“It’s two- inch events that change our trajectory.”- Mark Batterson “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the times set for them and the exact places they should live.”- Acts 17:26 Mark Batterson opens Chapter 5 (“The Game of Inches”) of Chase the […]
“Sovereignty paves a pathway of perspective that leads away from cynicism and bitterness to enthusiasm and grace.”- Dr. Wayne Stiles Wayne Stiles continues Chapter 9 of Waiting on God by stressing that God had many options at His disposal to deliver Joseph’s family from the famine. For example, a good downpour of rain or preventing […]
“Part of waiting on God includes praising him that providence refuses to give us more . . . if getting more would actually create a spiritual vacuum in our hearts.”- Dr. Wayne Stiles Wayne Stiles continues Chapter 8 of Waiting on God by commenting that “God’s love and protection come just as much from what […]
“Following God is not an escape from pain but a preparation through pain for a future made greater by it.”- Dr. Wayne Stiles Dr. Wayne Stiles concludes Chapter 7 of Waiting on God by emphasizing that God’s will for our lives rarely follows a smooth path. That’s because “when we refuse to trust and obey […]
“The hard facts of life, which knock some of the nonsense out of us, are God’s facts and his appointed school of character; they are not alternatives to His grace, but a means of it.”- Derek Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my […]
“God sees our faithfulness in obscurity as preparation for increasing influence.”- Dr. Wayne Stiles “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”- Galatians 6:9 In Chapter 6 (“The Opportunity of Obscurity”) of Waiting on God, Wayne Stiles states that while waiting on […]
“The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.”- Psalm 145:15 Wayne Stiles concludes Chapter 4 of Waiting on God by noting that when the apostle Paul penned, “Love is patient,” he literally wrote, “Love is being patient.” The original Greek word defines patience as a continual […]
“In the end, if we really knew the big picture, we too would want what God wants for us- and in the exact way and timing he wants it to occur.”- Dr. Wayne Stiles As Wayne Stiles concludes his Introduction to Waiting on God, he notes that our pain often blinds us to the big […]
Mark Batterson expounds on Harvard professor Robert K Merton’s(1936) groundbreaking thesis on the “law of unintended consequences” in Chapter 20 (The Kingdom of Unintended Consequences”) of If. Pastor Batterson explains that “the outcome of our actions have unintended consequences that are beyond our ability to control, beyond our ability to predict.” These unforeseen consequences fall […]
“There is nothing more hopeful than the thought that things can be different, we can move mountains, and have some role in bringing that change about.”- John Eldredge “After a long time, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: ‘Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”- 1 […]
“Nuanced prayers give God an opportunity to reveal more shades of His sovereignty.”- Mark Batterson In Chapter 3 of The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson writes that there is a direct correlation between the strength of your faith and the specificity of your prayers. Spelling out your prayers with specificity eventually will spell God’s glory. Pastor […]
“Often it may be that when the door marked ‘Go’ looks closed, it’s because there’s a door marked ‘Grow’ that’s wide open.”- John Ortberg In today’s blog, John Ortberg discusses the third reason why some doors remain closed to us. 3. Doors close because I need to grow. Pastor Ortberg tells of a time he […]