Glory

"There are a thousand ways to magnify Christ in life and death. None should be scorned. All are important. But none makes the worth of Christ shine more brightly than sacrificial love for other people in the name of Jesus. 

If Christ is so valuable that the hope of his immediate and eternal fellowship after death frees us from the self-serving fear of dying and enables us to lay down our lives for the good of others, such love magnifies the glory of Christ like nothing else in the world."

                                                               John Piper in Risk is Right 

this quote was very attractive to my soul. God has brought me to a place where my deepest desire is to serve Him by sacrificially laying down my life for the good of others. I pray that will be a large part of my witness to God's goodness.

but what does he mean when he states, "such love magnifies the glory of Christ like nothing else in the world"?

GLORY - what is glory? i've read it, heard it, sung it, and probably taught the word, but I think the meaning is far too lost among us. probably because it is a God word.

in another teaching, Piper speaks more to the glory of God.

"I don't know of any truth that is more fundamentally pervasive than God's zeal to be glorified, which means for us so to think, so to feel, and so to act as to make Him look as glorious as He is."

"let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" Matthew 5:16

the goal of my life should be so to live that when people know me well enough, they will say 'God is glorious.' not 'marissa is glorious'.

don't waste your cancer...

I've started following this blog written by a friend of a friend. It absolutely brought me to tears. Thankfully I have good self control and only let a few fall past my eyelids and stream down my cheek as I sat in my little corner at work, reading it. This girl is the same age as me. She is a real person. She has cancer, she just found out. It's in stage 4. Her faith makes me feel as though I'm missing something in my life. That love. That passion. Yes, I'm jealous that besides the sickness... she seems to have the absolute perfect life... husband and best friend who adores her and is able to work from home, beautiful little girl, house on the river, an amazing heart for the LORD... what more could you ask for? I want the passionate love for God that she has. I want to be that type of wife, that type of mother... the type who's priority is God and it is evident by the relationships she has and the decisions she makes. I know they say it's a scary thing to ask God to do whatever it takes to make us love Him more, but isn't it worth it?