God does not keep his people. He loves us, gives himself to us, and eagerly awaits our free response. God wants us to choose to love him freely, even when that choice involves pain, because we are com...
Gary Haugen, founder of the International Justice Mission, say something similar: God has a plan to fight injustice, and that plan is us — his people. There is no Plan B.
Earth is crammed with heaven And every bush aflame with God But only those who see take off their shoes. —ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
Don’t judge Christ by those of us who imperfectly bear his name.
Breaking the cycle of ungrace means taking the initiative.
At first glance legalism seems hard, but actually freedom in Christ is the harder way. It is relatively easy not to murder, hard to reach out in love; easy to avoid a neighbor’s bed, hard to keep a ma...
A wise sufferer will look not inward, but outward. There is no more effective healer than a wounded healer, and in the process the wounded healer’s own scars may fade away.
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he n...
Grace means there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and nothing I can do to make God love me less. It means that I, even I who deserve the opposite, am invited to take my place at the tabl...
Why value humility in our approach to God? Because it accurately reflects the truth. Most of what I am — my nationality and mother tongue, my race, my looks and body shape, my intelligence, the centur...
We should leave a worship service asking ourselves not What did I get out of it? but rather Was God pleased with what happened?
We decided to attend to our community instead of asking our community to attend the church. His staff started showing up at local community events such as sports contests and town hall meetings. They...
True health is the strength to live, the strength to suffer, and the strength to die.
The uncommitted share many of our core values, but if we do not live out those values in a compelling way, we will not awaken a thirst for their ultimate Source.
The poor, the hungry, the mourners, and the oppressed truly are blessed. Not because of their miserable states, of course—Jesus spent much of his life trying to remedy those miseries. Rather, they are...
The main purpose of prayer is not to make life easier, nor to gain magical powers, but to know God.
The late Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical American author, wrote: For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the beatitudes. But—often with tears in their eyes—they demand that the...
The gospel presents both high ideals and all-encompassing grace. Very often, however, the church tilts one direction or the other. Either it lowers the ideals, adjusting moral standards downward, soft...
The down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome. How did Jesus, the only perfect person in history, manage to attract the notoriously imperfect? And what keeps us...
The church is, above all, a place to receive grace: it brings forgiven people together with the aim of equipping us to dispense grace to others.