While we want doubts to give way to faith, we should be merciful and patient with those who are still in a doubt-troubled place.

Freedom is not the absence of limitations and constraints but it is finding the right ones, those that fit our nature and liberate us.

There are some needs only you can see. There are some hands only you can hold. There are some people only you can reach.

Unless we believe the gospel, we will be driven in all we do-whether obeying or disobeying-by pride ('self-love') or fear ('of damnation'). Apart from 'grateful remembering' of the gospel, all good works are done then for sinful motives. Mere moral effort may restrain the heart, but does not truly change the heart. Moral effort merely 'jury rigs' the evil of the heart to produce moral behavior out of self-interest. It is only a matter of time before such a thin tissue collapses.

We must have a strong inner life of fellowship and intimacy with Jesus if we are going to have a strong outer life of ministry

Jesus does not divide the world into the moral "good guys" and the immoral "bad guys". He shows us that everyone is dedicated to a project of self-salvation, to using God and others in order to get power and control for themselves. We are just going about it in different ways. Even though both sons are wrong, however, the father cares for them and invites them both back into his love and feast.

Covenant community is like air. We don't miss it until we need it.