Rankin Wilbournes Union with Christ is one of Hanks favorite books, so when Wilbournes newest book The Cross Before Me The Way to the Good Life arrived in the mail he read it immediately. As soon as he finished reading the book he knew that he needed to promote it as much as possible and invite Rankin Wilbourne back on the Hank Unplugged podcast for another discussion on the most important aspect of our human existence union with God.

Topics discussed include: Why did Rankin Wilbourne decide to write The Cross Before Me The Way to the Good Life with Brian Gregor (8:50); what did the cross mean in the ancient world? (10:10); how to find true happiness in the cross (12:50); the relationship between Union with Christ and The Cross Before Me and how both books truly show the way to live your best life now (16:55); the importance of doing all that we do for the Glory of God (20:30); why Rankin Wilbourne used Tom Brady, Brad Pitt and Andre Agassi as examples that all men seek to find true happiness (23:00); the problem with seeking a culture driven formula for happiness as opposed to a Christ driven formula for true happiness (26:40); the significance of suffering and why we should rejoice in our suffering (30:20); Ephrem the Syrian, Bernard of Clairvaux and Jesus Christ on the importance of humility (34:30); Hank recalls a time when he was critical of the prosperity gospel and how it taught him to focus on the opinion of God instead of the opinion of man (41:45); the importance of confession as a spiritual exercise (44:00); the problem with cultural Christianity and the idea that we can have union with Christ and union with the culture, making Jesus an accessory to our identity as opposed to the center of our reality (47:00); recovering the scandal of the cross in a culture that has domesticated the cross (50:35); the importance of crucifying our ambition and ego (54:00); recapturing a sense of history and the value of Christian tradition rightly understood in order to properly understand the Bible its Sola Scriptura not Solo Scriptura (57:00); misunderstanding freedom as the ability to do whatever we want and why cruciform freedom is the source of true freedom (1:01:05); the greatest failure in life is a failure to love, but the cross shows us what love looks like and how to live a life of cruciform love (1:04:00); the myth that the church needs to be more relevant to grow (1:09:20); examining the idea that you cannot have God as your Father without having the Church as your mother (1:13:00); who deserves a good life? (1:18:00); God wants us to be both happy and holy, because a life of holiness is a life of happiness (1:23:00); the importance of spiritual exercises to improve our spiritual health because grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to merit (1:24:30).

For more information on Rankin Wilbourne s Union with Christ and The Cross Before Me The Way to the Good Life click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-cri1910hup/

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