The Masterpiece

by Francine Rivers

“Pastor Jack

omg jack hibbs cameo

“God cares what I do, and my friends love me enough to hold up a warning sign if I’m heading the wrong way.”

“Have you prayed about it?”

She gave up going to church. It had always been a battle between them anyway. Patrick never went with her. He said church was a boring waste of time.

oof this is why its so important to be equally yoked

She hadn’t come to faith because someone gave her all the answers. She came to faith because she met and talked with someone who made her feel enveloped by God’s love.

“I believe in God. Life can be pretty unbearable without something to believe in.”

Though he had to admit that unlike other religious quacks he’d run into, she’d mentioned faith in a natural way.

They each had strong, sometimes opposing, opinions, but didn’t resort to insults or arguments.

She just wanted to be loved. Was that so wrong?

“Girls play at sex to get love, and guys play at love to get sex.

“What I’m trying to tell you is sex is powerful. In the right context, it’s a beautiful gift from God. Used in the wrong way, it can wound and break hearts. It can ruin lives.”

“You can’t take anything for granted in life.”

Please, Lord. Protect me. I don’t want to pick the wrong guy again.

She kept walking farther into the field. She bent to pick something up and tucked it in her pocket. He took out his phone and snapped a picture of her standing among the lupines and poppies. Leaning against his car, he took several more.

She was showing him a world he’d never noticed.

He’d rather look at her than the sunset,

“You see it as you wish, Roman, but I see sunrise as God’s good morning, and sunset as God’s good night.”

Everyone these days likes to think they’ll go to heaven or a better place somewhere. The truth is, the price for sin is death and hell. That’s why Jesus came. That’s why God sent His Son. Only Jesus could live a sin-free life and be the perfect sacrifice to ransom us. All He asks is that we believe. And I believe.”

“Believing is seeing.”

“Love is worth it, Bobby Ray. It’s the best part of being human.” He smiled. “‘Faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.’ It can last forever.”

Make Jesus your first priority.”

Grace might not love him, but God did. Always had. Always would. And it would be a whole lot safer giving his heart, soul, and mind to Jesus than to a flesh-and-blood woman.

A soft breeze whispered through the chaparral. I love you more. He felt the warmth of that declaration, the deep yearning to get closer to the eternal One. He could, if he stopped hanging on to someone who didn’t belong to him and never had.

Sometimes women love too much and lose themselves completely.”

Brian, a fisher of men, told him there was a big difference between religion and faith.