Ccef Quotes

Matthew 18:21–35 Forgiveness is costly. Regardless of how big or small the offense, canceling a debt and absorbing the cost is going to hurt. But the parable shows us that not forgiving also has a price, and it is higher than the price forgiveness demands.

Asking for forgiveness is a war between self-righteousness and unearned grace. Between the rules of my kingdom and the commandments of the King. Between a desire to be served and the call to serve. Between living for my own glory and being consumed by the glory of God.

Jesus wins. His justice prevails. His love is seen for what it really is—boundless and irresistible. Our unity with him exceeds our imaginations. We will see that life was much more purposeful than we thought. Everything we ever did by faith—because of Jesus—stands firm and results in “praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).

God’s renown is our first concern. Our task is to be an expert in “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come.” “Hallowed” means to be known and declared as holy. Our first desire is that God would be known as he truly is, the Holy One. Implicit in his name being hallowed is that his glory or fame would cover the earth. This takes us out of ourselves immediately. Somehow, we want God’s glory to be increasingly apparent through the church today. If you need specifics, keep your eyes peeled for the names God reveals to us. For example, we can pray that he would be known as the Mighty God, the Burden-Bearer, and the God who cares. “Your kingdom come” overlaps with our desire for his fame and renown. It is not so much that we are praying that Jesus would return quickly, though such a prayer is certainly one of the ways we pray. Instead, it is for God’s kingdom to continue its progress toward world dominion. The kingdom has already come and, as stewards of the kingdom for this generation, we want it to grow and flourish. The kingdom of heaven is about everything Jesus taught: love for neighbors and even enemies, humility in judgment, not coveting, blessing rather than cursing, meekness, peacemaking, and trusting instead of worrying. It is a matter of “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Edward T. Welch February 1 Matthew 18:21–35 People mistreat us, sometimes in horrific ways. Spouses cheat. Children rebel. Bosses fire. Friends lie. Pastors fail. Parents abuse. Hurts are real. But how do all these one hundred denarii (about $6,000) offenses against us compare to the ten thousand talent (multimillion-dollar) debt we owed God, which he mercifully canceled? Since birth, and for all our lives, we have failed to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37–39). But in one fell swoop—by the death and resurrection of Jesus—God wiped our records clean. Through the cross of Jesus and our faith in him, God removed our transgressions from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12); he hurled “all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). Could it be that one reason you find it so hard to forgive is because you have never received God’s forgiveness by repenting of your sins and believing in Jesus as your Savior? Or maybe you have yet to grasp the enormity of God’s forgiveness of all your many sins. If you dwell on your offender’s $6,000 debt against you, you will be trapped in bitterness until you die. But if you dwell on God’s forgiveness of your multimillion-dollar debt, you will find release and liberty. Robert D. Jones

Christian joy is not about avoiding life while dreaming about heaven. It is about taking an utterly honest look at all earthly life through heaven’s lens. There we find real hope. Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

You must daily die to your self-centeredness by finding your identity in what Jesus has done for you in his life, death, and resurrection. As you do this every day, you will turn from making anything else in creation more important to you than the God who has rescued you from your self-centeredness. Growing as a disciple is gradual, in the same way that the crucifixion was slow and agonizing. As we die to self and embrace our new identity in Christ, God is slowly and patiently bringing us to the end of ourselves, so that he might fill us with the life of Christ. Timothy S. Lane

Jesus defines me, not my particular calling or vocation. While a Christian should never minimize personal gifts, past problems, or current struggles, these do not displace his or her more fundamental identity of being in Christ.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Our purpose is not about us, it is about God. For this reason, God seems to prefer the average and below average. Otherwise it would be about our talents and abilities. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things. . . . ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:27–28, 31). Life is not about my résumé; it is about ways to extend the fame of Jesus.

Our purpose is not about us, it is about God. For this reason, God seems to prefer the average and below average. Otherwise it would be about our talents and abilities. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things. . . . ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:27–28, 31).

Living faithfully means that you actively respond to the faith God gives you.

God wants to make us people who are more interested in what he wants for us than what we want for ourselves. He will not relent until we are free from our slavery to an agenda of personal happiness. And he calls us to speak in a way that has this reconciliation agenda in view.

