The previous president's "autopen" is under scrutiny—executive orders singed by someone other than the president. In a similar manner, in our lives, our relationship with Sin is kind of like handing over the autopen our our lives to a maniac. A whole bunch of binding decisions are made and all the while you are kind of stupefied how they happened. But when Christ is entrusted the Pen of our lives, suddenly our life begins to work. In this discussion, Eric and Nathan talk about the contrast between the power of Sin and the power of the Spirit in our lives.

There are two ways to do ministry. You can either do in it your own strength or in God’s strength. Most of us theologically know that the “God strength” option is the superior way, but that doesn’t mean we know how to employ it. It’s not unusual for young Christians to explode out from the starting blocks in a full-on sprint only to run out of steam 100 yards down the track, because they were looking to run the great race in their own human strength. But as Eric and Leslie share in this episode, learning how to work out of God’s strength is the great secret of longevity in ministry.

Paul makes a grand statement in Ephesians 5:8–10 that while we were once of the darkness, now we are light in Christ Jesus, the Light Himself. And as children of the light, we bear the fruit of His life (namely goodness, righteousness, and truth). Then Paul says that we are to discover what is pleasing to the Lord. In this study, we examine what it means to discern and test things to see if they are pleasing to the Lord, two ways our lives are proven as pleasing, and how we are to live in this incredible new reality.