Witness Unhindered

“Wait, pray, and believe, and all shall be well. He will not suffer them who fear Him and depend upon Him to want anything that is truly good for them.”

John Newton

“Waiting on God isn’t about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It’s part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into your life. Waiting on God isn’t to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan. Waiting is an essential part of the plan. For the child of God, waiting isn’t simply about what the child will receive at the end of his wait. No, waiting is much more purposeful, efficient, and practical. Waiting is fundamentally about what we will become as we wait . . . God is using the wait to do in and through you exactly what he has promised. Through the wait he is changing you. By means of the wait, he is causing you to see and experience new things about him and his kingdom. And all of this sharpens you, enabling you to be a more useful tool in his redemptive hands . . . Waiting on God is restorative. It is one of the tools God uses to remake us into what we were designed to be in the beginning . . . Picture in your mind the nimble and skilled fingers of a potter who is putting pressure on the clay right where it’s needed so that it will take on the beauty that is its potential. And with this picture in mind, give thanks for the very moment that once would have driven you crazy. Waiting is a “productive delay”.”

Paul Tripp

“Waiting and fidelity are closely connected, and many of us struggle with both. Lured by the promise of freedom and infinite choice, we are fearful of foreclosing our options and limiting our opportunities. Why make commitments to something in the future, when better opportunities might surface in the meantime? Why live in a way that anticipates a future when the present includes so many other possibilities? What promise could possibly be so life-giving that we would shape our lives around it?”

-Christine Pohl, Making Room

“When the scriptural people of God seek redemption, they want personal salvation, and they express their desire in what sounds like a cry of the heart.  But to them redemption goes far beyond personal salvation. When biblical people want God to redeem, what they want is freedom and righteousness throughout the land.  They want God to unseat Pharaoh or Caesar. They want God to drive the Midianites back across the border. They’re Exodus people, after all. They’re Passover people. They have a history of being squeezed by Egypt, Babylon, or Rome.  In their eyes, God’s redemption means justice is coming, liberation is coming, the King of all the earth is coming!”

-Cornelius Plantinga, Engaging God’s World

“John [the Baptist] saw the mission of the Coming One as primarily one of separation: those who repented he would save and the unrepentant he would judge.  John, in fact, expected this twofold messianic work to take place in a single eschatological event. He had predicted that the coming Messiah would both ‘gather his wheat into the granary’ and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12).  When John was in prison, he began to reflect on the fact that, while he did see Jesus gathering wheat, he did not see him burning chaff.”

-Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the Future

“It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world.  Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission . . . We ask, ‘Where does God fit into the story of my life?’ when the real question is, ‘Where does my little life fit into the great story of God’s mission?’”

Christopher Wright

“In his earthly career, Jesus changed the world but he didn’t perfect it. He healed many sick people, but not everybody. He cast out some demons, but not all. So far as we know, he turned water into wine only at Cana. He invited just one disciple to walk on water, with mixed results. So in his first advent, Jesus did much but he also left much to do.”

Cornelius Plantinga

“We must not lag behind the king in some kind of unwarranted pessimism as though his first coming and present reign do not make a difference. We must not run ahead of the king in some kind of unwarranted triumphalism as though we’re going to make utopia here before he comes again. We keep in step with the king.”

David Jones