Our preachers weren't always right, but they were never in doubt.

It's easier for our brains to have a list of rules and say, "If we keep these rules, we're in, and if we don't keep these rules, we're out." The problem with grace is that it doesn't play by the rules. It covers sin, and it washes away shame. It releases you from self-hatred. You then realize, through grace in Jesus, and believing in Jesus, and agreeing with Jesus, that you evidently were worth dying for.

God spreads grace like a 4-year old spreads peanut butter-He gets it all over everything.

The self-righteous have their fig leaves so tightly bound that they have forgotten the seeping wounds beneath the foliage.

When you're younger, you think of your age in fractions. 4 1/2, 5 1/2. You don't hear 36 1/2. You become 2, you turn 40, you reach 50, you make it to 60. By now you're going so fast you hit 70!

If you're normal, if you're healthy, you look at your children and you see your image, and you want the best for them. And you applaud when they take their first steps. And you are their biggest fan when they first sing in church. And, you know, that's a normal healthy person, father, parent, I believe. Well, multiply that by infinity and that's how God sees you. So I say that's pretty "nice."

Life is a series of recoveries.