"One's collection of books comes to symbolize the contents of one's mind." - John Updike
"Even after years of God's rescues and surprises and blessing upon blessing, there's part of me that gets irritated when someone says, 'Let's ask God.' The act itself is a disruption. Sometimes it feels like grinding the gears. Stop? Now? Ask God? I'm bugged. That's part of it. And the other part is, if we do hear something, we'll have to obey." - John Eldredge
"Every step the mind takes in its progress toward knowledge makes some discovery, which is not only new, but the best, for the time at least." - John Locke
Tonight we finished the Restoring Joy Bible study. The guys actually finished the book last week while was in my solitary cell, but tonight we shared how the class has helped in our walk with Christ. It was really cool to hear a lot of the guys stories from their lives - so different from where I came from, but ringing very true at the same time.
I shared how the class and the book I'm reading, Truefaced, have made me realize the fault of my own way in that I need to just trust God to act in His own way in His own time. When I was on the outside, I was doing many things I thought would bring pleasure to God, but I have found that what is most pleasing to Gos is for us to let go of our own efforts and just trust what He will do. Sound easy, huh?
"Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing." - Ephesians 2:8-10
