Freedom
Today on Independence Day I remember my Papa and his sacrifice through the “Fighting 69th” army infantry division in World War II. I remember his quiet smile and loving memories I had while a child at his house. He was a wonderful father who raised another wonderful father to love me. I thank God that Papa could be counted among the millions who have given their time and lives to sustain American freedom.
I thank God that I can taste true freedom from my total depravity by way of the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross. His resurrection seals my inheritance and releases me from the guilt and death of my sin. Liberty is mine though I have never and will never deserve it. This freedom is more precious today to me than it has ever been, and I pray my heart will there forever rest!
A woman I badly want to meet
(in a mirror)
Once being at an honest woman’s house, I, after some pause, asked her how she did? She said, Very badly. I asked her if she was sick? she answered, No. What then, said I, are any of your children ill? She told me, No. What, said I, is your husband amiss, or do you go back in the world?
No, no, said she, but I am afraid I shall not be saved.
And broke out with heavy heart, saying, ‘Ah, Goodman Bunyan! Christ and a pitcher; if I had Christ, though I went and begged my bread with a pitcher, it would be better with me than I think it is now!’ This woman had her heart broken, this woman wanted Christ, this woman was concerned for her soul. There are but few women, rich women, that count Christ and a pitcher better than the world, their pride, and pleasures. This woman’s cries are worthy to be recorded; it was a cry that carried in it, not only a sense of the want, but also of the worth of Christ. This cry, ‘Christ and a pitcher, ‘ made a melodious noise in the ears of the very angels!
But, I say, few women cry out thus; few women are so in love with their own eternal salvation, as to be willing to part with all their lusts and vanities for Jesus Christ and a pitcher. Good Jacob also was thus: ‘If the Lord, ‘ said he, ‘will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, then he shall be my God.’ Yea, he vowed it should be so. ‘And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on; so that I come again to my father’s house in peace: then shall the Lord be my God’ (Gen 28:20).
– John Bunyan, The Acceptable Sacrifice: The Excellency of a Broken Heart
Free Pattern Friday
I doodled some of the things that were on my mind recently when I was spending time alone with God. It encouraged me, and I hope it can do the same for someone else. It is a much larger size than my other patterns but looks nice on a desktop (I think). Please click the category link below for rules to use this image. Enjoy!
Weight of Glory
Both of these have encouraged me lately:
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. — CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17
My pastor likes to joke and say that once a person is over the age of twenty, “It’s all downhill from there, buddy!” I always laugh when he says that. He’s right, though, in the sense that our lives our so fleeting, and our youth, beauty, pleasures as well; they cannot be trusted. When life rolls on, and when it just doesn’t look like we want or may have expected, God is not surprised. I have posted the two above quotes on my bathroom mirror, so when I brush my teeth or get out of the shower (that’s where I do all my thinking — can be quite a dangerous place!), I am encouraged. Weight of glory…. yes.
Jesus, true joy
Jesus, true joy
All the rest fading, flying, winding to shadow
Wild heart, marred soul,
Seeping sickness of empty sin-pleasures –
All reaching rivers of unrest,
All vanity-cries silenced by Your blood
Winter’s sunlight
Dark night’s dawn
Victorious Calling, Clearing, Cleansing
Enigma guarding and silent
Abundance in origin
Exploding into radiant red,
Exploding into beauty
Jesus, true joy
Who I am in Christ
Eric and I are reading a book together right now by Neil Anderson, and I love the list in one of the chapters entitled “Who I am in Christ.” For me it is a lifeline right now as I reaffirm who I am and what God has given me in Christ.
In the Freedom in Christ online store I just purchased the beautiful artistic print of the list on a 13×17 poster. Check it out because it’s just wonderful.
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