God doesn't NEED raw material. He MAKES material.

The great mercy of God was that while I was purposefully preparing God's people, He was purposefully preparing me.

Could it not be, that God loves me too deeply, by having people challenge me so that I know I'm not perfect.

I preach hard against that idea and plead with people to make war against sin. I tell them it's not going to be easy. Some people are meant to wrestle with their sin a long time before God brings them to freedom, but let's wrestle. Let's fight. Let's do something besides just complain.

While we lament the apparent injustice of pain and suffering, how often do we forget that every good thing in a fallen world is wholly a gift of God's mercy and grace.

Every missionary I know is extraordinarily ordinary. Everything they do, they do by the grace of God.

I think people can get a little weirded out by pain, suffering, and death. They don't know what to do so they end up saying things that are hurtful to people who have experienced loss.