Despite the protestations, one sometimes wonders if we are beginning to worship, worship rather than worship God.

What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together because they have all been loved by Jesus himself. They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus' sake.

When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes, if our attention is focused more on the cross, and on the God of the cross, than on the suffering itself.

The heart of all idolatry in the Bible is the de-godding of God.

If it is hard to accept a rebuke, even a private one, it is harder still to administer one in loving humility.

It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father's will-and it was his love for sinners like me.

A weak understanding of what the Bible says about sin is tied to a weak understanding of what the Bible says is achieved by the cross.