The ministry of mercy, then, is the best advertising a church can have. It convinces a community that this church provides people with actions for their problems, not only talk. It shows the community that this church is compassionate.

At the root of all our disobedience are particular ways in which we continue to seek control of our lives through systems of works-righteousness. The way to progress as a Christian is to continually repent and uproot these systems the same way we become Christians, namely by the vivid depiction (and re-depiction) of Christ’s saving work for us, and the abandoning of self-trusting efforts to complete ourselves. We must go back again and again to the gospel of Christ-crucified, so that our hearts are more deeply gripped by the reality of what he did and who we are in him.

You are a totally loved moral failure.

Forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness. To not retaliate is to absorb the cost.

Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.

The sin under all other sins is a lack of joy in Christ.

All Christians have opportunities to serve those who might never come to church or listen to a sermon.