And this is my prayer: I pray that your love will grow more and more. I pray that you will have better understanding and be wise in all things. I pray that you will know what is the very best. I pray that you will be true and without blame until the day Christ comes again. And I pray that you will be filled with the fruits of right living. These come from Jesus Christ, with honor and thanks to God.
-Philippians 1:9-11 NLT
Picture Credit: Trent Savage
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, love, mountains, nature, photography, salvation, utah
“I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like silence, listening
To silence, for no lonely bird would sing
Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn,
Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn; —
Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright
With tangled gossamer that fell by night,
Pearling his coronet of golden corn.”
-Thomas Hood
Picture Credit: Jim Zuckerman
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: art, beauty, books, conservation, earth, enviroment, hiking, life, literature, local, love, nature, personal, photography, poetry, travel
What Jesus primarily models for us is how to draw our life from the Father. The passage I quoted earlier from Philippians—one of the earliest hymns of the faith—says that Jesus more than humbled himself when he came to earth. He emptied himself:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:6–7)
The kenosis of Christ, a mystery we cannot fully explain nor explain away—the choice Jesus made to “empty” himself of his divine powers and prerogatives in order to take on the limitations of humanity.
If Jesus was pretending to be a man, then his life is so far beyond ours it can’t really be a model for us to follow. To err is human, to forgive is divine and all that. But, if Jesus chose a genuine humanity, and drew his power from the Father as we must do, then we can live as he did.
-John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw, 137, 138
Picture Credit: Steve Howa
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: art, beauty, books, faith, God, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, literature, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, utah
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
-Romans 5:1-2 NLT
Picture Credit: John Stinnet
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, faith, fall colors, God, Jesus Christ, life, love, nature, photography, salvation, utah
“The sunlight claps the earth, and the moonbeams kiss the sea: what are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?”
-Percy Bysshe Shelley
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: art, beauty, books, conservation, earth, enviroment, life, literature, local, nature, personal, photography, spirituality, travel
Jesus needs to disciple these fishermen, tax collectors, and political revolutionaries who dropped their careers to follow him. I’m not sure we’ve understood the ramifications of his decision. We just think, Oh, yeah, the disciples, and forget what was actually required for them to become apostles. This is going to take a lot of work. There’s no fairy godmother waving her wand here; these pumpkins don’t just turn into coaches.
To be a crowd-drawing teacher can be a rather heady experience, all eyes looking to you for the next bit of wisdom to drop from your lips. It’s easy to be gracious when you’re adored. But when your class keeps missing the point, challenging you, running down rabbit trails, changing the subject, misunderstanding, breaking out into a brawl—that’s when your character is exposed. I never really saw the endurance of this. I think the shining brilliance of what Jesus is teaching has obscured the process involved here, all that this required of him. We’ve become so used to Jesus being gracious, kind, and patient, we miss the humility of it.
-John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw, 133, 136
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: art, beauty, books, colorado, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, literature, love, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart
Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
-Philippians 1:3-6 NLT
Picture Credit: Mike Putnam
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, love, nature, Oregon, personal, photography
“My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.”
-Aldous Huxley
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: art, beauty, books, conservation, earth, enviroment, faith, God, literature, local, mountains, nature, personal, photography, religion, spirituality
Have you ever wondered why the Cinderella story keeps haunting us? Not only is it a perennial favorite of little girls, it haunts us as woman. Think of all the movies made along its themes, movies like Pretty Woman and Ever After and A Cinderella Story and Maid in Manhattan. Why is this notion of a hidden princess so enduring? Is there something in our hearts that is trying to speak to us? Is it just fantasy, escapism? Or is there something more?
The desire of a woman’s heart and the realities of a woman’s life seem an ocean apart. O, we long for romance and an irreplaceable role in a great story, we long for beauty. But that’s not the life we have. The result is a sense of shame. Universally women struggle with their self worth. “I feel like a household appliance,” one woman confessed to us.
A woman’s struggle with her sense of worth points to something glorious she was designed to be. The great emptiness we feel points to the great place we were created for. It’s true. All those legends and fairy tales of the undiscovered Princess and the Beauty hidden as a maid are more accurate than we thought. There’s a reason little girls resonate with them so.
-John & Stasi Eldredge, Captivating, 21-22
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: art, beauty, books, John Eldredge, life, literature, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, spirituality, woman, Women
Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.
-Colossians 3:20-21 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, colorado, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, love, mountains, nature, personal, photography, photos, salvation
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