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.

God knows what it's like to be a human. When I talk to him about deadlines or long lines or tough times, he understands. He's been there. He's been here.

The Christmas message itself is that God chooses common people to do the most uncommon things. No matter how common you are, and no matter how simple you are, God has a plan and ability to come into our world and do something unusual.

To live as God's child is to know that you are loved by your Maker not because you try to please him and succeed, or fail to please him and apologize, but because he wants to be your Father. Nothing more.

It's one thing for me to tell people not to worry. It's another thing entirely to quote Matthew 6, where Jesus says, "Why do you worry? The birds of the air, the flowers of the field..." He says, "I tell you, do not worry."

Reading the Bible can be like meeting someone you don't know who, oddly, somehow seems to know you deeply. It's uncanny.

When a Christian stops growing, help is needed. If you are the same Christian you were a few months ago, be careful.