God's reckless grace is our greatest hope.

I am throwing all my good works overboard, and lashing myself to the plank of free grace; for I hope to swim to glory on it.

Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.

You can't be perfect. No one is. That's why we need God.

Part of the depressive syndrome is that you are immensely loyal to your interpretation of yourself and your world. If God says you are forgiven in Christ, you create new rules that mandate contrition, penance, and self-loathing. If God says he loves you, you insist it is impossible. There it is: your system is higher than God's.

The character of God is the basis for our connection to him, not our intrinsic worth. Self-worth, or anything we think would make us acceptable to God, would suit our pride but it has the disturbing side-effect of making the cross of Jesus Christ less valuable. If we have worth in ourselves, there is no reason to connect to the infinite worth of Jesus and receive what he has done for us.

Practice saying, "I am a sinner, saved by grace".

Ironically, our desire to clean ourselves actually minimizes the problem of uncleanness. It assumes we can give ourselves a good enough scrubbing to get a little holy before we meet the Holy One.

Do you believe that it is impossible for the Holy God to love you and even delight in you? If so, you are believing Satan's lie that God loves you because of what you do. The truth is that he loves you because he is the God who loves, and the sacrifice of Jesus proves it. The cross of Christ expresses God's delight in all who believe, and if you believe that Jesus is the risen Lord, he delights in and loves you.

Remember that in the Bible, "This is who God is and what he has done" always precedes "This is what you must do.

All are making haste towards hell, until by conviction, Christ brings them to a halt, and then, by conversion, turns their hearts and lives sincerely to himself.

So then, let "Deserved" be written on the door of hell, but on the door of Heaven and life, "The free gift" (68).