The real problem of the hour is not that we view our problems as insurmountable, nor that we fail to view our God as insuperable in the midst of all these problems, but primarily that we fail to count our God as inestimable, even above our need to solve all of these problems. It is the failure to perceive the supreme glory of Christ that moves the church to promote counterfeit offers that compete with His glory, and moves men to receive a counterfeit Christ, whose highest value consists not of His own excellency, but of His willingness to bestow upon us that which our earthly, carnal and temporal nature counts most excellent. This magnetic pull of the world upon our affections will only cease by a God-ward attraction. It is in the face of Jesus Christ that the brightness of the glory of God shines forth. He alone is the brightness of His glory. And unless we exalt Him to preeminence, we know nothing of that glory.

As Satan tempted Christ, so he tempts us today. Pointing to the glory of the kingdoms of the world, he says, “All these things I will give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Although always with an air of piety, the consumer-driven church is lured into following the counsel of Satan while rejecting the example of Christ. He who is a deity emptied himself of his privileges and became a man. And not just any man but the lowest of men—a servant. He died not just any death but the cruelest of deaths—on a cross, as a condemned criminal. Such a vision of Christ’s humiliation should consume all of our self-interest and pour contempt on all our pride. But the vision of the exalted Christ should all the more compel us to renounce our own self-importance and self-seeking. The enslaving power of self-love does not only attach itself to the church, transforming its spiritual life into empty forms, turning its so-called good works into monuments of self-glory and changing its sacred mission into a search for the significance and fulfillment of self. It also enslaves the individual Christian by exalting the self to preeminence. Thus, it defeats real happiness by producing pride, discontent, envy, bitterness, unforgiveness, ambition, anxiety, and a whole host of other destructive qualities that exist for no other reason than to defend and maintain the self that we have erroneously, and to our own injury, exalted to preeminence. Self-love will never be made subordinate until we get a glimpse, by divine grave, of something far lovelier. Other idols may be replaced by even more enticing ones, but the idol of the self can only be laid aside by the all-entrancing vision of the loveliness of Christ.

Many, who correctly exalt the preeminence of Christ in their theology, may yet oppose His preeminence with their priorities. Our priorities reveal our portion, and location does not change that portion. For the psalmist declared the preeminence of Christ in both heaven and earth: Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee. (Ps. 73:25) Whenever there are two things that are good, the believer who has his priorities aligned with the kingdom never rejects the lesser but always prefers the better. And when one of these is finite and the other infinite, there must be no competition in his choice. Since Christ is preeminent in creation, cosmic preeminence must be infinitely higher in our affections than cosmic redemption. The new view on heaven is popular because it legitimizes the priorities of a consumer culture by always emphasizing the latter while merely including the former. While both are equally true, they are not truly equal. The priority of the beatific vision is evidenced by the superiority of its object. Therefore, we should always emphasize the former without failing to mention the latter. Once creation and redemption are paired together in our priorities, the preeminence of Christ slowly becomes less important, and how to gain and/or enjoy creation is always the primary emphasis, both in this life and the next. Like Christ, we must differentiate between His kingdom and all those things that are merely added unto us in this life and on the future new earth. With the Kingdom clearly in view, we must prioritize that mandate (Great Commission) through which Christ has chosen to extend His kingdom and work of redemption in the world. The Creation Mandate given before the Fall, like all the commands, is not redemptive in nature, and the church is the only society of the redeemed. Our new identity in Christ, without eliminating, infinitely supersedes our creation identity, simply because Christ infinitely supersedes all creation in worth. The problem with exchanging the Great Commission with the Cultural Mandate is that the present mission of Christ to build His church becomes secondary to His work of providence in culture; the power of the gospel becomes secondary to the power of our example and moral influence on society and culture, and the preeminence of Christ is no longer based on His person and work but on the success of our work among people. We always proclaim what we are, wrote Martyn Lloyd-Jones, by our priorities.

