Jesus smashed two of the rich young ruler's assumptions: Christianity is something you can ADD and something you can DO.

You should not begin to pray for all you want until you realize that in God you have all you need.

Christmas means Jesus came down and got involved in suffering. He hears your cries.

The infallible test of spiritual integrity, Jesus says, is your private prayer life.

The basic premise of religion– that if you live a good life, things will go well for you– is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.

Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake. This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from him either by breaking his rules or by keeping all of them diligently. It 's a shocking message: Careful obedience to God's law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God .

Putting our faith in Christ is not about trying harder; it means transferring our trust away from ourselves and resting in him.