Friends:  The Apostle Paul was inspired by God (led/directed) to write the greatest letter that was ever written.  We refer to this letter as the Book of ‘Romans’ in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.  To those who have read and studied this entire letter, they say it is like a magnificent pearl necklace…each pearl of truth is one of awe, light, truth wrapped in divine inspiration.   And many say to just try and point to just a few of the great pearls is the same as trying to see the whole necklace by only looking at a few of it’s pearls.  I agree….and disagree.   I think that all of God’s pearls of truth have eternal relevance and I encourage you to study all of the God inspired scripture.  But today…let’s look at a few of the pearls taken from Paul’s letter to the Roman believers.   The illustration below is provided as a tool for you as you seek to share the the love of Jesus Christ to those around you in your part of this world.There are many organizations that have provided many renditions of this Roman Road to Salvation..I have selected a version used by Teen Mission International in their evangelistic outreach programs.😊 dh

Roman Road to Salvation

The Roman Road to Salvation is a selection of Bible verses taken from the book of Romans that present the plan of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. You can memorize these verses and/or mark them in your Bible and use them when sharing your faith with family or friends. These notes can be printed and used for Sunday School Lessons or Evangelism Classes.

If you have not yet confessed and believed on Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please read and consider the meaning of each verse and act accordingly.

I consider myself a ‘good person’… won’t that be enough?

Romans 3:23 NKJV – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,>

Romans 3:10 NKJV – As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;

Romans 5:12 NKJV – Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned–

The creator of the universe is HOLY. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1Jn 1:5 (KJV) He has set laws in place for his creation to obey. What are these laws? They begin with the 10 Commandments. While you might consider yourself ‘good’ compared to most people, how do you measure up against God’s law? Have you ever told the smallest lie? Then you are a liar. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” James 2:10 (NIV) Disobedience to God is sin.

Is sin really THAT big of a deal? If it is… what HOPE is there?

Romans 6:23 NKJV – For the wages of sin [is] death, but the gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Disobedience to an infinite eternal God deserves an infinite eternal consequence. God shows us His character and his laws in his creation, the world around us. He has also written his laws in our hearts… on our conscience. He has also given us his WORD the Bible. No good judge would let the guilty go free, the criminal go unpunished. Neither can a holy righteous God allow sinful man to go unpunished… but God LOVES man whom he has made in his image and He has provided a way of escape by sending his only son to die in our place.

After what I’ve done to grieve God… HOW could He willingly die in my place?

Romans 5:8 NKJV – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jn 3:16-NKJV While he died on the cross, he was mocked, spit upon, and cursed. Yet Jesus cried out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do…” (Lk 23:34-KJV) With such love, Jesus died in your place… knowing every evil act, word, and thought you would commit. What powerful love! He loves you unconditionally even to the point of death when you are at your worst!

HOW can I be saved?

Romans 10:9-10 NKJV – that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation

You can never be saved by trying to be a good person, nor can you be saved through any amount of ‘good works’. Ephesians 2:8,9 says “For by grace have you been saved by faith. And that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast. (KJV) You and I can be saved only by confessing our sins and placing our faith in God’s son, Jesus Christ who died  and paid for our sins on the cross. We must also surrender our life to His lordship… placing him in charge of every area of our life because we now belong to him. Both John the Baptist and Jesus himself began their preaching with the word, ‘Repent’. (“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” –Matthew 4:17 NKJV) To repent means ‘change one’s mind’ or to turn — to go in another direction. How can we be led to repentance? The first step toward repentance is true sorrow for what we’ve done wrong. “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” – 2 Corinthians 7:10 NKJV. Worldly sorrow is more like the regret of a criminal who’s just been caught whereas godly sorrow is the deep remorse or conviction that produces a change in direction. Have you ever felt convicted after doing something wrong? The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is the one that convicts us of our sin. (John 16:7-8)

Did God HEAR me? Did He accept me?

Romans10:13 NKJV – For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

God promises that “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn 1:12 NIV) Yes, God does hear and accept ALL who come to put their faith in Him. There is no need to fear death any longer because Jesus BROKE the power of death on the cross with his own blood. The price has been paid in full and it is God’s promise to receive all who come to him by placing their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

What do I do now?

Romans 10:17 NKJV – So then faith [comes] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Your journey as a child of the King of Kings has just begun! You must begin by spending time daily in prayer and in God’s Word, the Bible. You must also find fellowship with other believers in a Church that teaches and preaches the Bible. You should also now confess Jesus, your savior before men. Share about your new faith in Christ with your family, coworkers and others whom God has placed on your daily path.

Pleasures Never Lie

Why Sin Cannot Stay Hidden

(article by John Bloom, staff writer, desiringGod.org)

One of my favorite poems is only four lines long:

The soul is measured by its flights,
Some low and others high.
The heart is known by its delights,
And pleasures never lie. (The Pleasures of God, 4)

For me, the last line is the zinger: pleasures never lie. It has stuck in my brain for over two decades. Like a sharp knife, it cuts through a lot of my baloney and gets right to the heart of the matter: what matters to my heart.

“Pleasures never lie” doesn’t mean the things we find pleasurable are never deceitful. Many are (Hebrews 11:25), as we all know by lots of personal experience. Rather, it means that pleasure is the whistle-blower of the heart. Pleasure is our heart’s way of telling us where our treasure really lies (Matthew 6:21). 

When something evil gives us pleasure, we don’t have a pleasure problem; we have a treasure problem. The pleasure gauge is working as designed. What’s wrong is what our heart loves. And pleasure is blowing the whistle. We can lie with our lips about what we love. But pleasures never lie.

And the thing about our pleasure-giving treasures, whether good or evil, is that we can’t keep them hidden, at least not for long. What we truly love can’t help but work its way out of the unseen heart into the plain view of what we do and don’t do, say and don’t say.

This is why Jesus told us that when discerning whether a professing believer is true or false, we must examine their fruit.

Fruit Trees Never Lie

Fruit is one of God’s favorite metaphors for describing what our lives organically produce based on what our hearts believe and love. He employs it repeatedly in the Bible (Psalm 1:3; Proverbs 14:14; Isaiah 3:10; Jeremiah 17:10; Matthew 3:8; John 15:8; Galatians 5:22–23). And to our point, this parable of Jesus is particularly incisive:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15–20)

This is a devastatingly simple assessment process. We recognize who’s true and who’s false “by their fruits,” what they do and don’t do, what they say and don’t say. A thornbush can insist it’s a vine, but if it bears no grapes, well. . . . A diseased tree might insist it’s healthy, but if the fruit is diseased, well. . . . Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and the behaviors behave (Luke 6:45). We can lie with our lips about what we love, but fruit trees never lie.

