The Christian has a hope that a non-Christian cannot have. It is the hope that everything in this life is meaningful.

At the start of the year, I stood before my church and presented an opportunity for each of us to enter into a daily experience of joy. I held a Bible in one hand and a reading plan in another. 

True grace gives us the backbone to stand up for God’s purpose in the world. We become willing to suffer for the cause of Christ because Christ is the purpose of all human history. He’s the only thing ultimately worth living for. Spreading his gospel of freedom is worth all the bondage of this world.

Union with Christ means that who Christ is we are.

I wonder: have I made a god out of productivity?

April is always a slow reading month for me. I'm not a big TV-watcher. But when April rolls around, we get into what I consider to be the best TV time of the year: Major League Baseball opens their season and the NBA and NHL playoffs kick off. I LOVE all of these. So I stay up later than I should. I wake up later than I'd like. And I read less than just about any other month of the year. 

But that doesn't mean I didn't read anything. I still managed to get through 7 books, and I nearly finished an 8th. Below is what I read this month.

I had no idea the whole night was a test of my approval. Andy believed he passed. He did. But he was the only one testing. He had my approval all along.

Your sin can’t kick you out of God’s love because your righteousness never put you in it. God saves by grace through faith. It’s a gift. All you must do is receive it.

Jesus was the smartest man to ever walk this earth. He’s still the smartest man alive. So much of his recorded teachings have far more Old Testament allusions than we modern Gentile readers can fathom. As we were studying the account of David and Goliath in our Bible study at church, I saw David’s words in 1 Samuel 17:34 with new eyes. There’s more than a hint of Jesus there, and Jesus knew it.