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The following 15 quotes are from Clive Bowsher’s new title Life in the Son: Exploring participation and union with Christ in John’s Gospel and letters.

Dear ones, you are promised so much in this life, but freedom from suffering is not one (Phil. 1:29). Where will you turn when the high tide of illness, injustice, persecution, poverty, or any other kind of evil or unease brings you to an abrupt stop? Let this be an encouragement to warm your souls afresh at the white-hot flame of the Trinitarian love of God. Enough to turn your eyes from the pressures, performance, pain, and problems of this world, is he who wins us again and again by his heavenly kindness. It is this God who desires to be known in Christ and experienced within the deepest recesses of our souls. So it was for the Apostle Paul, and so it is for all of God’s dearly beloved children.

Go deep into who God is. Don’t fear the hard topics of theology but approach it as a worshipful son or daughter of the Father. If your eyes are open, what you see will only make your heart burst with the glory of who God is.

As we head towards another Christmas, let’s be sure to ponder the wonder of that first Christmas and the daily wonder of a God who moved toward us in such a stunning way!

God’s mission in creation and redemption is to bring men and women into the fellowship that Father, Son, and Spirit have always shared.

Yes, the Father has eternally loved his only begotten Son. But what makes the gospel such good news for us is that the Father has graced us with every spiritual blessing—chief of which is our adoption as sons to himself—“in the Beloved” (1:7). The gospel transforms obedience.

You will weep and worship. And as you relish your union with him—you will be changed. For you are in the Son. You will climb and not be able to reach his heights, you will dive and not be able to reach his depths. And just when you think you have traversed to the ends of him, you will see some yet unknown land in the distance, and he will bid you come, “Deeper.”

Behold that dear, that exalted, that condescending Friend of sinners, whom you can never please so well as by giving the fullest credit to his assurance that he is your Friend, your Redeemer, your guide through earth, your portion forever. What a mercy that you have lived to know that such a glorious person exists, is ever present with you, sees every thought of your heart, and listens with infinite delight to every sigh.

Have you ever thought about “curating” the content you consume? The world plies us with words everywhere we go. Our ever-present mobiles offer a stream of content to fill our commute. And as Christians there’s that pile of books, purchased on sale at the conference bookstall (only me?!) that we’ve started but not finished.

Let us not grow weary in the battle for our minds. Let us not forfeit our stewardship of these supernaturally revealed words from God. Take a stand for your faith, and take a shield for your friends and family, by etching Bible verses upon the tablet of your heart.