Jeff Gray

"To persist in disobedience is to increase our necessity for discipline." There are certain lessons in the Christian life that I find myself returning to over and over again. One of those is surrender. Not just surrendering my plans, dreams, desires, and need for control, but also surrendering the sinful patterns that still linger in my life. Some of those sins are obvious to me. Others are graciously exposed through the loving correction of my wife, trusted friends, or fellow believers....

One of the greatest lies I have believed during my Christian life was this: "When things slow down, I'll have more time for God's mission." The problem is that things never slow down. For years, I tried to work the Kingdom of God around my life instead of working my life around the Kingdom of God. I loved Jesus and wanted to make disciples, but disciple-making often became something I tried to squeeze into the margins of an already crowded schedule. I was busy with work, projects, hobbies,...

We live in a time when biblical knowledge is everywhere. With a few clicks, we can listen to sermons, watch Bible teaching videos, read theology articles, follow Christian podcasts, and download devotionals instantly. Many believers today have access to more biblical information in one week than some Christians throughout history had access to in a lifetime. Yet with all this knowledge available, one difficult question remains: Are we actually obeying what we already know? Jesus never...