Brief praise and Quote 07

I am in the midst of a season of unusual busyness. Ministry oppurtunities are bursting, the kids are bustling with the warm weather, and Bobbi is enduring the final few weeks of a very trying pregnancy. In the midst of this, God has proven Himself to be such a caring Father to our family. My behavior deserves no act of God's kindness, my life could never gain God's favor; yet God showers me daily with His favor and grace and mercy and love.

Why???

Because I stand before God clothed in someone else's goodness... someone else's righteousness. If I were to stand before God and attempt to earn His blessing and favor by what I do and who I am, I would be crushed by the weight of guilt I have before Him. Yet I have been reconciled to Him, forgiven, cleansed, having all His loving kindness heaped on me now and forever. So, I praise the One who never sinned, yet took on my sin so that I could become the righteousness of God.

I was blessed by the following quote - yet another touch of God's love - on dealing with difficulties others bring on us:

"When we are unjustly wounded by men, let us overlook their wickedness, remember to mount up on God, and learn to believe for certain that whatever our enemy has wickedly committed against us was permitted and sent by God's just dispensation."

This comes from John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 221 (HT: Justin Childers)