Originally posted on Facebook on Monday, May 19, 2025.

I recently learned that Charles Spurgeon wrestled his entire life with depression. I find a quote from him on how he navigated his suffering deeply helpful,

“It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by Him, nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity.”

It makes Paul's thorn in the flesh all the more real to me.

The Apostle Paul writes,

"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me."
– 2 Corinthians 12:7-8

What is fascinating to me is that Paul attributes the thorn to Satan but appeals to God for its removal.

In doing so he acknowledges the sovereignty of God—that God is in control in every circumstance. But more than that, he trusts Him.

Why?

Because of God's purpose.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
— Romans 8:28

This even applies to things done to me by others with malicious intent:

"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
– Genesis 50:20

God's purpose is God:

God with us. God in us. God through us. God all in all.

And, that's good.

So whatever I face, I can be confident: God is in control, He is working it together for good, and that good is having more of Him.

But, sometimes it's really hard and I don't want that bitter cup.

Our Lord knows all about that and cried out, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me…" —Matthew 26:39

The Apostle Paul, too, knows that difficulty and pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from him. (2 Corinthians 12:8)

But God responds, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” —2 Corinthians 12:9

So, like Spurgeon, Paul and our Lord Jesus, I conclude,

"Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." —2 Corinthians 12:9

"Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." —Matthew 26:39

Because, Your will is good.

God's purpose is God:

God with us. God in us. God through us. God all in all.

May everything I am and have—including my suffering—result in more of You.

#MySureHopeInSuffering #perfectourlove #depression #suffering #GodsSovereignty #hope

Originally posted on Facebook on Monday, May 19, 2025.

There is only one objective: being with God.¹

There is only one work: believe in the one whom God sent—Jesus Christ.²

There is only one expression: loving one another.³

There is only one way: the manifold grace that flows toward us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.⁴⁵

Beware anyone who makes it any more complicated than that.

Life in Christ is not complicated, sin is.

Most of the volume and intricacy of Scripture exists to expose the great multiplicity and complexity of sin in the light of the truth of God so that we are not caught unaware and overcome by sin. It illuminates the complex and perilous minefield to bring us to the way of escape—back to the simplicity that is in Christ.

"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
— 2 Corinthians 11:3

This is the simplicity in Christ:

Jesus is how I connect to God.

Jesus is how I connect to you.

Jesus bridges God and man.

#TheSimplicityInChrist #PerfectOurLove

Originally posted on Facebook on Friday, May 16, 2025.

Was blessed with another treasure in Bible Study this morning. 1 Kings 13 is rich.

It's the account of the man of God who was killed by a lion after following instructions from a prophet that contradicted what God told him to do.

Reading it again this morning stirred so many questions in my heart.

I asked God, why did the man of God heed the prophet? The man of God clearly understood what God had commanded him, as he repeated it word for word at least twice.

I sense it's because what the man of God was tasked with was heavy, terrifying, and isolating. He was being sent into hostile territory to confront people gripped in a culture of idolatry—where he would have no allies, and to the king no less—someone who had power to hurt and kill him. In a word, the man of God felt alone (see 1 Kings 18:22).

After such a harrowing ordeal, I would have readily welcomed a friendly face too.

Then I observed that there was already a prophet in Bethel—the old prophet. So why didn't God send the prophet that was already there?

I sense that God did not send the prophet that was already there because he was already there. The old prophet was a part of the very thing that needed to be corrected.

The last question I'll share (as I have many) is how could the man of God have known? While he knew what God told him, how could he know that the old prophet was lying?

What burned in my heart is that it is vital that we not only discern the "what" of God, but also—and more importantly—the "why" of God. God does not just do things; He does them for a reason. So we must seek and discern His purpose and see it through to its completion.

God's purpose here was to restore—to bring His people out of a condition of sin, which you cannot do if you're participating in it with them.

"But others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh." —Jude 1:23

In all, I gleaned:

• Be mindful of the things of God rather than the things of men. While an action or reaction may be perfectly reasonable, that is no excuse for disobedience. Be prepared to walk alone.

• Be careful not to be in the thing that God has chosen you to help others out of.

• Be clear, not only on what to do, but on God's why. Seek diligently and discern God's purpose in what He's leading you to do. When His leading is in agreement with His Word (1 Corinthians 14:32), stand on that and see it through to the end no matter what anyone else says (Acts 21:10-14).

#StayMindfulOfTheThingsOfGod

Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, May 15, 2025.

Someone dear to me asked, “Can you be a good person without being a Christian?”

Without hesitation, I answered, “Certainly” (in the way goodness is typically understood—acts of kindness, justice, generosity, love, etc.).

I continued, “But that’s not the objective of Christianity, nor is it its exclusive claim anywhere in Scripture. Our aim is to be with God, and Christ makes the exclusive claim of making that possible.”

