Beyond the Masquerade

(I am dedicating this post to my sweet, humble husband Scott Michael Hughes, who will always be content to work behind the scenes, and would never want me to dedicate a post to him because he doesn't like to have attention drawn to him...which is one of the many reasons we all love him so much. God sees all you do sweetheart, and celebrates people like you. You are a wonderful inspiration to me and I love you so much!!)

This one is for you babe!!!

"God wants to make us humbler,
so we're more and more apt to give Him glory."
-Dr. Juli Slattery

Dr. Juli Slattery works for Focus on the Family and she wrote a book called, "Beyond the Masquerade: Unveiling the Authentic You". I listened to an interview she did a long while back about her book. She made lots of good points that I really liked. One of her major themes was about boasting in our weaknesses. One point that was made that was ironically comforting, and yet humbling at the same time was this:

"God does have a plan for you, and you are inadequate."

I loved that! It's true, isn't it? Read on to digest more of this concept by Juli Slattery....

"It's only healthy to think about our abilities and talents in the context of who gave them to us and why. It's God's intention that all of our strengths glorify Him and serve His purposes.

God doesn't look at people because of their gifts because He's the one who gave them their gifts.

He doesn't celebrate what the world celebrates.
Whoever is the most talented or educated is the most important in the room, but God says that's not true. The Bible says you shouldn't do that in the church. God doesn't look at people based on what they do or what talents they have because He gave them those gifts. To those with gifts that are visible He says, "You got your reward, I'm looking at the ones who are serving without even being noticed but I gave you all these gifts because I want you to show my love to the world and I want you to build up my body--the Bride."

And we each have within us special gifts for that purpose--to glorify Him, to love people, and to build up the church."

In the quiet of the night I hear the question:
"Juli, Am I serving you or are you serving me? Who is being glorified through the good things you do?"

"I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward."
(Mark 9:41)

Dr. Juli Slattery is INCREDIBLE, and she pumps out some wonderful material worth reading!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! If you are interested in checking out her book, or buying it, you can click on the picture of her book below...
AWESOME SONG TIME...
I thought this would be fitting with this topic. I just adore singer, Chris Sligh. My favorite of all his songs is "Empty Me". I found this video of him singing "Empty Me" that was uploaded to youtube back in 2008 around the time that he would have been "found out" and "promoted".... precious...