If the church does not identify with the marginalized, it will itself be marginalized. This is God's poetic justice.

Real love, the Bible says, instinctively desires permanence.

Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.

A church must be more deeply and practically committed to deeds of compassion and social justice than traditional liberal churches and more deeply and practically committed to evangelism and conversion than traditional fundamentalist churches. This kind of church is profoundly counter-intuitive to American observers. It breaks their ability to categorize (and dismiss) it as liberal or conservative. Only this kind of church has any chance in the non-Christian west.

Just because we don't see a reason for evil and suffering doesn't mean there's not a reason for it.

If God does not have our highest allegiance, we will use prayer to try to get things that have that designation.

Nothing we formulate or do can qualify us for access to God. Only grace can do that- based not on our performance but on the saving work of Christ.