This is meant to be unnerving. Faith, not fruit, is the instrument by which we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). But faith is revealed by fruit. No fruit, no faith (James 2:17). Bad fruit, bad tree (Matthew 12:33). God sees faith in the heart (1 Samuel 16:7; Acts 1:24). But we can see only the fruit of faith. That’s why Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits.”

Trees Take Time to Grow

False brothers and sisters have been a heartbreaking scourge on the church since its very beginning, when Judas joined the band of disciples as a “devil” among saints (John 6:70–71). When the net of the kingdom is cast into the sea of the world, it hauls in both good and bad fish, which must be separated later (Matthew 13:47–50). When the seed of the kingdom is sown into the field of the world, the enemy sows his own seed in the field, causing the devil’s weeds to grow alongside God’s wheat, and must be separated later (Matthew 13:36–43).

That last parable in particular illustrates a difficult reality for us: it often takes a while until we can tell the difference between God’s wheat and the devil’s weeds. The Greek word translated into English as weed in this parable is zizanion, which the original readers likely would have understood to be a particular weed called darnel. Darnel has been known as wheat’s “evil twin” for thousands of years because in seed form and early development it looks very much like wheat, but it’s toxic to humans and so must be separated at harvest.

So when Jesus says, “You will recognize them by their fruits,” he means we will recognize true and false brothers and sisters when they reach a certain level of maturity and their fruit (whether wheat or darnel) can be seen. Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon the magician all looked like wheat to the disciples at first (Acts 5:1–11; 8:9–24). Until the toxic fruit of their falseness became visible.

What makes this whole process even trickier is that good trees sometimes act sinfully and bear bad fruit. There’s Aaron and the golden calf (Exodus 32:1–6), David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1–25), Peter denying Jesus (John 18:15–18, 25–27), Peter and Barnabas acting hypocritically (Galatians 2:11–13), a number of Corinthians acting pridefully, immorally, suing each other, and engaging in various other sins (1 Corinthians 4:8; 5:1; 6:1–8; 8:1). Those don’t look like good fruits. So were they bad trees?

No and not necessarily (since I can’t vouch for all the nameless Corinthians). Why? Because when confronted, they “[bore] fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). And the bad fruit proved to be an anomaly in a longer-term context of bearing good fruits.

Testing Fruit Quality

In the new covenant age, this is where church discipline becomes crucial. In Matthew 18:15, the brother who, when confronted with his fault, listens and truly repents is to be considered a true brother — a “good tree” — even though he had a “bad fruit” episode. But a “brother” who refuses to listen, even when repeatedly confronted in the context of the covenant community of a local church, is to be considered an unbeliever — a “bad tree” — because his bad fruit appears to be normalizing sin rather than being an anomaly (Matthew 18:16–17).

This church discipline doesn’t determine the nature of the tree; only God does that. Paul clearly hopes the excommunication of an immoral Corinthian church member becomes a means of his repentance and salvation (1 Corinthians 5:5). But since we can only assess a tree by its fruit, we must call it as we see it. And if severe discipline results in repentance, proving the tree is good after all, we will overflow in joy.

In testing the fruit quality of a person, we are very rarely expected to make such an assessment on our own. That’s dicey business, since we have such a tendency to minimize our log and magnify another’s speck (Matthew 7:3). This assessment is meant to take place in the context of a church (1 Corinthians 5:11–13), where our limited perceptions and particular experiential and temperamental biases can be mitigated by a wider group led by mature, judicious elders.

We’re also called to assess our own fruit quality (2 Corinthians 13:5). But I would say that, just as we should not assess others’ fruit in isolation, we should not assess our own in isolation. Our pride distorts our self-assessments in both exalting and condemning ways. The brothers and sisters who observe us most and know us best typically have a more judicious evaluation of us than we do. We need their encouragement and exhortations to help us stay aware of sin’s deceitfulness (Hebrews 3:12–13). And our willingness to receive their observations and repent when necessary is a sign of a good tree — repentance is itself good fruit.

And fruit — consistent fruit over time — is what confirms the species of a tree. Pleasures — consistent, controlling pleasures over time — never lie. These pleasures always work their way out of our hearts into external pursuits — our words and deeds that reveal what we treasure. Jesus calls these “fruits.” They are the only way the church or the world can tell a real Christian from a false one. Which is why Jesus said, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon) serves as author, board chair, and co-founder of Desiring God. He is author of three books, Not by Sight, Things Not Seen, and Don’t Follow Your Heart. He and his wife have five children and make their home in the Twin Cities.

Unless You Stop Loving Sin

The Heart of Repentance

(article by Stephen Witmer, Pastor, Pepperell, MA)

Jesus said some surprising things during his ministry. One of the most surprising is in the Gospel of Luke, just after he receives a report of the massacre of some Galileans. Some concluded that the Galileans suffered because they were particularly sinful people (Luke 13:2). If the Galileans had been more holy (their thinking goes), they could have avoided a grisly end.

Jesus disagrees. He responds, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). He says the problem is that everyone is sinful before God and therefore headed toward God’s eternal judgment (that’s the meaning of “perish” in this context, see Luke 9:24–25). And according to Jesus, the solution to this massive problem of divine judgment isn’t to improve one’s behavior, but to “repent.”

Calling people to repentance is the reason Jesus came (Luke 5:32) and the message he commissions his followers to preach (Luke 24:47). It’s the only way anyone can avoid God’s judgment (Luke 13:3). Given the supremely serious consequences of not repenting, it’s important to understand what repentance is.

Heart of Repentance

To get to the heart of repentance, we need to dig deeper than sorrow for sin, apologies to God and other people, and changes in outward behavior. Repentance certainly leads to these — in fact, that’s the point of Jesus’s parable in Luke 13:6–9, which comes immediately after the teaching on repentance. The point of the parable is that true repentance necessarily results in changed attitudes and behavior. Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist calls for people to “bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). Similarly, this means that acts of obedience (“fruits”) flow from (and are therefore not the same thing as) repentance.

So, what is the heart of repentance? Repentance is a change of perception and direction. As John Piper notes, the Greek word for “repent” refers to “a change of the mind’s perceptions and dispositions and purposes. . . . Repenting means experiencing a change of mind that now sees God as true and beautiful and worthy of all our praise and all our obedience.”

