Colin S. Smith's Blog, page 48

Be Who You Are in Jesus Christ

Timothy was a young man, probably in his thirties, and he had been given the task of leading the church in Ephesus.  This is a massive responsibility.

And, we know that by temperament Timothy was timid and shy (2 Timothy 1:7). He was not a forceful person. He was not confident by nature.

I think Timothy must often have felt that he was in over his head, out of his depth, and sometimes at the end of his rope. Maybe you know what that feels like too. 

When You’re in over Your Head 

How do you sustain what God has called you to do year after year? Where do you find the energy to live a godly life when everything is pressing in on you?  

Paul ends this letter with some much-needed encouragement for Timothy. And remember, Paul was writing under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. God knew what Timothy needed back then and he knows what you need right now. 

So, I think Paul’s encouragement to Timothy is something all of us can use today. My prayer is that you will be refreshed and renewed in the hope of the Gospel today. 

Man of God 

“But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue…” (v11) 

Paul has been describing the way of false teachers and of people who set their hearts on money, and then he encourages Timothy to pursue a different path.  

You would expect him to say “But you, Timothy, flee from all this and pursue…” He speaks to Timothy by name in verse 20, but he doesn’t do that here. Instead, he says “man of God.” That would have gotten Timothy’s attention.

The phrase “man of God” was used in the Old Testament to describe some of the great heroes of the faith: 

Moses (Deuteronomy 33:1) Samuel (1 Samuel 9:6) David (Nehemiah 12:24) Elijah (1 Kings 17:18) Elisha (2 Kings 4:7) 

Do you think Timothy felt he belonged in that company? Paul says “Timothy, I want you to remember who you are. You are God’s man. I want you to think and speak and act and live as God’s man because that is who you are!” 

Do you think you belong in this company? 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) 

The Scriptures are not only given to some Christians, but to all Christians.  This is telling us something wonderful. In Old Testament times God called only a few to be his prophets, his priests and his kings.

But now every man who is in Christ is God’s man, and every woman who is in Christ is God’s woman.  

If you are in Christ, you are God’s man as much as Moses, Samuel, David and Elijah. If you are in Christ you are God’s woman as much as Sarah, Deborah, Ruth or Esther.  

Know who you are in Jesus Christ. You are God’s man, God’s woman. You are not your own, but you have been bought with a price. God created you. Christ purchased you. The angels in heaven confess “with your blood you purchased men for God” (Revelation 5:9).

How God Speaks to Believers

When God speaks to believers, He speaks to us, not as we are by nature, but as we are in Christ. William Barclay comments: 

When the charge is given to Timothy, he is not reminded of his own weakness and his own helplessness and his own inadequacy and his own sin… He is rather challenged by the honor which is his, the honor of being God’s man. [i] 

When you read through the New Testament epistles, you don’t find God saying to believers: “You really are a miserable, pathetic failure. You are so weak and helpless and hopeless. When are you going to realize what a miserable failure you are?” 

How could that be true of people who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God? God does not tread us down by branding us according to our nature. He lifts us up by calling us to be who we are in Christ. 

God speaks to us like this: 

Put on the whole armor of God so that when the evil day comes you may be able to stand your ground… (Ephesians 6:13) 

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature… (Colossians 3:5) 

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage… (1 Corinthians 16:13) 

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness… (1 Timothy 6:11) 

Without Christ you were a lost and helpless and hopeless sinner. But now in Christ you are a new creation. God’s Spirit lives in you!  

You are God’s man, God’s woman. Be who you are.  

[i] William Barclay, Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, p.155 

[This article was adapted from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Gospel Hope,” in his series 10 Distinctives of a Gospel-Centered Church.] 



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Five Key Connections for Mother’s Day

Here are some great passages from Christian articles around the web related to Mother’s Day. I hope you enjoy these quotes, and I encourage you to read the full articles!

This Mother’s Day, Don’t Worry (Colin Smith, Unlocking the Bible)

Your heavenly Father does not promise that the way will be easy, but he does promise that he will be with you all the way. He confronts you with your own inability. He warns you about where you set your heart. He invites you to trust your Heavenly Father. Are you ready to do that today?

