Final chapters of Show Them Jesus

Last week, I finished reading Jack Klumpenhower's book, Show Them Jesus. I will be writing a review of the book in the next few days.  Here are some quotes from the final chapters:

Jesus calls his people to love-based life together.

Moral reform is not the same as Christian growth...But performing for God and ignoring God are both ways of bypassing Jesus.

Alex needed to fight sin but to do it with God, instead of performing for God. He needed to hate sin but not keep a scorecard. He needed the good news.

Being close to your Father brings true sorrow for sin and helps you fight sin better next time. . .So don't think you have to fight sin first so you can come to God. Instead, come to God so you can fight sin. 

If we want believing kids to change how they act, we must teach them--perhaps counterintuitively--to focus less on how they act. We must first remind them who they are. They're joined to Jesus.

It's the Holy Spirit who changes kids. He brings rebirth at the start of the Christian life and then more and more holiness as that life goes on. . .Alex needed to see that he had no power in himself to conquer sin, but unlimited power as a child of God. . . He needed to trust the Spirit, who had both the power and the loving desire to make him holy inside and out.

 No, the tools of the Spirit (prayer, Bible reading, church) work because by them kids engage the Spirit--who is a person. they must meet him with their hearts. He, not his tools, is the source of power.

More trusting leads to more doing.

 This is a good way to show that prayers, Bible reading, and churchgoing aren't chores we do to impress God, but gifts we use to grow in Christ.

God doesn't hear our prayers because we prayed well. We're only able to pray in the first place because we're joined to Jesus.

Prayer is weakness tapping into power, so use prayer to trust Jesus instead of yourself.

But growth as a Christian is not about getting to a point where we stop sinning so much and do better on our own. It's more about learning to depend on Jesus constantly, increasing in faith, and trusting him in our weakness.

 I need to chug Jesus's living water by the bucketful, lest I try to quench that thirst with some other swill.

Pride and self-pity are flip sides of the same thing: being fixated on our performance.

So then, here's your good news: when you feel your ministry or parenting twisting inward to be all about you, look outward to Jesus. Repent. Savor the approval he gives you. 

Sound out the good news, and trust the Savior you proclaim to use it to draw souls to himself.

You will do more for him as you know, with growing certainty each day, that he has done more for you.