Category: What do you think?

The grace and wisdom of God go deeper than any words can fully reach

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

Romans 11:33 gives us the image of depth. Just as no one has ever measured the floor of the ocean, no one has ever reached the bottom of God’s grace. Forgiveness, peace with God, the hope of heaven, new life: all of it available to people who are broken, lost, and without anything to offer in return.

And that is precisely what makes it so striking. This grace is not given to the deserving. It is lavished on the struggling, the sinful, the ones who come to God empty-handed. It reaches into places nothing else can touch. And the more we understand it, the more we discover how much more there is still to understand.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Ephesians 2:4-5

The clear promise of Christ’s return

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JEFF TURNER

The return of Christ has become a contested question in our time, debated in pulpits, published in books, dramatized on screens. And yet, for all the noise, the Bible speaks with uncommon clarity.

Two camps have emerged. Some teach that His coming will be invisible, purely spiritual. Others hold that it will be real, bodily, and visible to all. This is not a small disagreement. What we believe about His return shapes how we read all of Scripture.

Much of the confusion traces back not to the text, but to fiction. When imagination fills the spaces that Scripture already occupies, the truth grows dim. We must return to the New Testament, where the teaching is plain and direct.

Jesus will come again, and His coming will be seen. Visible signs will precede Him across the earth. There will be nothing quiet, nothing hidden, nothing merely inward about it. His feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives. The mountain will divide. Waters will flow. Dry places will bloom. The physical world itself will bear witness to His arrival.

This matters because truth always matters. When we anchor our hope to what Scripture actually says, confusion gives way to conviction.

For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Matthew 24:27

What Jesus really meant when he told a man to let the dead bury their own dead

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JEFF TURNER

The call to follow Jesus is urgent, and Luke 9 shows just how seriously he took it. A man asked permission to go home first and wait until his father had died before committing to discipleship. At first glance, the request sounds reasonable, even respectful. But the situation was not what it appeared to be. The father had not yet died.

What the man was asking for was time: go home, wait out his father’s remaining years, secure the inheritance, then follow Jesus once his financial future was settled. Jesus was not calling anyone to abandon grieving families. He was calling out a heart that wanted to follow only after every earthly arrangement was in order.

The lesson is this: when Jesus calls, the right response is to trust him with the details and go, not to wait until personal security is guaranteed.

 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:62

Knowing God is where real richness is found, not in looking inward at ourselves

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17, that God would give believers a spirit of wisdom and revelation to truly know him, cuts against a strong current in our time. We live in a generation fixated on self-knowledge and self-improvement, where “know yourself” has become something of a guiding principle.

But the Christian life points in a different direction. The persistent sense that something is missing, even after years of looking inward, is a clue that the self is not where the real riches are found. Looking into a mirror will not give you what you were made for. It is in knowing God, not knowing ourselves more deeply, that wisdom, meaning, and true purpose come into focus. Isn’t this what Paul wanted for the Ephesians, and what God wants for us as well.

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

Philippians 3:10

There is no condemnation waiting for those who belong to Jesus Christ

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

Romans 8:1 arrives after Paul has worked through a hard truth: trying to earn right standing with God through law-keeping leads only to frustration. No effort, no accumulation of good works, can produce forgiveness or genuine inner change. Only when he turns to salvation through Jesus does he find solid ground for hope.

To be in Christ is to be joined to him the way branches connect to a vine in John 15, drawing strength, direction, and identity from that union. Those who belong to Christ no longer live to satisfy selfish impulses; they live by the Spirit, and the evidence shows. The past verdict of guilt is lifted. In its place stands a single, unqualified declaration: no condemnation.

Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Romans 8:1-2