5 Ways Motherhood Has Shaped My Walk with Christ (Katie Orr, LifeWay Voices)

…I had a tendency to silo my relationship with God into the one-hour time slot I had scheduled. That hour was awesome, but I treated it as if that was the only appropriate time to spend with God. I did not invite Him into the rest of my day. I didn’t pray much outside of that “quiet time.” The disruption of my “perfect” little God-appointment showed me that I lacked meeting with Him continually through each moment of my day.

The Prayers of a Faithful Daughter (Chelsea Stanley, Women Encouraged)

How do we do honor our moms when it’s hard? Only with God’s help. Honoring them may be difficult for us, but Christ is well-acquainted with honoring the dishonorable. While we were still dishonorable sinners, he died for us and raised us up with him to a place of honor (Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:6). It is by him, through him, and to him that we honor our moms.

How to Pray for Your Unborn Child (Gloria Furman, Crossway)

There is so much more to our mothering work than meets the eye. Our hope is not merely that our children would be fed, clothed, and educated, but our desire is that they would be nourished by God’s Word, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and taught to fear the Lord.

Why Do Dying Men Call for “Mama?” (Russell Moore)

Even as Jesus’ disciples fled from him in shame, he could cite Psalm 22 while looking out from the cross at his mother. He could see in her an important part of his own personal story, a story that testified to the faithfulness and loving-kindness of God. In the moment of his greatest desolation, Jesus could see the invisible outline of God’s mercy and presence there in the one from whom, in his human nature, he learned to trust a fathering, nurturing God. The horror of the scene was not the whole story, the judgment of the Roman Empire was not the final word. He knew that since he was cradled in the arms of his mother.

The Principle of Grace: Do We Reap What We Sow?

There is a principle of law in the Bible that says, “You reap what you sow:”

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction. (Galatians 6:7-8)

If that was all we had in the Bible, none of us could have hope before God.

But there is also the principle of grace: “Here the saying holds true: ‘One sows and another reaps’” (John 4:37). Grace means that you can reap what someone else has sown.

The heart of the gospel is that we get to reap what Jesus has sown.

Thank God that the principle of grace is bigger, greater, and stronger than the principle of law. Here is good news for every person today. You do not need to reap what you have sown. You can reap what Jesus has sown!

Jesus did the great work of living that perfect life, and then of laying it down for you. He labored and toiled and suffered and died to sow the seed; we get the joy of reaping eternal life through faith in him. 

The pain was his; the blessing is ours. We reap that for which we did not labor (John 4:38).

Our ministry is to bring in the harvest that Christ has sown. We get the great reward of gathering fruit for eternal life, so that Christ, the sower, and we, the reapers, may rejoice together in his promises, with an inexplicable joy forever and ever.

[This sermon clip was taken from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “He is the Savior,” from his series Meet Jesus – Part 2.]

Don’t Look Now: Taking Control of Your Eyes

Alypius was a Roman law student with strong moral convictions. His friends had invited him to the Colosseum to watch the gladiatorial games, but he had refused. Friends are nothing if not persistent, and young Alypius’s friends eventually won him over.  

He said he would go, but that he would close his eyes when things got too gory. During the games, a roar exploded from the crowd and Alypius talked himself out of his plan. He opened his eyes. Things would never be the same.  

His friend, Augustine, writes in his Confessions, 

He fell more dreadfully than the other man whose fall had evoked the shouting; for by entering his ears and persuading his eyes to open the noise effected a breach through which his mind — a mind rash rather than strong, all the weaker for presuming to trust in itself rather than in [God], as it should have done — was struck and brought down. 

Why was Alypius “brought down” by what he saw? 

The Power of the Image 

The young Roman student was undone by the violence he observed because what we see shapes what we love. “Attention leads to adoration,” says Jon Tyson. “What you look at, you long for and love.” In other words, show me what you’re looking at, and I’ll show you what you love. 

Think about your favorite shows of all time — Seinfeld, The West Wing, The Office. How did they become your favorite shows? By watching them, of course. You gave one of the shows a try, liked enough of what you saw that you watched another episode, then kept watching, perhaps all the way to the end. The more you watched, the more you loved what you watched.  

Jesus understood the power of images. He knew that what we take in through our eyes has the power to fill us with either light or darkness (Matthew 6:22-23). That’s why he said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away” (Matthew 5:29).  

Jesus’s statement assumes that what we look at is not detached from morality; our eyes can indeed cause us to sin. 

