When was the last time you were absolutely astounded, dumbfounded, mesmerized by God?
I think if we were in a constant state of amazement and fear of God we wouldn't be able to move. Shouldn't be able to move. In comparison to a being who is so holy, everything we did or said would shrink us further. Then again, God did not create us as static beings.

The prophet Isaiah was completely ruined at a glance of God. I relate to Isaiah when he cries, "I am a man of unclean lips." (except for the man part)Jesus himself said that its not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles them, its what comes out of it. Isaiah saw his corruption when he saw the holiness of God.
This holy God is also full of grace. This truth is the reason we can move and continue speaking. Like the hot coals which touched Isaiah's lips, Christ's pain took the full punishment for us. True repentance is painful. We must be completely stripped of all the corruption and crap so God can use us to our full potential. That's hope.

In "The Holiness Of God" by R.C Sproul he writes, "Isaiah was shattered into as many pieces as any fallen egg. But God put him together again. God was able to take a shattered man and send him into the ministry. He took a sinful man and made him a prophet. He took a man with a dirty mouth and made him God's spokesman."
That amazes me.

What's love got to do with it?

This guy just oozes Valentine's day charm.

...pretty...

On Prayer

“The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize that we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to – our helplessness – is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own. Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us the gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us because of Jesus and gives us the gift of His help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks at the adequacy of His Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers.” - Paul Miller, A Praying Life

Quote of the day.

‎"To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love" - A.W.Tozer

I also enjoyed reading this blog post and wanted to share:

http://paracletos.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/132/
Felt like it ties in with the second last post I did. Plus he writes a whole lot better.

Happy February 1st,2011!

Tried out Roosters today. The coffee shop came recommended to me by a very reliable coffee shop-lover friend. I wasn't disappointed! The staff were friendly, good location by the river and it had cozy vintage decor with modern accents. oH! The coffee and baked goods were yummy too. It's always a good sign when the place is packed- something Jill and I had to remind ourselves of when we couldn't find a seat. :)

Question. After being told you have acute appendicitis and require your appendix to be removed would you:

a. Say ok to surgery
b. Say heck no and leave the hospital

...oh and they also told you that you could die if it wasn't removed.

At work the other day I watched a 20-something year old guy walk out of the ER after a visit from the surgeon who told him the above statement. He reasoned that he felt no more pain therefore he was fine. He said he was more scared of surgery than death.

After watching that play out I was just struck at how this guy's actions represents us as humans. You'd probably say you'd never be that stupid, that you'd never suppress crucial knowledge like that hoping that if you just ignored it, it would just disappear. I think we're actually very good at doing this, to our own detriment.
I've always hated math. I remember in grade 3 there was this one assignment I was dreading. I had the paper with all the questions on it, and since I didn't want to do it I shoved it as far back in my desk as I could. I figured I'd forget about it and the teacher would too. Quite the opposite. I couldn't stop thinking about it and the teacher definitely didn't forget. Eventually I learned long division.

Suppressing our emotions, duties, guilt is something we excell at as humans! We can be so skilled at lying to ourselves that we believe it. In every day life and in the academic world suppressing truth can have eternal consequences...depending on the truth you're suppressing.

Romans 1:18-20
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Like I was saying...suppressing certain truths can have huge, eternal consequences. Let's be honest with ourselves.