All in Christian Life
We live in an age of differences. If you follow Christian Twitter, for example, you will see disagreement every day over what appears to be a minute detail. I can't keep up with the outrage. I often step back and ask myself, “Where is the love in this discussion? Where is the place for real disagreement with real unity in Christ? Must I chose one side in order to belong?”
Christians are marked by how they live. They don’t live like people on their way to death; they live like people on their way to life.
The greatest treasures in the world stacked on top of one another and handed to us with a golden certificate of authentication would not be worth one ounce of grace dripping from the throne room of God.
We have the ability now to love God because of the great love with which he loved us.
One of the great wonders of the Christian life is reconciling who you are now in Christ with who you once were without him. We are like one who marvels as he sees his empty bank account become one with an infinite sum. Life will never be the same. For the Christian, however, our lives have not simply been enhanced as the rich man but resurrected as the dry bones of the valley (Ezekiel 37). We have passed from death into life.
Repentance is not only turning from your sin. It is turning to God. It’s not just feeling sorry without changing. It’s feeling convicted and turning from sin to God. It’s being inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. It’s a directional change in your life from sin to God.
We drift from God because we believe the Devil’s lie that God is holding us back. We are like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, considering the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge Good and Evil when the Tree of Life has been provided.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
In Jesus, the shadows of the Old Testament have faded away. Jesus is the founder of the new covenant. The terms he brings are different, they are more gracious and more merciful.
