There is a Rock to be found. There is an inner rest to be experienced that’s deeper than conceptual understanding, human love, personal success, and the accumulation of possessions. There is a rock that will give you rest even when all of those things have been taken away. That rock is Christ, and you were hardwired to find what you are seeking in him. In his grace, he won’t play hide-and-seek with you. In your weakness and weariness, cry out to him. He will find you, and he will be your Rock.

He is the Rock for which you are longing, he is the one who alone is able to give you the sense that all is well. And as you abandon your hope in the mirage rocks of this fallen world, and begin to hunger for the true rock, he will reach out, and place you on solid ground.

-by Paul David Tripp, quoted in Tullian Tchividjian’s Jesus + Nothing = Everything

First, biblical theology is integral to, and helps promote, a high view of the Bible.

To begin with, biblical theology, by exposing the inner structure of biblical revelation becomes the source of an ongoing adventure in discovering new ways that the texts are interconnected. The interconnectedness of texts is what gives them meaning. The more we understand the structure of Scripture, the better able we will be to find our own place within the biblical story. That is to be well on the way to making valid interpretations of the way particular texts apply to us. Quite simply, if we can see how any text relates to Jesus Christ then, since we also study to know how the people of God relate to him, we can grow in understanding of how the text relates to us through Christ the mediator.

Second, biblical theology promotes a high Christology.

Which Christ do we proclaim and worship? Is it the Christ of popular piety, the Christ who requires us to approach him through his mother, the Christ of dogma, the Christ of the enthusiasts, or the Christ of literature?

When biblical theology shows us how all the great themes about God, his people, and the promises are gathered together in Christ, then faith in Christ takes on a meaning that is all too rarely attained.

Third, biblical theology promotes a high view of the gospel.

Very early in the history of the church, the loss of the objective and historic gospel went hand in hand with the loss of the historical and natural meaning of the Old Testament.

I am asserting that the loss of a robust biblical theology from our evangelical preaching and teaching leads to a blur- ring of the gospel. The important biblical doctrine of the new birth of the believer has often been hijacked from its biblical- theological context and transformed to become the essential gospel. In practice, much evangelical ministry concentrates more on what God can do in our lives now, at the expense of what God has done for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Of course both are valid aspects of the biblical teaching, but it is the perspective of the relationship of the two that becomes distorted.

Fourth, biblical theology promotes a high view of the ministerial task.

It is to be regretted that many ministers find themselves overworked, under-funded, under constant pressure to conform to the preconceived ideas about the minister and his role, and burdened with expectations of success rather than faithfulness. The result is that many ministers become pragmatic and driven by the search for the next program that will bring people through the doors on a Sunday. There is no more potent antidote to pragmatism than the reinforcing of the truth that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. I want to be bold here and claim that biblical theology can have real and observable effects in our lives and ministries. In the first place, biblical theology will help the minister to be clear as to what the gospel is that is God’s power for salvation. Understanding the breadth of the biblical view of salvation will help prevent the harassed pastor from being sidetracked into the wrong kind of success.

Fifth, biblical theology promotes a high view of the people of God.

Christians need a biblical anthropology as well as a biblical ecclesiology in order to resist the tendency to the self-centeredness of our sinful nature.

A biblical-theological survey of the theme of the people of God builds up a sound Christology and a realistic anthropology. The people of God are defined by their union with Christ, a union that in turn is defined by who and what Christ is. Only in a secondary way are we defined by our relationship to the great heroes of faith in the Bible. That is why their relationship to Christ is so important to the interpretation of the narratives in which they figure.

Concluding thoughts:

Biblical theology in the church must begin in the pastor’s study. Above all, biblical theology involves a way of thinking about how one uses and applies the Bible. It is a way of thinking that needs to be cultivated about all the issues of pastoral ministry. It is a method of approach to almost any matter that confronts us in ministry. It is a way of training ourselves in theological reflection that will pay handsome dividends if we persevere. Often there are no clear doctrinal formulations to assist us in facing certain issues, and we are left with a few Bible verses that might spring to mind, along with a certain amount of experience- based wisdom. It is in such cases that biblical theology comes into its own. Whatever the subject—prayer, guidance or knowing the will of God, assurance, the fulfillment of prophecy, secular powers, miracles, Israel and the Palestinians, social justice, suffering, the Sabbath, leadership, life after death, church and denominations, and the whole range of ethical issues—biblical theology provides a strategy for investigation. It enables us to make progress on subjects that do not turn up in concordances (because they do not involve any single and obvious biblical word), nor in handbooks of doctrine (because they are not perceived to be central matters of doctrine).

