Why reflect on these three men — MacArthur, Ozzy, and Hulk Hogan — in the same breath?

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Every time someone is baptized, every time bread is broken and wine poured, every time a sinner hears, “Your sins are forgiven in Christ,” Pentecost happens again.

In Christ, you are bound. Bound to mercy. Bound to grace. Bound to a God who won’t let you go. And because of that, you are free—gloriously, joyfully free.

When you remember your baptism, you're not recalling a ritual. You're standing under a current of divine action that has not ceased to flow since the moment those baptismal waters hit your skin.

It's a new year, and you are still the same you: a sinner who is simultaneously perfect in every way because Christ declares it to be so.

Like the serpent on the pole, God still puts real-life things up for us to look to for salvation.

We can interpret "be the Church" as either law or gospel.

There is no AA for legalists. At least not officially. But there ought to be, and it should be called your local church.

If you interpret James, as most do, as an encouragement toward proving your faith by your works and then say it is your "favorite" then you are proclaiming that your favorite thing about the Christian faith is the practical outworking, the proving your faith by your works.

God gives us the power and authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to burdened sinners who entrust us with their pain, guilt, and defeat.

You are the friend in low places. It’s only from this place that you are free to look outside yourself for the remedy to the issues that plague you and humanity.