Faith journeys are never simply intellectual exercises.

The determining factor in our relationship with God is not our past but Christ's past.

If you and your church were to disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow, would anyone in the community around you notice you were gone? And if the community did even notice would they say 'we are really glad they are gone', or 'we are really going to miss them'?

The gospel destroys pride because it tells us we are so lost that Jesus had to die for us.

There is a direct relationship between a person's grasp and experience of God's grace, and his or her heart for justice and the poor.

The Cross is not simply a lovely example of sacrificial love. Throwing your life away needlessly is not admirable — it is wrong. Jesus’ death was only a good example if it was more than an example, if it was something absolutely necessary to rescue us. And it was. Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid — God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born — God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.

The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access