For the third lecture these observations were taken from, go here – to see all the lectures and many others, go here

God used Howell Harris powerfully in the Welsh revival, and he shares how he met with God on June 18, 1735:

I felt suddenly my heart melting within me like wax before the fire with love to God my Savior; and also felt not only love, peace, etc., but a longing to be dissolved with Christ. Then was a cry in my inmost soul which I was totally unacquainted with before. Abba Father! Abba Father! I could not help calling God my Father; I knew that I was His child, and that He loved me and heard me. My soul, being filled and satiated, crying, “Tis enough, I am satisfied. Give me strength, and I will follow Thee through fire and water.” I could say I was happy indeed. There was in me a well of water, springing up to everlasting life,  (John 4:14). The love of God was shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost (Rom. 5:5). – from Eifion Evans’ Daniel Rowland and the Great Evangelical Awakening

Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards—arguably the greatest theologian of the Eighteenth century in America, recounts a similar story from January 1742:

All night I continued in a constant, clear and lively sense of the heavenly sweetness of Christ’s excellent and transcendent love, of His nearness to me and of my dearness to Him…I seemed…to perceive a glow of divine love come down from the heart of Christ in heaven, into my heart, in a constant stream, like a stream or pencil of sweet light. At the same time, my heart and soul all flowed out in love to Christ; so that there seemed to be a constant flowing and reflowing of heavenly and divine live, from Christ’s heart to mine; and I appeared to myself to float or swim, in these bright, sweet beams of the love of Christ…So far as I am capable of making a comparison, I think that what I felt each minute…was worth more than all the outward comfort and pleasure which I had enjoyed in my whole life put together. It was pure delight, which fed and satisfied my soul. – from Jonathan Edwards’ The Works of Jonathan Edwards

William Williams, the hymn writer, describes what happened when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Wales in 1762:

For there fell upon us the sweet breath of the love of the Lord. The cloud melted away, the sun shone, we drank of the fruit of the vines of the promised land, and we were made to rejoice. Gone was unbelief, gone guilt, gone fear, gone a timid, cowardly spirit, lack of love, envy, suspicion, together with all the poisonous worms that tormented us before; and in their place came love, faith, hope, and a joyful spirit, with a glorious multitude of the graces of the Holy Spirit. – from Eifion Evans’ Daniel Rowland and the Great Evangelical Awakening

“O, this faith is a living, busy, active, powerful thing! It is impossible that it should not be ceaselessly doing that which is good. It does not even ask whether good works should be done; but before the question can be asked, it has done them, and it is constantly engaged in doing them. But he who does not do such works, is a man without faith. He gropes and casts about him to find faith and good works, not knowing what either of them is, and yet prattles and idly multiplies words about faith and good works.”

Commenting on the interior character of faith, Luther adds:

“[Faith] is a living well-founded confidence in the grace of God, so perfectly certain that it would die a thousand times rather than surrender its conviction. Such confidence and personal knowledge of divine grace makes its possessor joyful, bold, and full of warm affection toward God and all created things—all of which the Holy Spirit works in faith. Hence, such a man becomes without constraint willing and eager to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer all manner of ills, in order to please and glorify God, who has shown toward him such grace.”

Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wry observation on how history has “twisted Luther’s teaching” of salvation by expresses deep insight into the situation that the modern church faces. He observed “there is always a certain worldliness that desires to seem Christian, but as cheaply as possible.”

Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines notes that once we come to understand that “faith is the powerful life force described by Luther, we can then recognize it as it displays itself on the pages of the New Testament in three major dimensions:”

1. The presence of a new power within the individual, erupting into a break with the past through turning in repentance and the release of forgiveness. The old leaf automatically falls from the branch as the new leaf emerges. Thus we have the biblical representation of repentance, as well as of forgiveness, as something given to us by God in Psalms 80:3; 85:4; Acts 5:31; Romans 2:4; and 2 Timothy 2:25.

2. An immediate but also developing transformation of the individual character and personality (2 Cor. 5:17, Rom. 5:1–5, 2 Pet. 1:4–11).

