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“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” — Ephesians 2:10 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Last time, we got really practical — daily rhythms, weekly Sabbath, seasons of longer rest. All of it built to help us actually rest instead of just knowing we should. If you haven’t listened to Part 6 yet, I encourage you to go back first. You can find it linked below: * Introducing REST WITH GOD: A New Series on Finding the Rest Our Souls Were Made For * Rest Interrupted: The Garden, the Fall, and the Rhythm We Lost * The Rest That Remains: Hebrews 4 and the Invitation That’s Still Open * Come to Me: Jesus’ Direct Invitation in Matthew 11:28-29 * Counterfeit Rest - The Disciples vs. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane * How to Actually Rest: Practical Rhythms for a Restless Generation Today, we close this series. And we’re going to close it by bringing it back to the word that’s been quietly underneath this entire LIFE ON MISSION publishing ministry from the beginning: avodah. Why? Because rest alone was never the whole point. Rest and avodah were always meant to be paired together. Let’s see how. One Word for Work, Worship, and Service If you’ve followed these LIFE ON MISSION podcasts and posts for a while, you know avodah is a word we come back to often. But it’s worth slowing down on it one more time, because it really is the key that unlocks this whole final post in this series on REST WITH GOD. I am also committed to reintroducing this ancient concept to the world. It’s God’s original design. Avodah is the Hebrew word behind Genesis 2:15: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it [to avad it] and keep it.” This word avodah shows up over 434 times in the Old Testament. Here’s what’s remarkable about that word: it’s the very same word used throughout the Old Testament for work, for service, for worship including the sacred work of the priests and Levites in the tabernacle where God’s presence dwelled on earth. It’s also the specific word Joshua used before leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, famously proclaiming this power-packed line: “If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) That is, literally, “we will avad the Lord.” In Hebrew thought, there was never a clean line between “spiritual” activity and “regular” work. Tending a garden, offering a sacrifice, serving your neighbor, building something with your hands — all of it could be avodah with God, and to His glory. All of it could be worship, offered to God, if it flowed from the right place. Whatever we do, we are called to do for the glory of God (see 1 Corinthians 10:31). Not only that, God’s original design is for us to partner with Him, to avad with God, to do whatever we do like Immanuel is with us as He promised, and in us, by His Spirit, giving us the desire and the ability to do what pleases Him (see Philippians 2:13). That’s the vision this whole publishing ministry has been built around. And it’s the exact vision this rest series has been quietly building toward the entire time. Two Kinds of Avodah The Bible also shows us a second, darker kind of avodah — and the contrast matters enormously for understanding rest. When Israel was enslaved in Egypt, the Scriptures describe their labor using the words: “qāšê avodah” — hard, bitter labor — recorded in Exodus 1:14. Pharaoh worked them “ruthlessly” (see Exodus 1:13), with no rhythm, no rest, no relief. Then God delivers them. And notice His message to Pharaoh through His messenger, Moses: “Let my people go, that they may serve me [or that they may avad Me]” (Exodus 8:1) — serve, worship, avad, the same word again. They weren’t being rescued from work into idleness. The people of God were being rescued from crushing, rest-less work under a tyrant into free, worshipful avodah under their God. And what’s one of the very first things God gives this newly freed people, before they even reach Mount Sinai? Rest. Sabbath. The manna rhythm we talked about in Part 6 of this series on REST WITH GOD. Freedom, in the Scriptures, was never just freedom from labor. It was freedom from labor without rest — and freedom into labor that flows from rest with God. That distinction is crucial and foundational to understanding the meaning behind our integrated offering of work, service, and worship to God today, wherever we are. Work That Flows From Rest, Not Toward It Remember what we found all the way back in Part 2 of this REST WITH GOD series: Adam’s very first full day of life wasn’t a workday. It was a rest day. He rested with God before he ever lifted a hand to tend the garden. That order — rest first, avodah flowing from it — is the pattern that sin fractured, and it’s the exact pattern Christ is restoring. Hebrews 4:10 tells us: “whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” That’s not the end of work. It’s the reordering of it. We stop striving to earn what’s already been given — and from that settled place, real avodah becomes possible again. Paul says it plainly in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Read the order carefully. We don’t work to become His workmanship. We already are God’s workmanship — accepted, secure, at rest in that identity — and out of that rest, good works follow. And not just any good works, but good works prepared beforehand by God for us. Good works that we do with God, not just for God, or for the approval of others, or for ourselves or our brand. These are God-given, Spirit-empowered good works that ultimately bring God glory and impact others for good. This is a picture of avodah flowing from rest instead of work performed to earn it. The Shared Yoke, Revisited This is exactly why Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11 matters so much for how we work, not just how we rest. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30). A yoke is a work tool and this is a work image. Jesus isn’t offering to remove your and my labor. He’s offering to share it — to be yoked alongside you and me in our actual avodah, our actual calling, our actual work and service in the world, today. This is where rest and avodah stop being two separate topics and become one integrated life. A life of devotion to God, lived in close communion with Him. You don’t rest, and then separately go labor for God. You labor for God’s glory from a posture of rest, with Him pulling alongside you the whole time. That’s the redemptive entrepreneurship we’ve talked about elsewhere in these LIFE ON MISSION podcasts. That’s love-fueled work, service, and worship — avodah — done while sharing a yoke with Jesus, not apart from it and not apart from Him. Rest That Prepares Us to Serve One more thread to pull together before we land this plane. In Part 5 of this series, we got up close and personal to the scene that unfolded in the Garden of Gethsemane. We watched the disciples sleep when they should have watched and prayed. We covered that counterfeit rest — escapism, numbness, avoidance — doesn’t prepare us for what’s ahead. It leaves us exposed when the test comes. That warning matters here, because it has everything to do with avodah too. Real rest doesn’t pull us away from our calling. It equips us for it. When we rest the way we’ve described in this series — honestly, in faith, oriented toward God, aware of and enjoying His presence — we come back to our work, our families, our service, our creativity with something to actually offer. Not fumes. Not restlessness.Not resentment. Not numbness.Not worn out. Rest that avoids God’s calling for our lives and avodah isn’t rest at all — it’s escape. Rest that restores us to live out our calling is the real deal, and it’s exactly what fuels sustainable avodah, devotion, and communion with God over a lifetime instead of burnout followed by collapse. Where This Is All Heading Here’s the picture I want to leave you with, friends. The Bible opens in a garden, where God places humanity to do avodah — to work and keep it, to cultivate and tend to it — flowing from rest, in unbroken communion with our Maker. The Bible closes with another garden — really a garden-city, the new Jerusalem — where John writes of God’s people: “his servants will worship him,” that is literally, “his bond-servants will latreuō him” (Revelation 22:3). That Greek word, latreuō (lat-ryoo’-o) used here, translated as “worship,” is the New Testament’s word that most closely resembles the Hebrew concept of avodah. So, even in the new creation, in the garden-city of the New Jerusalem — free from sin, death, and the deceiver — the ransomed people of God will avad with God. We will commune with God as we work with Him, serve Him, and worship Him. This is wholehearted devotion lived in communion with our Creator. From garden to garden-city. From avodah flowing out of rest, to avodah flowing out of rest again — this time forever, with no more curse, no more toil, no more wandering, no more temptation to do anything lesser. Everything this series has traced — Eden’s rhythm, the rest that remains, Christ’s invitation, the counterfeit we must avoid, the practical rhythms we can build now — all of it is pointing toward that ending. And all of it is avai

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” — Mark 2:27 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Last time, we entered the Garden of Gethsemane the night Jesus was betrayed. We watched the disciples choose numbness over presence, sleep over watching and praying. We learned that not everything that looks like rest actually is rest. If you haven’t listened to Part 5 yet, I encourage you, go back first (links below). * Introducing REST WITH GOD: A New Series on Finding the Rest Our Souls Were Made For * Rest Interrupted: The Garden, the Fall, and the Rhythm We Lost * The Rest That Remains: Hebrews 4 and the Invitation That’s Still Open * Come to Me: Jesus’ Direct Invitation in Matthew 11:28-29 * Counterfeit Rest - The Disciples vs. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane It’s necessary to contrast the rest God is offering us against the counterfeit rest we have all become accustomed to. It will also keep this post from becoming another form of self-medicating escape. As for today, we get practical. We’ve spent five episodes building the theology of rest — Eden’s rhythm, the rest that remains, Christ’s invitation, the counterfeit to avoid. Now it’s time to answer the question underneath all of it: How do I actually do this? Rest Was Built Into Every Layer of Time Here’s something I want us to see before we get to specific practices: God didn’t build rest into just one period of time: daily, weekly, seasonally, annually, etc. He built rest into all of them. Here’s what I mean. Go back to the very first chapter of Genesis, and notice the pattern each day follows: “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5). Evening, then morning. Not morning, then evening. In the Hebrew way of reckoning time, the day begins at rest — at evening, at sundown, at stillness — before the work of daylight ever starts. Every single day of your life, structurally, was designed to begin with rest, not end with it. Then there’s the week — one day in seven, set apart for Sabbath rest, the pattern we’ve traced through this whole series. And then, further out still, God built rest into entire seasons of years: “in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD” (see Leviticus 25:4) — a whole year of rest for the ground itself, every seventh year. And beyond even that, the Year of Jubilee, the year after 7 periods of 7 years, every fiftieth year, when debts were released and land was restored. Daily. Weekly. Yearly. Generationally. Rest wasn’t a single command tucked into the Law. It’s a rhythm woven through every period of time God gave us. So let’s build practices at each of those periods. Daily: Let Your Day Begin with Rest Practically, this means the way you start and end your evening matters more than most of us treat our evenings. If your last hours before bed are spent doom-scrolling, answering emails, or replaying tomorrow’s list of stresses to come, then you’re starting your day already running before your feet hit the floor. Try this instead: let your evening actually be an evening. Put the phone somewhere else. Say a short prayer of surrender — literally handing tomorrow to God before you’ve even lived it. Let sleep itself become an act of trust, the same trust Hebrews 4 called us to: resting from your own works because God’s work is enough. Personally, I have a work cut off time so I don’t get carried away. I like to prayerfully journal to process through the day with God. I set alerts to remind me to get ready for bed long before I am tired, to help me physically and mentally prepare for sleep. I like to listen to the Bible read aloud, usually while I get ready for bed, brush my teeth, wash my face, etc. Before I lay down to sleep, I like to get on my knees to pray. These simple rhythms help me to reflect on my day with God, prepare for the next, and better align my head and heart with God’s eternal perspective. These are such small shifts, but they’re a daily rehearsal of the whole series in miniature: rest before work, not after it. Weekly: Guard One Day This is the big one, and I know it can feel almost impossible in the life you’re actually living, but all things are possible with God. Weekly set apart rest is a gift from God, a gift my wife and I delight in weekly, even with our newborn. Nevertheless, weekly, intentional rest doesn’t accidentally happen. So let’s get to it, practically. 1. Prepare the day before or even days before. When Israel gathered manna in the wilderness, God gave them a specific instruction: “Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning” (Exodus 16:23). They prepared on day six so day seven could actually be rest, not another workday in disguise. You and I can do the same. My wife and I like to cook in advance. We take out the trash, clean up the room, do the laundry, vacuum, and do the dirty work now so we don’t have to when we rest by faith on our set apart Sabbath day. You can clear your inbox the night before, not during. Set out what you need in advance. The goal isn’t perfectionism — it’s removing the friction that quietly turns your rest day into just another list of tasks that leave you feeling no more rested than before. I believe the fuller our schedules, the more we need intentional rest with God, not less. 2. Unplug on purpose. Pick a real window — even a few hours if a full day isn’t possible in your season — and put the phone away. Turn off notifications. Let your mind actually go quiet instead of half-resting while a screen keeps feeding it noise. 3. Be with people who matter to you. Rest, biblically, is not a command to isolate yourself. It’s woven into family, community, and table fellowship. So, share a meal without rushing it. Sit with friends. Play a game with your kids without checking the time. 4. Feast, don’t just fast from activity. This surprises people, but Sabbath in Scripture was never meant to be grim or restrictive. It was a day of delight — good food, gladness, gratitude. “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Rest isn’t just the absence of labor; it includes the presence of joy. 5. Be still and let God be God. Carve out real, quiet space with Him — not to accomplish a devotional checklist, but simply to be near Him. In Psalm 46:10, God Himself speaks: “Be still, and know that I am God.I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” So, sit in silence. Read a psalm slowly…pause, contemplate, pray, read it again and give God praise. Explore the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, with childlike faith and awe, ready to learn, wanting to simply be with Jesus. Let Him restore your soul the way Psalm 23:2-3 describes: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” 6. Move your body without a goal. Take a walk with no destination and no fitness tracker running. Go outside, don’t just vege-out on the couch. Enjoy God’s creation and beauty that all points back to our Creator — His intentionality, His craftsmanship, His amazing design. Let your body remember what being unhurried feels like. 7. Bring Him what you’re actually carrying. This is the Gethsemane lesson applied — don’t numb past your week; bring it honestly before God. What are you anxious about? What hurt this week? Bring it to Him instead of burying it under distraction. None of this has to happen all at once, and it doesn’t have to look identical every week. But start naming, on purpose, what your day of rest will actually include — because if you don’t decide in advance, the world will happily fill that day for you. And if there’s one thing you prioritize, make abiding with the Lord your priority. We are branches and Jesus is the Vine. Just as branches apart from their source, the vine, don’t produce fruit, but wither away and die, apart from Him, we can do nothing. But when we intentionally abide in the Lord, aware of His presence in all these ways listed and otherwise, we experience the fruitfulness of rest with God and a life that points those around us back to Jesus. So far, we’ve covered periods of daily and weekly rest. Now, let’s consider… Yearly and Seasonal Longer Rhythms of Rest & Restoration Weekly rest matters most, but we shouldn’t overlook the larger rhythms Scripture points to as well. Just like the land needed a sabbatical year, you likely need seasons of longer rest too. Imagine a real vacation from the restlessness of the world, where work stays behind, and doesn’t just relocate with you. You could prayerfully plan ahead for a day, a weekend, or a trip set apart to get away and really rest in God. A retreat, even a short one, where you step away from your normal rhythms entirely to reconnect with God without the usual noise. A sabbatical season, if your life and vocation allow for it, when you step back further still. You don’t have to engineer a Jubilee year. But pay attention to whether you’ve gone months, or years, without any real extended, intentional rest. If so, that’s worth addressing honestly with the LORD, and not just pushing through per usual. I encourage you to take a step of faith: Bring your schedule before God and invite Him to fill in the gaps, to guide you to a time, short or extended, where you can intentionally set apart and prioritize resting in Him. The Sabbath Was Made for You and me I want to close this practical section with a word of encouragement and freedom, because I don’t want any of this to become a new law that you feel like you’re failing to keep perfectly. Jesus said it plainly: “The Sabbath was made f

