gladitudes

I read this today. Great attitude/mindset as we Christians who love Jesus see an influx of Muslims in our communities.

“I’m planning to be civil toward any of my neighbors who may be heading for the local mosque. But in no way will I accept the charge that to tell them of the truth of the gospel of Jesus is to jeopardize the ‘pluralism’ that has made America a great springboard of freedom for so many generations. And no way either will I concede the right—a right that has now become a duty—to tell them that the error of their thinking is profound. I will do that not because I hate them, but because I love them.”

-Joel Belz

As Christians who seek to please the Lord, we are absolutely required to love the people around us regardless of their beliefs. That includes treating them with kindness AND telling them the life-saving truth of the Gospel.

The missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.

–From Os Chambers for today.

When you ask God to hear His voice, is this what you are expecting?

Psalm 29:4-9

The voice of the LORD is powerful;
   the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

⁵The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
   the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
   and Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
⁸The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
   the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth
   and strips the forests bare,
   and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

Christians sometimes talk about hearing the voice of the Lord. In reading this this morning, I was just really challenged at how I perceive God and how I think about hearing from Him. The truth is that through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for our sin, we are now able to come boldly before God (Eph. 3:12). God doesn’t destroy us with His voice (or other agents of His strength), but we still serve the same God. Holy awe at His Being is the only honest response to understanding who He really is.

Just a thought.

Today, over lunch, I took a little drive to collect my thoughts and get some lunch. I popped in a CD that I really enjoy: Sara Groves – Add to the Beauty. I’ve listened to the CD a lot and now don’t always pay that much attention to the words. This time, though, for some reason I really listened.

As I heard the words to this song, I guess, I was really touched. This is totally the attitude and motivation I have sometimes and want to have all the time.

Take a listen. Song: “Loving a Person”

I really like this passage I read this morning:

John 10:28-30
²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

As someone who has been a Christian for a while, it’s easy to forget some of the most basic truths about my condition. It’s a beautiful reality that I have been given eternal life and that I will never perish. Additionally, I’m secure in the hands of God—He won’t let anything “snatch me out of [his] hand.”

Surely God loves us and surely he has blessed us greatly! Be thankful.