My favourite apologist

What a special morning! I heard Ravi Zacharias in the flesh, with my daughter, no less.  I woke her up early and it felt a bit like Christmas morning.  I have listened to so many of his messages over the last 20 years and today really special.  This morning was profound.  A honour indeed.


"Every other person who is at the heart of any religion has had his or her beginning either in fancy or in fact.  But nevertheless, there is a beginning.  Jesus' birth in Bethlehem was a moment preceded by eternity.  His being neither originated in time nor came about by the will of humanity.  The author of time, who lived in the eternal, was made incarnate in time that we might live with the eternal in view.  In that sense, the message of Christ was not the introduction of a religion, but an introduction to truth about reality as God alone knows it.  To deny Jesus' message while pursuing spirituality is to conjure an imaginary religion in an attempt to see heaven while sight is confined to the earth.

That is precisely what Jesus challenged when he said, "I have come that you may have life" (John 10.10)
His life spells living.  Your life or my life, apart from Him, spells death"

~ Ravi Zacharias   'Jesus among other Gods'

Sunday thoughts

Sunday bowls... sweet morning time with my girl. 

Food for the body and food for the soul.

"Lift your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord" Ps 134.2

What a beautiful, profound night at church.

Pieta

Michelangelo's Pieta makes you stop.  I stood in awe.  Mary holding the body of Jesus after the wrath of man has been poured on her innocent son.  It's graceful and breathtaking.  Which is probably just like Mary was.  How else do explain the response 'Behold I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.'  Oh the faith.  And humble acceptance.  That alone is a lesson for daily living.  Not my will, my plan, but yours.

The Pieta is also sad and stirring.  Mary, who was there at the joyous beginning, is also there at the end.  Her beloved son.  Her heart unlike the marble Pieta was broken.  All she had is all we have.

The promise of being fully alive, of resurrection life as we too are numbered among the crucified. 'Our old self was crucified with him... and we might no longer be enslaved to sin... reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus'  ~  Romans 6.6.

Our hard hearts transformed by a continued willingness to trust that His ways are better.  And they are.

John Piper said 'Never let the cross lose its crucifying power in your life. Never let it slip into the dim and misty past.'

His crucifixion.  It is finished.

His crucifixion.  It is not forgotten.

The Pieta is magnificent but the God-man exceeds all magnificence.  This astonishing masterpiece cannot compare to the masterpiece of the sacrifice that changed history.  Trust Him when it doesn't add up.  He is unafraid of our mess.

Grace cannot leave you where it found you... surely goodness and mercy will always come hard after us.

The Easter people

The minutes were all-consuming and they turned into days and days to weeks and so forth.  And in the end I was spent.  And so the last few months flew by with many days too heavy to hold.

There were electronic meltdowns, personal meltdowns, sad goodbyes and adapting to a new pace and narrow road.  There were beautiful moments saturated with love and there were hard-to-swallow moments that tasted of despair.

But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know its worth
and its not found in the land of the living...

God understands the way to it,
and He knows its place.

And we cannot surrender to the whisper to lay down with apathy.  We have One who knows the way through. The way out.  His place of suffering is our place of freedom and peace.  Who doesn't long for a place of peace?  Is it a moments work, usually not... and I for one am tired of glib, thin slogans of supposed faith. But this I know.  Quick is not necessary, but true is.  Peace is a true person... come to Me all you who are bone-weary and bent by heavy loads, and I will give you rest.  And this is the only hope that our marred humanity has.

This Lenten time of year brings sharp clarity.  Resurrection brings hope. And new life.  As Pope John Paul said, we do not abandon ourselves to despair but we abandon ourselves to the One who holds us and walks us into the light and whose mercies are new every morning.

"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song."        Pope John Paul II

Hallelujah and Amen.

Morning hope

Ps 119.147

'I came before thee in the morning; I have great hope in thy words.'

The true lens that we should look through...

Easter

The remembrance of the greatest love story ever...

Hope you had a blessed weekend! 

A very merry Christmas

I hope that this festive season was full of love and joy!

"So the Word became human and made His home among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory!"

May we have glimpsed this love and faithfulness this Christmas.

Wisdom

"A wise man will hear and increase learning" Prov 1.5

Gratitude

"Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant - a seed - this plants the giant miracle."
~ A Voskamp

Lays hold of me

"The bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me."
~ Martin Luther

Starting the week off nice and slow

I had quiet time in bed this morning...  my coffee, my bible and a little Joyce Meyer.  It was the best!

Courage

"Courage comes from a heart that is convinced it is loved"
~  Beth Moore

At the scent of water

Nothing is hopeless...

Job 14:7-9 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

Sometimes our season feels dry but no season lasts forever.  I was talking with a friend who had a heavy load.  The economy, family issues, sickness, stress, insults and on and on... the list of things to despair over is too long. But,

'at the scent of water'.. the lightest touch of hope, we can bud again.  One of the most poetic scriptures.  Never lose hope.  Breathe. Choose life.

I love that is says of Abraham, that contrary to hope in hope believed.  Don't we all want that kind of faith.  We cannot lose heart as our children are watching which way we will turn in these times.  Fix your eyes on the promises... not just buds but boughs.
 

Beautiful Transparency

"There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are."
~ Brennan Manning

Easter

Happy Easter to all! I hope that the weekend was clothed in peace and love.

What a wonder Easter is! 

"Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature"

~ Augustine

PS - Even though her kids have kids and are going gray, my mother still buys us 

all chocolate bunnies.

What to do with heavy load...

"I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden."
~ St. Augustine

A healthy soul

“As bread is the first need of the body, so forgiveness for the soul.”
~ Andrew Murray

This is very important... we need to walk in forgiveness everyday so that our soul stays clean. It's so easy to stay mad and offended.  But it's not the best way to live.  

Blessed is she

Comfort

Thinking about this...

"For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."

God is the same, yesterday today and tomorrow.  He is faithful.  The scriptures bring comfort and remind us that what he did, he can do again (easily).   Have hope.