Blog

A common question during discipleship conversations is some version of “I don’t feel like I’m where I should be, what do I need to do?” It’s a totally well-intentioned question of a heart wanting to pursue God. But it is also indicative of a heart still longing for control that is not ours to have. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are things we can and should do, i.e., the means of receiving grace – be in the Word, pray frequently, seek out Christian fellowship where spiritual conversations are the norm.

One of our Grace church planters asked for thoughts on how to gauge the spiritual health of his flock (and urged me to share my response here). While a little longer than a normal post . . . here it is:

Imagine the scene of Eden—not born of human hands but planted by the Lord Himself. Every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food sprang not from the sweat of Adam’s brow, but from the fertile goodness of God’s own hand. The rivers flowed, the fruit ripened, the earth smiled with abundance—all before man lifted a finger.

No sentence ever spoken has carried such thunderous power in so few words: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” This is the gospel boiled down to its blazing essence. Not “strive and be saved,” not “impress and be saved,” not “clean yourself and be saved,” but believe.

Our church has been focused this year on the idea of seeing as God sees – emphasizing an eternal perspective. It is a focus that calls us to surrender our relentless worship of the temporal – a call my heart, in part, still resists. I write today to those parts of my own heart...