Gospel is the divine announcement that you are loved and accepted exactly as you are, that everything has been taken care of, that everything you've been striving to earn has been yours the entire time, that you belong, in exactly this condition that you are currently in, nothing additional required or needed.

Gospel is the announcement of who God insists you are. You're a child of God, not because of how great you are but because God has all kinds of kids and you're one of them.

Neither son understands that the father's love was never about any of that. The father's love cannot be earned, and it cannot be taken away. It just is.

Is God our friend, our provider, our protector, our father—or is God the kind of judge who may in the end declare that we deserve to spend forever separated from our Father? Is God like the characters in a story Jesus would tell, old ladies who keep searching for the lost coin until they find it, shepherds who don't rest until that one sheep is back in the fold, fathers who rush out to greet and embrace their returning son, or, in the end, will God give up?

Agape doesn't need a reason.

When you truly love someone, you will be there every second they need you to! no matter what they are doing or what they want to be doing

We love purely when we release other people to be who they are.

God is the Father who is full of mercy. God is the Father who is full of comfort. That is the kind of relationship he offers to you.

If we get into the habit of thinking of ourselves as always owing a debt of love to our spouses, we will be less inclined to take offense when they say or do something that we do not like.

He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.

All I ever have to be is what you made me.

It's not about winning or losing, but love and respect.