Jesus will return:
- Unexpectedly (Matthew 24:42, 44)
- Personally (Matthew 24:30-31)
- Visibly (Matthew 24:27)
- Gloriously (Matthew 24:30)
“We don’t get to pick the age we will live in, and we don’t get to choose all the struggles we will face. Faithfulness is ours to choose; the shape of that faithfulness is God’s to determine.”
– Kevin DeYoung
A few of the ways parables help us:
- Parables invite us to pause and reflect.
- Parables reveal truth to those who have ears to hear.
- Parables require a response.
“The real scandal of this universe is not that there is a hell, deserved by all, but that there is a heaven, offered to all.”
– Dane Ortlund
“The composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein was once asked which musical instrument is most difficult to play. He reputedly answered, ‘Second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm — that’s a problem. And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony.’ How powerfully insightful for life!”
– Gavin Ortlund, Humility
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
– Ephesians 2:8-9
Does the way I order my life provide evidence that what is most important to me is delighting in and bringing glory to Christ?
“Failure is being successful at the things that don’t matter.”
– Rico Tice, Faithful Leaders
The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids
- Wise / Foolish
- Ready / Unprepared
The Parable of the Three Servants
- Faithful / Wicked
- Good / Slothful
“We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to center our lives upon Him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting, and resembling Him.”
– Tim Keller, The Reason for God
“Grace becomes not only the means by which God once justified us, it is also the means by which we are continually encouraged and enabled to serve Him with undiminished delight.”
– Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace