If you believe, as I do, that the goal of ministry is the all-satisfying gladness of your people’s hearts in the glory of Christ, or in all that God is for them in Christ, then it will follow that your joy in Christ is an essential foundation for that ministry. If that’s true, that your joy in Christ is essential for leading others to an all-satisfying joy in Christ, then it follows that a hunger for Christ, a hunger for God, is an essential foundation for Christian ministry that’s effective and faithful.
''And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others....
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are...
A covenant should be distinguished from a contract because it is a personal relationship which people voluntarily enter. The definition of ...