When you read that our heavenly home is similar to a bride, tell me, doesn't it make you want to go home.

There is a rawness and a wonder to life. Pursue it. Hunt for it. Sell out to get it. Don't listen to the whines of those who have settled for a second-rate life and want you to do the same so they won't feel guilty. Your goal is not to live long; it's to live.

God grants us an uncommon life to the degree we surrender our common one.

The Land of Promise is for those who simply remain to the end.

My first encounters with faith came about the time I was a Boy Scout, at about 14 or 15. I made the logical deduction that they operate the same way; I treated my faith like earning a merit badge, and everything about Christianity was about earning merit badges.

In March 2011 I'm trying to decide on a sermon series that I will preach in January 2012. So, I'm about six months out.

You're special-not because of what you have. You're special because of who you are.