There's not an adequate title for the power in the words below...

A friend shared this with me today and I can't seem to read this enough, so much comfort in these words.

The cross of Christ is the warrant for confidence in God's promises of ultimate good, despite great heartache.  Jesus' agony did not indicate that God failed, or that the faith of the one who died was weak.  The suffering caused and inflicted by evil (Psalm 22:16) still was within God's will (Acts 2:23) and served a purpose so loving, so powerful, and so good that our eternity changed as a result.  (Isaiah 53:4, 10, Matthew 26:31, Revelation 13:8)

Through Jesus' resurrection, we learn that our God has power over evil, but through the cross he gains power over our hearts.  Though the human mind will reach its frayed end trying to reconcile earth's tragedies with God's goodness, the heart remains bound to God, knowing that the provider of the cross can mean no ill.  Making much of the blood is neither maudlin nor manipulative; rather, the sacrifice of Christ is the heart's ultimate solace in times of greatest pain.

When we remember the cross, our faith in God's sovereign purposes strengthens and comforts our hearts, though the tragedy comes and human answers fail.  No less a faith stalwart than John Stott acknowledges the import: "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross"  Pastors embrace these truths, acknowledging often the mysteries of the sovereignty of God in the face of tragedy, but affirming with greater frequency the necessity of confidence that his eye does not blink and his hand does not fail.

If our God has lost control or never possessed it, then we are at the mercy of the cosmic dice of fate.  The Bible tells us a different story, insisting that the Lord rides on the storms to deliver his people from the present evil world and to secure us for the next (Psalm 68:4, 33) We trust him not because we can explain our circumstance, but because our God has revealed his character at the cross.  The one who shed his blood for us can be trusted to love us; the One who gave his life for us can be trusted to provide what is best for us; and the One who proposed all this before the foundations of the earth were laid can be trusted to direct our paths to glory.  

Sheep trust the shepherd who they have learned is good, and we trust our Good Shepherd because he has laid down his life for us.  This helps to learn how to trust the Good Shepherd when the darkness is too great to see our way or discern his.

Rain

Today when I woke up, I was happy to find that it was raining because that meant that God was taking care of watering my garden so I didn't have to so I got to sleep a little late!

But then going to class, I almost fell walking across the street because of the rain.

Moral of the story...God has a sense of humor and he must like vegetables :-)

I am intrigued by...

People who wear socks with flip flops...

Rabbits...

Stuff White People Like dot com...

How and Why the birds hiding out near my apartment always succeed in waking me up at 4:30am...every single morning...

The fact that the dot above an "i" is called a tittle...

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave...

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

2011 +1 = 2012

If I was a resolution maker, I would resolve to blog more.

But I'm not much of a resolution maker so I wouldn't count on it.

It's all relative

17 days or 408 hours or 24480 minutes or1468800 seconds until I move to Raleigh.

And I am SO unprepared....I guess I should start packing ?!?!?

Kindergarten Theology

Yesterday I had the privilege of helping my mom in her Kindergarten Sunday school class at her church. My mom has taught that class as long as I can remember, longer than I have been living on this Earth. I always enjoy going back to the church I grew up in, there is always a familiar face that smiles and welcomes me back and then there are the occasional few that give me a hard time for being gone for so long. As I sat there with those children and helped them make their rainbow plates and bird feeders it took me back to when I was five years old and how exciting it was to sit in those little wooden chairs and do different crafts, color different pictures and learn about the many wondrous stories of God.

Yesterday the lesson was about Noah's Ark. Whenever I think about God fulfilling His promises I think of Noah's Ark. Have you ever thought about how hard that must have been for Noah? God tells him to build this ark in the middle of a desert and I can't help but think what kind of 'ark' God is calling us to build in the middle of our own personal deserts. I think about the times that God has called me build an ark and I've gotten impatient or tried to do it by my own specifications. As my mom told this story I sat there and soaked it all in. I thought about how much I want to be like my mom when I 'grow up' and how the lives of these kids are being shaped by her commitment to making Sunday mornings the best they can be. They may not always do the activities exactly how they are planned but one thing is for sure and that is they are learning about God and having fun doing it. During the lesson my mom turned on a CD that had the sound of rain on it. She told the kids to sit with their eyes closed and to think about what it must have felt like to be Noah and to have listened to God and to be a witness to the carrying through of God's promise to protect them. As I sat there I couldn't help but close my eyes and join in and I got a glimpse of how sweet that must have been for Noah. He had worked hard and built the ark that God had commanded him to. When the rain started to fall, how sweet to know that his hard work had paid off. I thought about when in life we persevere and do what is right even when it is hard and when the rain of God's blessings start to fall upon our lives that is the sweetest moment we could ever experience. I wish that I had the faith that allowed me to experience that high more often but the world bogs us down and distracts us. While I was sitting there with three children listening to the rain fall Psalm 119:50 came to mind. It has recently became a favorite of mine because there is such hope in the words of the verse. "This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life." How great is it that amongst all the things in this world we can derive comfort through everything based on the many promises of God. Today, soak in the rain of God's blessings and if you're in the middle of building your 'ark' don't lose heart because the rains will soon be coming.

"Bacon is good for me!"