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Life is as good as its relationships part 4: living daily life in right relationship with God

Sep 9th, 2010
by GarrettWishall.

In my last post, I talked about the necessity of giving yourself to Scripture in order to daily live in right relationship with God. I talked about how this includes regularly reading and thinking about (meditation) Scripture and talking about it with others. And I said applying Scripture is where the rubber meets the road in giving yourself to it.

Applying Scripture in daily life

Applying Scripture involves acting upon it. Living out its commands and principles. As you read and meditate on Scripture and talk about it with others, it will be in your mind and on your heart as you approach daily decisions and choices. You must then, in reliance on God, act.

In some situations, it is easy to act in light of Scripture. In other situations, it is much more difficult. Acting in light of Scripture when it is difficult is really where the rubber meets the road. And that is where you must really seek to ski.

Skiing involves sacrifice

Skiing is exhilarating and an absolute blast, but it is also difficult. Not everyone can ski. Some people are not in good enough physical shape to ski. This could be for reasons beyond their control, but it could also be because they never exercise. Or because they eat a horrible diet. These kinds of people are choosing the small, short-sighted pleasures of lying around and excessively watching television, playing video games or eating for the glorious, full-fledged pleasure of skiing.

Skiing also involves practice and training. If you don’t practice and train to ski, you won’t be able to ski. You have to want to ski and you have to choose to ski. You have to choose some short-term sacrifice to enjoy the long-term, fulfilling delight of skiing.

It is a similar situation with daily choices and living in relationship with God. Acting in light of Scripture when it is difficult to do so involves the short-term sacrifice of saying no to satisfying your flesh and people who have no thought of God in their mind and saying yes to the long-term gain and fulfillment of living in right relationship with the God of the universe. The latter is much more glorious, but also more difficult. You must want to do it and choose to do it.

You can only act on Scripture and live in right relationship with God in reliance upon God: it cannot be done apart from God. But it also won’t happen if you don’t act. God has given you that privilege and responsibility. Galatians 5:1 says it this way, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free: stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Freedom here is the freedom to joyfully do God’s will and enjoy right relationship with Him. The yoke of slavery is anything that prevents us from doing that. One key thing that prevents a lot of people from enjoying God and doing His will is making short-sighted choices that don’t have Scripture and right relationship with God in mind. Instead of skiing, we settle for video games, or - far worse - for pornography or cutting someone down in front of others. The short-term gratification that comes with something like pornography turns long-term into sludge in our stomach, instead of the refreshment of feeling the wind on our faces and sailing down another white slope.

A relationship with variables, not a formula

There is no formula for daily living in right relationship with God. Anyone who says there is, is either mistaken or is trying to sell you something.

There is no formula for living in right relationship with God because of two key variables and because it is a relationship, not an equation. The first key variable is people seeking to live in right relationship with God have the enemies of the world, the flesh and the devil (Eph 2:1-3; 1 John 2:15-17) to contend with. These enemies come up with an endless variety of different ways to tempt and lead people astray down the same old tired, dead and unfulfilling sinful paths.

The second key variable people face is thousands of different situations with unique factors. One person will have a great boss; the next will have a cranky one. One person will have a teenager and a toddler, live next to four loud college students and be in a struggling marriage, etc., etc., etc. Every person has a different situation and there is no source that provides a step-by-step list of how to deal with every one (”what about Scripture?” you ask? More on that in a minute).

Finally, living in right relationship with God is about growing in a relationship, not following an equation. Relationships do not have formulas: they are dynamic and changing. The reason a relationship with God changes is not because God changes, but because God is changing us to be more and more like Christ. As God does this, the way we respond to situations and live our lives changes.

While there is no formula for navigating daily life in right relationship with God, there are three rock-solid, unchanging, perfect, sell-your-house-and-everything-you-own-to-get-them sources of help and hope that we should run to, cast ourselves on and learn from as we seek to act on Scripture in the routine of daily life.

Three sources: (1) Jesus Christ, (2) the Holy Spirit and (3) Scripture

Jesus

Jesus is the Rock and Redeemer of God’s people (Eph 1:7-8); He is our perfect Mediator before God, always interceding at God’s right hand for His people (Heb 1, 4:14-16). He is the God who we worship and the Way that we enter and continue in right relationship with the God who we worship.

