I understood her, trusted her, and lover her as a dear friend. None of that had changed, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation.

Passion was passion and love was love, regardless of who the participants involved were, or what sort of body they were assigned at birth.

You know: "dogs and cats living together … mass hysteria!

Oh God, I thank You for having created me as I am. I thank You for the sense of fulfillment I sometimes have; that fulfillment is after all nothing but being filled with You. I promise You to strive my whole life long for beauty and harmony and also humility and true love, whispers of which I hear inside me during my best moments.

I'm bankrupt without love.

Where relationships are warm and expectancies fresh, we are already beginning to enjoy the life together that will be completed in our life everlasting.

The people of Birmingham also have souls.

We are most ourselves when we love; we are most the People of God when we love.

No matter if we come home with the Olympic gold or make a million dollars or pioneer the exploration of space or move the world with some artistic performance or discover the cure to cancer—if we do not love, it is not satisfactory. No matter if we are responsible and work hard and do our jobs well and stay out of trouble and are respected, if we do not love, then somehow we have failed. If we live but do not love, we miss it.

A primary task of the community of Jesus is to maintain this lifelong cultivation of love in all the messiness of its families, neighborhoods, congregations, and missions. Love is intricate, demanding, glorious, deeply human, and God-honoring, but — and here's the thing — never a finished product, never an accomplishment, always flawed in some degree or other.

He is not a lover who does not love forever.

I have no message of hate. I do not attack any religion. I just preach Jesus.