Living Life for Christ Alone

Love. What is it like?   At times, it’s silent and lowly.   He quiets me and beckon s for me to look.   A baby is nestled up to me, asleep. She feels safe and loved.   She knows she is cared for.   She knows she will have her needs met by me if she cries.   Sometimes, it seems she can’t get close enough to me.   She hangs on tight with her little arm around my shoulder.   I fight the restlessness inside. There is so much to do.   I feel like I have accomplished nothing.   But He settles me again, and motions towards the baby.   “This is kingdom work,” He whispers.   “Why?” I ask.   I won’t walk away from this later and feel like I’ve accomplished anything.   I won’t have a checked-off to-do list to show for this day.   I won’t be able to talk about some grand daring feat I managed to pull off.   It doesn’t seem to matter much in the bigger picture of things, my feelings say.   But then, ...

"'That is the only really satisfactory way of dealing with evil, not simply binding it so that it cannot work harm, but whenever possible overcoming it with good.'" - (Hinds Feet on High Places) ---- "I realized that there is purpose in the pain," I said to my friend as we chatted about my life as a foster mom. I had just been explaining how sad I had been about the whole situation. How heavy the first couple months were.  I didn't know if I could keep living in it. It seemed too heavy for me.  But for some reason, the weight lifted when I realized in a deeper way that there is a purpose in the pain that comes with fostering.  A purpose that goes far beyond just the good that I imagine can come out of it.  --- The enemy is in the business of ripping families apart. I don't know if you've ever noticed that, but it is one of his specialties.  And we have waded into his territory.  Fostering isn't just ministry. It's warfare.  --- "You ...

 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loves us…” 1 John 4:10 Love is NOT defined as us loving God.  Why?  It’s no miracle for imperfect ones to love One so perfect as He is -even if it is only in an admiring sort of way.  If love is us loving, the best we give is our leftovers, for we are always self-preserving. And that love amazes no one.  Don’t look at humanity to see what love is. You’ll never learn love there. At least, not in the fullest sense.  No, the best ways we love are when we live fully in the way God created us, but even then it falls way short.  Fatherhood, motherhood, marriage, friendship, etc. -these are only dim pictures of the love of God.  Love is THIS: God loving us.  One so perfect should not love ones so unlike Him -but He does.  He set His love on humanity and chased her all the way to the grave. He traded His life for hers. His perfection for her filth.  We are the ones who should have hung o...

 It is strength to believe you have something to give, as long as you remember where that something is coming from.  It is strength to have confidence that you can be of service to others, even when shame shouts at you and tells you you are worthless.  When all you seem to have done is failed, it is strength -His strength in you- to rise up and act in love toward others.  Shame may tell you to get out of the race, but God tells you, “get up, My child, and start running again.”  It is strength to acknowledge weakness, but stand up in confidence that God’s strength hasn’t failed yet, nor ever will.  It is strength to acknowledge wrongs done and failures and receive Gods forgiveness while declaring, “but I can do all things through Christ, so I refuse to give up.”  It is not always proud to be confident.  The humble have lost confidence in themselves, while gaining strong confidence toward God and who He has declared them to be.  Weakness isn’t ...