after a fall, not a recovery but a new creation.

A while back a former gang member came to our church. He was heavily tattooed and rough around the edges, but he was curious to see what church was like. He had a relationship with Jesus and seemed to get fairly involved with the church. After a few months, I found out the guy was no longer coming to the church. When asked why he didn’t come anymore, he gave the following explanation: “I had the wrong idea of what church was going to be like. When I joined the church, I thought it was going to be like joining a gang. You see, in the gangs we weren’t just nice to each other once a week—we were family.” That killed me because I knew that what he expected is what the church is intended to be. It saddened me to think that a gang could paint a better picture of commitment, loyalty, and family than the local church body. The church is intended to be a beautiful place of community. A place where wealth is shared and when one suffers, everyone suffers. A place where when one rejoices, everyone rejoices. A place where everyone experiences real love and acceptance in the midst of great honesty about our brokenness. Yet most of the time this is not even close to how we would describe our churches.

Francis Chan (via aheartfullofjoy)

sallykatetucker:

Friendship according to Augustine (Taken with instagram)

If the church preaches only divine forgiveness and does not affirm justice, she implies that God treats immorality and sin lightly. If the church proclaims only justice, we shall all die in unforgiven sin and without the spirit’s empowerment for righteousness. We should be equally troubled that we lag in championing justice and in fulfilling our evangelistic mandate.

Carl F. H. Henry

I don’t care that I’m nearly hitting 20.. Veggie Tales will always be awesome

(Source: randomscreencap)

this actually gives me goosebumps

And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.

Donald Miller (via ofgoodfortune)

thesweetermelody:

I had to. This is the best answer I’ve read for this question.

states-minds:

this still makes me upset and happy at the same time.

(Source: aabigailove)

I’m a useless blogger

an infinite number of facepalms would be insufficient to describe how much of an idiot I’ve been over the past few weeks. but God is gracious and good and won’t let me go. and for that, I’m grateful.

theheadandheart:

“Some of you need to hear this for the first time, and so this is from our hearts: The Kingdom of God is for the burnouts, the broken, and the broke, the drug addicts, the divorced, the HIV-positive, the herpes-ridden, the hopeless, for the outcasts that have been created by the church, and for the outcasts of our society that have been created by us. The Kingdom of God is for the brain-damaged, the incurably ill, for the barren, the pregnant-too-many-times, and the pregnant-at-the-wrong-time. This is for the over-employed, the underemployed, the unemployable, and the unemployed. This is for the swindled, the shoved aside, the left aside, the replaced, the incompetent, and the stupid. This is for the emotionally starved and the emotionally dead. The Kingdom of God is for the bigoted, the murderers, the child molesters, the brutals, the drug lords, the terrorists, the perverted, the raging alcoholics, over-consumers, the incredibly ugly, the dumb, the ignorant, the starving, the filled, and the filthy rich. The Kingdom of God is for everyone and the Kingdom of God is for me”

(Source: ohtosleep)

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Seahaven | Bottled (Acoustic)

You are a butterfly, so beautifully designed.
But when you flutter your wings, it destroys a family.
It destroys this family.

(Source: kodyrininger)

My secret is that I need God- that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.

Douglas Coupland

(Source: pennywidmore)

Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And wimpy Christians won’t survive the days ahead.

John Piper (via classylittlelady)

what-do-i-wear:

Charlotte Free for Forever 21