Saying you are a Christian these days can be taken to mean many different things. My journey in faith has led me to a part of the evangelical protestant church where the goal is not to make bad people good, but to help dead people come alive in Jesus. Right now I am reading and listening to Louie Giglio, Andy Stanley, Erwin McManus, Bill Hybels, and Tim Keller.
These are some of the verses I turn to:
Romans 3:
Now we are well aware that whatever the Law says
is said for those who are subject to the Law,
so that every mouth may be silenced,
and the whole world brought under the judgment of God.
So then, no human being can be found upright at the tribunal of God
by keeping the Law;
all that the Law does is to tell us what is sinful.
God’s saving justice was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
but now it has been revealed altogether apart from law:
God’s saving justice
given through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe.
No distinction is made:
all have sinned and lack God’s glory,
and all are justified by the free gift of his grace
through being set free in Christ Jesus.
God appointed him as a sacrifice for reconciliation,
through faith, by the shedding of his blood,
and so showed his justness;
first for the past,
when sins went unpunished because he held his hand;
and now again for the present age,
to show how he is just
and justifies everyone who has faith in Jesus.
So what then becomes of our boasts?
There is no room for them.
On what principle — that only actions count?
No; that faith is what counts,
since, as we see it,
a person is justified by faith
and not by doing what the Law tells him to do.
1 Corinthians 13:
Though I command languages both human and angelic —
if I speak without love,
I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.
And though I have the power of prophecy,
to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge,
and though I have the faith necessary to move mountains —
if I am without love,
I am nothing.
Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess,
and even give up my body to be burned —
if I am without love,
it will do me no good whatever.
Love is always patient and kind;
love is never jealous;
love is not boastful or conceited,
it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage,
it does not take offence or store up grievances.
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but finds its joy in the truth.
It is always ready to make allowances,
to trust,
to hope and endure whatever comes.
Love never comes to an end.
But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with;
if tongues, they will fall silent;
and if knowledge, it will be done away with.
For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly;
but once perfection comes,
all imperfect things will be done away with.
When I was a child, I used to talk like a child,
and see things as a child does,
and think like a child;
but now that I have become an adult,
I have finished with all childish ways.
Now
we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles,
but then
we shall be seeing face to face.
Now
I can know only imperfectly;
but then
I shall know just as fully as I am myself known.
As it is, these remain:
faith, hope and love,
the three of them;
and the greatest of them is love.
Matthew 6:
Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention;
otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven
So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you;
this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets to win human admiration.
In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
But when you give alms,
your left hand must not know what your right is doing;
your almsgiving must be secret,
and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites:
they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues
and at the street corners for people to see them.
In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
But when you pray,
go to your private room,
shut yourself in,
and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place,
and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do,
for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard.
Do not be like them;
your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
So you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test,
but save us from the Evil One.
Yes, if you forgive others their failings,
your heavenly Father will forgive you yours;
but if you do not forgive others,
your Father will not forgive your failings either.
When you are fasting,
do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do:
they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting.
In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
But when you fast,
put scent on your head and wash your face,
so that no one will know you are fasting
except your Father who sees all that is done in secret;
and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth,
where moth and woodworm destroy them
and thieves can break in and steal.
But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven,
where neither moth nor woodworm destroys them
and thieves cannot break in and steal.
For wherever your treasure is,
there will your heart be too.
The lamp of the body is the eye.
It follows that if your eye is clear,
your whole body will be filled with light.
But if your eye is diseased,
your whole body will be darkness.
If then, the light inside you is darkened,
what darkness that will be!
No one can be the slave of two masters:
he will either hate the first and love the second,
or be attached to the first and despise the second.
You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
That is why I am telling you
not to worry about your life and what you are to eat,
nor about your body and what you are to wear.
Surely life is more than food,
and the body more than clothing!
Look at the birds in the sky.
They do not sow or reap or gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not worth much more than they are?
Can any of you,
however much you worry,
add one single cubit to your span of life?
And why worry about clothing?
Think of the flowers growing in the fields;
they never have to work or spin;
yet I assure you that not even Solomon
in all his royal robes
was clothed like one of these.
Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field
which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow,
will he not much more look after you,
you who have so little faith?
So do not worry;
do not say,
“What are we to eat?
What are we to drink?
What are we to wear?”
It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things.
Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.
Set your hearts on his kingdom first,
and on God’s saving justice,
and all these other things will be given you as well.
So do not worry about tomorrow:
tomorrow will take care of itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.