“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” — Matthew 26:41 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Last time, we unpacked one of the most personal invitations in all of the Scriptures. Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). We saw that His yoke is shared, not solo. His heart is gentle, not exhausted with us. If you haven’t listened to Part 4 yet, go back first. It’s linked below: * Introducing REST WITH GOD: A New Series on Finding the Rest Our Souls Were Made For * Rest Interrupted: The Garden, the Fall, and the Rhythm We Lost * The Rest That Remains: Hebrews 4 and the Invitation That’s Still Open * Come to Me: Jesus’ Direct Invitation in Matthew 11:28-29 Today, we’re doing something different. We’ve spent four episodes building the case for rest — that it’s good, that it’s God’s design, that it’s an act of faith, that Jesus Himself invites us into it. Now we need the guardrail. Because not everything that looks like rest actually is rest. I think we’ve all experienced that to be true. And in my humble opinion, there’s no clearer picture of that in all of the Scriptures than what we see play out in a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives called Gethsemane. The Night Before the Cross It’s the night before the crucifixion. Jesus has just finished the Last Supper with His disciples. He knows exactly what’s coming — betrayal, arrest, mockery, torture, the cross. He leads His closest friends — Peter, James, and John — into a garden called Gethsemane. And He tells them plainly what He needs from them in this moment: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). We see in Luke’s account, Jesus says to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” This is Jesus, hours from the most agonizing night of His life, making a clear and simple request of His friends. Not for comfort. Not for solutions. Not even for conversation. Just presence, watchfulness and prayer, alongside Him. Then He goes a little further into the garden, about a stone’s throw away, falls on His knees, and prays: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Luke’s Gospel adds a detail that should grip our hearts: “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). This is not a peaceful, easy moment. This is the most severe internal wrestling recorded anywhere in the Gospels. And when Jesus returns to His friends, expecting them to be watching, praying, standing with Him in this crucial moment — He finds them sleeping It says in Matthew 26:40, “And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour?’” In Luke 22:45-46, Luke gives us a small, tender detail worth noticing, that Jesus “came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” The disciples were “sleeping for sorrow.” This wasn’t laziness in the way we usually picture it. It wasn’t apathy or indifference. It seems more like they were overwhelmed, probably fearful. It was grief so heavy their bodies simply powered down under it. I think this matters for how we read the rest of this story: their sleep is deeply human. It’s understandable, normal. When sorrow gets too heavy, numbing out the pain can feel like the only relief available. And yet — Jesus doesn’t excuse it in this moment. He tells them: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41). He goes and prays a second time. He returns. They’re asleep again. A third time Jesus goes and prays.He comes back.His three trusted disciples, asleep again. Finally He says, with what I imagine as a mix of sorrow and resolve: “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Matthew 26:45-46). Two Very Different Types of Rest Here’s the picture I want you to hold onto from this whole episode. In the same garden, at the same hour, under the pressure of unbearable weight — Jesus is on His face before the Father, wrestling honestly, with sweat like big drops of blood, surrendering His will. And a few feet away, His closest friends are asleep, escaping the very thing they were asked to stay present for. Both were exhausted. Both were under crushing pressure. Only one of them actually found rest, and with it, clarity and conviction to endure the unprecedented suffering to come. Jesus’ posture wasn’t escape — it was engagement. He didn’t numb His way through the anguish. He brought the full weight of it, honestly, directly, to His Father — “if it be possible... nevertheless, not my will, but yours” — and He came out of that prayer with resolve, ready to face the cross with steady strength. That’s the real thing. Full engagement with God, even in agony, that ends in surrendered trust. What the disciples did wasn’t that. It was withdrawal. It was shutting down instead of showing up. It looked like rest from the outside — eyes closed, bodies still. But it wasn’t rest. It was avoidance. Why Does This Distinction Matters So Much? I shared back in Part 1 that this series wouldn’t let rest become an excuse for apathy, and this is exactly why. Counterfeit rest and real rest can look nearly identical from the outside. Both involve stopping. Both involve stillness. Both can even involve sleep. But they’re aimed in completely different directions. Real rest, the kind we’ve spent this whole series building toward, is oriented toward God. It’s honest. It brings the actual weight of your life to Him instead of numbing past it. It trusts Him enough to stop striving — but it doesn’t stop engaging with God. It often costs something, as you choose to rest with God over another way to fill that void. Sometimes it even looks like agonized prayer instead of a peaceful nap. In contrast, counterfeit rest is oriented away from God. It’s escapist. Instead of processing with God, counterfeit rest numbs us. It avoids exactly the thing God is asking us to bring to Him. And it always leaves us less prepared, not more, for what’s coming. I believe that’s a vital point worth noting: Counterfeit rest leaves us less prepared, not more, for what’s coming. The Cost of Sleeping Instead of Watching & Praying Here’s the part of this story that should sober all of us. Just a few hours after the disciples chose sleep over watchfulness, the very thing Jesus warned them about happened. Peter — who slept instead of praying against temptation — denies knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crows (see Matthew 26:69-75). He wasn’t unwilling. His spirit really was willing; Jesus said so Himself. But his flesh was weak, and instead of praying through that weakness in the garden, he slept past it. And when the test came, hours later, he had nothing left to stand on. That’s the real danger of counterfeit rest. It doesn’t make the trial disappear. It just leaves us unprepared when the trial arrives anyway. Paul picks up this exact same language later, writing to a church he loved: “so then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6). The same warning. The same call to stay spiritually alert, even while resting our bodies. What Counterfeit Rest Looks Like Today Let’s bring this all the way home, because I don’t think most of us are falling asleep in a literal garden. Counterfeit rest today often looks like scrolling for hours to avoid a hard conversation we know we need to have. It looks like binge-watching something mindlessly because sitting still with our actual thoughts or emotions feels unbearable. It looks like oversleeping not because our bodies need it, but because waking up means facing something we’d rather not face. It looks like an hour or a day set apart for rest that’s actually full of busyness — filling every quiet moment with noise so we never have to sit with God, honestly and without distractions. None of that is inherently evil. Sometimes a show or a scroll really can be a simple and pure form of entertainment. But when it becomes our default way of avoiding what God is asking us to bring to Him — that’s when rest quietly becomes something else. Real rest asks: What am I actually carrying right now, and will I bring it before God honestly? Counterfeit rest asks: How can I stop feeling this as fast as possible? Those are two very different questions, leading to two very different gardens. Grace for the Weak, Not Shame I want to close this one gently, because I don’t think Jesus’ tone with His disciples was harsh, and I don’t want mine to be either. Jesus didn’t walk away from His disciples in disgust or disappointment. He named what happened clearly — and then He led them out into the very trial they’d failed to prepare for, and He carried what they couldn’t carry, all the way to the cross, for them. If you’ve read this post or listened to this podcast and felt a small ache of conviction — some place where you’ve chosen numbness over presence with God — that ache isn’t meant to bring you shame. It’s meant to invite you back into the garden, this time to watch and pray instead of sleep. The spirit is willing. God knows the flesh

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Last time, we examined Hebrews 4. We saw that a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. We saw it’s entered by faith, not earned by effort. And we ended standing at a doorway — Jesus, our great High Priest, inviting us to draw near with confidence. If you haven’t listened to Part 3 yet, go back first (links below). * Introducing REST WITH GOD: A New Series on Finding the Rest Our Souls Were Made For * Rest Interrupted: The Garden, the Fall, and the Rhythm We Lost * The Rest That Remains: Hebrews 4 and the Invitation That’s Still Open These posts build on each other. This week, we are walking straight through that doorway. Today, we’re not looking at a doctrine about rest anymore. We’re looking at a Person, speaking directly to us, in His own words. We’re looking to Jesus. I shared back in Part 1 of this series that this would be one of the most compelling invitations in all of the Scriptures. Let’s find out why. Who Jesus Is Speaking To Context matters here, so stay with me for a second before we get to the verse itself. Right before offering this invitation, Jesus was been denouncing specific cities that saw His mighty works yet still refused to believe in Him and repent from their sins. Jesus has been grieved by unbelief. He’s watched religious leaders load ordinary people down with rule after rule, requirement after requirement. Jesus called this out, saying, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matthew 23:4). Then, before giving His invitation to all those following Him, Jesus says something astonishing about Himself: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27). Jesus isn’t just a wise teacher handing out helpful tips for a calmer life. He’s claiming unique, exclusive access to the Father. He alone reveals God as He truly is. And it’s that same Jesus — the one with all authority, the one who alone truly knows the Father — who turns, in the very next breath, and says this: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Let’s slow all the way down and walk through this, phrase by phrase, because every word here serves a purpose. “Come to Me” Not “follow these five steps.” Not “try harder.” Not “fix yourself first, then come.” Come to me. The invitation is relational before it’s ever instructional. How sweet is that? Jesus doesn’t hand us a system. He opens His arms. This is the same pattern we saw all through this series on REST WITH GOD. Rest isn’t a technique. Ultimately, it’s a Person who is the very Source of soul-satisfying rest. And He’s not waiting for you and me to qualify ourselves before we’re allowed near Him. Jesus follows, “Come to me,” with… “All Who Labor and Are Heavy Laden” Notice how wide this net is spread. Not “the especially devout.” Not “those who’ve earned a break.” All. The word for “labor” here pictures exhausting, wearying work — the kind that drains you dry. The word for “heavy laden” pictures being loaded down, weighed under, crushed by cargo you’re carrying. Both physical exhaustion and unbearable burden are in view. The overworked and the overwhelmed. The person drowning in deadlines, and the person drowning in guilt, shame, expectations, and religious performance. If you’ve ever felt like you can’t set the weight you’re carrying down — this verse has your name written all over it. Attached to this initial invitation is both an offer and a promise: “And I Will Give You Rest” Notice it says, “Give.” This is a gift Jesus hands over, not a wage He pays out for services rendered. It echoes everything we saw in Hebrews 4 — rest entered by faith, received rather than produced. This is exactly the rest Eden was built on, back in Part 2 of this series on REST WITH GOD. Rest that comes before work, not after it. Here, it is offered again, in person, by the very Son of God who upholds the universe. Next is the second part of Jesus’ invitation: “Take My Yoke Upon You” Here’s where it gets interesting, and where I think a lot of us might misread this passage. A yoke isn’t a symbol of ease. It’s a farming tool. It’s the wooden frame that joins two oxen together so they can pull a load as one. The teachings and instructions of religious leaders in Jesus’ day were referred to as a yoke. Rabbis also talked about “the yoke of the Torah” — the weight of the law a person took on by committing to keep it. It was a real phrase, a real image, and often it described a heavy, demanding burden. So when Jesus says “take my yoke upon you,” He’s not offering an escape from all responsibility. He’s offering a different yoke than the one religious leaders had strapped onto other people. And here’s a detail that changes everything: a yoke joins two together. When you take Christ’s yoke, you’re not pulling alone. He’s yoked right beside you. He walks with you, step by step. Friends, this is exactly where rest and avodah meet. Rest, biblically, was never only about stopping. It’s also about who you’re working and walking with. A yoke shared with Jesus means your labor is no longer a solo, anxious grind. It’s partnered with the Source of strength, the Source of wisdom, the Source of rest. It’s shared with Immanuel, God with us. That’s why He can say what comes next. “Learn From Me, for I Am Gentle and Lowly in Heart” This line moves my heart every time. Our Creator and Savior, the just Judge and Ruler of all, is also gentle and lowly in heart, desiring that we learn from Him. What a God. What a King. What a Lord.What a Friend. Think about it: this is the only place in all four Gospels where Jesus directly tells us what His own heart is like. Not what He does. What He is. Gentle and lowly. Not harsh. Not demanding in the way the religious leaders were demanding. Not keeping score, waiting for you to slip up so He can pile on more weight. If you’ve spent years assuming God is perpetually disappointed in you, exhausted with your failures, one more mistake away from giving up on you — this verse is worth sitting with until it actually reorders what you believe about His heart. May God bless you to receive these words and take the time necessary to allow them to move from your head to your heart. “Learn from me” isn’t a one-time transaction either. It is ongoing discipleship. It’s a lifetime of watching how Jesus carried Himself — unhurried, unanxious, secure in the Father’s love — and letting that reshape how we carry ourselves. This is a daily practice of embracing the Way, the Truth, and the Life Himself. Following His invitation to us to learn from Him and the way He is gentle and lowly in heart, Jesus offers another promise, the result of this communion with Him: “And You Will Find Rest for Your Souls” There’s something beautiful hiding just under the surface of this verse. This exact phrase — “find rest for your souls” — isn’t isolated to Matthew 11. It echoes all the way back to what the Lord spoke during the time of the prophet Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16). God had been offering His people rest for their souls for centuries. The ancient paths. The good way. And tragically, in Jeremiah’s day, the people’s response was heartbreaking: “But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” Now Jesus stands in that same prophetic posture and reveals this invitation yet again: I am the ancient path. I am the good way. Come to Me, and find rest. This isn’t a new offer. It’s the same offer God has always extended, now standing in front of us in flesh and blood, saying it face to face. The intentionality and goodness of our God toward us is absolutely unmatched. Finally, Jesus, the greatest Teacher, completes this powerful passage by telling us about the yoke and burden He offers. “For My Yoke Is Easy, and My Burden Is Light” The word for “easy” here doesn’t mean effortless. It means well-fitting. Useful. Kind. Think of a yoke custom-carved for the exact animal wearing it, instead of a mass-produced one that rubs and chafes and wounds. Jesus isn’t promising a life with nothing required of you. He’s promising that what He asks of you, He is willing to carry with you and walk alongside you. Jesus’ yoke for you and me is intentionally designed to fit who we actually are, made in relationship with Him, carried alongside Him. This is radically different from the crushing, ill-fitting weight of trying to earn the approval you already have in Jesus. What This Looks Like Today So how do we actually respond to this invitation, practically, this week? Coming to Jesus starts with honesty — bringing and laying down what we’re actually carrying instead of pretending we’re fine. Bring the labor. Bring the heavy load. No need to clean up first and then come. Simply come. Taking His yoke means inviting Him into the actual task ahead of you — your work, your parenting, your project, your unanswered questions — instead of gritting through it alone and asking Him to bless the results afterward. It means stepping forward with Jesus, knowing He is able to carry the bulk of the weight. It means embr

