Epiphany

The celebration of Epiphany is the culmination of what is traditionally called the Twelve Days of Christmas. The word literally means “revelation” or “sudden unveiling” or “manifestation.” It commemorates the day when wise men from the East were conducted by a miraculous star to the nativity in Bethlehem. The magi were thus the first to comprehend that Jesus was not merely the prophetic fulfillment of Jewish aspirations since the beginning of time. Instead, He was the hope of the world, the light of the world, and the joy of every man’s desiring. They beheld the very glory of God that day—for in the city of David, the Savior was born.

As a result, Epiphany is the celebration of the ultimate proclamation of good news. Good news, indeed.

-George Grant

Humility and Delight

"Authority exercised with humility, and obedience accepted with delight are the very lines along which our spirits live." --C.S. Lewis

HT: George Grant

More than you can handle?

"God has promised to never leave us or forsake us; He has promised no temptation will ever be so bad that we can’t escape. But He never promised not to give us more than we could handle. In fact, He gives us more than we can handle all the time. If He didn’t, then we would not need to lean on Him for grace and strength."

                                                                                                                             -Nancy Wilson

I'll certainly think twice before I say that little phrase again! Thank you Mrs. Wilson! You can read the whole article here (and please do!).

Quietness of heart

"But, where contentment of heart springs from grace, the heart is very quick and lively in the service of God. Yea, the more any gracious heart can bring itself to be in a contented disposition, the more fit it is for any service of God. It is very active and lively, not dull, in the service of God. And just as a contented heart is very active and busy in the work of God, so he is very active and busy in sanctifying God’s name in the affliction that befalls him…he whose contentment is of grace is not disquieted and keeps his heart quiet with regard to vexation and trouble, and at the same time is not dull or heavy but very active to sanctify God’s name in the affliction that he is experiencing. For if a man is to be free from discontent and worry it is not enough merely not to murmur but you must be active in sanctifying God’s name in the affliction. Indeed, this will distinguish if from a sturdy resolution not to be troubled. Though you have a sturdy resolution that you will not be troubled, do you make it a matter of conscience to sanctify God’s name in your affliction and is this where your resolution comes from? That is the main thing that brings quietness of heart and helps against discontent in a gracious heart. I say, the desire and care your soul has to sanctify God’s name in an affliction is what quietens the soul, and this is what others lack."
-Jeremiah Burroughs

"Faults are thick where love is thin."

           -Spurgeon

Exactly.

“It’s not fair to compare a silly, boring drink like a vodka martini to a flavour bomb like The Manhattan. Even worse is the dirty vodka martini. If your desperation for flavour has you drinking olive brine, just drink gin. Please. Gin is vodka’s smarter, classier, more worldly older sister. Vodka wants to go clubbing and hook up with Johnny Redbull, that hot guy she met last week (who’s not actually that hot and wears too much cologne). Gin wants to have dinner, a little wine and really talk about stuff, like politics and indie rock.”

-Jen Agg

Our Greatest Day

"We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children's games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind.  This is our greatest festival.  Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else.  Take Easter away, and you don't have a New Testament; you don't have a Christianity; as Paul says, you are still in your sins.  We shouldn't allow the secular world, with its schedules and habits and parareligious events, its cute Easter bunnies, to blow us off course.  This is our greatest day.  We should put the flags out."

-- N.T. Wright,  Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, pg. 256

Prayer and Love

“People admit that it’s hard to pray. Yet they think it’s easy to make love. What nonsense. Neither is worth much when it is only the out-cropping of intermittent enthusiasms. Both need to be done without ceasing; and that puts a premium on the minor manifestations.”

-Francis Farrar Capon, Bed and Board

Shakespeare was the man.

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
~The Merchant of Venice

“Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.”
                                                             -Rose Franken

True Revival

"Not until God put it into the hearts of men to go forth among our heathen at home with the same zeal and enthusiasm which are expected of missionaries who go abroad, will there be anything like a revival of religion throughout the mass of our city families." ~Thomas Chalmers

We MUST write poetry

"We have to recover the older standards for writing poetry, and if we have the slightest inclination, we should encourage it as much as we can . . . The first stuff we write will probably not be very good, but we should laugh at it and keep going. We are laboring for the kingdom" ~Douglas Wilson (Beyond Stateliest Marble).

Are you a Trophy wife?

"Rightly understood every wife should be considered a trophy wife. But not one of those plastic ones you got in third grade for winning the three-legged race at the all-school picnic. Rather, a wife rightly honored reflects the gospel in ways that nothing else can (Eph. 5:25-27), and in her triumph she portrays the eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17) -- as terrible as an army with banners (Song 6:10). A trophy wife, all right, but a trophy well worth having. In order to bear a crown with that kind of weight, a husband has to have (by grace) a strong neck, which means that it cannot be a stiff neck." ~Douglas Wilson

For the whole article click here.

Some perspective....

"Valentine was a third century pastor who was imprisoned for his faith. According to tradition, he wrote small pastoral notes to members of his congregation on leaves he was able to pluck from a maple tree just outside his cell. These little “Valentine’s cards” expressed his love for the flock, and his desire that they demonstrate like love toward one another. Gradually the tradition grew up for Christians to exchange notes of love and encouragement to one another on this, his birthday. Alas, the modern commercialization of the tradition has all but obscured this beautiful token of gracious fellowship."

                                                                                             ~George Grant




                                                             

"Do not resent your place in the story. Do not imagine yourself elsewhere. Do not close your eyes and picture a world without thorns, without shadows, without hawks. Change this world. Use your body like a tool meant to be used up, discarded, and replaced. Better every life you touch. We will reach the final chapter. When we have eyes that can stare into the sun, eyes that only squint for the Shenikah, then we will see laughing children pulling cobras by their tails, and hawks and rabbits playing tag."                                                                                                                      — N.D. Wilson

Samuel Rutherford on affliction.....

"Dry wells send us to the fountain.
Christ chargeth me to believe His daylight at midnight.
Look for crosses, and while it is fair weather mend the sails of the ship."
                                                    

"You cannot conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God."

                            —Graham Greene

The duty of a Christian.....

"It is certainly the duty of a Christian man to ascend higher than merely to seek and secure the salvation of his own soul . . . If we wish to belong to Christ, let no man be anything for himself but let us all be whatever we are for each other."      ~John Calvin