Pastor John, you took a leave of absence in 2010.

It was eight months away from the ministry altogether, and you said, it was a soul check

over all the parts of your life, marriage, worship, fathering, pastoring, public life,

all of it.

Now, three years later, are there any lessons from the leave that you'd like to share with

us here?

The conference that we did, acting the miracle, really came out of that eight months

leave because it was built on the text, Philippians 2.12, work out your salvation for God is the

one who is at work in you.

So God saves us by His grace.

We don't save ourselves by our works, but we're saved for good deeds.

We're created in Christ Jesus for good deeds.

So we act out the fruit of our salvation, and our acting is a miracle because God is doing

the willing and the acting.

We do it.

We do the acting.

We do the kindness.

We do the patience.

We do the purity, the love.

But God is the one willing it and doing it, and so we're acting the miracle.

We're not puppets.

We have wills and muscles and minds, and puppets don't have any of those.

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