God conditions us through heartache and confession to receive God’s encouragement and counsel.
A Time In Between: Part II
In matters of faith there is no middle ground. To waver or delay is to choose not to belong to God, both for the new believer, and for the seasoned saint.
A Time In Between, Part I
God conditions and trains us in the now to prepare us for future triumph.
Gospel of John: Agape
Emotional connection with God provides us with distinctive insights into God which cannot be gained any other way. But in order to anchor that truth into our real lives, we need to live it out. Something goes seriously wrong with our capacity to absorb or even understand Scripture if we do not live it, but just study it.
Gospel of John: Means of Grace
To build good character is a human activity, but to become Christlike, to be sanctified, is a supernatural activity.
Gospel of John: Bear Much Fruit
Cleansing and pruning are not God’s punitive correction, rather they are God’s wisdom at work, creating within us the character, and developing within us the capacity to bear much fruit.
Lydia
through Lydia we learn that mature faith accepts God's crossing up of conventions--I first heard that taught in a BSF class, years ago, and I was struck with the simple wisdom in that statement.
Minor Prophets: Obadiah, Companion to Psalm 137
The Psalmist speaks from the Judean perspective, first in concert with fellow Judeans, then alone, as the Psalmist, then finally as a prayer from Judeans to God, going through each of the five stages of grief over the loss of Jerusalem, and the betrayal of Edom.
Gospel of John: To Go, or to Stay?
When John’s gospel was published in final form, A layer was was an added to his evangelistic call to believe. John’s pastoral teaching encouraged hurting believers to persevere in faith, connected deeply with the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
Gospel of John: Shalom
Peace I send forth to you, my peace I commit to you—not as the world delivers do I deliver. Do not let your hearts be troubled, stirred up, and agitated, neither let you all be afraid.