Quotes Pt. 29

“Sometimes it takes falling apart to see exactly how or what loosened the mortar. Sometimes we find we are responsible for the how & the what. As unpleasant as it is when it happens, one cannot help but appreciate these times for what you learn serves as a beacon. Of course this is only half the battle. Which means you’re already half way there.”
― Colleen Truscott Fry

I’ve been thinking a lot about roads I’ve walked down. The “How’d I get heres?” and “What if I had chosen differentlies?” have been many. Maybe it’s the turn of the New Year. The season calls us naturally to reflection…reevaluation.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes. The roots of those errors go back years and I feel like I’m just getting a grip on how the actions of the young J have effected this old J. In the midst of it all I am being swallowed alive by this grace that will not let me go.  I don’t understand how, yet I know that Jesus has all well in hand. He is using the life of this poor sinner made saint for His glory. In the midst of the reducing I have walked through Jesus has made me all His. My failures and faults He has absorbed into His mercy. He has made my mess a message!

Most laws condemn the soul and pronounce sentence. The result of the law of my God is perfect. It condemns but forgives. It restores – more than abundantly – what it takes away.
Author: Jim Elliot

 

If he did it for me, HE will most assuredly do it for you!

Never give up. No matter what has been lost God can restore!

Pastor Wrinkles: the Glory Of Story Pt. 3

God is all about story! In fact all of Earth every big and little act of mankind is the writing of  a divine story the plot of which God laid out before HE ever said let there be light.

 

If you have been following the last  posts right about now you might be saying “That’s nice Pastor J. Life is a romance an adventure a war story a mystery a story. What does that do for me?”

 

There are three things God wants you to know about this story we call life.

Here is the first:

                God is the Hero and central figure of your  story.

 

Men have done their best to write God out of the story. For instance, in place of the story of creation our race has posited evolution in order to call into question the accuracy of Scripture as a whole. Moses. David. Even Jesus are being written out of the world’s copy of history.

A young man recently commented on my blog “People should use reason to determine right and wrong and not some vague description of a man in the sky (that really seems to more a state of consciousness (like nirvana) than an actual being) nor MYTHICAL stories like Noah’s ark and Adam and Eve. .. I believe that these myths were really an attempt to explain the events in the phenomenal world that seemed miraculous. So the texts really had minimal value in and of themselves in the grand scheme of things because the information they provided was actually false.” 

But here’s the truth, Christian, while men may have set themselves up as the editor’s of history. God is the writer of HIS STORY and He holds the right to decide the final cut. We have been taught that the world is our oyster and we were given life  as a tablet upon which we can write our own story. We have been taught that we are the center of our universe and that we can call all the shots. We are told truth is whatever we believe. Most of us add God on to our lives if we acknowledge Him at all. But the Bible tells a different story and raises to the stage a different hero.

That hero…the hero of your story whether you know it or not is Jesus!