Christian Life

Unlike false idols that rely on human devotion and service, our God is the self-sufficient Father and the giver of all—sharing life itself so that we may know, walk with, and love him.

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.

What were the Father, Son and Spirit doing “before” they created anything? They were single-mindedly absorbed in mutual affection.

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.

It is here, and only here where we find our everlasting comfort. Our everlasting beauty. Our everlasting life. 

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.