At the end of history the whole earth has become the Garden of God again. Death and decay and suffering are gone. . . . Jesus will make the world our perfect home again. We will no longer be living 'east of Eden,' always wandering and never arriving. We will come, and the father will meet us and embrace us, and we will be brought into the feast.

Without immersion in God's words, our prayers may not be merely limited and shallow but also untethered from reality.

The church should be a place where people can be free to say that they are sinners.

Those who believe they have pleased God by the quality of their devotion and moral goodness naturally feel that they and their group deserve deference and power over others. The God of Jesus and the prophets, however, saves completely by grace. He cannot be manipulated by religious and moral performance--he can only be reached through repentance, through the giving up of power. If we are saved by sheer grace we can only become grateful, willing servants of God and of everyone around us.

Gifts are abilities God gives us to meet the needs of others in Christ’s name.

The sin under all other sins is a lack of joy in Christ.

Christianity does not set faith against thinking. It sets faith against assuming.