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samlet:

wow.

The story tells of a miner who, though a stalwart believer, was injured at a young age. He became an invalid. Over the years he watched through a window near his bed as life passed him by. He watched fellow workers marry, raise families, and have grandchildren. He watched the company he had served thrive without attempting to make adequate provision for his loss. He watched as his body withered, his house crumbled, and hope for better things in this life died.

Then, one day when the bedridden miner was quite old, a younger man came to visit him. “I hear that you believe in God and claim that he loves you,” said the young man. “How can you believe such things after all that has happened to you?”

The old man hesitated and then smiled. He said, “Yes, there are days of doubt. Sometimes Satan comes calling on me in this fallen-down old house of mine. He sits right there by my bed, where you are sitting now. He points out my window to the men I once worked with whose bodies are still strong, and Satan asks, ‘Does Jesus love you?’ Then, Satan makes me look at my tattered room as he points to the fine homes of my friends and asks again, ‘Does Jesus love you?’ Finally, Satan points to the grandchild of a friend of mine — a man who has everything I do not— and Satan waits for the tear in my eye before he whispers in my ear, ‘Does Jesus really love you?’”

Startled by the candor of the old man’s responses, the younger man asked, “And what do you say when Satan speaks to you that way?”

Said the old miner, “I take Satan by the hand, and I lead him to a hill far away called Calvary. There I point to the nail-pierced hands, the thorn-torn brow, and the spear-pierced side. Then I say to Satan, ‘Doesn’t Jesus love me!’”

From: The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for Tragic Times

aboutbuckets:

Serge Ibaka… the pain… the agony

(hey, at least you’re still up 3-1)

Rustling with the Rumour

We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.

That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves—that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that ‘beauty born of murmuring sound’ will pass into a human face; but it won’t. Or not yet.

For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy.

At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get in.

When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. For you must not think that I am putting forward any heathen fancy of being absorbed into Nature. Nature is mortal; we shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive. Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects.

–C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory” 

What sobering beautiful writing. All the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that someday, God willing - and he is - we shall get in. Into that splendor which nature is only the image, the symbol - that splendor which she fitfully reflects.

Let me see your face. Let me taste your goodness. Let the fragrance of your beauty overwhelm. Let me feel your guiding touch. Let me hear your voice. Let my senses be overwhelmed not by the beauty of this world lest I make idols of them. The beauty to which all things beautiful points, someday, God willing… let that be my hope and joy. Order my love.

Landlady Lip-syncs Her Favorite Song

(Source: vimeo.com)

peace-of-me:

(via bloogenes)

I was writing, and I’ve noticed in my own writing:

The accepted age (in my book) for the word “girls” is getting higher. Is that okay? When does a girl become a woman? And same with guys. When do guys become men?

By now, I thought I would call people of my age men and women. But… not really. They’re more guys and gals. When does the change happen? When will I introduce my friends saying, “this is a man who has…” And perhaps that’s it. Man/woman-ness has a certain integrity and achievement attached to it. Dunno.

mpan:

From Tim Keller’s sermon, “Forgiving and Forgiven”:

A man came to Korea back when it was illegal in the 1860s for a foreigner to come to Korea. When his boat was sinking, he came out of the boat, and he waded out of the river with his arms full of bibles. As the people on the shore killed him, clubbing him, knifing him, he thrust the bibles into their hands as they were killing him. And that’s how the Gospel came to Korea. Today, the place where he died, there’s a beautiful Thomas Memorial Chapel for Robert J. Thomas, the first missionary to Korea.

From an online biography:

- As he was getting off the boat into the arms of his attackers, Robert yelled out “Jesus! Jesus!” in Korean.

- Convinced by Robert’s beaming face that he had killed a good man, the man who killed Robert kept one of the bibles, wallpapering his house with it. People came from near and far to read it. A church grew.

- A nephew of Robert’s killer became a pastor.

- Today, 40 percent of South Koreans are Christians and South Korea has some of the largest congregations in the world, but North Korea remains largely closed to the Gospel.

Can’t get over this song!

brikit:

slusheeduck:

typette:

this is a real man

Everyone needs some Dick Van Dyke in their life and if you think otherwise you’re wrong.

I AM SHOCKED AND SO PLEASED THAT DICK VAN DYKE HAS SHOWN UP ON MY DASH.

This is a great episode, btw.

But they are all great episodes.

(Source: watching-dickvandyke, via bloogenes)