What the church most needs is not heroes of faith, but faithful followers of Jesus.

Our biggest problem is that we have an entire culture shaped by a misunderstanding of the gospel. That so-called gospel is deconstructing the church

Angels, inasmuch as they come from the Throne Room of the Thrice-holy God, usher us into the presence of God once removed and such encounters with God are more powerful and overwhelming than ordinary moments with God.

Love one another strenuously because it's hard.

Angels do not intend to intimidate or scare, but their overwhelming glory and being will stun us into sudden contact with what is far beyond us.

I've never spoken with an angel, though one time I felt the awesome weight and glory of God's presence in an angel in my bedroom as I kneeled in prayer. I kept my eyes closed, good Baptist that I was at the time, so I never knew if it was an angel. (I now am reasonably confident it was.)

The ultimate end of redemption is that we worship God with our whole being and in the whole company of the redeemed.