As we see God for who he is (great, glorious, desirable), we also see sin for what it is (diminished, ugly, repulsive). This is why repentance is also a commitment to a profound change of direction, an about-face, a reorientation of our lives away from sin and toward God. This change of perception and direction is something we’re commanded to do (Acts 2:38) — and something that requires the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit if we’re to do it. We act the miracle.

Those with whom Jesus speaks in Luke 13 seem to think the problem with the Galileans is not enough holiness. But Jesus says the real problem is that everyone is blind to God’s glory and has turned away from him. What is needed is not a bit more holiness for some, but a total reorientation of life for all. The critical difference between those who are saved and those who aren’t isn’t how relatively good they are — it’s whether they’ve admitted that they’re not good, seen God as supremely glorious, and reversed the entire direction of their lives.

Repentance for All of Life

The evening before I married my wife in Belfast, Northern Ireland, several friends and I drove into the center of the city to celebrate. Somehow, we ended up on the wrong road — the main road to Dublin, it turned out — and because none of us were very familiar with the British road system, we couldn’t figure out how to turn the car around.

The minutes ticked by as we looked for exits, all the while getting further from Belfast and closer to Dublin. The one thing that couldn’t possibly have helped us in that situation was going faster in the same direction. We had to turn around. Jesus’s solution to the problem of God’s judgment is radical. It’s not: “Improve your behavior.” Instead, it’s: “See God for who he really is and change your entire direction.” Obedience will (and must) follow.

Even after conversion, Jesus’s followers all too frequently struggle to see God as glorious and desirable, and to orient our lives fully toward him. We’re tempted every day in a thousand different directions. Therefore, we must constantly reorient ourselves back toward God, seeing him anew and pursuing him afresh. As Martin Luther noted, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”

Repentance for Eternal Life

Trying to do good won’t save us from God’s eternal judgment. Nor will feeling sorry for sin, or saying sorry for sin, or becoming a more moral person. Those are all important to do (and they all flow from true repentance), but, on their own, none go deep enough. We need to hear Jesus say again, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). We need to see the beauty and love and holiness of the Triune God, perceiving him as the Treasure he really is. We need to turn from the false promises of sin and aim our lives toward him. This is repentance — and this is life.

(Friends…Stephen’s article assumes that we first understand that ‘salvation’ is by Grace alone through Faith alone through and in Jesus Christ alone.  The point of his article is to help us see ‘sin’ for what it is and God for all that He is to us and for us..and thus to continually turn from the pull and tug of sin and turn to the light and love of God… ‘so that’ we will live a life that pleases Him and bear much fruit..be blessed today.  dh)

Stephen Witmer (@stephenwitmer1) is the pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and teaches New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He helps to lead Small Town Summits, which partners with The Gospel Coalition New England to serve rural churches and pastors. He and his wife, Emma, have three children.

We Will Never Outgrow the Gospel

(excerpt from message by John Piper)

You never outgrow your need for the gospel. You never graduate to a course where the gospel should not be the center of the curriculum. There’s no post-gospel graduate school in the Christian life. The center of every ongoing growth in knowledge has Christ crucified, risen, received by faith alone like a little child at the center of the curriculum.

So, I think that’s what’s implanted, rooted there, saving us. And we are to receive that every day. When you get up in the morning, you preach the gospel to yourself. “My sins are forgiven today. They’re forgiven, not because I’m somebody, but because Jesus was somebody. He died for me. He rose again. He reigns for me. He’s interceding for me. He pleads his blood for me. He’s sovereign over me. He sent the Spirit to me by faith alone.” You preach the gospel to yourself every morning. You receive it over and over again.

However, Paul says pretty plainly that this Book is inspired and profitable.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16)

That’s the whole Bible with the gospel at the center. So, when it says, “receive with meekness the implanted word” (James 1:21), I think it means: read your Bible with the gospel at the center every day.

I think receiving includes reading, meditating, memorizing. Here’s what a Psalm 1:2–3 says about the way we receive:

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
   planted by streams of water . . .

So, when the wind blows and it’s dry, and all the other trees are drying up and complaining and bellyaching, saying, “Where’s God?” his roots are down in the stream, which is the word that runs through every desert of your life, if you’re willing to open it.

   and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
   but are like chaff that the wind drives away. (Psalm 1:3–4)

So, receiving the word would be going to it; slowly reading it with prayerful, meek, attentive receptivity; and meditating on it — mulling over it, asking questions humbly that the Lord would illumine you to answer. And then, so that you can take it with you and feed your soul, memorizing a portion of it.

Let me close with a couple of stories. This first one came in an email this week and demonstrates the power of the word today and then I’ll read you an old one.

My friend . . . made a profession of faith! He and I got together several weeks ago . . . I told him that he needs to be reading the Bible and seeking God. I invited him to join us . . . . He couldn’t come. But a couple of weeks later he called me and asked if we would be meeting that night. We weren’t (unfortunately). But then he said, “I believe that Jesus is God. I know it 100%.” I asked him more about this and he told me that since I last saw him he had been reading his Bible every day. I was with him yesterday and was able to encourage him to continue to read his Bible.

Is there a theme in that email? Somebody moved from hell to heaven, from death to life, and the instrument was the Bible. That is — not to overstate it — infinitely important.

In 1495, Thomas Bilney was born. You may know him as Little Bilney — an English evangelical reformer about the time of Luther, but in Britain. What was the source of this little man’s power? By the way, there are a lot of little men, by the way, in the Christian church. I mean a lot of short powerhouses. John Wesley was 5’2” and could be heard by 10,000 without a microphone and rode 200,000 miles on his horse. Don’t judge a book by looking at the cover. So here’s what Little Bilney said:

I chanced upon this sentence of St. Paul (oh most sweet and comfortable sentence to my soul!) in 1 Timothy 1: “It is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be embraced, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief and principal.” This one sentence, through God’s instruction and inward working, which I did not then perceive, did so exhilarate my heart, being before wounded with the guilt of my sins, and being almost in despair, that . . . immediately I . . . felt a marvelous comfort and quietness, in so much that “my bruised bones leaped for joy.” After this, the Scriptures began to be more pleasant to me than the honey or the honeycomb.

So, that’s my prayer for us: that this year, the word of God — with the gospel of Christ crucified and risen at its center — would be sweeter to you than honey, more valuable to you than gold, the highest worldly standard of value — higher. That’s my prayer. And the effect of it would be that we go to it and receive it. It’s there. It’s in us and doing it’s saving work. But if it’s there, it’s alive, and it has control of our diaphragms, and it will make us breathe.

So, I’m inviting you to breathe every day. Don’t hold your breath from Sunday to Sunday.

