Links Removed

Not sure if this will affect anyone in the future, but I had to take down the links to the various textbook websites… TOS violation or some such thing. Anyway, if you want to access those web sites, you can probably find the URLs on your textbooks. Just don’t go posting them on the internet or send the links in emails or anything like I did

God’s Strong Hands

Can you forgive yourself? It seems that we are all dragging around burdens of old guilts, past failures, and broken relationships. Then, we drag that weight into new experiences and new relationships so we can sabotage those as well.

It is a comfort that God is strong enough to see past all of our faults and failures to see us for the people that He created us to be. In other religions, a “god” is a punisher, a taskmaster, or an overlord waiting for us to make a mistake so he can destroy us. Other people might believe that “god” created us all, but doesn’t care about us, doesn’t want to know us, and doesn’t want us to even bother him.

How comforting then is this quote: “Only in the gospel can men go on loving themselves.”

Noted preacher Carlyle Marney said that because God doesn’t give up on us, we should not give up on ourselves. “The last person on earth you will forgive a weakness is yourself,” Dr. Marney wrote. “Only in the gospel can men go on loving themselves. Wait on God! See what His strong hands will fashion out of your defection.”

When we have turned back, God can turn us around. When we have destroyed, God can rebuild. “Christ in the strong hands of God conquering my defection. This is the gospel.”