While the temptations we face and the situations we are in are unique and ever-changing, Jesus is not. He never changes (Heb 13:8). And while Jesus has not been in every unique situation we are in, He has faced every type of temptation to sin there is and withstood them all (Heb 4:14-16). This is why the author of Hebrews tells us to look to Christ, the Author and Perfector of our faith, as we seek to live in right relationship with God (Heb 12:1-3).

Holy Spirit

In John 16:7, Jesus tells His disciples that it was to their advantage that He go away. To their advantage that their Rock and Redeemer go away. Why? “for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7b ESV). The Helper is the Holy Spirit and Jesus said it was to our advantage that He leave so the Holy Spirit would come.

The Holy Spirit’s chief roles are to convict people of sin and draw them to Christ and to help God’s people understand and apply Scripture. Jesus spoke of the latter as leading God’s people into all truth (John 16:13-14) and reminding us of what He said (John 14:26), which we have recorded in Scripture.

God put His Spirit within us to help us live in relationship with Him and understand and apply Scripture: this should give us confidence that we can do just that.

Scripture

Scripture is the record of God’s words to people. When we read Scripture, we are reading the words of the same God who used words to speak the world into existence. Scripture is perfect, inerrant, powerful, good, true and sufficient to equip us to do God’s will (2 Tim 3:16-17). Giving ourselves to Scripture is not the end all, be all of living in right relationship with God, but it is an essential element.

I mentioned above that there is no source book that offers a step-by-step guide for handling every situation in life. I think a key reason people complain about Scripture not being relevant to their lives is because they try to approach it as just such a source. People open Scripture and don’t find anything about shopping malls, birth control pills, boyfriends or living with a parent who has Alzheimer’s disease and they shut it and go away disappointed.

God has not designed Scripture as a problem source book. Instead, in Scripture He gives us specific commands to follow and principles to apply to the different situations that we face. Scripture is God’s sufficient Word to us, but it is sufficient according to God’s definition, not ours. By God’s definition, sufficient means it always provides the commands and principles we need to do the will of God as we live in reliance on Him. It does not mean that Scripture provides a step-by-step set of rules to follow for every situation we face.

The beautiful thing about Scripture is it requires us to have an active, open relationship with God, where we communicate to Him through prayer and listen to Him in His Word. In short, it requires us to ski.

Relationships with others

There is a lot more that could be said about living in right relationship with God, but I will move on to relationships with people. One thing we will see is that we really aren’t moving on: our relationship with God directly affects our relationships with people.

Relationships with people fall into several different categories - family, workplace, community, neighborhood, friendship, local body of Christ - that inevitably intertwine and overlap. Every relationship is also with a believer or non-believer, which makes a difference for how we approach it. Over the next few posts, I will look at some of these different relationships and how God would have us approach them.

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Life is as good as its relationships part 3: Living in right relationship with God

Aug 25th, 2010
by GarrettWishall.

Skiing is exhilarating.

I am not talking about slops that manufacture their own snow. Those places are fun, but not exhilarating. I am talking about a place like Breckenridge, Colorado.

In college, I took a ski trip to Breckenridge with friends and college administrators. Halfway through the first day, once my skiing-to-crashing ratio evened out a bit, I paused and looked out over the mountains.

When I looked, I saw rugged yet sleek rock faces topped with sparkling, clean - I mean clean - snow. There were not merely one or two peaks, but a rolling expanse of white-capped towers standing like castles and stretching as far as I could see in either direction.

The view was glorious.

After my pause, I put ski to slope and launched myself down another double black diamond - okay green/blue slope - and that was also glorious. The wind rushing past your face and stinging your cheeks as you pick up speed on straightaways and then try to control that speed so that you don’t crash or take out a couple fellow travelers brings quite an adrenaline rush.

As the trip went on, I found that I had the best time when I mixed gradual, longer slops with the steeper, quicker ones. This gave me time to improve my skiing and rest a bit before my next speed-filled, on the edge, adventure. Skiing takes work to be fun, but if you apply yourself it is a challenging, fulfilling experience.

Living in right relationship with God is like skiing, only it is more satisfying, nourishing, rewarding and fulfilling. And I so often forget this, doing so many things and running after so many pursuits that lead me anywhere but there.

