Even though we can't have all we want, we ought to be thankful we don't get all we deserve.

So you made some bad choices. Some of God's best players were His imperfect, broken prodigals. In fact, iffy players are God's best picks. He specializes in short-tempered, reckless, flawed people to accomplish his plans.

Grace isn't just for other people. Maybe you didn't get that memo.

We are accountable because we are sinful. The unfortunate truth is that Adam chose to sin, and so do we. But the good news is that God gives us a way out, through Christ. Accountability and forgiveness in one shot. All we have to do is accept it. It's pretty easy.

don't judge God based on your understanding of people. God isn't just a really good guy up in the sky. He is God. He operates on an entirely different set of rules. We'll never deserve His love, but He knows that, and He's chosen to love us anyway. We can accept it or not. But that doesn't change who He is. He's a God who loves us more than we can imagine and desires to fulfill the dreams He gives His children.

Grace releases people not only from sin but from shame.

Dear God, I know that my sin has put a barrier between You and me. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to suffer the penalty of my sin by dying in my place so that barrier would be removed. I trust in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of my sins.

Sometime in my ministry, I am going to gather up enough courage to have a testimony time where the only thing we'll share is our failures.

This points us to an undeniable theological truth we learn from Genesis 4: humans are murderers, not because we commit murder, but because we are murderers at heart.

The past is like grace. It's not enough to know about it. We all know what happened back there. Grace allows you to see yourself in light of the past, not in the shadow of it. You see the truth about yourself, your need.

The Bible says, 'There is no one righteous, not even one.' So really, none of us deserves grace. But we all still want God's forgiveness.

It was one thing to believe God could forgive a sinner. It was another thing to believe that the sinner could live forgiven.