Creativity has got to be the warp and woof, the heart and soul, of our sermons.

There is something about keeping Him divine that keeps Him distant, packaged, predictable. But don't do it. For heaven's sake, don't. Let Him be as human as He intended to be. Let Him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let Him in can He pull us out.

In this post-modern culture in which we live - where people question absolute truth - stories are resistant to platitudes; they're resistant to me making declarations of truth to them. A story can do that in kind of a Trojan-horse fashion.

The same hand that stilled the seas stills your guilt. The same hand that cleansed the Temple cleanses your heart. The hand is the hand of God. The nail is the nail of God. And as the hands of Jesus opened for the nail, the doors of heaven opened for you.

God has a timeline. And because of Bethlehem, we have an idea where we stand on it.

God has the final word on your life and His word is grace.

People of each generation in the twentieth century "were three times more likely to experience depression" than people of the preceding generation.