We are far too easily pleased.

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” CS Lewis

God calling His people to obedience and giving them at best a glimpse of the outcome of their effort.

"It has always been this way. God calling His people to obedience and giving them at best a glimpse of the outcome of their effort.

Most of the great figures of the Old Testament died without ever seeing the fulfillment of the promises they relied upon. Paul expended himself building the early church, but as his life drew close he could see only a string of tiny outposts along the Mediterranean, many weakened by fleshly indulgence or divided over doctrinal disputes.　In more recent times, the great colonial pastor Cotton Mather prayed for revival several hours each day for twenty years; the Great Awakening began the year he died. The British Empire finally abolished slavery as the Christian parliamentarian and abolitionist leader William Wilberforce lay on his deathbed, exhausted from his nearly fifty-year campaign against the practice of human bondage. Few were the converts during Hudson Taylor's lifelong mission work in the Orient; but today millions of Chinese embrace the faith he so patiently planted and tended.

Some might think this divine pattern cruel, but I am convinced there is a sovereign wisdom to it. Knowing how susceptible we are to success's siren call, God does not allow us to see, and therefore glory in, what is done through us. The very nature of obedience He demands is that it be given without regard to circumstances or results." 　Chuck Colson

to seek so great a mercy

"Of late I have found a great want of apprehension of divine grace and have often been greatly distressed in my soul, because I did not suitably apprehend this fountain opened to purge away sin; and so have been too much laboring for spiritual life, and peace of conscience, and progressive holiness in my own strength. But now God showed me in some measure the arm of all strength and the fountain of all grace." David Brainerd ~ Lord's Day, February 24, 1745

Kansas City Royals Skipper Trey Hillman was royalty in Japan

'[Trey] Hillman says that when God told him to move his family to Japan, the message he heard was to “be bold with your faith, never back down.”

So when his team followed Japanese tradition and went to a Buddhist temple his first year there, he knelt and prayed to his own Jesus. Photographers caught the whole thing. Reporters asked him afterward about his prayer, and he told them the truth.

Japan is less than one percent Christian. Hillman looked at his public platform in that country as a platform for Christianity.'

Read more: Kansas City.com Faith in the skipper: Royals manager Trey Hillman talks about his religion

love her more, love her less

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." Ephesians 5:25  

“A doctrine in paradox: If you now aim your wife to bless, then love her more and love her less.” John Piper

Pict: Naho

GREATER THAN ALL OUR SINS

“We know, of course, how central the forgiveness of our sins is to salvation. We preach it, we believe in it. We see that first repentance and surrender to Christ as a glorious moment. We also accept that having come to the Lord, we must continue to purify our lives. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ 1 John 1:9. But in talking with many believers, I get the impression that most of us consider the on-going repentance of the saved as a no-so-glorious experience. A sort of sad necessity.

Sin grieves God. We must not down-play the seriousness of it in the life of a believer. But we must come to terms with the fact that God’s Grace is GREATER THAN ALL OUR SINS. Repentance is one of the Christian’s highest privileges. A Repentant Christian focuses on God’s mercy and God’s grace. Any moment in our lives when we bask in God’s mercy and grace is our highest moment. Higher than when we feel snug in our decent performances and cannot think of anything we need to confess.

Whenever we fail- and fail we will, the Spirit of God will work on us and bring us to the foot of the cross where Jesus carried our failures. That is potentially a glorious moment. For we could at that moment accept God’s abundant Mercy and Grace and go forth with nothing to boast except Christ Himself, or else we struggle with our shame, focusing on that as well as our track record. We fail because we have shifted our attention from Grace and Mercy. One who draws on God’s Mercy and Grace is quick to repent, but also is slow to sin.” 　Mutua Mahiani, Kenya, Africa