Christmas is an invitation by God to say: Look what I've done to come near to you. Now draw near to me...I want to be a friend.

When we worry we are saying, 'I know the way my life is supposed to go, and God's not getting it right'.

Those who understand the gospel cannot possibly look down on anyone, since they were saved by sheer grace, not by their perfect doctrine or strong moral character.

The human heart is an idol factory that takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.

An idol is something that we look to for things that only God can give. Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god. This occurs when people rely on the rightness of their doctrine for their standing with God rather than on God himself and his grace. It is a subtly but deadly mistake. The sign that you have slipped into this form of self-justification is that you become what the book of Proverbs calls a 'scoffer'.

Everyone says they want community and friendship. But mention accountability or commitment to people, and they run the other way.

If God wiped out all sources of evil in the world we would no longer be here, the evil is inside us.