Your Fight Against Sin is Normal

(article by Brian Hedges, Pastor, Niles, Michigan)

Have you hit the wall in your fight for holiness?

Athletes speak of hitting the wall when they experience extreme exhaustion due to depleted reserves of glycogen in the liver and muscles. Many believers feel similar spiritually. If you find yourself in an ongoing cycle of three steps forward, two steps back; if your prayers, resolutions, and frustrated attempts at mortification still leave you struggling with the same old sins; if you are weary in the race set before you and feel ready to quit, you’ve hit the wall.

Don’t stay discouraged. There is hope for weary saints. Take heart from these truths: the conflict is normal, the battle is winnable, and the war is coming to an end.

The Conflict Is Normal

Soldiers should expect combat in wartime. The passions of the flesh are waging war against your soul, and our adversary the devil is a prowling lion hunting fresh prey (1 Peter 2:11; 5:8). Ongoing conflict with both sin and Satan is the common experience of all believers. As J.C. Ryle wrote in his classic book Holiness, “True Christianity is a struggle, a fight, and a warfare. . . . Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight” (53–54).

“Take heart: the conflict is normal, the battle is winnable, and the war is coming to an end. ”This should not surprise us. If you feel alone in your experience, take heart. You’re not. Even the apostle Paul knew the misery of a heart divided between indwelling sin and delight in God’s holy law: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18–19; see the context in Romans 7:14–25).

This reality is not an excuse for laziness, but a summons to sober-minded watchfulness. But it is also a humbling reminder that we’re still waiting for final redemption and need the help of others in the good fight of faith.

The Battles Are Winnable

Though inner conflict is normal, you can win more victories in your daily battles with temptation and indwelling sin.

Listen, beloved in Christ. Yesterday’s failures do not determine the outcome of today’s battle. Look to Jesus, your brother, captain, and King. He has already crushed the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). Your bondage to sin was decisively broken by Jesus at the cross (Romans 6:6). You are joined to the crucified and risen Lord by faith and the Spirit (Galatians 2:20). You were baptized into his death and raised to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). You are no longer a slave to sin. You are not a prisoner of war. You are free. This is decisively and irrevocably true for every born-again believer.

Therefore, “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus,” and do not let sin “reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (Romans 6:11–12). You can win the next skirmish against sin and the flesh, however large or small it proves to be. Your victory over the next temptation is the fruit of his triumph.

Make no mistake: today’s battle does matter. As C.S. Lewis said, “The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible” (Mere Christianity, 132). While we shouldn’t be paralyzed by yesterday’s defeat, we must not make light of present and future obedience.

The War Is Coming to an End

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). That grace includes the gifts of perfect sanctification and final glorification. The day is coming when the fight will be finished, the war will be over, and the agonizing conflict against sin and the flesh will be no more. D-Day has come; V-Day is coming. This “blessed hope” is the fuel that powers the engine of our present pursuit of godliness (Titus 2:12–13).

By taking a brief rest and powering up with carbohydrates, athletes can keep running even after hitting the wall. As believers, we also need to “carb up” for the race set before us, by deep meditation on the glorious realities of the gospel.

“Yesterday’s failures do not determine the outcome of today’s battle.”

No one said it better than the sin-fighting seventeenth-century puritan John Owen: “Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror; yea, thou wilt, through the good providence of God, live to see thy lust dead at thy feet” (The Mortification of Sin, 79).

The conflict is normal. The battles are winnable. And one day soon, the war will come to an end.

Brian Hedges (@brianghedges) is lead pastor of Redeemer Church in Niles, Michigan. He is a husband, father of four, and author of several books, including Watchfulness: Recovering a Lost Spiritual Discipline and Hit List: Taking Aim at the Seven Deadly Sin

We Murder with Words Unsaid

(article by Greg Morse, staff writer desiringGod.org)

Never since have so few words haunted me.

In the dream, I sat in a balcony before the judgment seat of God. Two magnificent beings dragged the man before the throne. He fell in terror. All shivered as the Almighty pronounced judgment upon him. As the powerful beings took the quaking man away, I saw his face — a face I knew well.

I grew up with this man. We played sports together, went to school together, were friends in this life — yet here he stood, alone in death. He looked at me with indescribable horror. All he could say, as they led him away — in a voice I cannot forget — “You knew?”

The two quivering words held both a question and accusation.

We Know

A recent study reports that nearly half of all self-professed Christian millennials believe it’s wrong to share their faith with close friends and family members of different beliefs. On average, these millennials had four close, non-believing loved ones — four eternal souls — that would not hear the gospel from them. What a horror. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” (Romans 10:14). Incredibly, the eternity of human souls, under God, depends on the instrumentality of fellow human voices. Voices that increasingly will not speak.

But what about the rest of us? How many people in our lives — if they stood before God tonight — could ask us the same question? We’ve had thousands of conversations with them, spent countless hours in their presence, laughed, smiled, and cried with them, allowed them to call us “friend” — and yet — haven’t come around to risking the relationship on topics like sin, eternity, Christ, and hell.

We know they lie dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1–3). We know that their good deeds toward us cannot save them (Romans 3:20). We know they sit in a cell condemned already (John 3:18). We know they wander down the broad path, and, if not interrupted, will plunge headlong into hell (Matthew 25:46). A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place of outer darkness. A place where the smoke of their anguish will rise forever in the presence of the almighty Lamb (Revelation 14:10–11). “And they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). We know.

We Say Nothing

More than this — much more than this — we know who can save them. We know the only name given among men by which they must be saved (Acts 4:12). We know the only Way, the Truth, the Life (John 14:6). We know the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). We know the Lamb of God who takes away sins. We know the power of the gospel for salvation. We know that our God’s heart delights to save, and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). We know that Jesus’s atoning death made a way of reconciliation, that he can righteously forgive the vilest. We know he sends his Spirit to give new life, new joy, new purpose. We know the meaning of life is reconciliation to God. We know.

But why, then, do we merely smile and wave at them — loved ones, family, friends, co-workers, and strangers — as they prepare to stand unshielded before God’s fury? What do we say of their danger, of their God, or of their opportunity to become his children as they float lifelessly down the river towards judgment? Too often, we say nothing.

How Christians Murder Souls

I awoke from that dream, as Scrooge did in A Christmas Carol, realizing I had more time. I could warn my friend (and others) and tell him about Christ crucified. I could shun that diplomacy that struck so little resemblance to Jesus or his apostles or saints throughout history who, as far as they could help it, refused to hear, “You knew?” I could cease assisting Satan for fear of human shade. My friend needs not slip quietly into judgment.

