A collection of links to encourage your growth in grace.
From the blog this week: The Creation of Man.
Anywhere But God: The Suffocating Hunt for Happiness
“We all, to varying degrees, are conscious of this yawning cavern placed within us by Someone without. Inexplicably, we hunger for a meal we have not yet tasted; we thirst for streams our lips have never touched. And we cannot shake it. We try to appease the appetite with earthly snacks or distract ourselves with cheap thrills, but silent rooms still scare us. There, the whisper finds us. There is more.”
I’m the Daughter of a Pedophile
“This supposed man of God, this loving father, this doting grandfather had played us all. The shock and disbelief turned to anguish and despair as the magnitude of the situation began to set in. The father I thought I’d had all my forty years of life was a lie. I was the daughter of a pedophile.”
Thankful for Everything
“I can trick myself into being grateful, topping my cake of grumbling with the frosting of thanksgiving, but it’s still a dismal cake beneath. I need the words with which Paul follows up his exhortation: ‘For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.'”
Work: An Opportunity for Growth in the Grace of God
“What if my job is teaching me to obey Jesus’ words? What if God is using customer frustration to help me behold the riches of His mercy toward me when I am ungrateful and evil, all while furthering my ability to reflect His kindness? When I grasped this, I viewed my job in a fresh light as no longer being an obligation, but an opportunity, to love others as Christ Himself loves me.”
3 Things to Be Cautious of in a Season of Suffering
“Countless people, including my family and myself, would affirm the truth of that statement. Pain opens the door to intimacy with Jesus. It’s through pain we grow, mature, and even find some previously unintended avenues for ministry. These are all examples of redemption – the Lord taking the broken pieces of our lives, crumbled under the weight of a corrupted creation, and creating a mosaic of something beautiful from it.”
