Everywhere is Holy Ground

Because of Jesus, the presence that once threatened our lives is now opened up to us in a radical and scandalous way. The cross cleanses us of our sins, and now the Most Holy Place, the place where we can go to meet with God and enjoy life with him, is literally everywhere.

In the Lord's prayer, Jesus teaches us to call our hallowed God, "Father." His dangerous presence is transformed into a presence of intimacy and comfort; he's our dad. Through the cross, life in God's world becomes life in his "hallowed" presence. Every square inch of it is holy ground.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 198.

Repentance is Turning to Something Greater

We often think [repentance is] the religious equivalent of saying, "Eat your vegetables." In truth, repentance is turning from a lesser good to a greater one. It's saying "stop eating out of the trash and taste this feast the Lord has made for you."

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 189.

An Ambassador's Confidence

Ambassadors don't have to accomplish anything on their own. They simply stand in as a representative, knowing that the one they represent is able to follow through on all he says.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 186-87.

Jesus Has Sent Us

Have you ever had a friend recommend a restaurant, saying "Tell them I sent you"? Or have you ever had a business connection that got you a foot in the door somewhere with that phrase? This is what Jesus is doing. "I've been put in charge of everything," he says. "Make sure you tell them I sent you."

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 186.

Our Community Testifies of the Trinity

When God created heaven and earth, the only thing in creation he deemed "not good" was a man without community. We were meant for relationships, and we worship a God who is himself a community. Our love for one another is a testimony to the world about how the members of the Trinity love and relate to one another.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 184.

Community is Part of the Message

Community isn't just a requirement; it's actually part of the message. As we live our identities in community with one another, we are testifying to the world what it means to follow Jesus.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 184.

Discipleship Involves Movement

As witnesses for Jesus, we don't first and foremost call people to a place or a building. We don't call people to make a pilgrimage to the Jesus-temple or to a stable in Bethlehem. Instead, we seek them out, embracing them as Jesus embraces us. Movement can be geographic, but it's often just as difficult to make relational and intimate movement.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 183-84.

Simple Evangelism

Our tendency is to think that [witnessing] requires a program or a target audience outside the ordinary stream of our lives, but it doesn't. It starts with our being witnesses in the ordinary places where we live and work, and it starts with our simply building friendships and getting to know people.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 183.

A Mind Formed by the Scriptures and a Life Shaped by the Gospel

We should be shaping our whole lives like an athlete, cultivating a mind formed by the Scriptures and a life shaped by the gospel, not because we're earning something but because this is truly a better way to live--because we want to be able to see Jesus as more beautiful and more believable.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 171.

Our Commitment to Other Christians Should Reflect God's Commitment to Us

Nowhere does the Bible show us an individualistic faith where Jesus is only your personal Savior. This isn't just about going to church; this is about being faithful to the gospel. We're saying that the commitment that God has made to us through the sacrifice of the Son results in commitment to one another and sacrifice for one another.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 141.

The Gospel Never Excuses Us

The gospel, while it frees us from the burdens of our sin and shame, never excuses us. Our sin results in Christ's death, which both calls for us to be humbled by our sin and frees us from the burden of shame that once accompanied it.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 137.

Idolatry is Life Apart from Jesus

Some false gods are made of wood. Some are bank accounts. Some are in our mirrors. False worship isn't limited to a few moments of slavish action toward a physical thing; it's a whole life apart from Jesus, an outpouring wasted on false kingdoms and false gods, even if that god is ourselves.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 111.

Why Our Spiritual Life is Great

When people ask us how our spiritual life is doing, our reflexive answer, no matter what else is happening in our lives, should be to say that it's great, not because we've performed well, and not because our circumstances are good, or because we just advanced socially in some way, but because our life is hid with Christ in God and we are completely acceptable to the Father through his lavish, free grace.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 81.

All Grace

The gospel declares that our right standing with God and our continued life in his kingdom are all a gift of his grace. Life with God comes by grace. The cross is given to us by grace. We have life with God not because of anything we have or could have done or anything we have failed to do but because God has freely given it to us at Jesus's expense. We are safe, we are accepted, we are loved because God has made it so by his grace. Period.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 80.

Underestimating Our Sin Results in Underestimating God's Remedy

If we underestimate the depths of our sin, we will underestimate the cure. You don't bring a squirt gun to a bazooka fight, as they say, and we don't fight Satan, sin, and death with a Bible study, a worship song, a clean voting record, or a tithe check. Only something so dramatic as a holy God suffering and dying in our place can provide a cure.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 78.

Jesus Alone Leads Us Into God's Presence

Every time we credit a worship leader with "leading us into God's presence," we are anointing them as priests, and crediting them with doing something that only Jesus can do.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 77.

The Cross Reveals What We Deserve

The gospel of grace is a message that can be heard only by those who are aware of their own brokenness and need. It's a message that's exceedingly difficult to hear in a culture that tells us that we deserve everything: happiness, low interest rates, affordable health care, a skinny body, and a fat wallet. The gospel of grace insists that we deserve none of this, and points to the anguish of God nailed to the cross as the proper measure of what we deserve. Without such a signpost, there's nothing amazing about grace.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 75-76.

Grace Offends Because It Exposes

Grace offends because it exposes. It exposes our sins, showing that we've underestimated the depths of our problem, and it exposes our helplessness; God doesn't need any help from us for the cure.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 73.

Revenge Stories

At our core, we love revenge stories because of a twisted hunger for justice.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 69.

The Triumph of God through the Death of God

Something beyond our comprehension went on within the Trinity, as the Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, breathed his last. God punished God. God's wrath was poured out in all its fullness upon God. God suffered. God was forsaken. And somehow through it, God triumphed.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 58.