In the original language, 'Fear the Lord' doesn't mean be afraid. It means sustaining a joyful, astonished awe, and wonder before Him.

No matter what precautions we take, no matter how well we have put together a good life, no matter how hard we have worked to be healthy, wealthy, comfortable with friends and family, and successful with our career — something will inevitably ruin it.

God's grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver. From the earliest parts of the Bible, it was understood that God could not forgive without sacrifice. No one who is seriously wronged can “just forgive” the perpetrator.

What the heart most wants, the mind finds reasonable, the will finds doable, and the emotions find desirable.

We deserve to be forgotten because we forget Him. But because Jesus died on the cross, we will never, ever be forgotten by God.

If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.

The irreligious don't repent at all and the religious only repent of sins. But Christians repent of their wrongfully placed righteousness.