There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.

Our goal is transformed hearts that lead to transformed lives. Transformed lives do not lead to transformed hearts. Are you trackin' with that?

I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.

inward holiness in the spirit before God. And this is the reason specially why he said this, in order to show that there is nothing holy but that holiness which God produces within us.

That is, my sin drives me on, it will not give me rest or peace. Neither wine nor bread nor sleep will drive away this feeling of wrath and death.

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

When a caterpillar looks in the mirror, he sees a butterfly.

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Ps. 24:3—4). We need to be pure before God by turning from our sinful ways, receiving forgiveness through Christ, and walking in the Spirit. (See Romans 8:3—4.)

Lent is a time for discipline, for confession, for honesty, not because God is mean or fault- finding or finger-pointing but because he wants us to know the joy of being cleaned out, ready for all the good things he now has in store.

Wise Christian worship takes fully into account the fact that creation has gone horribly wrong, has been so corrupted and spoiled that a great fault line runs right down the middle of it ... worship of God as redeemer, the lover and rescuer of the world, must always accompany and complete the worship of God as creator.

Paul is not simply invoking a "cultic metaphor" alongside a "law court" metaphor, on the one hand, and a "slave market" metaphor, on the other. He is thinking of the restoration of true cult, true worship: the one God cleansing people from defilement so that the true meeting, the heart of the covenant, may take place at last.

We can be, and we are called to be, good-news people—people who themselves are being renewed by the good news, people through whom the good news is bringing healing and hope to the world at whatever level.