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” — Hebrews 4:9 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Last time, we went back to Eden. We saw rest come before work, not after it. We saw sin fracture that rhythm — hiding, toil, wandering. And we saw God, even then, calling His people back to real, intentional rest through the Sabbath command from Mount Sinai. If you haven’t listened to Part 2 yet, go back and start there. We’re building directly on it in this post. It’s linked below: * Introducing REST WITH GOD: A New Series on Finding the Rest Our Souls Were Made For * Rest Interrupted: The Garden, the Fall, and the Rhythm We Lost Today, we’re landing in what I believe is one of the richest passages on rest in all of the Scriptures. Hebrews chapter 4. This is the passage this whole series is named after. Let’s slow down, draw near to God, and get ready to learn from the Scriptures together. The Chapter Written to Tired, Discouraged People Before we dive deep into Hebrews 4, we need to know who it was written to. The book of Hebrews was written to a community of Jewish believers who were exhausted. Tired of waiting. Tired of being pushed to the margins for following Jesus. Some of them were quietly drifting back toward their old way of life, because it felt safer, more familiar, less costly. Sound familiar? It should. We tend to drift for the same reasons. And right before Hebrews 4, the writer does something surprising. He doesn’t just tell people to try harder. He takes them back into their own history — to the wilderness generation — and shows them a warning worth taking seriously. A Generation That Wandered Instead of Rested Remember Israel, freshly delivered out of slavery in Egypt? God brought them out with a mighty hand, fed them daily bread in the wilderness, and led them toward a Promised Land — a land of rest and freedom from the toil of slavery. And what happened? The 12 tribes sent 12 spies into the Promised Land, each one a leader and a chief in his tribe. 10 came back with a bad report, acknowledging the exceeding goodness of the land, but full of the fear of man — afraid of the inhabitants in the land and their fortified cities. Two faith-filled men, Joshua and Caleb, trusted God’s promises and believed the Lord would bring them to this land and give it to them. Their bold words are written in the book of Numbers 14:7-9: “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” The people stood at the edge of that rest, at the door into the Promised Land… and refused to walk in. Fear overcame them. Unbelief replaced trust in God’s promises. They lost sight of God’s presence with them. So God said of them, “They shall not enter my rest” (Psalm 95:11, quoted in Hebrews 3:11). An entire generation wandered the wilderness for 40 years. Wandering — that word should ring a bell from last week. It’s Cain’s curse all over again, playing out on a national scale. Not because the rest wasn’t available. It was because they didn’t trust God. They didn’t receive His offer of rest nor His promise to provide. The writer of Hebrews looks at the tired, restless, and wavering people around him and says, essentially: Don’t repeat their story. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15). That word — Today — is going to matter a lot in a minute. The Rest Was Always Bigger Than a Piece of Land Here’s something in Hebrews 4 that is genuinely beautiful, and I don’t want us to miss the logic, because it’s easy to read past quickly. The writer points out something we might not expect: Even after Joshua eventually led a later generation into the Promised Land, the offer of “rest” didn’t close. How do we know? Because centuries later, King David — writing in Psalm 95, long after Joshua’s conquest — still says “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7, quoting Psalm 95:7). Think about what that means. If entering the physical land had been the full and final rest God was talking about, David wouldn’t have needed to speak of another “today” so long after Joshua. Hebrews draws the conclusion plainly: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on” So the rest being described was never ultimately about a promised land. It goes back even further — all the way back to the very beginning. Hebrews 4:4 quotes Genesis directly: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” The rest David was still inviting people into, centuries after Joshua, was the very same rest God modeled at creation. That is the rhythm of Eden. The rhythm we lost. The rhythm this whole series is about. But there remains good news, stated as clearly in Hebrews 4:9: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” A Sabbath rest remains. Present tense. Even now. For you and for me. Rest Entered by Faith, Not Earned by Effort Now here’s the part of Hebrews 4 that will reorder how you think about rest forever, if you let it. Verse 10 says: “For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” Feel free to read that again. Entering God’s rest means resting from your own works — the way God rested from His. Not because the work was bad or because striving is inherently evil. But because the rest we’re being invited into isn’t a reward we produce. It’s a gift we receive by faith. Hebrews 4:2 makes this explicit about the wilderness generation: “good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” They had the promise. They just didn’t believe it enough to stop striving in their own strength (or weakness) and simply walk forward by faith. That’s the whole tension of so many Christian lives in one sentence, isn’t it? We hear the good news. And then we spend years trying to earn what was already offered as a gift. As it says in Hebrews 3:18-19, “And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” It’s the presence of unbelief that keeps us from receiving and enjoying a gift God has already given. And that includes God’s gift of restorative rest — a gift to be received by faith. Now, Hold on — Aren’t We Supposed to “Strive” to Enter This Rest? I know some of you caught it in Hebrews 4:11. Let’s deal with this verse, as I said at the start of this series we wouldn’t let rest become an excuse for apathy. Verse 11 says: “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” Interesting, right? Strive. To enter rest. Make a big effort, over time, to enter this rest. That might sound like a contradiction — but it isn’t. Here’s the resolution: the striving isn’t toward earning rest through works. The striving is against unbelief and for trust. It’s enduring diligence motivated by faith, not diligence motivated by performance. Think of it like this: you don’t strive to make gravity work when you finally trust a chair enough to sit down in it. You strive against the voice in your head telling you the chair won’t hold you. I hope that analogy makes some sense. The striving is in the trusting, not in the holding yourself up. That’s the fight Hebrews is calling us to. Fight to believe and to persevere in faith. Fight against a hardened heart and cut off opportunities to give unbelief a foothold in your heart. Fight against drifting back into self-reliant striving. And on the other side, don’t let any lies or unbelief keep you from receiving the rest God offers you. This is exactly the kind of rest that requires faith, the way we talked about in Part 1 of this series on REST WITH GOD Not passive. Not lazy. Not apathetic. An active, deliberate, tested trust that God’s finished work is enough. And if you maintain a regular sabbath rhythm weekly, as my wife and I do, you know that you need to actively and intentionally prepare for rest in advance. Why? So that when that set apart time comes, we actually rest in the Lord rather than numb, distract, or busy ourselves with more stuff that winds up leaving us restless and unsatisfied. There’s a reason why those practicing the Sabbath called the day before, “The day of preparation.” Nothing Is Hidden From the One Inviting Us to Rest Right after this verse on striving to enter God’s rest, Hebrews 4 says something that might feel like a strange turn — until you see why it’s placed exactly where it is. Verses 12-13 continue: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Wow. Why put this right after talking about rest? Because real rest before God is honest rest, it’s an act of faith by surrender. You can’t fake your way into it. You can’t perform your way into it. He already sees everything we’re carrying, everything we’re hiding, everything we’re pretending isn’t there — and that’s not meant to terrify us. It’s meant to free us. We don’t have to manage God’s perception of us before you come to Him. He already knows. He still loves us. We get to come anyway to the One who gave everything to reconcile us back to Him, to deliver us from restless lives of sin and darkness, and to deliv

“So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work.” — Genesis 2:3 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Last time, we opened this power-packed series on REST WITH GOD. We named the gap between what we know and how we live. We said the goal here isn’t doing less, but that rest, done rightly, is an act of faith. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, go back and start there (it’s linked below) * Introducing REST WITH GOD: A New Series on Finding the Rest Our Souls Were Made For It will set the frame for everything else we’re building. Today, we’re going back to the beginning. Back before the noise and constant notifications.Back before the hustle and stress of modern life.Back before anyone ever had to be told to rest. We’re going to the garden. The First Full Day of Adam’s Life Was a Day of Rest Think about the order of God’s creation. God creates the heavens and the earth. He creates light, and sky, and sea, and land. He creates plants, and stars, and fish, and birds. On day six, He creates man. Then, on day seven, God rests. Adam wasn’t even created until day six, which means Adam’s very first full day of existence wasn’t a workday. It was a rest day. Consider that. Before Adam ever lifted a finger. Before he ever tilled a row or named a single animal. Before he had accomplished one single thing — he rested with God. Rest wasn’t Adam’s reward for work well done. Rest was the ground he stood on before he ever worked at all. I think that intentional order matters more than we usually give it credit for. In our world today, rest comes after. We act like it’s something we need to earn. We clock out. We collapse. We can then try to numb ourselves with screens and call it “winding down” or “relaxing” before bed, when it’s not either of those things. But in Eden, rest came first for humanity. Work would flow out of rest — not the other way around. Let’s look back to what God did on the seventh day. God Didn’t Rest Because He Was Tired Let’s be clear about that: our Creator didn’t need a nap. Isaiah tells us plainly, “The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary” (Isaiah 40:28). God’s rest on the seventh day wasn’t recovery. It was completion. It was enjoyment. It was God, looking at all He had made, and delighting in it as finished and very good. And then He did something unique: He blessed the seventh day. He made it holy. Genesis 2:3 says: “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” God wove rest into the fabric of time itself. Not as an afterthought. As a core part of the design. This regular and deep rest was set apart and blessed long before sin ever entered the world. Now, what about days one to six? Work Was Also Good — And It Still Is I want to pause here, because I don’t want you to hear this wrong. This series is absolutely not anti-work. God placed Adam in the garden “to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15), that is, “to avad it and keep it.” That’s avodah — the very word we’ve spent so much time sharing on in these LIFE ON MISSION posts and podcasts. Meaningful and dignifying work was entrusted to us and empowered by God long before the Fall ever happened. So in the garden, we see both: * Rest that comes first. * Work and service flow out of that rest, as an act of worship and stewardship in partnership with our Maker. Rest and avodah were never enemies. They were always meant to move together, in the right order, like breathing. Inhale rest. Exhale good work in tandem with God. Not the other way around. We lost that rhythm. Let’s talk about how. From Fulfilling Life with God to Everything Fractured and Falling Apart Genesis 3. The serpent. The fruit. The choice. And almost immediately, we see the rhythm break — not just morally, but relationally, physically, and rhythmically. First, communion breaks. Adam and Eve hear God walking in the garden, and “the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God” (Genesis 3:8). The most natural rest there is — unhindered nearness to God — is the first thing sin steals. Then, work turns to toil. God tells Adam, “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life... By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:17,19). Avodah — that good, God-given work — doesn’t disappear. But now it comes with sweat, thorns, and painful toil. Work that once flowed from rest now becomes a challenging, grinding thing, that is, when done outside of close communion with God. And restlessness itself enters the story. Just one chapter later, Cain kills his brother, and God tells him, “you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth” (Genesis 4:12). Cain’s own response is haunting: “My punishment is greater than I can bear... I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer” (Genesis 4:13-14). Restlessness — literal, geographic, soul-deep restlessness — becomes part of the curse. Do you see it? Before sin: rest first, then good work, in communion with God. After sin: hiding from God, painful toil, and wandering restlessness. That’s not just ancient history. That’s the diagnosis of every restless heart still walking around today — including, if we’re honest, ours, at least in moments. That leads us toward an important new rhythm that is introduced to humanity: sabbath. The Sabbath Command Was Always a Gift, Not a Burden Let’s fast forward to Exodus, the second book in the Bible. God’s people are newly freed from slavery in Egypt — from a system that worked them without mercy, without grace, without any rhythm of rest whatsoever. And what’s one of the first things God teaches them in the wilderness? How to collect manna, daily bread — and a rhythm attached to it. “Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none” (Exodus 16:26). God was retraining a formerly enslaved people to trust Him enough to stop. That trust factor is key. God was retraining His people