If we aren’t prepared to be counter-cultural we aren’t ready to be Christians.

We have been stuffed full of praise for mediocrity and had our foibles diagnosed away with hyphenated jargon and pop psychology.

Scripture is profitable for training in righteousness. No one succeeds at the highest level in sports without working out. No one makes it in music without lots of practice. No one excels in scholarship without years of study. And no one makes it far in the school of holiness without hours and days and years in the word. You and I simply will not mature as quickly, minister as effectively, or live as gloriously without immersing ourselves in the Scriptures. We need the Bible if we are to be competent Christians.

Try this New Year's resolution: I won't check my phone, my tablet, or my computer until I've first read a chapter in my Bible.

For Jesus, Scripture is powerful, decisive, and authoritative because it is nothing less than the voice of God.

We can stop pleading with God to show us the future, and start living and obeying like we are confident that He holds the future.

You cannot be in Christ and be indifferent to the sin in your life.