If you had to name the pinnacle of Jesus’ teaching, what would you say it is? We gain some insight from his final night with his disciples before going to the cross. He only had a few hours left with his closest friends, so he concentrated all that he’d taught them. As Christ summed up everything, he boiled it all down to one word: love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
Intimacy with him is the beginning of our empowerment to do his works on earth. We simply can’t move forward in those works without it. I urge you: Meet your Savior in prayer. Remind yourself of his amazing promises through his Word. He is faithful to guide you by his Spirit’s presence in you.
God’s goodness simply can’t be nailed down. It transcends our understanding, yet it blesses us in every moment of our lives. His goodness can’t be defined, yet we know its truth through scripture and the Spirit’s witness. How can any human being ever get their head around the awesome goodness of God?
This message is about spiritual prisons—those that Satan uses to cage us, and those we keep ourselves in. God’s Word shows us how to be freed from these prisons, with a powerful example from Peter’s life.
As I write this, the whole world is frightened, perplexed and confused. Even the most devoted Christians are wondering about all the fast-moving events as they rapidly unfold. Are these things prophetic?
I hear from believers everywhere who ask a question I myself am wondering: “Are we in the very last years of human history?” I do not know — any thoughts on that subject are mere speculation. But one thing is sure: We have seen an acceleration of world events as never before.
"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:35–39).
Christians all over the world have a sense we’re living in the final days. The mounting crises, the growing fears, the signs of great shaking — all these things are evident, even to secular commentators. Now, for every follower of Jesus, the question of the hour is this: “Will my faith endure what is coming?”
I believe the most important issue of this hour has to do with what is called “enduring faith.” Simply put, will the faith of God’s people endure the terrible shaking of all things, the intense trials and testings to come, which no previous generation has faced?
The Psalmist writes, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee” (Psalm 76:10). According to this verse, the wrath of the wicked will one day be turned into praise of Almighty God. What a moment that’s going to be: the tongues of evildoers will only be able to acknowledge and worship the Lord!
My question about this verse is, where does the “wrath of man” come from? Right now a fierce, intense wrath is blanketing the whole earth, something that man isn’t capable of in himself. And this wrath is manifesting itself in multiple ways. Think of it:
As Paul was on his way to Jerusalem in Acts 20, he made a stop at Ephesus . There he called a special meeting of all the leaders of the church. He told those Ephesian believers solemnly, “This is the last time I’ll see you. And this will be my final message to you. You’re not going to see my face after this” (see Acts 20:25).
The prophet Ezekiel was given an incredible vision. Scripture says the hand of God carried Ezekiel to a very high mountain, where a man appeared to him "whose appearance was like the appearance of brass" (Ezekiel 40:2-3). John describes a similar vision of a man who appeared to him on the Isle of Patmos: "his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace" (Revelation 1:15).
