“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
-Isaiah 58:8-9 NLT
Photo: BLM
I love watching a herd of horses grazing in an open pasture, or running free across the wide, sage-covered plateaus in Montana. I love hiking in the high country when the wildflowers are blooming—the purple lupine and the Indian paintbrush when it’s turning magenta. I love thunder clouds, massive ones. My family loves to sit outside on summer nights and watch the lightning, hear the thunder as a storm rolls in across Colorado. I love water, too—the ocean, streams, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, rain. I love jumping off high rocks into lakes with my boys. I love old barns, windmills, the West. I love vineyards. I love it when Stasi is loving something, love watching her delight. I love my boys. I love God.
Everything you love is what makes a life worth living. Take a moment, set down the book, and make a list of all the things you love. Don’t edit yourself; don’t worry about prioritizing or anything of that sort. Simply think of all the things you love. Whether it’s the people in your life or the things that bring you joy or the places that are dear to you or your God, you could not love them if you did not have a heart. Loving requires a heart alive and awake and free. A life filled with loving is a life most like the one that God lives, which is life as it was meant to be (Eph. 5:1-2).
Of all the things that are required of us in this life, which is the most important? What is the real point of our existence? Jesus was confronted with the question point-blank one day, and he boiled it all down to two things: loving God and loving others. Do this, he said, and you will find the purpose of your life. Everything else will fall into place. Somewhere down inside we know it’s true; we know love is the point. We know if we could truly love, and be loved, and never lose love, we would finally be happy. And is it even possible to love without your heart?
– John Eldredge, Waking the Dead
Photo: National Park Service
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: beauty, Christ, earth, enviroment, faith, Glacier, God, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, life, love, Montana, mountains, National Park, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation
“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
-Isaiah 59:8-9 NLT
Christ is not joking when he says that we shall inherit the kingdom prepared for us and we shall reign with him forever. We will take the position for which we have been uniquely made and will rule as he does—meaning, with creativity and power.
The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. (Rom. 8:19–20 The Message)
All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. (Rom. 8:21 NLT)
What would you like to do first? Paddle a canoe down the Amazon? Learn to play an instrument? Discover a new universe? You’ll have plenty of time for that and more.
And in the perfect time, O perfect God,
When we are in our home, our natal home
When joy shall carry every sacred load,
And from its life and peace no heart shall roam,
What if thou make us able to make like thee—
To light with moons, to clothe with greenery,
To hang gold sunsets o’er a rose and purple sea!
(George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul)
– John Eldredge, Epic
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: Christ, faith, God, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, life, love, nature, ocean, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, sunrise
“The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem
to buy back those in Israel
who have turned from their sins,”
says the Lord.
“And this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever. I, the Lord, have spoken!
-Isaiah 59:20-21 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: Bible, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, mountains, nature, personal, photography, salvation
“Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all to see.
For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you.
Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth,
but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.
All nations will come to your light;
mighty kings will come to see your radiance.
-Isaiah 60:1-3 NLT
Photo: Chris Gin
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: Bible, earth, enviroment, faith, God, life, love, nature, New Zealand, personal, photography, salvation, sunrise
I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!
For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation
and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding
or a bride with her jewels.
The Sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world.
Everyone will praise him!
His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring,
with plants springing up everywhere.
-Isaiah 61:10-11 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: Bible, earth, enviroment, faith, flowers, God, life, love, nature, personal, photography, salvation
Go out through the gates!
Prepare the highway for my people to return!
Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders;
raise a flag for all the nations to see.
11 The Lord has sent this message to every land:
“Tell the people of Israel,[e]
‘Look, your Savior is coming.
See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.’”
12 They will be called “The Holy People”
and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.”
-Isaiah 62:10-12 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: Bible, earth, enviroment, faith, God, nature, personal, photography, salvation
I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love.
I will praise the Lord for all he has done.
I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel,
which he has granted according to his mercy and love.
-Isaiah 63:7 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: Bible, faith, God, life, nature, ocean, photography, salvation, Sunset
Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
How the mountains would quake in your presence!
For since the world began,
no ear has heard
and no eye has seen a God like you,
who works for those who wait for him!
-Isaiah 64:1&4 NLT
Photo taken by Ranger JWF at Bear Lake
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: Bible, colorado, earth, faith, God, life, mountains, National Park, nature, personal, photography, RMNP, salvation
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