Something that really struck me.
The following is a series of paragraphs taken from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life.
"Now think what this means for God's love. How shall God love us? Mere logic could give us the answer: God loves us best by giving us the best to enjoy forever, namely himself, for he is best. But we are not dependant on logic alone. The Bible makes this clear. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoeverbelieves in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God loves us by giving us eternal life at the cost of his Son, Jesus Christ. But what is eternal life? Is it eternal self-esteem? Is it heaven full of mirrors? Or snowboards, or golf links?
No. Jesus tell us exactly what he meant: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus christ whom you have sent" (John 3:17). What is eternal life? It is to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ. No thing can satisfy the soul. The soul was made to stand in awe in a Person - the only person worthy of awe. All heroes are shadows of Christ. We love to admire their excellence. How much more will we be satisfied by the one Person who conceived all excellence and embodies all skill, all talent, all strength and brilliance and savvy and goodness. This is what I have been trying to say. God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever.
Or consider the way the apostle Peter says it. "Christ also sufferent once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD" (1 Peter 3:18). Why did God send Jesus Christ to die for us? "That he might bring us to God" - to himself. God sent Christ to die so that we could come home to the all-satisfying Father. This is love. God's love for us is God's doing what he must do, at great cost to himself, so that we might have the pleasure of seeing and savoring him forever. If it is true, as the Psalmist says to God, "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11), then what must love do? It must rescue us from our addiction to self and bring us, changed, into the presence of God."
~ Taken from Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
what I love about them.
Dear Est an' Kay an' Teresa,
It's funny how some of my closest friends can be so incredibly different from eachother. I have to say, I have some pretty amazing ones. There's the "coffee dates" with four incredible girl friends...we end up having good talks, heart to heart ;), sometimes serious, other times bursting out in embarrassingly loud laughter right in the middle of a packed Williams Coffee Pub :P but that's what makes it good times. But it's not just the times we have, it's who they mean to me as friends. They've always been there for me, to listen, to talk...and every time I make a mistake about something in life, or screw up trust, they open up there hearts and find it in themselves to forgive me. .. even when it's the last thing I deserve. And that's why I love them so much. I love them for the good times we have, and the memories we make, but I love them for the hearts they have, and the wise women that they are.
They truly are blessings to me.
Love,
me
It's funny how some of my closest friends can be so incredibly different from eachother. I have to say, I have some pretty amazing ones. There's the "coffee dates" with four incredible girl friends...we end up having good talks, heart to heart ;), sometimes serious, other times bursting out in embarrassingly loud laughter right in the middle of a packed Williams Coffee Pub :P but that's what makes it good times. But it's not just the times we have, it's who they mean to me as friends. They've always been there for me, to listen, to talk...and every time I make a mistake about something in life, or screw up trust, they open up there hearts and find it in themselves to forgive me. .. even when it's the last thing I deserve. And that's why I love them so much. I love them for the good times we have, and the memories we make, but I love them for the hearts they have, and the wise women that they are.
They truly are blessings to me.
Love,
me
Thursday, September 10, 2009
I'm sorry.
There are few things, that make me feel depressed and sad. But I have to be honest, one of those things is someone that I know all to well. Someone that forgets who she is sometimes, and someone who needs to be reminded of alot of important things.
In case there was any question in your mind, that someone is myself.
I was talking to a very special person today, a lovely wife and mother, an honest, caring, wonderful woman of God. My sister. It was brought to my mind...in her gentle way, of something that needs to change in my life. She's right. I know she is. And when I think about the mistakes I've made and the hurt that I've caused other people; the questions that have been wondered in other's minds, and the picture that I present in who I've been acting as a person...it makes me angry with myself. I know better, and why didn't I see these things? There isn't any excuse valid for what's been going on, and I don't even want to make any.
I want to apologize. To those of you who know what I'm talking about, for those of you who have been wondering certain things...I'm sorry for not being the godly example that I, as a daughter of Christ ought to have been. I realize fully the mistakes that I've made and I want to make them right. I'm asking you to please give me the chance to prove who I really am as a child of God, and to please forgive me for all the things that left any questions in your mind.
Please pray for me..pray that my life will be a picture of Christ, and that I will really live out the love of God in my life to those around me.
In case there was any question in your mind, that someone is myself.
I was talking to a very special person today, a lovely wife and mother, an honest, caring, wonderful woman of God. My sister. It was brought to my mind...in her gentle way, of something that needs to change in my life. She's right. I know she is. And when I think about the mistakes I've made and the hurt that I've caused other people; the questions that have been wondered in other's minds, and the picture that I present in who I've been acting as a person...it makes me angry with myself. I know better, and why didn't I see these things? There isn't any excuse valid for what's been going on, and I don't even want to make any.
I want to apologize. To those of you who know what I'm talking about, for those of you who have been wondering certain things...I'm sorry for not being the godly example that I, as a daughter of Christ ought to have been. I realize fully the mistakes that I've made and I want to make them right. I'm asking you to please give me the chance to prove who I really am as a child of God, and to please forgive me for all the things that left any questions in your mind.
Please pray for me..pray that my life will be a picture of Christ, and that I will really live out the love of God in my life to those around me.
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