"God feeds the birds, but He doesn't throw the food into their nests."

- author unknown

A free pdf version of Piper's 'When I Don't Desire God'

CLICK HERE to read or download the book.

feeling like a failure

i met with a girl who was struggling with a heavy sense of condemnation. old, nagging, condemning voices were on replay in her mind. someone telling her she was a failure. feelings of guilt for past, confessed sin. fear of never being able to live up to people's expectations. so i sent her this email after our meeting and the verses are so powerful that i figured i'd share them.

I’d encourage you to get behind these passages to understand them in context and then to really make this a part of your regular meditation. Your identity is in Christ, not from your accomplishments or failures, not from people’s affirmation of you or criticism of you. You are a daughter of the Most High, the Almighty God, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. He redeemed you with His love and demonstrated His love for you by dying on the cross. He bore your sin, shame, failure, humiliation, and inadequacy. So, as those past hurts resurface, fight against them with the truth of who you are in Christ! Beautiful, free, holy, blameless, accepted.

• “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” (psalm 147:11) – God is pleased with you, not because of your performance, simply because you trust in Him
• “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) – this was God’s promise to Judah, even in these midst of their sin, that he would redeem them and rejoice over them
• “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1) – As a believer in Christ, God never condemns you, not for sin, failure, anything. People may condemn you and judge you as insufficient, but Christ makes you perfectly sufficient before God.
• “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…” (Col.1:21-22)

These are just a few and there are tons more. But put these on index cards, tape them on your mirror, on your steering wheel, whatever. Memorize them. Pray regularly that the Spirit would make these come alive to you and help you to really see yourself the way He sees you.

helpful commentary on psalms

I picked up this book for one my Old Testament classes. It can be a bit technical at points, but it's pretty understandable for the serious Bible student and has been very helpful to me in understanding the Psalms.

Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook by Mark D. Futato

why are you in ministry?

this is an amazing sermon from Matt Chandler. I watch it every once in a while as a way of living out Psalm 139:23-24:

“Apply yourself wholly to the text; apply the text wholly to yourself.” Johann Albrecht Bengel