“No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us – denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him – and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED. He said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely.”

We have to be careful not to elevate our preferences to moral standards and judge others by them. We only do so to feel superior.

If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning of life, and identity then it is an idol.

We are regularly in danger of having too light a view of our sin and also too light a grasp of what Jesus has done to free us from our sin.

Jesus Christ did not suffer so that you would not suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer, you’ll become more like him.

Religion operates on the principle ‘I obey-therefore I am accepted by God.’ But the operating principle of the gospel is ‘I am accepted by God through what Christ has done-therefore I obey.’

Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.

To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.

The basic premise of religion– that if you live a good life, things will go well for you– is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.

As long as we think we are not that bad, the idea of grace will never change us.

Tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.

Trust is accepting what God sends into your life whether you understand it or not.

When I forget the gospel I become dependent on the smiles and evaluation of others.

The world values power, comfort, success, and recognition. Jesus frees us to value grief, sacrifice, weakness, and exclusion.

No one is too bad for Jesus. A lot of people think they are too good for Jesus.

God invites us to come as we are, not stay as we are.

God relentlessly offers his grace to people who do not deserve it, or seek it, or even appreciate it after they have been saved by it.