The Bible in 3 Sentences (or my attempt)

God chose the nation Israel so that He could show the world His steadfast love, His faithfulness, His goodness, his righteousness, His perfect justice, His relentless pursuit of, and His avalanche of grace upon an unworthy people. And then, when Israel proved it was unable to lead all of the nations to God because it was dead in sin like the rest of mankind, God fulfilled his sovereign plan for salvation by sending His only Son, God Himself, to sacrifice himself in love and bear God's wrath for the sins of the world. And God showed His infinite glory to the world through this story because it shows that Jesus is the only person EVER righteous and worthy enough to take away the sins of the world and reconcile us to God.

Conclusion: The purpose and end of all things is the glory of God through Jesus Christ.

"The Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations." Isaiah 61:11b

The Discipline of my Father

When God withholds from me the desires that I have, I can rejoice because it assures me that I am his child. When I was little, my parents said "no" a lot. My mom was never the type to buy me what I wanted in a store or even to give me a quarter for a candy dispenser. I didn't understand why. All I knew was that I wanted that candy and it hurt to not have it. My mom knew that if she let me have whatever I wanted, I would end up a spoiled child. She loved me too much for that. Not to mention she knew all that sugar was not good for me. In a similar way, but even more so, God loves me too much to give me what I want. His knowledge and plans are perfect, and mine are worthless. He knows the lessons he must teach me to shape me into a person who can be used by him are infinitely valuable compared to my momentary gratification. I must become less of me and more of him, and he promised it would hurt. As a child of God, if I weren't struggling with something, I would be worried. If I am seeking to be in his will and to serve and love him, I will always be conflicted because of my own wants and desires. Like a child who settles for cheap candy instead of a feast, I am too content to settle for the things of this world when God offers me the pleasure of knowing Christ deeply and fully. My Father must rip the things I cling to out of my hands. And he does so because he loves me and therefore wants my good. My good is to know and love Him.

"It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:7-11

Hallelujah to our King

I want this to be the song of my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tBHEfRW0yY

Brought to nothing

When God's will contradicts my own, I inwardly kick and scream. I get this queasy feeling in my stomach, like it's just shriveled up. Like a raisin. Or a popped balloon. I hear myself say inside what I don't want to hear myself saying- "God, give me what I want." But I can't change anything. I can plan and I can desire but His plans are the ones that stand firm.

"The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations."
Psalm 33:10-11

I ask God to break my will. I tell him I want to be at the center of his. Yet this is how I feel when he answers me. And this is why I must die and he must live in me. "He must become more; I must become less." (Jn 3:30) Jesus rejoiced in the Father's will. "Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." (John 4:34) It was his purpose and delight to have his will broken for the Father's. When he faced death, he prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42) And then he fulfilled God's will on the cross and he said, "It is finished."

Being made like Christ is God's work in me. May my will die by his work in my heart that I may live in perfect submission to Him, as did the One who gave himself for us all.

Oh my goose!

...just an expression my campers used this week. I loved spending my week with these adorable, funny, crazy (though of course sometimes difficult) girls! Here are some of the things they said they learned this week.

You never have to be afraid, because God is always with you.

God never leaves you.

I need to wait for God and He'll answer when He wants to.

I should be patient.

I should forgive others.

God loves me.

"Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 19:14

fire

"One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal fire. ("He shall sit as a refiner"; the gold- or silversmith never leaves his crucible once it is on the fire.) In the red glow lay a common curved roof tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brick dust, and imbedded in it was the gold. The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, "then the fire eats it," and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine. This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible, the heat of the fire is increased; "it could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now." "How do you know when the gold is purified?" we asked him, and he answered, "When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure."

--Amy Carmichael, (Gold Chord)

Water and Light

Without either, life could not exist. I love the many verses where God so appropriately compares himself and his Word to water and light. Here are a few. His words are light and life. He calls us from darkness into his light, and from our thirst to the Source of life.

"Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

"In him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1:4

"Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14

"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' " " John 7:37-38

"And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." Revelation 22:17b

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1

"The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light, but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory." Isaiah 60:19

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1

"... [He] called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9

"Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." Luke 2:78-79