Dory B’s Reviews > Saints and Scoundrels in the Story of Jesus > Status Update

To become a Christian is not merely to agree with a set of facts about Christ. It is a radical reordering of what is valuable in the universe and in your life than Christ. Being idetified with him is more valuable than having an impressive reputation. Living under his authority is more valuable than doing as you please. Becoming more like him rather than expressing yourself and doing what he wants not what you want.

The most fundamental explanation for Judas' betrayal was that his heart was untouched and unmoved by the grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ. he remained blind to the light, deaf to the word, unchanged by the powers of the age to come. He had no interest in denying himself and taking up his cross to follow Jesus. His relationship to Jesus was a means to an end---Judas' own comfort created by wealth.

The family of Jesus is made up of sinners who found grace and forgiveness in him---those who have some understanding of who Jesus is but are seeking more, those who have heard God's word and want to spend the rest of their lives seeking to obey it, and those who have waited and resisted and refused to believe in Jesus and now want to call him Lord and Master. Do you see any of these family traits in your own life?

"Real repentance always requires getting painfully specific regarding sins that we mourn over and turn away from. Someone who occasionally or weekly says, "Forgive us our sins," but never gets specific with God about that jealousy, that greed, the pride that has a grip on his heart that week is not genuinely repentant." It takes a great deal of humility to say, "I was wrong" toward pleasing God instead of using God."