nawinter.com

Chasing the Story – “People meet in a variety of ways, and a super-cool meeting isn’t a predictor of relationship success. So let go of the pressure to have a cool story. There are enough other pressures in dating to have to be concerned with that also. Your story will be your story. And miraculous or mundane, if God is a part of it, that’s enough.”

Spying Out the Land – “Each of us encounters times in life where we are forced to decide whether we will trust God despite what appears to be evidence that his way just won’t work, that it’s foolhardy, that it’s impossible. Before us we have the giants and the promises of God; we respond with fear of the giants (which is to say, with comfort) or with faith in the promises.”

May I Not Worry – A beautiful reminder about why the child of God should not worry.

Upholding the Universe – “A watchmaker winds his watch and lets it run until it winds down. The watch fulfills its purpose best at the very beginning if its existence when it is new and freshly wound. Someday, inevitably, it will wind down and stop forever, never to fulfill its true purpose again. Not so with creation. Creation is forever fulfilling it’s purpose perfectly because it is being moved toward its ultimate aim by the One who made it.”

Enjoying Rest – “Eden is a picture of rest—work that’s meaningful and enjoyable, abundant food, a beautiful environment, unhindered friendship with God and other people and animals. Even with Eden’s restful perfection, one day was set aside for special rest and worship. Work will be refreshing on the New Earth, yet regular rest will be built into our lives.”

Two Rival Religions –  “The conception of our current cultural conflict as a struggle between two rival religions is instructive and humbling. At the political level, this assessment should serve as a warning that our current ideological divides are not likely to disappear anytime soon. At the far deeper level of theological analysis, this argument serves to remind Christians that evangelism remains central to our mission and purpose. Those who aim at the merely political are missing the forest for the trees, and confusing the temporal for the eternal.”

Love Not Lost – One women’s reflection on having and losing children and how she learned that “I really can say of a God so good and so caring that when He chooses to give me what I feel I can’t live without and when He chooses to take what I desperately prayed to keep, I can trust Him.” (H/T)

What to Do With A Told Gospel – Although I disagree with this author’s assertion that it is only a rare time that it is helpful to look at the original language of Scripture, this post contains an important reminder about evangelism. “Every Christian knows there is something about the gospel that drives us to tell it. There is some indivisible connection between believing it and making it known. It is good news, after all, and news is just that — news.” 

Glimpses of Grace in Homemaking – “Folding the same towels over and over again becomes a loathsome duty when my work is not unto the Lord. I groan like the writer of Ecclesiastes that my days “are full of sorrow” and my work “is a vexation” (Eccl. 2:23). Sometimes I collapse onto my pillow at night and I rehearse tomorrow’s list, adding the left-overs and do-overs from today’s list. Worries and weariness threaten to overwhelm me and even in the night my heart doesn’t rest.”

Something Far Better – “God’s wonderful plan for my life is to conform me to Christ, not give me everything I want.  Sometimes being conformed to Christ is painful. Sometimes God conforms me to Christ by NOT giving me what I desire. Sometimes he conforms to Christ by sending people into my life who sin against me. Sometimes he uses pressure and suffering.  He’s got all kinds of wonderful tools to chisel, chip, shape, sand and smooth.”