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“ I have been crucified with Christ . It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me . (Galatians 2:20)

You Can Change by Tim Chester has been on my bookshelf for a few years.  I started it this year and I am sorry that I didn't start it sooner.  This book is so good!  Chester's book cover states "God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions"  Go buy the book.   But for now, here are several great quotes: We're not changed by systems or rules. We need a Redeemer to set us free, and we have a great Redeemer in Jesus...What this book tries to do is connect the truth about God with our Monday-morning struggles. The message of this book is that change takes place in our lives as we turn to see the glory of God in Jesus. We "see" the glory of Christ as we "hear" the gospel of Christ. Moral effort, fear of judgment, and sets of rules can't bring lasting change. But amazing things happen when we "turn to the Lord." What the law does do is show us we can't change ourselves or make ourselve...

I love to teach!  One of the things I missed most during the last 3 months while I was preaching was teaching an adult class during Go Deeper Hour (Sunday School).  I believe every person needs an opportunity to not just listen to a preacher or teacher, but to also process what they are learning in their head, heart, and hands.  This is why I am a firm believer in Sunday School and small groups.  Both of these provide people the opportunity to ask questions as well as process what they are hearing and thinking. SO, let me encourage every person--child, youth and adult to join a Go Deeper Hour Class if you attend Hesston MB.  But also want to encourage you no matter where you go to church, find a Sunday School class or Small group to join and participate in.  If you don't like the one you attend, try another class.  Don't just give up!   It is important for you. For the next year, the class I lead will be going through 2 books together as well ...

Review : We are continuing a 5 week study on the 5 Solas. Sola is Latin for alone, the solas were considered the foundational principles of Protestantism which was begun by Martin Luther in 1517 (Sola! Pg 3) Scripture Alone -One Story, God-Breathed, Useful Grace Alone from God for us, a gift available to all people for all of life and motivation. Christ Alone- what Christ did (life, death, resurrection, appeared to many ascension), what we do- The crowd words from John 6:28-29 “Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” What is faith? Video from “What’s in the Bible” (1:55) §   trust (faith) n. — strong confidence in, and reliance upon, someone or something; often with the object of trust understood. §   Faith is not about how much faith we have or intensity of our faith, but what our faith is in which is Jesus Christ. ·    ...

I recently finished Sola! by Leann Luchinger and Heather Choate Davis. Here are some quotes: sola is Latin for alone, and that the three solas are considered foundational principles of Protestantism...sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), and sola scriptura (Scripture alone). Not grace plus works or worthiness or effort or intention or money or remorse. Grace alone!...It is an all or nothing proposition, with God doing all, and us doing nothing. Because the Cross of Christ is where sin and grace kiss. Not just once but daily. His Law (God's wisdom for living) reveals our sin (all the ways we reject that wisdom). His Gospel then assures us that we are not to sit around beating ourselves up about it but rather to keep following Him, trusting that "for freedom Christ has set us free"...This balanced tension between Law and Gospel serves us in every season, keeping us humble through the highs, hopeful through the lows, and trusting that it's all on H...

Christmas has come and gone.  So, every year after Christmas I share new books that I received as gifts.  I love to read and appreciate the gift of books.  So, here is today's New Book Friday:

Our final speaker for the Here We Still Stand Conference on Saturday was Matt Popovits. Here are some notes: Romans 1:16-17 After wrestling with these words, the light bulb came on for Martin Luther. Man is made righteous in the eyes of God the Father through His Son by faith alone. The point of this for Luther was comforting hearts rattled by their own evil by faith alone starting with our own heart. How is your faith? It's not about us making it bigger or greater. Faith is not intellectual assent, moral courage, positive emotions, absence of doubt. Faith is dependence. Faith is resting in or relying on something that is greater than you.  The only requirement for great faith is great need. This faith you have is a byproduct of who Christ is not what you have done. Who gave you that faith? Who maintains that faith?  Christ This faith in Christ does produce fruit in the people of Christ as it invades our head, heart, and hands. The primary fruit of faith i...

I recently finished reading The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson.  Here are some great quotes from the book: There are no conditions that need to be met in order for the gospel offer to be made. everything we need for salvation is in him and not in us. Is it obvious to me, and of engrossing concern, that the chief focus, the dominant note in the sermons I preach (or hear), is "Jesus Christ and him crucified"? Or is the dominant emphasis (and perhaps the greatest energies of the preacher?) focused somewhere else, perhaps on how to overcome sin, or how to live the Christian life, or on the benefits to be received from the gospel?...Is the dominant theme, the lasting impression, the most natural word association, in relation to preaching I hear "Jesus Christ and him crucified"--or something else? Christ himself is the gospel...what we receive in the gospel is not benefits but Christ and that therefore the focus on public preaching and private pasto...

For 2017, the phrase I am focusing on is "in Christ."  Each week, I will post 1 verse that includes the phrase "in Christ". I look forward to growing in understanding of what it means to be "in Christ." 15  We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16  yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:15-16)

This past week, I have reading three specific books.  Core Christianity by Michael Horton, Life With A Capital L by Matt Heart, and Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick.  Here are quotes from recent chapters: The logic of karma or the law is broken because the God of justice is also the merciful God of grace. The gift has been given. Therefore we are free to give. And what we give is our thanks to God and our good works to our neighbor. The good news draws us out into the world, looking up to Christ in faith and out to our neighbor in love and good works. We are called to a discipleship that grows out of living on the Vine--in union with Christ and together with the communion of saints. At the core of the Christian faith are objective, historical realities that secure our faith. And with our salvation fully secured, we are able to look up in faith toward God and out to our neighbor in love. Plumbing theology is simply a matter of receiving from God and then...

