For a Christian, our fears about the future are rooted in those places where our will differs from God's will.
Mark DeverFriend, the church finds its life as it listens to the Word of God. It finds its purpose as it lives out and displays the Word of God. The churchโs job is to listen and then to echo.
Mark DeverIt doesn't matter whether we live in the 19th or 21st centuries; we face the same basic problems that everyone who lives between the Fall and the return of Christ faces.
Mark DeverFrom the time of Cain until the last believer before Christ's return, we are all fundamentally in the same boat. We suffer the same spiritual afflictions and tendencies.
Mark DeverEvangelists have absolutely no desire to physically or emotionally coerce anyone. In a sense, we are like doctors: we have a duty to tell you the truth, care for you, argue with you (if that is useful), but we can't compel you to do anything.
Mark DeverWe are all called to initiate involvement in each otherโs lives... We covenant together to work and pray for unity, to walk together in love, to exercise care and watchfulness over each other, to faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion may require, to assemble together, to pray for each other, to rejoice and to bear with each other, and to pray for Godโs help in all this.
Mark Dever