Living in right relationship with God

God made everyone with an innate craving for delight: people pursue fulfillment. He also made people with an instinct for worship: we all worship something(s). The beauty of God’s design is that people are most fulfilled when they worship and delight in the same thing, putting all of their energy and focus into one pursuit.

The only pursuit that is ultimately satisfying and that brings God the worship He deserves is living in right relationship with Him.

This ultimate joy of living in right relationship with God is clear in Scripture and I have also experienced it. Paul spoke of knowing Christ being his ultimate pursuit (Phil 3:7&ff), David said he sought one thing: to dwell with God forever (Ps 27:4) and Peter wrote of people in right relationship with God rejoicing with a joy that is inexpressible (1 Peter 1:8).

You’re thinking “Great, but what does that look like? How do you actually live in right relationship with God?”

Giving yourself to Scripture

The key component of living in right relationship with God is interaction with Scripture. Reading it, mulling over it, thinking about it, talking about it with others, living in light of it - in sum, giving yourself to it. You will not consistently live in right relationship with God if you do not give yourself to Scripture.

It is not easy to give ourselves to Scripture because in our sinfulness we don’t want to. In our sinfulness, we want to live however we want to, not how God wants us to. In our skewed, sinful mentality, we think that we will find greater fulfillment apart from embracing Scripture when the exact opposite is true.

Satan also doesn’t want us to give ourselves to Scripture because that brings glory to God and he hates that.

Our perspective toward Scripture thus sometimes looks like a high schooler’s mentality toward his biology textbook: he knows he needs to read it, but he really doesn’t want to. He finds, in fact, that he would rather do about anything than read his biology textbook. So, when he does read it, he scans through the pages, checks it off his list and retains little of what he reads. And he sure doesn’t talk about what he reads with others.

As a sophomore in college, I came to a place where my perspective on Scripture was, “how much do I have to read?” One day I asked our campus pastor if he thought a daily time of personal Scripture reading was necessary. He turned, looked me in the eye, and said, “It is not a matter of if or how often you read Scripture, but what God is teaching you from Scripture as you read. With this perspective, daily reading is a given.”

That was huge for me. I realized that if I approached Scripture as the perfect Word of God that is sufficient to equip me for everything good and to enable me to live in right relationship with God and others, then I would choose - and hopefully want - to read Scripture regularly. And not just read it, but meditate on it - chew on it, mull it over, talk about it with others. Give myself to it.

If you think of your favorite hobby, you probably know a lot about it. You learn about it, read about it and talk about it to the point that you develop an instinctive knowledge of it. That is where we want to be with Scripture.

This is not natural - don’t be discouraged if this is not natural for you - but it can become more natural. You can grow to love Scripture. Your love for it will probably ebb and flow: we should not be satisfied with this, but it is a near-certain reality because we are sinful creatures who God is still transforming into Christlikeness. Our goal should be for our love of Scripture, knowledge of Scripture and application of Scripture to be on an upward path so that over time we know it better and love it more.

Talking about Scripture/God with others

As we read and chew on Scripture, it is huge - HUGE - to talk about it with others. God designed people to live in connection with other people. As we talk to others about what God is teaching us from His Word it solidifies what we are learning. Secondary relationships - with people - can strengthen, or hinder, our primary relationship - with God.

Talking with others about Scripture is another area where Satan and our selfish flesh can get in the way. Satan wants us to lack confidence in our understanding of Scripture. If he can get us to read Scripture on our own, but not really be sure about it, not talk about it with others and then not act on it then he is happy. In our sinfulness, we don’t want to share something we are not totally sure about and/or that might suggest a need for change in our life, which Scripture often does. The result is we don’t talk about Scripture.

This is a great time/situation to remind ourselves that Christ brings us into right standing with God and enables us to live there. It is not our greatness and strength, but His greatness and strength, that matters. We are simply to look to Christ and act out of faith in Him. If you get nothing else out of this article, get this: living in right relationship with God centers on faith in Christ, just like entering right relationship with God does.

Talking about what God is teaching you in Scripture helps engrain it into you. As you personally read and think about Scripture and talk about it with others you will likely discover that one of these two activities is particularly valuable for you. Everyone needs to do both - (1) personally spend time in Scripture and (2) talk about it with others - but most people naturally benefit more from one or the other.

