The Bible’s purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible’s purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome… religion is ‘if you obey, then you will be accepted’. But the Gospel is, ‘if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey’. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference.

All change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out the changes that understanding creates in your heart.

To fear the Lord is to be overwhelmed with wonder before the greatness of God and his love.

While the difference between a bad sermon and a good sermon is mainly the responsibility of the preacher, the difference between good preaching and great preaching lies mainly in the work of the Holy Spirit. . . . We should do the work it takes to make our communication good and leave it up to God how and how often he makes it great for the listener.

Out of the cross comes the resurrection. Out of weakness comes real strength.

The common moral framework: Do anything as long as it does no harm to others. Problem: Whose definition of harm?

When pain and suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were.