Have I Not Sent You?
God sends ordinary people beyond what they believe they can do, and His presence—not their adequacy—is the strength by which they obey.
God sends ordinary people beyond what they believe they can do, and His presence—not their adequacy—is the strength by which they obey.
Everything that has life is active. The God who rested from creation has never stopped working (John 5:17); the Christ who completed his atoning work intercedes now; the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of the obedient. Every person whom God called in the biblical record…
Nothing can hurt us if we receive it as God teaches. No one can do us real harm if we remain faithful to God. The six categories of life experience that most commonly cause damage — temptation, sickness, pleasure, sorrow, slander, and the general experiences of…
God has a purpose in all that he does. The first advent was purposeful: the prophets expressed it, Christ stated it, and he accomplished it completely — “It is finished” (John 19:30). The second advent is equally purposeful: not to establish a kingdom (already established), not…
The tetelestai of John 19:30 marks the completion of the atoning work — not the end of Christ’s activity. The risen, ascended Christ is presently reigning as king (Col. 1:13), interceding as mediator (Heb. 7:25), governing as head of the church (Col. 1:18), adding the obedient…
No one can afford to despise small things — the universe is built of them, God made and cares for them, Christ tended the “little ones,” and Christian character and service grow little by little — so the believer must be faithful in the small things…
Because the church is a body of members held to a standard of Christian conduct, it has both the right and the duty to discipline disorderly members — teaching and admonishing them toward repentance, withdrawing from the impenitent, and restoring the penitent — and the neglect…
Human judgment is persistently wrong when it operates from outward appearance alone — and six biblical cases demonstrate the pattern. God alone judges from the inside. Man’s judgment is often wrong. The instinct to assess a person, a situation, or a claim at a glance is…
A final judgment is coming — one day, one Judge, all people. The biblical description of that event and its two outcomes is not speculative or symbolic; it is the most concrete and consequential fact about the future that the New Testament presents. Some people dismiss…
The curse fell on Meroz not for what it did but for what it failed to do. Jehovah was victorious without them; the battle was won; the enemy was destroyed. Meroz was not needed for the outcome. But Meroz needed the blessing that would have come…