You are under-qualified for the job of God.

Suffering is actually at the heart of the Christian story.

In the secular view, suffering is never seen as a meaningful part of life but only as an interruption.

Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing , religious people of his day.

When we try and use fear or pride to stop from sinning, we are forgetting that we sin because of either fear or pride.

I've heard plenty of Christians try to answer the why question by going back to the what. "You have to believe because Jesus is the Son of God." But that's answering the why with more what. Increasingly we live in a time in which you can't avoid the why question. Just giving the what (for example, a vivid gospel presentation) worked in the days when the cultural institutions created an environment in which Christianity just felt true or at least honorable. But in a post-Christendom society, in the marketplace of ideas, you have to explain why this is true, or people will just dismiss it.

We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.