Substance: Becoming oaks of righteousness in a world of vapor.

The world has become more worldly. Worldliness isn’t just, as sin, an offense against God; it changes us into its image. Through this transformation we become shallow, vaporous, and brittle. It leads predictably to misery. Worldliness, in short, is creating a crisis of substance. Meanwhile, in the gospel, Jesus both gives and demands spiritual substance. Substance is all a gift, but it is received through a sweaty process; one the Bible calls 'discipleship'. Jesus has come both to count us righteous and then make us godly (Titus 2-3)—both through real faith. Godliness makes us deep, courageous, flexible, and resilient. It causes us to thrive and makes us a blessing to the world. Discipleship creates an abundance of substance. It is the gospel cure to the deception and enslavement of worldliness. This book is about becoming disciples of substance in an increasingly worldly world. It is about experiencing the joys found only in the deep waters of discipleship. It is about finding the supernatural strength you have been given in Christ to stand like a mountain in the rains of worldliness.