Once upon a time...

An excerpt from Tim Keller's study book Gospel in Life.

Once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took to to his king and said, "My lord, this is the greatest carrot I've ever grown or even will grow; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you." The king was touched and discerned the man's heart, so as he turned to go, the king said, "Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I own a plot of land right next to yours. I want to give it to you freely as a gift, so you can garden it all." The gardener was amazed and delighted and went him rejoicing. But there was a nobleman at the king's court who overheard all this, and he said "My! If that is what you get from a carrot, then what if you gave the king something better?" The next day the nobleman came before the king, and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, "My lord, I breed horses, and this is the greatest horse I've ever bred or ever will; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you." Bot the king discerned his heart and said, "Thank you," and took the horse and simply dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed, so the king said, "Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot but you were giving yourself the horse."

If we give God things in the hope that they will earn us blessings or heaven., then we are really not doing anything for him at all-its for ourselves. Only an experience of grace changes us so we do good things for goodness' sake, for God's sake.

things have been eventful!

This summer has been absolutely spectacular! Amazing friends and fun adventures.


1. The beautiful Colleen came to visit!


2. Game board nights with fabulous friends.


3. Sunny Sunday delight.


4. Weekend concerts and beautiful people.5. THE BEACH!


6. Karaoke with camping soul mates.

6. Ben&Jerry's splurging nights!

THE END!

Being refined.

My heart is being refined and its painful. I spent the last year asking God to help me grow in faith. Here it is happening... and its getting really hard. Things were so great until this January, and now I feel like I've been getting so many curve balls.

I keep finding myself in the same situations and struggling through them. I guess its progress that I'm aware and catching it... but now that I see the consequences of my actions, its overwhelming and I am often overcompensating and over thinking.

Looking back on years past and how I've grown in my faith, I know God has been preparing me to deal with this. He has presented me with everything I need... Him. Although this has been a painful year, I know this is where I'm supposed to be.

So as I have been dealing with the sin that's been exposed in my life, God has been so instrumental in revealing to me how much he loves me. Its overwhelming and powerful. Hallelujah, grace like rain is falling down on me.

Not pride... humility!
No guilt... confidence!

...powerful

"make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love." - 2 Peter 1:5-8

Timothy Keller

Religion vs. Gospel

I am so sinful that he had to die for me. At the same time, I'm so loved because he was willing to do it.

I'm doing a study on a book called 'Gospel in Life' by Timothy Keller. In our reading and discussion, it challenged us to evaluate how we are living out our faith. This particular chapter defines gospel vs. religion and asks us to move past simply going through the motions of the Christian religion and obedience, and really trying to live out the gospel with the right motivation and heart.

Religion says: If i obey, then God will love and accept me
If you're living out religion, most people either experience:
->Pride: I think I can save myself.
I look down on people who can't live up to the rules.
->Inadequacy/Guilt: I'm not good enough.

But the Gospel says: God loves and accepts me because of what Jesus has done; therefore I obey out of love and thankfulness.

What did Jesus do?
-> Lived a perfect life.
-> He suffered and died. Why? Someone had to pay.

If you are living out the gospel
-> This humbles me because of the high cost he paid.
-> This gives me the confidence because he was willing to do it.

Not pride... humility!
No guilt... confidence!