God does not love us because Christ died for us; Christ died for us because God loved us.

To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because He assures us of God's love for us. He sets us free from guilt because He died for us and from paralyzing fear because He reigns. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship.

Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.

Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection.

We do not need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come: he came on the day of Pentecost. He has never left the church.

A Christian's freedom from anxiety is not due to some guaranteed freedom from trouble, but to the folly of worry and especially to the confidence that God is our Father, that even permitted suffering is within the orbit of His care.

Faith's only function is to receive what grace offers.