That He may be glorified

“As encouragers, our sense of worth is found in our identity as children of God and experienced as we grow in grace. It is not found in performance, appearance or status, nor through spiritual gifts, talents or intelligence, which God does not uniformly distributed to His children. God has uniformly distributed Himself, because every Christian is His child and He loves them all the same. Any Christian who deeply understands his or her personal identity in Christ and whose life is characterized by the fruit of the Spirit will have a true sense of self and be mentally healthy, (provided there are no neurological or physical abnormalities). The fact that all Christians have the same opportunity to be all that God has called them to be is the good news.”  

“Discipleship Counseling,” Dr. Neil T. Anderson

Good stuff I’m learning in school :)

“The Bible teaches that God is love; some have just interpreted this in such a way as vitrually to deny that He is just, which the Bible also teaches. Others press the Biblical doctrine of God’s goodness so far that it is made to contradict His holiness. Or they make His compassion cancel out His truth. Still others understand the sovereignty of God in a way that destroys or at least greatly diminishes His goodness and love. We can hold a correct view of truth only by daring to believe everything that God has said about Himself. It is a grave responsibility that a man takes upon himself when he seeks to edit out of God’s self-revelation such features as he in his ignorance deems objectionable. Blindness in part must surely fall upon any of us presumptuous enough to attempt such a thing. And it is wholly uncalled for. We need not fear to let the truth stand as it is written. There is no conflict among the divine attributes. God’s being is unitary. He cannot divide Himself and act at a given time from one of His attributes while the rest remain inactive. All that God is must accord with all that God does. Justice must be present in mercy, and love in judgement. And so with all the divine attributes. 

The faithfulness of God is a datum of sound theology but to the believer it becomes far more than that: it passes through the process of understanding and goes on to become nourishing food for the soul. Upon God’s faithfulness rests our whole hope of future blessedness. Only as He is faithful will His covenants stand and His promises be honored. Only as we have complete assurance that He is faithful may we live in peace and look forward with assurance to the life to come. Every heart can make its own application of this truth and draw from it such conclusions as the truth suggests and its own needs bring into focus. The tempted, the anxious, the fearful, the discouraged, may all find new hope and good cheer in the knowledge that our Heavenly Father is faithful. He will ever be true to His pledged word. The hard-pressed sons of the covenant may be sure that He will never remove His loving-kindness from them nor suffer His faithfulness to fail.” 

AW Tozer, “The Knowledge of the Holy: The Faithfulness of God”

“Who is God? What’s He like? What’s He thinking about me? Wrong answers to these questions keep most people away, and others at a distance. Most of us can’t seem to grasp the answers. A lot of us think that it’s not for us to know. Yet, we have the mind of Christ. Our new Spirit is One with Him. Christ came down and did only what He saw the Father do. The question becomes how can we not know Him? How can we still have trouble distinguishing between His work and the works of the devil, the works of the fallen world? Why, when your world stands still and you have a minute to ask - “who is God, who am I?” take the time to wait for a response? God is a Spirit, He talks to Your Spirit, and He is always speaking. Are you listening?”

“My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him. This called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.” Malachi 2:5

“Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace. For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone. To crush underfoot
all prisoners in the land, to deny people their rights
before the Most High, to deprive them of justice—
would not the Lord see such things? Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come? Why should the living complain
when punished for their sins? Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven, and say: “We have sinned and rebelled
and you have not forgiven. “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
you have slain without pity. You have covered yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through. You have made us scum and refuse
among the nations. “All our enemies have opened their mouths
wide against us. We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
ruin and destruction.” Streams of tears flow from my eyes
because my people are destroyed. My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief, until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees. What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city. Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird. They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me; the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to perish. I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.” You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.” Lamentations 3:21-58

Praise be to the Creator of the world who takes ashes and ruins and makes them beautiful. Lord, we stand in awe of You. The Holy God of Israel, the Almighty King, our Beloved Lord, Jesus, has called us into partnership with Him. Jesus, you redeem. You redeem in a way that cannot be expressed in words. You heal old wounds and scars, you dig deep into our darkest thoughts and gut out what should not be. You are able and willing to change every evil thought process and stubborn desire that is unwilling to turn to you. You have the power to change us. Only the most precious blood of Jesus could do that. Jesus, we stand in awe of you. We do not have anything of our own, all is to you, Lord Jesus. You adopted us as your children, and along with that, you took on our sadness, sorrow, pain, and sin. You took it on so you could help us overcome it. You provide wisdom, discernment, and strength to access Your Holy truth. We have the mind of Christ. Because of You, Jesus. Without your sacrifice it would not be possible. We humble ourselves, Lord Jesus, at your beautiful feet. We see the scars and wounds from our sins nailing you to the cross. We are speechless, Jesus. No words can thank you how much you deserve. Jesus please give us humility to bow down before you, so that You can lift our eyes back to you. Please help us to understand the greatness and holiness that You are. Help us never to forget that day, the day that changed everything. Help us never to forget how great you are, how big you are, and how real you are. Lord Jesus, there are none besides You. We desire nothing, Lord, but to remain under the Lordship of Christ for the rest of our days. You are so worthy, Lord Jesus. Not just worthy of a moment of our time, but worthy of a lifetime of thankfulness, surrender, sacrifice, and unconditional praise to You. Thank you, Jesus. You are the Holy One, our King, our Beloved, and we find no joy in this life apart from You. 

“Thirsty hearts are those whose longings have been wakened by the touch of God within them.” AW Tozer

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” Ezekiel 36:26-28

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.” Acts 17:24-28