memorizing scripture

powerful & convicting...



(3:00-3:52) "Memorizing scripture provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus because He talks to me here and nowhere else. But oh sweetly, powerfully, authentically, really speaks to me here. And then I speak back to Him in prayer. And if this is here, we can talk anywhere. It is sweet. It is very sweet."
-- John Piper

"The word, stored in the heart, provides a mental depository for the Holy Spirit to use to mediate His grace to us, whatever our need for grace might be"
-- Jerry Bridges

"The challenge before us then is not merely to do what God says because He is God, but to desire what God says because He is good. The challenge is not merely to pursue righteousness, but to prefer righteousness. The challenge is to get up in the morning and prayerfully meditate on the Scriptures until we experience joy and peace in believing "the precious and very great promises" of God (Rom15:13, 2Pet1:4). With this joy set before us the commandments of God will not be burdensome (1John5:3) and the compensation of sin will appear too brief and too shallow to lure us"

-- John Piper

i yearn to be wholly wholly wholly dependent, reliant and centered on You and You alone. no person, accomplishment or thing in this world will ever be able to satisfy my inner yearnings and desires. You oh Lord quench my deepest thirst, fill my innermost longings and hear my inaudible cries. You get me. You completely get me. without even uttering a single word, You understand, and more than that You speak living words into my life without my even asking, you breathe peace into my lungs and overfill my heart with the love that flows from Yours. You get me, You rescued me, You love me. me in my entirety, not just the best of me, but ALL of me. me, a sinner. me, who rightfully deserved death in body & spirit. me, so insignificant and unclean it'd be unthinkable for You to come close. You are God. i am but a wretched vapor of a sinner.How glorious Your grace to bend down to my level, pick me up and embrace me with open arms that I might come into relationship with You. I'm reminded again how glorious, how undeserving, how beautifully fathomless Your grace poured out on us is.

aborted@10weeks

"For myself, the power of the photograph is precisely that it is the reminder that I need that defending the unborn is not simply “a cause”, or an “issue”, because people are not causes or issues, they are unique, unrepeatable human beings that I have a relationship with simply because we both share our human dignity, and it is simply because of that, that I have an obligation to defend them."
-- Jennifer Rego

"Authenticity is the courage to love with a rigorous inside-out consistency. Despite pop culture's preference for surface-level glitz, I believe we long for sincerity. We want to be able to trust that others are who they appear to be. And we desire to have our inner and outer persons meet such that we can be known deeply by others and by God." - G Spencer

from Facets of Grace

. g r a c e .

when i was a kid i really disliked my name. in my head i grouped it in the same category with Bertha & Gertrude (which probably at one point were gorgeous names..??). the only Grace's i knew were old & graying, might've been because where i grew up was retirement-central. i remember telling my mom how when i turned 18 i'd change my name to Sarah, and at one point would even practice writing my 'new name' out. of course as i grew up, the name sorta grew on me. i was kinda shocked when i left home for uni and met so many other grace's my age. who'd have thought its actually quite the popular name, especially among asian girls lol. anyways, 24 years with my name and still I am learning new things about what 'grace' means. i often joke saying my parents named me grace cuz ' I need lots of it ' , but truth is.. i do.

Yesterday Pastor Steve started a new sermon series on 1 Timothy, teaching us how the church ought to be in practical terms. So how does the church avoid drifting, how can the church continue staying on the line? simply by being grounded in g r a c e . i'm reminded again as to the treasure that is the gospel we have in our hearts & minds, this gospel which is the power of salvation for all who believe. and this gospel which is grounded in grace, not in intellectually stimulating theological debates or vain discussion for puffing up or in speculative ideology and guesswork. & because this is a gospel grounded in grace and not in ourselves, it is outward-moving not inward-staying, it is ever-growing and never-stagnant, it seeks to place others first against our natural inclincation for selfish ambition & vain conceit (phil 2:3-4). so what's the point in all this? that we be people who's aim is extending Christ's love and life outwards, and this stems from a pure heart (in the now), a good conscience (from the past), and a sincere faith (as we step out to the future).

I am not what I ought to be —

ah, how imperfect and deficient!

I am not what I wish to be —

I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good!

I am not what I hope to be —

soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection.

Yet, though I am not what I ought to be,

nor what I wish to be,

nor what I hope to be,

I can truly say, I am not what I once was;

a slave to sin and Satan;

and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge,

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

- John Newton

some quotes on g r a c e (Paul Tripp)

"You have real hope when your hope is rooted in grace. Grace forgives your past, empowers your present and secures your future."

"The unrelenting power of transforming grace is greater than the unyielding idolatry of your wondering heart."

"We are not kept in the faith by our own discipline and resolve, but by the loving chains of faithful, rescuing grace."

"Grace invades your strength and proves you are weak, then meets you in weakness and makes you strong."

"Trials = Uncomfortable grace...God will take you where you do not want to go to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own..."

"Grace pries open our hands so we let go of the temporary pleasures of this fallen world to hold to the greater pleasures of God's kingdom."

"Grace enters your life in a moment and will occupy you for eternity. It will dash your hopes, but never leave you hopeless."

"Grace reaches down to where you are and lifts you up to where God designed for you to be."

"When your biggest thrill is not some personal pleasure, but Kingdom advancement, then you know grace is transforming your heart."

"Self-righteousness is why we are content with superficial Christianity. Convinced we are okay, we do not long for the daily rescue of grace."

"No promise broken, no provision not delivered, no need unmet, his presence never denied, his power freely given, now that's grace!"

"Grace doesn't free you from the call to obedience, but liberates you from the delusion that you can obey your way into God's acceptance."

"Rest in the reality that there is never a moment when you don't need transforming grace and never a moment where grace isn't operating."

on another note, what a happy month it has been :)