David Mathis

It is grace to be forgiven of sinful acts, and grace to be supplied the heart for righteous ones.

The grace of God cannot be quarantined to individuals.

We don__ just learn facts, but we learn a Face. We__e not just learners of principles, but of a Person. We are lifelong learners in relationship with Jesus as we hear his voice in his word and have his ear in prayer, and share in community with his body, all through the power of his Spirit.

God designed the church to be a community of lifelong learners under the earthly guidance of leaders who are teachers at heart. The Christian faith is not a finite course of study for the front-end of adulthood. Our mind-set shouldn__ be to first do our learning and then spend the rest of our lives drawing from that original deposit of knowledge. Rather, ongoing health in the Christian life is inextricably linked to ongoing learning.

He is holy, and so we worship (adoration). He is merciful, and so we repent (confession). He is gracious, and so we express appreciation (thanksgiving). He is loving and caring, and so we petition him for ourselves, our family, our friends, and our world (supplication).

The great purpose of prayer is not getting things from God but getting God.

_Prayer to God is not only the place for divulging our heart, but also developing our desires.

This is the heart of prayer__ot getting things from God, but getting God.

Prayer doesn__ begin with our needs, but with his bounty.

It shouldn__ surprise us_to find that prayer is not finally about getting things from God, but getting God.

For the glory of God, the good of others, and the satisfaction of our souls, the aim of the Christian life is our coming to share in_Christlikeness or godliness__hich is __oliness_ rightly understood.

The hands of the clock are ever in the hands of God. It is arrogant to plan without planning for God.

It is true that for many aged saints, gray hair and a good head go hand in hand. But for others, far too many others, length of life only entrenches stubbornness, irritability, and careless ways of thinking and living. Life experience may increase inevitably with age, but without some long-term pattern of receptivity and intentionality, multiplied experiences will only create more confusion than clarity.

One of the effects of the gospel going deeper into our souls is that it frees our fingers to loosen their grasp on our goods.

For the Christian, the issue is not just that we give, but how. __od loves a cheerful giver_ (2 Cor. 9:7). And giving gladly rests on the great why of Christian generosity: that Christ himself__ur Savior, Lord, and greatest treasure__emonstrated the ultimate in generosity in coming to buy us back. __hough he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich_ (2 Cor. 8:9). If Jesus is in us, then increasingly such an open-handed tendency will be in us as well.

Good disciplemaking requires both intentionality and relationality. It means being strategic and being social. Most of us are bent one way or the other. We__e naturally relational, but lacking in intentionality. Or we find it easy to be intentional, but not relational. We typically tip (or sometimes lean) one way or the other as we begin the disciplemaking process. But tipping and leaning won__ cover the full picture of what life-on-life disciplemaking requires. It__ not just friend-to-friend, and it__ not just teacher-to-student. It__ both. There is the sharing of ordinary life (relationship) and seeking to initiate and make the most of teachable moments (intentionality). There are the long walks through Galilee and the sermons on the mount. Disciplemaking is both organic and engineered, relational and intentional, with shared context and shared content, quality and quantity time.

It is the grace of God that frees a soul from selfishness and empowers not just generosity, but sacrifice. And such sacrifice God will not overlook. In faith our giving to meet others_ needs becomes an occasion for more divine grace to flood our souls.

Nothing shows our hearts like sacrifice. When we are willing not only to give from our excess, but to embrace some personal loss or disadvantage for the sake of showing generosity toward others, we say loudly and clearly_that we have a greater love than ourselves and our comforts.