Most people have settled for a wimpy grace. It's something that doesn't change their lives. There is a difference between grace and mercy. Mercy is the decision of God not to punish us. But grace is the decision of God to save and bless us.

Be quick to pray. Stop talking to yourself. Talk to Christ.

Does the presence of pain mean the absence of God? I try to help people see that God uses pain, that pain is one of the ways God shapes us into the kind of beings He wants us to be for eternity.

Patience is more than a virtue for long lines and slow waiters. Patience is the red carpet upon which God's grace approaches us.

Here's what I really love: I love a funny story that I can tag a serious line on the end of.

In a sense we're all children of God - Jesus is called the one and only Son. Monogeneo is the word, God's only "genetic" child. He bears the very essence of God. What we say about God we say about Jesus. So the promise rises and falls on the identity of Jesus.

Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.