“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18) Here is yet another piece of the astonishing gospel of Romans 8. Suffering is a given in the New Testament. Suffering is not a glitch; it’s the norm. Jesus suffered, so why wouldn’t we suffer along with him? But God is up to something, getting ready to take all our pain and tears and failures and…

Romans 8 still haunts us the with question, what will it look like to walk in the Spirit (today, this week, this year)? But would we be surprised to discover that we are already doing just that, that the Spirit is already having its way with our hearts, and in ways we often don’t recognize? How many of us feel that we’re not praying enough, that our prayer life is not what it ought to be? Is there some spiritual…

What a happy and blessed life belongs to those who do not follow the paths of wickedness and cynicism, but their delight is in God’s law, and they meditate on it day and night. Here is how the book of Psalms begins. Beatitude, an excited pronouncement of blessing, happiness, and good fortune for those who allow themselves to be rooted in a daily diet of scripture, contrasted with the emptiness of being rooted in nothing. These blessed, happy, fortunate ones…