Stephen Altrogge

Change is a good and God-glorifying thing. I don’t want to remain as I am. But when it comes to change, there are three crucial, biblical truths that I must remember in order to keep my sanity.

We know God is faithful. We know that he’s good and the loves us. But it’s so excruciatingly hard to wait for the Lord to act. To move. To deliver. To rescue.

Thankfully, Scripture itself is a story of waiting. Abraham waited for a son, Joseph waited for deliverance, David waited to be made king, Israel waited for a Messiah, and we all wait for the return of the serpent crusher.

God’s word has much to say about how we wait. Biblical waiting isn’t passive, like waiting for a train to arrive. It’s an active, aggressive sort of waiting.

So how do we wait for the Lord in a way that honors him, fills us with hope, and gives us strength to carry on even when we feel like we’re in the dark?

Here are four ways.

Trying to please everyone is an absolutely miserable way to live, right? You’re constantly paranoid about what people are thinking, whether you’re doing enough, whether you are measuring up.

The simple fact is, you will NEVER be good enough for people. No matter how hard you try, no matter how much effort you put in, you won’t be good enough to meet the expectations and desires of other people.

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Here are a smattering of 21 tips, in no particular order, to help you dive deeper into the word of God. Remember, these are methods. They don’t replace the Holy Spirit or diligent devotion.

There are some things in scripture that are crystal clear. God must be worshiped. Fellowship is a necessity. Evangelism must take place. These are non-negotiable principles. Every Christian must do these things. What is negotiable, however, is how these principles are practiced.

Would a homosexual or bulimic or cutter or high-functioning pain-killer addict feel comfortable talking about their battles in our churches? I suspect that in many cases, the answer is “no.” This shouldn’t be the case.

Pastoral ministry is a business unlike any other. It is a dangerous business. A sacred business. A business where the souls of people are at stake.

You don’t know how to help them overcome the sin that has beset them for so long. Fortunately, the Bible gives us straightforward wisdom on how to really, actually help a person change.

I believe that reading books written by other, wiser Christians is one of the most effective ways to grow as a Christian. But with millions of books available and thousands more being written every year, how can you know which ones to read?

To claim that the Bible doesn’t tell us what church should look like allows a person to substitute his own preferences for the clear teaching of scripture. So what does the Bible have to say about church?