Author: Phil Rehberg

Are You Looking Forward To Being Glorified?

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How much do we reflect on the idea that the people of God will have the glory of God? Revelation 21:11 promises that in the coming New Heaven and New Earth believers will have “the glory of God”. But this promise is not confined to Revelation ‒ it is a major New Testament theme. In a previous post we looked at the future luminosity of the body of Christ which is one dimension of God’s glorification of his people. Now we will consider what the New Testament says about this glorification in general. Warning: this is a very encouraging subject! It is surprising how often scripture speaks of the glorification of believers. Apparently this is an important truth for believers to keep in mind. Some of the mentions of this theme in the New Testament include: • In John 17:22 Jesus states in prayer that “The glory that you have Continue Reading →

How To Love Your “Neighbor” Through Conversations

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Today I am posting a post from Michael Hyatt, former Christian publishing CEO about conversations. This is especially important during this holiday season when we have the opportunity to connect with our friends and family and establish deeper relationships. Hyatt’s post contains excellent advice about conversations, communication and valuing people in a truly Christian way. He doesn’t mention scripture or Jesus but for me it goes to the heart of the second great commandment established by Jesus: love your neighbor as yourself. Learning to love others is the essential sign of a Christian and learning how to communicate love and friendship are essential to loving others. Jesus was a master of loving communication and we can be too. Paul said our speech should be “seasoned”, in other words it should taste good. Whether we are talking with believers or unbelievers we can craft our speech to communicate the fruits of Continue Reading →

Are You Looking Forward To Being Luminous?

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In Revelation 19:8 we learn that the Bride of the Lamb (i.e., believers) will be “bright”. This is a significant theme for believers in the New Testament and I refer to this theme as “luminosity”. The glorification of believers is a major New Testament theme and this is one aspect of that theme. I suspect that when scripture mentions the glorification of believers, which it does often, luminosity is implied. God wants his saints to literally shine, and to shine in a way that is almost blinding. I have found this mentioned two other times in the New Testament. Jesus states it plainly in Matthew 13:43: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (This is an allusion to Daniel 12:3: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above.”) The third mention is in Revelation 21:11 where John Continue Reading →

How Shame and Self-Rejection Affect Us

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Shame can be described as a sense of embarrassment, dishonor, disgrace or inadequacy. These feelings come from something you did or thought that contradicts what you believe to be good or valuable (this is essentially guilt which is a precursor to shame). Just the fact that we fall short of our own standards of good produces shame in all of us. We want to hide our weakness from others because we want them to value us. This is why it is normal for people to display their best self to others, which probably helps society stay civilized. But we also naturally display a false self in many situations, which keeps us from truly connecting with others. We use our false self to cover up our shame, for example, pretending that we have our life all together when actually we are broken or struggling. It takes time, but we need to Continue Reading →

Focusing on Our Final Destiny in the New Creation

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In the book of Genesis we hear of the tragic beginning of humans. How they lost their union with their Creator and lost harmonious community with fellow humans. But in the New Testament we hear a happy ending. All our prayers, and suffering, and trusting, and sacrifice finally bring us to our eternal destiny. God wins over sin and evil. After death He will give us new bodies and new souls that can receive all He has for us. And his followers will enjoy living with Him forever. This is a key foundation of spiritual theology and spiritual formation. In Revelation we learn that God restores all that was lost in the fall. The Bible begins with a Garden of Paradise that humans must leave because of their sin. But in the end, God cleanses our sin completely and permanently, and restores us to a paradise in a Garden that Continue Reading →