Proper wedding vows are more a promise of mutually binding future love than a declaration of your present love.

As long as we think we are not that bad, the idea of grace will never change us.

The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.

Job never saw why he suffered, but he saw God, and that was enough.

Real love, the Bible says, instinctively desires permanence.

The more you rejoice in your own forgiveness, the quicker you will be to forgive others.

This is the humbling truth that lies at the heart of Christianity. We love to be our own saviors. Our hearts love to manufacture glory for themselves. So we find messages of self-salvation extremely attractive, whether they are religious (Keep these rules and you earn eternal blessing) or secular (Grab hold of these things and you’ll experience blessing now).