|
c49b48d
|
It's not about finding ways to avoid God's judgment and feeling like a failure if you don't do everything perfectly. It's about fully experiencing God's love and letting it perfect you. It's not about being somebody you are not. It's about becoming who you really are.
|
|
god
love
inspirational
god-s-love
|
Stormie Omartian |
|
2eeb1fb
|
First of all, you have to keep unmasking the world about you for what it is: manipulative, controlling, power-hungry, and, in the long run, destructive. The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this. Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: 'These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting belief.
|
|
god-s-love
|
Henri J.M. Nouwen |
|
87bb52f
|
"Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners. But no one can be in the presence of the God of the crucified Messiah for long without overcoming this double exclusion -- without transposing the enemy from the sphere of the monstrous... into the sphere of shared humanity and herself from the sphere of proud innocence into the sphere of common sinfulness. When one knows [as the cross demonstrates] that the torturer will not eternally triumph over the victim, one is free to rediscover that person's humanity and imitate God's love for him. And when one knows [as the cross demonstrates]
|
|
miroslav-volf
god-s-love
|
Miroslav Volf |
|
dd61502
|
To be chosen as the Beloved of God is something radically different. Instead of excluding others, it includes others. Instead of rejecting others as less valuable, it accepts others in their own uniqueness. It is not a competitive, but a compassionate choice. Our minds have great difficulty in coming to grips with such a reality. Maybe our minds will never understand it. Perhaps it is only our hearts that can accomplish this. Every time we hear about 'chosen people', 'chosen talents', or 'chosen friends', we almost automatically start thinking about elites and find ourselves not far from feelings of jealousy, anger, or resentment. Not seldom has the perception of others as being chosen led to aggression, violence, and war.
|
|
god-s-love
|
Henri J.M. Nouwen |
|
88e7930
|
When we claim and constantly reclaim the truth of being the chosen ones, we soon discover within ourselves a deep desire to reveal to others their own chosenness. Instead of making us feel that we are better, more precious or valuable than others, our awareness of being chosen opens our eyes to the chosenness of others. That is the great joy of being chosen: the discovery that others are chosen as well. In the house of God there are many mansions. There is a place for everyone - a unique, special place. Once we deeply trust that we ourselves are precious in God's eyes, we are able to recognize the preciousness of others and their unique places in God's heart.
|
|
philia
god-s-love
|
Henri J.M. Nouwen |
|
a2193b5
|
The maker of the stars would rather die for you than live without you. And that is a fact. So if you need to brag, brag about that.
|
|
christianity
faith
god
boast
boasting
god-s-love
christian
|
Max Lucado |
|
a67bdad
|
I experience religious dread whenever I find myself thinking that I know the limits of God's grace, since I am utterly certain it exceeds any imagination a human being might have of it. God does, after all, so love the world.
|
|
god
god-s-love
grace
|
Marilynne Robinson |
|
e987340
|
Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. [...] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him, like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:26-29).
|
|
prayer
god-s-love
god-s-grace
|
Peter Kreeft |
|
72dc250
|
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God's love. The great message that we have to carry, as ministers of God's Word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human life.
|
|
christianity
jesus
pastoral-ministry
clergy
god-s-love
ministry
|
Henri J.M. Nouwen |
|
d56a178
|
But simple as the Sign of the Cross is, it carries a brave weight: it names the Trinity, celebrates the Creator, and brings home all the power of faith to the brush of fingers on skin and bone and belly. So do we, sometimes well and sometimes ill, labor to bring home our belief in God's love to the stuff of our daily lives, the skin and bone of this world -- and the Sign of the Cross helps us to remember that we have a Companion on the road.
