Alligood is at pains to stress that glorification is not the result of our own efforts any more than sanctification or justification.
Forgiveness from Jesus is always surprising to us.
The Christ who rescues does not wait for you to be clean. He comes to clean you. He does not need your strength. He brings his own.

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James makes it sound like prayer is actually effective, that God listens, God answers in line with our requests. Does James realize the questions he is raising?
You cannot “be what you want to be” and follow Jesus. Jesus has a higher calling for you, a calling which is more personal.
What is it to perform the Word? Is it to speak about it, to retell it, to illustrate it, to enlighten it? What?
In a time of unknown, the Flanigans found comfort in the words of the prayer book and made them truly their own.
Rachel was the beloved wife, to be sure, but she was not the maternal link between Eve and Mary. That blessed position belonged to Leah.
Just like in the previous interview, I had to rewind to make sure I was hearing all this right. Yeah, that's actually what he said.
The “Lamenter” does not ask to carry out the vengeance/action himself, rather He trusts the LORD God to take care of business.
It is from this God, the Wisdom from Heaven who came down in our flesh to befriend sinners, you will learn true wisdom.
Jesus takes that which is overlooked and unappreciated and celebrates this child as the place where God is at work.
This is the second installment in our series profiling women in the Bible (Who are not named Ruth or Esther). Both the stories of Ruth and Esther are beautiful, gracious, and profound. We love reading and rereading them. However, in an attempt to bring attention to more stories of more women throughout the Scriptures, we choose now to shift our focus.
But the biggest problem with the Pharisee’s prayer is that he judges himself compared to other people, rather than to God. Our natural tendency is to do just this.
The beauty of our gospel reading today is how it reveals Jesus as the One who comes not only for the strong in faith but also for those who are weak and walking away.