The point is simple: Christian character is not manufactured by religious self-effort. It grows as we walk by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit, and breathe the atmosphere of the Spirit.

“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.” — Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace Imagine a man who has had every ounce of his humanity beaten out of him. His name is Jean Valjean. For nineteen years, he was locked away in a brutal French penal colony—initially for stealing a single loaf of bread to feed his starving niece, and then for trying to escape. For nearly two decades, he was treated not as a man, but as an animal with a number

Christian character is not a religious self-improvement project. It’s not a spiritual Pinterest craft where we superglue love, joy, and patience onto ourselves and hope nobody notices the branches are dead. Real Christian growth begins deeper than behavior. It begins with God’s design, God’s grace, God’s Spirit, and the life of Christ taking root in us.

I once saw a grown man working out on an ab crunch machine in the gym while eating a giant cookie. Many of us want spiritual fruit the same way folks want abs every January—quickly, easily, and preferably without having to change much about our habits or daily routine. We want the results without the process. We want apples without planting the trees, a harvest without waiting on the weather, and Christlike character without the slow, steady work God does in our hearts. We w

It was hard to write about the virtues and vices of Saul and David . I saw myself in many of the negatives and only a few of the positives. But to write about the character of Jesus, now that takes a whole other level of daring. He doesn’t present to us character as we are. That was the purpose of writing on Saul and David. Jesus Christ presents to us the character of what we may become. So as you read this, please remember that I’m just doing my best. My presentation of Jesu

Saul looked the part. David was formed in hidden places. One had stature, image, and public strength. The other had been shaped by God in fields, caves, failure, and repentance. This post explores a searching question for every Christian—and especially every church leader: What holds a person up when the pressure comes?

9th in the Wide Witness, Deep Root Series There is a reason nobody hangs a swing from a branch of a hollow tree. A branch like that may look sturdy enough from a distance. It may still have bark. It may still have leaves. But if you hang real weight on it, the branch gives way, the rotten tree comes down, and somebody ends up in the begonias. A lot of modern discipleship feels exactly like that. We want fruit before fiber. We want visible sweetness before invisible strength.