Seeing Jesus

I'm reading Holiness by J.C. Ryle (and loving it!) and came across this quote:

"A special faith in our Lord Jesus Christ's person, work, and office, is the life, heart, and mainspring of the Christian soldier's character.


          He sees by faith an unseen Saviour, who loved him, gave Himself for him, paid his debts for him, bore his sins, carried his transgressions, rose again for him, and appears in heaven for him as his Advocate at the right hand of God. He sees Jesus and clings to Him. Seeing this Saviour and trusting in Him, he feels peace and hope and willingly does battle against the foes of his soul.


         He sees his own many sins, his weak heart, a tempting world, a busy devil, and if he looked only at them he might well despair. But he sees also a mighty Saviour, an interceding Saviour, a sympathizing Saviour-- His blood, His righteousness, His everlasting priesthood--and he believes that all this is his own. He sees Jesus and casts his whole weight on Him. Seeing Him, he cheerfully fights on, with a full confidence that he will prove more than conqueror through Him that loved Him." 
                                                                                           ~Holiness, pgs 56-57


~Lissie

Planning Ahead

Natasha (top) and Princess Bink (right) celebrate at Anna's wedding March 19, 2011

       

          I had to smile when I heard my 11 and 9 year old sisters (known on our family blog as Natasha and Princess Bink) carefully making their wedding plans. Having just witnessed their oldest sister getting married three months ago, they have now formulated designs for a "perfect wedding" of their own. I heard snippets like this:

"Oh, and I want a small wedding, no more than a hundred of my favorite people, and I'll get married in our back yard..."

"Natasha, I just can't decide what kind of wedding dress I should wear!!" (Distressed sigh and wave of the hands)

"Yes, I think red dresses for the bridesmaids would be perfect...it would go perfectly with the fall leaves."

          They picked peers to be their flower girls and ring bearers, not realizing that their friends too will grow up. Princess Bink agonized over who the best man should be and peered at a bridal magazine, declaring that the brides must be really wide to need such big skirts. She sadly broke the news to me that I was "way too old to be her bridesmaid."

          While I had a good chuckle over their earnest planning, I couldn't help taking a moment to pray that God would bless them not only with a beautiful wedding but a lasting and Godly marriage. Though their birthparents come from a legacy of divorce and broken relationships and both girls were born out of wedlock, I am confident of the fact that they can have a different future through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Though I am their sister, not their parent (despite what people at the grocery store think!), I can think of no greater joy than to see both girls saved by grace, sincere followers of Jesus, and walking in the truth. I long to see them "twice adopted".

P.S. I saved my favorite wedding scheme for last: Natasha's dream is to ride to her reception on a donkey. Yes, you read that correctly: a donkey. Now that I can't wait to see!

~Lissie

Christian Fellowship

Having been blessed by amazing Christian fellowship this past weekend, I found this quote very appropriate:

"The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer...It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden underfoot by those who have the gift every day...Among earnest Christians in the Church today is a growing desire to meet together with other Christians in the rest periods of their work for common life under the Word. Communal life is again being recognized by Christians today as the grace that it is, as the extraordinary, the 'roses and lilies' of the Christian life."

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together)