What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

Jesus is the ultimate Job, the only truly innocent sufferer.

Christians necessarily believe we depend on God for everything-a prayerless Christian, then, is a contradiction in terms.

Suffering is the stripping of our hope in finite things, therefore we do not put our ultimate hope in anything finite.

To fear the Lord is to be overwhelmed with wonder before the greatness of God and his love.

To stand in the presence of God, that is what the Gospel is. The Gospel is not primarily about forgiveness. It’s not primarily about good feelings. It’s not primarily about power. All those things are byproducts, sparks. It’s primarily about the presence of God.

We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbour, and you must love your neighbour.