Author: Wheels of Glory

This author has written 20 articles

All Things New – VOTD.01.02.17

And the one who sat on the throne spoke to me and said, “Consider this! I am making everything to be new and fresh.” Revelation 21:5

One of the things that runs through our New Year celebration is Hope. Somehow, starting again gives us hope as we consider all that God has for us in 2018. God promises us that He is continuously making things new for His glory and for our good.

1) God restores us to a right relationship with him through the gift of forgiveness and new life in Jesus. He restores relationships between people. And He even restores days and years that have been lost due to our own sin (Joel 2:25). That’s one of the greatest evidences of the extravagant nature of God’s mercy. Not only does He renew our lives and redeem our future, but He also redeems our past.

In the New Testament, we see Jesus live out a lifestyle of restoration. He restored sight to the blind, the ability to walk to the crippled, hearing to the deaf, and new, clean skin to the diseased (Mk 8:22-26; Matt 9:2-8; Mk 7: 31-37; Lk 5:12-25). In all of these accounts, Jesus didn’t just heal a physical condition. He restored lives, giving hope to broken people. (more…)

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The Old is Gone the New has Arrived – VOTD.01.01.18

His divine power has given to us everything that we need for a godly life, through our knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, through which he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them we may participate in the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world caused by sinful desire. 2 Peter 1:3,4

Today we celebrate a new beginning, and that seems to be the theme in today’s verses. Everything we need to reflect God’s true nature has already been given to us (past tense), so we move out in God’s own nature.

Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from Father God—all because he sees us wrapped in Jesus (Eph 1:3). So everything we could ever need for a life of godliness (the goodness of Jesus expressed in and through us), has already been given to us as a gift because He is powerful enough to do it. All this was lavished on us through our experience of knowing Him.

He called each of us by name, inviting us to experience His goodness for ourselves. That’s a new year resolution I think we can all live with: Experience God’s goodness for myself.

Through this amazing expression of God’s glory and goodness he has imparted to us these fantastic promises: 1) participation in Jesus’ own nature; 2) escape from the corruptive influences and desires that drive this world we live in. (more…)

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Why Helping People Repent Often Fails pt 2 – VOTD.10.03.17

I could choose from dozens of appropriate verses to write about today—One of the reasons there are so many verses in the Bible on correcting people is because it really takes a lot of godly wisdom to do it well. But one of the more pervasive problems we face when we want to help someone in a corrective way is ourselves. So we’ll begin with Jesus’ own words:

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Jesus asked in Luke 6:41. His point is, the very desire to help someone repent can come from trying to avoid dealing with our own sinful failings. So when we set out to help a repentant friend, motive is huge.

Because we are completely dependent upon God granting the other person repentance, the most effective place to begin helping that person repent is to look at ourselves. The key idea from Jesus’s log in the eye imagery in today’s verse is how the log is always in our eye, not in the other person’s eye.

If our starting point for change is not with ourselves, the result will fail. It will spin us and the other person into ongoing relational wounding. If we try to change them before we carefully address our own hearts, both of us will be wounded and our relationship will be, too.

Why is it so hard to address our own spiritual condition before we help someone else? Often there’s a mixture of pride and frustration along with impatience to fix the other person. Fixing our eyes on the other person and their problem distracts us from fixing our eyes on Jesus (the solution for both of us)…and when our eyes stray from Jesus, the result looks a lot like judgement. (more…)

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Pentecost Realities – VOTD.06.06.17

Very truly I tell you, it is for your advantage that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. John 16:7

In today’s verse, Jesus predicts the events of Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Spirit. None-the-less, many Christians believe in the Spirit that came at Pentecost, but they relate to Him the same way they might relate to their pituitary gland: Undoubtedly grateful it’s in there; remember from health classes that it’s essential for something; wouldn’t want to lose it…but they don’t really interact with it.

For these Christians, the Holy Spirit is not a moving, dynamic Person. He’s more of a theory than an experience.

Yet Jesus said the most shocking thing about the Holy Spirit in today’s verse; one so familiar, however, that many of us just gloss over it without considering its significance. He said it was to our ADVANTAGE that He leave us and sit at the Father’s right hand in heaven because it meant we could receive the Holy Spirit. (more…)

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Clean Honors Clean – VOTD.03.14.17

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Acts 10:15

You’re probably familiar with the story today’s verse comes from. Peter was about to be called to minister to some people who were “unclean” by his estimation, but he didn’t know it yet. To prepare Peter for this major paradigm shift, Jesus sent some animals to him in a vision—these animals were sinful to eat—and told him to eat them anyway. It says this happened 3 times and Peter rebuked the idea all 3 times.

