The Magistrate suffered from the disability of a free-thinking turn of mind and from a life that was barren and dreary to match.
True citizens of the heavenly city are the best residents of the earthly city.
God sees us as we are, loves us as we are, and accepts us as we are. But by His grace, He does not leave us as we are.
The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.
God looks at the anxious and says, I tore my Son to shreds for you, and you're afraid I will not give you what you need?
The basic purpose of prayer is not to bend God's will to mine, but to mold my will into His.
You don't fall in love. You commit to it.
What I try to do is narrow the sermon series down to one big question. In this case the question is: What happens when grace happens? I knew I wanted to preach about grace. I just felt as if it was time for our church to be refreshed and see the beauty of God's grace - the uniqueness of the Christian grace as compared to the teachings of other world religions on forgiveness.
What can a man do to move along in some kind of grace through his days and years?
Delicious tears! The heart's own dew.
Of what use was it to be loved and lose one's beauty and become Real if it all ended like this? And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his little shabby velvet nose and fell to the ground.