Soulonphire
Brilliant wall mural. Looks suspiciously a lot like the one scene from Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest… Yes / No? Either way, looks hot!
(Source: slapdashing)
After many, many years - nearly 20-odd if you can believe it - I can finally say that I have finished reading “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R Tolkien! Having received this magnificent box set as a Christmas gift form my wife last year, I have finally finished the story of Frodo and his Fellowship that I started reading way back in high-school. Yes, I had seen all of the movies so I knew how everything ended - all the major parts at any rate - but having read the actual original literature of the tale, there is so much more tat didn’t make its way into the films. I also discovered a new-found appreciation for Peter Jackson’s films whilst reading Tolkien’s version: I would read a little and then watch the film a little, discovering hidden gems and “easter eggs” that are nods to the books that had hitherto gone unnoticed by me as I was none the wiser to their relevance. (An example: after Frodo has been stabbed and Aragorn and the other hobbits are camping at night, what I had previously just thought of as rocks turned out to be the trolls that turned to stone in “The Hobbit”!)
So, if you are like me and had not until now actually read this remarkable defining fantasy tale - with its myriad of layers and subtext as only Tolkien could write - then do yourself a favour and put “The Lord of the Rings” on your bucket list. I can now affirm, that you cannot be a lover of fantasy fiction and not have read these books.
Go on, start your adventure…
Bedside lamp model by Sina Sohrab,
The lamp itself is a rechargeable flashlight. The flashlight can be removed from a steel base alongside the lampshade and utilized as easy as any other flashlight—even more so with its one-button control and smooth design frame.
So smart…! I would definitely use one of these.
If you were honest, you’d probably admit there are moments when you do not feel “Christian” at all.
Moments in which you care more about what’s coming on TV that night than you do the spread of the kingdom of God in the world. Moments in which you have fallen to that same old temptation for the thousandth time. Moments when God feels distant, almost like a stranger.
Seasons in which your emotions for Him are lukewarm, if not downright cold. When you don’t jump out of bed in the morning hungry for His Word. When your mind wanders all over the place during prayer — that is, when you can bring yourself to pray. Moments when you’re not even sure you believe all this stuff.
Does that sound familiar to you?
Times like that are familiar to me. Not all the time, not even most of the time, but certainly more often than I’d care to admit.
What do you do in that moment?
Pray “the sinners’ prayer” again? Should I call my old church and have the pastor fill up the all-too-familiar baptismal?
The answer is to keep believing the gospel, to keep your hand on the head of the Lord Jesus Christ.
No matter how we feel at any given moment, how encouraged or discouraged we feel about our spiritual progress, how hot or cold our love for Jesus, the answer is always the same — exercise faith in the gospel.
On your very best of days, you must rest all your hopes on God’s grace to you in Christ. On your worst of days, it should be your refuge and your boast. Your posture should always be one of dependence on it.
Many people assume the “feeling” of being saved indicates whether or not they actually are saved. Feelings, however, are fickle and dangerously misleading, and Scripture never points us to our “feelings” for assurance.
Feelings come from assurance; they are not the basis for it. Assurance is based on the fact of Christ’s finished work; our “feelings” of being saved come from faith in that finished work.
“Feelings” are the fruit of faith, not the source of it.
So don’t feel your way into your beliefs; believe your way into your feelings.
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Zack Arias
(on an article from Guest Blog Wednesday of PhotoInsider)
