Grace for My Obedient Heart!

If you explain away your disobedience, you won't seek the grace that has the power to form a willingly obedient heart in you.
--Paul David Tripp

A New Heart or A Vain Heart?

Believing the gospel is harder than trying to obey the law.
The first requires a new heart, the second a vain heart
-- Scotty Smith

Divine Distastes

And he could bear Israel's misery no longer. --Judges 10:15-16

God has a strong distaste for suffering. His tenderness is aroused by human anguish. But what all of those natural disasters? you wonder. If he's so touched by suffering, why does he allow events like that terrible tsunami that swept across the shores of Asia in 2004? The suffering and loss of life were beyond comprehension.

I can't begin to explain the unexplainable. But I know this: If Adam had never fallen, if the Creator could rewrite the story, he would have never allowed suffering out of the cage. "For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men" (Lamentations 3:33). But sin did leave the cage and, consequently, the curse fell. And ever since man's rebellion in the Garden of Eden, our world has groaned under wars, floods, earthquakes, disease, and much more. Like you, I shake my head at the mysterious plans and purposes of God. Tragedies like these either drive people away from God... or draw them to him. Calamities either harden people's hearts... or soften them as they run to the Lord for help and hope.

And beyond all else, I know this about my Father's heart: "God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him." And again, "God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son" (Romans 5:8, 8:32, The Message).

No one could ever accuse God of "sitting back and watching" while people suffer. How could anyone look at the cross and say anything like that?

Tragedies, great and small, happen every day in your community! How can you become God's hands and feet, his tender touch and his encouraging voice to those who suffer in your city-and in your world? Ask him to express his compassion toward hurting people through you.

Father, may I simply trust your heart, even today, when I can't trace your path.
Blessings,

Joni and Friends
www.joniandfriends.org
Taken from Pearls of Great Price. Copyright © 2006 by Joni Eareckson Tada. Used by permission. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Thank you, Joni, for this blessing today!

What Good is a Busted Heart?

Winter has come back again
Feels like the season won't end
My faith is dying tonight
And I won't try to pretend
I've got it all figured out
I don't have any doubts
I've got a busted heart
I need You now - Yeah, I need You now

Hold on to me, hold on to me
Don't let me lose my way
Hold on to me -

I am the wandering son
Your love is never enough
I keep chasing the wind instead of chasing Your love
I'm screaming out Your name
Don't let me fall on my face
I've got a busted heart
I'm in need of a change
I'm desperate for grace

Hold on to me, take all of me
Don't let me lose my way - Hold on to me

Broke Your heart a thousand times
But You've never left my side
You have always been here for me
You never let me go - You never let me go
Don't ever let me go

Hold on to me, hold on to me
Don't let me lose my way
Hold on to me, Hold on to me, take all of me
Don't let me lose my way - Hold on to me!
Until it comes to an end
Soon this season will end
I'll surrender tonight - You meet me right where I am

--from the album For King & Country

What good is a busted heart? We all have one. We are all broken. The world is a mess. We are a mess!
Our glorious hope is that Jesus came to fix our busted hearts, lives and world! He is the King! AND the best part of all is that HE holds onto us not the other way around!! 'Cause busted hearts and people don't have a very strong grip and tend to let go! SO it's the BEST news that He's the One holding on AND He will meet me (and you) "right where I am"I!

Hope for the Broken Heart!

Hope For The Broken Hearted

"He is intangible and invisible. But His work is more powerful than the most ferocious wind. The Spirit brings order out of chaos and beauty out of ugliness. He can transform a sin-blistered man into a paragon of virtue. The Spirit changes people. The Author of life is also the Transformer of life." --R.C Sproul

Speak from the Heart!

A voice of truth and determination can beat a loud voice.
Speak from the heart and people will listen. - Stuart Duncan

Distressed Heart!

I am deeply distressed. I just listened to President Barak Obama's Thanksgiving Day address to the nation. In it he spoke eloquently and smoothly as befits the gifted orator he is, but some of his words and phrases distress me.

• He spoke of spending Thanksgiving Day with his family and reflecting on "how lucky we are."



• He talked about being thankful for our service members ... and others "serving in soup kitchens and shelters" so that others can have a hot meal.



• He spoke about a "mutual sense of responsibility" we share as Americans.



• He talked about our having "faith that tomorrow would be better than today."



• He mentioned the "pilgrims, pioneers and patriots who made our country great."



• He spoke of all Americans having the "chance to determine our own destiny."



• He said "all it takes is to work hard."



• He talked about the "blessings of family, community and country."



• He said, "We have to overcome the challenges of our time."



• He concluded, "Together we can make tomorrow better than today."

I agree with most of what he said ONLY it doesn't go far enough! He never mentioned God at all! He never acknowledged that America is a great country because of the rockbed principles upon which our country was founded and constituted (as in our Constitution) which all acknowledge the guiding hand of God and His blessing on this great country.
It is true that pilgrims, pioneers and patriots have worked diligently and faithfully. Many of those same pilgrims, pioneers and patriots also spent time on their knees praying to the God who gave them strength and Who alone blessed their lives. When our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to establish our republic, they did so knowing they might give their very lives for this country they loved. They did so with hearts committed to doing what they did under the watchful eye and hand of the gracious God they served and upon Whom they depended to establish this new republic. That is more than clear in our founding documents!
For our president to talk about thanksgiving and list things we have to be thankful for on a National Day of Thanksgiving without one single reference to Almighty God is distressing to the max!