The Wake-Up Call

In this way of life, this way of delighting oneself in the Lord, we come to desire the life Jesus desires for us.

God’s Word is a consuming word. It is a totalizing, comprehensive script of absolute wisdom for our whole lives.

Even in the midst of his anguish, David understands and foresees that God is his fortress and final hope.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The biblical concept of meditation carries the image of a lion growling over, eating, and savoring its freshly caught prey.

I am here to encourage you to get off of the bleachers of passive faith and get onto the field of active awakening.

Will you be in the world for Christ, or will you be in Christ for the world?

Encouragement, in the biblical sense of the term, is never “You can do it!” It is always “God will do it.”

Our God, the God of heaven and earth, the only true and living God, almost always begins very, very, very, very small.

God sends his power to deliver us, but he also sends us the sure word of his faithfulness, even as we languish in the midst of difficult times, still awaiting his deliverance.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Come, Holy Spirit, and bring deep awakening to the deepest places in our hearts. Soften our hearts. Show us the hardness. Break up the fallow ground. Declare a season of sowing in our hearts.

One of the everyday ways we can hear the voice of God is through the encouragement of other people.

A meek person is not a weak person but one who has come to the deep conviction that all of their strength is as weakness to the Lord.

There is only one appropriate, effective, and redemptive response for a person who has turned away from the Lord: turning back to the Lord—returning to the Lord—with all your heart.

Our words carry great weight. Words create worlds, and they can also destroy them.

God sends his power to deliver us, but he also sends us the sure word of his faithfulness, even as we languish in the midst of difficult times, still awaiting his deliverance.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

This is why the stakes are so high when it comes to encouragement. It takes a while to reach hardness of heart, and it comes through the subtle deceitfulness of sin.

Father, thank you for giving us a different spirit, one that causes us to follow you wholeheartedly.

God is ever searching for people who will not give up on his people—men and women who have the stick-to-it tenacity to take the long, winding wilderness path of learning to love people like God loves people.

Hallowed be your name! For your name’s sake! All the time!

No matter how long we walk with God, no matter how far we have come, the minute we begin to lose the holy awe and fear of God, we need to cover our faces, rend our hearts, and hit the floor.

God sends his power to deliver us, but he also sends us the sure word of his faithfulness, even as we languish in the midst of difficult times, still awaiting his deliverance.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Give us the eyes of Jesus to see others, the deep heart to hear them, the ears to listen for what you are saying over them, the patience to wait on you, and the boldness to speak.

Encouragement is not the cure but the immunization.

When we see God truly, we see ourselves in reality.

We must determine to obey first, before we even get the assignment. Then it’s not a question of if we will obey but how we will execute on our predetermined obedience.

It is time to explore the unpredictable life of the promises of God.

God knows every single tear you have cried in your times of anguish and difficulty.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Many people we meet, every single day, are fighting a difficult battle, confronting hard circumstances, facing an uncertain future. It is why we must encourage one another daily, . . .

Come, Holy Spirit, and sound the trumpet of God in our day.

It is not about the quantity of one’s faith. It is about the nature of one’s God.

The Bible aspires first, middle, and last to do one thing: reveal God.

That’s where great awakenings begin—with the ones who tremble not in fear but in awe of him alone.

God's love is no sentimental or emotive feeling—which can be devastated by the perpetrators of wickedness, or snuffed out by the disappointments of life.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Our Father wants us to grow up into the deep likeness of his Son, Jesus, anchored in his Word, animated by his Spirit, abiding in his presence, attached to his friends, and activated in his kingdom.

When we seek to obey the voice of God, we can expect a fight.

A divided heart is a confused heart, and a confused heart becomes a darkened heart, and a darkened heart becomes a dead heart.

To say Jesus is Lord is to say Jesus or everything else.

The problem is not out there in the culture. That’s the symptom. The problem is in here.

We need to remember that the central problem of our age is not too much stress, but too little hope.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

A change of life only begins with a change of heart.

What if we learned to encourage one another more in our weaknesses—to embrace them—than in our strengths and building them?

The LORD is with you, mighty warrior!

An encourager must learn to see others as God sees them and to persist in making that vision personally and particularly known.