David knew a thing or two about sight’s sway over the heart. He was led into sin after watching Bathsheba showering on her rooftop (2 Samuel 11). In Psalm 101, he writes, “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless” (Psalm 101:3). Other translations render that word “worthless” as “evil.” Clearly, David knew the power of images. 

What, then, must we do if we don’t want to sin with our eyes? 

Take Custody of Your Eyes 

Jesus employed figurative language (“tear it out and throw it away”) to explain that we must take action to avoid sinning with and through our eyes.  

Catholics in the past used the phrase “custody of the eyes” to explain this concept. The idea was that one must “take custody” of their eyes, or take control of what one sees. This was their attempt to not set anything worthless before their eyes.  

Instead of looking at things that degrade our souls, we can look to Jesus, who frees us from setting our eyes on worthless things. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes:  

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

As we behold Jesus’s glory, we become more like him.

But how can we control what we see in a day where we’re inundated with images from TV, social media, email, and Netflix? Here are four practices for taking control of what you see. 

4 Practices for Taking Control of Your Eyes 



Check before you watch.  

With sites like PluggedIn, Common Sense Media, or IMDB’s parent’s guides, you can easily screen what you watch before laying eyes on it. If you see there will be nudity, graphic violence, or something else you’re uncomfortable with, don’t watch it. 

Look for shows and movies and books that reinforce a healthy, biblical understanding of the world. This means looking for things that fall into one of the categories mentioned in Philippians 4:8: 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Check the sources above before starting that new show or watching the next movie. 

Listen to your conscience.  

God gave you a consciencefor a reason: he wants you to use it. Martin Luther said, “To act against conscience is neither right nor safe.” Paul wrote to his young protege Timothy:  

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22)

If something you see makes you uneasy, heed your conscience and flee. Turn it off. Look away. Leave the room. Instead, look at something that allows you to have a clear conscience. (This practice assumes you have cultivated a biblical, God-honoring conscience. We should follow our consciences so long as what they suggest agrees with the whole counsel of Scripture.) 

Think of who’s involved.  

When the topic comes up of what to watch, the conversation often centers on each person’s unique tolerance for certain kinds of material, such as nudity. While this is something to consider, we can’t overlook the object of the image.  

You might not have a problem with viewing brief nudity on TV or in film, but are you comfortable with what had to happen to film such scenes? Jesus calls us to love God and neighbor. It is not loving to enjoy the fruits of our neighbors’ sinful labor.  

Think of who’s involved before deciding what to watch. 

Pray for integrity.  

God knows you cannot withstand temptation on your own. That’s why he sent his Son, Jesus, to die for our sins on the cross. He made a way for sinners to be forgiven. Just as we cannot save ourselves, we cannot withstand temptation on our own. 

Pray for God to help you walk in integrity. Pray for his strength in withstanding temptation and taking control of your eyes. David’s prayer in Psalm 101:1-4 can be a helpful guide. 

Fix Your Eyes 

After Augustine recounts Alypius’s decision to watch the gory scene in the gladiator games, he goes on to say, “As he saw the blood he gulped the brutality along with it; he did not turn away but fixed his gaze there and drank in the frenzy, not aware of what he was doing.” 

Looking at worthless things took Alypius away from Jesus. The same can happen to us. But fixing our eyes on Jesus will take our eyes off of worthless things. 

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Photo Credit: Unsplash

How Worship Becomes Noisy and Empty

The Book of Amos depicts an interesting problem. The problem is not that God’s people don’t worship. The problem is that they still consider themselves the people of God when their worship is hollow. Their worship has become nothing more than an irritating sound to God:  

“Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.” (Amos 5:23) 

In response to this, you might ask: When does worship become noise? In other words, when do our attempts to ascribe glory, honor, and praise to God start to become an annoying or even blasphemous sound?  

Let’s consider these places in the Bible to see what defines noisy, empty worship:

A. Worship without God  

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’” (Exodus 32:7-8).   

When the Bible speaks of worship, it means so much more than sharing a kind word for a job well done. It means actively bending your knee in submission, praise, and sacrifice to something or someone worthy of your utmost devotion. That’s why what we see happening in Exodus 32 is so offensive to God.  

No matter how marvelous they may be to behold, human-made idols like a golden calf are not worthy of worship in comparison to God. The same can be said of worshipping art and artists, discoveries and discoverers, or visions and visionaries. 

