The Bible makes it clear that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel.

I think it's super important for the church itself to rediscover the gospel.

The Gospel is not ultimately a defense from pain, it is the message of God's rescue through pain. In fact, it allows us to drop our defenses, to escape not from pain but from the prison of "How" and "Why" to the freedom of "Who?"

The good news of suffering is that it brings us to the end of ourselves - a purpose it has certainly served in my life. It brings us to the place of honesty, which is the place of desperation, which is the place of faith, which is the place of freedom.

A preacher who doesn't believe he's that bad will attract people who don't think they're that bad. And that's bad.

I was always in places where I was widely accepted, approved and loved and I was finally in a place where people did not approve of me, did not accept me and did not love me. It was killing me.

What kind of person should you be to someone who has fallen? The kind of person you will run to when you fall.