Something More

Abundance

"In Genesis 2:17, where God warns Adam, “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die,” the Hebrew word translated as “die” actually means “dying you will die”. God wasn’t telling Adam instant death would follow. He was telling him he would be choosing the path of death. I like to think of abundant life as living you will live, walking in the path that leads to life."

The Way of Discipline

"Think about it this way: let’s say you wanted to become a wild animal tamer. The excitement and variety appeal to you. But you’re not sure you can actually control a hippo or a lion or an ostrich. But then you tame the hippo. Alright, that lion isn’t as a big as a hippo. You square up to the lion, and soon it’s purring under your hand. At this point, the ostrich is hardly a big deal at all...Discipline begets discipline."

Tongues of Fire

"This...is all about the voice of God speaking and the light that is his very nature, which burns away the darkness, which burns away the dross, which lights my path when I trust in him and his promises."

Lake of the Clouds

"So that’s when my crazy, adventurous side came up with the notion that we could follow the lake around to the other side of the river and take the river back to where it met up with the trail. Following the water, there shouldn’t be any way for us to get lost..."

Steadfast

"That day, what I saw was looking into the eyes of Jesus and being known in all that I am. And the thing that took my breath away was that there was no shame, not because I was unconscious of the gravity of my sin but because of the fathomlessly deep, compassionate love of Christ. I was known! In my weakness, failure, selfishness, I was known. And yet, I was loved!"

Planted

"There you see not only a beautifully shaped, lusciously green tree spreading its branches towards the sky, but also the deep and intricately vast network of roots which support the foliage. This is me – the roots of my soul entwined with the person, character, and identity of Christ so that the branches of my life display and exalt his glory."

Got Chemistry?

"I’m not going to get into Einstein’s theories on relativity, but suffice to say, unless my sweetheart and I reach catastrophic levels of corpulence – or maybe get hit by a really high dose of Marvel gamma rays – gravity’s not going to be the thing drawing us together. How about a chemical bond? Oh, yes, I went there. 'An instinctual, apparently unanalysable, attraction or affinity.' That kind of chemistry."

Safe to Confide

"If this is what God’s love looks like – a love that invites the beloved to share openly and completely and shoulders burdens out of a desire to help us towards his very best, what he has made us for – isn’t that what our love should like as well?"

Outside Time

"A time is coming when time will no longer bind us. And when we exist in that reality, we’ll finally understand just how fleeting this life was. We’ll be convinced in a way we can only play at right now that the glory which will then have already been revealed to us squelches our present sufferings like the insignificant things they are."

Frank ’n’ Snorg

"But Miss Süsser was less disposed to think so. 'You can’t kill the dragon! It’s not like he’s out rampaging. If you have to hunt him out in his dragon house, he can’t deserve to die.' Frank shrugged. 'That’s how it’s often done nowadays. And just think if the sketchalotsee were there.'"