God alone is worthy of our worship because God alone made us as his image-bearers designed to reflect his glory—not our glory.  

So when we worship without him, it is the ultimate let down because we are devoting ourselves to less than the best that we were created for.   

When you take a moment to consider all the Bible reveals about God, who else can redeem a nation of slaves from a nation of tyrants? Who else can create something out of nothing? Who else can bring the dead to life?  

The magnitude of God’s power to transform not just your life but the entire course of the world’s history should be reason enough to worship with him rather than without him. 

B. Worship without Love  

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1) 

In the United States, we often talk about “love” in terms of passions and affections that bring us pleasure. We fall in love with people, books, jobs, and hobbies, so long as we find them delightful. And then when our passions fade, we lose interest, break-up, and move-on searching for something new to love.  

When God’s Word speaks of “love,” it adds a dimension that most Americans miss but probably crave. Biblical love certainly stirs the affections of our heart, but true love also carries with it the sense of unbreakable devotion.   

Has someone ever told you “I love you” when he or she didn’t really mean it? It hurts when you discover the truth.  

When God says “I love you” to his people, he means that nothing can separate us from his love, not even tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword (Romans 8:34-35).  

God is never going to stop delighting in the love and devotion he shows his people. This is why worshipping God without love in our hearts is no different than telling God “I love you” without really meaning it. Worship without love is hollow. 

C. Worship without Heart  

“This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13). 

The difference between love and heart is that love is the way we show and experience our devotion while the heart is our source of devotion. A wicked heart produces wicked love. A redeemed heart produces redemptive love.  

So, if your heart is reaching for other things besides God, your worship may appear genuine, but it will feel incredibly empty inside. You may praise God with your lips, but it doesn’t honor him unless you’ve given him your heart.  

D. Worship under False Pretense  

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him. (Matthew 2:7-8) 

We often hear about King Herod around Christmas time when the wise men from the east approach him to find Jesus. If you don’t know who King Herod is, he’s one of the worst villains in the Bible.  

Herod is so paranoid that Jesus may be the Messiah king who will usurp his reign, that he orders the execution of all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16). He is truly horrible, and even as an infant, Jesus had a serious enemy.  

When King Herod says, “Bring me word, that I too may come and worship him” (Matthew 2:8) it’s not hard to see why his desire to worship is hollow. He outright lies to the wise men about his motivations to worship Christ.  

Ironically, Herod is more concerned about protecting his power, reputation, and status in the eyes of those around him that he misses his opportunity to truly worship the Son of God who could save his soul.  

The Power for Worship  

The object of your worship is ultimately the true power for your worship. And the way we discover this power for worship is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

When no one else could, the Son of God made a way for multitudes and generations of worshippers from every tongue, tribe, and nation to draw near to God. Jesus says:  

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” (John 4:23) 

The way to God the Father is through God the Son. So, if you’ve ever felt like your devotion to God has been drained by hollow worship, then listen to the words of the Lord in Amos: “Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4). 

Turn from sin and turn to him who is the forgiver of sins, the giver of new life, and the giver of the Holy Spirit. Bend your knee to Jesus and confess him as the true Lord and Savior that he really is.  

Make Jesus the object of your worship and your will never run out of power to worship our good God.  

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How to Get and Keep a Good Conscience

I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. (Acts 24:16) 

Conscience gives you the ability to evaluate your own thoughts and desires, to discern what is right and wrong, and to distinguish between what is good and what is best.  

To help us get a handle on conscience and how it functions, I want you to think about an alarm clock. A good alarm clock does two things: It stays quiet when you should be asleep, and it makes a noise when you need to wake up! 

That’s how your conscience is supposed to work. When you are on the right path, a good conscience will be at peace (Colossians 3:15). But when you are tempted towards the wrong path, a good conscience will sound the alarm. The problem with the conscience is that, like every other part of your soul, it has been disordered by sin. 

Like an alarm clock, conscience can malfunction and stay silent when it should go off. 

My Alarm Didn’t Go Off! 



The corrupt conscience 

To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. (Titus 1:15) 

Acting against your conscience will bring a change in your inner life. It will change how your conscience functions. A corrupt conscience approves the wrong things. 

An easy way to see this is to picture a teenager using drugs for the first time. He knows that drugs are addictive and destructive, and his conscience tells him that taking them is wrong. But his friends are encouraging him to try them. He wants his friends to like him. So he over-rides his conscience.

