The Perfecting Church

Surrender Makes Outsiders Insiders

Most of us don’t struggle with believing Jesus has power. We struggle with giving up our power. We pray — but we still build contingency plans. We call Him Lord but we still try to negotiate our terms. Control feels safe. Surrender feels foolish. But the Kingdom of Heaven does not advance through our power — it advances through our surrender. And in Matthew 8, Jesus meets a man who understands something many church-going people miss — surrender means living under His authority more than loving our authority. Surrender makes outsiders insiders. 

When Glory Walks the Streets

We’re living in days where vision is blurred, compassion is thin and fear-filled, divisiveness passes for wisdom. The darkness of our times isn’t only moral — it’s perceptual. We are losing the ability to see one another as God does. But glory was never meant to remain on the mountain or in the sanctuary — it was meant to move through the streets. Matthew 8 shows us what happens when a surrendered life carries the glory of God into broken places. What happens when the holiness of heaven walks among the gross darkness of the earth.

Formed in Holiness

God’s glory is more than moments we remember—it’s also encounters that keep returning to form us. Each time His holy presence meets us at the edge of our ordinary lives, it exposes what we’ve settled for and reorients us toward who He truly is. Glory doesn’t merely confront us; it consecrates us—shaping a people set apart for God’s purposes. And every genuine encounter with His glory sends us back into the world, not changed and commissioned to carry His holiness into everyday places.

From Glory to Glory

Glory is one of the most familiar words in our faith and one of the most misunderstood. We imagine glory as something distant, displayed through power or spectacle. But glory is not just something to admire; it is something we encounter— drawing us near and working within.There was a time when God’s glory stood outside of us, revealing truth and exposing what was broken. That glory was real, but it wasn’t the final word. The glory of God has moved closer. What once confronted us from the outside now meets us on the inside, reshaping our hearts and renewing our lives. The glory we are invited into is not a moment to watch, but His holy presence to remain within. We’re not only rescued by His glory; we’re formed by it and made more and more like Him — from glory to glory.

Be Ye Holy

A people of holiness, formed for and from Himself, has been God’s idea all along. Eons before men made plans for the building of nations, the heart of God imagined not just a person or a family, but a people—a nation-- who would bear His image and His likeness, living in ways that demonstrate His great Love, great care, and great Glory in all of His creation. The Church is that people and our shared eternal and divine assignment is to be holy.