When Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn't think “I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me.” No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us - denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him - and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED. He said, “Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing.” He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely.

Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting… We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.

Gifts are abilities God gives us to meet the needs of others in Christ’s name.

God loves you just because He loves you.

Because of Jesus-there is always hope, even in the darkest moments of your life.

Christmas means Jesus came down and got involved in suffering. He hears your cries.

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