Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. -MLK

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. -MLK

You are righteous, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments. Your word has been tested to the uttermost, and Your servant holds it dear. The righteousness of Your decrees is everlasting; grant me understanding, that I may live. Psalm 119:137,144

But when you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you. Matthew 10:19–20

He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted. Isaiah 53:3-4

The manifold evils in the world are allowed to exist because one through them can the greater good be brought into activity. This greater good is not any external achievement, but the love and heroism and self-sacrifice which the great conflict calls into play. –W. R. Inge

Fortunate fall – fortunate fall,

That gained for us so great a Redeemer. -Audrey Assad

Well, of all things I am listening to Handel’s Messiah.

Depised and rejected.

A man of sorrows.

And this morning in the stillness of my heart’s room

I repent.

I grieve for any moment of self-pity

Or hamster wheels in my head,

Around and around

Me, me, me.

It’s not about me.

He is my LORD, and He is who I long to follow

Into the darkness

To shine.

To step out with firm steady courage

Against the injustice which has woven its lies into the very fabric of humanity,

Into the compromised Church who has put its comfort and security above righteousness.

I have been reading Martin Luther King essays all week long.

And rather than bemoaning the lack of correct citation and murky thesis statements,

My heart should sing,

“We shall overcome.”

And yesterday I graded papers for seven hours.

Essays, worksheets, lab journals, vocabulary tables.

And did not join the 15,000 souls gathered just down the street

To make a public stand against the tide of darkness.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:7-9

 

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.  Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’  Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me.’ Matthew 25:31-46

 

And so today, let me take up my cross and follow You.

Into the darkness.

Let my light so shine before man

that they may give glory to My Father

Who is in heaven.

 

His kingdom come, His will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.