Most encouraging sentences I read yesterday

Two quotes stuck with me yesterday morning, with truth connected to identity and hope.

This one from a college student whose life has been utterly transformed by Christ:

“I didn’t realize it but over time my faith in Christ was shifting into some quazi self/church based faith where my only real relationship with God was intellectual… it was really lame, and it’s been a necessarily painful shift back.”

There’s obviously a who context to that statement, which I won’t get into here. The growing pains are worth it. I commended this disciple to “Let Christ explode your shallow conceptions of the life He offers, and don’t settle for a plastic Jesus” (a metaphor we’ve shared in the past). We emailed back and forth about how we were meant for more than church and God to just be a part or slice of our lives. Christ is our life (Colossians 3).

Earlier this morning I read:

“…whenever our sins press hard against us, whenever Satan would drive us to despair, we must hold up this shield, that God does not want us to be overwhelmed in everlasting destruction, for He has ordained His Son to be the salvation of the world.”
—John Calvin, NT Commentary on John, p. 75; via OFI

A third set of truths struck me, right in the heart. Too long to quote here, as my godly wife wrote an amazing reflection on her resolutions to be a “1950s housewife” this year. (It may not be what you imagine, as she is active outside our home, and especially influential.) For us, with me as breadwinner, my domain is more public, hers more private. We are a total team; she’s my hero and I ask her for advice more than anyone.

(Men, marry up!)

What truth did you read today, connected to identity and hope?