They are saying: one day we will all regret standing for Scriptural values, because everyone else in the nation will agree we were wrong for not agreeing with them. 

As my pastor friend Barry Phipps stated: "Don't try to be on the right side of history. Be on the right side of eternity."

1 Corinthians 7:31 reminds us "This world as you see it is on it's way out."

I don't say "be on the right side of eternity" to be right. I'm not trying to prove a point, or win an argument.

As the Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians, "We understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too."

I hope you know that many Christians in the world are sincere. 

As a person who has experienced God's grace and greatness, I also (like the Apostle Paul and many others) work hard to persuade people to ditch sin and receive peace with God through Jesus. 

I do this because I "understand my fearful responsibility to the Lord." Here are some underlying Christian beliefs from a few of my friends around the world (in tweets): 

Rich Langton: God doesn't just do good, He's the definition of good. Everything we think of as good, ultimately reflects Him! 

David Sliker: When this season of life is finished and the full story is told, we will not have even one small complaint with the leadership of God. 

Pradeepan Jeeva: If we show people Christians are better than what they have heard, they may start wondering if God is better than they had previously heard. And, of course, He is.

A person who has truly experienced the gospel knows: 

• We ourselves are hopeless without the gospel. 
• We are not goody-two-shoes that don't have a care in the world. 
• Everyday in every way we are dependent on the gospel.
• Since we've experienced the love available only in loving Jesus, and it feels so good, we yearn for others to experience this same love. 
• We are not simply responsible to do nice things in society (although we love to do lots of it!). The greatest injustice is people without the hope of the gospel.
• What God did for us in His Son Jesus is so significant that any other "ways" or "truths" fade in comparison to the truth of Jesus. No one else can save, otherwise Jesus wouldn't have wasted His time on earth, and given His life for us in such a drastic way.
• Nothing is more powerful than the gospel. Christ's power transforms hearts and lives from loving sin to loving God. But this power is available only through believing the gospel, and it is an ongoing work in our hearts throughout our lives.
• While we are not perfect (by any means), being satisfied and okay with what the Bible calls sin would lead to death, because it would cut us off from the life and peace we have in Christ.
• Nothing in this world compares to Jesus! Once you experience His touch, you understand. It's indescribable.
• We don't need to clean up our lives to come to God. He takes us as we are, and does something life-changing in our hearts, right away, and in ongoing ways throughout our lives.
• We are to love people and care for them in practical ways, no matter if they agree with us, or believe with us, or not. We are sincere. We want to show we care. 

During our time together, I shared how over the past few years God has been really burning through my motives for ministry, and all that's left is a singular passion to do whatever God wants me to do.

Scott tends to be a bit bodacious, and looked at me and brashly said, "well yea, that's what all of us want. Every Christian in the world would say that exact same thing."

But he didn't get it. 

For me, this has been a real revelation. It's been easy for me to say, but harder for me to do. I'm still learning to express what God has been doing in my heart. What I wanted to tell him was that I no longer have the same level of craving to do big ministry or to be influential or well-known. Through the pain and the process and the patience over seasons of faithful ministry, I've been brought to a place of dependency where all that is left that truly fulfills me is pleasing God. It no longer feels satisfying to do ministry for the sake of ministry. I'm realizing more and more that the only thing worth living for is the will of God.

Whatever God wants for my life, whether it be rich or poor, humble or known, stage or serving, this or that. All I want is what God wants.

One of my favorite quotes is from the late Brennan's mentor, Dominique. Dominique was the leader of the "Little Brother's of Jesus" of the Franciscan order in Spain. In his final journal entry, he wrote:

"All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If He wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is His concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that."

This is our goal as a ministry:

• Not necessarily to do big things, although we want to take the risks that He calls us to for His glory.
• Not to be influential, or successful, or well known, or significant, but to be everything He calls us to be, and to do everything He calls us to do with the joy and the strength that He gives. 
• Sometimes this means obscurity and faithfulness, and sometimes this means scary risks and staggering success, but either way we've found our only satisfaction in feeding off the will of God. Obedience to God's Word and God's will is our singular aim.

I've seen this change and these benefits in so many of my friends and family. As they entrust their lives to Jesus, and begin to turn and follow Him, they experience countless benefits. Some are extreme examples, leaving lifestyles of hatred towards God and destructive addictions. Others have more subtle shifts and changes, but the benefits and good that come to them in the gospel is vivid and astonishing.

