“I learned the first rule of repentance: that repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin. How much greater? About the size of a mustard seed. Repentance requires that we draw near to Jesus, no matter what. And sometimes we all have to crawl there on our hands and knees. Repentance is an intimate affair. And for many of us, intimacy with anything is a terrifying prospect.”

“Good teachers make it possible for people to change their positions without shame.” [see John 4:29, and Acts 9:1-9].

“I think that churches would be places of greater intimacy and growth in Christ if people stopped lying about what we need, what we fear, where we fail, and how we sin.”

“There is a core difference between sharing the gospel with the lost and imposing a specific moral standard on the unconverted.”

“Sin is not a mistake. A mistake is taking the wrong exit on the highway. A sin is treason against a Holy God. A mistake is a logical misstep. Sin lurks in our heart and grabs us by the throat to do its bidding. Remember what God said to Cain about his sin? It’s true for us too. In the fourth chapter of Genesis, God warns Cain like this: ‘Sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it’ (Gen. 4:6). In accepting misrepresentations of the gospel that render sin anything less than this, you will never learn of the fruit of repentance.”

“Many people in our community protect themselves from inconvenience as though inconvenience is deadly. We have decided that we are not inconvenienced by inconvenience. The needs of children come up unexpectedly. We are sure that the Good Samaritan had other plans that fateful day. Our plans are not sacred.”

“Pride combined with wealth leads to idleness because you falsely feel that God just wants you to have fun; if unchecked, this sin will grow into entertainment-driven lust; if unchecked, this sin will grow into hardness of heart that declares other people’s problems no responsibility or care of your own; if unchecked, we become bold in our sin and feel entitled to live selfish lives fueled by the twin values of our culture: acquiring and achieving.”

“When fear rules your theology, God is nowhere to be found in your paradigm, no matter how many Bible verses you tack onto it.”

“A life outside of Christ is both hard and frightening; a life in Christ has hard edges and dark valleys, but it is purposeful even when painful.”

“The integrity of our relationships matters more than the boldness of our words.”

“Mercy ministry always comes down to this: you can help, but only Jesus can heal.”

“There is no such thing as an independent Christian. Pride puffs one up with a false sense of independence. Proud people always feel that they can live independently from God and from other people.”

“When Christ is not at the center, all of our good intentions are swallowed up by selfishness.”

“Answers come after questions, not before. Answers answer questions in specific and pointed ways, not in sweeping generalizations.”

“Worship is our rehearsal for how to live today and how to glorify God in heaven. It is not merely a Sunday morning exercise meant to make us feel good.”

“Sin, when unrestrained, infantilizes a person.” (think petulance …think of Abigail’s first hubby Nabal; think of David’s father ‘n law, Saul; think of Dr. مخروط).

“I didn’t choose Christ. Nobody chooses Christ. Christ chooses you or you’re dead. After Christ chooses you, you respond because you must. Period. It’s not a pretty story.”

“How do I judge my own sincerity? The saving grace of salvation is located in a holy and electing God, and a sacrificing, suffering, and obedient Savior. Stakes this high can never rest on my sincerity.”

“It has always seemed to me that without the proper response to failure, we don’t grow, we only age.”

“I came to believe that my job was not to critique and “receive” a sermon, but to dig into it, to seize its power, to participate with its message, and to steal its fruit.”

“I wondered: If my life was the only evidence that Christ was alive, would anyone be convinced?”

“Christians always seemed like bad readers to me, too. They appeared to use the Bible in a way that Marxists would call “vulgar”—that is, common, or, in order to bring the Bible into a conversation to stop the conversation, not deepen it.”

“Christians always seemed like bad thinkers to me. It seemed that they could maintain their worldview only because they were sheltered from the world’s real problems, like the material structures of poverty and violence and racism.”

“I felt and feel no solidarity with people who think their salvation makes them more worthy than others.”

“Maybe churches are filled with hypocrites because you are not there. Or maybe churches are filled with hypocrites because you are there in pride and in self-promotion. Here’s my challenge to you: for those with church ties, start going to church in honest vulnerability.”

“Before we can come to Christ, we must empty ourselves of the false pride, blame-shifting, excuse-making, and self-deception that preoccupies our days and our relationships.”

“Winners have always seemed to me people who know how to fall on their face, pick themselves up, and recover well.”

“They talked with me in a way that didn’t make me feel erased.”

“Often people ask me to describe the lessons that I learned from this experience, and I can’t. It was too traumatic. Sometimes in crisis we don’t really learn lessons. Sometimes the result is simpler and more profound. Sometimes our character is simply transformed.”

“The Cross is a rugged place, not a place for the squeamish or self-righteous.”