God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:9-10
Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome.
Ephesians 3:12
Effort is good; the Scriptures extol its benefits. Many Christians would say, “Grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning. God’s grace is a gift and is not for sale or given to the hardest worker.” However, grace endows one with the power and resources to give a full effort (see Ephesians 2:8-10)…
Bill Hull
Christlike, p. 164
…the task of the church between ascension and parousia is therefore set free both from self-driven energy that imagines it has to build God’s kingdom all by itself and from the despair that supposes it can’t do anything until Jesus comes again. We do not “build the kingdom” all by ourselves, but we do build for the kingdom. All that we do in faith, hope, and love in the present, in obedience to our ascended Lord and in the power of his Spirit, will be enhanced and transformed at his appearing.
N.T. Wright
Surprised By Hope, p. 143
For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever!
2 Corinthians 4:17
…that the body of Christ is not something remote and unreal, to be expressed only in heavenly terms. It is very present and practical, finding the real test of our conduct in our relations with others. For while it is true we are a heavenly people, it is no use just to talk of a distant heaven.
Watchman Nee
Sit, Walk, Stand
Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things he does for me.
Psalm 103:2
The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.
Howard Macey
For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.
Philippians 2:13
So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that great, perfect sanctuary in heaven, not made by human hands and not part of this created world. Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. Ht took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever.
Hebrews 9:11-12