#this moves me to tears

[tabernacleheart]

It is very important that we should understand just how Jesus did treat [the sinner]. It is easy to draw the wrong lesson altogether and to gain the impression that Jesus forgave lightly and easily, as if the sin did not matter. [In truth, however, He did not effectively] abandon judgment and say, "Don't worry; it's quite all right." [He never pretended that sin had no consequence, or that it did no harm. Rather, in both mercy and justice,] what He did was, as it were, to defer sentence. He said, "I am not going to pass a final judgment now [for I do not wish to lose you to sin; therefore,] go and prove that you can do better. [Yes,] you have sinned; [but] go and sin no more, and I'll help you all the time. At the end of [your efforts] we will, [together,] see how you have lived." [Always,] Jesus' attitude to the sinner involved [a] second chance. It is as if Jesus said to [each hurting soul]: "I know you have made a mess of things; but life is not finished yet; I am giving you another chance, the chance to redeem yourself, [for that is what I truly wish for you]." ...In Jesus there is the gospel of the second chance. He was always intensely interested, not only in what a person had been, but also in what a person could be. He did not say that what they had done did not matter– broken laws and broken hearts always matter– but He was sure that every man has a future as well as a past, [and He strove to lovingly yet firmly draw every sin-wounded soul into that healing hope with Him.] He did not say: "It's all right; don't worry; just go on as you are doing." He said: "It's all wrong, [but it can change]; go out and fight; change your life from top to bottom; go, and sin no more." Here was no easy forgiveness; here was a challenge which pointed a sinner to heights of goodness of which [they] had never dreamed, [while graciously giving, in Himself, the vital strength & encouragement to reach those lofty realities]. Jesus confronts the bad life with the challenge of the good, [and so flings wide the doors of hope. By all this we see that] the amazing, heart-uplifting thing about Him was His belief in men and women. When He was confronted with someone who had gone wrong, He did not say: "You are a wretched and a hopeless creature." He said: "Go, and sin no more." He believed that with His help the sinner has it in him to become the saint. His method was not to blast men with the knowledge-- which they already possessed-- that they were miserable sinners, but to inspire them with the unglimpsed discovery that they were potential saints.

William Barclay

[hinamie]

make it vicious, take a stab

[criiitter]

find me in the future.

[menelaiad]

the infamous 'last sighting of a barbary lion in the wild' photo taken by marcelin flandrin (1925) haunts me to my core. there's something so achingly poetic about it.

[gilliandersons]

You think I'm batty, is that it? You look at me and you see some doddering old broad.

[comraderoscoes]

i'm looking for a man in finance, vegan, 5'8 (allegedly), brown eyes

[dandyleyen]

Twitter post | ToTK zelink x Howl's Moving Castle

[freyadragonlord]

Normal heaven officials lending spiritual power to each other

Hua Cheng and Xie Lian lending spiritual power to each other

He Xuan lending spiritual power to Shi Qingxuan

[gunsatthaphan]

something very lgbt is gonna transpire in that scene I know it 👁️

[tabernacleheart]

It’s not always easy going to God. We live in a physical world—a world of time and space, cause and effect, where bad behavior is met with bad consequences. Our world deals harshly with less than perfect. And because we expect harsh treatment whenever we’re exposed for who we truly are, we often expect harsh treatment from God too. We reason that, because of our mistakes and our sins, God just must love us less, like us less. Our sin must make Him want to be in relationship with us less. 

So we tend to take a physical-world approach, a time-and-space approach. When we fail yet again, we tend to want to hide, to withdraw from God for a time. We avoid Him until we feel better about ourselves, until enough time has passed since our last transgression, or until we’ve done some “good” things to offset our bad behavior. Only then are we willing to go back.

But this creates relationships characterized by oscillation— by movement back and forth— by coming and going, coming and going. This approach is intuitive to our physical natures. It comes naturally. But here’s the problem: it cuts us off from God right when we need Him most. It cuts us off from the Source of forgiveness and healing and guidance right when we need them most. No wonder we’re struggling with those same old sins.

God doesn’t act according to human justice or human fairness. He isn’t governed by any laws of the natural world. He does His own thing—and it “surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19). Unconditional, unchanging, unending love is just too hard for our human minds to imagine. It is radical. It is outrageous. It’s a sacred mystery. And we’re going to have to start getting comfortable with that kind of mystery. Because we NEED His love and grace— even when we don’t feel like we deserve them. And we’re going to need to learn to meet His doesn’t-make-sense actions with a doesn’t-make-sense act of our own, which is simply to say … “Okay.”

We tend to think being a Christian— being a saint— is about how little we sin. It isn’t, not really. We think how much or how little we sin is what God cares about most. It’s not. What God cares about most is that we show up. What He wants most is that we encounter Him, experience Him, get to know Him. Because He trusts Himself. When He sees us come out of hiding, he breathes a God-sized sigh of relief, because He knows the power of his love and grace and goodness in our lives. He knows that when we’re with Him, nothing can take us down— not sin, nothing.

Justin Camp

[buglaur]

wanted to make a render to get back into the hang of things

[suntails]

progression

[oh-jail-for-mother]

when the creature in Frankenstein said, "Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?" and when The Last Days of Judas Iscariot said, "Why didn't you make me good enough so that you could've loved me?" ANYWAY IN THIS ESSAY I WILL—

[maxpadelchampion]

charles helped max with the the wdc during the horrendous summer months and now max is helping charles win the wcc. I see them.

[wolfythewitch]

turning on anon not to send hate, but to send odysseus hate which is always right

i apologise for the fact that you like odysseus but he sucks. he cheats on his wife, who deserves so much better (i am penelope girlboss truther) and he spends a whole year just vibing with circe and then complains about how long it takes him to get home. admittedly his men also suck, but the majority of his problems stem from how much he sucks - bro is hubristically yelling at some guy who admittedly did eat his friends but doesnt deserve the hate. im a polyphemus apologist. also has a hell of a grudge against that guy in the trojan war who literally didnt do anything. cant remember that guys name something like themocles or themistocles???? that might bbe some persian guy tho or possibly thersites. anyway friendly reminder that he cut that guys head off for literally no reason (they were literally on the same side) also odysseus litrally flashed nausicaa. hes a problem. sorry for my wrong opinions

[chubbychiquita]

so who's gonna feed me until i can't get up out of bed on my own 🥺