I think God's blessing might have everything to do with Him and His riches, and nothing to do with whether we deserve it.

The irony of all this is that God of perfect justice is both the one for whom we long and the one whom we dread. We long for someone to set things right, to punish those who terrorize, molest, kills and enslave the innocent... we want a judge with total power and piercing commitment to righteousness. But when his eyes turn on us, we realize that we too, are guilty. We, too, deserve his judgement.

I'm not getting to heaven on my integrity. I'm not getting to heaven on my goodness.

Just as a man does not desire food until he is hungry, so does he not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ.

From beginning to end, the Holy Scriptures testify that the predicament of fallen humanity is so serious, so grave, so irremediable from within, that nothing short of divine intervention can rectify it.

Justice for everyone is an alarming thought because it raises the possibility that it might come upon oneself after all. As the author of Ephesians puts it, "by nature" we are all "children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Eph. 2:3).

When I preach—no matter where it is in the world—I can always count on five areas of human need that afflict all peoples. Emptiness, loneliness, guilt, fear of death, deep-seated insecurity.

Our magazine covers frequently feature the immoral, the perverted, the psychologically sick. Sin is "in." People don't like to be told they are sinners".

If God were to eradicate all evil from this planet, He would have to eradicate all evil men. Who would be exempt? "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" [Romans 3:23 NIV]. God would rather transform the evil man than eradicate him.

Man seeks to excuse himself of sin, but God seeks to convict him of it and to save him from it. Sin is no amusing toy—it is a terror to be shunned! Learn, then, what constitutes sin in the eyes of God!

The church was designed to proclaim God's love and forgiveness to all people and declare that Jesus Christ came to eradicate sin in people's hearts.

We all have a terminal disease far worse than cancer that will kill us morally and spiritually. It's called sin.