We don't merely need the money from work to survive. We need the work itself to survive and live fully human lives more than money.

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.

How Religion Works: If I obey, then God will love and accept me. The Gospel: I'm loved and accepted, therefore I wish to obey.

Idolatry happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things

Suffering dispels the illusion that we have the strength and competence to rule our own lives and save ourselves.

A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antobodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning of life, and identity then it is an idol.