3. A significant, extrahuman power over the evils of this present age and world, exercised both by individuals and by the collective church (“All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore…” Matt. 28:18).

To enjoy this three-dimensional life is just what it means to be “translated” into the Kingdom of God’s dear son, as Colossians 1:13 explains, or to “have our citizenship in heaven.” (Phil. 3:20).

Adopted from Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines

“The God of the Bible is a personal God. According to the Bible’s teaching and its personalist worldview, God has a moral character. Whether or not we accept his moral guidance matters to him.

But if that is all we say, we can still feel as though moral rules are an imposition on human freedom. The Bible has a many-sided reply to this modern feeling. God made human beings in his image (Gen. 1:26–28), so that we have a moral character ourselves. We have a sense of right and wrong. And God made us with a purpose, so that we would grow in fellowship with him and find freedom and satisfaction in fellowship with him rather than in isolation.

Different worldviews lead to different conceptions of freedom. If there were no God, freedom might mean freedom to create our own purposes. It might mean freedom from all constraint, which implies, in the end, freedom from the constraints of personal relationships. The ideal freedom would be to live in isolation. On the other hand, if God exists and is personal, freedom means not isolation but joy in appreciating both other human beings and God the infinite person. God’s moral order is designed by God to guide us into personal fellowship and satisfaction. It is for our good. It is for our freedom, we might say, in the true sense of “freedom.” The person who goes astray from God’s wise guidance burdens himself with sorrows and frustrations. In fact, he ends up being a slave to his own desires.

The person who rejects the Bible’s moral guidance thinks that he has good reasons for rejecting it. It seems reasonable to him to seek “freedom” rather than the Bible’s instruction, which he deems to be oppressing and confining. But his judgments about freedom and about oppression are colored by a worldview. He already has assumptions about what would be a meaningful and fulfilling life—what true freedom would mean. And his assumptions depend on his conception of whether God is relevant, and whether God is personal. Thus, he may reject the Bible not because the Bible does not make sense in its own terms, but because he is not reading it on its own terms. He is injecting his own worldview and his own agenda about the kind of freedom that he pictures for himself as ideal.

The Bible’s own view of the matter has still another dimension. The Bible indicates that God created us and designed us to have personal fellowship with him and to follow his ways. But we have gone astray and rebelled. We want to be our own master. That is sin. Sin colors our thinking and makes us dislike the idea of submitting to anyone else. Even though God’s way is healthy and our own way is destructive, we do not want to stop following our own way. So when we interact with the Bible, we are not just innocent evaluators. We have a destructive agenda. And that is part of the problem. The problem is not just the worldviews “out there,” so to speak, but the worldviews and sinful desires “in here.” Our secret desires for sin mesh with the ideological offerings of the worldviews that are “on sale” in our society.”

- Excerpt from Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible by Vern Poythress

“Lord God, Eternal and Almighty Father, we confess and acknowledge without feigning or pretense before your Holy Majesty that we are poor sinners, conceived and born in iniquity and corruption, inclined to do evil, useless for all good; and that, of our vice, we transgress endlessly and ceaselessly your holy commandments, and by so doing we acquire by your just judgment, ruin and perdition upon ourselves. However, Lord, we are displeased with ourselves and our vices with true repentance, desire that your grace may grant us help in our calamity. May you be willing to have pity on us, God and Father, kind and full of mercy in the name of your son Jesus Christ our Lord: and by erasing our sins and stains, make us whole and increase in us from day to day the graces of the Holy Spirit, in order that, recognizing from our whole heart our unrighteousness, we may be touched by displeasure, which cause in us true repentance, which mortifying us to all sins, produce in us fruits of righteousness, which may be acceptable through the same Jesus our Lord. Amen.

(Translated from the old French Bible of Dr. W. Henry Venable by Maria S. Venable (Mara), April 9, 2009, Year of our Lord!)

