Obedience requires discipline, which comes from deciding what is most important to us. Valuing our hope more highly than anything else, we'll pursue that hope with passionate discipline. Turning back is a choice we'll choose not to make -- period.

God has a great goal: not merely to rescue us but to reform us. For all who will accept His plan, God intends to repair the damage sin has done to our character and make us into nothing less than perfect reproductions of His gloriously perfect Son.

Have we been truly converted to Him, discarding our old life and clothing ourselves with the fresh, clean garments of our Lord's heart, mind, and character? If not, perhaps our commitment to Christ is lacking. He deserves better from us.

By coming penitently to Jesus -- seeking first the forgiveness of our sins and then committing ourselves to live by His example -- we become an example that helps other people come to Christ. The process repeats itself from person to person.

The Scriptures must be our guide. Our feelings may err on the high side or the low side, but the only reliable basis for our confidence is God's promise. And never forget: the only thing we know about God's promise is what we find in the Scriptures.

Given the problems that confront us (no less today than in the first century), it would be dangerous not to guard our faith carefully -- there are none more vulnerable to the devil's malice than those who are not paying attention.

In Christ, we live in great anticipation. And since we live in anticipation, we also live with focused concentration and resolute patience. Excited, enticed, and intrigued by the foretaste of what real life will be, we can hardly wait.

If we fail to use the opportunity which God's grace has provided, the word "regret" will crush us with horrible force. There is no love more painful than the love that dies untold. So tell Jesus Christ that you love Him. Tell Him by your obedience.

“Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Christ is the key to the church's splendor, now and in eternity. The bride's beauty is that of her Bridegroom.

It may be that the truly "big" tests of life are the "little" ones, the many daily decisions that call for us to remember our promises to the Lord and faithfully do the best we can do. Over the long haul, that is how godly character comes into being.

Shall we neglect such a great salvation and simply drift away from it? Whatever may have changed in our lives, here is one thing that will never change: the powerful three-fold witness to the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.