If we give God things in hope that they'll earn us blessings, we're really not doing anything for him. It's for ourselves.

How you experience your present is completely shaped by what you believe your ultimate future to be.

Religion says earn your life. Secular society says create your life. Jesus says, 'My life for your life.

You can only afford to be generous if you actually have some money in the bank to give. In the same way, if your only source of love and meaning is your spouse, then anytime he or she fails you, it will not just cause grief but a psychological cataclysm. If, however, you know something of the work of the Spirit in your life, you have enough love "in the bank" to be generous to your spouse even when you are not getting much affection or kindness at the moment.

We are called not simply to communicate the gospel to nonbelievers; we must also intentionally celebrate the gospel before them.

If God is treated as God during suffering, then suffering can reveal and present him in all his greatness.

While Christianity was able to agree with pagan writers that inordinate attachment to earthly goods can lead to unnecessary pain and grief, it also taught that the answer to this was not to love things less but to love God more than anything else. Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace. Grief was not to be eliminated but seasoned and buoyed up with love and hope.