Julia Forrester > Recent Status Updates

"Men and women proclaim their faith, or lack thereof, by their actions. But somehow, over time, our Christian culture has changed the focus of faith from what we do to what we say....What good is it if you can verbally defend Christ with the best of believers if your life contradicts your words through anxiety, fear, and worry?"

"Faith in Christ is a very practical piece of theology. To say we have faith in him while living a life characterized by anxiety and worry is to deny him by our actions, if not our words. "

"We are called to squeeze out worldliness by a new love for Christ."

"The Bible is asserting that even acts of civic kindness done by an unbeliever fail to meet the requirements of God's law--namely, that all our actions must be done with a view to glorifying God. In that sense, even the unbelievers good acts are evil. These actions cannot please God. ".
What is the chief aim of man? To glorify God.

"we come to Jesus Christ by faith, renouncing any confidence in our own ability to do anything worthy of God's salvation."

"we come to Jesus Christ by faith, renouncing any confidence in our own ability to do anything worthy of God's salvation."

"Our salvation depends entirely on what the Son did for us. Our salvation. Is dependent on Christ alone. It is not a cooperative venture, but one in which His accomplishments alone merit our salvation. "

"When we apply the terms always or never to other people, we speak an untruth. Human beings don't always or never anything, we often or habitually, but we do not always or never. As finite and mutable creatures, we cannot lay claim to these terms, either as pejoratives or as praise. They can only truly be spoken of God."

"Our God is self-sufficient, needed by all, needful of nothing."

"Rather than stewarding resources, we treat them as consumable, expendable, only holding value insofar as they satiate our cravings. When we attach our worship to something less than God, we end up consuming and casting off the person or thing we worship in his place. And in the consuming and casting off, we reveal that the true object of our worship is self. We make a shameless declaration of 'I AM'".

"when we ask another human to be unlimited lay trustworthy in any area, we are asking someone who is 'only human' to be God."

"When we lose sight of the majesty of God, we invariably fill the gap in our vision with the fable of the majesty of someone else. "

"There's an age-old adage that says, 'The world doesn't revolve around you.' But from the day we are born until the day we die, that's the story we all prefer to live, isn't it?"..."So why do we love the people in our lives with passion yet serve them with hesitation?"

"There's an age-old adage that says, 'The world doesn't revolve around you.' But from the day we are born until the day we die, that's the story we all prefer to live, isn't it?"

"[We] may be aware of one or two things God is doing in our ministries at any given moment, but only he knows the breadth and depth of his activity in and through us."

"Bible-Lite":People looking for nondemanding, simplified Christian messages, heavy on application, loaded with feel-good stories, and easy on doctrine and Scripture....instead of coming to the Bible for a banquet, we're looking for an after-dinner mint.

"We take God's name in vain when we disbelieve, deny, or distort the truth about God."

God gets the glory for giving me the strength I need to be kind to my children when I feel hurried or annoyed at the end of a very long day. And in times when I let the Spirit's fruit rot because of my sinfulness, The Lord gives me the grace I need to apologize to my kids for my nastiness, insensitivity and unkind words. Bedtime is a maturing experience for all of us.

Your future includes manna. It will come. There is no sense devising future scenarios now because God will do more than you anticipate. When you understand God's plan to give future grace, you have access to what is arguably God's most potent salve against worry and fear. -Ed Welch

My biggest problem is that I live under the illusion that I can do anything I put my mind to while I give lip service to needing God's wisdom. ..my biggest problem is not multitasking or lack of experience in mothering or domestic life. Mothers who feed their soul with the Word of God will thrive as their hearts are taught by God's wisdom.

There are times when we are not motivated by the love of Christ, and we fume at our children not because they break God's law but because they break ours.

Reach out to those around you in mercy and love, serving as a humble servant.

We should take caution lest we think that a mother's greatest problem is a lack of time. How tempted I am to consider a busy season as an obstacle to rejoicing in the Lord!

In light of eternity, I want to seize day-to-day opportunities to lift my daughter's sights to admire God and image him.

By God's grace I can resist the temptation to treat my children as interruptions to my will for my life. Instead, God enables me to treat my children as precious gifts he is using to shape me into his image according to His will for my life.

There is much more to God and following in the Way of Jesus than getting a bunch of talented people together to hold a church service.

...you see things as an opportunity to talk with God, talk about God, and receive wisdom from the Bible throughout your day.

Your spiritual life is not restricted to early mornings before the noisemakers in your life wake up. If you feel that God meets with you only when the house is empty or quiet, you'll view every noise and noisemaker as an annoying distraction to your communion with God. ...this idea is not only practically impossible and pastorally unhelpful, but it is unbiblical as well.

If resisting sin and temptation is up to your own power and discipline, your potential to overcome sin is only as powerful as your own righteousness.

When we reject the Son of God, who was sent according to the plan of the Father, and try to save ourselves through good works, we fail to honor God.