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

The world says you are loved because of what you do. Jesus says you can now do all things because you are loved.

Your feelings come from where you find your hope. Where is your happiness and your significance?

You can't live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.

Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught. Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God's calling, can matter forever.

The gospel shows us that our spiritual problem lies not only in failing to obey God, but also in relying on our obedience to make us fully acceptable to God, ourselves and others. Every kind of character flaw comes from this natural impulse to be our own saviour through our own performance and achievement. On the one hand, proud and disdainful personalities come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are succeeding. But on the other hand, discouraged and self loathing personalities also come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are failing.

Doing justice includes not only the righting of wrongs but generosity and social concern, especially toward the poor and vulnerable.