Goodness cannot be imposed externally, from the top down; it must grow internally, from the bottom up.

The world thirsts for grace. When grace descends, the world falls silent before it.

We admit that we will never reach our ideal in this life, a distinctive the church claims that most other human institutions try to deny.

Grace is free only because the giver himself has borne the cost.

... learning humility is a prerequisite for grace.

I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else.

We preach sermons, write books on apologetics, conduct city-wide evangelistic campaigns. For those alienated from the church, that approach no longer has the same drawing power. And for the truly needy, words alone don't satisfy; "A hungry person has no ears," as one relief worker told me. A skeptical world judges the truth of what we say by the proof of how we live.