Discerning the True and the False Christian. How should you know who are true Christians, if following Christ was the way to be free from trouble? How should we discern the wheat from the chaff, if it were not for the winnowing of trial? How should we know whether men served Christ for His own sake or from selfish motives, if His service brought health and wealth with it as a matter of course? The winds of winter soon show us which of the trees are evergreen and which are not.

The only question - and I believe this is a serious one - is whether the younger churches of the Communion will find a way to work together to form a vital Communion or whether they will remain a loose confederation of orthodox Anglicans preoccupied with local affairs. The 2008 Global Anglican Future Conference laid out a blueprint for a wider and more permanent movement, including a theological basis (the Jerusalem Declaration) and a governing body (the Primates' Council).

Eternal life. To be 'in Christ' is Paul's characteristic description of the Christian. But John uses it too. To be (or to 'live', 1 Jn. 2:6) 'in' him is equivalent to the phrase to 'know' him (3, 4) and to 'love' him (5). Being a Christian consists in essence of a personal relationship to God in Christ, knowing him, loving him, and living in him as the branch lives in the vine (Jn. 15:1ff). This is the meaning of 'eternal life'.--- From "The Letters of John" John R.W. Stott

A solid foundation. The solid foundation on which our hope of glory rests is the love of God. It is because God has set his love upon us that we know, beyond any question or doubt, that he is going to bring us to glory. We believe that we are going to persevere to the end, and we have good grounds for our confidence. It is partly because of the character God is forming in us through suffering that we can be confident ('suffering - endurance - character - hope').