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Treasure vs. Stuff

April 4, 2013

“Time passes more simply in St. Cecilia, and we are surrounded by less stuff. There are fewer clothes in the closet and on the shelves and in the drawers. There are fewer pots and pans and dishes and such. Lord knows there are fewer tables.

Sometimes when I am on St. Cecilia, I think of all my stuff back in Tennessee and wonder how it is doing and whether or not it misses me.”

* * * * *
“I am afraid sometimes I do not really have my stuff but rather my stuff has me. “Your heart is where your treasure is,” or so I have heard it said, and I hate to think all my treasure is to be found on my tables and on my shelves.”

Excerpted from Home by Another Way: Notes from the Caribbean [ … ]

A Shot of Faith

April 3, 2013

“Like a morning with no coffee, there are times when we are sluggish in our faith. Times when trusting God doesn’t come easily. Times when we need a shot of God-caffeine in our day. A spiritual espresso. What can we do at these times? Are there things in the Scriptures that tell us how we can strengthen our trust-muscles and jump-start our faith? Absolutely!

One practical way to build your faith is by remembrance. When David was just a shepherd boy, he had courage to face a giant partly because he remembered the previous victories the Lord had allowed him to experience. He approached King Saul with great confidence, saying: ‘The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine’ (1 Samuel 17:37).

David’s [ … ]

Longing for Intimacy

April 2, 2013

Have you ever felt that there must be more to this Christian life? Is your faith dead? Does it all seem superficial and powerless? Well, maybe what you’re experiencing is exactly that.

We desire something more because we were meant to have something that’s been taken from us. Both our intimacy with God and with one another were harmed when original sin entered the world and we began to live under the Curse. Deep in our spirits is a longing to be restored to the intimacy we were created to experience.

Excerpted from Get Lost by Dannah Gresh

Daily Reflection: How can work toward a more intimate relationship with God?

Late to the party

April 1, 2013

Luke 15:25:" Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing."

The party was already raging for the Prodigal son when the hard working brother came forth. I always wondered about how he might have felt coming late to the party. But at least he could hear the music.

Dorothea Dix, a social reformer of the early 19th century, might have thought she too came late to the party. She didn’t find her purpose in life until nearly the age of 46. That year she felt compelled to advocate for the mentally ill housed with criminals and debtors in a cold brick-walled prison in Boston. She insisted they have heat and got it for them. Thus began her life’s work.

Music played a part in her [ … ]

Center Every Day Around the Cross

March 29, 2013

We humans are creatures of habit, aren’t we? And our habits reflect our true selves – we all build our daily lives around our priorities and passions…I’m sure you have your own daily rituals. Reading the sports page of the Washington Post each day became one of mine. To this very moment, I count it a good day when I can sit down, read my favorite columns, and get the latest scores and stats.

Add eating chocolate to the routine and it becomes a very good day!

We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us. This is an important principle to understand as we seek to build our lives around the gospel. Do you want a cross centered life?

A cross centered life is made up [ … ]

Be love crazy

March 28, 2013

You see, the prescription for your Craving will not be found in white-knuckling your way out of boy-craziness. It won’t be found in legalistically “fasting from guys” without feeding your true need for love. It’s not going to work for you to deny your deep and genuine desire. The best place for you to begin is to stand on your bed and shout at the top of your lungs: I need love!

Go ahead. Give it a try. Be love crazy!

The next step—and I’m here to help—would be to redirect your heart to the right source. As Beth pointed out, “Interestingly, the Word of God uses the phrase ‘unfailing love” thirty-two other times, and not one of them refers to any source other than God, Himself.”4 …God alone holds the answer to the Craving for love. He is our [ … ]

Grace Over Fairness

March 27, 2013

In order to untangle us from the web we had spun for ourselves, [God] had to do something very unfair. He had to send his son to this earth to die for sins he didn’t commit.

Is Christianity fair? It is certainly not fair to God. Christians believe that God sent his son to die for your sins and mine. Fairness would demand that we die for our own sins. But the good news is that God opted for grace and mercy over fairness.

Excerpted from How Good is Good Enough? by Andy Stanley

Daily Reflection: How is your life different because God shows you grace instead of fairness?

Sick of Secrets

March 26, 2013

“Living as a slave to a lie will set you up for an endless cycle of shame and guilt. When you feel worthless and ashamed most of the time, getting close to God—or even wanting to—is hard. Really hard. It’s easier just to go through the motions. Settle for secondhand religion.  Maybe move away from God and church altogether…

Unfortunately, it happens all the time.

But it doesn’t have to. Think  about what amazing things you could  do if you could  break free from those feelings of worthlessness and  shame. Imagine feeling like you could get close to God without fear of condemnation.  Imagine what  it would feel like to break free from the cycle of secrets-of beating yourself up with all that shame and guilt.

Your spirit would come alive. Your life would change. You would walk into [ … ]

Having More Than You Need

March 25, 2013

Why does God give some of His children more than they need and others less than they need? So that He may use His children to help one another. He doesn’t want us to have too little or too much (Proverbs 30:8–9). When those with too much give to those with too little, two problems
are solved. When they don’t, two problems are perpetuated.

God distributes wealth unevenly not because He loves some of His children more than others, but so His children can distribute it to their brothers and sisters on His behalf. Paul said that the God who supplies seed to the sower will increase our store of seed.

Why? So we can stockpile seed or eat it? No, so we can scatter it and spread it out that it might bear fruit. Abundance isn’t [ … ]

A Personal Relationship with Jesus

March 22, 2013

God’s gifts to us are as timeless as He is. Just because we’re living two thousand years after Jesus walked this earth doesn’t mean we have missed out on having a personal relationship with Him. Does Jesus still transcend time and space? You bet. He is both omniscient (knowing all things throughout time) and omnipresent (everywhere at once). Not only that, the gospel accounts of His life teach us how to intimately know Him. Can Jesus still heal the sick, encourage the poor, and love the unlovely? Yes, He can, and He does so countless times per day. Is He still our light in a dark world? Does He overcome evil still to this day? Does He gladly bear the weight of every sin we commit? Yes, yes, and yes.

God didn’t just send a postcard from heaven or a [ … ]