to receive provision instead of grasping for it every single day. That’s not a small thing for people who had only ever known relentless labor all their lives. Then, at Mount Sinai, the sabbath becomes a command carved in stone: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God... For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11). Notice where the command is anchored. Not in Israel’s productivity. Not in some legalistic checklist. It’s anchored in creation itself — in the rhythm God modeled before sin ever entered the picture. The Sabbath command was never God being harsh. It was God calling His people back to Eden’s rhythm. Back to rest that comes first. Back to work that flows from communion, not in place of it. Back to trust, instead of toil. What this means for us Friends, our restlessness today isn’t just a modern problem. It’s an old, old ache. It’s Eden’s rhythm, fractured by sin, still echoing in every overfull calendar and every sleepless mind. You and I weren’t made to hide from God. We weren’t made to grind in painful toil with no rest in sight. We weren’t made to wander. We were made for a garden where rest came first. And even though we can’t walk back into Eden, God hasn’t left us wandering. That’s exactly where we’re headed next in this series on REST WITH GOD — because the writer of Hebrews looks back at all of this: God’s rest, Israel’s Sabbath, the whole fractured story — and says something that applies to us today: a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. We’ll get there. For now, consider this: Before you ever accomplish anything today, God is inviting you to rest with Him first — not after you’ve earned it. That was the original design. And our Redeemer is in the business of restoring His original design. Let’s Pray before we go God our Father, Lord our Maker, Our most faithful Friend, Thank You for the rhythm You built into creation before sin ever touched it. Thank You for the reality that rest was never meant to be earned, but received. Lord, we confess that we have drifted far from Your original design — and acknowledge how often we tend to hide, how much we strive, how much we wander when we could be resting in You. Holy Spirit, restore in us what the Fall fractured. Teach us to receive rest and not perform for it, as though we earn it. Teach us, Lord, to let our work flow from real communion with You, not anxious striving apart from You. Thank You, God, for Your good design. We choose to align with it and with You. Today, we choose to abide in You, and to remain in Your love — to trust Your good design. We pray in the name of Jesus our Lord, Amen. Hallelujah! Thank You, Father. Friends, this is Part 2 of the REST WITH GOD series. If this stirred something in you, share it with someone who’s likely to be tired of wandering and ready to come home to rest with God. Next time, we open up Hebrews 4 — the rest that remains, and what it means to enter it by faith. Subscribe to catch every episode. LIFE ON MISSION with TANNER KLEIN is a reader-supported publishing ministry. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Until next time, thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Let’s keep pressing on into 2026 with Immanuel — abiding, faithful, learning, & growing with God and each other. Thank You, Father, in advance! Lead the way, Lord our God! Also, feel free to check out the other podcast-posts in o

Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. Today, we’re introducing what I believe will be a power-packed series on REST WITH GOD. As always, my aim is to write and share these posts with the Lord who is with us, so:Lead the way, Lord Jesus, and be glorified through this. I want you to think about the last time you actually rested. Not the last time you sat down. Not the last time you scrolled through your phone until your eyes glazed over. Not the last time you binge-watched a show, or slept in, or laid on a beach somewhere with your body still but your mind running full speed on tomorrow’s to-do list. I mean rested. Deep soul-level rest. The kind of rest where you breathe in deeply, and exhale slowly, like you mean it. Where your mind is happily silent. Where you sense God’s pleasure and peace regardless of what’s going on around you. If you’re anything like me, that memory might be harder to find than it should be. It is strange: almost everyone agrees we need rest. Doctors tell us. Parents and friends tell us. Social media tells us. Our bodies tell us, usually by breaking down in some way until we respond. We nod along. We know, in our heads, that rest matters. And yet almost nobody actually rests. Not well, at least. Not on purpose, typically. Not in a way that leaves us restored instead of just distracted. That gap — between what we know and what we practice — is exactly why I am writing this series with the Lord’s help. There is no doubt about it: We Are a Restless People We live in a restless generation. Look around at the world we’ve built. We carry the entire internet in our pocket, which means we carry the entire world’s noise with us into the day and into our beds at night. We wear busyness like a badge of honor. We say “I’m busy” way too much — reflexively, constantly, almost proudly. Vacations come with laptops. Even our stillness is restless: we sit still and our minds sprint. It seems evident that Western culture, as a whole, does not know how to rest. And many of us who follow Jesus have quietly absorbed the same restlessness. Augustine wrote, centuries ago, that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. I believe that’s still the truest diagnosis of what ails us. We were not built for the pace we’re keeping. We were built for communion, and communion requires stillness that can feel unbearable in our constantly connected world. So here’s what I want to offer you over the next several weeks: a compelling, Biblical, Christ-centered vision of real rest — not the rest the world is selling you, but the rest God designed, offers, empowers, and ultimately receives glory through. Rest that’s good for the long haul. Rest that overflows into our marriages, our parenting, our friendships, our work. Rest that actually restores us to avad with God again — to offer Him our love-fueled work, service, and worship — with fresh strength instead of running on fumes. This Is Not a Series About Doing Less I want to be upfront with you all: this series is not going to tell you that rest is the most important thing, or that inactivity is the goal, or that slowing down is automatically holy. It isn’t. Scripture doesn’t celebrate laziness. Proverbs has plenty to say about the sluggard. Jesus Himself, in the very same Gospels that record His invitation to rest, is almost constantly on the move — teaching, healing, praying, equipping, sending, going. And there’s one particular scene in the Gospels that’s been on my mind as I’ve prepared this series: the Garden of Gethsemane. The night before the cross, Jesus asks His closest friends to stay awake and pray with Him. And what do they do? They sleep. Not because they were lazy men — but because in the exact moment they were called to watchfulness, to prayer, to being present with their Lord in His anguish, they chose rest instead. Wrong rest. Rest in the wrong moment, for the wrong reason, at the highest possible cost. That story matters for this series, because it tells us rest can be misused. Rest can become an excuse. Rest can shade into apathy, into spiritual slumber, into avoiding the very things God is calling us toward. So, we will not idolize rest here. We are not using “self-care” as a spiritual bypass for faith-filled obedience and action, empowered by the Spirit of God. But — and this is the whole point — the answer to that danger is not to swing back into restless striving. The answer is to actually understand what God means by rest, so we know the difference between Sabbath and sloth, between abiding and avoiding, between resting in God and resting from God. What We’ll Explore Together Over this series, we’re going to dig into some of the richest, and maybe most overlooked territory in the Scriptures . Here are a few places we’re headed: Where rest began. Before there was ever a command to rest, there was a rhythm established — God himself rested on the seventh day, not because He was tired, but because He was finished, and because He was setting a pattern into the fabric of creation itself for us to walk in and follow. Hebrews 4 — the rest that remains. This is one of the most powerful, and often misunderstood passages on rest in the whole Bible. It tells us a rest still remains for the people of God, and that we strive to enter it not by our own willpower, but by faith. We’ll spend real time here. Matthew 11:28-29 — Christ’s direct invitation. Jesus says: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Friends, that is one of the most compelling invitations in all the Scriptures, spoken by God Himself, to you. We’ll unpack what it actually means to come, to take Jesus’ yoke, to learn from Him, and to receive the rest He’s offering. Gethsemane — the counterfeit. We’ll return to the disciples sleeping when they should have been praying and watching, and let it sharpen our understanding of what rest is not. How to actually rest. This is where we’ll get extra practical — preparing for rest, building rhythms, unplugging in ways that are genuinely life-giving, and learning to receive from God rather than just striving toward Him even in our rest. Rest and avodah. We’ll bring it full circle to the heart of this whole LIFE ON MISSION publishing ministry — how real, God-given rest is what enables sustainable, faith-filled and love-fueled avodah. Rest isn’t the opposite of meaningful work; it’s what makes meaningful work possible over the long run. Rest is an act of faith Here’s something I hope settles into our hearts over the coming weeks: Sabbath rest is not passive. It is not simply the absence of labor. It is an act of trust. When we stop, we’re declaring — with our calendars, our bodies, even our unanswered emails — that the world will keep turning without your constant striving. We’re declaring that God is God, and you are not. We’re declaring that our worth isn’t manufactured by our output. That is not weakness. That is faith. And faith, as we know, is exactly what pleases God (see Hebrews 11:6). Isaiah put it this way to a restless, self-reliant people: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15) And then, heartbreakingly, the very next line records their response: “But you were unwilling.” I don’t want that to be our story. I don’t want it to be mine. Where this is going My hope — my prayer, honestly — is that by the end of this series, you won’t just know more about rest. I hope you’ll actually rest…with God. I hope you’ll hear Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28-29 not as a nice verse you’ve heard before, but as a real, standing offer from the God who made you, knows you completely, and sees exactly how heavy your burden has been. I hope you’ll understand the Holy Spirit as your Helper in this — the One who doesn’t just tell you to rest, but empowers you to actually receive it, moment by moment, rhythm by rhythm. I believe families will rest together and come out more unified. I believe parents will become more present. I believe grace will be received in fuller measure, and then given away more freely, because rested people tend to be more gracious people. And I believe, above all, that as we learn to rest in God, we’ll love Him more — not because we understand a doctrine better, but because we’ve actually tasted His rest, and seen for ourselves that it is good. So wherever you’re listening or reading from — whether you’re running on empty right now, or you’ve just never quite known how to slow down without guilt creeping in — I’m glad you’re here. This one’s for the tired. This one’s for the restless. This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered if there’s a better way to live than in constant busyness, stress, and restlessness. There is a better way. And that better way is the Way, the Truth, and the Life Himself. His name is Jesus, and He’s already extended the invitation. We just have to come. Let’s Pray before we go God our Father, Our Maker,Our most faithful Friend, Thank You for resting on the seventh day and enjoying Your good work. Thank You for setting the example for us. I am so glad that rest was Your idea before it was ever our need. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus, who looked at weary, burdened people and didn’t tell them to try harder or figure it out — He told them to come. Holy Spirit, Spirit of truth, teach us over these next weeks what it means to actually rest in God — not as an escape, and not as an idol, but as an act of faith, as an act of love and trust. Restore what’s worn down in

Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus! This is our fifth and final post in a Holy Week series centered on The Global Glory of God. Parts 1-4, are linked below. As always, you can listen to the podcast or read the post. If you are blessed by these posts, be sure to share them with friends. The Global Glory of God Series * Part 1: KNOWING GOD, the Foundation of Everything * Part 2: “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” - The Misunderstood Cry that OPENS EYES to PSALM 22 * Part 3: The Deceiver DEFEATED by the KING of kings * Part 4: The Veil Is Torn * Part 5: The Glory That Cannot be Stopped (this post) I had a ton of fun going deep into Good Friday in our last post, The Veil Is Torn, so if you haven’t already, I encourage you to go and check it out first, because today, we’re going into Resurrection Sunday. Holy Week may have been a while ago now but it is always good to remember Christ’s victory on the cross and celebrate His resurrection. JESUS IS RISEN. HE IS ALIVE. Hallelujah! All glory to our God! The victory belongs to God and the victory is ours in Christ. Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday may have come and gone but I hope the power of these historic days and Christ’s victory are not lost on us. They have everything to do with your life and mine today, now and forever. Let’s look back together at what Jesus did and the most important Sunday in history. As always, my aim is to write and share these posts with the Lord who is with us, so: Lead the way, Lord Jesus, and be glorified through this post. “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” — Matthew 28:6 The Third Day I bet that Saturday, the day before Resurrection Sunday, felt like the longest day in history. The disciples were in hiding. The women were in grief. It was a Sabbath day of rest, so there was no busyness to distract them. The disciples on the road to Emmaus would later describe what they were feeling with a sense of heartbreaking honesty: “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). Notice the past tense. “Had hoped.” It was as though their hope was buried in the grave, sealed with a massive stone and a Roman guard of soldiers. The deceiver must have thought it was over, that darkness had overcome the light. The world must have felt like it does on a morning after a great tragedy — cold, empty, and longing for meaning. But God was not sleeping on Saturday. In the stillness of a garden tomb, the same Spirit who hovered over the formless void in the beginning was at work. The same God who said “Let there be light” into darkness that had never known the light was preparing to speak again. And on the third day, He spoke. “And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:2-4) The guards — hardened Roman soldiers, men for whom violence and death were occupational hazards — became like dead men at the sight of an angel sitting casually on the stone he rolled away. That rolled-away stone represented what seemed impossible. Death had been reversed. The fundamental assumption of all human experience — that death is final — had been shattered from the inside. He is not here. He has risen. Why the Resurrection Changes Everything The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an addition to the Gospel of Jesus. It is not the feel-good ending bolted onto an otherwise tragic story. It is the event upon which the entirety of Christian faith, hope, and mission is built — and if it did not happen, as Paul says with conviction, our faith is worthless and we are of all people most to be pitied (see 1 Corinthians 15:14–19). Paul is not being rhetorical. He is making a claim with the full weight of history behind it. The resurrection is a historical event — witnessed by more than five hundred people at one time (see 1 Corinthians 15:6), by the apostles repeatedly, by Paul himself on the Damascus road. The tomb was empty. The Roman authorities never produced a body, though doing so would have stopped the Jesus movement in its tracks. The disciples who had been in hiding on Saturday were, within weeks, standing in the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming the resurrection to the very people who had called for the crucifixion — and they did not stop even when it cost them everything, even unto death. People do not die for what they know to be a lie. But far beyond the historical argument — and the case is very strong — the resurrection matters because of what it means. The resurrection means the Father accepted the Son’s sacrifice on our behalf. As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” The empty tomb is the Father’s verdict on the cross: accepted, sufficient, final. The debt has been paid and the receipt is the risen Jesus. The resurrection means death is not the end. For those who are in Christ, death is the last enemy — and it is a defeated enemy. 