Forgive And Give As If It Were

There Is A Difference Between Grace And Mercy. Mercy Is The Decision Of God Not To Punish Us. But Grace Is The Decision Of God To Save And Bless Us.

I'm Convinced That The Christian Claim Is Really True, That This Is Just A Warm Up To The Big Event. That This Is Just The Appetizer To The Feast, And If We Can Plug Into That And Understand That This Part Of Our Story Is Just The Introduction, It Is Not Even The First Line Of The First Paragraph, It's Just The First Letter Or First Word. We Are Just Getting Started.

I Was Praying About What I Needed To Teach. I Felt It Wasn't Time To Move Out Of The Theme Of Romans, Which Is Salvation By Grace Through Faith.

Find Joy In The Ordinary.

I Think The Hardest One Had To Do With Suffering. It Had To Do With All Of Our Church Members And Friends Passing Through Difficult Times. Sometimes It's The Global Climate: Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Radiation. I Think These Kinds Of Questions Are Absolutely The Most Difficult, Yet We Need To Be Ready To Respond To Them Because We Have To Be Able As Pastors To Walk People Through These Valleys, These Tough Times In Their Lives.