Christ Alone. To God Alone Be the Glory. Here are quotes from the final chapters of The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson: Jesus Christ alone is the hope, treasure, joy, and purpose of pastoral ministry...Let everything be a means to this end: the treasuring of Christ and the enjoying of his glory. Because only Jesus transforms, the focus and message of our ministries must be only Jesus. The exclusivity of Christ is not just a test of Christian orthodoxy; it is a test of Christian orthopraxy. Faith is not our rock; Christ is our rock. We do not get faith by having faith in our faith or by looking to faith, but by looking to Christ. Looking to Christ is faith...If we start qualifying our faith, we destroy the gospel...Far too often we are prone to look to the quality of our faith, the quality of our conviction of sin, the quality of our evangelical repentance, the quality of our love for the brethren for confirmation of our justification, forgetting that it is Ch...

Grace Alone. Faith Alone. Here are some quotes from The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson: People need to know what God's law says, but we need to remember that the law cannot produce obedience to itself. The pastoral imperative, then is to get the gospel indicative into every nook and cranny of church life as we can. We want to be seeding grace in every space.  We are not automatically set to gospel mode, so we all need help in constantly resetting to grace. Sola fide is not just for justification, but also for the working out of our justification in the ongoing work of sanctification. It is not as though what has begun by faith is now continued by works. We are not to find life in the Gospel and then nourish it by the Law. We are not to begin in the Spirit and then seek to be made perfect by the flesh, or by confidence in man--we must continue to walk by the simple faith which rests only upon God... Faith is convicted trust...Another simple way of ...

In December, I started reading Gospel-Powered Parenting by William P. Farley.  Here are a few quotes from the first few chapters: I am convinced that the gospel is sufficient to answer all our parenting questions. The gospel is the incarnation of God's Son, his sinless life, his substitutionary death, his bodily resurrection, and his ascension into heaven, from which he will someday return to the earth in glory. But the cross is the heart and soul of the gospel. As do all parents, we have learned from God's gracious discipline that we are absolutely dependent on God's Spirit to complete the parenting process...It is God's job to bring results! this book will assume that effective parents equip their children to overcome the world--not by changing and controlling their environment (things external to their children), but by going after their children's hearts. We change their hearts by teaching the gospel, modeling the gospel, and centering our homes on the ...

I am slowly reading through The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall. It is slow because it is so deep theologically.  Here are some quotes to ponder regarding your sanctification for today: the word of God and the gospel never require you to change your heart from sin to holiness before you are allowed to receive Christ and his salvation by faith. Jesus loved you in your most disgusting, sinful corruption, and he died for you. When you have faith, you renounce all dependence upon anything you can do to gain Christ or to make yourself acceptable to him. You cannot love God before you understand his love for you. You must perceive his love if you are going to love him. Your soul must come to take pleasure in God and Christ by faith, or else it will just go after fleshly and worldly pleasures. The more you strive against your lusts without faith, the more your lusts will be stirred up--even though you might be able to work hard enough to restrain yourse...

Here are more selected promises of God from Hebrews. I posted 5 of these a week ago.  These were compiled by Kenneth Boa. Our hope in Christ is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (6:19). Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them (7:25). Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance (9:15). Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.   (11:1). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (13:8).

I am continuing to read The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall. It is a slow read.  Here are selected quotes from Chapters 4 and 5. "faith is not simply a matter of avoiding punishment, where do not have any desire to love and enjoy Christ. Rather, true saving faith means that you come to a deep, heartfelt conviction of how precious Christ is..." "They know people cannot totally keep Christ's laws, so they say that as long as you resolve to keep Christ's law, that is good enough to save you." "In order to live a life of holiness, you need God's almighty power." "The flesh is the nature of man as it is corrupted by the fall of Adam." "Sanctification is far more than "turning over a new leaf" in the way you live. Sanctification is living out of your new nature in Christ." "Can you possibly imagine that anyone can prevail against sin if he sees that God is against him, and that he i...

This one was recommended by Byron Yawn. The back says "A classic novel about faith and the power of grace."

The following is a quote from Lutheran Theology by Steven Paulson on the law and our hearts. The real issue in the law is the first table that concerns the sinner's relation to God, not her neighbor. That relation comes down to the first commandment that demands a good, clean heart. One is either good in heart or not; there is no cherry picking by Jews or Gentiles for which law accuses and which one excuses. Judges point the finger rightly at the wicked, but miss the point about their righteous selves. The real matter concerning the law is the heart, and the heart cannot be made good by the law. The law is not spiritual, meaning that it cannot create anything, especially not a new heart. The law reveals your heart as good or bad as light reveals what hides in darkness, but Paul now claims that the law has already made its universal judgment and come to its fatal conclusion: there is no good heart anywhere...The reason is that the wrath of God has been revealed, the end of self-j...

This book is written by a friend of mine that I met at Liberate 2015 and I follow on Twitter.  It is her story and as the cover suggests it is about "One Woman's Journey from Fundamentalism to Failure to Faith."

Commercial for FitBit-It is a lifestyle device not just fitness device Quantify all of our daily life Data is used for self-justification What does it look like to keep score?  Chart ourselves or others We love quantification because we love control. If I know where I am headed, I have the power to control it. If I score high enough, I will be alright. The Law (10 Commandments, Sermon on Mount) keeps score  The law (world) keeps score, as well as the voice inside We always lose when we keep score. All have fallen short of the glory of God, but that hasn't stopped us from comparing distances. Scorekeeping hits home in our marriage, parenting, friendships, work. The moment a good work becomes public it loses its goodness. This is why Christ told us to keep it quiet. We are addicted to scorekeeping and Christians deal with this just as much as anyone else. Moralism has crept into our food choices. Do we only rest to work better? What about scorekeeping with ...