Ahh—what to do when our personal ideas about people are stiffer than Jesus’. God knew what to do—how to prepare Peter for a giant leap into the infinite extent of His grace as it extended to people he considered “unclean”. He didn’t call Peter out, He simply led His ex-fishing buddy to a more complete understanding of the word “Clean”.

If we had even a glimpse of the extent Jesus went to make each of us clean, we might be easier on each other. If we could internalize today’s verse—don’t call impure what God has called clean.

Notice that the Centurion sinner and his family and friends had not even turned to Jesus yet. When Peter showed up at their house they bowed down and worshiped him. Apparently worshiping people was not outside their list of sins. Not great prospects for ministry. But Jesus had already declared them to be “clean”.

Among other things, that meant that all the shaming, guilting, dishonoring that Peter held toward them was missing the point. Jesus still loved them and wasn’t willing to see them miss out on knowing Him, Peter wrote later (2 Pet 3:9). (more…)

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Overflowing with Hope – VOTD.12.27.16

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Let me start out with a question: Do you know anyone who is overflowing with hope? I don’t mean do you know any optimists. That’s altogether different. Someone who’s overflowing with hope is a person whose life is firmly planted in the joy and peace that comes from God as they trust Him. That’s what today’s verse is telling us.

Our hope is not in a specific thing or a specific result. Our hope is not even in what we hope God will do. Our hope is in God Himself. And that is an important distinction between optimism and biblical hope. We trust Him even if our life events may not be what we expected or desired. We walk in the certainty that God will prove Himself faithful to us, and that He will not disappoint us (Is 49:23).

One caution: this doesn’t mean that God’s goodness and faithfulness are always conspicuous and unambiguous. We may be afflicted, but we will not be crushed; We may be confused, but we will not be not driven to despair (2 Cor 4:8-9).

“The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him” Lam 3:25
“The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Ps 147:11

Sometimes it’s only in retrospect that we can see how God has been caring for us, providing for us, protecting us. Sometimes when we’re right in the thick of things, we can’t see any evidence of God working at all. But if we continue to trust Him, to place our hope in Him, He says we will not be disappointed. “Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (Is 49:23).

So where does this kind of hope come from? Let’s be real. It’s one thing to say, “put your hope in God.” It’s another to actually do it, especially when the pressure is high and our circumstances look hopeless. Where do we get the faith we need to do this? Faith comes from God (Eph 2:8). We have to go to Him to get the faith we need to place our hope in Him. (more…)

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An Attitude of Thanksgiving – VOTD.10.31.16

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published (saying that anyone who prays to any “god” except the king would be thrown into the lions’ den), he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Daniel 6:10

As we saw last time, when God tells us to give thanks in everything (Eph 5:20), He is actually prescribing the way for us to position ourselves to receive what He promises us.

Daniel is a great example of this. When he got down on his knees and thanked God he actually released the power of God into his dire situation. He released the favor of God upon himself.

Thankfulness releases blessing. It is an access to anointing God gives us to do great things for Him…to receive great things from Him…and to facilitate the fulfillment of His promises. Just like parenting children, it’s difficult to get into a situation where we’re rewarding an entitlement spirit by giving our children things they don’t appreciate. (more…)

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Lifestyle Kindness (pt 1) – VOTD.10.11.16

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness… Colossians 3:12

Last time we were talking about showing God’s love through the little things. In other words, we were talking about kindness. Kindness is the simple deeds produced from a heart of love. A heart of love results in what I call ‘Lifestyle Kindness’.

Fact is, there are more opportunities to do simple acts of kindness than we can schedule into our lives…and require more energy than we can possibly have. But a lifestyle of kindness doesn’t need to take a lot of extra time and effort to be kind—kindness is part of this person’s fiber. It’s who these people are more than what they do. And the kind acts they do flow out of who they are. (more…)

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Christian Children’s Albums We’d Actually Recommend

Why is it that most children’s albums on the market today are lacking in quality, originality, and decent lyrics?  I mean, really, what parent with any musical taste wants to listen to kids who can’t hit the notes, lyrics that make you scratch your head, and run-of-the-mill plots and arrangements that remind us of the originality of Nancy Drew or the Hardee Boys?

 

Thankfully, there are some quality, original children’s music out there – you just have to look for it.  Here are some we’ve discovered over the years.  It’s by no means an exclusive list, just things we’ve found and enjoyed. (more…)

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Album Review: “Brave New World” by Amanda Cook

It’s been a long time since I had a favorite album.

 

But Amanda Cook’s (nee Falk) most recent release, Brave New World, has become a favorite since it came out last September.  I can’t put my finger on why; it’s not the lyrics, the instrumentation, or brilliant arrangements.  They’re all excellent quality.  But there’s just something about the feel of the album that brings me back every time, that, quite simply, makes the album a definite favorite.

 

Quick Stats:

Pros

Excellent (more…)

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