Men, you'll never be a good groom to your wife unless you're first a good bride to Jesus.

Our culture says that feelings of love are the basis for actions of love. And of course that can be true. But it is truer to say that actions of love can lead consistently to feelings of love.

Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.

It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul's prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances.

At the end of history the whole earth has become the Garden of God again. Death and decay and suffering are gone. . . . Jesus will make the world our perfect home again. We will no longer be living 'east of Eden,' always wandering and never arriving. We will come, and the father will meet us and embrace us, and we will be brought into the feast.

Those who believe they have pleased God by the quality of their devotion and moral goodness naturally feel that they and their group deserve deference and power over others. The God of Jesus and the prophets, however, saves completely by grace. He cannot be manipulated by religious and moral performance--he can only be reached through repentance, through the giving up of power. If we are saved by sheer grace we can only become grateful, willing servants of God and of everyone around us.

...the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.