A quote....

From one of my favorite pastors/authors...John Piper from his new book "Finally Alive"

"Jesus' words "You must be born again" (John 3:7) go to the heart of the world's problems. There will be no final peace, no final justice, no triumph over hate and selfishness and racism without this profound change in the human nature . . . So if your heartache is for your own personal change, or for change in your marriage, or change in your prodigal children, or in your church, or in the systemic structures of injustice, or in the political system, or in the hostilities among nations, or in the human degradation of the environment, or in the raunchiness of our entertainment culture, or in the miseries of the poor, or in the callous opulence of the rich, or in the inequities of educational opportunity, or in arrogant attitudes of ethnocentrism, or in a hundred areas of human need caused by some form of human greed - if your heart aches for any of these, then you should care supremely about the new birth. "


I think this is so true....think of all the people who are advocates for change but the real the only change that is truly change is to be born again! Amen Piper!

Love your enemies

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5: 43-47

I think out of all scripture this passage is the hardest for me to take and do for that matter. The Lord has really been showing me a lot lately and this one in particular keeps coming up "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!" even last night my 3 year old son in his prayers prayed for a lot of peoples hearts he just kept naming he would say and " God thank you for mamas heart and for daddy's heart and for his friends hearts and grandmas and grandpas and teachers(each one individually of course)" in the course of this what seemed like 10 min prayer mentioned some people that is not often on my prayer list. people who have wronged me or who have hurt me somehow and so yet again God uses my precious child to continue to teach me things. Lord please continue to teach me and mold me and help me to love everyone and pray for everyone even when i think they dont deserve it.

Press On!

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. " Philippians 3:7-16

I would hope this letter from the apostle Paul written so long ago would encourage us today to have hope and find joy even in our sufferings, to count all that we have rubbish that we may gain Christ. That our goal, hope, and treasure may be to fellowship with Christ in his sufferings. Life doesnt always go the way we think it should but it always goes the way God would have it. Rest in God's sovereignty.