A Mountain to Whistle Upon

"In a love relationship, can’t the love of your life influence your mind, the way you think and your decisions? If not, what does that say about your love and relationship? The way we think about the sovereignty of God is often through the lens of punishment, insecurity and control. I think we need a heart change and a mind shift about the way we view God, his sovereignty, and our relationship with him. He isn’t a robot who has been programmed by black and white, right or wrong. We are not robots with presets either. We are creations, complex and beautiful, loved by God regardless of our human frailty."

"There is a kind of crying I hope you have not experienced, and it is not just crying about something terrible that has happened, but a crying for all of the terrible things that have happened, not just to you but to everyone you know and to everyone you don’t know and even the people you don’t want to know, a crying that cannot be diluted by a brave deed or a king word, but only by someone holding you as your shoulders shake and your tears run down your face."

"Repentance is not self-regarding, but God-regarding. It is not self-loathing, but God-loving."

"Without repentance those who have created peace through power suffer from the delusion that the enemies of their peace are God’s enemies."

"The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person’s life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord’s own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it— something good, but not what is best.

The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord … .”

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"We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ’This is what God has done for me.’ "