1 Corinthians 15:53–57 clarifies what Christ’s resurrection means for us and for all who will pass from life, through death, to new resurrection life: “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The resurrection of Jesus proves the weakness of death and the power of His resurrection life that now lives in us who have anchored our faith in Him. We are not spinning in meaningless cycles. We are moving toward something: toward the day when we who have trusted in Jesus will meet Him face to face, when our mortal and perishable bodies are swallowed up with new glorified, immortal, and imperishable bodies, and even more, toward the consummation of all things, toward the day when the One who rose will return, when every knee will bow, when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Friends, it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of our lives, in the chaos of current events, and challenging circumstances around the world that we cannot control, but let’s not forget to look ahead and remember what is coming. Of all people, we followers of Jesus should be the most grounded, rooted, steady, joyful, love-fueled, faith-driven people on the planet. We know how all this will end. And that brings us real and lasting hope and perspective, as well as clear motivation to make the Good News of Jesus known because the day is coming when everything as we know it will be transformed and made new, and we all will stand before a just God. That is amazing news if you have trusted in Jesus as both the Savior and Lord of your life. And that is not good news at all for those who refuse His offer of grace through faith and ultimately reject their Maker who died for them. The Great Commission: The Scope of the Risen King’s Authority Matthew records the risen Christ going to a mountain in Galilee — and when Jesus goes to a mountain you already know some powerful truth is coming. There He delivered the call to action that has shaped the history of the world: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18–20) Let’s unpack this great commission slowly. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Jesus said. This is the foundation. Not some authority. Not spiritual authority in religious contexts. All authority — everywhere, over everyone, in every domain of reality. The One who sends us rules over everything. Over every government, every principality, every cultural force, every closed border, every hostile regime — all of it is ultimately under the authority of the risen Jesus. This does not mean all doors are easy. It means there is no door our God cannot open. Thousands of missionaries and church planters in the hardest places on earth have learned that the risen Christ goes ahead of His people into places that human strategy could not unlock. He opens doors no man can shut (see Revelation 3:8). He prepares hearts in advance of the messenger (see Acts 16:14 — Lydia, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul”). He orchestrates the circumstances of entire nations to position the Gospel to be received (see Acts 17:26–28 — God determines the times and places of people’s dwelling so that they might seek and find Him). All authority has been given to Jesus, who then proclaims: “Go therefore.” The “therefore” is load-bearing. Because all authority belongs to Jesus — because the cross was accepted and sufficient for our redemption, the enemy was defeated, the veil was torn, the resurrection has happened — therefore, go. The going is not optional for those who have been gripped by these realities and the self-giving love of God on display through Jesus. It is the natural, compelled response of a people who know what has happened and what it means for them. Next, Jesus declares, “Make disciples of all nations.” The Greek phrase is panta ta ethne — all the peoples. Not just the nations in the

The Veil Is Torn — The Global Glory of God Series, Part 4 Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus! This is our fourth post in a Holy Week series centered on The Global Glory of God. Parts 1-3, are linked below. As always, you can listen to the podcast or read the post. If you are blessed by these posts, be sure to share them with friends. The Global Glory of God Series * Part 1: KNOWING GOD, the Foundation of Everything * Part 2: “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” - The Misunderstood Cry that OPENS EYES to PSALM 22 * Part 3: The Deceiver DEFEATED by the KING of kings — The Global Glory of God Series, Part 3 Holy Week may have been a while ago but it is always good to remember Christ’s victory on the cross and celebrate His resurrection. JESUS IS RISEN. HE IS ALIVE. Hallelujah! All glory to our God! The victory belongs to God and the victory is ours in Christ. Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday may have come and gone but I hope the power of these historic days and Christ’s victory are not lost on us. They have everything to do with your life and mine today, now and forever. Let’s look back together at what Jesus did and the most important Friday in history. As always, my aim is to write and share these posts with the Lord who is with us, so: Lead the way, Lord Jesus, and be glorified through this post. The Veil Is Torn After enduring the excruciating pain of crucifixion on the Roman torturous death device we know as the cross, at the very moment Jesus yielded up his spirit on the cross, it says in Matthew 27:51, “Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” In the following verses in Matthew 27:52-54, it goes on to say, The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” What a holy and awesome and life-altering moment. Let’s look back at the curtain that was torn in the temple. It was torn from top to bottom. Not from below. God did it. He tore that veil. Here’s why I say that. This is no ordinary veil or curtain separating two rooms. According to Jewish oral history, written down in the 1st and 2nd century, this temple veil was a handbreadth thick (~4 inches / 9 cm), 40 cubits long (~60 ft / >18m long), and 20 cubits wide (~30 ft / 9m wide). Assuming it was tightly woven using a typical density for tightly woven linen (i.e. apparently ~37 lbs/cubic ft)... That’s roughly 10–11 tons of curtain. (That’s 9-10 metric tons). That’s about the weight of two adult African elephants, or a fully loaded moving truck. It would take over 300 people carrying over 70 lbs each (~32kgs) to pick up and wash that curtain. I hope it’s a bit clearer now that there’s no human being that could tear that veil from top to bottom, let alone from bottom to top. But why is this veil tearing so significant? The curtain that hung in the Jerusalem temple separated the outer and inner courts from the Most Holy Place — known as the Holy of holies — the inner chamber where the manifest presence of God dwelled on earth. This was the place where, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest alone would enter, with blood, trembling, to make atonement for the people, with bells on his garment to signify when he entering the most holy place. My guess is that if you couldn’t hear those bells, there was only one explanation for coming so near God’s holy presence. To enter uninvited was certain death. The veil was not symbolic. It was an actual, physical boundary between sinful humanity and the one, true holy God. And the moment Jesus breathed His last, God tore it. Can you see the eternal significance? The access is now open — not to one priest, once a year, with animal blood to make things ritually clean — but to every soul who comes to God through faith in Jesus Christ, who made a way for us to approach the holiness of God’s presence by shedding His own blood for us, at any hour, in any language, from any nation, with any past. Consider Hebrews 10:19-22, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Do we hear this good news? Full assurance. Not anxious hoping. Not groveling uncertainty. Confidence — not in our worthiness, but in His blood. This is the foundation of prayer. This is why Colossians 4 matters so profoundly to the global mission of God. Paul, writing from prison, asks: “At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:3–4) The apostle who had seen the risen Christ, who had been caught up to the third heaven, who had planted churches across the Roman world — he asked for prayer. Not as a formality, but as genuine dependence and understanding that prayer is far more powerful than we know. Because he knew: the doors of the nations open by prayer. The Gospel advances through sons and daughters who bow on their knees and approach God’s throne of grace in prayer, and receive all they need to go and proclaim the best news ever. And the torn veil means we actually have access to the One who opens and shuts doors, who holds the keys to the Kingdom, who determines the times and seasons of nations. We are not speaking into a void when we pray for open doors in closed countries. We are addressing the King of Kings — through a curtain that He Himself tore, with access purchased at the highest possible price. Not only that, God made a way for us to approach Him and for Him to live in us through His Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised. Look at John 14:15-17, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” We can see clearly, God’s manifest presence is not restricted to the Holy of Holies in the temple. Instead, God dwells in us who trust in Him, who put our confidence in Christ Jesus and His blood that was shed for us, so that our bodies may truly be temples of the Holy Spirit, just as it says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” The Beauty of the Particular Way Good Friday forces us to reckon with something that the vague, universal spiritual sentiments of our culture would rather avoid: the particular nature of salvation. Jesus did not die as a universal spiritual principle. He died as a specific person, on a specific hill, at a specific moment in history, bearing the specific sins of every specific soul once and for all. And He rose — bodily, historically, specifically — three days later. This particularity matters enormously for our lives on mission as ambassadors for Jesus and His Kingdom, here on earth, locally and globally — in our neighborhoods and across the nations. This matters because it means the message is not “find your own spiritual path” or “awaken to your inner truth.” The message is “Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.” (John 14:6) This is the most exclusive and the most inclusive thing ever said in my opinion. Exclusive — there is only one Way. One atoning death. One resurrection. One Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (as it says in Acts 4:12). This is not negotiable, not culturally relative, not one option in a spiritual marketplace. And precisely because it is particular — because it is this Jesus, with these wounds, who speaks this word of forgiveness — it is infinitely inclusive. The door is not narrow in the sense of being for a certain ethnicity or culture or education level. It is narrow in the sense of being one door — and it is open to anyone who walks through it by faith. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Not a region. Not a religion. Not a civilizational bloc. The world — the Greek word for world here is kosmos, including every human being who has ever drawn breath. God’s love extends even to those who reject Him and His offer of soul-satisfying and personal love. Jesus shared countless meals with Judas. He washed his feet. He called Judas, “friend.” Even while we were enemies of God, living in sin, spiritually blinded and deaf, we were loved. Romans 5:7-9 highlights this redeeming and steadfast love of God, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” This explains why the peoples of the earth unreached by the Gospel and followers of Jesus are not a niche concern as it relates to the mission Jesus gave us before He ascended to heaven. They are at t

Hey friends - Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. My name Tanner Klein. I hope you know that you are loved by God. That is who you are. You are loved. Don’t just take my word for it, take God’s word for it. Jesus Himself said these words, recorded in John 13:34: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: JUST AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, you also are to love one another. Did you hear that part in the middle: “just as I have loved you.” Look to the cross. Remember Jesus laid down His life for you. Remember what God has done for you. And as Jesus instructs us again and again, as it’s written in John 15, abide in Him and remain in His love. Believe in God’s love for you, receive it, enjoy it more fully, and share it freely. Your life is of priceless value to the God who made you, pursues you, loves you, and desires a relationship with you. I’m not sure who needs to hear these words, but I feel compelled to share them again, YOU ARE LOVED. That is who you are. In God’s eyes, that is who you are. May God bless you to see God as your greatest treasure and to believe in His love for you, receive it, enjoy it more fully, and share it more freely. Allow me to continue by reminding you that, First, God can make an eternally significant impact on other eternal souls through us, and He does! Second, the Lord is raising up men and women who want to build with Him, not just for Him. There’s a big difference. So, we’re embarking on our sixth post on the topic of redemptive entrepreneurship, our third centered on redemptive business strategy. What is Redemptive Entrepreneurship? We covered this extensively in our previous posts linked below. It is about partnering with God in His ongoing work of renewal—right where we are—building, leading, serving, and creating. Our friends at Praxis, define the word Redemptive as “following the pattern of creative restoration through sacrifice in our life and work,” and the word Entrepreneurship as “directing our agency and resources toward organizational creation, innovation, and risk.” I’m excited to explore this more with you all. Also, feel free to check out the other podcast-posts in this series, linked below, or if you want more after this post, come back to this list: * REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP — An Introduction * EXPLOITATIVE vs. ETHICAL vs. REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The Three Ways We Build * CULTIVATING the HEART of a REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEUR: Surrender, Faith in Action, & the Fear of the LORD * Strategy as a Form of Love, Why Strategy Matters, & Why It’s a Holy Partnership * What Are We Aiming At? Success or Faithfulness? In our post on Strategy as a Form of Love, Why Strategy Matters, & Why It’s a Holy Partnership, we covered this core question from the first chapter in my not-yet-released book on Redemptive Business Strategy, What if strategy — rightly understood and rightly practiced — is not just a business discipline, but a form of partnership with God? In the last podcast, What Are We Aiming At? Success or Faithfulness? we addressed this core question: Before you build anything — a business, a team, a strategy, a life’s work — have you honestly asked what you are actually aiming at? Today, we are exploring, Business as Stewardship, Not Ownership Here’s the Core Question we’re addressing today? Who does your business, your influence, your capital, and your time actually belong to — and how does your honest answer to that question shape the way you lead? The Focus This chapter challenges the ownership mindset at the root of most business culture and replaces it with the biblical posture of stewardship. It shows how stewardship reframes strategy from a competitive exercise into an act of worship, reorders power from self-interest to service, and frees leaders from the anxiety of controlling outcomes they were never meant to own. The Stewardship Inventory is introduced as a simple, repeatable tool for leaders and teams. Chapter 2 asked what we are aiming at? This chapter asks something just as foundational: Who does this actually belong to? My business.My idea.My organization.My capital.My influence.My time.My leadership. Do these belong to you? Or have they been entrusted to you? How we answer that question — honestly, not just theologically — shapes everything: strategy, culture, decision-making, and how we treat people when