Twitter challenges me to communicate the gospel in concise ways–in short sentences.

About 8 months ago the media guys at Coral Ridge dragged me kicking and screaming into twitter world. I had no interest whatsoever in adding one more thing to my life. But since that time, I’ve come to love it. I’ve even been called a twitter-holic. I jokingly tell people that I’ve finally found my calling–that God has hardwired me for 140 characters.

In all seriousness, it’s been a huge blessing for me. I love words. I love turns of phrases. I think in sentences. I once heard John Piper say that books don’t change people, sentences do. I believe that.

I’ve also heard that the Ancient Greeks believed the goal of oratory was to give a sea of matter in a drop of language. I like that–and tweeting helps me put that into practice. Twitter challenges me to communicate the gospel in concise ways–in short sentences. It’s also a great tool for me personally as I’ve come to use it as a way to catalog my gospel thoughts and quotes. It’s become a way for me to “journal” what God’s teaching me about the gospel.

Anyway, thanks to DeJuan Brown you can now find a small sampling of my gospel tweets in the collection below.

If you’re not familiar with twitter or aren’t currently following me on twitter, click here.

I pray these sentences would change you the way they’ve changed me and that the Lord would use these fallible insights to help you preach the gospel to yourself everyday.
· The gospel doesn’t simply ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christian’s going and growing every day.
· The gospel reminds us that we become more mature when we focus less on what we need to do for God and more on all God has already done for us.
· The gospel tells me my identity and security is in Christ–this frees me to give everything I have because in Christ I have everything I need
· Christian growth doesn’t happen first by behaving better, but believing better–believing in deeper ways what Christ has already secured for you
· The gospel tells us we don’t need to spend our lives earning the approval of others because Jesus has already earned God’s approval for us
· When you understand that your significance and identity is anchored in Christ, you don’t have to win—you’re free to lose
· Christian growth doesn’t happen by working hard to get something you don’t have. It happens by working hard to live in light of what you do have
· The world says that the bigger we become, the freer we will be. But the gospel tells us that the smaller we become, the freer we will be.
· When you are united to Christ, then all that is Christ’s becomes yours: Access to God and affection from God can never be lost
· The gospel explains success in terms of giving, not taking; self-sacrifice, not self-indulgence; going to the back, not getting to the front
· The gospel empowers us to live for what’s timeless, not trendy–to follow Jesus even when it means going against what’s fashionable
· Because of Christ’s finished work, sinners can have the approval, acceptance, security, freedom, love, righteousness, & rescue they long for
· The only antidote there has ever been to sin is the gospel—and since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel.
· Because of Christ’s propitiatory work on my behalf I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, praise or popularity.
· The gospel never starts with what we need to do; it always begins with what God has already done; to get it backwards is to miss the gospel
· The vertical indicative (what God’s done for me) always precedes horizontal imperative (how I’m to live in light of what God’s done for me)
· What we need practically can only be experienced as we come to deeper understanding of what we are positionally—what’s already ours in Christ
· When you are united to Christ, no amount of good work can earn God’s favor and no amount of bad work can forfeit God’s favor
· Jesus came not to angrily strip away our freedom but to affectionately strip away our slavery to lesser things so we might become truly free
· The irony of the gospel is that we truly perform better when we focus less on our performance for Jesus & more on Jesus’ performance for us
· The gospel tells us that what God has done for us in Christ is infinitely more important than anything we do for him.
· The world says the more independent you become, the freer you’ll be; the gospel says the more dependent you become, the freer you’ll be
· The Gospel frees us from trying to impress people, prove ourselves to people, and make people think we’re something that we’re not.
· Isn’t it ironic that while God’s treatment of us depends on Christ’s performance, our treatment of others depends on their performance?
· We need God’s gospel rescue every day and in every way because we are, in the words of John Calvin, “partly unbelievers until we die.”
· Believing fully the truth that “salvation belongs to the Lord” means that you place ultimate trust in Christ’s efforts, not your own.
· Daily sin requires a daily distribution of God’s grace
· The hard work of sanctification is the hard work of constantly reorienting ourselves back to our justification.
· Grace can be defined as unconditional acceptance granted to an undeserving person by an unobligated giver.
· The law tells us what God demands from us; the gospel tells us what God in Christ has done for us because we could not meet his demands.
· Being justified by God and made acceptable on the basis of Christ’s righteousness not only pardons us for the past but empowers us for the present
· Paul never uses the law as a way to motivate obedience; He always uses the gospel.
· The gospel teaches us that being a slave to Christ is the essence of freedom, while being free to myself is the essence of slavery.
· When you understand God’s grace, pain leads to freedom because deep suffering leads to deep surrender!
· When we depend on things smaller than Jesus to provide us with the security and meaning we long for, God will love us enough to take them away.
· The gospel is the good news that God rescues sinners. And since both non-Christians & Christians are sinners, we both need the gospel.
· The gospel grants Christians one strength over non-Christians: the strength to admit they’re weak.
· The gospel frees us to realize that while we matter, we’re not the point.
· The Gospel alone can turn us into people who give everything we have because we understand that in Christ we already have everything we need
· The gospel isn’t just the power of God to save us, it’s the power of God to grow us once we’re saved.
· When we transfer trust from ourselves to Christ, we experience the abundant freedoms that come from not having to measure up.
· The gospel makes wise those who know they’re foolish and makes fools out of those who think they’re wise.
· It never ceases to amaze me that God’s love to those who are in Christ isn’t conditioned on how we behave but on how Christ behaved for us.
· Sin turns you inward; the gospel turns you outward. Sin enslaves you by making you big. The gospel frees you by making you small.
· In the gospel, God comes after us because we need him not because he needs us. Only the gospel can free us to revel in our insignificance.
· Mt. Sinai says, “You must do.” Mt. Calvary says, “Because you couldn’t, Jesus did.” Don’t run to the wrong mountain for your hiding place.

William Graham Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) is a Florida native, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham. This article was reprinted from his blog, On Earth As It Is In Heaven, with permission. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tullian/2010/06/21/the-world-love-it-or-hate-it-2/