From Pity to Praise

We live in an era where the only constant is change. Technology evolve overnight, culture norms shift like quicksand, and the global rhythm is fragmented. A time when the structure of the world we have relied on feel fragile and the future feels uncertain.

The only constant is God, Hebrews 13:8 says,

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Disruption forces us out of our comfort zones. It breaks routines and challenges assumptions. When the world around us is in upheaval, it’s easy for our inner lives to become just as turbulent. We might find ourselves asking: “Where is solid ground?”

The book of Hebrews provides us with a visual anchor for a disrupted world. While everything else is subject to obsolescence, decay, or transformation, Jesus remains entirely unchanged. He is not scrambling to adapt to the times. He is not caught off guard by worldly shifts. His character, His love, and His promises are immune to disruption.

I believe everything happening in the world is in Matthew 24. When we look at what is happening the disruption of the world feels like an understatement. The systemic breakdowns, environmental crises, societal polarization, and the global anxiety that never seems to quiet down. It feels like the world is spinning out of control. But Matthew 24 Jesus paints us a picture of profound disruption, deception, international conflict, earthquakes, and widespread betrayal. Everything begins to sound terrifying familiar. Jesus uses a highly specific and intentional metaphor to describe these events as “birth pains.”

Birth pains are intensely painful, unpredictable, and disruptive. They signal that the current state of things is being completely broken down.

The disruption of the world is not a story of God losing control -it is the messy, painful labor of creation waiting to be reborn.

Because we know the purpose behind the pain, Jesus gives us a command the we need to be aware of constantly as we face a fractured world: See to it that you are not alarmed. The shaking of the earth is a runway for the return of the King. It is the breakdown of human systems that our ultimate citizenship is in a unshakable Kingdom.

It is time to look up focus on God and the one thing that can’t be shaken.

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against national, and kingdom against kingdom. There will famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains” Matthew 24: 6-8

I believe Matthew 24 is the comparison of global disruption to biblical prophecy. It serves as a reminder that global disruption is a signal to look up in faith, rather than sinking into fear.

The church consists of everyone who has ever placed, or will ever place, their trust in Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. There are billions of people enabled by the Holy Spirit who have come to see their sinfulness, separation from God, total helplessness, and the sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf. In response, these people have placed their trust in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of their sins. All believers collectively comprise of the church.

The Bible reports some fundamental metaphors to describe “the church,” such as the body and the temple.

In the New Testament, the temple of God goes from physical to spiritual. The temple of the Old Testament, situated on top of a hill and Jerusalem, was a physical place where both the presence of God and the glory of God resided until He withdrew His presence and His glory because of the continual sin of the people.

In the Old Testament, the temple was a physical place to pursue God, to make sacrifices to God, and to connect with God.

In the New Testament, the church is called the temple of God. The major meanings of the church as the temple are similar to those of the Old Testament, meaning the temple and are described in Ephesians, 2 Corinthians and 1 Peter.

“So then you are not longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and the household of God, being built on the foundation of emissaries and prophets, Messiah Yeshua Himself being the chief cornerstone” Ephesians 2:19-20

The Church of God’s household. We are the place where God dwells in the Person of His Holy Spirit.

This household was built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. These people were the first builders of the church – starting from bar round with approximately 120 believers, which has now grown to billions of people.

And the cornerstone of this household is Jesus. He is the Creator of the Church. He died to enable His creation. Without Jesus, we have no more than a huge collection of diluted, pitiable, and hopeless people.

“In whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” – Ephesians 2:21-22

In Jesus, the whole building is being fitted together. It is Jesus who causes the church to work, to fit together, to function, to relate, to worship, to forgive,, to reset, and to serve.

And Jesus, the whole building is growing into a holy temple of the Lord. By the power, and the work of Jesus, we are all growing and drawing closer to each other, and becoming more like Jesus envisioned when He rescued us.

In Jesus, the whole building is being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Holy Sprit. Jesus is causing us to knit, grow, and be a place of a holiness where the Holy Spirit is able to dwell.

The Holy Temple of God is called to separation.

“What agreement is there between the Temple of God and idols? For we are the Temple of the living God. Even as God said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people” -2 Corinthians 6:16

Since we are the Temple of the living God, He dwells in us and walks among us. God is Immanuel, God will us. Amazingly, the God of eternity lives in us and walks everywhere with us.

He is our God. And we are His people. This is the stunning, joyful truth. This is the amazing, love, and kindness of God. But, few recognize this.

Because these things are true, we must separate our newness to pursue perfect godlessness in the fear of God.

God tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:17, “Therefore, Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

God is holy. He is so holy that angels fly around Him for eternity saying the word “Holy.” we must be holy for He is Holy. We must praise God for Jesus who makes this impossible feat a reality for those who trust in Him.

“For, I will be a Father to you, and you will be mu sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” -2 Corinthians 6:18

God will be a Father to us. He is the Father we wanted and needed -the very best. He is the Father who acts for our well being at every moment.

“Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything the contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” -2 Corinthians 7:1

We come to use this who is the Living Stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in the sight of God.

Jesus is the Living Stone, and we’re also living stones. We are part of this metaphorical Temple, but we are not inanimate stones. We are living stones who breathe, love, serve, and worship and gratitude.

We are living stones who are being filled up into a spiritual house or a holy priesthood.

As living stones, we are able to grow and create a beautiful spiritual house as we become a priesthood of holy people. A prophet is a person who speaks to people for God. We are priests and priestess and must be incessantly interceding to God for others, lost and saved, kindred and unkind, family, and strangers, friends and enemies. We must incessantly intercede for anyone and everyone.

We must offer up spiritual sacrifices through Jesus, which are acceptable to God.

