The Central Moment

All that we do in living for Christ is ultimately for the glory of God. In the end, people should not be left more impressed with us than with God.

Does ‘laying a fleece’ before the Lord still apply to New Testament believers as a way of discerning God’s will? Or is that seeking God’s guidance on our terms? What do we do with this moment in Gideon’s life?

True availability to God often involves both consecration and renunciation -- being set apart to God as well as being separated from the idols that so easily seduce us. It will take spiritual courage, but obedience can win the day in our lives.

The kind of people that God can use are not restricted to the popular, the self-confident or the outgoing. Like Gideon, God can work with us and prepare us for his purposes if we will cooperate with his calling.

It has been famously said that God has no grandchildren. Every new generation needs its own encounter with Jesus in order to overcome the pull of the gods of the world that surround us.

Just as the walls of Jericho collapsed under Joshua’s leadership, the walls between us and God have collapsed in Christ. At the heart of it is a very personal story of saving power that God is writing in each of our lives.

God makes a way where there is no way! The barriers in front of us are not signs that God does not love us. They are opportunities for the Lord to reveal who he is and call us to revere him.

In a culture obsessed with safety and security, courage has become an underrated virtue. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to face fear with faith.

Are you living too safely? No risk, no reward -- it’s true in life and it’s true in achieving our God-given potential. No steps of faith, no God-given breakthroughs.

The proposition is unprecedented -- to have God’s promise but not his presence. Have we settled for that? Or are we hungry for God himself, not just his blessings?