Category: Identity

Do you ever wonder or worry whether or not you have done all you should to meet a calling or an opportunity in your life? Have you ever questioned whether you were “fulfilling your mission” with God in a particular area?

Maybe it’s because I am four weeks away from sending my last child off to college that the question rumbles around in my head from time to time: “Have I done all I need to do to equip this last kid to fly fully and confidently from the nest?”

This morning I was struck by the fact that I can barely remember Easter.

I couldn’t recall anything about the date or celebration of Easter in my life this year—not even what month it was in without consulting a calendar. I had a vague sense that I never finished out my Lenten practice of watching episodes of The Chosen.

My inability to locate a memory of Easter 2026 was immediately accompanied by another upsetting realization: my struggle to remember Easter is more than just a calendar and memory-related fact.

We live in a world that drives us to think of our value in terms of our behavior, our productivity, our merits. The grace of the gospel overturns such ideas. Knowing how God sees His children is critical to our mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Today I'm sharing a excerpt from my latest book, which focuses on the astounding identity available to us in Christ. One of those identities is that we are blameless before Him.

Accepting the invitation extended in the gospel of Christ allows a person to receive a new identity: that of God’s beloved child (John 1:12). After accepting God’s invitation to salvation, however, we must respond to His continual invitation to intimacy, to return, and to rest. 

This invitation to experience more of Him is true for a new Christian or one who has walked with Him for decades. 

“And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings…” Hebrews 10:21-22a (NIV)

I’m old enough to remember singing hymns in church every Sunday. One I have strong memories of is Fanny Crosby’s Blessed Assurance. We sang it at many Wednesday-night suppers at the Baptist church of my childhood. 

Regardless of how you feel about Halloween, for many people it marks a chance to put on a costume and engage the world in ways they might not ordinarily. People enjoy the opportunity to express their personality in costumes. Masks and disguises play a key role in this annual celebration.