If you gazed everyday on the majesty of the risen Son of God, you’d never backslide, you’d never be afraid, you’d never get depressed; after all, everything’s going our way because it’s already gone His way! -Leonard Ravenhill

“...they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men.” (Acts 4:13) Isn’t that something? Those men in the upper room didn’t have a PhD between them. Didn’t have a bank account between them! Unlearned, unusual, unwanted, but boy! before long the world knew they were around. -Leonard Ravenhill

To understand Jesus as the Judge without seeing Him as the Bridegroom King may lead to a harsh view of God or misunderstanding why He judges. If we proclaim His judgments without knowing Him as the Bridegroom King, we're more likely to operate in a wrong spirit (Luke 9:53–56).  -Mike Bickle

Jesus didn’t command His disciples, “Pray for the sick.” He told them, “Heal the sick.” Matthew 10:8. Wow, that raises the bar.  -Bob Sorge

My interview on the Ken Brooks Show.

If you could go it on your own, your Lord wouldn’t have promised to be with you, in you and for you, no matter what. -Paul David Tripp

And the ransomed of the Lord will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away. (Isaiah 35:10)

". . . Christ did not introduce his laws for the purpose of undermining the state but rather so that it should be better governed."  -John Chrysostom

Nobody needed deliverance more desperately than Joseph in prison. Once delivered and raised up, he became a mighty deliverer. -Bob Sorge

“Meditate on the miracle that you are a human being who is currently joined to a God 'who dwells in unapproachable light.'" -Francis Chan 

Paul the apostle so powerfully preached the scandal of God’s grace that he was falsely accused of being “OK” with sin and compromise - Romans 3:8 

-Stuart Greaves

"For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and gladness are in His place."  

—1 Chronicles 16: 25–27

The gospel is raw cross, 1 Corinthians 1:17. No fancy words, no clever packaging, just straight-up raw cross. -Bob Sorge

"We can’t just change our emotions. We need to think right about God in order to feel right about Him." —Daniel Hoogteijling

“Tragically, hell will be filled with people who’ve learned, from modern-day preachers, how to be happy and achieve success.” Leonard Ravenhill 

“To manage a life of pain, as a believer in Jesus, remember: This is all the hell you will ever bear.”  -Robert Murray M'Cheyne

“The first sin was rebellion, idolatry, treason, and pride, all rolled into a single bite. Adam and Eve made a conscious choice to rebel against their Creator and live on their own terms. And we imitate their decision every time we choose our desires over God’s.” -Francis Chan

God limits our sphere to protect us, and then we chafe by trying to get attention beyond our sphere. God’s restrictions are our safeguard.  -Bob Sorge

 

As the world pontificates over politics, one reality is as sure as the sunrise: all roads lead to Jerusalem. -Dalton Thomas

“I am a debtor” (Romans 1:14). The opposite of “I am a demander.”

Debtors are deeply moved at how much they owe others.

Demanders are angry about how much others owe them.

What turns pushy demanders into gracious debtors?

Just this: the dying love of Christ crucified.  

-Ray Ortlund

Instead of WORRYING about the situation you face, do some WARRING in the Spirit. -Bob Sorge

You have no authority where you have no love. -Heidi Baker 

The early Christians understood that when Jesus returns, He'll march through the desert to Jerusalem. This storyline was widely known by the early believers. They rarely felt the need to elaborate on this matter, because their Bible already did so in tremendous, glorious detail. -Joel Richardson

Worldlings may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them; but we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich mercy - Spurgeon

The fear of God is the death of every other fear; like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it - Spurgeon

Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible - Spurgeon

You can’t have more of Christ without losing something. Buying gold implicitly involves the loss of something. But what you lose is rubbish, and what you gain is the universe. -Bob Sorge

The return of Jesus is not really the second coming of YHVH. It’s actually the third “coming.” First, YHVH came down on Mount Sinai. Second, He came as Jesus of Nazareth. Finally, He will come a third time in blazing and radiant glory. Maranatha! -Joel Richardson

Take inventory of your spiritual health by measuring your desires. A healthy body has a strong appetite. Are your spiritual desires strong and healthy, ruling over your fleshly lusts? -Bob Sorge

"I will tell you what radical is: a sustained lifestyle of cultivating a heart that is responsive to God. . . . It is easy to go do an event for . . . a short period of time. What you need to do is have a lifestyle that does it decade after decade. That is radical." 

—Mike Bickle

Love without truth is sentimentality; it affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws.

Truth without love is harshness; it may be right but you ignore it because of it's bite. Truth and love together transforms. 

 

-Timothy Keller

One cannot talk about human rights without the right to be human. Every human being has intrinsic worth and a reflective splendor, because every individual has been created by God, in His image, for a unique purpose. -Ravi Zacharias

"Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want."

-Mother Teresa  

All you have to do, to be blessed, is read God’s word. Revelation 1:3 -Bob Sorge

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them. -Timothy Keller

If you have an argument, fine. I respect your convictions.

But follow the example of Jesus who presented His arguments with, “It is written...” Do you have a position?  

Show me chapter and verse. 

