A Christian is somebody whose eyes have been opened, who admits that Jesus is not what you expected, but he’s what you need.

Secularism and Religion are both all about your personal performance. The Gospel is the performance of another applied to you.

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.

Even if our own troubles are great, we should still serve. Jesus washed His disciples feet on the way to the cross.

Religious people find God useful. Gospel people find him beautiful.

In religion, you obey because God is useful. In Christianity, you obey because God is beautiful.

Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.