Shiana Stallard

"People, stuff, perfectly crafted houses and lives were never meant to help what hurts. In fact, the..."

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:04:30 -0400

“People, stuff, perfectly crafted houses and lives were never meant to help what hurts. In fact, the more we build everything just right, the more protective we get of it.”

- Jennie Allen, Anything

"Jesus loves us. He just does. Don’t get theological and start to figure out why. Just be grateful."

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 13:51:07 -0400

“Jesus loves us. He just does. Don’t get theological and start to figure out why. Just be grateful.”

- Mark Driscoll

"People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward..."

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 11:07:09 -0400

“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”

- D. A. Carson

"Do you really see sin as sin, or is it the guilt and shame that you want to get rid of?"

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:44:44 -0400

““Do you really see sin as sin, or is it the guilt and shame that you want to get rid of?””

- http://jasoncuster.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-owen-on-motives-for-mortifying-sin.html

"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the..."

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:19:05 -0400

““I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ … is God’s only self-justification in such a world” as ours….’ ‘The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.’””

- John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 326-327

sunsurfer: Poisedon Underwater Hotel, Dubai photo via google

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:54:35 -0400

sunsurfer:

Poisedon Underwater Hotel, Dubai

photo via google

Book List

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:53:00 -0400

In no particular order, books I want to read:

The Normal Christian Worker, Watchman Nee
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
Knowing Christ Today, Dallas Willard
The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Signature of the Cell, Stephen C. Meyer
When Sinners Say ‘I Do,’ Dave Harvey
A Billion Bootstraps, Philip Smith, Eric Thurman
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
Unhooked, Laura Sessions Stepp
Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture’s Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ, Darrell L. Bock, Daniel B. Wallace
What Did You Expect, Paul David Tripp
Give them Grace: Dazzling your Kids with the Love of Jesus, Elyse Fitzpatrick

Joy the Baker

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:14:03 -0400

Joy the Baker:

I never thought I would laugh out loud at a recipe. Forget the churros - this story is awesome. (Though I’m sure the churros are, too.)

Caring for Your Introvert

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:31:19 -0400

Caring for Your Introvert:

As shared by Andrew Thomasson via Facebook.

"Introverts are driven to distraction by the semi-internal dialogue extroverts tend to conduct...."

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:00:26 -0400

““Introverts are driven to distraction by the semi-internal dialogue extroverts tend to conduct. Introverts don’t outwardly complain, instead roll their eyes and silently curse the darkness.””

- Thomas P. Crouser

"David and Goliath is not about you overcoming the giants in your life. You’re not David. You are the..."

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:44:52 -0400

“David and Goliath is not about you overcoming the giants in your life. You’re not David. You are the cowardly Israelites over in the corner going “What are we gonna do, he’s talking so mean to us!?” Jesus is David, slaughtering the giant of sin and death. You’re not the point. He is the point.”

- Matt Chandler

"The implications of woman’s origin are profound. Her dignity and worth, her necessity, her role in..."

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:10:00 -0500

“The implications of woman’s origin are profound. Her dignity and worth, her necessity, her role in life and marriage, and her unique beauty have been established by God from the beginning. She was made to be a man’s faithful helper. And there is no greater help she can offer him than her prayers on his behalf to the One who alone can provide perfect, sovereign help…You are not sufficient succor for him. A stronger Hand must come to his aid. Blessed is the wife who pleads often for this mighty Hand to keep her husband’s life; who begs for him at the gates of Grace. This is the sort of woman who fears the LORD, feels her own weakness, and finds refuge and righteousness in Jesus Christ. She wants God for her husband. She is to be praised.”

- Andrew Case, Prayers of an Excellent Wife

Anatomy of a Staples Meltdown

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:45:20 -0500

The overall wedding planning experience has been rather un-stressful so far - that is until it was time to get invitations out. My dear and extremely talented friend, Brooke Shipton, offered to design our wedding invitations for us. She did a gorgeous job! I couldn’t wait to get them all printed and mailed out…until it was time to print them.