In over-ruling his conscience, he diminishes its power. His conscience is weakened. It is less sensitive, and therefore less effective. Next time, the decision to take the drug will be much easier. If the boy repeats this choice again, the boy’s conscience changes. After a while he will feel that there is nothing wrong with what he is doing.  

The important point to grasp here is that the conscience is corrupted whenever a person acts against it over time. When a person’s conscience is corrupted over time, it can become seared. 

The seared conscience 

Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. (1 Timothy 4:2) 

In the ancient world, doctors would use a hot iron to cauterize a wound. It hardly bears thinking about what this must have been like before anesthetic, but if you had a wound and the bleeding could not be stopped, your best hope was the hot iron pressed on your flesh.

Once you recovered from the pain, you would discover that the bleeding had stopped, but you would also find that you had lost all feeling in the area that had been seared. The hot iron killed off the nerves so that you no longer had feeling where the iron had been applied. 

Paul says, “That’s how it is with some people’s conscience.” They have been “seared as with a hot iron” (Ephesians 4:19). Their conscience has lost all sensitivity. When that happens, a person can lie, cheat, or steal without their conscience raising any objection. They feel no guilt because their conscience is seared. 

As he was on the road to Damascus, that’s exactly what Saul of Tarsus thought. Do you think he was worried about doing something wrong? The seared conscience calls evil “good” and good “evil” (Isaiah 5:20).  

How to Get and Keep a Good Conscience 

I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. (Acts 24:16) 

If a conscience has become corrupt, so that it is no longer functioning correctly, how can it become pure? If a conscience has become seared, it has become insensitive, like thick skin. How can it be made sensitive again? 

A good conscience is powered by the Spirit: If I take the batteries out of my alarm clock, it will not work. It is also set by the Word and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. 

A good conscience is powered by the Holy Spirit 

When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8) 

Jesus is speaking about the Holy Spirit. When he comes, when he begins working in your life, what you can expect is that he awakens your conscience. When the Holy Spirit comes, he wakens you up to reality. Jesus describes that reality in three ways—sin, righteousness, and judgment: 

The Holy Spirit convicts of guilt in regard to sin 

The first work of the Holy Spirit is deeply disturbing—he activates your conscience. He brings you to a place where you see your own sin. 

The Holy Spirit convicts of guilt in regard to righteousness 

You don’t know what righteousness is until you know Jesus. When you get to know him, you see that his righteousness is so far beyond what you have at your best that you haven’t a hope of getting near him. 

The Holy Spirit convicts of guilt in regard to judgment  

The Holy Spirit convinces of sin and righteousness and judgment. A true Christian wants more of this, not less, because that is what authentic godliness is looking for.

It wants to know more of its own sin and more of God’s righteousness, so that it might embrace God’s mercy even more.  

A good conscience is set by the Word of God 

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11) 

If the alarm clock is to function, it has to be powered, but it also has to be set. A good conscience is powered by the Spirit and set by the Word. Hiding God’s Word in your heart will train your conscience to sound the alarm and keep you from sin. 

Are you, like David, hiding God’s word in your heart? Or is it just flitting across your brain? When You hide God’s Word in your heart that Word shapes and strengthens your conscience. And a good conscience is your best defense against sin and temptation 

A good conscience is cleansed by the blood of Christ 

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14) 

This is an amazing promise! Christ cleansing our consciences from acts that lead to death!  

How does he do it? By the blood of Christ, because on the cross he offered himself unblemished to God! He offered himself—his unblemished, perfect life—as a sacrifice to God for us on account of our sins. Therefore, he alone is able to cleanse our consciences through his blood.  

Your conscience may have been corrupted, even seared. Christ can make it good. That’s what redemption is all about. It is powered by the Spirit, set by the Word, and cleansed by the blood. 

[This article was adapted from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Conscience: Christ Changes How You Evaluate – Part One,” in his series Regeneration.] 



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Five Key Connections: Prayers, Teens, And More

Here are five of my favorite quotes from recent Christian articles, including how prayer reveals our priorities, theology for teens, and more!

Our Prayers Reveal our Priorities (Alistair Begg, The Good Book Co.)

