What Will God Think of You?

In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised. I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except in so far as it is related to how He thinks of us. It is written that we shall “stand before” Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God ... to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”

The Weight of Glory
C. S. Lewis

I Hope You Dance

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder.
…
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leaves you empty handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the chance to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living life means taking chances, but they're worth taking
Loving might be a mistake, but it's worth it making
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

As Sung by Lee Ann Womack

Our Grand, Indescribably Magnificent God

I’ve just finished reading portions of a lecture given by David McCullough. Mr. McCullough, a historian, is the author of 1776, John Adams, Truman, and others. He has been honored with the Pulitzer Prize twice, the National Book Award twice, the Francis Parkman Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

The lecture, A Man Worth Knowing, is a condensed look at the life of John Adams. I am especially moved by these excerpts from President Adams’ diary which McCullough quotes. “I never delighted much,” Adams writes,

“in contemplating commas and colons, or in spelling or measuring syllables; but now … if I attempt to look at these little objects, I find my imagination, in spite of all my exertions, roaming in the Milky Way, among the nebulae, those mighty orbs, and stupendous orbits of suns, planets, satellites, and comets, which compose the incomprehensible universe; and if I do not sink into nothing in my own estimation, I feel an irresistible impulse to fall on my knees, in adoration of the power that moves, the wisdom that directs, the benevolence that sanctifies this wonderful whole.

The other excerpt, inspired by an ice storm that destroyed all of his treasured fruit trees and could have broken him, is equally inspiring.

“A rain had fallen from some warmer region in the skies when the cold here below was intense to an extreme. Every drop was frozen wherever it fell in the trees, and clung to the limbs and sprigs as if it had been fastened by hooks of steel. The earth was never more universally covered with snow, and the rain had frozen upon a crust on the surface which shone with the brightness of burnished silver. The icicles on every sprig glowed in all the luster of diamonds. Every tree was a chandelier of cut glass. I have seen a queen of France with 18 millions of livres of diamonds upon her person and I declare that all the charms of her face and figure added to all the glitter of her jewels did not make an impression on me equal that presented by every shrub. The whole world was glittering with precious stones.”

‘Tis a wonderful world and a grand, indescribably magnificent God who’s made it!
… JD

No Wonder they Call His Grace "Amazing"

Quoting from her own book "The Late Liz," Gertrude Behanna says, "In standing aside and looking back at this woman I used to be, it is more and more possible to detach myself, to view her in third person. She was she and I am I; Siamese Twins perhaps, one of whom must die that the other may live.’

"I went over to my bed and got down on my knees. I said ‘If you’re anywhere around I wish you’d please help me because I sure need it.’ And in about 20 minutes it was all over.
Of course there are no words. All I know is that it was more like a spiritual shower bath than anything. I felt cleansed. I also felt welcome. I’d never had a home. And I felt welcomed. I also felt forgiven. And I knew exactly who this was. I who had never known anything about God in my whole life knew exactly who this was.
After a while I stood up and I said, ‘Thank you very much Sir! I don’t know anything about this and I’m going to have to start from scratch but I’ll tell you one thing I’ll never take another drop of liquor as long as I live.’ And I haven’t.
People are always saying to me ‘I wish I had your character.’ Well I don’t have any character. It doesn’t make sense that a woman of 53 would get down on her knees and 20 minutes later get up with character. Something had been added alright; a plus. And a plus is in the shape of the cross. You and I call Him Jesus Christ.”
Gert often, if not always, closed her talks with this prayer …

“Oh Lord I ain’t what I oughta be!
Lord I ain’t what I wanna be!
Lord I ain’t what I’m gonna be!

But, thanks Lord I ain’t what I used to be!”

Losing Our Moral Compass

“Shoah” – Heb – “whirlwind; confusion; holocaust” – (comes about) when good and bad are put on the same plane, and the evil receive the approval of the just.”