|
|
prayer
christianity
jesus
faith
religion
god
love
sacramental
sign-of-the-cross
holy-trinity
trinity
catholic
god-s-love
catholicism
cross
jesus-christ
christian
creator
christ
|
Brian Doyle |
|
07a1669
|
"Grace to me is a little bit of extra help when you're feeling stuck or doomed or, probably, hopefully, out of good ideas on how to save yourself, and how to salvage the situation or the friendship or the whatever it is," Anne Lamott once told me. "I wish it was accompanied by harp music so you could know that's what was happening, but for me it's that extra pause or that extra breath or that extra minute's patience against all odds." On that first trip to Ireland, grace--the kick-in-the-pants, clarifying, cosmic-pause-button kind of grace--didn't just have a harp. It had an entire soundtrack..."
|
|
god-s-love
grace-of-god
ireland
grace
god-s-grace
|
Cathleen Falsani |
|
f1f1d52
|
"Want to know the coolest thing about the coming? Not that the One who played marbles with the stars gave it up to play marbles with marbles. Or that the One who hung the galaxies gave it up to hang doorjambs to the displeasure of a cranky client who wanted everything yesterday but couldn't pay until tomorrow. Not that he, in an instant, went from needing nothing to needing air, food, a tub of hot water and salts for his tired feet, and, more than anything, needing somebody - anybody - who was more concerned about where he would spend eternity rather than where he would spend Friday's paycheck. Or that he resisted the urge to fry the two=bit, self-appointed hall monitors of holiness who dared suggest that he was doing the work of the devil. Not that he kept his cool while the dozen best friends he ever had felt the heat and got out of the kitchen. Or that he gave no command to the angels who begged, "Just give us the nod, Lord. One word and these demons will be deviled eggs." Not that he refused to defend himself when blamed for every sin of every slut and sailor since Adam. Or that he stood silent as a million guilty verdicts echoed in the tribunal of heaven and the giver of light was left in the chill of a sinner's night. Not even that after three days in a dark hole he stepped into the Easter sunrise with a smile and a swagger and a question for lowly Lucifer - "Is that your best punch?" That was cool, incredibly cool. But want to know the coolest thing about the One who gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns? He did it for you. Just for you." --
|
|
jesus
god-s-love
|
Max Lucado |
|
220c293
|
"[Jesus] said, "Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill....For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt. 9:10-13). Jesus opened up God's heart to men."
|
|
jesus
god-s-love
christian
|
Watchman Nee |
|
e352a49
|
I stared at the little white agates in my hand, delicate as moon drops. The mystery of God's love as I understand it is that God loves the man who was being mean to his dog just as much as he loves babies; God loves Susan Smith, who drowned her two sons, as much as he loves Desmond Tutu. And he loved her just as much when she was releasing the handbrake of her car that sent her boys into the river as he did when she first nursed them. So of course, he loves old ordinary me, even or especially at my most scared and petty and mean and obsessive. Loves me; chooses me. Remembering this helped, but here is what in fact saved me: Sam came over to see what I held in my palm, glared contemptuously at my small white pebbles, and then without missing a beat slapped the bottom of my hand so that the agates scattered. He ran off down the beach, laughing with glee. It surprised me so, this small meanness, that it made me catch my breath. Boy, I thought, is he going to be hard to place. When I was young I would have felt, What's the point of trying to be good if the people who aren't even trying get to be equally loved? Now I just picked up my pace and tried to catch up with that rotten Sam, because I don't know much of anything for sure. Only that I am loved - as is
|
|
love
god-s-love
mystery
knowledge
|
Anne Lamott |
|
7b38a12
|
The greatest sense of love, which is available for us at all times, is God's love.
|
|
love-quotes
inspirational-quotes
christian-living
god-s-love
|
Stormie Omartian |
|
fa6c4d5
|
It's only when we acknowledge God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we can receive His love for us.
|
|
christianity
motivational
god
inspirational
holy-spirit
god-s-love
|
Stormie Omartian |
|
ade43df
|
One contradiction of the human heart is this: God refuses to see any one person as unique in his or her relationship to Him, and yet we humans see each other as bottomless wells of creativity and uniqueness.
|
|
religion
philosophy
god-s-love
philosophy-of-religion
philosophy-of-life
|
Douglas Coupland |