The human heart cries out for many reasons. But the deepest cry is one of yearning to be filled with God's presence and power. Whether we’re praying “help me to forgive” or “show me Your will,” our hearts long to connect with God. Jennifer Kennedy Dean will help you learn how to listen for God's answer to your heart's cry. In this book, she shares principles of heart-changing prayer. These principles are not easy steps to making God do what you want, but rather they enable you to live fully in God's power, giving Him your heart to change as He sees fit. The book is made up of 12 chapters, each including discussion questions and a meditation and reflection guide. A leader's guide is also included in the back to make the book useful for group study.

Thomas Chalmers, in his classic sermon entited, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” correctly ascribes subjective power to subjective affections, for love does have an expulsive power, whether one loves God to the despising of self, or loves self to the despising of God. But he incorrectly sides with objective justification, full pardon and gracious acceptance as the power that creates love and the engine that empowers sanctification. He is right to suggest that a new affection has expulsive power, but wrong to suggest that the source and power of a new affection is primarily in the indicative benefits. Jonathan Edwards, on the other hand, sided with regeneration for the obvious reason that without a new nature, the natural man can only be constrained by outside considerations (the indicatives) to superficially walk in newness of life (the imperatives). Such considerations mght produce change that rises as high as the outward performance of the Legalist, but it is still only the superficial height that self-love alone can achieve. The Spirit’s work of illuminating the higher glory and beauty of Christ to the soul is the only source of an affection that can be called new. If the expulsive power of a new affection does not dethrone self as one’s primary concern in life and theology, then what exactly is being expulsed by the power of the gospel? If one’s religion does not surpass one’s primary concern for what’s in it for oneself, then one’s self-love may have an expulsive power, but it will be the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus that is expulsed by the power of self-love. The irony of the cross was that Christ was crucified by those who already had a knowledge of God’s steadfast love and rejoiced in spiritual priviledges. The proper force and source behind the believer’s love for God is not found in the objective benefits as they reflect upon the believer’s high privileges, but God’s power alone as it is exerted in the soul by the Spirit imparting a new heart, new affections and a new principle of action that did not exist prior. Good fruit is produced only by a good tree, and however constrained by outside forces, a bad tree cannot be manipulated to produce fruit contrary to its nature.

This revised, 13-week study goes back to the biblical basics of prayer, cleaning out myths about prayer to rev up a powerful, ongoing connection to God that can invigorate every aspect of a Christian’s life. The author tackles the complex theological questions: If God is sovereign, why pray? If prayer is not a way to change God’s mind, what is it? Prayer is a way, Jennifer illustrates, for God to send His power and provision into the world through His people. The study takes a detailed look at prayer’s purpose, process, promise, and practice.

The image of God as light abounds in Scripture and the Christian tradition. In The Radiance of God, Douglas M. Koskela explores the theme of divine radiance across the span of Christian doctrine. The book develops a constructive account of the Christian gospel that traces the journey from darkness into the marvelous light of God. Drawing on an ecumenical range of voices in the tradition, Koskela frames the discussion in terms of three central concepts: allure, movement, and joy. The image of divine radiance suggests the sheer beauty of God that captivates the attention of God's creatures in wonder, love, and praise. The brilliance of this light initiates a process of movement toward it as the Holy Spirit transforms us in the image of Christ, the light of the world. The culmination of this journey is inexpressible and unending joy as we are immersed in the divine light. By following this threefold pattern through the classic loci of Christian doctrine, this volume offers a sustained and coherent treatment of the economy of salvation from creation to consummation.

Provoking us to intimate, fulfilling conversation, Conversations with the Most High will help prepare the Christian believer’s heart to enter the throne room of God. A blessed resource each day, 365 devotions steeped in Scripture engage our focus and prompt us in communication with the God who gives us His attention. Peppered with quotes from notable historical pray-ers and experts on prayer, the short and timely narratives make for excellent discussion starters and listening gauges for conversation with God. Before Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, humanity had to rely solely on the high priest to go into the “secret place” known as the Holy of Holies and petition God on our behalf. Jesus Christ’s finished work on the Cross changed everything. Now, we, too, can enter the presence of the Most High God if our hearts and minds are prepared for worshipping and engaging in the life-changing conversation that He longs to have with us. Who would forsake such a privilege?