Dependence feels like a temporary necessity until we can do things ourselves. However, dependence isn't a means to an end but rather how God intends us to live. The skill of self-control is dependence. Exhibiting self-control puts us in a position to discern God's activity and trust it. Disciplined dependence is about paying attention to what we think and see. Participating in a new humanity requires us to be attentive in each moment.

Social isn't a game not measured by our status, but how we participate and represent the new humanity created by and defined by Jesus. The way we leverage authority over our heart, mind, hands, and feet matter. Everything He has done for us should affect everything about us. There are needed skills to navigate this new culture and embrace our new identity. When we get unsettled with unfamiliar things, we will feel the pull to return to familiar things and our old ways. We are born again into a way of life in which God's Kingdom becomes more normal and less foreign. The world is not black and white. Practicing the skill of discernment enables us to navigate the gray.

The Gospel is a radical reorientation of what it means to be social. One relationship defines all others. More than anything else, our relationship with Christ should shape how we interact, relate, and respond to the world around us. Jesus didn't just make us into a new person; He made us into a new people. A relationship with Christ is personal but never intended to be private. Our new corporate identity has implications on our individual lives. It gives us a new perspective, culture, and skills we need to practice. A willingness to practice is the only way for the ways of God's Kingdom to become less foreign and more natural to us.

There is plenty of fuel for a vision to retreat, escape, control, or build our comfortable kingdom with our familiar tribe. But participating and contributing to the renewal of all that God intends requires something far more profound. We need a vision for the Gospel compelling enough for the sacrifice that it will require. Redemption grinds through time and history, with starts and stalls. The promise of God's redemptive promise at times looks unstoppable and, at other times, barely recognizable. The challenge of redemption is belief-- believing it will happen because it often defies our calculations. God's redemptive plan has little concern for our comfort but promises a depth of joy and peace that we cannot experience otherwise.

Scripture urges us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling - this isn't a call for more effort and earning, but instead speaks to the posture we must display as we confront our sin and struggles as well the world's brokenness. We expose those places where doubt, pride, anger, and fear have taken hold and fight back with greater hope. We sit in stunned silence not only by the significance of our sin but the tremendous outpouring of Christ's love, forgiveness, and grace. Finally, we strive for deeper dependency and greater faith that reframes and reshapes everything about us. We remember by entering into our struggles, naming our brokenness, and declaring the hope we have in Christ.

When we take our sin seriously, we learn to see the beauty of forgiveness and experience the power of love. Healing is happening in places we can't see. Recognizing that we live in forgiveness as one who stands forgiven dramatically alters how we navigate the brokenness in our lives and the world around us. We break the cycle of struggles by allowing them to see the light of day. Confession is refusing to conceal our deepest distrust, misdeeds, and attitudes with God and trusted others so we may experience His ready forgiveness and healing. We fight back with a greater hope by exposing those places where doubt, pride, anger, and fear have taken hold. Small acts of obedience can become declarations of trust.

Everyone would agree we live in a crazy world full of broken people and systems. We have plenty of opinions and viewpoints on the cause and the solution to our woes. The condition of our world often lures our hope. If the world gets better, then we will feel better - the state of our world determines the condition of our soul. Living this way leaves us on shaky ground with restless hearts. Sin is what's wrong, and everything else we encounter is just a symptom of it. We tend to think of sin behaviorally, while God wants us to see our struggles relationally. Sin isn't about a broken rule but broken trust. It involves depending upon anything other than God as the source of our identity, sufficiency, and life.

Obedience is learning how to respond to what God is doing in front of us, around us, and in us, which requires vision. Mike Ashcraft and Carson Goslee sat down and talked about the 2022 Personal Retreat and the importance of carving out moments for reflection and articulation. We want to pause and consider what the events of 2021 felt like and look forward to the future with great anticipation and expectation.

On Christmas, as we live within the middle space of hope seen and hope fulfilled, we celebrate the arrival of Jesus and wait for His return. When Jesus says He’s “the way, the truth, and the life,” He wasn’t giving us directions to Heaven, but demonstrating the path to experiencing freedom and fullness right here and right now. Every time we forgive, love, and extend grace, we bring a bit of His heart to the world around us.

Forgiveness is more than a clean slate; it's the road we must travel to experience true freedom. It serves as the operating system within God's Kingdom.vIn our relationship with God, there are no borders or any "no trespassing" signs, we have complete access to Him, and therein, He has full access to us. We can offer our whole hearts to God because He has forgiven every part of it. The way of Jesus is the way through. Jesus' death on the cross not only paid for our sins but freed us from its power and rule. Deliverance is more than an escape; it is salvation. The way of deliverance is the journey out of bondage.