Jasper Lake, CO

I pulled out a book off my shelf that I loved about 10 years back and thought of often. Opening it up I had a book mark of a 5×7 with Jackson at 18 months and me in my 30’s plus an anniversary card from Jodi. Many mixed emotions reading through this book and seeing these reminders of where I was when I learned many of these truths. Future grace does cause us to live more sacrificially now for others to thrive – good stuff:

“At the heart of the book is the conviction that the promises of future grace are the keys to Christ like Christian living. The hand that turns the key is faith, and the life that results is called living by faith in future grace. By future I do not merely mean the grace of heaven in the age to come. I mean the grace that begins now, this very second, and sustains your life to the end of this paragraph. By grace I do not merely mean the pardon of God in passing over your sins, but also the power and beauty of God to keep you from sinning. By faith I do not merely mean the confidence that Jesus died for your sins, but also the confidence that God will ‘also with him freely give us all things’ (Romans 8:32). Faith is primarily a future-oriented ‘assurance of things hoped for’ (Hebrews11:1). It’s essence is the deep satisfaction with all that God promises to be for us in Jesus – beginning now” (Future Grace, John Piper, p13).

“I pray that you will hear and follow the call to find your joy in all that God promises to be for you and Jesus. And I pray that the expulsive power of this new affection will go on freeing you from the fleeting pleasures of sin and empower you for a life of sacrificial love. If, in this way, we prove that God is prized above all things, then living by faith in future grace will be to the praise of his glory. For God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” (p20).