Still, asking whether someone can be good without the God revealed by Christ is like asking if life can exist where there is no sunlight. Yes—but not ultimately. The effect only exists because of the Cause.

Just as life can exist apart from the sun, that life only exists because of the sun. So too, while people may express some form of goodness apart from God, all goodness only exists because of God. This is a part of common grace.

In both cases, the effects still depend on their causes. In the complete and permanent absence of the cause, the effects will cease to exist.

The goodness we see now is a mercy—and temporary. Only the Son leads us to its source forever.

#GoodWithoutGod #CommonGrace #Gospel #PerfectOurLove

Originally posted on Facebook on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

A precious treasure was revealed to me in my Bible Study this morning.

In Paul's prayer for the Ephesians in Ephesians 3:18–19, he says, "[I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … that you] may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Before, what I heard was, "that I may understand the width, length, and height of the love of Christ." I understood that to be a call upward—beyond simply religious engagement with two-dimensional words on a page and to experience Christ as He is: real, a person who came in the flesh in three dimensions (width, length, and height), who I can know. Beautiful, right? But I didn't know the half—still don't.

Two things came to me today.

One revelation was that Paul didn't give three dimensions—he gave four: width and length and depth and height. We exist and experience reality in three dimensions, but here he points out that there's a depth beyond merely existing. Yet, the sense I have is that the Apostle Paul was not just being poetic; he was using language for an extradimensional reality that would be explored by math and physics thousands of years later—think Einstein’s theory of relativity, which posits a single continuum of space and time.

The other, and most remarkable, was that Paul didn’t say "that I may know the width and length and depth and height," but "that we may know"—that we, together with all the saints, may be able to comprehend and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

"With all the saints" is the linchpin of that passage—a central theme that anchors not only this passage but much of Paul’s message in Ephesians. With Christ at the core, that togetherness allows us to step into a dimension we cannot even conceive.

This leaves me in awe. I get chills pondering it. It is so inconceivably awesome that Paul concludes this prayer in Ephesians 3:20 with, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

And I, though thousands of years removed from when this prayer was penned, but by the power of Christ, as part of one continuum, can say—just as though I were there at that very moment—“AMEN!”

I want this more than anything.

And, I see more clearly that I need you to get it.

#perfectourlove #TogetherWeMayKnowHisLove

Originally posted on Facebook on Sunday, May 4, 2025.

Scriptures, quotes, and affirmations do not produce action.

Desire does.

Scriptures, quotes, and affirmations will not change your life unless they have power — and unless you allow that power to change your desire.

"The Word of God is living and powerful…"
— Hebrews 4:12

Do not be religious and live in denial.

Do not have a form of godliness but deny its power.
(2 Timothy 3:5)

There is Power — the very Power that raised Jesus from the dead — that will give you a new life that flows from a new heart with a new desire.
(Romans 8:11)

Let it.
Let it change your desire.
And a different life will follow.

#DontDenyItsPower #TheRealBattleIsDesire #PerfectOurLove

Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, May 1, 2025.

Why is it so hard to trust God?

Because this whole world is a lie.

Our experience and feedback loops are dependent on corrupted information. Lies are constantly being reinforced.

Could it be that the scales that fell from Paul's eyes were snake scales?

Well, not exactly snake scales but "something like scales" because Satan was not a snake, but something like a snake—he took the form of a serpent.

Adam—who was given dominion of the whole world—thrust everything into darkness when he obeyed the deception of Satan.

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?"
— Romans 6:16

When Adam's eyes "were opened" it was not to enlightenment as we suppose, but unlike what he knew previously—a world that was only good—his eyes were opened to a world where evil was present. Now, he had knowledge of good and evil.

His view became calloused.

"So he said, 'I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.'"
— Genesis 3:10

And there formed something like scales—this world under Satan's dominion that's been pulled over our eyes to blind us.

"whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."
— 2 Corinthians 4:4

So when Saul met a glorified Jesus such that a light shone around him, that confronted him with the darkness of his deception compared to the brilliant truth of the Lord Jesus, the illusion of this world was broken. Something fell from his eyes like scales and he received sight that was more than physical. And after being strengthened "immediately he preached the Christ…"

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
— 2 Corinthians 4:6

Is it any coincidence that in Revelation we meet a Jesus from whom both heaven and earth flee from His face?!

"Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them."
— Revelation 20:11

This is Jesus, who sits on the throne, unrestrained in His fullness. Like light that chases away darkness, His face blasts away the lie of this world!

Do it for me, Lord Jesus!

I am blind. If You are willing, You can give me my sight.

Let the lie of this world fall from my eyes like scales that You might be all that I see and that I may trust You completely.

Amen.

#SheddingTheLieOfThisWorld #spiritualwarfare #perfectourlove