The vibrant Christian life is a union of clarity in the Word and openness to the Spirit.

Monuments to God’s works are good when they serve as catalysts for continued faith. But when they become merely markers and memories, our admiration for them wearies God. He’s not just a God of the past; he’s a God mighty for his people in the present. His name is not “I was,” but “I am.” “Seek me now,” he says, “and live.”

In the same way, God will not ask us all to make the same level of sacrifice. Sometimes I look at the assignments given to other people and say, “Lord, am I inferior? In this season I’m not being asked to sacrifice like them.” I’ve never had to watch my family be fed to the lions. If God asks that of me one day, I hope I will endure it faithfully.

This means that when someone claims to be filled with the Spirit and yet spends most of his time talking about his own experiences with the Spirit, you have reason to doubt whether he really is filled with the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit speaks through someone, you tend to forget about the person speaking. You don’t even really think about the

In the Middle Ages, believers began to think of a “church” as a place that people went to for religious services, rather than a movement built around a mission.

To look backward when they should have looked forward was not sacred; it was sinful and unbelieving.

If you knew God had appointed you to do something, and had anointed you for it, and was working in you to accomplish it, wouldn’t that produce an enormous amount of confidence?

It’s not that we’re doing this for God so much as we’re doing it with him.

A heart that truly understands the gospel overflows with gratefulness to God. Extravagant grace produces extravagant givers.