To pray is an admission and an expression of dependence. A self-assured person is not going to pray prayers of petition; there’s no need to pray if you think you have got it all covered. A self-righteous person is not going to pray prayers of confession; there’s no need to pray if you think you’re good enough to earn God’s blessing. But the person who knows their heart before God—the person who knows the depth of their need of forgiveness and help from God—does what Paul does. They bow their knees (Ephesians 3:14).

Theology for the Teen Years (Jaquelle Crowe, Credo Magazine)

Teenagers swimming in a current toward individualism need to be redirected toward a community of faith. They need a community who will rally around them and pour deeply into them – a community who will teach them who God is and what he’s done.

Believer, God Wants You to Have Full Assurance Now (Colin Smith, Unlocking the Bible)

God does not want you to live in constant doubt over your true spiritual position. He does not want you to wait until the end of your life to have the peace and joy of knowing that you belong to him. God wants you to have this full assurance now, and for you to continue enjoying it until the end. 

2 Corinthians 1:1-11: Comfort in Suffering (Josh Moody, God Centered Life)

There can be many different reasons for our trials as Christians. We do not always suffer because we are Christians. Sometimes Christians suffer because we live in a fallen world. Sometimes Christians suffer because they make poor choices. Sometimes we cannot discern the reason for why we suffer at all – whether it is our fault or someone else’s, or in the mystery of providence. But here is a promise for you whatever your trials: God comforts you in all your afflictions.

Don’t Wait Another Year Until Easter (Paul Tripp)

If the Resurrection guarantees eternity, then we believe that our suffering and ministry “is not in vain.” Life will get discouraging – at times, it won’t seem like there is an end in sight, or progress is invisible. But a Second Coming is coming, and we will be rewarded for our faith.

10 Great Quotes from “Who Am I?” By Jerry Bridges

If you are looking for a brief survey of what the Bible says about our identity as Christians, I can’t recommend this book highly enough!

Jerry Bridges, in just 95-pages. manages to explain and illustrate 8 aspects of our identity: creature, united, justified, adopted, new creation, saint, servant, and not yet.

And he does this in a simple, yet memorable, and biblical way. 

Encouragement  

Who Am I? will be particularly valuable for younger or newer Christians who need to be grounded in their identity in Christ.

But even if you’ve struggled for years with identity issues—don’t underestimate the power that this little book could have in your life. You will go back to it again and again, to feed and shore up your identity in Christ.  

So here are 10 of my favorite quotes from this book. 

Top 10 Quotes from Who Am I? 



10. I Am a Creature

I am a creature, created in the image of God, fully dependent on him and fully accountable to him. (15)

9. As a Young Christian

As a young Christian I did not realize what it meant to be in a living union with Christ… To me, prayer was like a long distance phone call to heaven, in which I might get through or I might not. My Christian life was largely one of self-effort. (24) 

8. The Great Mystery and Wonder of Justification

The great mystery and wonder of justification, and the thing we must grasp if we are to truly understand it, is how God can declare us righteous with respect to his law, when in actual fact we have disobeyed that law, and continue to disobey it on a more or less regular basis. (28)

7. God Loves Us

We must remind ourselves that God loves us, not because we are loveable, but because we are in Christ, and the love which the Father has for his Son flows over to us because we are in him. (51)

6. Died to Sin

The fact that we have died to the dominion of sin is not a truth to be put on a shelf and admired. It is a truth we must put to use every day. (60) 

5. Sainthood

Sainthood is not a spiritual attainment, or even a recognition of such attainment. It is rather a state or status into which God brings every believer. All Christians are saints. (65) 

4. Servant of Jesus Christ

I am a servant of Jesus Christ. By God’s grace, I serve him by serving others in the particular role or roles to which, in his providential wisdom, he has called me. (86)

3. Preach the Gospel to Ourselves

We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. (89)

2. Your Worst Days

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace. (92)

1. Take Two Looks

For every look you take at yourself in your daily experience, take two looks at who you are in Christ. (95)

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How Christ Restored Our Unity with Our Creator

Imagine what it would have been like for Adam and Eve to live in God’s presence in the Garden. How could they have ever forsaken his commands when he was so close?  

Paul says something in Acts that might help us understand: “In [Christ] we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). As Christians, we live in Christ and yet we forsake him too. We banish God from our vision in our day-to-day life. 

We are no longer sharers in Adam’s sin leading to death, but sharers in Christ’s death and resurrection leading to life. In order to understand how this happened, and what it means for us, we should look at a brief history of God’s presence in Scripture.