Suppose…that the tumult of a man’s flesh were to cease and all that his thoughts can conceive, of earth, of water, and of air, should no longer speak to him; suppose that the heavens and even his own soul were silent, no longer thinking of itself but passing beyond; suppose that his dreams and the visions of his imagination spoke no more and that every tongue and every sign and ll that is transient grew silent – for all these things have the same message to tell, if only we can hear it, and their message is this: We did not make ourselves but he who abides forever made us. Suppose, we said, that after giving us this message and bidding us listen to him who made them, they fell silent and he alone should speak to us not through them but in his own voice, so that we should hear him speaking, not by any tongue of the flesh of by and angel’s voice, not in the sound of thunder or in some veiled parable, but in his own voice, the voice of the one whom we love in all these created things; suppose that we heard him himself, with none of these things between ourselves and him, just as in that brief moment… I had reached out in thought and touched the eternal Wisdom which abides over all things; suppose that this state were to continue and all other visions of things inferior were to be removed, so that this single visions entranced and absorbed the one who beheld it and enveloped him in inward joys in such a way that for him life was eternally the same as that instant of understanding for which we had longed so much – would not this be what we are to understand by the words “Come and share the joy of your Lord?”

-From Augustine, Confessions Book 9:10.

Be Encouraged:

• Matthew 6:26—I am are very valuable to Christ.
• Matthew 9:2; Mark 2:5—I am Father’s forgiven son/daughter.
• Matthew 9:36-38—I am the Good Shepherd’s shepherded sheep.
• Matthew 10:31; Luke 12:7—I am of great worth to Father.
• Matthew 12:12—I am of much value to Christ.
• Matthew 18:10-14—I am Father’s precious, protected little one.
• Mark 3:34-35—I am Christ’s brother or sister.
• Luke 6:35—I am a son or daughter of the Most High God.
• Luke 12:4—I am Christ’s friend.
• Luke 20:36; John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17; 1 John 3:2—I am a child of God.
• John 1:13—I am a child born of God.
• John 3:6—I am born of the Spirit.
• John 3:16—I am so loved by Father that he gave his only begotten Son to die for me so that I could live with him forever.
• John 8:35—I am Father’s forever son/daughter.
• John 10:28-30—I am eternally secure in God’s holy love.
• John 13:33—Father says of me, “You are my child.”
• John 15:5—I am a branch abiding in Christ the Vine.
• John 15:9—Jesus says of me, “As Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”
• John 15:14—Jesus says to me, “You are my friend.”
• John 15:15—Jesus says to me, “I no longer call you servant, but friend.”
• John 16:27—Jesus whispers to me, “The Father himself loves you.”
• John 17:23—Jesus says of me, “The Father loves you as he loves me.”
• Acts 10:43—My sins are forgiven.
• Acts 20:28—I am Christ’s flock.
• Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 1:2—Together with all the saints, I am God’s Church.
• Romans 1:7—I am loved by God.
• Romans 4:7-8—My transgressions are forgiven and my sins covered.
• Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14-17; Colossians 1:21-22—I have peace with God.
• Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18—I have full, free, confident, bold access to God.
• Romans 5:5—God poured out his love into my heart.
• Romans 5:6-8—God demonstrated his love for me in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me.
• Romans 5:9—I am saved, delivered from wrath.
• Romans 5:10-11; Colossians 1:20—I am reconciled to God.
• Romans 8:1, 33-34—I will never be condemned because I am in Christ Jesus.
• Romans 8:14—I am among those called, “sons of God.”
• Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6—I have received the Spirit of sonship so I can cry, “Abba, Daddy.”
• Romans 8:17; Galatians 4:7; Ephesians 3:6; Titus 3:7—I am an heir of God.
• Romans 8:17—I am a joint-heir with Jesus.
• Romans 8:23—I am adopted into Father’s forever family.
• Romans 8:31—God is for me, never against me.

Here is a great reminder to encourage us and spur us on our walk with Christ, and to help overcome our gospel amnesia:

• Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17—I am a fisher of men.
• Matthew 5:13—I am the salt of the earth.
• Matthew 5:14—I am the light of the world.
• Matthew 28:19; Luke 14:27; John 8:31; 13:35; 15:8; Acts 6:1, 7; 11:25-26, 29; 14:20-22; 16:1—I am a disciple of Christ.
• Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8—I am Christ’s witness.
• John 3:16-18; 10:28-29; 17:3; Romans 5:21; 6:23; 1 John 5:11—I have eternal life in Christ.
• John 8:32, 36—I am set free from sin in Christ.
• John 10:10—I have abundant life in Christ.
• John 14:26; 16:13—I have been taught all things by the Holy Spirit.
• John 14:27; 16:33—I have peace in Christ.
• John 15:3—I am clean in Christ.
• John 15:4, 5, 8, 16; Romans 7:4—I bear much lasting fruit in Christ.
• John 15:5—I am a branch abiding in Christ the Vine.
• John 15:11—My joy is complete in Christ.
• John 16:33—I have overcome the world in Christ.
• John 17:16—I am not of this world.
• Acts 2:44; 4:32—I am a believer.
• Acts 5:20—I have new life in Christ.
• Acts 8:3; 2 Corinthians 1:1—Together with all the saints, I am God’s Church.
• Acts 11:26—I am a Christian, a little Christ.
• Acts 13:39; Romans 3:24, 26, 28, 30; 4:25; 5:1, 9, 18; 10:10; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:7—I am justified freely and fully.
• Acts 20:32; 1 Corinthians 6:11—I am sanctified.
• Romans 1:6—I am called to belong to Christ.
• Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 6:1, 2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; 4:21, 22; Philemon 4; Jude 3—I am a saint.
• Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14—I am redeemed in Christ.
• Romans 3:21-26; 4:3, 5, 6, 9, 22, 23, 24; 5:17, 19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 3:9—I have been credited with Christ’s righteousness.
• Romans 5:17—I am a recipient of God’s abundant provision of grace.
• Romans 5:18—I have new life in Christ.
• Romans 6:2—I am dead to sin.
• Romans 6:3—I am baptized into Christ’s death.
• Romans 6:4—I am buried with Christ in his death to and over sin.
• Romans 6:4—I have been raised to new life in Christ.
• Romans 6:5—I am united with Christ in his resurrection.
• Romans 6:6—My old self is crucified with Christ.
• Romans 6:6—My body of sin has been done away with.
• Romans 6:6—I am no longer sin’s slave.
• Romans 6:7—I have been freed from sin in Christ.
• Romans 6:8—I died with Christ to sin.
• Romans 6:8—I live with Christ.
• Romans 6:11—I am dead to sin.
• Romans 6:11—I am alive to God.
• Romans 6:13—I have been brought from spiritual death to spiritual life.
• Romans 6:14—Sin shall not be my master.
• Romans 6:14—I am not under law, but under grace.
• Romans 6:18, 22—I have been set free from sin.
• Romans 6:19—I am a slave to righteousness, righteousness masters my being.
• Romans 6:22—I am a slave to God.
• Romans 7:4—I have died to the law.
• Romans 7:6—I serve Christ in the new way of the Spirit.
• Romans 7:22—My inner being delights in God’s law—his holy standards.
• Romans 7:25—In my innermost mind, I am a slave to God’s law.
• Romans 8:1—I will never suffer condemnation because I am in Christ.
• Romans 8:2—I am set free from the law of sin and death in Christ.
• Romans 8:4—I have met the righteous requirements of the law in Christ.
• Romans 8:5—My mindset is on spiritual affections and passions.
• Romans 8:9—I am not controlled by the flesh, but I am controlled by the Spirit.
• Romans 8:29—I am predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son.
• Romans 8:37—I am more than a conqueror in Christ.
• Romans 9:23—I have been prepared in advance by God to be glorious.
• Romans 10:9, 10, 13—I am saved in Christ.
• Romans 15:14—I am full of goodness in Christ.
• Romans 15:14—I am complete in knowledge in Christ.
• Romans 15:14—I am competent to disciple others in Christ.
• Romans 15:16—I am sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
• Romans 15:16—I am acceptable to God in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:2—I am sanctified in Christ Jesus.
• 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 5:26; Colossians 3:12—I am holy in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:8—I am blameless in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:30—I am wise in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:30—I am holiness to God in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 2:16—I have the mind of Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 3:9—I am God’s fellow worker.
• 1 Corinthians 3:9—I am God’s field.
• 1 Corinthians 3:9—I am God’s building.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16—I am God’s sacred temple.
• 1 Corinthians 6:11—I am washed in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 6:19—I am the temple of the Holy Spirit.
• 1 Corinthians 6:20—I have been bought and redeemed with a price.
• 2 Corinthians 2:14—Christ always leads me in a triumphal victory march.
• 2 Corinthians 3:6—I am a competent minister of the new covenant in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 3:10—In Christ I have surpassing, lasting glory.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18—I am a growing reflection of the Lord’s glory.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18—I am increasingly being transformed into Christ’s likeness.
• 2 Corinthians 4:16—I am being renewed inwardly day by day in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17—I am a new creation in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 5:18—I am a minister of reconciliation.
• 2 Corinthians 5:20—I am Christ’s ambassador.
• 2 Corinthians 5:21—I have the righteousness of God in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 8:9—I am spiritually rich in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 11:2—I am Christ’s spiritually pure virgin.
• Galatians 1:4—I have been rescued from this present evil age.
• Galatians 2:20—I am crucified with Christ.
• Galatians 3:13-14—I am redeemed from the curse.
• Galatians 6:1—I am spiritual in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:1—I am faithful in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:4—I have been chosen to be holy in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:4—I have been chosen to be blameless in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:17-19—I have God’s resurrection power actively working in me.
• Ephesians 2:5—I am alive with Christ.
• Ephesians 2:5, 8—I am saved by grace.
• Ephesians 2:6—I have been raised up with Christ.
• Ephesians 2:6—I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.
• Ephesians 2:10—I am Christ’s workmanship, his opus, his poem, his masterpiece.
