It’s Friday. I’m brain dead. Here’s some good food for thought. A little Oswald Chambers. He’s like the Barry White of devotionals. Enjoy baby.

Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty— the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.

Don’t get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you— with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go . . . and make disciples. . .” ( Matthew 28:19 ), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.”

“What more can be said, what greater case could be made than this: to find God, you must look with all your heart. To remain present to God, you must remain present to your heart. To hear His voice, you must listen with all your heart. To love Him, you must love with all your heart. You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life you were meant to live, unless you live from the heart.”

John Eldredge - Waking the Dead

[painting by Arne Sørlie]

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.

- George Eliot