Grace is not an extreme makeover. Grace is not therapy. Grace is not a shot of espresso for a pick-me-up. Grace is not something we can achieve by following a certain number of steps. Grace is not possible by following a how-to-manual. Grace does not happen because we conjure it. No, grace is something completely different.

Love does not think about doing works, it finds joy in people; and when something good is done for others, that does not appear to love as works but simply as gifts which flow naturally from love. —Martin Luther

You were right to leave church for that.

Just like following Paul’s sexual ethic to the Corinthian church would make the Christians unpopular in Corinth, so too does a biblical sexual ethic make American churches unpopular in the ever-shifting tides of American culture.

I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you about all of this, but this is the world our children are growing up in and it's the one we currently live in. And if we can’t talk about any of it in the church, then others will. And the consequences of our silence won't be pretty.

People get in debates about the mission of the church and talk about it in really abstract ways. Sometimes this leads to people saying or thinking, “The church should just preach the gospel.” Well, should it?

When was the last time someone betrayed you? Did you know that Jesus knows what it’s like to be betrayed? He was betrayed by a good friend. 

There are (quite a few) Christians who seem to be very unhappy, angry, and bitter. How can a people who are supposed to be all about the gospel—supposedly "good news"—be such a miserable group of people to be around? Does God want people to be unhappy? Are Christians commissioned to act like jerks?

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