If we think the main mission of the church is to improve life in Adam and add a little moral strength to this fading evil age, we have not yet understood the radical condition for which Christ is such a radical solution.

God is not a supporting actor in our life movie. We exist for his purposes, not the other way around.

As we are brought into God's extraordinary kingdom through ordinary means, we are remade, no longer fashioned as competitors for commodities in a world of scarce resources, but as co-sharers with Christ in the circulation of gifts that flows outward from its source without running out.

Theology, not morality, is the first business on the church's agenda of reform, and the church, not society, is the first target of divine criticism.

Our weaknesses are an opportunity for God to show his strength.

Our society trains us to think of marriage as a contractual arrangement. If one party fails to fulfill his or her end, the contract is null and void. Increasingly children are raised in a contractual environment. When contractual thinking dominates our horizon, we can even make Jesus or the church an asset we think we can manage.

Christians are driven by God's promises, and directed by God's purposes.