Blah, Blah, Blah!!!: Wandering and Wondering: Two Things I'm Very Good At!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Wandering and Wondering: Two Things I'm Very Good At!

So, today in church we were reading from Luke 8. My eyes wandered off to chapter 7. I was so touched my the woman that washed the feet of Jesus with her hair. When I read scripture accounts like that one, I always try to put myself into the picture. I try to figure out the emotions, the inner, unseen things that might have been going on... For example, what stirrings in her heart made this woman seek out Jesus? How did she feel when the others were so quick to brush her off and label her as "a sinner"? What did it feel like when Jesus looked at her and said, "Your sins have been forgiven."? I did listen to the sermon on Luke 8...but my encounter today with the woman from Luke 7 has captivated my heart.

It has left me wondering about the new blog I may write. It would be different in content from this blog. I told you before that I was toying with the idea of somehow incorporating my initials (JARS). I'm wondering about the name for the blog...maybe I should call it, MY ALABASTER JAR, in honor of the Luke 7 woman. Hmmm...

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One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning; all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult. It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable. To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory.
--Jerry Bridges

God is doing a greater work in us, and that can only come as we learn to trust Him no matter how dark the days and sleepless the nights. And it is only as we have been through the darkness with Him that what we know with our heads slides down into our hearts, and our hearts no longer demand answers. The “Why?” becomes unimportant when we believe that God can and will redeem the pain for our good and his glory. . . . When I put the sovereignty of God beside His unfailing love, my heart can rest.
--Verdell Davis

Our circumstances are not an accurate reflection of God's goodness. Whether life is good or bad, God's goodness, rooted in His character, is the same.
--Helen Grace Lescheid

All of us have wondered at times why God doesn't do more to fix our problems. But our human eyes often fail to see that God isn't rushing to change our circumstances because he is concerned with a much more serious problem -- our character. While you struggle with the woes of this world, God's main occupation is preparing you for the world to come. The focus of what God is doing in your life takes place in you, not around you.
--Andy Stanley, in "Like A Rock"

There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart.
--Alan Redpath

The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this: irritations get into his shell . . . . and when he cannot get rid of them, he uses the irritations to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has the chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only prescription: make a pearl . . . . And it takes faith and love to do it.
--Harry Emerson Fosdick

What a difference it makes when a trial comes, to see in it not the hand of an avenger, but the loving discipline of a father and the gentle admonition of a mother! God would not have us feel even the shadow of His anger. Judgment hardens the spirit and God never wants to break the spirit of His obedient child, but to win us by His love and transform us by the gentleness. Beloved, let us ever look upon our trials in the tender light of the Father’s love. It is not the token of His displeasure, but the very pledge of His jealous love, a love so inexorable that it will not let us miss His holiest and best.
--A. B. Simpson

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