-Dustin Benge

“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” -CS Lewis

The first messianic prophecy:

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring a and hers; he will CRUSH YOUR HEAD and you will [merely] strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NIV)

Balaam expanded upon the vision of the Crushing One: "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall CRUSH THE FOREHEAD of Moab  

and break down all the sons of Sheth." (Numbers 24:17 ESV)  Moses said when God comes, Israel will be saved and tread on her enemies: Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you? A people saved by YHVH, the shield of your help, the sword of your triumph! Your enemies will come fawning to you, and you'll TREAD UPON THEIR BACKS" (Dt 33:29)   Deborah also sang of God coming, and His victory over Sisera, commander of the Canaanites. She celebrated Jael, who: "...struck Sisera; she CRUSHED HIS HEAD; she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet ... where he sank, there he fell—dead." (Jdg 5:26–27) 

David also sang of God who will come on His chariots: "Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. But God will STRIKE THE HEADS OF HIS ENEMIES,  

the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways". (Psalm 68:20–21 ESV)

And again, David sang of the Messiah, to whom God said: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool... The Lord ...will SHATTER KINGS on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations,  

filling them with corpses..." (Ps 110:5–6 ESV)

The Prophet Joel spoke of the Day of the Lord: "Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. GO IN, TREAD, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow,  

for their evil is great." (Joel 3:13)

Habakkuk also spoke of God coming, and marching through Edom: "You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. YOU CRUSHED THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF THE WICKED, laying him open from thigh to neck.  

Selah (Hab 3:13).

Malachi also prophesied concerning the Messiah:  

"...the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. YOU SHALL TREAD DOWN THE WICKED. They'll be ashes under your feet, on the day I act, says the LORD" (Mal 4:2–3)

Paul the apostle assured the people of God that:  

"The God of peace will SOON CRUSH SATAN UNDER YOUR FEET. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." (Romans 16:20).

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews said that Jesus after Jesus offered a single and final sacrifice, is presently in heaven, waiting:  

"he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time UNTIL HIS ENEMIES SHOULD BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. (Heb 10:12–13).

Thankfully, the day is soon coming when heaven will be opened, and Jesus will come:  

From his mouth comes a sharp sword to STRIKE DOWN THE NATIONS, and he'll rule them with a rod of iron. He will TREAD THE WINEPRESS OF THE FURY OF THE WRATH OF GOD Almighty. (Rev 19:15–16)

From Genesis to Revelation, Jesus is repeatedly and consistently identified as the One who is COMING to CRUSH His enemies. Jesus is both the Coming One and the Crushing One. Maranatha. -Joel Richardson

"the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary" (Psalm 68:17). When Jesus enters Jerusalem, YHVH will be present among them. The God of glory, storm clouds, thunder, and earthquakes, who came down on the mountain will be present, dwelling in the Temple in Jerusalem.  -Joel Richardson

Referring to the earthquake on the day when God came down on Mount Sinai:
“That hill, so lone and high, bowed before the manifested God… the unconscious earth and sky act as if they recognised their Maker and were moved with a tremor of reverence” —Charles Spurgeon 

Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Exalt the one who rides on the clouds! YHVH is his name! (Psalm 68:4)

Sing praises to Him who rides across the heavens... who thunders with a mighty voice whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the sky. (Psalm 68:32–34)

The most well known image for Jesus’ return in the New Testament is His coming back in the clouds (Matt 24:30; 26:64; Mark 13:26; 14:62; Luke 21:27; Acts 1:9; 1 Thess 4:17; Revelation 1:7; 14:14-16; 19:11). When New Testament writers read David singing praise to the cloud rider, they would have fully understood it a song of praise to Jesus and a celebration of His future coming. Psalm 68 is one of the most astounding Old Testament texts that speaks of Jesus' return. -Joel Richardson

“To delay or fail to make decisions may be more sinful than to make wrong decisions out of faith and love.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Lord will live in Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:3; cf. 1:16; 2:10). The nations will call it the “City of Truth,” and the temple mount will be called the “Holy Mountain.” Jesus’ throne will be there.  -Mike Bickle

Do not have your concert first and tune your instruments afterward. Begin the day with God. — Hudson Taylor

Why does God not simply pull back the curtains of heaven and fully reveal himself to the inhabitants of the world? Because he has chosen this age as an anvil upon which He forges our faith and trust in Him. This is the capital of the age to come. - Joel Richardson

The reason we have 17,000 pages in our law books is because we cannot follow ten lines of a tablet made of stone. - Ravi Zacharias

2019 fall

"Jesus, as the express image of the Father, has always displayed the depths of God's tenderness to weak and fallen human beings." —Allen Hood

"God is coming again from Edom;

the holy God is coming from the hills of Paran. His splendour covers the heavens; and the earth is full of his praise. He comes with the brightness of lightning; light flashes from his hand, there where his power is hidden." (Habakkuk 3:3–4 GNT) 

During the 70 years of their pain-wracked exile, faithful Jews likely gathered at the edge of the rivers of Babylon and sang Habakkuk’s vision aloud, to remember God’s future deliverance and salvation. Yes, YHVH has come, but He is also coming again. - Joel Richadson