Lost Union 

God commanded Adam to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But, as we know, Adam and Eve both ate fruit from that forbidden tree. Adam and Eve were then banished from communion with God in paradise. 

And without God’s presence to accompany them and his voice to guide them, they faced death.  

But death did not have the final word. God promised a Redeemer who unlike Adam would crush the serpent’s head. And in an act of mercy, God clothed them with garments from the skins of an animal slaughtered in their place, foreshadowing Jesus’s sacrifice for his people’s sins in order to clothe them in righteousness. 

Limited Union  

God preserved the Messianic lineage in a wicked world which rejected his presence and voice. Despite their faults, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sought God’s presence and held tightly onto his promises. 

God’s people grew into a large multitude causing Pharaoh and the Egyptians to fear and enslave them. But God saved them from this and redeemed their freedom. He wanted them to be his people, with him, not enslaved by the Egyptians.

After redeeming the Israelites, God made his presence known to them. He invited them into his presence at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16-20). Here the Israelites would tremble in fear of the Lord. 

They awoke to a mountain clothed with a thick cloud accompanied by great trumpet blasts and lightning and thunder strikes (v.16). After God descended upon Mount Sinai in fire, the people watched from the foot of the mountain (vv.17-18).  

Such was the fire’s intensity that its smoke rushed upward like a furnace’s smoke (v.18). Once God descended to the top of the mountain, he called Moses to ascend to him (v.20) and told him that the people should not ascend Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:21-25). The Israelites shuddered with great fear and begged Moses to speak on their behalf so that they did not have to hear God’s voice (Exodus 20:18-21).  

What does this tell us? Man could not enter God’s holy presence because he was unholy. We need some cleansing, some sacrifice, or mediator powerful enough to make us holy enough to approach God. 

We need a mediator greater than Moses who will ascend into the thick darkness to reconcile us to God. Without a mediator, we like our first parents and the Israelites run away from God whose perfection terrifies us. 

Jesus is that mediator. 

Rejected Mediator 

Within Mary’s womb, the Holy Spirit orchestrated a mysterious and glorious miracle. By his power, Jesus, the eternal Son of God was conceived. And one night in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. 

Fully God and fully man, Jesus would deliver us into the presence of God.  

From childhood, Jesus lived in perfect fellowship with God and fellow man. His own people resisted him who came to offer up himself for them. Eventually, they surrendered him to the Romans for execution. 

On the cross, Jesus entered great darkness to appease God’s wrath and to save his people. His righteousness was transferred to our account and our sin to his account. And the rod of God’s wrath crushed Jesus. Banished into the outer darkness, drowning in sorrow, Jesus exclaimed: 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). 

Remembering the Father’s love, Jesus cried out:  

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). 

And he gasped for his last breath.  

Suddenly, the Word, who by, through, and for which all things were created and are held together, hung limp. And the temple’s curtain separating the people from the inner sanctum split into two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). The ground shook and rocks split (v.52). Freed from their tomb, saints were bodily resurrected and appeared to many (v.53).  

Such was the force behind the unfolding drama that the centurion and those accompanying him to keep watch over Jesus proclaimed: 

“Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54). 

Jesus opened the way, through himself, back to union with the Father.  

Everlasting Union 

Such is the power of God’s grace in Jesus’s sacrifice.  

Dead in our sins and trespasses, we were children of wrath, estranged from God and unable to commune with him. Alive in Christ, who is our peace, we are children of grace, pleasing before God’s presence and able to call out to him as, “Abba Father!” 

But the best has yet to come. Jesus will return to claim us as his beloved bride. He will replace this world with a new one surpassing this one in glory. This promise will be fulfilled: 

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3-4)

Remembering our worst and best times alike in this life will be opportunities to cherish God’s faithfulness. And these times will be overshadowed with an eternity of celebrating our everlasting union to God and his people.

What a narrative of redemption! Praise God who made us for himself and restored us to himself! Reflect on this amazing news. And in joyful response, draw near to God in every moment, bowing yourself before him.

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Reading the Bible Led Me to Attend Church

After graduating from high school, I went to an out-of-state college. As such, I could not bring the most defining aspects of my life: my friends, my family, and my church. 

