Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast

Episode: August 31 - Knowing Others Will Read You
Guest Speaker: Christine Caine
Date: September 2, 2025

Episode Overview

In this energetic and heartfelt message, Christine Caine explores what it means to be “living letters” as Christians, drawing from 2 Corinthians 3:1-3. Emphasizing that our lives are often the primary “Bible” others will encounter, she challenges listeners to live with consistency and purpose, carrying the message of Christ through daily life. Through personal anecdotes, biblical exposition, and practical application, Christine compels believers to understand that knowing others will read us should shape how we read, internalize, and live out Scripture.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Story: Stepping into the Impossible

• Christine opens with a personal account of starting the anti-trafficking organization A21 in Thessaloniki, Greece, emphasizing the impossibility of the task but the faithfulness required to follow God’s call.
  • Quote: “I was not asking the Lord for a new ministry. I was like, here, here I am Lord, send everyone else anyway.” (03:27)
• Shares a humorous yet poignant phone call with her husband Nick, who reminds her to “lead with your sanctified Christian self” due to the challenging consultant report advising against starting the ministry.
  • Quote: “Chris, when you get on that plane… I want you to meditate very strongly on the fact that you are a Christian.” (08:44)

2. Consistency vs. Perfection: Living Authentically

• Christine challenges the congregation to consider if their public and private lives are aligned.
  • Quote: “Would there be a consistency, not a perfection, but a consistency between who we say we are and who we really are and how we behave?” (13:15)
• Uses relatable humor about “interesting choice of hand signals” from Christians on the highway—prompting self-reflection on how we’re “read” by others.
  • Quote: “Thank God we don’t have 'I go to Mariners Church' stickers!” (11:23)

3. You Are the Letter: Scriptural Foundation

• Deep dive into 2 Corinthians 3:1-3, where Paul tells the Corinthians they are his “letter of recommendation.”
  • Quote (reading Scripture): “You yourselves are our letter written on our hearts, known and read by everyone… not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.” (17:10)
• Explains the context of letters of recommendation in the early Church and emphasizes that people, not credentials, bear witness to God’s work.

4. The Bible Calls Us Many Things—Today, "Living Letters"

• Highlights other biblical metaphors for Christ-followers: salt, light, sheep, and now, “letters.”
• Personal story about her daughter’s unfamiliarity with sending physical letters, using it to illustrate generational gaps in communication and the importance of bearing the message wherever we go.
  • Quote: “She came honestly, like she’d been on an archeological dig somewhere in Greece. She goes, mum, these stamps are so cute. Aren’t stamps cute?” (27:48)

5. Determination to Deliver the Message

• Compares postal workers’ determination to deliver letters with believers' responsibility to show up for God, no matter the life conditions.
  • Quote: “I wonder whether sometimes...whether we are as determined as the postman to go. You know what, no matter how hard it is, I'm delivering the letter, I'm showing up on behalf of God…” (33:12)
• Challenges listeners: Are we “lost letters,” forgetting our mission, keeping our witness hidden except at church?

6. The Only Bible Most People Will Ever Read

• Christine powerfully states that Christians are often the only “Bible” the world will read, urging consistency and intentional living.
  • Quote: “We are the only Bible most people will ever read. We are the only Jesus most people will ever [see]. That is the whole point.” (37:36)

7. New Covenant: The Law Written on Hearts

• Explains the transition from the Old Covenant (law on stone) to the New Covenant (God’s law on our hearts) through prophecies in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
  • Scripture Reference: Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 11:19
  • Quote: “No longer is it written on stone tablets where you gotta put ‘em up here on the wall and hope somebody reads them. … God says, I’m now sending you out like a love letter to this lost and broken world.” (41:00)

8. Living on Mission Because You Are Sent

• Christians are not passive; they are actively sent—“sealed with the Holy Spirit.”
  • Quote: “We are love letters. What might it look like, I wonder, in 2025…to show up as a letter? You’re a person, but you’re a letter. The author of that letter is Jesus.” (47:15)

9. Radiating Peace, Hope, Forgiveness, and Love

• Christine asks what it would look like if believers brought peace, forgiveness, and love into divisive and hurting environments.
  • Quote: “Where there’s unforgiving, I’m going to be forgiving. Where there is no love, man, I’m going to step into this situation…and display the love of God.” (49:35)
• Emphasizes that it’s not about perfection or being in full-time ministry; all Christians are called to bear witness.

10. Practical Challenge and Encouragement

• Living out what you know: “It’s not how much of the Bible do you know in the original language. It’s how much of what you know are you actually living in a real world?” (54:28)
• Calls for intentionality as the church leaves to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” (58:24)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Real-World Faith:
  “We come to this word not just for information, not just for behavior modification, but we come to it for heart transformation.” (15:40)
• On Influence:
  “You are the love letter that I’m sending to a lost and a broken world to declare my grace, my mercy, my love, my forgiveness, my goodness and my kindness.” (57:45)
• On Urgency:
  “If there are…2 billion Christians…we could fulfill the Great Commission in about an hour if every single Christian lived on mission and lived as God’s love letter…” (56:12)
• On Consistency:
  “When people see our lives—not perfect, just consistent…we should be living lives so compelling…that people go, man, I want to know the author of that letter.” (44:25)

Important Timestamps

• [00:03-09:50] — Christine’s opening story of A21, call to be consistent, and how others “read” us
• [17:00-20:50] — Key scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:1-3, context for “living letters”
• [27:30-32:35] — Generational gap in letter writing, story about daughter, analogy expanded
• [33:00-39:00] — The determination to deliver God’s message, risk of becoming “lost letters”
• [41:00-46:50] — Old Covenant vs New Covenant: God writes on our hearts; calling to be living letters
• [47:15-55:30] — Practical application: being a letter in a chaotic world, challenge to live different
• [57:45] — Final charge to be steadfast, “the love letter God is sending”

Conclusion

Christine Caine’s message is an inspiring call for believers to realize their identity and mission as “living letters,” written by God, consistently read by a watching world. Her teaching blends humor, real-life stories, scriptural grounding, and practical challenge—making it both convicting and encouraging. Listeners are reminded: the world will read us; let’s live lives that point unmistakably to the Author.