"As we spread freedom around the world, I think there is concern, judging from much of what we see going on at home, that we're losing a sense of what the pillars are that hold our own free society together. If we're losing our compass at home, can we really spread the word abroad? This is a subject blacks know well. It's why the marriage issue struck as responsive a chord as it did in this community. We know from what we have seen in our own communities that when core traditional values collapse, when the integrity of families collapses, when life becomes cheap, when property has no meaning, there is no freedom." —Star Parker

Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education, a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides national dialogue on issues of race and poverty in the media, inner city neighborhoods, and public policy.
Prior to her involvement in social activism, Star Parker was a single welfare mother in Los Angeles, California. After receiving Christ, Star returned to college, received a BS degree in marketing, and launched an urban Christian magazine.
The 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her business, yet served as a springboard for her focus on faith-based and free market alternatives to empower the lives of the poor. As a social policy consultant, Star Parker gives regular testimony before the U.S. Congress, and is a national expert on major television and radio shows across the country.
Currently, Star is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News. She debated Jesse Jackson on BET; fought for school choice on Larry King Live; and defended welfare reform on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Nationwide, Star shares her story and policy suggestions through college and church lectures, community outreaches, and empowerment conferences for inner city pastors. She has hosted radio talk shows in Christian and secular markets, and currently is a regular guest editorialist for USA Today.
Major accomplishments include speaking at the 1996 Republican National Convention and co-producing a documentary on welfare reform with the BBC in London. Star Parker's personal transformation from welfare fraud to conservative crusader has been chronicled by ABC's 20/20; Rush Limbaugh; Readers Digest; Dr. James Dobson; The 700 Club; Dr. George Grant; the Washington Times; Christianity Today; Charisma, and World Magazine. Articles and quotes by Star have appeared in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. Her autobiography Pimps, Whores & Welfare Brats was released in 1997 by Pocket Books, and Uncle Sam's Plantation was released by Thomas Nelson in the fall of 2003.

Your Place, Your People, Your Word, Your Way Lord

Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan Friar, Chaplain of the FDNY, and a sober alcoholic, was known and loved by the NYC Firefighter as well as members of New York City Alcoholics Anonymous. He was killed on 9.11.01 while administering Last Rites to a dying firefighter at the foot of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
He created the prayer shared here:

Lord,
Take me where You want me to go;
Let me meet who You want me to meet;
Tell me now what you want me to say,and keep me out of Your way.

A Thought about Authentic Church

“You need not tell me who you are. This is not my house; it is the house of Christ. It does not ask any comer whether he has a name, but whether he has an affliction. You are suffering; you are hungry and thirsty. Be welcome.”
The Bishop Bienvenu to ex-prisoner Jean Valjean
In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables

Witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus

"When modern writers talk of the Resurrection they usually mean one particular moment – the discovery of the Empty Tomb and the appearance of Jesus a few yards away from it. The story of that moment is what Christian apologists now chiefly try to support and skeptics chiefly try to impugn. But this almost exclusive concentration on the first five minutes or so of the Resurrection would have astonished the earliest Christian teachers. In claiming to have seen the Resurrection they were not necessarily claiming to have seen that. Some of them had, some of them had not. It had no more importance than any of the other appearances of the risen Jesus – apart from the poetic and dramatic importance which the beginnings of things must always have. What they were claiming was that they had all, at one time or another, met Jesus during the six of seven weeks that followed His death. Sometimes they seem to have been alone when they did so, but on one occasion twelve of them saw Him together, and on another occasion about five hundred of them. St. Paul says that the majority of the five hundred were still alive when he wrote the First Letter to the Corinthians, i.e. in about A.D. 55."
C. S. Lewis, Miracles, Chapter 16

“ … Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures … he was buried … he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures … he appeared to Peter … and then to the Twelve … he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep … he appeared to James, then to all the apostles … last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
St. Paul in 1st Letter to Corinthians 15: 3 – 8 (circa A.D. 55)

The Truly Brave

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and notwithstanding go out to meet them."
Thucydides

"Consider Jesus, the designer and consummation of our faith, Jesus who, knowing the joy that was to be his, ignored the danger - the cross and the suffering it would bring - scorning the shame that would come with it ..."
(Hebrews 12:2)

Your First Real Laugh at Yourself

“You grow up the day you have your first real laugh – at yourself.”
Ethel Barrymore

Finding Life in the Living

"Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, through routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, a kind and loving gesture, a subtle encouragement, a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort. Not to mention … soft spoken secrets … . And, maybe, the occasional piece of fiction. We must remember that all these things; the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, that we assume only accessorize our days, are in fact here for a much larger and nobler cause..."
From “Stranger than Fiction”
Produced by Lindsay Doran
Directed by Marc Forster

When We Think We're Too Strong

"We know we are seeing ourselves as too strong if we identify 1st with Jesus as the healer and not with the lepers who desperately need to be healed."
Marva Dawn, Powers Weakness and the Tabernacling of God