It’s a strange reality. The notion that Jesus, who is Good, endorsed denying ourselves. At first hearing, that seems not all that good for our becoming – for our flourishing. I think the way that message has been communicated over the years has actually lead to some less than helpful understandings of who God is, and perhaps, of our understanding of who we are, to him. But – to deny ourselves in light of the […]
“Watch what God does, and then you do it…. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that..” Eph 5:1-2 (MSG) ‘Love like that.’ I think sometimes it’s easy to read God’s words as […]
“They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new.” Isaiah 61:1-7 (MSG) The verses leading up to this talk about how exactly those who mourn in Zion are able to ‘rebuild new cities.’ About what conditions are needed to move from mourning, to rebuilding. What is within their power to rebuild will be dependent upon […]
“In the presence of God I have the only life I’m ever going to find that’s that beautiful, compelling, true.” – Dan Allender To find yourself in the company of God is, I think, beautifully scary. The truth of our life contrasted with his will undoubtedly reveal our weakness, our struggle. It is only because this contrast occurs in the context of absolute love, rather than shame, that we find a new way to move […]
“But now that we truly know him and understand how deeply we’re loved by him, why would we, even for a moment, consider turning back to those weak and feeble principles of religion, as though we were still subject to them?” Galatians 4:9 (TPT) There’s this kind of lovely unsaid interaction that happens when you let a kid know you’ve seen them. Their eyes light up when they see you’ve heard their hot off the […]
“You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-3 (MSG) When I read this verse, I see a picture of something being cracked open and broken – exposing all the colours and life once hidden beneath its shell – revealing […]
“Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts.” – Brene Brown. What nourishes your heart? What would come if it were solely the God who created us? What if it were the divine God of *love* (not […]
“I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!” John 14:27 TPT There are these things in life we can’t avoid, because the collective picture is always greater and beyond the control of just our own paintbrush – it involves the sometimes wonderful but sometimes fateful, strokes of others […]
“..but God stuck by me. He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!” Psalm 18. // Have you ever been offered something you felt guilty about receiving? ‘If the giver knew your whole story, maybe they wouldn’t be giving this, or choosing me, or spending time with me’ type thing? Ever fallen into the whole ‘I’m not good enough’ for it or her or him or this thing? […]
anne-marie elizabeth 