When I would go on holiday from school, these things would come back to me. For this reason, college often felt like something temporary, detached from my real life back home. While at school, I had enough space to form a new self. Space to seek new goals, ask new questions, establish new patterns. 

Away from the routine of my parents, I asked: Would I attend church? Why did I need to if I could just read the Bible on my own? 

As I read Scripture and grew in my relationship with Christ, I would learn to attend church, but, at first, I found myself tempted to replace church with other things. 

Replacing Church on Sunday Morning

When I opened my mind to the possibility of missing church, I also let in many reasons why that would be better for me.  

If I stayed back from church, I could study more of God’s Word at my own pace. Or, I could have another hour in my week to disciple someone I lived with.  

If I stayed back from church, I could do better work in my academic studies. God wants me to succeed in my classes, right? I could spend the whole day in the library and finish my papers.  

If I stayed back from church, I could sleep in and rest more for the week ahead. Sleep was important, right?

For me, Sunday mornings without church looked less like the first few reasons and more like the final one. I felt guilty about this. And, I decided if I was going to miss church, I had to read the Bible during that time. 

I did this, and faithfully reading the Bible, far from providing me a substitute for church, quickly lead me to see attending church as an essential part of my Christian walk.

Reading the Bible Led Me to Church  

The more I read the Bible, I learned a lot about why I ought to go to church. And, I also learned more about the great joy attending church could bring to me. I began to see church less as a chore and more as a gift from God.  

The Gift of Worship 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

… addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. (Ephesians 5:19)

I would be lying if I said that the word of Christ was dwelling in me richly during those Sunday mornings away from church. 

Sure, I could read the Bible on my own—but did that alone time compare to how the conversation before the service, the pastoral prayer, the hand-selected worship songs, the prepared sermon, and the fellowship afterward all worked to settle the word of Christ in my heart? No.  

You might say, as I did, that it is possible to recreate a church experience on the internet. Either listening to a church service or listening to a couple worship songs followed by a video or audio recording of a pastor’s sermon.  

Consider this: An important aspect of Ephesians 5:19, which I picked up from an article by Tom Olson, is the phrase “one another.” While I certainly can worship on my own, reading God’s word, praying, and singing a song in my dorm room, I cannot use my worship to strengthen someone else’s faith.

Part of why I go to church is exactly why I sing in church despite my bad singing voice. For in my earnest worship of Jesus Christ, I may strengthen another person’s faith in him. 

The Gift of Rebuke 

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (1 Corinthians 5:12)

Attending church means you put yourself in a community that cares about your spiritual well-being. You have people who will keep you in check. Being in the building, participating in small groups and bible studies, and being baptized in front of others are all signs to others that you are taking your faith seriously.  

When someone who knows you mean to live the Christian life sees you living some other life, they will come and tell you. While this may not seem like a good thing, I assure you it is a blessing. 

A college friend of mine, who was about of the same church carpool group as me, came to me and asked if we could speak privately. He explained that I had, on several occasions, spoken to him and others with a prideful, condescending attitude. 

He was able to call me out because he knew I wanted to live a humble life. I felt very guilty, and greatly embarrassed, but I was also grateful that he told me. Far from rude, his words were gracious. He did not need to say anything to me, it may have been easier for him to stay silent, but he spoke to help my soul.

Having been rebuked, I could more intentionally seek Christ’s help in those moments where I was tempted to be prideful.  

The Gift of Unity 

I … urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called… bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6) 

In this life, we are called be lights of the world to the lost. We are not hermits—we live with people who disagree with us or who hate us. And the hardest part is this: We are called to love them (Matthew 5:43-44)! Without spiritual nourishment, this disunity will exhaust you.

Church is a gift because it is the one place in which we can dwell in biblical unity with one another. Note that the word here is not uniformity—we don’t have to look alike or think the same things about everything—but unity—meaning we all proclaim Christ as Lord. 

I’m not saying there won’t be disagreement or conflict within the church, but a unified devotion to Jesus Christ has a way of eclipsing the things that try to separate us and redeems us back to each other.

Protect You Church Attendance 

So, if you are a college student, or just someone starting a new pattern, protect your church attendance because it will bring you great joy in the Lord. 

Without regular church attendance, you might find yourself feeling disconnected and at odds with others, unchecked in your fight against sin, and without an opportunity to encourage others in their faith. 

Know that Christ, in establishing the church, has provided us a way out of these things and into the joy found only in him.

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