Glory at Work
God only need manifest Himself, and all things become clear, regardless of their degree or concealment.
God only need manifest Himself, and all things become clear, regardless of their degree or concealment.
The Lord’s priority is to preserve even the barest witness to the glory of God in a church in order to grow it.
The list of His grace stretches down to smaller things that, while not saving us eternally, certainly assist us temporarily.
When Jesus doubled down, He turned a dark moment into something beautiful.
When God gives instructions to us about evangelism, it also starts with the idea of looking.
Scripture fairly handled, always leads in a true direction.
Be open at all times to the Spirit’s application of that truth in your life, whether it has to do with staying or going.
Compared to the kingdom of God, our endeavors prior to meeting Christ were really just a waste of time—idleness.
The Christian life was never intended to be a life sequestered inside a meeting space.
We pore over obscure biblical details, assign interpretations, and then walk away with the exhilaration of having solved a word search puzzle.
Cravings and unsatisfied lusts make us willing to exaggerate our current problems–our strength is dried up!
Jesus had predicted, this was a moment of celebrity.
We’re supposed to look at the offending party through the scene of our own redemption.
As the designer, the engineer, the instrument, and the very glue of our universe, it’s safe to say He deserves the central spot in our lives.
It’s all about what you love, what you fear, what you obey, what you feed upon, think about, listen to, and put your hope in.
Their official position is that the cross is just another backward, illogical, folk tale.
It occurred to me that when no one knows the people or the context of a photo, it becomes worthless.
Sometimes we don’t reflect on the mysteries of Easter, and in this unreflective state, the whole thing begins to feel like a folktale.
As soon as you take the Words of Scripture into your mouth, with a desire to taste them, something happens.
I was willing to take it all on faith because the Bible said so. But it didn’t seem likely.
At times of key disappointment, you got mad and stopped praying or attending Christian meetings.
Owing to the scarcity of our mortal resources, we’re no outwardly tougher than the cicada shell.
“Learn to love what I love, and seek what I seek,” God seemed to be telling me.
This is a huge, global responsibility that we have been assigned, dominating more than two thousand years.
Little did I know that one day I would discover the secret of constant, undisturbed joy.
The first Noel came down to a simple carpenter, his young wife, and their baby.
I celebrated the birth of Christ twenty-one times before He was born in me.
Life on the rock isn’t always comfortable, but it is infinitely safer than building on the sand and then watching our lives implode.
It is not until His glory dawns on the heart anew that we realize how much of what we have is only partial and tainted with shadow.
God often deliberately takes us through things in order to energize our ministries with spiritual experience, practical wisdom, comfort, and trust.
We no longer expect any encounter with a non-Christian, no conversations about faith. We’re not interested in them, either.
Prior to second birth, the internal reality of a man or woman–even those who are religious–is sadly predictable.
Our reactions to an enlightened, troubled conscience are often harmful.
Truly, the Christian experience, both individually and together, is one of farming.
I get a distinct impression, though, that we could drill all the way to the earth’s core and never even recognize “the mother lode.”
Though political powers—even armies—try to stop it, the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ will come.
The pouring out demonstrated a celebration of unconditional love and gratitude.
The message in the “bottle” that had come straight from heaven was all about redemption–Christ lifted up on the cross.
We usually measure faith in its ability to do great works, but faith is found just as surely in how we rest.
The trustworthiness of genuine faith phenomenon usually dwells at some deeper place than what we suppose.
Church is a massive crowd of people whose faith we never interact with.
While His cross dealt with our sins, His resurrection spoke directly to the death element filling us and looming over our future.
The items to be trashed from the days of our spiritual immaturity ought to be wrong things, not those that were merely simple.
Vibrant presence has a high value, as evidenced in the Lord’s command to “Go.”
If we bear the testimony of Jesus, we will typically get in trouble with the world the same way He did.
The very shape and definition of life are thus established in the eternal Son of God, not according to the shifting moods of human beings.
May God show us Christ, not only in the Sunday morning message and soaring music but in the believer seated next to us.
The warnings of Proverbs will all pay out, but some don’t until after the coffin lid closes.
A tale of the inevitable creeping neglect that finally catches up with and cripples segments of the service industry.
Prophecy should first depend upon the prophet’s uttermost fidelity to Scripture.
Often, while God is doing something beautiful, men are simultaneously in their hearts and minds heading off into many clueless, dark directions.