I particularly value personal meditation on Scripture: it is huge for me. One of my best friends is the other way around: he benefits from personal meditation on Scripture, but he really values talking about it with others. For him, that is when Scripture really sinks in. Everyone needs to do both: this is key. But instead of being discouraged by the fact that someone else appreciates personal meditation more than you, be encouraged by their relationship with God and appreciate the unique way He has wired you.

It could also be that listening to a sermon is particularly helpful for you. Other people appreciate songs that draw out biblical truths. The goal is for God’s Word to be getting into you so that it increasingly shapes the way you think and live and does the same in those around you.

This post has run long, so I will save applying to Scripture life and further thoughts on living in right relationship with God for my next article. That next step of applying Scripture and living in relationship with God in real life, especially when life is crazy, is really where the rubber meets the road. It is challenging to live in right relationship with God, but it is glorious.

Just like skiing.

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Life is as good as its relationships part 2: entering right relationship with God

Aug 18th, 2010
by GarrettWishall.

In a discussion on human relationships, you have to begin with one’s relationship with God.

When I speak of God, I am referring to the God of the Judeo-Christian Bible. I understand that some people hold a different view of God than what this Bible presents or reject the idea of God all together. Whether or not God exists and if He does what He is like and what He created people to be and do, are fundamental and important questions that every person must answer. In fact, they are the most fundamental and important questions every person must answer.

I know that settling on beliefs about these worldview questions often takes significant amounts of time, research and discussion. Such thought and discussion should not be taken lightly and I welcome such conversation, whether in the comments of this blog, in person or through any other medium.

I have given these worldview questions significant thought and I will be writing from a perspective that accepts the Bible as the literal words of God that are without error and are sufficient to teach men how God expects them to live. This Christian worldview is explained and advanced well by men like R. Albert Mohler Jr., Tim Keller and Ronald Nash.

So why must you begin with God in a discussion on relationships?

God the Creator

God created the world and everything in it (Ps 24:1-2). Everything means every beetle, saber-tooth tiger, oak tree, tulip, ocean, stream and every single human being who has ever, or will ever, walk the face of the earth. God made it all.

Being the Maker of all things automatically gives God authority over all things. Think about it: if you made a car you would expect it to do what you made it to do. You would expect it to reliably transport people from one place to another, keep them comfortably warm or cool and provide a smooth ride: you would expect it to act like a car.

But what if one day the car you made stood up on its hind wheels and said, “Enough is enough: today, I am going to be the person and you are going to be the car. Take me to the mall and, oh yeah, I’d like to grab a smoothie on the way.” You would be outraged. Incensed. After all, you made the car: what right does it have to define what it is and what it will do?

The same is true with God and us. As the one who made us, God is the one who has the right to define who we are and how we should live. Scripture says it is God who gives every man life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25). His authority over our lives is absolute.

When we choose to do whatever we want with our lives, ignoring God and His Word, we are rebelling against the One who made us. Such rebellion separates us from right relationship with God, which is itself devastating and which leads to other devastating consequences.

The reality of God as our Creator should automatically drive us to realize that the way we live, what we do with our lives, is not a decision that can be made in a vacuum. It must be made with God in mind: He designed us and therefore knows what is best for us.

While God as Creator is fundamentally important when it comes to relationships, it is not the only factor to keep in mind. We must also understand what kind of a God our Creator is.

God is personal and relational

The Bible unpacks the story of a God who is not distant, but rather of a God who is personally involved in the lives of people in the world. God has designed people to enjoy right relationship with Him, which brings Him glory and us joy. It is thus both right and good to live in right relationship with God: He is our Creator and He has designed us for relationship with Him.

God Himself is a relational being who has relationship within Himself. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - one God in three persons - enjoy perfect relationship. They each fill roles within what is called the Godhead: the Father has roles that are unique to Him, as do the Son and the Spirit.

As God the Father, Son and Spirit carry out these roles, they do so in perfect harmony, in perfect relationship, that the Bible gives us glimpses of in different places. In John 17, God the Son - Jesus Christ - prays a beautiful, heartfelt prayer to God the Father that He would make His people one, just as He and the Father are one. He also prays that God would sanctify, make holy and devoted to Him, His people in truth.

A chapter earlier, in John 16, Jesus had said that when He went to be with the Father, the Spirit would come and lead God’s people into all truth. So God the Son prayed to God the Father to unite His people, just as He and the Father were united, and it is through God the Spirit that God the Father is doing this.

