instead of being willing to make the hard and “risky” choice of following Jesus in a culture that rejects him.

It will lead you to so prize the good gifts of God that they mutate into idols that you are unwilling to let go of.

You don’t need to be afraid of anything, but you do need to fear your God with a holy reverence.

Such “fear” is an aspect of faith that responds to God’s holiness, sovereignty, and transcendence. This higher form of fear is that which leads to awe, adoration, and carefulness of life because of the intimate knowledge of your Maker and Redeemer.

What should you fear in life above a holy God who forgives the sins of unholy men like yourself? What can be taken from you?

Your possessions can go up in flames, but you have treasure in heaven and stand to inherit the kingdom. Your reputation may be sullied, but you are justified in Jesus. You may be rejected by those you admire, but you are accepted by God. You may be hated, but your Father in heaven loves you with an undying love.

What is there in this life to fear?

The fear you need to maintain and cultivate is a fear of God, for in it you will discover wisdom and develop strength that enables you to persevere in faith to the end.