Our hearts are continuously rebellious. Every time we sin in thought, word, or deed, we're essentially saying in that moment that, "I don't need you God. I don't want you God. I like my way better than your way." If this goes on day after day after day, year after year, month after month, it would understandable for God to say, "I've given you ten trillion tries. You're finished." But it's not. So in that sense, His grace is always surprising, never ceases to be amazing and His mercy is remarkably outrageous.

God is inviting you today to appropriately grieve your pains and losses and to acknowledge the world is seriously broken.

Your pain could be God prying open your life and heart to remove a gift of His that you've been on to more dearly than Him.

Even political insiders recognize that years of political effort on behalf of Evangelical Christians have generated little cultural gain.

God's ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up.

Our assurance is anchored in the love and grace of God expressed in the glorious exchange: our sin for His righteousness.

I actually think one of most profoundly and deep pastoral moments between a pastor and his church is what happens between them before God in the context of preaching.