The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life

This new husband, Jesus, is not a demanding master standing over you with a checklist. He is a life-giving husband who took your ugliness, sin, and shame down into death to bury it forever, sharing with you his own life and perfect righteousness, making you beautiful in his sight and calling you his very own.

The mutual knowing of Father, Son and Spirit is, to put it simply, the deepest truth of all. It is the foundational and all-encompassing intimacy. It is the affection of which all life is simply a joyful overflow.

The Christian life is defined by Jesus, centred on Jesus, and it even begins to look like Jesus, in all his loveliness and goodness. It is not your own life, but his life being worked out in you. It is this way from day one, and will be this way right to the day when your race has been won. And it will never stop feeling like kneeling at the cross in worship and wonder.

I receive the abundant-life-giving coming of Jesus as I know and am known in my local church. Local church matters because knowing and being known matter.

Here lies the secret of boldness. Not found in our own strength but in his steadfast love. This is the truth and promise that makes us bold, to take risks for Christ Jesus, to overcome insecurity, to fight temptation, to stand up for what is right, to wait patiently in the face of suffering, to love with our whole hearts. It is the assurance of his love for us in the present brokenness.

The first thing I love about the ascension is that Jesus has returned to his Father. That means his work is done, accepted in heaven, and sealed for us here on earth. … now, the Lord Jesus Christ is in session. Seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. It’s the Father’s stamp of approval on all that his Son has done for us in dying and rising.

How do Christians grow? How does change happen? And if Christians are those who have been accepted by God once and for all because of what Jesus has done, then why bother?

How should Christians approach imprecatory psalms? In this talk, Steffen examines some of the most difficult psalms, concerning personal enemies and nations that attack God’s people.