“Biblical hope is life changing certainty about the future … being certain about the future in a way that affects how you live now.”
– Tim Keller; A Brick in the Valley
“We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.”
―
“Cruelty and wrong are not the greatest forces in the world. There is nothing eternal in them. Only love is eternal.”
―
“While God, for the most part, allows this cosmos [creation] to work according to the laws of nature, there is never a time when He is not actively involved in every detail of life.”
―
“For daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises. But I fear nothing, because of the promises of Heaven; for I have cast myself into the hands of Almighty God, who reigns everywhere. As the prophet says: ‘Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.”
―
“Now there was only one hope, the sovereign grace of God. God would have to transform my heart to do what a heart cannot make itself do, namely, want what it ought to want. Only God can make the depraved heart desire God. Once when Jesus’ disciples wondered about the salvation of a man who desired money more than God, he said to them, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). Pursuing what we want is possible. It is easy. It is a pleasant kind of freedom. But the only freedom that lasts is pursuing what we want when we want what we ought. And it is devastating to discover we don’t, and we can’t.”
―
“Because of Jesus, there is always hope in your life”
– Tim Keller
“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God–the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”
―
“We may speak about a place where there are no tears, no death, no fear, no night; but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God.”
―
“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less.”
―
“We are bidden to ‘put on Christ‘, to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want. Once more, we are embarrassed by the intolerable compliment, by too much love, not too little.”
―
“We need a living hope to get through life and endure suffering. A living hope enables us to have both sorrow and joy. Our living hope is an inheritance achieved for us by Christ.”
– Tim Keller
(What a great reading list!)
How great our incomprehensible God is! We are surely ‘loved much’, more than our hearts can fathom by a God that forgives, draws us near and binds us to himself with unceasing Mercy. We can bring every concern and every hope to His Throne with confidence because of his enduring promises to us that will never pass or change. This is our true hope and the gift of His Spirit; the agency by with we have the ability and privilege of faith. Pray that it deepens and strengthen, let us receive encouragement from those that speak hope!
From L.Willows © 2019
The BELOVED 