• Ephesians 2:10—I was prepared in advance in Christ Jesus to do good works.
• Ephesians 2:15—Together with all the saints, I am a new person in Christ.
• Ephesians 2:21—Along with all the saints, I am God’s holy temple.
• Ephesians 2:22—I am a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
• Ephesians 3:16—I am strengthened with power through God’s Spirit.
• Ephesians 3:17—Christ dwells in my heart.
• Ephesians 3:17—I am rooted and established in love.
• Ephesians 3:18—I have power to grasp God’s great love for me in Christ.
• Ephesians 3:19—I am filled to the measure of all the fullness of God in Christ.
• Ephesians 3:20—Christ’s immeasurable resurrection power is at work within me.
• Ephesians 4:13—I am maturing to the full measure of the fullness of Christ.
• Ephesians 4:22—My old self is put off in Christ.
• Ephesians 4:23—I have been made new in the attitude of my mind in Christ.
• Ephesians 4:24—My new self is put on in Christ.
• Ephesians 4:24—I am created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
• Ephesians 5:8—I am now light in the Lord.
• Ephesians 5:9—The fruit of my life is goodness, righteousness, and truth.
• Ephesians 5:26—I am cleansed in Christ
• Ephesians 5:26—I am washed in Christ.
• Ephesians 5:27—Together with the Bride of Christ, I am presentable, radiant, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
• Philippians 2:1—I am united with Christ.
• Philippians 2:1—I am in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
• Philippians 2:13—God works in me to accomplish his good purposes.
• Philippians 2:15—I am blameless and pure, a child of God without fault.
• Philippians 2:15—I shine like the stars in the universe in Christ.
• Philippians 3:9—I have a righteousness that comes from faith in Christ.
• Philippians 3:10—Christ’s resurrection power conforms me to his image.
• Philippians 3:20—My citizenship is in heaven.
• Philippians 4:13—I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• Philippians 4:19—God meets all my needs through his riches in Christ Jesus.
• Colossians 1:2—I am a holy and faithful brother/sister in Christ.
• Colossians 1:12—I am qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints.
• Colossians 1:13—I have been rescued from the dominion of darkness.
• Colossians 1:13—I have been transported into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.
• Colossians 1:22—I am holy in God’s sight, without blemish, and free from accusation.
• Colossians 2:10—I have been given fullness in Christ.
• Colossians 2:11—My old sinful nature/man/self/person has been put off.
• Colossians 2:12—I have been buried with Christ in baptism.
• Colossians 2:12—I have been raised with Christ from the dead.
• Colossians 2:13—God made me alive with Christ.
• Colossians 2:14-15—In Christ, sin is defeated and disarmed in my life.
• Colossians 2:20—I died with Christ to the world.
• Colossians 3:1—I have been raised with Christ.
• Colossians 3:3—I died with Christ.
• Colossians 3:3—My life is now hidden with Christ in God.
• Colossians 3:9—I have taken off the old self with its practices.
• Colossians 3:10—I have put on the new self in Christ.
• Colossians 3:10—The new me in Christ is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator.
• 1 Thessalonians 3:13—I am blameless and holy before God’s presence.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23—God is sanctifying me through and through.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23—God keeps my whole spirit, soul, and body blameless.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:14—I am called to share in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 2 Timothy 1:7—God placed within me his spirit of power, love, and wisdom.
• 2 Timothy 2:3-4—I am a good soldier in Jesus Christ.
• 2 Timothy 2:5—I am a victorious athlete in Jesus Christ.
• 2 Timothy 2:6—I am a disciplined, hard working farmer in Jesus Christ.
• Titus 3:5—I am saved, washed, re-birthed, and renewed in Christ and by the Spirit.
• Hebrews 1:3—I am purified from sin in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 2:10—I am brought to glory in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 2:11—I am made holy in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 7:25—I am saved completely.
• Hebrews 8:10; 10:16—God’s law is in my mind, written on my heart.
• Hebrews 9:12—I have eternal redemption in Christ.
• Hebrews 9:14—My conscience is cleansed in Christ.
• Hebrews 9:15—I am set free from sin in Christ.
• Hebrews 9:26-27—My sins are done away with and taken away in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 10:2—I am cleansed once for all, guiltless in Christ.
• Hebrews 10:10—I have been made holy once for all by Christ’s sacrifice.
• Hebrews 10:14—I have been made perfect forever in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 10:22—I am cleansed and washed in Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:3—I am born again, given new birth in Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:18-19—I am redeemed from my old empty way of life by Christ’s precious blood.
• 1 Peter 1:22—I am purified by faith in Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:23—I have been born again of imperishable seed.
• 1 Peter 2:5—I am a living stone, being built into a spiritual house.
• 1 Peter 2:5—Along with all the saints, I am a holy priesthood.
• 1 Peter 2:9—Along with all the saints, I am a chosen people.
• 1 Peter 2:9—Along with all the saints, I am a member of a royal priesthood.
• 1 Peter 2:9—Along with all the saints, I am a citizen of a holy nation.
• 1 Peter 2:9-10—Along with all the saints, I am a people belonging to God.
• 1 Peter 2:9—I am called out of darkness into Christ’s wonderful light.
• 2 Peter 1:3—God’s Divine power has given me everything I need for life and       godliness.
• 2 Peter 1:4—Through God’s great and precious promises I participate in the Divine nature.
• 2 Peter 1:4—Through God’s great and precious promises I have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
• 1 John 2:20—I have an anointing from the Holy One and I know the truth.
• 1 John 4:4—I have overcome the world, the flesh, and the Devil because greater is he who is in me, than he who is in the world.
• 1 John 4:4, 6—I am from God.
• 1 John 4:7; 5:1—I am born of God.
• 1 John 5:4-5—Born of God, I overcome the world by faith in Christ.
• Jude 24—I stand before God’s glorious presence without fault and with great joy.
• Revelation 1:5—I am freed from my sins by Christ’s blood.
• Revelation 1:6—God has made me, together with all the saints, a kingdom of priests.
• Revelation 19:7-8, 14—Along with all the saints, I am the pure Bride of Christ, clean, white, and righteous.

