The time will come when the best of the good ideas that we’ve had will come true. We’ll find ourselves not merely thinking about God but knowing Him. And in God, what we’ve always wanted to be is what we actually will be!
God will not be misled. He is not looking for verbiage but for hearts willing to be transformed. And if our hearts are not willing to be turned toward Him, then no amount of “image management” will get us where we want to go.
If we’re not comforted by the availability of God’s grace, we bog down in despair. But if we fail to be humbled by the necessity of God’s guidance and help, we bog down in something even worse: the illusion that we’re doing better than we really are.
Having a need for God, as every human being does, we need to admit that need and feel it. As the years go by, we should more truthfully understand, more lovingly feel, and more honestly acknowledge that we need our God.
We may be impressed with what Jesus’ miracles say about God’s existence, and we may even understand that they are evidence of His power and authority. However, we don’t always see what these signs say about God’s nature and His purposes.
In the end, it will be seen that our outward actions were the result of our knowledge of God — or the lack of that knowledge. This knowledge is the soil out of which our lives grow, and if the soil is barren, our harvest will not be bountiful.
God has given each of us our abilities because those are the resources needed to do the work that belongs to us — right where we are. It’s tempting to think we could do a better job if we occupied someone else’s place, but that is probably not true.
As “self-actualized” people it is hard for us to learn self-denial. Yet somehow we must learn it. We must recover the old-fashioned virtue of sacrifice — the willingness to let go of everything except that which most greatly glorifies God.
For every step we take toward something valuable, there will always be an easier step we could take toward something less valuable. In the spiritual life, we have a practical need for constant vigilance. Our focus needs to be rechecked frequently.
We may become so consumed with intellectual activity that we disconnect ourselves from the people around us and from the active responsibilities of daily living. Spiritually speaking, we can’t afford the luxury of living in an ivory tower.
An apostasy from the faith was predicted. It was a matter of great concern to the apostles. The fact that there would occur a departure from the foundational teachings of ...
Both individually and congregationally, restoration requires constant vigilance. We must reassess and return. Reassess and return. If our forebears did this, we are blessed to have their example. But like ...
Local assemblies of Christians must commit themselves to a restoration of the apostolic order. If not, they will descend into greater “entropy” with each passing year — and there is ...
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us.” Return must be the church’s watchword, now as it was back then. ...
As John, one of the apostles, wrote toward the end of the apostolic age, “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the ...
Today, if we go back to the teaching of the apostles and use that as our template, the congregations that you and I worship with will resemble congregations in the ...
God can’t be other than what He is. He couldn’t reconcile Himself to us in simply any way that “felt good” to Him; it would have to be in a ...
God’s people “bear” His name. In a sense, God has put His reputation in the hands of those who are “a people for his name.” Knowing that the world is ...
“I will be their God” had reference in the old covenant to Israel, but in the new it would encompass people from every nation. And amazingly, even this had been ...
Reconciliation can only be through the atonement of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. But in Christ, let us not undervalue what it’s possible for us to be: a people set aside ...
If God has a people, which He certainly does in Jesus Christ, it was not without purpose that He made them His people. God dwells with us in order that ...
Reminiscent of the Passover lamb in Israel, Jesus was a greater sacrifice, enabling God to justify mankind from its sins. John the Baptist said on one occasion as he saw ...