We even refuse to be our true self with God- and then wonder why we lack intimacy with him.

We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt.

Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise.

One of my realizations in such an earthy atmosphere was that many of the burning theological issues in the church were neither burning nor theological.

The loss of transcendence has left in its wake the flotsam of distrustful, cynical Christians, angry at a capricious God, and the jetsam of smug bibilolatrists who claim to know precisely what God is thinking and exactly what he plans to do.

Our identity rests in God's relentless tenderness for us revealed in Jesus Christ.

The cultural propaganda embodied in two liquor advertisements, "Living well is the best revenge" and "Sip it with arrogance," have a curious, perhaps demonic appeal. Consumerism indeed has its own spirituality.