And my silence needs not help dig his grave. I could avoid some of the culpability that Spurgeon spoke of when he called a minister’s unwillingness to tell the whole truth “soul murder.”

Ho, ho, sir surgeon, you are too delicate to tell the man he is ill! You hope to heal the sick without their knowing it. You therefore flatter them. And what happens? They laugh at you. They dance upon their own graves and at last they die. Your delicacy is cruelty; your flatteries are poisons; you are a murderer. Shall we keep men in a fool’s paradise? Shall we lull them into soft slumber from which they will awake in hell? Are we to become helpers of their damnation by our smooth speeches? In the name of God, we will not.

God said as much to Ezekiel. “If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand” (Ezekiel 3:18). Paul, the mighty apostle of justification by faith alone, spoke to the same culpability of silence: “I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26–27).

Am I an Accomplice?

We warn people in order to save their lives. Paul did not allow his beautiful feet to be betrayed by a timid tongue. He “alarmed” men as he “reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). The fear of people-pleasing did not control him — lest he disqualify himself from being a servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10).

Now today we are not first-covenant prophets, or new-covenant apostles. Many of us are not even pastors and teachers who “will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). But does this mean that the rest of us will not be judged by any strictness? Do not our pastors and teachers train us “for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:11–12)? Should I appease my own conscience by merely inviting others to church, hoping that someday they might cave in and come and there hear the gospel?

My pastor did not grow up with my people, live next door, text them frequently, watch football games with them, and sit with them in their homes. But I did. And as much as some of us may throw stones at “seeker-driven” churches, the question comes uncomfortably full circle: Do I shrink back from saying the hard truth in order to win souls? Is my delicacy cruelty? My flatteries poison? Am I an accomplice in the murder of souls?

If Not You, Then Who?

Recently, a family we care about nearly died. They went to bed not knowing that carbon monoxide would begin to fill the home. They would have fallen asleep on earth and awoke before God had not an unpleasant sound with an unpleasant message startled them. We, like the carbon detector, cannot stay silent and let lost souls slumber into hell. If they endure in unbelief, let them shake their fists at us, pull pillows over their ears, roll over, turn their back to us, and wake before the throne.

If we have been unfaithful — where our sin of people-pleasing and indifference abound — grace may abound all the more. Repent, rise, and sin no more. Mount your courage and ride like Paul Revere through your sphere to tell them that God is coming. When the time comes to speak, tell them they stand under righteous judgment. Tell them they must repent and believe. Tell them that Jesus already came once. Tell them he bore God’s wrath for sinners. Tell them he rose from the dead. Tell them he reigns over the nations at the Father’s right hand. Tell them that, by faith, they may live. Tell them that they can become children of God.

If we, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his people left here after conversion to proclaim his excellencies (1 Peter 2:9) will not wake them from their fatal dream, who will? God, save us from hearing those agonizing words, “You knew?”

Greg Morse is a staff writer for desiringGod.org and graduate of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Abigail, live in St. Paul.

How Every Father Can Bless His Home

(message excerpt by John Piper)

There are spiritual dangers, brothers, coming at our families from every side today — innumerable and subtle. We need valiant warriors as never before — not with spears and shields, but with biblical discernment and courage.

1. Pray for your wife and children every day without fail.

Pray for them over and over again during the day. Over and over and over, protect them. Protect them. Lead them in paths of righteousness. Don’t let them go into temptation. Guard their lives. Make their marriages work. Make their children strong. Protect them, O my God.

That’s your job: to call down from God, hour by hour, blessing on this family. That’s what headship means: to pray for them.

2. Set standards for your home.

Work them through with your wife. And primary responsibility means talk to her about it. She’s probably got some better ideas than you. But your taking initiative to talk is what she so longs for. Women are not eager to be dominated; they’re eager for their husbands to take initiative to make things happen in the moral sphere of their marriage. “Would you please help me set some standards for these kids, and then help me carry this through?” She shouldn’t have to say that.

She wants you to step up and do it together. Take some initiative. You have to figure out what this kid’s going to watch on TV. You have to figure out what movies they’re going to go to. You have to figure out what music is coming into this house, and you have to figure out how low that neckline is going. And that’s mainly your job, Dad.

On the modesty issue, I’m fully aware that it is mainly a mom and daughter who work that out from age 2 months to 22. And what kind of bathing suit you put on a 2 year old will make a difference in her view of modesty later. It will. However, Dad, they desperately need your input on this. They need you to celebrate when they get it right and look beautiful and modest. And they need you to say, “You’re not going out of the house with that on. Over my dead body.” We have fathers that are simply fearful of their daughters at this point.

Now guys, you know what I mean when I say you know what immodesty is saying, and these little girls don’t know. Now you little girls that are here, ask your daddy, because I promise you, you’re wired like a woman. You do not get it. You might read enough to get it, but guys are wired to get it, see it, feel it.

There is a way to dress that is not helpful in the culture, and there’s a way to dress that is so helpful, and Christian women ought not to think, “Get out of my life. I’ll wear what I want.” That’s not a Christian mentality. A Christian mentality is, How can I bless the world? How can I maximize my life for good in the world?

And dads, you’re a key here, positively and in terms of warning. Sometimes it means what they don’t think it means. Where are they going to find out? Their boyfriend? No, they find out from Dad. That’s where they find out what this means.

3. Always initiate reconciliation.

The Bible is very clear about one of the most dangerous intruders spiritually in a family. Let me read it to you from 

Ephesians 4:26–27:

Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

How is the devil allowed into a teenager’s bedroom? How is the devil allowed at night into a married couple’s bedroom? Answer: when they go to bed angry. If you go to bed angry night after night after night, and that kid is seething at you in there, and no steps at reconciliation have happened, the door is thrown open wide, and the devil can wreak havoc over weeks, months, and years. It will destroy a soul, a marriage, and a family.

So, what are you going to do? I’ll tell you, dads, this is where headship is so hard that no woman would ever want it. This is the hardest thing in the world. Headship means you must initiate reconciliation — no matter how many times it’s been her fault or the kids’ fault. You have not the luxury as head to say, “She did it, and if she doesn’t say she’s sorry, I’m hitting the pillow.”

No way. Justice might say, “Yes, that’s the right way to act.” But let me ask you this: Is that the way Jesus treated his bride? How many times has he come back to her — back to you? How many times has he come back to you and back to you, saying, “Here I am, ready to make up”? A thousand times. Seventy times seven times seven times seven he has come back to you when it’s your fault and not his. And he took the initiative to make it right. He died to make it right.