I emailed the files to my mom down in J-ville, who had them all printed that day, and then over-nighted to me (thanks, mom!). Everything (invitations, RSVPs, information cards) was on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, so we had to do all the slicing ourselves. Everything was going rather smoothly until we got to the information cards. The J-ville printers had misprinted them, cutting off about 1/2 inch of the bottom of the card. They offered to redo everything for us, but I just didn’t have the time (or want to spend the money) to overnight them again. So I hopped on Photoshop (a program in which I have no experience) and whipped up a (very) simple information card. This 10 minute task took me a little over an hour.

We made it to Staples for the second time today, and Juanita (the printing specialist), told me she needed me to place 8 ‘cards’ on one page, so all she would have to do is press print. I had no idea how to do this, but Ben and I were determined to get it done. We left, somewhat confident of our abilities. (After all, I did master Photoshop in an hour!) Well…TWO stupid trips, and a small melt-down-in-the-parking-lot later, we finally got our information cards printed.

Now Ben and I are slicing away, only to discover we misspelled “accommodations.” If you know me (or Ben), you know we are insanely OCD about spelling and grammar, but we are so over these invitations that we don’t care!

So…to all our dear wedding invitees, sorry for the misspelling! :)

"Progressive sanctification is horrifically slow! What ends up happening in an information age is we..."

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:02:36 -0500

““Progressive sanctification is horrifically slow! What ends up happening in an information age is we learn truths quicker than we can apply them, so we never wanna come clean about what’s actually going on in our hearts because we would rather be a hypocrite than be seen as one. It’s ok to not be ok. It’s not ok to stay there. It’s not enough to know. You gotta be hungry enough to walk toward it.””

- Matt Chandler

Texting with Lance

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:28:30 -0500

Bubba: Btw do you remember Pinedale? The elementary school I went to for a year or so?
Me: Yea, I remember.
Bubba: What kind of school was that?
Me: Magnet.
Bubba: Magnet for what? Cause I was just looking at it and all I see is stuff for special needs children.

"I’m trying to find a moment with you These days are speeding by This ring gives me a new point..."

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:07:00 -0500

“

I’m trying to find a moment with you
These days are speeding by
This ring gives me a new point of view
I’m a dealer of my time

And if I can make a confession
My time is torn between
The man who has won my affections
And the God who made me

Oh, it all looks different
But that doesn’t mean anything has changed

Cause still I, I reach for you
When I am afraid
And this breath that comes from you
Helps me say your name

”

- Bethany Dillon, Say Your Name

"The irony of the gospel is that we actually perform better as we grow in our understanding that our..."

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:18:52 -0400

“The irony of the gospel is that we actually perform better as we grow in our understanding that our relationship with God is based on Christ’s performance for us, not our performance for him.”

- Tullian Tchividjian, Growth by Remembering

"We’re adrift on a sailboat My love is the sea Yours is the horizon Constant and steady You set my..."

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:14:22 -0400

“

We’re adrift on a sailboat
My love is the sea
Yours is the horizon
Constant and steady

You set my landlocked heart afloat
Lifted my lonesome sails

The tide is out
The moon is high
We’re sailing

Darling, your love is healing
It makes the bitter sweet
Warms the winter to spring again
Secures the colds defeat

We’re cutting anchor
Casting out
Into the glorious deep

The tide is out
The moon is high
We’re sailing

When we succumb to decrepitude
Still our love will remain in its youth

The tide is out
The moon is high
We’re sailing

”

- Sailboats

Brooke Fraser

"All we need for life and faith is found in this book. I do not love the Bible, I love the God of the..."

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:07:19 -0400

“All we need for life and faith is found in this book. I do not love the Bible, I love the God of the Bible and the Bible was given to me by that God to know him and love him all the more. If you love your Bible but you don’t love God you become a hard-hearted moron who does more damage to the Kingdom than you ever bring life to the Kingdom.”

- Matt Chandler

"The life of faith is lived one day at a time, and it has to be lived—not always looked forward..."

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:54:34 -0400

“The life of faith is lived one day at a time, and it has to be lived—not always looked forward to as though the “real” living were around the next corner. It is today for which we are responsible. God still owns tomorrow.”

- Elisabeth Elliot, Let Me Be a Woman