When we use words to establish our will rather than submit to God’s, we plunge into difficulty. As sinners we want what we want when we want it, and we often see others as obstacles. We treat words as if they belong to us, to be used to get what we want. When we face how powerful our self-interest is, we are confronted by the truth that only a change in our hearts can produce a change in our words. Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

Hebrews 4:12–16 Guilt is part of the human condition in this broken world. And once you become a Christian, you don’t stop sinning, so you need to deal with the guilt that comes from your continuing struggle with sin. Hebrews 4:12–16 gives a clear picture of how Jesus has freed us from our guilt. These verses are both sobering and encouraging. We will give an account one day because we are accountable, and there is a standard. God is the one before whom we are accountable, and our lives will be compared against his perfect character. This is why we feel guilty, because deep down we know we are guilty. What can free us from our guilt? God himself frees us. He sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to die a terrible and undeserved death for us. Jesus is our Great High Priest who offered himself and became the sacrifice for our sins. The answer to our guilt is found in his life, death, and resurrection. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus came and died in our place. He was our substitute. Because he was without sin, he was able to pay the penalty for our sins. His death for us means we can be free from guilt and reconciled to God. Jesus’ death is the only real answer to our guilt. Timothy S. Lane

More than any other passage, Psalm 23 brought Jesus to life for me in my struggles

It is only when my heart is owned by Christ that I will be free from the driven and anxious pursuit of things that I cannot properly hold, cannot control, and that will quickly evaporate.

All other loves are, at best, imitations that point back to the original rather than usurp it.

God’s love can’t be earned. We are loved because of God’s amazing grace that comes to us through Jesus. God saw that we were helpless to love him or others. He knew that without his love and grace we were doomed to die and be separated from him forever. So as an act of love and grace, God sent his only Son to this earth to live the perfect life we couldn’t live and to die in our place for our failure to love others. All who put their trust in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are accepted into God’s family. No one in God’s family deserves to be there (Romans 3:23). We regularly violate his love and deserve his rejection. God includes us in his family only because of his grace. God calls us to love others in the same way that he loves us.

Anxiety points to a real problem. Ask God to show you the problem underlying your anxiety. Then bring that problem to him and ask him to help you trust him with all the big and small things that are troubling you. Ask him to show you what you are trusting in instead of him, and ask for his forgiveness. Dare to believe in the forgiveness of sins and that God’s good care of you is constant through all of your very real troubles. Then decide what small act of love God is calling you to do today, and take a step of faith and do that one small thing. Your goal is not a bland, “no-worries” way of handling life. When you read a passage like Philippians 4:6 that says, “Do not be anxious about anything,” you might think that God is telling you to never become agitated or emotional. But in that same letter, Paul talks about being intensely anxious for the welfare of those he loves (Philippians 2:25–28). So there is a right kind of anxiety that’s actually an expression of love and faith. You are not looking for an anxiety-free life, but for a life where you, minute-by-minute, cast all your cares on him who cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).

I was not created to shrink the size of my life to the size of my felt needs. If true humanity is bound up in community with God and godly community with others, I will never experience it when all my eyes ever see is my own need.

To be merciful and just is a tricky combination. If you think about it without divine guidance, you will begin to think that mercy is unjust and justice is unmerciful.

Will we trust him? That’s the obvious question after God reveals himself to fearful people. Whose kingdom are you seeking? Do you trust the King who is also your Father? Dangers abound, and life is comprised of hourly risks, but the real issue behind worry is that of spiritual allegiances. Our answer? “Sort of…a little…usually.” We sort of want the kingdom, and we sort of want to trust the King—until life gets precarious. When everything is going well and the storehouses are full, we trust him. But when there is nothing for tomorrow, we panic and track down the address of another god who can give us enough for tomorrow and the next day too. Whom do I trust? Where is my faith? Those are the questions that all worriers must ask, yet all of us already know the answer. Our trust is divided. We don’t put all our eggs in one basket—even God’s—because that’s too risky. Our trust might not pay off the way we hope. We are reluctant to simply say to our Father, “I am yours,” and stop worrying. Jesus knows this. Fear and worry reveal that our faith is indeed small. If you are looking to plumb the depths of worry, you can find it in your mixed allegiances. You trust God for some things but not others. You trust him for heaven but not for earth. Edward T. Welch

When Christ matters in your life, he shines through your life.