We worship God through the souls we lead to Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit in our lives is the praise of God on our lips.

The eternal temple of God:

In the New Testament, the church body (we are the body) is the temple of God. We are a people who pursue God, make sacrifices, and connect with Him.

We are called to stand, grow, and thrive forever. Jesus is the Living Cornerstone.

“For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace.? May it never be.”

Grace is not a free pass to do whatever we want, it is the divine power that sets us free from the grip of sin.

When will we grasp the magnitude of God’s grace. Our past, present, and future mistakes are covered by His favor it can spark wonderful and overwhelming relief. It’s great when we realize we don’t have to earn God’s love through a checklist of rules and rituals.

But there is one dangerous question that lurks in every human heart since Paul wrote in Romans: “If I am fully forgiven, does it matter how I live?” Paul’s answer “By no means.”

“Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it” -Romans 6:1-2

Grace is not a pardon to return to prison. Imagine someone sitting in a dark, cold prison cell for a crime they didn’t commit. A merciful king walks in, tears up the criminal record, unlocks the heavy iron door, and says, “You are free. Go and live anew life.”

It would make no sense for that person to step outside into the sunlight, turn around and voluntarily walk right back into the cell, locking the door behind them. Yet, that is what we do when we treat grace as a license to keep sinning.

Grace didn’t rescue us just so we could camp out in the very habits that were destroying us. It rescued us to break the chain.

Grace is power, not permission. We often treat grace like a “get out of jail free card in monopoly. Something to pull out of our pocket after we do something wrong.

In the Bible, grace is not a low-standard safety net that lovers God’s bar for holiness, it’s a transforming power. Romans 6:14 (from above) that sin will no longer rule over us. Grace doesn’t give us permission to sin, it gives us the strength to overcome it. The grace of God trains us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.

“The Lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light” -Matthew 6:22

Many quotes people use trace back to the Bible. The Bible influences numerous sayings and expressions, in everyday language. For example, “There is nothing new under the sun” didn’t originate with Shakespeare, but with King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:9.

But there are some sayings that are said to be in the Bible that are not like, God helps those who help themselves and godliness is next to cleanliness.

This is the problem with cliché phrases, and sayings. They are overused and often get misconstrued and misunderstood. Also, the context and where the originated is lost or forgotten.

Figurative language is especially prone to misunderstanding or being taken the wrong way or too literally. . When someone uses figurative language, we need to discern what they meant by what they said.

Most people can take things intended to be understood in a literal sense and convert the meaning to some abstract or theatrical sense.

The idea of eyes as a window to the soul is often taken to mean that others are able to see into another person’s soul or heart. But Jesus indicates the eye as a gateway, for what the person takes into their own heart. The lamp of the body is the eye refers to a candle or small, portable lamp set on a lamp stand. A source of light to see.

How Jesus uses this word relates to what we see outside of ourselves and what we allow to be taken into our minds and hearts. Think of the light as a figure or truth, the truth of God and His kingdom.

Science tells us how our physical health is connected to our internal health. Not just the effect of anxiety or stress, but physical health based on good nutrition, exercise, exercise, and a good immune system system.

When light (God’s truth) come through our eyes and into our minds and hearts, then our whole body is full of light also. Remember, we are not just a body, we are a soul and spirit within a body.

Consequently, if we let darkness come into our inner being, it will result in the unhealthiness of our life. The dark invade and spread throughout our lives.

John 3:19-21 tells us “This is condemnation, that the light has into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deed were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

When we seek to embrace the light, it makes us whole. But when we choose darkness over light, it corrupt us, and the darkness tends to overwhelm and block out the light in us..

The Lord knows who, and in what we trust. But too often, we are so caught up in all we do within a given day that we don’t realize where we are placing our trust.

What we entertain in our minds or carry in our hearts has a direct impact on our health and our inner being and character.

when we focus on Jesus and His kingdom we will be whole and healthy in our hearts. 1 John 1:5 tells us, “God is light” and He’s the creator of light. There is no darkness in Him.

When we embrace the glare of this world that masquerades as light, it’s only a matter of time before we are filled with its darkness.

Think back over your life. Think of the moments where things could have gone terribly wrong -an accident avoided by a split second, a door closing that would have broken your heart, a difficult season where somehow you found the strength to keep breathing.

We often call those things “luck,” or “timing,” or “coincidence.” Yet, behind the scenes, a quiet and faithful work was happening. A mother, a grandmother, a friend, or a faithful neighbor whispered your name into the quiet and placed you in the hands of God.

James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

There’s a song by Crowder that captures the exact mystery. “I’m only right where I am today because somebody prayer.” Prayer is never wasted. Even when the words feel feeble, or when you fold your tired hands in the dark. God hears every word.

Remember this, if you ever feel alone -like no human being is currently lifting your name to heaven. Jesus is your advocate, living forever to intercede for you before the Father. Someone is always praying for you.

There are moments when guilt tries to reminds us of our past. Mistakes we wish we could undo. Failures we wish we could erase. Sin Satan keeps bringing back to our minds.

But the cross tells a different story.

When Jesus went to the cross, He did not pay for some of our sins. He paid for all of them. Every failure, every wrong choice, every moment we fell short. The price was fully paid through His sacrifice.

This means we no longer have to live under the weight of condemnation. Grace has already be spoken over our lives. Because of Jesus, every saved person is forgiven. All we have to do is ask. Because of Jesus we are redeemed. Because of Jesus we are made new.

Satan may try to remind us who we were. But the cross reminds us of who we are now.

We are not defined by our past. We are defined by His mercy.

So walk in freedom today. Walk in forgiveness. Walk in grace. Walk in the new life Jesus has given you.

Because the truth still stands: Jesus paid it all.