For the Christian, to develop a worldview that is in alignment with Scripture is paramount. As Paul says,”Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom. 12:1) As Christians, we are each called to be actively examining our beliefs, and where there is incongruity between our worldview and Scripture (and there always will to some degree) we are to seek to conform more fully to Christ as He is revealed in the Word.

About this Wilkens and Sanford remark in Hidden Worldviews: In reality, our stories are structured, in larger part, by forces that reside beneath the surface. My actions manifest the subterranean influence of my self-understanding, my convictions and my values. Why is this so important? What my character becomes, is also molded by what I believe and value.

As Christians, most-if not all of us, would have no problem saying that it is often very difficult to live a life that is consistent with what we say we believe. At the same time, we should agree that:

1) the central convictions of a Christian worldview are consistent with each other and
2) acting in accordance with Christian convictions yields good results in our lives (and glorify God)

Without reflection, ideas contrary to a Christian worldview creep into our convictional beliefs, and we might not even realize it. The problem here is that, while confessional beliefs exist on the conscious level (which must be the case if we “confess” them), many of our convictional beliefs work on the subconscious level.

Our Christian story can easily be hijacked by alien stories that take our lives in directions we don’t want to go. Because what we are not conscious of can hurt us, it is important to take an inventory of our true convictions.

-excerpts from Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives by Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford