New Graphic - Reckless Grace

A quote by Tim Keller on reckless grace being our greatest hope in English and Romanian. They are HD size (1920 x 1080). You can download them here: English Romanian. If you click directly on the photo Blogger will open it and you can right click and download it that way as well but they will be a bit smaller (1600 x 900). Here is a link to all the graphics I have made so far: William's Graphics.

Also on Pinterest , Google + and Twitter

The Truly Full Life

“The truly full life is the one surrendered to God in every square inch of it. It’s the life packed in every nook and cranny with Christ as Lord, the gospel our hope, and the Kingdom as mission.” -- Yancey Arrington

Photo by Joe Philipson 

Warped Affections

"We exchange the truth about God for a lie. And because we do not believe in God as we should, something else comes to matter more to us than God. Sin is always the result of misplaced affections. Sin makes promises. When we believe those promises, we think sin offers more than God. This lie warps our affections. Our love, our delight, our fear, and our hope become misplaced." -- Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

Gospel Quote - Stop Running and Come Home

(Continued from yesterday) "God gave us the car-keys to planet earth and said, “Go have fun!” True, we responded by crashing the car. But don’t miss the bigger point, which is this: Knowing what we would do, and knowing how much it would cost him to repair the damage, God went ahead and did it anyway. Why? Because he loves us and believes in us and hopes that one day we will stop running and come home." -- Paul Ellis

Photo by Ryan McAbee

What the Church Can Learn from Country Music

Photo by Bob Jagendorf

I recently read a thought provoking blog post titled Why Country Music is So Popular (and What the Church Can Learn From it) which I really enjoyed. Here is a part of it:

People listen to music for a variety of reasons. My mood and temperament may be the catalyst that helps me decide between listening to U2 or Eric Church.  But when it comes down to it, I am really comforted by the stories, especially the ones that have a God/sin contradiction. It is as if I finally have found a place where people are like me. Now, I don’t have problems with bars, alcohol, or being in love with someone other than my wife, but I do have problems that are just as serious to me. I live the same contradiction that country musicians are not afraid to write about.

Why do I struggle? Why do you struggle? Why do we, who have put our trust in Jesus for our sins, struggle to talk about the contradiction that we live? It is because of our own expectations or the expectations of others? Or is it because of the voices that we listen to. Do we really understand the gospel and the grace of God that is ours in Jesus? Do we really know deep in our hearts who we are now because of Jesus? Do we listen to His voice?

We should learn from country music how to be real and confess our struggles. We are messy and hypocrites, there is no use denying it. But thankfully that is not the end of the song. Because of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives we have hope. We have hope of becoming more like Jesus with each passing day and we have the hope that when we see Him face-to-face we will be just like Him. Not because of wishful thinking but because the Bible tells us so. See 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 1 John 3:2-3.

So let's be real and confess our sins to one another but let's also be hopeful and offer words of hope and encouragement to one another as we learn to open up and admit our weaknesses and struggles. Let's write our own country music songs but let's end them by always pointing to Jesus and the hope we have in Him.

Gospel Quotes - The Vertical and Ultimate Solution

"There is something that lurks inside me that is dark and dangerous – sin. It kidnaps my thoughts, diverts my desires, and distorts my words. Only Christ can fix this problem. No horizontal hope can ever fix a vertical problem. So God promises to send His son as the vertical and ultimate solution. This Advent season, celebrate the true, life-giving source of Hope. And remember, hope is never a situation. Hope is never a location. Hope is never an ideology. Hope is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ." -- Paul Tripp