The boss says that games in hand are no good unless you turn them into points. What he's getting at is that games in hand aren't much good unless you turn them into points.

We can so easily deceive ourselves, mistaking the presence of physical bodies in a crowd for the existence of spiritual life in a community.

This is the reality about humanity. We are each born with an evil, God-hating heart. Genesis 8: 21 says that every inclination of man's heart is evil from childhood, and Jesus' words in Luke 11: 13 assume that we know we are evil.

God's ultimate concern is not to get you or me from point A to point B along the quickest, easiest, smoothest, clearest route possible. Instead, his ultimate concern is that you and I would know him deeply as we trust him more completely.

The resources of heaven are ready and waiting for the people of God who desire to make much of him in this world

The mega-strategy of Jesus: make disciples.

I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what was radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable.