"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." ~Jim Elliot

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Giving Thanks for Secured Blessings

Today is the day we gather with family to fellowship and eat. We enjoy our abundance of supply, and we enjoy each other. We relish the cooler weather that so permeates the memories from this time of year. We enjoy a day off. We enjoy football. We enjoy shopping. Today we are thankful for all these things.

But let us never forget that it is today that we have an opportunity to be thankful to God for loving the world and offering His Son. We are thankful because Christ gave. He gave in His live, and He gave in His death. And because He gave, we live. And we give. We give thanks to Him for all He has secured for us in securing the most important thing - our salvation in Jesus Christ that we may know Him.

Romans 8:32 (HCSB)
He did not even spare His own Son
but offered Him up for us all;

how will He not also with Him grant us everything?


Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Hosea 1

Perhaps this is a cheap way of coming up with a post, but work has been quite the time-consumer lately. I realized today when I was emailing a friend that it had been quite a long time since I put into words what God had been showing me directly from His word. And that is sad because the main reason for that is that my time in God's word has not been consistent or deep at all lately. So yesterday I started Hosea, and these are some of the things I found:

Right now I am studying Hosea, which is a really interesting book. Yesterday I read chapter 1 about Hosea being commanded to take a whore for a wife and have "children of whoredom." It's amazing to see so much of God's anger and mercy in one passage: He never excuses the guilty, [and yet] He adopts illegitimate children. I don't know how all that works exactly - I'm just glad He does. Because I was an illegitimate child, and He adopted me into His family.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Found and Forgiven; Fondled and Free

Romans 8 is perhaps the most comforting passage in all of Scripture for me. It reminds me who I am and who God is. It tells me what the Holy Spirit is doing and what Christ as done. It shows me that I belong to God - and He fights for me and blesses me and gives to me. He loves me. It challenges me in light of these things to battle my sin and conquer. It consoles me in that it affirms that through Christ I am already a conqueror. It says, "Kill your sin," and when I fail as I so often do, it says, "You are free. There is no condemnation for you."

And in light of these things, we can take heart that there is nothing in this world or the next that can sever us from God's presence or separate us from His love. Our God is for us!

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