At times I’ve had to walk away from toxic online exchanges because I knew there could never be an edifying conclusion to them.
It’s as though a huge majority of people have subscribed to some sort of “Latest Foolishness” activation email.
One of the traits of falsity lies not merely in getting the teaching wrong but a thorough disrespect of the teacher’s own conscience.
From heaven’s priority list, the chief point of any conversation is “What do you think of Christ?”
The common refrain: I could never believe in a God who does or doesn’t, is or isn’t.
This is our world, where questions are trump cards and maneuvering devices.
The most staid, logical person will suffer IQ reduction when emotions get involved.
Those among God’s people who casually neglect His Word will frequently feel defenseless.
Nothing is quite so powerful than when eternal life itself speaks up for the believer and for Christ.
We seem less prone than ever to hold a consistently biblical worldview.
Scripture points to a God who graciously condescends to dwell among His people, even while they are in an imperfect and potentially offensive state.
God appears not to provide answers but to enrich Job’s thin understanding.
We seem to have lost our way in the midst of interracial squabbling and settling scores.
The law does little to change the human heart. The things that lie hidden, lie hidden still.
Love touched by the living Word of God, cleansed of sin, purified of contaminants.
Because of their restless intellect, the spurious teachers Paul warned against refused to abide within the boundaries of apostolic truth.
These letters were meant for us also, practically from their very inception—packaged grace intended to shape our very hearts.
Our continued low valuing of spiritual health will end in ashes and table scraps, just like anything else we take for granted.
It seems we must be convinced of our spiritual disease because our first impulse is to deny it.
Anytime we open the Scriptures, we open ourselves to a bath in the Holy Spirit.
But there comes a time when, under the Holy Spirit’s gracious conviction, we sense the foolishness of any further concealment and camouflage.
Condemnation, therefore, came not for failing to rescue all the poor, but for failing only one among their number.
When Jesus was threatened in the garden, He told Peter that He was able to get twelve legions of angels to protect Him if He had wanted.
One night in a house full of opponents, Jesus preached warning words about financial abuse, selfishness, and the unqualified trust in earthly riches.
Rather than fret over such possible failures, he chose to believe the Lord would bring him safely through to the kingdom.
We find ourselves in need of coaching from our ancient predecessors on how to experientially enter what we have received.
That’s exactly what the Bible commands us to do—continue seeking, not for something you don’t have, but for something you do have.
It is all grace—that wonderful reality that deals with a sinner more effectively than any threat of punishment ever could.
Omnipotence is God’s unique, innate ability to upend everything and everyone, enlisting such reversals for His own purpose.
We sinners love to cuddle the skunk of sin, but it’s never the fun we think it’s going to be.
Jesus names the very things we have enshrined as Christian, and in fact, ones we treat as synonymous with discipleship—family.
And so, the legislator God, and the executive Son, not only accomplish the divine plan in spite of evil but through its very turbulence.
Many of us are overly sympathetic with the failure of others, even to the point that we sync up with their sin.
Peace comes from knowing you will have left your requests in the hands of One who knows what to do.
Everyone who has come to Christ in faith is the site of a miracle.
At the end of a digging, dunging, and fruitful season, our attitudes change.
The more I see it, especially as modeled by the big boy pastors, the more pressure I feel to contribute my two cents to the ever-increasing pile of copper coins.
We like glory because it is exciting to be known, talked about, to grow your brand.
God solves our problem with righteousness, straightens out our holiness deficit, and will eventually bring us into glory.
When the Son of God finishes faithfully carrying out His Father’s business, He will melt all the riches of this world down to worthless slag.
Too many tyrants have fallen immediately to the ground at even a hint of receiving such a prize, kissing the devil’s feet, confessing his greatness, swearing allegiance to him.
Once we “think about these things,” we’ll find them every time.
When God gave His Word, He did so knowing our days would not be the same, or at least they wouldn’t be for very long.
Nothing could be more heroic, more honorable, than occupying this time in history.
Every evangelistic encounter, even those that don’t go well, has the long-term potential for salvation.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, we must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or admit to doing, and more in light of what they suffer.
John wrote in his journal, “I went to America to convert the Indians, but, oh, who will convert me?”
Our marriage, kids, jobs, and more rest on something that seems invisible to the world, the wise word of the Shepherd.
When you state the facts, with thanksgiving, the feelings follow.