Romans 2:7-11 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good…

This is an amazing passage from the book of Romans. Its incredible how it has the ability to cut our hearts today as it did then! The bible says that we will receive great rewards for persistence in doing good and that those who do evil will also receive the due consequences. In the first verse of the passage, Paul uses the word “glory”. “Glory” is a word that practically doesn’t exist in modern vocabulary. In the sceptical and jaded world of today, the word “glorious” is mostly used sarcastically and is synomomous with being boastful, fraudulent and gloating. It conjures images of actors from medieval movies with tights, tutus, frilly shirts, dainty swords and luxurious wigs. We don’t really resonate with the word glory but that’s because we don’t totally know what it is.

You are our Glory

The word “glory” appears close to 300 times in the bible and in those, only a few times is it brought up in a negative sense. (Rev 18:7). The vast majority of times the word glory is used in a positive sense and it is never once used sarcastically. It’s obvious from Romans 2:8 “But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” that seeking glory and honour is not about being selfish or triumphalistic; in fact seeking glory is about persisting in doing good for others!
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Acts 20:32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I remember as a young disciple working the night shift as a security guard reading “What’s so amazing about grace?” by Phillip Yancy. I had not fully understood the principle God’s of grace yet and that book totally blew me away! This is the meaning of the word grace: overflow, extra, bountiful. God is full of grace and mercy but also in all things. He didn’t make one star; He made billions of stars. He didn’t make one type of food; he made millions of flavours in incredible abundance. He didn’t make one kind of flower; he made thousands of species. God is graceful in power, in wisdom, in detail, in creation, in glory, in mercy and in all ways! A good book can really open your eyes to a great principle!

A couple of months later I attended the “Pass the Torch” conference in Toronto with thousands of Canadian disciples. I remember seeing a hundred singers singing with all their hearts to a crowd of thousands by torch light in a massive darkened room at the Canadian conference centre. I remember being struck at how the unlimited power of the grace of God had saved all these souls. It didn’t just “save” them, it also brought them together in perfect harmony and joy. That was the night I got truly “got” what God is trying to do through the church and it made me zealous. Grace had attacked.
Grace is a bankrupt student finding a lottery ticket. It’s a repentant murderer being freed and given another chance. It’s a friend forgiving a betrayal. It can build you up and give you an inheritance; it can give you unlimited chances to change. When grace attacks nothing stays the same.
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Holy Tribe of Light I

About two years ago I wrote this article about how awesome it is to be part of the family of God! As I wrote in that article its so hard for us to understand the unity of the church because of the atomizing individualism of modern western society that many of us come from.

Even though its hard for us westerners to understand its true that most people in the world today are born into a working tribe or closely knit extended family. Why? Well with 30% unemployment on average in the undeveloped world you simply need a to belong to a tribe to survive. If you have a job one week out of four your happy to push your money in towards the leadership of the tribe because the weeks your not working you know some food and shelter will come your way. This shocks us as westerners but its how most people in the world survive! If you don’t know that the early Christians lived the same way understanding the bible is going to be hard!

Today, instead of joining a family and a Kingdom as the early Christians were doing, millions simply “subscribe” to an empty “Christian philosophy” of life and maintain their selfish individualism. Even as disciples failing to understand the concept of the Christian family and tribe, as many of us do, leads to tons of unnecessary pain and provides too many opportunities for Satan to divide us. Every disciple and especially every leader in the church needs to understand what we are as a family.
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