The Central Moment

In God’s sovereign way, he can even turn the wrongs done to us into good for the world around us. We are never victims when we are in the hands of Jesus.

Embedded deep in Old Testament history is a shining prophetic picture of Jesus, the Lion of Judah. He is our Savior, our Champion and the One to whom the nations will one day bow.

God has his moments for each one of us -- moments of influence, moments of supernatural opportunity, moments of significant influence. Thrive where you are and the Lord can raise you up.

In a sex-saturated, self-gratifying culture the notion of sexual purity seems outdated and foolish. Yet sexual purity is often God’s testing ground for future fruitfulness.

Humility is an accurate assessment of ourselves without having to be the center of attention. It is therefore best to keep a low profile, stay faithful, and let God raise us up.

When we lose a sense of the sovereignty of God, we put too much pressure on ourselves and try too hard to make things happen in our own strength. It’s one thing to live responsibly, but quite another to live as if God is not there.

Every God-alternative in our lives has the potential of eventually victimizing us. Needless pain, confusion, and grief will flow out of trying to accomplish God’s plan our way.

Sometimes the cover-up is as bad as the wrong deed itself. We see it in politics, in corporate life, in our families and even the church. “What a wicked web we weave, when at first we do deceive!”

Trust God or take things into your own hands? Follow Christ with confidence in his promises or manipulate situations and people to get your way? The pathway you choose will make all the difference.

God does not always play to our expectations or conform to our norms. He is also the God of the unexpected and the unexplainable. So how do we follow him?

Have you ever suffered for following Jesus? Have you lost friends, jobs, or even your safety for staying faithful to him? If so, your faith has been tested and God has been glorified!

Testings often precede blessings. Why? Because God is always looking first for what is in our hearts. God’s testings shake us down in order to build us up.

God revealed himself to Abraham as Jehovah-Jireh, our God who provides. He did not let Abraham make the kind of sacrifice that he reserved for himself to make, but his provision can change our lives.

Faith and obedience cannot be separated. If the Holy Spirit is to work through us with power, then faith-inspired obedience and obedience-centered faith will need to mark our lives.

How might God be testing your faith right now? That testing is always for a purpose, even though it is rarely pleasant. God knows exactly what he is preparing us for next!

The second coming of Christ will be preceded by the same kind of spiritual waywardness that marked the wicked culture of Noah’s time. As a result, God’s judgment overtook them unexpectedly. Suddenly they were swept away -- a sobering warning as we await Christ’s second coming.

God established with Noah the first ‘covenant’ found in the Bible. Ancient covenants were relational agreements, often accompanied by a covenantal sign (like a ring in marriage covenants). All of these covenants, however, point us to the ultimate covenant that God would make with each of us!

‘Love me but don’t judge me.’ That’s what many of us think we would like in a friend -- someone who accepted us without ever questioning us. But as comforting and socially acceptable as all of that may be, is that really what we want? And what about God?

It’s commonly said that “the devil is in the details.” But it is God who can actually be in the details of our lives. What specifically is he asking you to do this year? And are you trusting him to guide you, even in the details?

The heights of God’s judgments can only be understood in proportion to the depths of his love for his creation and his passionate anger against the evil that corrupts it. From the first hint of the need for justice in Genesis, things went from bad to worse. But God’s goodness required that he also be just.

Our world battles for our affections. Yet we cannot “love this world” if we want to be filled with God’s love. Lord, transform our affections with a hunger for your holiness and a passion for purity!

God made shame-covering clothing for Adam and Eve out of animal skins. This would have required the shedding of blood, a powerfully hope-filled picture of what Jesus would one day do for us.

The choices we make matter. Sin has consequences. Unfortunately it is easier to blame than to take responsibility when it comes to our actions and the harm they cause. Yet true repentance points the way back to recovery and restoration.

Satan is the ultimate tempter. He has but one agenda -- to turn us away from God. Jesus called him the father of lies. So in true form, it’s almost impossible for us to sin without first lying to ourselves.

We were created in the image of a holy God. That image is totally incompatible with the experiential ‘knowledge’ of evil that Adam and Eve chose. It’s no wonder there were such deforming and deadly consequences.