80s Video Dating Montage

A good laugh!

Ed Welch - On Fear

Please Give This A Go (and watch the hysterical video...)

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2007/11/05/david-powlison-on-bob-newharts-stop-it/

Lonesome

How many homes do you have?

Let's see... I have my parents' home where I grew up.  I think of my college as a home.  And the farmhouse in Australia.  Haiti, for sure.  And there I had two homes.  And then there's the home of my friends in Michigan where I feel at real peace.  And my future-mother-in-law's home where I feel sweetly tucked in.  I even have my own room there.  And then there is my finance's couch that is a good place to curl up on on Sunday afternoons.  

And they are all far, far away from here.  And there's this home, too.  Even it has two different seasons of life in it and so I will count it as two.

And with each home there are people I love.  For the rest of my life, everywhere I will go I will always be missing someone. 

And I think that's OK.  I think that's part of the adventure.  I think that's one of the perks.  And I think that's one of the joys of heaven.

An Interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zQOX8NmC0c&feature=related

(Some good stuff here... but listen wisely.)
How do we learn to sort out good from bad amid the messages that bombard us?  It's easy to state the goal: "eat the fish of truth, spit out the bones of lies."  It's hard to do this well.  All of us tend to either swallow bones because we love fish, or spit out fish because we hate bones. -Powlison

Healing

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.


râphâ'  ... healed.  As in what a Dr. does.  It has a sister word - that at first glance looks more like a black sheep than a kindred spirit.  râphâh


And there we find words like: cease.  consume.  be still.


And that's what Jesus offers for our wounds:  The ceasing of carrying our heart-aches alone.  The consumption of our guilt and our failures.  And peace in who He is. 

I Don't Want to Be Pretty Anymore

I thought it would be gone by now.  I thought this diamond, this love, this man would have taken it away.  He loves me.  He thinks I'm beautiful.  But the scars run so deep.

For the past twenty years I've wanted to be pretty.  I've wanted a guy to choose me.  I've wanted... well, I've wanted to believe the good things other people said about me.  But I couldn't because a man wasn't saying it.  And now that a man is saying it - well, those scars run so deep.

And here is where Christians step with the natural reactions of saying:

1. Everyone, even the most beautiful women have low self-esteem.
or
2. You ARE beautiful.
or
3. Well, it doesn't matter what the world says - look at who you are in Christ!  You are a daughter.  You are the daughter of the King - which means you're a princess!

And although all three are true (yes, I do realize I'm calling myself beautiful) they are still grounded in earth because all three are about ME.  It's about ME being loved.  ME feeling good about myself.  ME, ME, ME.

And settling for that - for being satisfied in knowing who I am because of Jesus - that might just be another form of idolatry.  I don't want to be content in that.  I want to move past that and say that Jesus' blood - God's grace - is sufficient for me.

Oh, I get chills when my David's sweet words reach my ears.  And I feel beautiful when he shares his heart.  And I love reading about how God shares His heart: who I am in Christ; that I am part of the Royal Priesthood.

But I don't want to settle for anything less than God Himself.