Jesus’ baptism is another picture of God in relational unity as God the Son is baptized while God the Spirit descends and God the Father announces that He is pleased with Jesus, who is His beloved Son (Matt 3:16-17).

Part of being created in God’s image - as all people are (Gen 1:26-28) - is the reality that we are all relational creatures. Every human being has an innate yearning for relationship, which comes from the relational God who made us. And our most fundamental relational need is relationship with God.

Entering right relationship with God

God designed us to live in dependence on Him, in relationship with Him. The problem is that Adam, the first man, lived independent from God. God gave Him certain roles to carry out and certain parameters to live within, and Adam went outside those limits. In doing this, Adam rebelled against His Creator and broke right relationship with God (Gen 2-3).

Every human being after Adam has been born separated from God with a nature that is inherently sinful (Eph 2:1-3). Everyone acts out of this nature and does sinful acts that flow from our sinful nature. As we do this, we are living outside of right relationship with the God who made us, a reality that is both devastating and joyless.

Thankfully, in His mercy and grace, God did not leave us in this state. The Bible tells us that while we were still sinners, God sent His Son Jesus to reconcile us to Himself (Rom 5:8). Jesus lived a perfect life, died in our place and rose again from the dead, conquering sin and death. Everyone who repents of his sin and believes in Christ, submitting to Him as Lord, receives Christ’s righteousness and re-enters right relationship with God (Rom 3:21-26, Rom 10:9-10, 1 Cor 15:3-4, 2 Cor 5:21).

The Bible is clear that it is only through Christ that people can re-enter right relationship with God (John 14:6). Jesus is the means by which we enter right relationship with God.

The Bible is equally clear that once people have entered right relationship with God it is only through faith in Christ we can then live in right relationship with Him (Col 2:6-10). It is to this topic: living in right relationship with God as believers in Christ - that I will turn to next.

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Life is as good as its relationships (part 1)

Aug 10th, 2010
by GarrettWishall.

Jonathan Pennington, a New Testament professor at Southern Seminary, once said to me “Life is as good as its relationships.”

Some people try to fill the role that only relationships can fill with other things or pursuits: money, career advancement, DVD collections, electronics, personal achievements, thrilling experiences or the latest new “stuff.” Most of these things have an appropriate role in one’s life, but none can fill the void of relationships.

Every person has several different kinds of relationships. There are family relationships: immediate - spouse, siblings, children - extended - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - and very extended - the people of legend: talked about when the stories come out, but seen only slightly more often than Haley’s Comet.

There are workplace relationships: co-workers, superiors, those who work under you; community relationships: gas station attendant, grocery store checker, restaurant server, lady you always see walking her dog at the park; neighborhood relationships: the infamous neighbors - depending on the neighborhood this could be a variety pack of different people or all the same type of person, just with different kids clothing, stuff in their house and/or cars that you either secretly wish you owned or chuckle at every time you see them.

There are also friendship relationships: these could be childhood friends, friends from high school, college buddies or friends who have developed from the other types of relationships. We hope lots of family relationships fall in here, but recognize that this is often not the case.

Finally, in my list so far I have left out the most important relationship: one’s relationship with God, the Creator.

Human relationships are indeed important, but life being as good as its relationships centers on right relationship with God. As our Creator, God has authority over our lives and knows what is best for us. It is both right and good to live in right relationship with Him.

Over the next few weeks, I will walk through these different types of relationships and how they can be approached biblically. What is at stake? Three things: (1) eternity, (2) our joy and (3) God’s glory.

Every relationship represents interaction with a soul, and a person, that will live on forever. When Christ returns and judges the world every soul, every person, enters either eternity in God’s loving presence in heaven or eternity in His wrathful presence in hell. There is no in-between state and death is the point in time when one’s eternity becomes set. Every relationship thus carries weight.

Our joy is also wrapped up in relationships. Put simply, if we live in right relationship with God and people we will experience the deepest joy a person can know. And when we do this, it magnifies the greatness and majesty of the sovereign God who made us, which brings Him the glory that He deserves.

Life is filled with all kinds of experiences, times that bring laughter and tears, delight and sorrow. There are light moments, weighty moments and every type of moment in between.

In all of these experiences, these moments, life really is as good - or as bad - as its relationships.

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Reminders for the weary, or not so weary, church planter/pastor

Jun 27th, 2010
by GarrettWishall.

