Repentance is like antiseptic. You pour antiseptic onto a wound and, at first, it stings. Then it heals.

Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.

We are so quick to tweet, Facebook, and Instagram but we treat prayer with a sense of delay?

The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

We tend to see God as a means through which we get things to make us happy. For most of us, He has not become our happiness.

To pray is to accept that we are, and always will be, wholly dependent on God for everything.

The story of Jesus changes our lives because it is true.