There are so many benefits of following Jesus. Here are just a few:

1. You feel the weight of sin and shame lifted.
There is an immediate effect of believing and recieving Christ - the sensation of the weight of sin and shame being lifted and completely removed from your heart and mind. It is not something anyone has to make up or explain to you. As you put your trust in Jesus and His gospel, and ask Him to forgive you for your sins, you actually and literally feel His forgiveness.

2. You sense the power of sin is broken.
Sin and destructive patterns lose a great part of their luster once we believe in Jesus and recieve Him into our lives. Sin is still there, and Christians are not perfect, but ultimately, we don't crave it like we used to.

"And the things of this world grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace." 

3. God is with you.
God promises us in the gospel that He will not only forgive and cleanse us, but also be with us. There is instant access for those who trust in Jesus to the Presence and glory of God. As we worship, pray, read the Scripture, walk in Christian community, we sense that we are not alone. And never will be again. 

4. Restored family and relationships.
One of the powerful effects of the gospel is that it saves us from allowing our life to revolve around ourselves. God shows us and empowers us in the cross how to pick up our own cross and live like Jesus did.

5. You see God's activity in your life. 
As our eyes open to the greatness of Jesus in the gospel, we begin to see and take notice of God's grace and activity in our lives in profound ways. We no longer relate and question a "God out there somewhere," but instead He is here, He is near, and He is at work in my life in mind boggling ways.

All this is available to every human being on earth through the gospel. God loved you so much He sent His one and only Son to pay the sacrifice for your sins on the cross. He did this because we are not good enough on our own. We must stop trying to be good enough for God, and instead trust in His goodness for us in Jesus. Believe in what God has done for you, and begin to trust your life to Him and experience these countless benefits!

If you are a follower of Jesus, what are some benefits you have experienced beyond what I've shared here? Share with the community in the comments below.

Last year, Jon Bloom, President of Desiring God, the ministry of John Piper, connected with me on twitter, and we got together for lunch. Since that time, I've had the great joy of getting together with him every few months to talk about the Lord, and learn from him. 

Last fall, he gave me a working copy of his first book Not By Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking By Faith. As I began reading, I was soon swept away by the power and the insight within it's pages. Earlier this year, he asked me to write an endorsement for the book, which releases in bookstores everywhere today. I gladly said yes. I am astonished to have been asked, alongside other endorsers for the book: John Piper, J.I. Packer, Ann Voskamp and others.

I think this is the most important book you should read this year, because it contains a depth of discipleship untouched by most books.

His book is available everywhere today, and I wanted to spend a few moments asking him more about the background in the blog interview below, to encourage you to pick up a copy right away.

This is your first book. After working with Dr. Piper on so many of his books, why did you decide to write this one now? 

I didn’t actually set out to write a book. Nine years ago I began writing devotional letters to the intercessors and financial supporters of Desiring God. Over the years the letters have focused on themes of walking by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7) because I constantly need fresh examples and exhortations to trust God’s promises over my perceptions. 

As the years passed, I received increasing amounts of feedback that readers were finding these meditations very helpful. Some were keeping every letter in a folder. About 5 years ago I began to receive requests that these be published in a book. I thought nothing of it at first. But as the requests increased I wondered if the Lord was in it. My wife, Pam, and I, along with others, prayed about it for a couple of years. In the fall of 2011, I submitted a proposal to Crossway Publishers. They graciously approved it and now there’s a book.

What are the few main takeaways you hope people get out of reading the book?

Trust God’s promises over your perceptions. That’s the lesson of every story in the book and most stories in the Bible.

The work God wants us to do is to believe in Jesus (John 6:29). That is the most important work we will ever do in our lives.

Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6), because everything that “does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).

The battle lines are drawn over faith. Paul is not being metaphorical when he calls life a fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12). It’s a real war and the fiercest fights you’ll ever have are over believing in Jesus and all the promises of God. That’s why things are so hard and why the Bible (and therefore this book) is “written so that you may believe” (John 20:31).

Are there any chapters that are the most meaningful to you, and why?

Today it’s chapter 26, “God’s Purposes Can Be Opposite of Our Perceptions.” It’s based on John 9 when Jesus healed the man born blind. This man had lived his whole life with a disability that had resulted in exquisite suffering, poverty, humiliation, and loneliness all of his life. And on top of that, all the normal, successful people condemned him as having sinned as a fetus (either that or his parents). What had life been like for him? Then Jesus came and changed everything. And what everybody thought had been God’s curse turned out to be a blessing beyond comprehension, and what everybody thought had God’s blessing—the religious leaders’ prosperity—turned out to have God’s curse. The man was born blind to display God’s grace. That’s strengthening my faith today.

