Sunday, December 09, 2012

Why..? new ornament


Had the thought today to add a Christmas ornament to the tree.
Why..?
“In every situation God is always doing a thousand different things that you cannot see and you do not know.” (John Piper)




You see it is easy to place the ornaments that always reflect a good memory like "First Christmas Together 1981" or birth of a child but i was challenged today to add one. When i ask Why i need to believe "
God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good"



One verse of a song from 2008 ...

Through the Precious Blood

Through the Precious Blood
By Mark Altrogge

As recorded on Come Weary Saints
You have ordained every breath we take
In pleasure or pain, there is no mistake
Gladness and grief, both are in Your hand
And sufferings brief carry out Your plan
And our fleeting sorrows
Will yield an endless prize
When some bright tomorrow
We’ll see You with our eyes, and


Chorus Grace upon grace flows down, flows down
Grace upon grace flows down, flows down
Through the precious blood of Christ



Father of lights, Giver of all grace
Your mercies crown our lives all our days
River of Life, quench our thirsty souls
For no true delight does Your love withhold
And in every season
We are satisfied
For just one reason
Christ was crucified, and



All good gifts, every good thing
Comes to us freely, so freely

All good gifts, every good thing
Comes to us freely, so freely
Through the precious blood
Through the precious blood


© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

This is from the book i was reading
A SWEET AND BITTER PROVIDENCE pg 100-101 by John Piper

A Sweet and Bitter Providence

Life Is a Mountain Road




At one level, the message of the book of Ruth is that the life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there. The life of the godly is not an Interstate through Nebraska but a state road through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee. There are rockslides and precipices and dark mists and bears and slippery curves and hairpin turns that make you go backward in order to go forward. But all along this hazardous, twisted road that doesn’t let you see very far ahead, there are frequent signs that say, "The best is yet to come."

Taken as a whole, the story of Ruth is one of those signs. It was written to give us encouragement and hope that all the perplexing turns in our lives are going somewhere good. They do not lead off a cliff. In all the setbacks of our lives as believers, God is plotting for our joy.

Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ." (John Piper)



"God cares about us in the midst of the pain. His goal isn’t just to get us out of the pain to the joy; he also wants us to see that he is for us and with us in the pain. It is true that weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5). The morning will dawn and God will remove every tear (Rev. 21:4), but God is not just concerned about the morning, the new day when you can shout for joy. He is with us even in the night when there is nothing but weeping, when the tears are so thick that we can’t see. When we are in the deepest pit and darkness weighs on our souls and God feels so absent that we wonder if he is even real, this psalm reminds us that he is with us even then. "


 O LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you. 2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! (Ps 88 1-2)





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