The grace of God sets us free from a life of perfection, performing, and pretending.
Remember on your best day that Jesus had to die for you. Remember on your worst day that he did.
God is inviting you today to appropriately grieve your pains and losses and to acknowledge the world is seriously broken.
Whether it’s a Christian or a non-Christian, there’s nothing like suffering to show us how small, needy, and not in control we are. Suffering has a way of sobering us up to the realization that we can’t make it on our own, that we need help, that we’re broken.
Sanctification consists of the daily realization that in Christ we have died, and in Christ we have been raised.
Assurance never comes from looking at ourselves. It only comes as a consequence of looking to Christ.
Thankfully, God’s restraining grace keeps even the worst of us from being utterly depraved. The worst people who have ever lived could’ve been worse.
God loves broken people because broken people are all that there are.
I was spending way too much time thinking about me and what I needed to do, and far too little time thinking about Jesus and what he had already done for me.
We are broken people living in a broken world with other broken people. We all need grace.
The Bible makes it clear that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel.
The more I focused on my need to get better the worse I actually got – the more neurotic and self-conscious and self-absorbed I became.
Passive righteousness tells us that God does not need our good works. Active righteousness tells us that our neighbor does. The aim and direction of good works are horizontal, not vertical.
When the Christian faith becomes defined by who we are and what we do and not by who Christ is and what he did for us, we miss the gospel – and we, ironically, become more disobedient.
Being the middle child, I couldn’t figure out where I fit in the home. I couldn’t figure out whether I was the youngest of the older three or the oldest of the younger three.
Contrary to what we conclude naturally, the gospel is not too good to be true. It is true! Its the truest truth in the entire universe. No strings attached! No fine print to read. No buts. No conditions. No qualifications. No footnotes. And especially, no need for balance.
Jesus is not the man at the top of the stairs; He is the man at the bottom, the friend of sinners, the savior of those in need of one. Which is all of us, all of the time.
When you don’t know where you fit inside the home and you’re young and you’re desperate to fit in somewhere, I’d figured where I would fit outside the home. So I made some obviously bad decisions about who I hung out with and the things that I did.
The gospel is for the defeated, not the dominant.
My lifestyle got so disruptive to my family that my parents had no choice but to say, “You can’t live here any longer if you’re going to live this way.” So, I was thrilled about it – thrilled!