The Central Moment

A counterfeit religious spirit wants to placate God with good intentions and external shows of self-denial and sacrifice. But God wants obedience. It’s submission over sacrifice.

No risk, no reward; no pain, no gain; no steps of faith, no breakthroughs. Everything worthwhile in life will require taking risks. And although we may only have a ‘perhaps’ on the front side risk, on the other side is a God who is able!

God validates our callings with confirmations and favor. Although trust is earned, not demanded, the Lord knows how to raise us up and create those trust-earning moments.

Life without God’s Spirit is like a car without gas. We can get out and push, but it is far better to be fueled up and drive. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us our lives change and we live in power not our own.

It’s honestly not easy to live differently than the world around us. Yet we are called out to be holy, to serve a Kingdom not of this world, and to make Jesus our King.

The ultimate purpose of one of the greatest love stories in the Bible is found in the very last words of the story. That purpose spans history and can change our lives forever.

The God who created us has acted to redeem us. The concept of a ‘redeemer’ is embedded deeply in the Bible. It points to humanity’s greatest need and our loving Creator’s greatest act. 

With time the things that we do every day begin to add up and have consequences. The same principle that brought Ruth favor works in our lives as well. We will reap a harvest if we don’t give up planting seed.

The story of Ruth is a love story in every way.  It gives us hope that there can, indeed, be love that is deeply rooted in life-long loyalty. The contrast to a world of fickle infatuation and emotional shallowness could not be greater.

It’s hard to know why bad things happen to good people. But do loss and disappointment with God need to be the end of the story? Or can the God who allows reversals also be the God who restores lives?

All that we do in living for Christ is ultimately for the glory of God. In the end, people should not be left more impressed with us than with God.

Does ‘laying a fleece’ before the Lord still apply to New Testament believers as a way of discerning God’s will? Or is that seeking God’s guidance on our terms? What do we do with this moment in Gideon’s life?

True availability to God often involves both consecration and renunciation -- being set apart to God as well as being separated from the idols that so easily seduce us. It will take spiritual courage, but obedience can win the day in our lives.

The kind of people that God can use are not restricted to the popular, the self-confident or the outgoing. Like Gideon, God can work with us and prepare us for his purposes if we will cooperate with his calling.

It has been famously said that God has no grandchildren. Every new generation needs its own encounter with Jesus in order to overcome the pull of the gods of the world that surround us.

Just as the walls of Jericho collapsed under Joshua’s leadership, the walls between us and God have collapsed in Christ. At the heart of it is a very personal story of saving power that God is writing in each of our lives.

God makes a way where there is no way! The barriers in front of us are not signs that God does not love us. They are opportunities for the Lord to reveal who he is and call us to revere him.

In a culture obsessed with safety and security, courage has become an underrated virtue. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to face fear with faith.

Are you living too safely? No risk, no reward -- it’s true in life and it’s true in achieving our God-given potential. No steps of faith, no God-given breakthroughs.

The proposition is unprecedented -- to have God’s promise but not his presence. Have we settled for that? Or are we hungry for God himself, not just his blessings?