Welcome back to the Excel Stomore podcast. I'm so thankful that you've joined. Today's episode is sponsored by Spirit Building Publishers. This group of Christians is committed to providing fresh, relevant, and practical Bible study material for today's Christian families and churches.

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excel Stillmore. Good morning. Welcome back to the Excel Stillmore podcast. Thank you for taking

20 minutes of your day to

engage in spiritual conversation that can center your heart on the Lord. Today, in particular,

help you rest in your relationship with Christ and see that from that place of rest and confidence

will come more faithfulness and drive than maybe you've ever had before.

That may feel a bit counterintuitive. How will resting help me be more active? But as you'll see today,

the gospel and the way Jesus works in our lives is in fact counterintuitive to the natural world,

and we sometimes get things inverted in our faith.

We think, I'll go out and walk and run and achieve, and then I can rest in this sense of

salvation in the Lord. That can easily become works-based salvation. You never have true security,

because you know that you will never run fast enough or far enough.

There is a better way that will infuse you with joy and peace in the labor.

And from there, so many wonderful things are going to happen.

So to set all this up, let me back up a bit and tell you about a little book that I'm holding in my hand right now.

It's larger than a pamphlet, but not normal book size, a pretty quick read. It's by a Chinaman who lived in the early

20th century named Watchman Nie, last name N-E-E. His birth name, by the way, was neither Watchman

nor the Chinese equivalent, but in his 20s, he took on a name change

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