Jeff Ling

This is really excellent. I think from time to time that I’m making progress in a move from a man-centered gospel to a Christ-centered gospel. The truth is that what I discover more and more is how insidiously entrenched pride is in my own life. The temptation to make it all about me is ever present. Matt Chandler gives a great example of this in the video above. May we make it always and only about the triumph of Jesus. For more info on The Gospel Project, click here.

“The church, when it’s not seduced by consumerist spirituality, is in the business of cultivating ordinary Christians, people who are united to Christ by faith and are in it for the long haul, like people in a good marriage. It transforms people, nor by giving them life-changing experiences but by repetition, continually telling the story of Christ so that people may hear and take hold of him by faith. For we do not just receive Christ by faith once at the beginning of our Christian lives and then go on to do the real work of transformation through our good works. We keep needing Christ the way hungry people need bread, and we keep receiving him whenever we hear the gospel preached and believe it. So what transforms us over the long haul is not one or two great life-changing sermons (although these can be helpful from time to time) but the repeated teaching and preaching of Christ, Sunday after Sunday, so that we never cease receiving him into our hearts.”

Phillip Cary – Good News for Anxious Christians, (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2010), p.133

J.D. Grear (author of Gospel), Trevin Wax (author of Counterfeit Gospels), and Greg Gilbert (author of What Is the Gospel? and co-author of What Is the Mission of the Church?):

Don’t Be More Gospel-Centered Than Jesus from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

I almost laughed out loud with joy when I watched this. Enjoy!

Joe Thorn has a great word of encouragement on his blog today. Here’s a snippet:

“Perhaps you are done. Maybe you have come to see that you are not spiritually strong enough, or emotionally mature enough, to persevere in faith and godliness through the life God has given you. You may be done, but God is not. He is still at work, tirelessly carrying out his providential plan for your good and his glory that he decreed before the worlds were made. The good work that he began in you is one that he will also carry to completion. You don’t have to try to be strong, but you must trust him to make you strong.”

 

Go get the whole thing!