things get hard and the pressure is real. The Scriptures give us a clear and humbling starting point. Psalm 24:1 says it plainly: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,the world and those who dwell therein.” Not some of it.Not just the “spiritual” parts.Not just the ministry side of things and not only the business side.All of it. Including your business. Including your strategy. Including whatever you are building right now and whatever you will build moving forward. All creation belongs to God and everything in it. As Job acknowledged, God gives and He takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Ownership Is a Powerful Illusion Modern business culture is built on the language of ownership. We talk about: * My company, * My vision, * My brand, * My success, * My exit. And in one practical sense, this language makes sense. We register businesses. We sign contracts. We hold equity. We take responsibility. But spiritually, the ownership language we use can quietly and deceptively reshape our hearts in ways we never intended. Ownership tempts us to believe: * We are in control * We are self-made * We are entitled to outcomes * We can justify almost anything “for the sake of the business” This is where strategy begins to drift. From faithfulness toward fear. From trust toward grasping for control. From stewardship toward self-preservation. Jesus warned His disciples about exactly this kind of posture in Luke 12:15: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Covetousness does not always look like greed. Sometimes it looks like an entrepreneur who cannot sleep because they are afraid of losing what they built. Sometimes it looks like a leader who makes a decision that compromises their values because they cannot bear to see their company shrink. Sometimes it looks like me. The ownership mindset is subtle. It does not announce itself. It simply shapes the way we hold things — tightly, anxiously, defensively — until we can no longer tell the difference between leading and grasping for control. This is why faith-driven leaders consistently emphasize stewardship over ownership — recognizing that capital, influence, and profit are tools entrusted by God, not trophies to be protected. Ownership says: This is mine. Stewardship says: This has been entrusted to me. And that difference changes everything downstream. Three Postures, Three Outcomes This is where the ownership vs. stewardship tension maps directly onto the three ways of building we have been exploring throughout the last two posts. The exploitative builder operates from a deep ownership posture — likely without ever naming it. What is mine must be protected. Growth justifies extraction. People are assets to be leveraged. Profit is the primary signal of success. This way is not always malicious. Often it is simply the default posture of a competitive culture, running unchallenged. The ethical builder holds things somewhat more loosely. They treat people fairly, respect limits, and do not deliberately exploit. But the aim is still self-defined success, and the posture is still essentially ownership — doing things right with what is mine. The redemptive builder operates from a fundamentally different posture: stewardship. What I have has been given to me by God, for purposes larger than myself, accountable to Someone higher than my board, my investors, or my own ambitions. This posture does not remove ambition or excellence — it redeems and reorients them. The gap between these three postures is not primarily a strategy gap. It is a heart gap. And it shows up most clearly not in good times, but in the moments when you or the business are under pressure and every instinct is telling you to protect what you have. Stewardship: God’s Design for Leadership and Strategy This is not a new idea. It runs through the entire arc of the Scriptures. From the beginning, God entrusts human beings with His creation — not to own it, but to cultivate and care for it. The word the Bible uses for this care and cultivation is avad — to work, serve, and worship as one integrated act of devotion to God. We find avodah first mentioned as early as Genesis 2:15. Where our English bibles may use the word “work” or “cultivate,” it says literally, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to [avad] it and keep it.” Avodah is not a burden. It is a calling. It is God’s original design for how we engage with the world He made and entrusted to us. A steward, in the biblical sense, is someone who: * Manages what belongs to another * Acts on behalf of the true owner * Is accountable for how faithfully they care for what has been entrusted Jesus returned to this image again and again — especially when teaching about work, money, and leadership. In the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, the servants are not evaluated based on how much they owned or accumulated. They are evaluated based on one thing: how faithfully they stewarded what the master entrusted to them. And in 1 Corinthians 4:2, Paul distills the entire posture into a single sentence: “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” Notice what is not required. Not guaranteed outcomes. Not risk-free decisions. Not perfect results. Not impressive growth. Faithfulness. That is the metric of stewardship — and it is both far simpler and far more demanding than the metrics most business

Hey friends - Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. My name Tanner Klein. I can see that these posts and podcasts are reaching 1000s of souls so I want to start by saying thank you to all of you who have shared these LIFE ON MISSION podcasts and posts with your friends, family, and networks. I really believe our God is reaching hearts, inspiring minds, and equipping people to partner with God in His restorative work of bringing redemption across the nations and wherever you are. We have the opportunity to join God in this and that offer is too good to pass up. People need to know. As I’ve mentioned before in our last podcast, I’ll share again for those who don’t already know, for the longest time I’ve been inspired by the integration of faith and work. I love business as mission (BAM), business for transformation (B4T), faith-driven entrepreneurship, reaching the unreached by way of local business or investment in communities that would otherwise be inaccessible, ministries engaging in the marketplace, and the like. There are so many opportunities to use the gifts, time, talents, and resources God has given us to glorify Him while making a real and lasting impact in other peoples’ lives, across families, communities, and nations alike. That is amazing. Our God can make an eternally significant impact on other eternal souls through us, and He does! Few topics get me more fired up. Our lives have so much meaning. Today has so much purpose. Understandably, I’ve embraced living on mission abroad with Jesus. And here’s something I’ve witnessed from the US to Asia to Oceania to Europe and beyond. When I look at the landscape of business, ministry, creativity, and culture today, I see something extraordinary: God is raising up men and women who want to build with Him, not just for Him. There’s a big difference. Our Creator is stirring a generation of entrepreneurs who aren’t driven by the world’s definition of success, who aren’t chasing influence, who aren’t satisfied with business-as-usual, and who aren’t settling for a compartmentalized faith that gets picked up on Sunday and left at home on Monday. These are people who want to create with Jesus, serve like Jesus, and love other eternal souls the way Jesus loves us and gave Himself for us.People who want to solve real problems without losing their souls in the process.People who want to build ventures and create in ways that express the heart of God. This reflects the heart of Redemptive Entrepreneurship. Not exploitative business. Not simply social entrepreneurship.Not just a more ethical version of innovation. What is Redemptive Entrepreneurship? We covered this in our previous posts linked below. It is about partnering with God in His ongoing work of renewal—right where we are—building, leading, serving, and creating. Our friends at Praxis, a New York City-based venture-building ecosystem that champions the awakening of our redemptive imagination, distinguish the word Redemptive as following the pattern of creative restoration through sacrifice in our life and work—and Entrepreneurship as directing our agency and resources toward organizational creation, innovation, and risk. And through the years, this kind of innovative work reflecting the ways of Jesus and His Kingdom has captivated my attention and inspired me greatly in my own business, missional, and entrepreneurial efforts. I’m excited to explore this more with you all. We’ve already published four podcast-posts on this topic: * Strategy as a Form of Love, Why Strategy Matters, & Why It’s a Holy Partnership — A Series on REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP * CULTIVATING the HEART of a REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEUR: Surrender, Faith in Action, & the Fear of the LORD * EXPLOITATIVE vs. ETHICAL vs. REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The Three Ways We Build * REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP — An Introduction These four podcast-posts are linked here. In the last podcast-post, we covered this core question from the first chapter in my not-yet-released book on Redemptive Business Strategy, What if strategy — rightly understood and rightly practiced — is not just a business discipline, but a form of partnership with God? This chapter establishes the foundation of the entire book: that business strategy, when submitted to the Lordship of Christ, becomes a form of faithful stewardship, integrated worship, and love made durable. Before we discuss frameworks, markets, or competitive advantage, we must understand why strategy matters—and with whom we are building. We covered a lot of important topics: * Strategy Is About Direction * God Is Not Anti-Planning * Strategy is Stewardship — and Stewardship is an Expression of Worship * Why Strategy Matters for Love * The Three Ways to Build — and Why Your Choice Matters * Strategic Expertise Redeemed * A Holy Partnership, Not a Solo Project * You & I Were Made for This Kind of Work * A Real-World Example of Avodah in Action: HOPE International * What This Book Is — and Is Not * The Invitation * 3 Ways to Put Redemptive Strategy into Practice * Key Takeaways and of course, we paused to pray together. If you’re interested, this podcast-post is linked here if you’d like to listen in or see for yourself: * Strategy as a Form of Love, Why Strategy Matters, & Why It’s a Holy Partnership — A Series on REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP If you are curious about this topic and would like to pre-order a copy of this book on redemptive business strategy, leave a comment or message me and I will follow up with you. Today, we are asking, What Are We Aiming At? Success OR Faithfulness? Here’s the Core Question we’re addressing today? Before you build anything — a business, a team, a strategy, a life’s work — have you honestly asked what you are actually aiming at? The Focus This chapter challenges the unexamined assumptions behind most strategies by asking the most foundational question a builder can ask: What is this for? Essentially, what is the end goal? It establishes faithfulness — not success — as the true aim of redemptive business strategy, while showing that faithfulness and fruitfulness are not in conflict but in proper order: fruitfulness follows faithfulness and faithfulness follows abiding in Jesus. It introduces the Aim Alignment Canvas as a simple, repeatable tool for keeping purpose, people, power, and profit rightly ordered under Christ. Before we talk about strategy, frameworks, markets, or growth, we need to slow down and ask a much more fundamental question: What are we actually aiming at? Not what sounds impressive. Not what gets applause. Not what looks successful on paper. But what are we truly building toward—deep down, in our hearts, in our minds, with our lives? Is our end goal success in the eyes of the world? Or is it faithfulness to God? Or is it some funky fusion of the two, somewhere in the subtle, lukewarm in-between? Because whether we realize it or not, our aim quietly shapes everything: how we define success, how we treat people, how we make decisions under pressure, and what we are willing to sacrifice—or refuse to sacrifice—along the way. Most strategy books rush past this question. They assume the aim. They assume success. They assume growth, dominance, market share, influence, or wealth. And then they teach you how to get there faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. But God’s Word offers a different set of priorities. In Luke 14:28, Jesus asks: “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” In other words: Before we build, pause. Sit down. Prayerfully discern. Carefully consider your aim and the comprehensive cost required to build what will last. This is where redemptive business strategy begins— not with frameworks, but with the foundational questions underneath them all. The Quiet Assumption Beneath Most Strategy In much of modern business thinking, the aim is rarely questioned. It is simply assumed. The assumed aim is usually some version of: * Win * Grow * Scale * Maximize * Beat competitors * Increase valuation None of these are inherently evil. Some may even be good. But none of them are neutral. Every strategy — whether explicit or implicit — is formed around a vision of what is worth pursuing. And that vision is always shaped by deeper beliefs about people, about value, about what a good life actually looks like. Whether we name it or not, that is a theological question. Our vision is shaped by what we believe about God. So the question is not whether your strategy is connected to your understanding of who God is. The question is how your beliefs about God — aligned with truth or not — are shaping your motives, your priorities, and your planning. We absolutely need the help of God’s Spirit to accurately discern and better understand how our beliefs about God — aligned with truth or not — are shaping our motives, our priorities, and our planning. As Jesus puts it in Matthew 6:21: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our aim reveals our treasure. And our treasure shapes our strategy. My prayer for myself and for you is this: Lord Jesus, be my Treasure. Be our Treasure. Realign our hearts, our motives, and our aim with Your heart, desires, and aim to bring redemption through us, across our workplaces, neighborhoods, nations, and homes. Shape our strategies for lasting impact: to bless people, renew what is broken, and ultimately to please You, Lord our Treasure. I pray, we pray in Your name, King Jesus. Amen. Let’s let this promise in Philippians 2:13 inspire us as the Lord empowers us through the Holy Spirit, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” That is life-changing, good news. Three Aims — Only One That Lasts This is where the contrast between the three ways to b

