Jojo Agot

So Small as to be Negligible (Allegiant)

This scene from Allegiant is haunting:

The plane is silent around me except for the steady roar of the engine.
“Whoa,” says Uriah.

“Shh,” Christina replies.

“How big is it compared to the rest of the world?” Peter says from across the plane. He sounds like he’s choking on each word.

“Our city, I mean. In terms of land area. What percentage?”

“Chicago takes up about two hundred twenty-seven square miles,” says Zoe.

“The land area of the planet is a little less than two hundred million square miles. The percentage is . . . so small as to be negligible.”
Continue reading So Small as to be Negligible (Allegiant)

Foolish Prayers

R.C. Sproul in his book The Holiness of God:

There is a kind of sequence within the [Lord’s] prayer. God’s kingdom will never come where His name is not considered holy. His will is not done on earth as it is in heaven if His name is desecrated here. In heaven the name of God is holy. It is breathed by angels in a sacred hush. Heaven is a place where reverence for God is total. It is foolish to look for the kingdom anywhere God is not revered.

While I read that passage above, I kept thinking about the church. We always pray that God would show up in our services, that He will come down in power and glory. Now I feel foolish because I don’t see that reverence in my heart. And yet I ask for Him to come down and meet us. Lord, have mercy.

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The Terrifying Holiness of God

Starting September 7, Victory Tacloban will start a three-week series on the holiness of God (Victory Metro Manila and other Victory centers start this weekend, August 31). The importance of this topic could not be overstated. We live in a time when people generally think of God as their pal, someone they could have drinks with. We no longer think of God as terrifyingly holy. This series is an attempt to address that. Drew Dyck, in his book Yawning at Tigers, describes the holiness of God in striking details. Quoting from Isaiah 6, he writes:

Continue reading The Terrifying Holiness of God

That’s Why We Need Jesus

“As I commute from work everyday, I would slump on the bus, look outside the window and stare at nothing. I often ask myself, ‘Why is life so difficult?'”

It was not a cry of complaint; the guy didn’t look like he was in pain and he wasn’t trying to be melodramatic either. It was actually just a side comment about work and how everything is just difficult. We were talking about the book of Ecclesiastes and the dull repetition of everyday life.

His words stung. I looked away as I wiped the tear away from my eyes.

Continue reading That’s Why We Need Jesus

A Big, Big World

I couldn’t shake the Divergent trilogy off my head. It’s been almost a week since I read the entire series. There was something about Tris’ reaction to the vastness of the world that amazes me.

When she first flew on a plane, she was astounded by the realization that she actually lived in a very small place and there is a big, big world outside the only world she knew all her life. Continue reading A Big, Big World

You Complete Me– Really?

Hafeez Baoku:

Here’s the problem I learned with my search for “the one”: I was looking for wholeness in all the wrong places. There isn’t a human being on the planet who has the capacity to complete me and make me whole. By putting all my hope for a “happily ever after” in a spouse, I made singleness my problem and marriage the solution. Yet this is not what God intended.