Why do you think faith is so important in God's economy?

Faith is important to God because we glorify the one we trust. The one we trust ultimately is our god. Faith is trusting God while unbelief is leaning on our own understanding (Prov. 3:5). Unbelief in God is essentially deposing God in our hearts and putting ourselves in his place. 

The essence of the fall of Adam and Eve was that they trusted their perceptions over God’s word as the more reliable mediator of truth. They trusted their ears in the serpent’s lie, their eyes in the fruit’s beauty, and their emotions in desiring to be wise like God (Gen. 3:6)).

When we become new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), it happens by God’s grace through faith (Eph. 2:8). Faith is the beginning of the new creation. It’s restoring first what was first lost in Eden.

So faith is important to God because it marks his children. God’s children believe in Jesus (John 8:47). The devil’s children don’t believe in Jesus but believe lies (John 8:44).

Who are some of your personal heroes of faith, and what did they go through that makes them stand out to you?

Some biblical heroes:

• Abraham who believed God’s promise for a child for 25 years while it grew increasingly humanly impossible to occur;
• Joseph (Jacob’s son) who trusted God for 12 years when things went from bad to worse in Egypt;
• John the Baptist who rejoiced to see Jesus increase and himself decrease;

Some heroes of Christian history:

• Augustine who struggled so much on his God-led journey to faith;
• George Mueller and Hudson Taylor who were willing to trust completely in the promises of God and lived Hebrews 11:6 and Philippians 4:6-7 beautifully;  
• John Piper whose preaching, writing, and personal example of faith has shaped me more than any other extra-biblical teacher;     

What are your hopes for people as they read your book?

My hope is that this book will help people believe in Jesus while living in a very confusing, painful world that “lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) who is working with all his might to “blind the minds of unbelievers” (2 Cor. 4:4) and lead believers astray (Matt. 24:24). I want to help them to see Jesus through the window of the word and follow him.

Please pick up "Not By Sight" at Crossway or Amazon today. I would love to hear your feedback as you start reading.

Also, today, I interviewed with Jon Bloom and Susie Larson on Faith radio network. You can hear more from Jon and me about his book here.

The Bible seems to presume that people are going to be asking us about "the hope we have." 

When is the last time someone asked you about your hope? 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. In fact, I hope you never feel this way when you read my blogs. And I don't want to pressure you to constantly be witnessing to people. I really don't think witnessing out of guilt or pressure results in a believable gospel presentation anyways. People can tell our hearts and motives when we share the gospel with them. I hope when you share Jesus, you do it purely out of overflowing hope in the Lord, and wanting other people to have this hope too.

I think what this question in the Bible is implying is that people should be noticing a difference in us; in the way we carry ourselves. 

And I don't think this deserves the typical Christian answer of: you should look different from the world. Christians shouldn't smoke, drink or swear. If this was the case, then Muslims would stand out the most because many of them even dress different than the rest of us. Do you really think people are drawn to Christ because of what you don't do? Honestly, that's probably what scares them more than anything - they think Christianity means they will have to give up a whole bunch of stuff. People aren't drawn to Christ because of what you don't do. People are drawn to Christ because of what you do.

The main difference people should notice in followers of Jesus is in the way we carry ourselves by caring for other people. 

Here's 2 things people need from us in order to ask us about our hope:

1. Joy. When you experience God's grace and care in your own life; when His Spirit fills you up, you walk in step with the Spirit. The way you know this is happening is when you see the fruit of the Spirit at work in your life: a whole lot of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. 

Do you seem like a person filled with hope? Not a person who is perfect necessarily, but who has joy. We should never tell people about the joy of Jesus with a frown (or with a fake smile pasted across our face). Out of our deep joy in God, we will finally have something to give someone else.

2. Proximity. People don't ask you about your hope from hit-and-run witnessing. While I'm excited about all types of evangelism, what Scripture is implying is people will be around you long enough to see a difference in you. Please don't feel the need to always witness to people the first chance you get. Be hospitable and friendly and caring. Learn to be a good friend. Lord willing, you can share the gospel with many people in your life, but more than that, you can live closely with many people who need the Lord and be a shining example of God's grace in your life: after all He made something out of your mess.