As I prepare to lead a church planting effort in Denver, Colorado, I am meeting with different pastors, planters and friends explaining our plans. If the person I am speaking to has ministry leadership experience, I usually ask if they have any advice for me.

I recently received five minutes of such advice that were worth taking a day off to hear.

Tom Nettles, Professor of Historical Theology at Southern Seminary, was the dispenser of the wisdom. It was simply, clear, godly and biblical, which sums up my experience of Dr. Nettles over all. Dr. Nettles said three main things:

You are a man under authority

“Every planter/pastor is under the authority of the Bible. You are not your own man doing your own thing: you are under authority” - Tom Nettles (paraphrase).

In the world of church planting, where methodologies are bantied about like investment strategies, it is easy for pragmatism to become king. While some such practical discussions are necessary, Dr. Nettles’ reminder to live and minister as a man under authority is an always-helpful word.

The same God who spoke the world into existence, speaks through His Word, a Word that is eternal, inerrant, authoritative and sufficient to equip men for every good work. Every pastor/planter should aim to bring God’s Word to bear on people’s lives so they can live and minister under its authority.

Pastors/planters are not self-commissioned: we are gifted and commissioned by God and recognized by a church/fellow believers. We are sent out as men under authority: Dr. Nettles reminds us that God’s Word is our authority.

Don’t forget the path God has you on/your call

“You will face discouragement as a church planter. Don’t forget the Lord’s work in your life to lead to where you are at. He has walked you through conversations, trials, decisions to get you to the point of planting. Don’t let one discouraging month(s) deter you from that path” - Tom Nettles.

Many church planters and missionaries speak of God’s call to plant/minister. They say that when the going gets tough, what enables you to push through is knowing God has called you to do what you are doing.

While such advice is helpful, I think it runs the risk of being a bit reductionistic or perhaps undefined and potentially misunderstood.

Scripture is clear that God calls people to salvation (Eph 1:4-5; Rom 9) and that He calls all of His people to ministry (2 Cor 5:11-21, Eph 4:12). Scripture also teaches that God calls people to ministry leadership through gifting and desire (Eph 4, 1 Pet 4; 1 Tim 3), a calling that is affirmed by the church/other Christians in those who meet the biblical qualifications for such leadership (1 Tim 3; Titus 1).

One problem with reminding people of God’s call is the way people speak of, and refer to, such a call. Some make it sound like an ethereal, internal-only, gut-level feeling or sense that God has led them to minister in a specific place and role.

While I think such a sense is good, I do not think it is the only thing potentially discouraged pastors/planters can draw on for strength, nor do I think it sums up God’s call to ministry leadership.

Dr. Nettles’ advice reminds discouraged planters/pastors that they can recall the gifting God has given them and how others have confirmed such gifting in them (facets of God’s call). Dr. Nettles’ advice also reminds discouraged planters/pastors to remember God’s  providential working in their life that has brought them to where they are.

Many conversations, trials and decisions will likely go into the decision to plant a church and God works in His people’s lives to lead and guide them through such situations. This providential leading and guiding is a source of strength and encouragement in the midst of discouraging times.

One could say this providential working is a part of God’s call and I would be okay with that. But such providential working is not usually in view when people speak of being “called.” Dr. Nettles’ advice helpfully fleshed out God’s call and God’s providential working as sources of strength and encouragement in trying times.

Be Christ-centered

“It is Christ’s church, not your church. Christ died for His church. Every person He died for is a precious jewel to Him. Remember that. There are people out there who will respond to the gospel, to God’s call. What they will respond to is the voice of Christ, so be the voice of Christ to His people.” - Tom Nettles.

The church pastors/planters lead is not their church, it is Christ’s church. And the voice non-believers will respond to with repentance and faith is the voice of Christ revealed in the gospel, not the ingenuity of man.

The reality that Christ’s people are more valuable to Him than they are to a church planter/pastor - so valuable that He died for them - gives the gung-ho, go-get-’em guy a reminder to trust in the Gospel, not his efforts, while also encouraging the discouraged and downtrodden fellow to persevere.

Christ loves His church: we are simply called to tell others about His love and to love as He loves.

I hope these reminders from Dr. Nettles encourage you as much as they did me and may they turn your eyes to our glorious Savior and the God who has saved us in Him.

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