The moment we lose hope in people is the same moment we lose faith in God.
&
That mere survival is not what we should seek after but rather thriving in the face of opposition.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Consider
Finals are here. After this week I feel that fatigue is to become a personality trait. I don't like it. I don't feel like myself. I feel an elephant sitting on my chest, making every beat of my heart a personal triumph. I know this isn't worth it.
Lord take this. Take me. You have me. Body & Soul.
To stay sane I am vowing to take time this Christmas season to sit and just meditate on the coming of the precious Messiah. While I was in the library very late the other night I allowed myself to check out a book that has nothing to do with a class.
I am reading 12 Christmas Sermons by Charles Spurgeon.
Glory to God in the Highest! And on earth, peace, good will toward men!" Luke 2:14
"...When they had sung this, they sang what thet had never saved before. "Glory to God in the highest," This was an old song; they had sung it from before the foundations of the world. But, now, they sang as it were a new song before the throne of God: for they added this stanza-"on earth, peace." They did not sing that in the garden. There was peace there, but it seemed a thing of course, scarce worth singing of. There was more than peace there; for there was glory to God there. But, now, man had fallen and since they had the day when cherubim with fiery swords drove out the man, there had been no peace on earth, save in the breast of some believers, who had obtained beast from the living fountain of this incarnation of Christ. Wars had raged from the ends of the world; men had slaughtered one another, heaps on heaps. There had been wars within as well as wars without. Conscience has fought with man; Satan had tormented man with thoughts of sin. There had been no peace on earth since Adam fell. But, no, when the new born King made his appearance, the swaddling band with which he was wrapped up was the white flag of peace. The manger was a place where the treaty was signed, whereby warfare should be stopped between man's conscience and his God. It was then, that day, the trumpet blew-"Sheathe the sword, oh man, sheathe the sword , oh conscience, before God is not at peace with man, and man at peace with God." Do you not feel my bretheren, that the gospel of God is peace to man? Where else can peace be found, but in the message of Jesus? Go legalist, work for peace with toil and and pain and thou shalt never find it. Go, thou, that trustest in the law; go thou, to Sinai; look to the flames that Moses saw, and shrink, and tremble, and despair: for peace is nowhere to be found, but in him, of whom it is said, "This man shall be peace." And what a peace it is beloved! It is peace like a river, and righteousness like the waves of the sea. It is the peace of God that passeth all understanding, which keeps our hearts and mind through Jesus Christ, our Lord. This sacred peace between the pardoned sould and God the pardoner; this marvellous at-one-ment between the sinner, and his judge, this was it the angels sung when they said, "peace on earth"."
Through the grace of God we need to feel and believe with everything that we are that this peace on earth that Jesus brought into the world is still alive and occuring today.
Only the Lord could make peace through righteousness a reality. Man's self-righteousness often brings hate and destruction. Yet Christ Him-self , perfectly embodied both righteousness and peace. I have found a new joy in reading the Old Testament because I believe I am beginning to understand all the hopes and wishes that the coming of Christ fulfilled. Very often peace and righteousness are spoken of together when describing the coming of the Messiah. Its fascinating.
He owns me.
If I decide to get a tattoo, I would consider
"...righteous and peace have kissed one another" from Psalm 85:10
Lord take this. Take me. You have me. Body & Soul.
To stay sane I am vowing to take time this Christmas season to sit and just meditate on the coming of the precious Messiah. While I was in the library very late the other night I allowed myself to check out a book that has nothing to do with a class.
I am reading 12 Christmas Sermons by Charles Spurgeon.
Glory to God in the Highest! And on earth, peace, good will toward men!" Luke 2:14
"...When they had sung this, they sang what thet had never saved before. "Glory to God in the highest," This was an old song; they had sung it from before the foundations of the world. But, now, they sang as it were a new song before the throne of God: for they added this stanza-"on earth, peace." They did not sing that in the garden. There was peace there, but it seemed a thing of course, scarce worth singing of. There was more than peace there; for there was glory to God there. But, now, man had fallen and since they had the day when cherubim with fiery swords drove out the man, there had been no peace on earth, save in the breast of some believers, who had obtained beast from the living fountain of this incarnation of Christ. Wars had raged from the ends of the world; men had slaughtered one another, heaps on heaps. There had been wars within as well as wars without. Conscience has fought with man; Satan had tormented man with thoughts of sin. There had been no peace on earth since Adam fell. But, no, when the new born King made his appearance, the swaddling band with which he was wrapped up was the white flag of peace. The manger was a place where the treaty was signed, whereby warfare should be stopped between man's conscience and his God. It was then, that day, the trumpet blew-"Sheathe the sword, oh man, sheathe the sword , oh conscience, before God is not at peace with man, and man at peace with God." Do you not feel my bretheren, that the gospel of God is peace to man? Where else can peace be found, but in the message of Jesus? Go legalist, work for peace with toil and and pain and thou shalt never find it. Go, thou, that trustest in the law; go thou, to Sinai; look to the flames that Moses saw, and shrink, and tremble, and despair: for peace is nowhere to be found, but in him, of whom it is said, "This man shall be peace." And what a peace it is beloved! It is peace like a river, and righteousness like the waves of the sea. It is the peace of God that passeth all understanding, which keeps our hearts and mind through Jesus Christ, our Lord. This sacred peace between the pardoned sould and God the pardoner; this marvellous at-one-ment between the sinner, and his judge, this was it the angels sung when they said, "peace on earth"."
Through the grace of God we need to feel and believe with everything that we are that this peace on earth that Jesus brought into the world is still alive and occuring today.
Only the Lord could make peace through righteousness a reality. Man's self-righteousness often brings hate and destruction. Yet Christ Him-self , perfectly embodied both righteousness and peace. I have found a new joy in reading the Old Testament because I believe I am beginning to understand all the hopes and wishes that the coming of Christ fulfilled. Very often peace and righteousness are spoken of together when describing the coming of the Messiah. Its fascinating.
He owns me.
If I decide to get a tattoo, I would consider
"...righteous and peace have kissed one another" from Psalm 85:10
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