If I was the world’s only Christian, I might easily lose confidence in my faith. Can it really be true if I am the only one who believes it? Similarly, if I was the only kind of Christian—if all the world’s Christians were the same age as me or the same race or the same nationality—I might also lose confidence. Can it really be true if only one demographic affirms it while the great majority reject it? Can it be the true faith if it is the faith of just one kind of person?

But I need not fear, for the wonderful fact is that the Christian church is as diverse as the world itself. And this is a source of deep blessing and a reason for great confidence.
I find it a tremendous encouragement to know there are some Christians who have towering intellects, who have grappled deeply with the evidences for the faith, and who have come to believe and embrace it all. I find it an equal encouragement to know there are some who have very simple intellects, who have little ability to grapple with even the least evidences for the faith, but who, in their simplicity, believe and embrace it just the same.
It blesses me to know there are some whose faith is well-established and mature, who have endured many trials and weathered many storms. Yet through it all, their love for God and their confidence in his purposes has remained fixed and constant—strengthened, even, through long perseverance. It blesses me equally to know there are some whose faith is young and fresh, who have only just turned away from a life of rebellion to submit to Christ’s rule—people whose hair is practically still wet from the water of their baptism. Their faith is as yet untested, but every bit as true.
It moves me to know there are some who grew up in a Western context, who were immersed in its worldview, yet who found it all unsatisfying—so very unsatisfying that they could be content only by embracing Christ. It moves me equally to know there are some who grew up in a non-Western context, who were immersed in worldviews that were completely different, yet who found those every bit as unsatisfying. Whether from West or East, North or South, here or there, they turned to the same Savior and were bound together in the same family.
It inspires me to know there are some Christians who bowed the knee to King Jesus when they were old, when they were approaching their final years or final days. After a lifetime of running away, they finally ran toward the lover of their souls. It inspires me equally to know there are some Christians who bowed the knee to King Jesus when they were young—too young to understand very much, but still old enough to express their childlike faith by submitting their lives to the Lord.
It gives me confidence to know there are some Christians who are fantastically wealthy and some who are extremely poor, but that both have entrusted themselves to the same Savior. It warms my heart to know there are some Christians who have received the finest education this world can offer and some who have received no formal education at all, but that both are children of the same Father. It brings great joy to know there are some Christians whose skin is the deepest of all hues and some whose is the lightest, yet that all are members of the same family.
If I was the world’s only Christian, or the world’s only kind of Christian, I would have good reason to question my faith and to doubt its validity. But it’s beautifully and wonderfully true that our God is the God of all kinds of people and that he is building a kingdom of young and old, great and poor, black and white, wise and simple, famous and unknown. He is building a kingdom that transcends all distinctions and all boundaries so together—from a multitude of people in a multitude of places and in a multitude of voices, we can bring praise to the one name that is above all names.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a selection from Crossway themed around marriage and family.
(Yesterday on the blog: All the Compassions of All the Tender Fathers)
To the Older Woman in the Church: You Are NOT Obsolete
This is a good one from Michele as she reflects on the fact that Tim Keller didn’t publish The Reason for God until he was 57. “The word ‘marinate’ comes to mind when I consider Keller’s years of quiet, unseen faithfulness. They were apparently no more absent of significant activity than a drop of pond water under a microscope, but they could have felt that way–without God’s microscope.”
Easy Christlikeness
“Some Christians think that because they love those that like them, they are being Christlike. And probably they are. In fact, some Christians outside of Christ would be unkind even to those that like them—they would give evil for good. They are rascals. I was one of those rascals before Christ. That is a change that the gospel makes in us. But that’s the low hanging fruit of sanctification. Jesus said that even unbelievers love those that love them (Luke 6:32). It’s not that hard.”
Good Book Guides Giveaway: Enter for the Chance to Win 59 Bible Studies
The Good Book Company is giving away a set of 32 expository guides to one winner in celebration of their new God’s Word For You Sets. (Sponsored Link)
10 Things You Should Know about the Fall
Mitch offers 10 things that you ought to know about the fall.
Pride Month Didn’t Happen Overnight
Cole says that “we would do well to remember that fruit always begins as seeds. Or, to speak less cryptically, Pride Month did not happen overnight. I feel compelled to make such a statement because I live in a largely conservative small town, where most of my fellow citizens can recognize at least some of the vanity within Vanity Fair. Those who don’t know the difference between a man and a woman are ‘out there;’ we are rooted in reality. But are we?”
Forgiveness and Seeing the Father’s Smile
“Does God, like us, struggle to extend forgiveness when we ask him? Does he get caught up in his anger, like we do, and withdraw from us? Does he get frustrated by our repeated, selfish offenses against him and feel it’s necessary to put some distance between us, even for a little while?”
Why Chromosome Variations Do Not Create Additional Sexes
This is a helpful explanation as to why chromosome variations do not create additional sexes.
Flashback: A Lover of the Lord Lives There!
“And Lord Jesus, not only write your name upon the gates of my house, but engrave it at the center of my heart and my affections—on my first, and last, my earliest, and latest thoughts!”

If a man is worth nothing but money he is poor indeed. If a man have upright character he is rich. —De Witt Talmage

C.S. Lewis famously said that while God whispers to us in our pleasures, he shouts to us in our pains. And, indeed, as we pass through trials and afflictions we find that God speaks his truths to us in fresh and encouraging ways. And then it’s also true that we tend not to appreciate our pleasures until they are contrasted by pains—and that’s the point of this lovely quote by J.R. Miller which I trust you’ll enjoy reading and reflecting upon.

We do not know what God is to us—until, in some way, we lose the sense of his presence and the consciousness of his love. This is true of all our blessings. We do not know their value to us until they are lost or imperiled.
We do not prize health until it is shattered and broken, and we can never have it restored again.
We do not recognize the richness and splendor of youth until it has fled, with all its glorious opportunities, and worlds cannot buy it back.
We do not appreciate the comforts and blessings of Providence until we have been deprived of them, and are driven out of warm homes into the cold paths of a dreary world.
We do not estimate the value of our facilities for education and improvement, until the period of these opportunities is gone, and we must enter the hard battle of life unfurnished and unequipped.
We do not know how much our friends are to us—until they lie before us silent and cold. Ofttimes the vacant chair, or the deep, unbroken loneliness about us—is the first revealer of the worth of one we have never duly prized.

The lesson, of course, is to reflect on every blessing as we enjoy it and to return thanks to God for each and every one.