The wait is over!

           Welcome to the website of The Cup and the Glory. When I first wrote The Cup and the Glory, and the ten years before it was first published, I used to give it away to people, “charge” them prayer, and ask them to send it on to anyone they thought would benefit from it. It ended up in about seventy countries by doing that. Although I had by that time pretty much given up hope that it would ever be published, I finally made peace with God about this by laying in on the altar before Him and ask that He do with it as He saw fit, whether it was published or not.

           At the time I write this, it has not been a little over three years since the publication of The Cup and the Glory. I am in one of those “cast your net on the other side of the boat, and you will find a catch” (John 21:6) seasons of my life—which is a lot more fun when it happens—where God has seen fit to produce many means of distribution and much fruit. I have seen the book end up—by God’s doing—in about 160 countries that I know of. The Spanish versions of the book and the study guide will be released in the next few weeks. LIBRONIX/Logos Bible software is also releasing it. The Mandarin edition is next, followed by plans for Arabic, German, and Dutch. We hope to do the study guide for all the translations that we end up doing.

           Even beyond the above blessings, I have had the high privilege of watching God use the biblical truths within this book in other people’s lives as deeply as He blessed me when I was coming out of “The Wilderness” and studying and writing down what I was learning. I have heard from several and recognize God working in their lives “to perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish” them (1 Peter 5:10), as He did me. As I have said and written many times, I wrote the book for myself (actually not knowing it was going to be a book). That God sees fit to use this in other people’s lives thrills me. I shake my heard, marvel, and thank God, and move on in my Glory of God studies. I know many people end up with this book by divine appointment, and I thank God that He brings these about.

           In its simplest form, The Cup and the Glory is a book about walking with Jesus in discipleship. As was true the original disciples of Jesus, what this entails so often differs from what and how we think things should happen. We see this throughout the book as the Master Teacher patiently teaches and conforms His own into His own image and often uses trials and suffering to bring about His divine purpose. James and John asked that they may sit in His glory; Jesus responded with the requirement of a cup to be drunk and a baptism with which to be baptized (Mark 10:35-38). Nothing has changed for His true disciples over the centuries, including present day ones; the same is true for us.

           As you will see as you read related matters in this site and the workbook, Jesus used suffering to lead me into this study. As James and John, I was asking about glory. Jesus unexpectedly answered my prayers—as He has and still does with so many others—by things that we do not want, expect, or desire. He calls us to The Cup, The Road, The Gift, The Fellowship. He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. It is a walk by faith, but by no means is it a walk alone, even though it may seem that way to us at times.

And by all means, He calls us to His glory.

I hope this will be a most fruitful study for you.

To God be the Glory!