christian-fiction

He wanted desperately to stay, just a little while longer. But he couldn't be here, in this place, with her. It was calm here. She was innocent and beautiful and perfect. He was not. He didn't want his mess or his mental illness or his past anywhere near her. He wanted to protect her from a lot of things, but most of all from himself.

Loving someone wasn't about their perfection. It was about coming to accept every part of them, their good qualities at their weaknesses and flaws--looking on everything they were and loving it all.As she looked on everything Jake was, right down to his center, she loved him.

He'd sacrifice even his sanity for her. If it came down to it, he'd let her break his heart.Because he loved her.

His eyes settled due west and gazed through the silhouetted, leaf-bare branches to the now-black rolling hills of the mountains he called home. The sun was setting on another day in Laurel Cove, though he couldn__ help but wonder what was rising on the horizon.

Hiding had been effortless in New York City. Getting lost in a sea of people was as easy as stepping onto a crowded Subway car. Sweet Laurel Cove would be very different. Generations of families filled its church pews, ran its farms, and schooled its children. Anonymity was as rare as lightning bugs in wintertime__s her grandmother would say.

Grace runs downhill and now all his time is being redeemed.

The amazing, whole, overwhelming, abundant life is found, oddly, by letting go. By living a dangerous faith--the kind of faith that believes in a God who knows our hearts and loves us enough to take our breath away.

He might not like that she'd dated the guy one, but he didn't want him dead. Most of the time.

She might not be as hard-hitting as Tzivia, but she had a depth of sincerity and gentleness that he appreciated. Needed. She cared about people. In the war of life, she was the medic and he the guy on the front lines fighting.

You can't let your light die out. Yours is the only light on my dark path. Without it, I will be forever lost.

We had given in to our vulnerability and cast down any pretenses that we were too strong to be weak.

We've peered into the deepest parts to see beyond what lies on the surface.

She thought of the Good Shepherd with His sheep. Of the Man hanging upon the cross. And the understanding bubbled up within her soul: He makes all things new.

The sun appeared over the hillside. "I'm tired, Tom.""It's okay to go home,' he choked. "Hold my hand?"His arms tightened around her and his fingers interlaced with hers. She closed her eyes against the brightness. "I love you.""I love you too," he whispered. Jennifer died feeling the warmth of the rising sun

If God__ suggesting that I am expected to do good and also obligated to manufacture a genuine desire for it, this boat__ sunk, still sitting on the trailer in the driveway. A stack of things need to happen before I desire to be good_

They think that if they were allowed to do anything they desired, they would be satisfied and the more desires the better. But all desires divorced from The Desire eventually collapse in on themselves.

If we blind them to The Adversary __ecrease their desire for The Desire_ while at the same time encourage them to do anything else they desire with increasing __reedom of choice,_ then eventually we snuff out desire while leaving demand in tact.

Your suffering only matters if it connects you to the suffering of others, if it heals them too.