Your Christian life began with two seemingly contradictory events, the day you were born again to walk in 'newness of life' while at the same time being baptized into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus on the cross made the payment for your sin with God's blood, but He had to die to make that payment. Salvation is a free gift, but the moment you receive it you start the 'dying process' that Paul calls our sanctification. Life is short, death is sure, sin the curse and Christ the cure. So much of our Christian lives are about perspective, and when we lose focus on the Lord we lose our perspective. Imagine for a moment that you are lying in a hospital bed with tubes running in and out of your body, perhaps you've been hit by a car, or a stroke, and suddenly your whole world has changed. How important in that moment would be the things that consume you today in worry, disappointment and heartbreak? Well, I know people right now that would trade places with you in two literal seconds, and they would be beyond ecstatic to have the problems you have, to them it would seem a trifle. They'd be grinning from ear to ear. That's the difference that perspective makes. What's the proper perspective for the blood-bought child of God? That's my message today on this NTEB Sunday Service.