Will we as husbands just say, “It’s her turn”? Yes, we will without the Holy Spirit. This is impossible without Christ. You don’t want to be heads, women, because I’m holding the men accountable that his family does not go to bed angry at night. You knock on that teenager’s door. Oh, this can be sweet, brothers. This is as hard as it gets.

You knock on that door and any little increment of fault that you bear over against his many faults, you confess it. Not many things will break a teenager, but that might: to walk in and say, “Son, my reaction to what you did was over the top. What you did was wrong. That’s not the issue here. But my reaction to it was over the top. I’d like to apologize and say it wasn’t in love. I just got out of control, and I’m sorry, and I’d like you to forgive me.”

You talk about sweet sleep. You talk about healing balms in the mind and the soul, dads. Now, I’m not naïve. I’ve been married for 38 years. There are attempts at peace that don’t work. But you’ve got to try.

Noël and I have knelt beside each other and we have hardly been able to pray. We just kneel there in silence. Who’s going to pray first? Neither of us feel like praying. We’re so upset, and these hinder your prayers big time, and you can just eke out, “God help us. I want it to be better.”

That’s your job, Dad. It’s the hardest thing in the world. Keep the devil out of the bedroom and out of the kids’ rooms by not letting the sun go down on your anger, inasmuch as it lies within you.

You Are Not You Without Him

(Article by Scott Hubbard:  Editor, desiringGod.org)

She didn’t want to lose herself.

Friends had invited her to church, where she was suddenly confronted with her own fork in the road: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). For the first time, she understood that coming to Christ would mean coming to die.

But there were so many parts of herself that she didn’t want to die: her hobbies, her friends, her sense of humor, her future plans. Who would she be if she handed them over to Jesus? She thought of some Christians she knew — nice, neat, and bland. They seemed to dress their souls in beige every day. She wondered if Jesus would flatten her personality, her identity. She feared, with Nietzsche, that “in heaven, all the interesting people are missing.”

She didn’t want to lose herself. And so, she heard Jesus say, “Follow me,” and she walked away.

Building Babel

Losing your life has never been easy. The age has not yet come, nor will it ever, when self-denial will be convenient, or taking up a cross comfortable. In our culture of self-help and self-realization, of individuality and independence, of “you do you” and “follow your heart,” Jesus’s call to lose ourselves stabs at the very heart. Who will we be if we hand our self over to a Lord who demands all of us?

“The age has not yet come, nor will it ever, when self-denial will be convenient, or taking up a cross comfortable.”

Many in the world hear Jesus’s call and, like the young woman, fear that following him will destroy all that gives meaning to me. They’d prefer to keep their own identity, that self they’ve been fashioning for so many years. And so, they stay in their little land of Shinar, adding bricks to their personality and appearance, their resume and persona, building Babels to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:1–4).

Even in the church, many of us cannot help but be tempted by our culture’s obsession with a self-made self. Though Jesus has taken a wrecking ball to our former selves, we can find ourselves walking wistfully among the ruins, even trying to raise little shacks here and there. Not content to locate our identity simply in him, we seek to be known by something else as well, something all our own: a certain style of clothing or music, a method of raising our children, a unique career or passion, an expertise on some subject, a grade point average.

We take innocent things in themselves and use them as hideouts from the One who would refashion us in his own image. The quiet rebellion spills out when God disrupts (or dismantles) our little fortresses of self.

We have forgotten, as C.S. Lewis puts it,

It is no good trying to be ‘myself’ without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call ‘Myself’ becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. (Mere Christianity, 225–26)

Moons on the Run

The God who made us in his own image has not given us the power to create a self that can survive on its own. From the beginning, our true identity (who we are) has been tied to our Creator (who he is): “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him” (Genesis 1:27). God created us to be like the moon: cold and barren on our own, but aflame with light when we come near the sun.

Any self that flees from God will eventually go dark. Those who give themselves over to themselves do not, in the end, become more interesting, more unique, or even more themselves; they become beasts: “like unreasoning animals” (Jude 10), “like a horse or a mule” (Psalm 32:9), “like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:12). The farther we flee from the great Person who created us, the more we forfeit our personhood (Romans 1:21–25).

“The more we pursue self-realization, the more we lose the self God made us to have. We unself ourselves.”

Anything we give ourselves to for our own sake and not for Christ — beauty, wealth, friendship, sex, food, comfort, power — eventually becomes our master, defacing the remnants of that image that God placed upon us (Romans 6:16). Those who quip that they’d rather be in hell with all the interesting people do not know what they are saying. Hell will not be filled with interesting personalities, but with people who are barely recognizable: Nebuchadnezzars finally cast down from their thrones, eating grass like an ox (Daniel 4:33).

Wildflower Kingdom

If we would find a self that will last forever, we will need to die to the search for a self apart from Christ. We will need to die to self-realization, die to our independence, die to a me-centered universe, and give ourselves up to the one who says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24).

We will need, in the language of the apostles, to leave behind that old self, crucified with Christ, and embrace that new self, “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10). And when we do, we will find that we are finally becoming the person God made us to be — more ourselves than we ever could have been on our own.

Jesus is not interested in obliterating the personalities of those who follow him. He does not aim to fill the kingdom of heaven with clones. He aims, rather, to renew our new self “after the image of its creator” — a creator who is not a bare unity, but a glorious unity of Father, Son, and Spirit.

The triune God who made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in it, is not a God of monotony, as any field of wildflowers can tell you. He is the God of the orchestra and the dance, who makes a world swirling with diversity yet held together in him. When you give yourself up to him, you will become part of a grand whole, but not swallowed up (Colossians 1:17); a member of a worldwide body, but with a distinct part to play (1 Corinthians 12:12); one among myriads upon myriads and thousands upon thousands, but with your own note to add to that colossal chorus (Revelation 5:11–12).

“We become most us when we forget about ourselves and become consumed with him.”

You may lose yourself when you give yourself up to Christ, but only those parts of yourself that deserve to be lost — the parts that will be torn apart and thrown into the lake of fire (Romans 6:21). We will no longer use our hobbies as props for our identity, but will enjoy them as gifts from a kind God. We will no longer restrict our social circle to those who really get us, but will rub shoulders with the most unlikely. We will no longer plan a future around our own bucket list, but will dream about meeting the real needs of needy people.

Parts of you will be burned away, others will be refined and repurposed, and whole new parts of you will come alive. Die to yourself, and you will find the true you.

Find Yourself

When we lose ourselves, we do not simply get a new self, increasingly radiant with the glory of our Maker. We begin thinking about ourselves less and less.

