It seems like we are trying to “find our best life now” or looking for some plan, program, formula, or tips for success that will help us overcome __________ (you fill in the blank). Look in your typical Christian bookstore and ask what is popular (outside of the Bible). We try to live “our best life now,” and we largely as a Church, don’t understand the Gospel as we should.
Of First Importance, had a poignant quote from Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson which I hope that those of us who follow Christ will consider.
“It’s no wonder that self-help books top the charts in Christian publishing and that counseling offices are overwhelmed. Our pride and our neglect of the gospel force us to run from seminar to seminar, book to book, counselor to counselor, always seeking but never finding some secret to holy living.
Most of us have never really understood that Christianity is not a self-help religion meant to enable moral people to become more moral. We don’t need a self-help book; we need a Savior. We don’t need to get our collective act together; we need death and resurrection and the life-transforming truths of the gospel. And we don’t need them just once, at the beginning of our Christian life; we need them every moment of every day.”
HT: Rob Harrison