Confident and Watchful

I am continuing to read through The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson.  It has been a very helpful book and there is much in the book that applies to more than just pastors.  Here are some quotes from chapters on being confident and watchful:

But we forget now that Jesus is for losers and for losers only. This is good news for you...

So the law cannot empower obedience to itself. It stands over us, accusing. Only the gospel empowers its own implications.

God uses sinners so that he will get the glory and so that he will get the glory in vivid, repeating imagery of turning ashes to beauty. 

There is someone (Satan) who wants you and your church dead. 

Very few things discourage a pastor more than anonymous criticism...The pastor should give no harbor to "about" talk that avoids "to" talk.

We divide when we place our preferences above community with people who differ from us. We divide when we are more interested in what we want than what we can give. We divide when we are more inclined toward ourselves than our neighbors.

The remedy for our deadness to God's grace is more grace.

You cannot resist Satan with your own wherewithal...But with the empty vessel of faith we have the fullness of the riches of God's glory in the marvelous grace of Christ. This grace is security and it is power. This grace is impenetrable armor...Notice that the armor consists entirely of things God does or provides for us...we put on what God has done for us in Christ, which is to say, we put on Christ...dwell in the gospel daily.