And as he does this, he calls us to humbly confess that we really do love ourselves more than we love him and others.

One of the grand purposes of human existence is to look more and more like Jesus. This is God’s plan for us. It is one of the greatest gifts he could give. It is evidence that he has brought us into his family. If Jesus learned obedience through suffering, we will too. A path without hardships should cause us to wonder if we really belong to God.

Hebrews 2:5–18 Suffering does not oppose love; it is a result of it. One of the grand purposes of human existence is to look more and more like Jesus. This is God’s plan for us. It is one of the greatest gifts he could give. It is evidence that he has brought us into his family. If Jesus learned obedience through suffering, we will too. A path without hardships should cause us to wonder if we really belong to God. The challenge for us is to think as God thinks. In other words, our present thinking must be turned upside-down. We once thought that suffering was to be avoided at all costs; now we must understand that the path to becoming more like Jesus goes through hardship, and it is much better than the path of brief and superficial comfort without Jesus. When we understand this grand purpose, we discover that suffering does not oppose love; it is a result of it (Hebrews 12:8). We are under the mistaken impression that divine love cannot coexist with human pain. Such thinking is one of Satan’s most effective strategies. It must be attacked with the gospel of grace. Edward T. Welch

Psalm 146 Why doesn’t God just make your relationships better overnight? We often think that if God really cared for us, he would make our relationships easier. In reality, a difficult relationship is a mark of his love and care. We would prefer that God would just change the relationship, but he won’t be content until the relationship changes us too. This is how God created relationships to function. What happens in the messiness of relationships is that our hearts are revealed, our weaknesses are exposed, and we start coming to the end of ourselves. Only when this happens do we reach out for the help God alone can provide. Weak and needy people finding their hope in Christ’s grace are what mark a mature relationship. The most dangerous aspect of your relationships is not your weakness, but your delusions of strength. Self-reliance is almost always a component of a bad relationship. While we would like to avoid the mess and enjoy deep and intimate community, God says that it is in the very process of working through the mess that intimacy is found. Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

Every time someone dies, it reminds those watching that God’s work is not yet complete. Because of sin, death entered the world. Only when sin is completely defeated will death cease to be part of the equation. Paul says about Christ’s present ministry: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25–26). Christ died so that we would no longer have to die. He rose again so that death would be put to death. Every time someone dies, it reminds us that death still lives. But every death also points us to the promise that Christ brings a resurrection once and forever. Through Christ, death has been defeated. One day, life will no longer give way to death. Children will not mourn their parents. Parents will not mourn their children. There will be no widows or grieving friends. Yes, death is an enemy, but this enemy will die. Christ’s present reign guarantees this. One day, life will give way to life in eternity. As you weep, know this: the One who weeps with you is not content for things to stay as they are. His death was a cry and his resurrection a promise. The living Christ will continue to exert his power and you will grieve no more. Paul David Tripp

There are always new sins for the Christian to address and new enemies to defeat. The Christian life makes God’s work of change our paradigm for living, while we celebrate the grace that makes it possible. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11–13).

As you read through Romans 8, notice that Paul doesn’t say that we won’t have hardships. Instead he acknowledges that there will be “trouble . . . hardship . . . persecution . . . famine . . . nakedness [and] danger” (Romans 8:35). But he does promise that none of these things “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Cling to this promise. Cling to Jesus. Invite him into your struggles, your sorrows, and your questions.

Pour out your heart to Jesus. He promises to answer (Psalm 86:7). He promises to never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

There are always new sins for the Christian to address and new enemies to defeat. The Christian life makes God’s work of change our paradigm for living, while we celebrate the grace that makes it possible. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11–13). Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

When God confronted Adam and Eve, he cursed the very things in which men and women would seek to find their worth—their labor (Genesis 3:16–19). The very things we would hope to give us meaning and worth have been cursed so that to be “fruitful” in them will require extreme effort. You may try to take pride in your work; you may try to find life and meaning in your children, but God isn’t going to make it easy for you. God wants us to find our rest in him, not in our own proud efforts. He won’t allow us to successfully cover ourselves. He faithfully and lovingly steers us away from trusting in our own efforts so that we can find true rest in the work he has done. Winston T. Smith

Christ sustains me so that I can live with him and for him even when I struggle. His grace not only forgives, it enables and delivers.

trouble.