We can bring our troubles, griefs, sorrows, and sins to Jesus, who meets us smack dab in the middle of our messy mob.
Confession isn’t a detour in the liturgy. It’s the doorway.
American religion did not become optional because the gospel failed. It became optional because religion slowly redefined itself around usefulness.

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God created Israel to be the vessel into which he would place both his Law and his Son.
These teachings are the heart of the Reformation…If it is about you, it isn’t about Jesus.
The power and the purpose of the Reformation was to bring the full force of the Law and the Gospel to the ears of sinners.
Samson knew what he wanted when he saw it, and most of the time, living by sight, he walked like a blind man straight into an ambush.
The Christian who understands Gospel-based love recognizes the false promises and rewards of the Playboy Mansion.
By focusing intently on what one wants to avoid, we often crash right into the moral hazard we are trying to evade.
The Law though it does many things—restrains, exhorts the Christian unto righteousness, punishes—always rightly accuses and condemns sinners of their sin before a righteous, holy, and just God.
I spend a lot of time talking to people in coffee shops. Some share my Christian faith, some are exploring and questioning faith and others have left the church, having had a crisis of faith.
If this opening verse offers to us both door and doorkeeper, then the doorkeeper stands with the door held securely shut.
We focus on what we have, what we don't have, and how and when God is going to give us what we need. This the opposite of faith.
However, right before I affirmed her proposal, it dawned on me, “Isn’t every worship service and Bible study for those struggling with faith, life, and fear?!”
We sinners share a common problem when it comes to Jesus’ parables. We read them with an eye to our own righteousness.