QUOTE (J.R.R. Tolkien) – Jan 3

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In honor of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, an English writer, poet, and professor of language, best known as the author of the classic works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, who was born on this day in 1892.

1. “If men were ever in a state in which they did not want to know or could not perceive truth (facts or evidence), then Fantasy would languish until they were cured.”
2. “We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming ‘sub-creator’ and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic ‘progress’ leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.”
3. “The Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story — and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.”
4. “End? No, it doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one which we must all take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass… And then you see it… White shores, and beyond, a far green country, under a swift sunrise.”

~J.R.R. Tolkien

Resources:
Literary Birthday – January 3- J.R.R. Tolkien
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes> Goodreads
Top 12 J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes
J.R.R. Tolkien

 

EASTER CHANGES EVERYTHING – April 20

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” 1 Corinthians 15:17-18

 Easter changes everything.

 If Christ had not been raised then…

… Church wastes a Sunday.
… prayer is merely meditation.
… the Bible is a best-selling self-help book.
… charity is a utopian ideal.
… faith is a crutch.
… self-denial is a waste of effort.
… happiness is fleeting.
… everlasting joy is a myth.
… peace is impossible.
… God is unknown.
… sin remains.
… God does not love us.
… suffering is without meaning.
… this is as good as it gets.
…our future is a grave.
… we are fools.

Easter changes everything.

Because Christ has risen, we know …

… He is the messiah.
… the prophesies have been fulfilled.
… the penalty of sin has been paid.
… the curse of sin is removed.
… death has been defeated.
… the kingdom of God will be established.
… all things are possible.
… eternal life awaits beyond the grave.
… glory will be revealed to us.
… suffering has purpose.
… we are loved by God.
… our faith is not in vain.
… we are not fools.
… we are children of God.
… we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Easter changes everything.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
(1 Corinthians 15:58)

PRAYER: Father, thank you for Easter.  Thank you for raising your Son from the grave.  Thank you for keeping all of your promises.  Thank you for redeeming me.  Thank you for giving hope and eternal life.  I praise your name on this glorious day for what you have done.    I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

“HE IS RISEN!” – Mar. 31

“But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.” Matthew 28:5-6

HE IS RISEN!

This angelic pronouncement is the most astounding declaration that has ever been made on earth.  We can spend a thousand years studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ and never fully comprehend the full ramifications of what those words mean.  The far reaching extent to which, HE IS RISEN, changed our world and transformed man and the whole creation.

We are so comfortable in our bondage to sin that we merely pick at the threshold of the freedom in Christ that has been opened to us.  The decay wrought by the fall of man and the slavery to fear is all that we have ever known.  Our bondage to decay is so familiar to us that we consider it a physical law of our existence.  We call it the 2^nd law of thermodynamics.  This so-called law, also called entropy, states that “in all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves the system, the

potential energy of the state will always be less than that of the initial state.”  This means that things decay.  All of creation is in bondage to entropy.  All we have ever known is that entropy will eventually win.

That world changed with HE IS RISEN!

HE IS RISEN! – freed us from entropy and decay.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us from the law of sin and death.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us into Christ Jesus.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us to live in the Spirit.

HE IS RISEN! – freed the righteous requirement of the law to be fulfilled in us.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us to please God.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us to put to death the deeds of the body through the Spirit.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us to belong to God.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us to be adopted as children of God – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

HE IS RISEN! – freed us to eternal life and peace.

HE IS RISEN! – fundamentally changed the world.  The world was transformed at its basic levels when Christ came out of that tomb.  Nothing has been the same since Christ completed the work of redemption.  All that remains is the full manifestation of HE IS RISEN!

That is what we are eagerly awaiting.  The adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies; all possible because of HE IS RISEN.

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for rising from the grave and defeating death once and for all.  Thank you for finishing the Father’s redemptive plan.  Thank you for saving me while I was still a sinner.  Thank you for changing every aspect of my world.  Thank you for freeing me from my slavery to sin and death.  Praise God for You have RISEN!  Amen