Day: January 30, 2013

Quote: Striving


“Legalism is a state of the heart and not your hands. It’s about self-righteousness versus Christ-righteousness. One has it going on with the Lord; the other is basically in love with his own reflection.

Striving is okay. Putting effort into opening your Bible does not automatically equate to dismissing Jesus at the door. If you’re the kind of person who needs a scheduled prayer time in the morning, that doesn’t mean you’re defying the grace of God. He is not offended that you’re using some of your willpower. He’s also cool with you reading your Bible while you eat, on the way to work, or even in your — gasp! — least awake part of the day.

God is not put off by any of that. Because ultimately the power to chase after God comes from God Himself.”


— from this post

Throwaway Phrases: “He Was Passing Through”

A lot of the miracles that Jesus performed happened as “he was passing through” from one place to another.

Along the way, Jesus suddenly made “by-the-way” pit stops, and someone’s life would change forever.

To the disciples and the average bystander, these encounters looked random and haphazard. Some looked dangerous.

Jesus passed through Samaria, a town where there was fierce mutual animosity with the Jews because of a feud that was centuries old. He could’ve easily circumvented the area — but he had an appointment with this Samaritan woman at the well.

Jesus didn’t care about racism or class warfare or family feuds: his own bloodline was coursing with Rahab, a pagan prostitute, Ruth, a Moabite foreigner, Judah, a philanderer, and David, an adulterer and murderer.

Yet he crossed these worldly boundaries — even the infinite distance between Heaven and earth — and met us broken people in all our grit and dirt. He was never just passing through. He was always reaching across the great divide into the human heart.

Continue reading “Throwaway Phrases: “He Was Passing Through”” →

Quote: Special Class


Jesus did not die for a ‘special class of sinner.’ He died for everyone. He went to the beggars and bums, the rich aristocrats, the blind and lepers, government officials, Pharisees and the demon-possessed, the children and old women, the Greeks and the Jews, the Samaritan at the well and the Roman general, and you and me. He even looked at a dead person in a grave and thought, ‘I can do something with that.’ Jesus simply loves; no conditions, no second-guessing, no exceptions.