“We disobey the Lord’s example in two ways. The first is the error of the permanent pietist — one whose faith rests in his own desire to be holy. He takes the lowest seat, and refuses to budge when invited up. He is too holy to receive God’s promotion. He is, in fact, like all …
You Would Think . . .
“This attitude of humility is the fundamental challenge set before us. When Jesus tells us to go to the back of the line, He is actually teaching us how God wants us to go to the head of the line. When Jesus talks about the chief seats in the synagogues, or the seats of honor …
Pulling Back Curtains
“A return to heathen midmight is an impossibility. Those who walk in darkness now are doing so in a world suffused with light. This is hard to do — you have to remain blind or hide in root cellars. There are ways to stay out of the sunlight, but they are difficult to accomplish . …
Which Makes It Daytime Now
“But when the sun rises, it does not happen the way a light comes on in a room when you flip the switch. The sun rises slowly. At first, you don’t know that anything has happened. It may be just as dark as it was a moment ago, but maybe not. And some time later, …
Undomesticated Grace
“God’s grace is a tsunami that will carry us away and deposit us in places we would not have anticipated — and all of it good. We analyze this carefully and say that we want our grace to be true and pure water, just like that tsunami, but we want it to be a placid …
Out of Our Hands Entirely
“We are afraid of grace getting carried away, and so we want to slap some conditions on it . . . Grace has a backbone and knows how to define itself. Grace is not the word that we are to use as the ‘open, sesame’ of the Church. Grace is not something we do. Grace …
Grace Is Not That Kind of Test
“Grace is one of the most difficult things in the world for sinners to grasp. And as soon as we realize that it is difficult, we turn the ‘grasping of it’ into a contest, giving those with the ‘right answer’ a ‘best in show’ award. But grace doesn’t follow our rules. Grace means that some …
It’s Joy to the World, Not Joy to the Remnant
“This vision of historical optimism is not all that common in the Christian world, and so it can get pretty lonely sometimes. But fortunately, once a year the entire nation appears to come around to our way of thinking. You might be shopping in Target for some last minute stocking stuffers and not be at …
A New Order Entirely
“The author of Hebrews is plainly teaching his readers that the shaking of heaven and earth is the removal of the old order of principalities and powers, which includes the old Judaic order, so that the kingdom of God can be firmly established throughout the earth” (Heaven Misplaced, p. 63).
After Tying Him Up
“What Satan offered Christ in the temptation in the wilderness, Christ refused. But Christ did not refuse the offer because He didn’t want what was offered. He didn’t want it on those terms, but the reason He had come down to earth was to obtain those very kingdoms. He refused the tempter’s offer because He …