Hey friends - Thanks for joining me in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus. My name Tanner Klein. For the longest time I’ve been inspired by the integration of faith and work. I love business as mission (BAM), business for transformation (B4T), faith-driven entrepreneurship, reaching the unreached by way of local business or investment in communities that would otherwise be inaccessible, ministries engaging in the marketplace, and the like. There are so many opportunities to use the gifts, time, talents, and resources God has given us to glorify Him while making a real and lasting impact in other peoples’ lives, across families, communities, and nations alike. That is amazing. Our God can make an eternally significant impact on other eternal souls through us, and He does! Few topics get me more fired up. Our lives have so much meaning. Today has so much purpose. Understandably, I’ve embraced living on mission abroad with Jesus. And here’s something I’ve witnessed from the US to Asia to Oceania to Europe and beyond. When I look at the landscape of business, ministry, creativity, and culture today, I see something extraordinary: God is raising up men and women who want to build with Him, not just for Him. There’s a big difference. Our Creator is stirring a generation of entrepreneurs who aren’t driven by the world’s definition of success, who aren’t chasing influence, who aren’t satisfied with business-as-usual, and who aren’t settling for a compartmentalized faith that gets picked up on Sunday and left at home on Monday. These are people who want to create with Jesus, serve like Jesus, and love other eternal souls the way Jesus loves us and gave Himself for us.People who want to solve real problems without losing their souls in the process.People who want to build ventures and create in ways that express the heart of God. This reflects the heart of Redemptive Entrepreneurship. Not exploitative entrepreneurship. Not simply social entrepreneurship.Not just a more ethical version of innovation. What is Redemptive Entrepreneurship? We covered this in our previous posts linked below. It is about partnering with God in His ongoing work of renewal—right where we are—building, leading, serving, and creating. Our friends at Praxis, a New York City-based venture-building ecosystem that champions the awakening of our redemptive imagination, distinguish the word Redemptive as following the pattern of creative restoration through sacrifice in our life and work—and Entrepreneurship as directing our agency and resources toward organizational creation, innovation, and risk. And through the years, this kind of innovative work reflecting the ways of Jesus and His Kingdom has captivated my attention and inspired me greatly in my own business, missional, and entrepreneurial efforts. I’m excited to explore this more with you all. We’ve already published three podcast-posts on this topic: * REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP — An Introduction * EXPLOITATIVE vs. ETHICAL vs. REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The Three Ways We Build * CULTIVATING the HEART of a REDEMPTIVE ENTREPRENEUR: Surrender, Faith in Action, & the Fear of the LORD These three podcast-posts are linked here. What we’re diving into today is a glimpse from my book on Redemptive Business Strategy. If you are interested in this topic and would like to pre-order a copy. Leave a comment or message me and I will follow up with you. Let’s start by asking: Why Strategy Matters (and Why It’s a Holy Partnership)? Here’s the Core Question we’re addressing today? What if strategy — rightly understood and rightly practiced — is not just a business discipline, but a form of partnership with God? The Focus This chapter establishes the foundation of the entire book: that business strategy, when submitted to the Lordship of Christ, becomes a form of faithful stewardship, integrated worship, and love made durable. Before we discuss frameworks, markets, or competitive advantage, we must understand why strategy matters—and with whom we are building. Strategy might not sound spiritual at first. For many people, it brings to mind boardrooms, spreadsheets, competitive analysis, five-year plans, and PowerPoint decks that somehow manage to say a lot without saying very much. But Scripture tells a deeper story. Strategy — rightly understood — is not about control. It’s about faithful direction. And when practiced with God, strategy becomes something far more than a management tool. It becomes a holy partnership. Strategy Is About Direction At its core, strategy answers simple but weighty questions: * Where are we going? * Why are we going there? * How will we steward what we’ve been given along the way? Whether you are starting a business, leading or working on a team, serving in ministry role, launching a nonprofit, or shaping a creative project — you are already making strategic decisions. The only question is whether those decisions are intentional and aligned. Aligned with what? Not just a plan. Not just a market opportunity. Aligned with God’s purposes, His design, and the people He has called you to love. That alignment is what this book is about. God Is Not Anti-Planning Sometimes we assume that faith and planning are in tension. They are not. From the opening pages of Scripture, we see God as intentional, ordered, and purposeful. In Colossians 1:16–17, Paul writes: For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth… all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. God creates with purpose. God orders creation toward flourishing. God works with direction. Strategy, when rightly oriented, reflects God’s own character. The God who spoke galaxies into ordered existence, who called a people, made a covenant, and sent His Son at exactly the right moment in history — this God is not allergic to planning. He invented it. The danger is not strategy. The danger is strategy practiced apart from Him. Consider Proverbs 16:3 and verse 9 together. Verse 3 declares: Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. Verse 9 declares: The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. And to add to this tapestry of truth, Proverbs 3:5-6 shares both wisdom and a promise: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. We are not to plan like our ever-present God is far off. That is a fruitless endeavor, and frankly, a waste of time. Truly effective and impactful strategies are aligned with truth, and there is no better Source and model of truth than the Way, the Truth, and the Life Himself — Jesus Christ. Strategy is Stewardship — and Stewardship is an Expression of Worship Here is where it gets personal. Everything we have — time, talent, opportunity, resources, relationships — has been entrusted to us. Not owned. Entrusted. Wayne Grudem, in Business for the Glory of God, reminds us that business exists to serve human needs and glorify God through good stewardship. That insight applies far beyond formal business. It applies to all purposeful work. Strategy is how we steward well instead of drifting. But there is something even deeper here than good management. The ancient Hebrew word for this kind of integrated work is avodah — and its verb form is avad. It is a single word that weaves together work, worship, and service into one seamless act of devotion to God. This was God’s original design: not compartmentalized religion on one side and “real life” on the other, but an integrated life of love — working, serving, and worshiping God in everything we do. When we understand this, strategy is no longer merely a business practice. To avad with God — to work as worship, in partnership with the Creator — is one of the most profound realities available to us as His children. This means your planning session can be an act of worship. Your decision-making can be an act of service. Your business can be an expression of love. In Colossians 3:23-24, Paul captures this posture with striking simplicity: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Not some of what you do. Whatever you do. Strategy included. Strategy, practiced this way, is not just an effective skill to add to a resumé. It is a way we avad with God and respond to His ancient calling for humanity as faith-filled and love-fueled partners and ambassadors for Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Why Strategy Matters for Love This is crucial, and it is often missed. Strategy is not primarily about efficiency. It is about steady and long-lasting love—love made durable . I’ll explain what I mean by that. Good intentions, on their own, are not enough. History is full of well-meaning ventures that burned bright and burned out — hurting the very people they set out to serve. Without wise, prayerful strategy: * Good intentions burn out * Vision remains vague * People get hurt unintentionally * Resources are wasted But with wise, prayerful strategy: * People are served more consistently * Systems protect the vulnerable * Good work outlasts initial enthusiasm Strategy helps love endure. This matters for the souls impacted by the strategic decisions made and it matter to God. Consider the contrast: an exploitative business treats strategy as a tool for extraction — maximizing what can be taken from the market, from employees, from the environment. A merely ethical business uses strategy to do things right, to play fair, to minimize harm. But a redemptive business treats strategy as a form of love — designing systems, making decisions, and allocating resources in ways that genuinely bless people and participate in God’s wor

Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus! Welcome to the final post in this Drawing Near series, post number 8, part 7. It follows our last post DRAWING NEAR: “Who Are You Following?” I want to thank to all of you who shared our last post as more than 5,000 people have already downloaded the podcast. That blows my mind. Lord willing, many will be impacted by God through this series focused on cultivating intimacy with our Creator and King. Before our last post, “Who Are You Following?” was post number 6, “The Relationship That Takes Time,” post 5, “Cutting Off Distractions”, post 4, “Counting the Cost,” post 3, “Seeking First,” post 2, “Have You TASTED and SEEN?”, and the series introduction. All of these podcasts are linked below. * DRAWING NEAR: An Introduction to A New Devotional Series on INTIMACY with GOD * DRAWING NEAR: “Have You TASTED and SEEN?” * DRAWING NEAR: “Seeking First” * DRAWING NEAR: “Counting the Cost” * DRAWING NEAR: “Cutting Off Distractions” * DRAWING NEAR: “The Relationship That Takes Time” * DRAWING NEAR: “Who Are You Following?” * DRAWING NEAR: “The Abundant Life Awaits” (this post) As a reminder, Here’s The Heart Behind This Series We’re exploring what it means to truly draw near to God and grow in intimacy with Him through Christ. This isn’t about doing more religious activities or checking off spiritual disciplines—this is about relationship. Real, deep, life-transforming relationship with the living God. We’re going to be honest about what’s preventing our relational growth with the Lord, expose the sources of spiritual stagnation that keep us stuck in shallow faith, and discover practical, biblical pathways to the abundant life Jesus promised in John 10:10: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Throughout this seven-part journey, we are exploring some crucial questions: * Have you truly tasted and seen that God is good? * Are you seeking God’s Kingdom first? * Have you counted the cost—and the gain—of following Jesus? * What distractions need to be cut off so you can cling to God? * Are you willing to take time to build a real relationship with the Lord? * Do you know the voice of your Good Shepherd? * Are you ready to receive Jesus and all that comes with Him? Today, we continue with the seventh key question: Are you ready to receive Jesus and all that comes with Him? This is an exercise in loosening our grip on control and fear and relinquishing our claims to be the lords of our lives, so that we can receive Jesus as our Lord and King, as well as all the goodness and grace that come with Him. As mentioned earlier, in John 10:10, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” In context, Jesus is referring to Himself as the Good Shepherd who loves and cares for His sheep in stark contrast to the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep. We’ve now journeyed together through some searching questions: Have you truly tasted and seen that God is good? Are you seeking God’s Kingdom first? Have you counted the cost—and the gain—of following Jesus? What distractions need to be cut off so you can cling to God? Are you willing to take time to build a real relationship with the Lord? Do you know the voice of your Good Shepherd? Now we arrive at the culmination, the glorious reality that makes it all worthwhile: Our God is willing and ready to offer us real abundant life with Him. The problem is that few want it. Let that sink in for a moment. God is willing and ready. Not reluctant. Not hesitant. Not waiting for you to get your act together first. He’s ready right now to offer you abundant life. Real. Abundant. Life. Not a seemingly appealing imitation. Not a religious checklist. Not dry duty or empty ritual. Real life with Him—the kind of abundance that satisfies your deepest longings, fills your emptiest places, and brings purpose to your every breath. Jesus came so that His disciples, so that His followers, so that you and me would have life and have it to the full. Overflowing. Far more abundantly than all that we ask or think (see Ephesians 3:20). God’s love for us is so great, so pervasive, so high, and long, and deep, and wide, that Apostle Paul prays on his knees before the Father on behalf of the people of God in Ephesus that they would have the strength to comprehend and truly know the height, depth, breadth, and length of God’s love. According to the New Testament book of Ephesians 3:14-20, as Paul prayed for the Ephesian Body of Christ, so I pray for you who are listening to this podcast or reading this post, 14 “…I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, [and pray] 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Hallelujah! Thank You, God, in advance, for answering this prayer. So, if God is willing and ready to offer us real abundant life with Him, why do so few want it? Because, among other things, abundant life with Jesus comes with a condition: Our God is willing and ready to offer us real abundant life with Him, but few want it if it means that Jesus is the Lord of our hearts and lives. There it is. There’s the sticking point. The place where many turn back. Many want God’s blessings without God as Boss. We want the gifts without the Giver having authority in our lives. We want abundant life on our terms, not His. But it doesn’t work that way. We mentioned Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:24 in our last post. He says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” You and I cannot have Jesus as our Savior but not as our Lord. We cannot receive His Kingdom while maintaining our own throne. The abundant life Jesus offers is in Him, not just from Him. That reality is worth repeating: The abundant life Jesus offers is in Him, not just from Him. Abundant life is found in relationship with Him, in surrender to Him, in making Jesus the center of your entire existence. And here’s what that requires: We must relinquish our claims to be lords over our own lives, masters of our own time, and masters of our own destinies. There can only be one master. God or anything else. Only one we can serve. So, that means if we claim allegiance to Jesus, we get to relinquish our claim to the throne of our hearts and lives. That means you and I get to and choose to let go, surrender, release our grip—day after day. And that is hard because we like control. We are human; we like calling the shots. We like being the masters of our own fate, the captains of our own souls—at least we like to imagine we hold control over our future. But look where that’s gotten us: * anxious, * exhausted, * empty, * searching for meaning in things that can’t truly satisfy, * building kingdoms that crumble, * chasing pleasures that fade, * wanting more and more and more, but never having enough. Jesus Himself says this in Matthew 16:26, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, to get everything they lust after, yet lose themselves completely in the process? Disillusioned, discontent, hard-hearted, lost. You can have everything the world offers and still be empty. Or you can have Jesus and have everything that truly matters. But, considering the fact that our God and Creator is willing and ready to offer us real abundant life with Him, what if we are among the few who want this even if it means that Jesus is the Lord of our hearts and lives. That leads us to a crucial question: Do you realize that in this exchange you receive Jesus and all that comes with him? When I say all, I mean ALL that comes with Him. Let’s unpack this incredible reality. By making Jesus the Lord of our hearts and lives, we receive: His everlasting Kingdom. You become a citizen of a Kingdom that will never end, never be overthrown, and never fade, ruled by the only truly perfect, just, and loving King who will reign forever—Jesus Christ (see Luke 1:33). Hebrews 12:28 powerfully declares, “Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Holy, holy, holy is the Lord our Almighty God. While earthly kingdoms rise and fall, you and I get to belong to an eternal kingdom, and to the sovereign One who sits on the throne. By making Jesus the Lord of our hearts and lives, we receive: Eternal life. Not just endless existence, but life—real, full, rich life that begins now and lasts forever with the Source of all that is good Himself. Jesus, the Son of God, says this in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Let’s not miss the Good News given in this truth shared by Jesus. God’s free gift of eternal life comes through faith in Jesus. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s set apart standard. None of us are perfect. That goes without saying. The reality rem

Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus! Welcome to post number 7 in this Drawing Near series, following our last post DRAWING NEAR: “The Relationship That Takes Time.” It followed our 5th post, “Cutting Off Distractions”, post 4, “Counting the Cost,” post 3, “Seeking First,” post 2, “Have You TASTED and SEEN?”, and the series introduction. All of these podcasts are linked below. * DRAWING NEAR: An Introduction to A New Devotional Series on INTIMACY with GOD * DRAWING NEAR: “Have You TASTED and SEEN?” * DRAWING NEAR: “Seeking First” * DRAWING NEAR: “Counting the Cost” * DRAWING NEAR: “Cutting Off Distractions” * DRAWING NEAR: “The Relationship That Takes Time” As a reminder, Here’s The Heart Behind This Series We’re exploring what it means to truly draw near to God and grow in intimacy with Him through Christ. This isn’t about doing more religious activities or checking off spiritual disciplines—this is about relationship. Real, deep, life-transforming relationship with the living God. We’re going to be honest about what’s preventing our relational growth with the Lord, expose the sources of spiritual stagnation that keep us stuck in shallow faith, and discover practical, biblical pathways to the abundant life Jesus promised in John 10:10: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Throughout this seven-part journey, we are exploring some crucial questions: * Have you truly tasted and seen that God is good? * Are you seeking God’s Kingdom first? * Have you counted the cost—and the gain—of following Jesus? * What distractions need to be cut off so you can cling to God? * Are you willing to take time to build a real relationship with the Lord? * Do you know the voice of your Good Shepherd? * Are you ready to receive Jesus and all that comes with Him? Today, we continue with the sixth key question: Do you know the voice of your Good Shepherd? This is an exercise in coming to know our Creator, in developing discernment, and in listening and responding to our ever-present God who continues to guide us today. In John 10:27, we find Jesus saying, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” You and I live in a world of competing voices. Scroll through social media for five minutes and you’ll encounter dozens of voices telling you what to think, how to feel, what to buy, who to be. Influencers, advertisers, celebrities, politicians, friends, family—everyone has an opinion, and everyone wants your attention. In the noise, there’s a question that cuts through it all: Do you listen to and follow the voice of your Good Shepherd? Notice the order of what Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” Listen. Then follow. You won’t follow a voice you don’t recognize. And you can’t recognize a voice you never listen to. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice because they spend time with him and he with them. They’re familiar with his tone, his cadence, his commands. When danger comes, when thieves try to lure them away, they don’t follow because they know their shepherd’s voice. Do you know God’s voice? Can you distinguish it from all the other voices clamoring for your attention? From your own thoughts? From the enemy’s lies? From the world’s messages? Consider Isaiah 30:21, in which God speaks, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Our God speaks. He guides. He directs. * But are we listening? * When He speaks, do we hear and respond? * Will we obey by faith even if we hear something we’d rather not hear? These are helpful, revelatory questions, at least if we answer honestly. The question is NOT whether the unchanging Creator suddenly changed and went silent and distanced Himself from us, but whether we His creation have ears that hear and discern, and willing hearts to listen and obey—hearts that trust in our good and gracious King, believe He is present with us, and rely on His steadfast character. Notice in John 10, Jesus identifies Himself as “the good shepherd.” Not just a shepherd, but the good shepherd. Let’s look at John 10:11…here’s what the Good Shepherd does: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus proved His goodness at the cross. He didn’t just lead us—He died for you and me. He didn’t just guide us—He saved you and me. In verses 14-15, Jesus says “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” This is intimate knowledge. Not distant awareness. Not casual acquaintance. This is the kind of knowledge that involves deep relationship, tender care, and personal investment. And here’s the invitation: Are you willing to submit to the leadership of Jesus, the Good Shepherd? Leadership requires followership. You can’t have a leader without a follower. And following requires two things: trust and surrender. Trust – believing the Good Shepherd knows where He’s leading, even when we can’t see the path. Surrender – releasing our need to control, our demand to understand, our insistence on our own way. David understood this. Look at his words recorded in Psalm 23:1-3, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Notice what the Shepherd does. He * Provides for our needs (“I shall not want,” in other words, “I lack nothing”), * Gives us rest (He makes us lie down in green pastures), * Leads us to peace (He leads us beside still, quiet waters), * Restores us (He refreshes our souls), and * Guides us (“in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake”). And what do the sheep do? They listen. They know the Shepherd. They follow. They trust. They rest in the Shepherd’s care. But here’s our struggle: * We want to be both the sheep and the shepherd. * We want Jesus to lead us where we want to go. * We want Him to confirm our plans, bless our agendas, and support our dreams. That’s not following. That’s using God as a divine GPS that we program with our own destination. A true follower says, “Where You lead, I’ll follow—even if it doesn’t make sense, even if it’s not what I planned, even if it’s hard.” Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Notice it says all your heart and all your ways. This is complete submission to and trust in the leadership of our Good Shepherd. And the result? The LORD makes your paths straight. Not necessarily easy, but straight—leading you and me in the right direction, for our good and ultimately for His glory. The question confronting us is this: Who is the master of your life and future? You and I can’t follow Jesus while following ourselves. We can’t submit to the Good Shepherd while insisting on being our own guide. Consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” This is about choosing to serve God as master or mammon, that is, material things and possessions. See the point made here: One master. Not two. Not God sometimes and you other times. You and I have to choose. Either it’s Jesus or it’s money, riches, material possessions, ourselves, or any other thing. But there is only one master worth following. Only Jesus knows the right and best way forward for you and for me because He is the way (see John 14:6). Jesus doesn’t just point you toward life; He is the life. He doesn’t just tell you truth; He is the truth. He’s been where you’re going. Consider Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus understands us. He’s walked this earth. He’s faced temptation. He knows the struggle. And Jesus has definitively proven God’s love for us. The Bible says this in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus didn’t just say He loved you. He showed it—completely, sacrificially, finally. Jesus promises to never leave us, see His Great Commission for us in Matthew 28:18-20. His last words were, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” Hebrews 13:5 says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This is not abstract or theoretical. This is why God gives His Spirit to those who anchor their trust in Jesus. Through the Holy Spirit, God lives and works in and through you and me. This is the Spirit of Jesus, with us always—guiding us into all truth. This God of ours—the one, true living God—is so much more than a man-made idol. He exists outside of time as we know it and yet engages with us in time and space. God is Spirit and ever-present, with us. Even when you can’t see Him, Immanuel, God with us, is there. Even when you can’t feel Him, He’s present. Even when you wander, He pursues. So, if this good and loving God is for us, with us, and willing to sacrifice Himself to save us, then why wouldn’t we follow Jesus? * Because following requires giving up control. And control feels safe. * Because following might lead somewhere uncomfortable. And comfort feels good. * Because following means trusting Someone else more than you trust yourself. And that can be terrifying. * Because following requires denying oneself and taking up our cross daily. And that’s hard. But listen to what Jesus says: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have li

Hey friends! Thanks for joining us in this LIFE ON MISSION with Jesus! If you hear anything in the background, it’s probably our precious baby girl, Nova Sophia, who is now 4 months old. Hallelujah! Time is flying by. We have moved 4x since her birth. As you can imagine, this sojourning season was entirely unexpected. Before these moves, we had 4 different places lined up, over the past several months and every opportunity has fallen through in cinematic fashion. There are more testimonies to share—that’s for sure. We continue to trust our faithful Father to make a way where there seems to be no way, including the closing of every wrong door, and even every seemingly good door, en route to the best opportunity the Lord has prepared for our family. For all of you who have kept us in your prayers. Thank you. If you haven’t already, please join us in praying as we follow Jesus on this narrow and challenging path that leads to life. The Lord didn’t yet guide us to a place we can call home but He did make a way for us to to stay at our Parisian studio for a few weeks longer than we expected, then at a family’s home for 2 weeks, then in an even smaller studio than our 1st one for 2 weeks, then we stayed with a friend from church for 2 weeks, and now, in His kindness, God graciously provided us a place to stay for the summer through a connection at our local church. So, we plan to stay here until mid-August, Lord willing. Please continue to pray as we follow the Lord’s leadership, embrace His lordship, and move forward by faith. Welcome to post number 6 in this Drawing Near series, following our last post DRAWING NEAR: “CUTTING Off DISTRACTIONS.” It followed our 4th post, DRAWING NEAR: “Counting the Cost,” Part 3, “Seeking First,” Part 2, “Have You TASTED and SEEN?” and the series introduction. All of these podcasts are linked below. * DRAWING NEAR: An Introduction to A New Devotional Series on INTIMACY with GOD * DRAWING NEAR: “Have You TASTED and SEEN?” * DRAWING NEAR: “Seeking First” * DRAWING NEAR: “Counting the Cost” * DRAWING NEAR: “CUTTING Off DISTRACTIONS” As a reminder, here’s The Heart Behind This Series We’re exploring what it means to truly draw near to God and grow in intimacy with Him through Christ. This isn’t about doing more religious activities or checking off spiritual disciplines—this is about relationship. Real, deep, life-transforming relationship with the living God. We’re going to be honest about what’s preventing our relational growth with the Lord, expose the sources of spiritual stagnation that keep us stuck in shallow faith, and discover practical, biblical pathways to the abundant life Jesus promised: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Throughout this seven-part journey, we are exploring some crucial questions: * Have you truly tasted and seen that God is good? * Are you seeking God’s Kingdom first? * Have you counted the cost—and the gain—of following Jesus? * What distractions need to be cut off so you can cling to God? * Are you willing to take time to build a real relationship with the Lord? * Do you know the voice of your Good Shepherd? * Are you ready to receive Jesus and all that comes with Him? Today, we continue with the fifth key question: Are you willing to take time to build a real relationship with the Lord? This is an exercise in making room to abide in the Source of Life Himself. In James 4:8, it says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Imagine trying to build a deep friendship with someone you only talked to for five minutes once a week. You’d probably exchange pleasantries, maybe share a quick update, but you wouldn’t truly know each other. You wouldn’t develop the kind of deep connection that comes from spending real time together, sharing struggles, celebrating wins, and simply being present with each other. This seems obvious when we think about human relationships. Yet somehow, in subtle and not so subtle ways, we can expect our relationship with God to flourish on this exact formula. We give God the margins—a rushed prayer before meals, a quick “help me, Lord” when we’re in trouble, a church service on Sunday. And then we wonder why we don’t feel close to Him. The truth is simple but challenging: It takes time to get to know someone, to build a strong relationship. The same is true with Jesus. God isn’t like a microwave. Deep intimacy with Him isn’t instant. Closeness and oneness with God are cultivated over time, through consistent, intentional presence. Think about the people across the Scriptures who knew God deeply: Moses spent 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai with God (see Exodus 24:18). He spoke with God “face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). But this intimacy didn’t happen overnight. It was built through encounter after encounter, conversation after conversation, crisis after crisis where Moses turned to God. David was called “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). Read the Psalms—they’re the journal of someone who spent time with God. Wrestling with God. Praising God. Asking God questions. Trusting God. David got to really know God as he showed up, day after day, in honesty and vulnerability. Daniel intentionally set aside devoted time to pray three times a day, every single day, even when it meant being thrown into a lion’s den (Daniel 6:10). His relationship with God wasn’t built in crisis moments; it was built in the daily discipline of showing up. Consider to the example of Mary of Bethany, who sat at Jesus’ feet while her sister Martha rushed to serve those present (see Luke 10:38-42). When Martha complained, Jesus said, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” What did Mary choose? Time with Jesus. Presence over productivity. Being over doing. Do you see the pattern? Those who knew God deeply spent time with God consistently. This does not negate the fact that there is much to do. You and I are called to do whatever we do for the glory of God, to partner with God, His way. Nevertheless, Jesus does not invite us to fill our lives with busyness and schedules so packed with seemingly good things that we miss out on knowing Immanuel, while presuming that God would approve. This way of the world does not lead to life. Without quality time spent being with Jesus, this common way leads to relational distance from God. This leads us to the question: Are you willing to take the time to get to know God yourself personally? This is the question before us. Not “Do you want to know God?” Most of us would say yes to that. The real question is: Are you willing to invest the time? Because here’s what intimacy with God requires: Consistency. This is not about marathon prayer sessions once a month, but daily connection. In Mark 1:35, it says this about Jesus, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” If Jesus needed consistent time with the Father, how much more do we? Intimacy with God requires Intentionality. Closeness with God won’t happen accidentally. You have to plan for it, protect it, prioritize it. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus says, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Create space. Eliminate distractions. Make time for this priority. Make time to be with God. Intimacy with God requires Patience. Intimacy grows slowly, sometimes imperceptibly. You might not feel different after one day, one week, even one month. But over time, as you consistently show up, something shifts. Lamentations 3:25 says, “The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.” The Apostle Paul had experienced incredible things—visions, revelations, miracles. But what did he prioritize? In Philippians 3:8-11, Paul says, “8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Knowing Christ. Present tense. Ongoing pursuit. After years of walking with Jesus, Paul’s primary desire was still to know Him more deeply. This is the heart posture that cultivates intimacy: “No matter how long I’ve been a Christian, no matter what I’ve experienced, I want to know Jesus more.” In 1 Chronicles 28:9, David’s words to his son, Solomon, are recorded, “You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought…” The Message translates David’s first line to Solomon this way, “Get to know the God of your ancestors intimately“. Intimately. Not casually. Not from a distance. Intimately. This is a lifelong pursuit of seeking God, being with Him, and knowing who He is. With all of my heart I believe that as we come to know God as He truly is, we cannot help but want to share who He is to others with awe, wonder, and joy. Yet, here’s what often happens: We start strong. We commit to daily prayer and Bible reading. (Consider your New Year’s resolutions.) We’re excited, motivated. But then life happens. We get busy. We miss a day, then two, then a week. We feel guilty, so we avoid coming back. Or we come back but with a sense of obligation rather than desire. And inti