Tag: hope

Light, Life, Goodness & The Fight Against Evil

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I have been thinking about this verse all week:

Which had me thinking on life, building, being vs. destroying, destruction. Which led me to a great little rabbit trail. Follow along…

It started with the Hillsdale President (Larry Arnns) who spoke these words at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial,

“There’s a ladder that reaches up toward God. At the bottom are the ordinary good things around us everywhere. If we can call them by their names, they have being. The beings of the good things are figments of God… A good thing is a thing that has being.”

I found that Arnns’ conclusions are drawn from the works of Augustine (400 AD ish) and when I looked into his writings on this topic, I saw they could be summarized:

Evil has no life of its own; it is only the twisting or absence of the good that God creates.

See, we are in good Company as Truth Dwellers….because that summary led me to C.S. Lewis’ words in Mere Christianity,

“Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. … Evil is a parasite, not an original thing.”

These are such deep thoughts. I’ve been pondering them deeply. It’s hard to even put it all into words so I’m grateful other men have done it for me. 🙂

So, evil is a corruption of what is good. It cannot create . It doesn’t build, it destroys. It cannot stand on its own. Evil depends on good to exist.

This contrast is seen everywhere right now.

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Holy Grief

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Previous posts in this Grieving with God series:
1 – Suffering
2 – Choosing Joy
3 – Jesus Wept
4 – Walking with God through Suffering
5 – God is Strong. God is Loving

Thinking more on emotions today and how Jesus wept…

It is not accurate to say that believers shouldn’t grieve deeply. In fact, it is often God’s Spirit in us who is mourning when sorrow rolls in. He mourns with those who mourn. And many times His mourning is a beckoning – a holy invitation to go to Him. That feeling of longing that loss and sadness gives us…. is important to not ignore.

He IS the Father of all compassion and God of all comfort. There’s an entire book in His Word called Lamentations. So when Paul says, “don’t grieve as those without hope” — he is not saying do not grieve. He is saying grieve differently. Carry your grief right to the throne and let the Lord to minister you – filling you with LOVE and comfort and hope.

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Fighting Discouragement

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As we get older and experience more of life, even the most idealistic personalities among us can be tempted to be truly cynical about people, the fight against sin, the world, the state of the American church, and our country. Truly, evil and injustice are rampant, and deception and darkness covers the earth… BUT we must remind ourselves that the Lord warned us about these things and HE is where we rest our hope.

But how do we overcome the heavy-heartedness and burdened mind that can descend upon us when the darkness seems to be overwhelming, when people shock and disappoint us, or when it seems that there’s really no point in even trying to do and be good — because you’re still not as mature as you think you should be, you don’t see the fruit of your faithfulness, people don’t seem to listen to the Spirit of the Lord in you and instead very quickly listen to worldly ungodly voices, and the gap between what IS and what COULD BE in Christ seems to only widen?

Of course, the answer is to “Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” Hebrews 12:3

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Rest Your Hope

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“Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober-minded, rest your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” I Peter 1:13

Where do I rest my hope?

Recently I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to set my hope on life hacks, routines, and daily habits. Being a good steward of our time, money, bodies, and relationships truly does take order and intention every day… but as we get older we realize we can stop thinking that eventually we are going to figure it all out. “If I could just get all my routines down and follow them… if I could just conquer all the problem areas I have and break them all down into daily steps… then I can be healthy, happy, really start living, and start blessing others”. Wrong. Life is always changing. Schedules are always changing. What worked one month won’t work another. We’re never going to figure it all out. And anybody that looks like they’ve got it all going on? They don’t. There are weak areas and they also need constant correcting and re-balancing too. They’re never satisfied if they’re looking to be satisfied in themselves.

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Crossing out of the Pit

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My husband and I are truly enjoying some green pastures right now. Hallelujah and thank you Lord Jesus. After a very difficult couple of years filled with grief, sorrow, lamenting, questioning, wandering, wondering, worrying, wrestling, the Lord has once again…

…lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:3

I don’t think the NIV choice of “slimy” does the original language justice.

שָׁאוֹן֮ (šā·’ō·wn) – a roar (of waters), crash, uproar

We all understand this. The pit is silent and lonely, yet at the same time there’s a deafening roar in it, accosting the soul and causing more fear and chaos.

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