In the meantime

Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ, by Rosaria Butterfield. (Crown & Covenant Publications, 2014) After reading The Gospel Comes With a Housekey,  I was fascinated by Rosaria Butterfield's unique testimony, as well as her exceptional writing and thinking skills. In other words, I was curious about reading her other two books,  The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert  and Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ.  I just finished  Openness Unhindered. It is very different than what I expected it to be. Because of Butterfield's incredible testimony of how she came to Christ as a proclaimed lesbian, I began reading this book expecting it to be saturated with "how the Church should view and deal with the sexual identity crisis that is inundating today's culture." While she does dig deep into the sexual ident...

Within a few weeks, my world went from ecstatic joy at the news that we were expecting twins to devastating grief when the ultrasound technician said there were no heartbeats nor had there been any growth since our last ultrasound a few weeks earlier.  Is this really happening to us?  That evening, the awful event of miscarriage confirmed the technician‘s diagnosis. Our miscarriage was emotionally and spiritually crushing. Days turned into weeks, and then into months, and I was emotionally and spiritually lower than I had ever been in my life.  At times, t he grief practically choked me of the very air I breathed.  I was desperate for some form of comfort to revive my grief-stricken, joy-suffocated soul. “How in the world am I to deal with this?”    “Where do I turn for comfort ?” "How do I even move forward in life?" “Lord, help me!”  was my constant cry.  God heard my desperate pleas, and in His goodness ...

Guys, I am just finishing up reading  Knowing God , by J. I. Packer, and it is absolutely. fantastic. Similar to Knowledge of the Holy  by A. W. Tozer, this book will make you want to do just that: know God. Knowing God  deserves a more-detailed post in the near future, but for now, I'll leave you with a quote to make you want to read the book for yourself (because you can't just take my word for it!)   On the believer's  adoption  and being sons of God, Packer says:  "This free gift of acquittal and peace [justification] won for us at the cost of Calvary, is wonderful enough, in all conscience—but justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting.  "But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family  idea, conceived in terms of love , and veiwing God as ...