4th of July

May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.

Our weakness, God's strength

On the cross, both justice and love are being satisfied - evil, sin, and death are being defeated. You are looking at an absolute beauty, but because you cannot fit it into your own limited understanding, you are in danger of walking away from God.

Don't do it. Do what Jesus did - trust God. Do what Joseph did - trust God even in the dungeon. It takes the entire Bible to help us understand all the reasons that Jesus' death on the cross was not just a failure and a tragedy but was consummate wisdom. It takes a major part of Genesis to help us understand God's purposes in Joseph's tribulations. Sometimes we may wish that God would send us our book - a full explanation! But even though we cannot know all the particular reasons for our crosses, we can look at the cross and know God is working things out. And so you can sing to others:

Ye fearful, fresh courage take;
The clouds, ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head

Again and again in the Bible, God shows that he is going to get his salvation done through weakness, not strength, because Jesus will triumph through defeat, will win by losing, he will come down in order to go up. In the same way, we get God's saving power in our life only through the weakness of repentance and trust. And, so often, the grace of God grows more through our difficulties than our triumphs.

- by Timothy Keller; Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.