We begin to discover that we become most us when we forget about ourselves and become consumed with him. We will discover that we are happiest when we care least about how unique we are, or what sort of personality we have. We would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God, gazing upon his face, than hold a mirror to our own in the tents of wickedness (Psalm 84:10).

Give yourself up to him. Walk into this river that divides the kingdom of self from the kingdom of Christ, and let it wash the old you away. Don’t worry about losing the best parts of yourself. Anything good in you will be waiting for you on the other bank, transfigured. And on the other side, you will find that the true you has always been hidden away in him.

Scott Hubbard is a graduate of Bethlehem College & Seminary and an editor for desiringGod.org. He and his wife, Bethany, live in Minneapolis.

Is Jesus God?

(An article from “Going Farther’ website, PeaceWithGod.net)

Some say Jesus Christ was just a man, or maybe a great teacher. But He was and is much more than that. The Bible says Jesus is unique in both His person and His purpose. He wasn’t just some spiritual individual during His time on earth; He was both God’s Son (John 3:16) and God Himself—God in human flesh (I Timothy 3:16). Yes, He was fully man, but He was also fully God (Colossians 2:9).

The claims

Jesus claimed to be God.  It might be hard to understand how this could be true, but it’s important to remember that God is much bigger and more powerful than we can comprehend. We do know that Jesus said He existed before Abraham (John 8:58). He claimed that He and His Father are one (John 10:30), and that He is equal with the Father (John 5:17-18).

Not only did He claim to be God, but He also claimed to have the power of God. He said He has the authority to judge the nations (Matthew 25:31-46). He claims the authority to raise people from the dead (John 5:25-29) and to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-7)—things only God can do (I Samuel 2:6; Isaiah 43:25).

Further, Jesus says He has the power to answer prayers (John 14:13-14), and that He will be with His followers always (Matthew 28:20). The New Testament equates Jesus to the creator of the universe (John 1:3), and in John 16:15, He says, “All that belongs to the Father is mine.”

But where’s the proof?

Claiming to be something, as Jesus claimed to be God, doesn’t make it true. Where’s the evidence that He is God?

Jesus’ identity isn’t based solely on what He says, but on what He does. And He has left a lot of evidence that He is God. That evidence includes fulfilled prophecy and recorded miracles in which Jesus reversed the laws of nature. He also lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15), something no one else has done.

The ultimate proof of His divinity, however, was His resurrection from the dead after His death on the cross. No one else has ever risen from the dead on his own.

Did Jesus ever say, ‘I am God’?

If someone said to you, “I am God,” would you believe him? Many people who believe in one God would think the person is blaspheming. Even if Jesus said the exact words, “I am God,” many people would not have believed Him or even heard what He had to say. Yet, He did give us reasons to believe such a claim without using these words.

In Luke 4:8, Jesus says, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” He said and showed many times that He is the Lord. Jesus says, for example, that He is “the first and the last” (Revelation 1:17, 22:13), which God the Father says in Isaiah 44:6.

But maybe you’re looking for a place in the Bible where Jesus says, “I am God; worship me” in those exact words. If we suggest that Jesus could only claim to be God by saying that one sentence, we might also ask where He says, “I am a great teacher, but not God,” or, “I am just a prophet; don’t worship me.” The Bible doesn’t say that, either.

The good news is that Jesus told us He is God in many different ways! He has made it clear that He and God the Father are one (John 10:30), and says in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Who else could claim these things except God?

Does that mean there are multiple gods?

Believing Jesus is God doesn’t mean there are multiple gods. Followers of Jesus believe in one God in three persons.

As Billy Graham once explained, “God has shown Himself to us in three ways—as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each has a separate function—and yet they are all united as one God.

“Let me illustrate it this way. Have you ever thought of some of the things we see around us that are both three—and yet also one? Centuries ago, St. Patrick used a clover leaf to teach the Irish about this—it has three leaves, and yet is still only one leaf. Or think of water. A quart of water can be ice, water, or steam—but it’s still the same quart of water.”

How can Jesus be God if He is God’s Son?

If Jesus is God’s Son, does that mean God had a wife?

God has never had a wife. Calling Jesus God’s Son is an expression of His role in relation to God the Father. Unlike us, Jesus was not conceived by two earthly parents; He was born of a virgin through a miraculous work of God. He was born holy, without sin.

Being born of a virgin might seem impossible—even Jesus’ mother, Mary, asked, “How will this be? (Luke 1:34)—yet God is all-powerful and made a way for the holy Jesus to be born a human. In Matthew 1:20, an angel tells Mary’s fiancé, Joseph, that what is conceived in Mary “is from the Holy Spirit.” Jesus was not born out of a sexual relationship between God and Mary, but instead out of a miracle by God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus was both fully God and fully human.

It is also significant that the most thorough Gospel account of the virgin birth was written by Luke, a medical doctor. If anyone knew the impossibility of a virgin birth, it was Luke—yet, after careful research, he concluded that it was a fact. The God who was powerful enough to create the universe was also powerful enough to bring Jesus into the world without a human father. His miraculous birth is just one more testament to His deity.

Why should we care who Jesus is?

There is one way to heaven, one way to be free from your sin and to have a relationship with God. That’s through Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” To have eternal life in heaven, you must put your trust in Jesus. Here’s why:

We all sin, meaning we all fall short of God’s perfect standard. The consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23). That means eternal separation from God. But because Jesus lived a sinless life, His death on the cross provided the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Because He defeated death by rising again, we can have eternal life in the presence of God when we put our trust in Him.

Hundreds of people saw and believed in the risen Christ after His death and resurrection, and countless people in the past 2,000 years have discovered that only Jesus can meet the deepest longings and needs of the human heart. In Jesus Christ alone “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

Can we trust what the Bible says about Him?

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is God, and there are many reasons we can trust the Bible. (Find “Is the Bible true?” under the Common Questions section for five of them.)

Not only do we have many reasons to believe that the text of the Bible is true, but many will find that reading the Bible allows God to speak to them—perhaps not audibly, but through His words.

While there are different translations of the Bible, the same core message is the same—that God loves us and freely offers us eternal life if we accept Jesus as our Savior. Different translations exist in an effort to make the Bible understandable to various audiences; however, the major doctrines—and the person of Jesus Christ—remain the same.

If you’re curious about Jesus or what the Bible says about Him, read the book of John in the Bible. It’s a great place to start.

Friends:  I send you this belated Valentine’s Day gift…in this article by Ann Voskamp  (thanks to Jenifer)

Dear Us: Why We Can Give Up on a “Happy Marriage”: 3 Secrets to Grow Something Far Better

Dear Us:

So — where along the line did we give up on trying to have a happy marriage?

