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"Often, patience and grace are seen together. God’s patience with us is grace. He gives us second chances all the time. He teaches, rebukes, disciplines, but ultimately, there is always grace seen in Him and by Him. He is patient with us, not letting us fall into despair, but provides hope in His Son, Jesus. By Jesus’s example, we see Jesus patiently endure all sorts of temptations, wrongs, and ultimately death on the cross. His patience is our grace."

"We are not saved by our zeal for God; we are saved by His zeal for us. We do not climb up to God; He comes down to us in Christ. We are not saved by our following of Jesus, but through Him going to the cross alone. He is the promised messianic champion of old, not us. Even while our hearts are too often cold, forgetful, and neglecting of His Word and doctrine, He remains steadfast in His promise to never leave us nor forsake us, longing to hear our prayers at His throne of grace, and eager to shower us in all the blessings won by Christ. Sound doctrine is nothing less than sharing in the unsearchable riches of Christ."

"Finally getting back to the wedding registry analogy: for a people who wanted to show love for God but didn’t know what that looked like, here’s a list of some of the characteristics that please him. Not a checklist of duties to perform, but ideas for how our lives should be ordered “so that the word of God may not be reviled” (or in the positive sense, so that the word of God may be glorified). God’s gift registry, if you will. And it’s not grand gestures or sacrifices but the little, everyday things like kindness, loving your family, and not posting hateful tirades about The Other Side on social media. Just like a gift registry, the better I come to know God, the easier I am able to understand how he wants me to behave in light of “the grace of God that has appeared, bringing salvation for all people” (v. 2:11)."

On Sunday, Jeff White reminded us of the danger and deceptiveness of legalism. As an Enneagram one, I tend to hold tightly to the right and wrong, black and white view of things. But, legalism infects and divides the church and destroys how Christ’s body was meant to live together. Legalism heightens our judgementalism and causes us to forget the beauty of the giver of the law. The law cannot save us, only the one who gave us the law can. I often have to repent of my legalistic goodness, my desire to appear godly rather than desiring to be truly changed by Jesus.