"Once you kill the lion and the bear in private, God will trust you in killing Goliath in public."

Pastor Bill Johnson (via mysimplerevelations)

"Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light."

hymn: “Be Thou my Vision”

"Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above"

“come thou fount” (hymn)

run river north (aka monsters calling home)- foxbeard

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my grandpa is the best historian and storyteller I know— from the wars he’s known as a young man to the cruise he took around Alaska. His volumes of journals and photo albums are both captivating and poetic; his seemingly hardened heart is evidently softened by the ways in which he experiences life as described in his albums.  I am always awed by him and pray fervently for his salvation so that I may be able to forever listen and hear his wonderful stories <3

oh how I’ve missed being home.

classic.

Before Study (a prayer)

Creator of all things,

true source of light and wisdom,

lofty origin of all being,

graciously let a ray of your brilliance

penetrate into the darkness of my understanding

and take from me the double darkness in which I have been born,

an obscurity of both sin and ignorance.

Give me a sharp sense of understanding,

a retentive memory,

and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.

Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,

and the ability to express myself

with thoroughness and charm.

Point out the beginning, direct the progress,

and help in the completion;

through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

-St. Thomas Aquinas

"Where reason fails, with all her powers,
There faith prevails and love adores."

Isaac Watts

rejection.

Rejection is tough, whether it’s from a person, an internship, or a job. Rejection makes us think: What did I do wrong?  How come I wasn’t good enough?  Rejection raises all our insecurities and makes us question even the best of our individual qualities.  We put ourselves out there and we’ve listed our top qualities—resumes filled with our greatest accomplishments, hours and cash we don’t really have poured into dressing right—we try so hard to present ourselves in the best way possible.

So often getting rejected makes us think about ourselves and magnifies all the flaws in our lives.  But getting rejected is not about not being good enough or qualified enough; rejection is an indication of things that weren’t meant to be.  Rejection allows for us to grow and expand in who we are and what we’re purposed here to be.  Rejection was and is for me, God’s way of teaching me to trust in His good and perfect will.  Rejection teaches me to stop pondering and focusing on my doubts, worries, and insecurities and helps me focus on how Christ can be perfected in my weakness.  Rejection is not worrying about tomorrow and about life; it is seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness.  Rejection allows God to the sovereign, gracious composer and shepherd in our lives—rejection gives way for us to let Christ be our Lord.  Rejection in this manner is never easy, but it is necessary.

So it is my prayer for myself and for any of you who have been rejected to allow rejection to take its course in our lives so that we may allow Christ to be our ultimate Savior and Lord.  May the Lord bless you and keep you.  May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.  May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.  Amen.

"In our compassion we, in our feeble way, are seeking to be what God is all the time: united with and within the life of our friend. We can say in the psalm ‘The Lord is compassion’ but a sign that this is metaphorical language is that we can also say that the Lord has no need of compassion; he has something more wonderful, he has his creative act in which he is ‘closer to the sufferer than she is to herself’."

Herbert McCabe in God Matters