I guess it was when you and I looked long into each other’s eyes and realized:

Marriage isn’t about staying happy — marriage is about staying growing.

So maybe — tossing that whole sham of always-happiness was good riddance?

Happiness-centered marriages implode —because that shifting centre won’t hold.

But I’d written down what my therapist said and we keep talking about it over the early caffeine:

Any ecosystem that remains always the same, never changes — is stagnant. Is dying.If a relationship isn’t changing, growing — it’s dying.

The bottom line is: Pursuing an unchangeable state of happiness will lead you to a stagnant state of despair.

There’s no such thing as unchanging happiness — happiness comes and goes like passing weather fronts — and the only thing that is unchanging is change itself.

Health means always growing — which means always changing. And nothing changes — unless what is — is broken out of.

Healthy relationships have a healthy relationship with breaking and changing, with dyings and risings — with the status quo shell breakings — and steadily new emergings.

You and I, we can trace the break lines — and I can still feel the pain stitched together with thanks:

The suffering of a breaking seed — is what grows growth.

Haven’t we known the pain and the truth of just that? Crushing suffering breaks open a seed of growth.

The two become one not to become settled, but to become stronger — to persevere and suffer and grow a new life together.

I have found you and we can testify: Marriage isn’t a playground.

Marriage is a field — where the hard places are broken up by suffering, and the dry places are softened by a rain of tears, and what dies falls into the shattered, surrendered earth — and there is patient nourishing and cultivating and praying in the long waiting — until the field yields.

Marriage is a field — and we are here to be yielded ground broken open — until this field yields.

So this is what we’ve done, in our giving up being happily married — to be honestly growing-in-grace in our marriage:

1. Cupping Each Other. Daily.

You know, we could have gotten bogged down in all the life-logistics — the kids and the bills and the car-pooling that can drown — we could have very well let the pace of things dupe us into staying in the shallows.

But there’s this rhythm that you’ve stumbled into, that we’ve found that lets us keep finding each other, keep holding each other, keep letting go to let their be growth.

You find a steaming cup of warm — and you come find me — bring me my own cup — and it’s our rhythm:

Drink a cup of warm together and cup each other — no logistical shallows allowed —— only the deep end of fears and dreams and pain and hopes. “What are you afraid of? What are you hoping for? Where are you hurting? How are you dreaming?”

Drink and cup each other in the deep end of bare vulnerability. At least once a day — an early morning or late night cupping.

You drinking me in — my heartbreaks, my hopes, my disappointments and my dreams — has quenched my thirst to be known, for a deeper intimacy.

2. Connection Cues. Constantly.

And how long had I missed it?

You telling me about mileage on the pickup, or about what came in the mail, or what the weather looks on the radar,  — isn’t something for me to shrug or dismiss — it’s a beckoning, an invitation, a Connection Cue.

Me asking if these jeans fit right, or what to think of the thesis of this book, or when works for the next doctor’s appointments for the kids  — isn’t something for you throw me a passing glance and an apathetic nod — it’s a call to come closer, a Connection Cue.

In every conversation, every line — is a Connection Cue. A cue to come closer, a cue to attend, a cue to bond deeper, to attach more intimately.

I wish I had known sooner — and we are learning:

Attend to every Connection Cue wholeheartedly — or you end up with a broken heart.

The rich relationships are the ones that pay attention.

If you want relational healthiness, practice attentiveness.

You are the story I want to read again every night, the story I never tire of hearing again and again, and you have loved me, day after faithful day, line after line, back to hope, and ours is the story that I never want to end.

3. Care-full. Always.

You know what you’ve done? What we are doing? In a world full of cares — we are care-full with each other.

I see how you do it in a thousand everyday ways, how we are growing: Full of care for each other’s needs, full of care for each other’s challenges, full of care for each other’s hardest and most fragile places. We are care-full with our asks — and each other’s asks. We are care-full with our words, care-full with our support, care-full with our presence.

The way you have covered my brokenness with tenderness, the way you have known my rawest shames, and have bound them up, instead of lauding them over me. A thousand times you could have said things that destroyed me — but you’ve chosen to be care-full with me, grow me, heal me, strengthen me, because you: only speak words that make souls stronger.

(And things you have said in hard moments that have haunted me? We have revisited and kept revisiting— until that ghost has finally given up the ghost.)

Care-full relationships know hearts are actually fragile — and relationship can painfully break.

Being care-full with another’s heart — is believing they have a soft heart — and not a hard heart of stone. Soft hearts — break. Soft hearts require that we be care-full.

Being care-full with each other — is how we care for each other.

Your grace is my oxygen and your kindness is my healing and I’d shrivel up and die without your love.

I smiled over at you this morning. Why want a happy marriage when you could have a growing-in-grace marriage?

And this is who we are growing into:

We are cultivating a growing marriage by:

Cupping each other. Daily.

Connecting to Cues. Constantly.

Care-full. Always.

It’s true — I have just about broke us.

But when I watch you last week, bent over that snapped fine gold chain of mine, wielding a pair of pliars, trying with those huge Dutch hands of yours to repair my broken necklace with that pendant engraved with “Beloved” — I realize:

The way we stay each other’s beloved forever — is to keep breaking, changing, and growing together.

And I brim and blur, watching you trying to repair my strand of broken belovedness, and I keep telling you, still with your winter work coat on, that you don’t have time for this, that you have more important things to do than trying to find and fix the busted links — but you look up at me:

“I’ll take as long as it takes — to fix and change whatever I have to — so you get to wear — your Belovedness.”

And I read your eyes reading mine.

Read your eyes searching mine, saying more, saying all the things that don’t need to be said again — and neither of us move but the space between us evaporates, and there is a closeness, a belovedness, that says everything:

We get to be the person who does this for the other, who get to cup each other’s vulnerability, who get to read all the connection cues, who get to be the care-full, who care enough to cultivate and grow love large.

When you hand me the necklace, broken and repaired, I nod, your eyes holding mine.

The real romantics are always the boring ones — who let another heart bore a hole deep into theirs.

You nod slowly:  Real love is making whole decades of every moment tell the whole truth about the whole growing-in-grace gospel. 

And in that moment, your eyes smiling into mine, I could feel it all over again:

How marriage is two people who keep reaching and stretching and unfurling and growing in a thousand little ways, grace growing us into the deepest joy that lasts forever.

Ann Voskamp is the author of the New York Times Best Sellers: The Broken Way, One Thousand Gifts, The Greatest Gift & Unwrapping the Greatest Gift